Dining & ADR's with BIG group

[DVCTiff]

I've had three very well-planned trips (following a sorta wing-it honeymoon) to WDW but this time we're inviting my DH's whole family. There will potentially be 9 adults and three small children (3, 2.5 and .5 years old). How do you do this?

I figure we can eat breakfast and/or dinner in our DVC grand villa, but I would like to have some meals planned. I figure one character breakfast and maybe one dinner. I, personally, would like to try to Le Cellier for lunch but I have no idea how many of our group will be together or where on any given day. DH and I are the only ones who have been to WDW before so I'm afraid everyone's gonna stick to us like glue. Do I just let everyone fend for themselves after giving them some useful advice? Should I encourage breaking up into small groups? I can just see them getting mad that they can't just walk up anywhere for dinner, but I'll never get them to decide 6 months out.

Any advice?

 

[wdwfamilyinIL]

We are going in June with 11 people, that includes 6 adults and five children aged 3 to 7. I went last August in a group with 7 people, we had 4 adults and 4 children then 2-6. Our group planning works best by having one person in charge of getting the adr's and so forth. We are all on ddp, so we made adr's for all our ts meals. I didn't have any problem gettting a spot with 11 people. I am sure that sometimes we will have a couple tables, but I have learned that you just don't show up with that many people. We can't even do that around home without a major wait. We have also looked ahead to which park has the emh hours, so we can have adr's with the same park. We don't have the park hopper option. All of us also sat down and watched the planning dvd, so that way everyone can have their opinion on what they want to do. We will also use cell phones when we go, so that we don't all have to stay together but we can still easily contact each other. With us if we plan ahead it works out a lot better, we don't seem to do impulse activities well.

 

[DVCTiff]

Thanks WDWFam!

Doesn't anyone else have experience with a big group?

Please ........?

 

[KIRSTIN'S MOMMY]

I went with a group of 16 in Aug. '04. What worked really well was letting everyone go off and do their own thing and then we met up for either lunch or dinner. It is just way too hard to keep up with that many people, not to mention that a group that large moves very slowly, especially in crowds. The phone # for group dining is 1-407-939-7707. Any more questions, just ask!

 

[Merriwind]

We went with nine this October--6 adults, kids 7, 3.5, almost 3. It worked great. I was in charge of all ADRs. I did ask for input, which usually conflicted! Afew places told us that we would be split up, but we never were. We were at teh WL, so we ate all our meals out, although we did a couple at WCC and RF.

Enjoy--it will be great!

 

[mjmcca]

OK i have been with a large group, twice We met up for some meals and at other times we all went our own way. I would find out what the group wants and plan maybe 2-4 meals based on that. How long are you going for? That will make a difference on how many meals i would plan.
On the trip I was on i was just along for the ride. I go to WDW a lot so I did what everyone else did and spent a lot of time with my aunts. In fact I was the official W/C pusher. Most days we would eat at least one meal together. They stayed at the Poly and I stayed at the WL one time and at the Dolphin the other so no kitchen facilities. ( you notice I had my own hotel I wanted to be with my cousins while on vacation and spent most of my time with them but I did want some alone time too.) I would not stay with everyone all of the time but I would not discount staying with a smaller group of family members instead of just going off on your own. We would sometimes be in the same park on the same day and just be doing different things.

 

[DVCTiff]

Thanks everyone - especially Kirstin's Mommy for the group dining number!

We'll be at WDW for a week and so far all I know is that we're going to do Crystal Palace one morning with everyone. We can't skip Boma so we'll ask around if anyone wants to join us (they're not very food adventurous), and DH and I will go to Le Cellier because we've never been.

I just don't want anyone saying to me, "Well we would have made reservations too if you had told us!" I don't know where I'm imagining all this flack from but I figure better safe than sorry.

 

[mareed]

I planned for our group of 12 for XMAS 2004 and made a PS for the entire group each day. I did not have to go through group dining except for one restaurant, but I can't remember which one that was... Perhaps Garden Grill, but I'm not sure. We were always able to sit together even though they said we may be split up.

 

[SCOTTNJ]

You do not have to go through group dining for a party of 12 for most restaurants. You can call the regular number.

 

[Alexsma]

We are going with 12 in June, and my nefew is in a wheelchair for the moment, hip issues. I called and went threw Grand Gathering, it was no problem. That is even though I was past the 180 day mark. The gave us two tables of 6 in some places but said that they will be right near each other. Time will only tell how this works out as it is all of our's first trips to WDW.

 

[KIRSTIN'S MOMMY]

I just called on Tues. to make reservations for 9 (one of whom is an infant less than a year old) and had to go through group dining. I've been with the group of 16, then again with my sister's whole wedding party, then again in Dec. with 8 more, and have always had to use the group dining number. The magical gatherings # is group dining btw. You'll love LeCellier! We tried it for the first time in Dec. and are headed back in Oct. What I did when I was planning for everyone was break it down by park. Whatever park we were going to be in that day, I sent them menus for the sit down restaraunts in that park. I suggested the ones that I had experienced for myself, and also those that had gotten good reviews here. We voted, and whichever one was the most popular with everyone got booked. Once we got there, they realized why the ADR's were necessary. Up until that point however, all I heard was "How are we supposed to know what we want to eat 6 months from now?" or "We don't care, you decide. You've been there before, we haven't." It didn't exactly have the "magical" let's all plan this wonderful family reunion together thing going on. I was a little disappointed that they weren't more excited since I was working so hard, but since I've gone back with a few groups since then, I've kind of learned to expect it, unfortunately. Hopefully your family will share your excitement and give you some input and you guys will have just as much fun planning as you will when you finally arrive!

 

[Twinprincesses]

We always have 10 and one year had over 15. WE used to go during thanksgiving so we would definalty make all of our Thanksgiving dinner reservations. We normally only did one TS restaurant a day and the rest was counter service but we did make ADR for all table service dinners and character meals.

 

[Ginamarie]

I've gone with large groups twice, and am planning to go with a group of thirteen again this coming December. It's best to have one person in charge to make up a suggested itinerary (that's me in our group!).

Basically, I've put together a suggested itinerary for what parks and activities to do each day. These are the things DH, myself and our baby will be doing. Then I take imput from everyone in the group to make sure I haven't left anything out. I give everyone else the option of either coming along or doing their own thing. I also print out the menus for the restaurants so that everyone has an idea of what I'm talking about in advance.

For the most part, the group is going to stay together, or at least be in the same park at the same time and we'll meet up for meals. Usually, people say they want to do their own thing, but then when they hear what I have planned and why it makes sense and they see the menus, they decide that's what they want to do too!

 

[Tegra89]

We're going in March with a total of 15. What I did was plan the TS dinner at dinner (except 1 lunch). Most of our dinners are at 4pm. If we split up we have a general meeting time to get together and discuss the day and what we might want to plan for the next day. I understand with such a big group we can't always stay together.

 

[DVCTiff]

You guys have been so incredibly helpful. I've looked for large group advice before and couldn't find it, bu you guys have been great.

Kirstin's Mommy - I know what you mean about them not being excited, but the way I figure it they don't know what to be excited about yet. Once they've been there, watch out!

So I've concluded that I better make a lot more ADR's than I was going to. It's better if we have something planned, even if people decided to bail because they can't get it together or it's too expensive or whatever.

Thanks again!

 

[KIRSTIN'S MOMMY]

When I booked for our group, I had to have a credit card number to secure the reservation because it was for such a large group (at every restaraunt, not sure if they still do this or not) and if someone didn't show it was $10 charged to my cc. The one time that this happened it was only 1 person who didn't come because she wasn't feeling well, and they told me it had to be like half the party or something before they would actually run the charge on the card. I would get them some menus and get their ideas as far as what they're looking at in terms of costs. For us, each family was different as far as that went, so one day we would do an inexpensive buffet, then another we might do a more expensive restaraunt, so it sort of evened out.

 

[richard_andmel]

If it were me I would purchase a couple of guidebooks, (Like PassPorter) and give them as gifts to the family members. Explain how much better a time they are going to have if they know what to expect. They don't want to spend all of that money and then miss things or have unreal expectations and have it make their trip less than magical. It will also make for the possibility they will feel comfortable doing their own thing once in a while which I have learned makes trips with big numbers run much more smoothly.

When we go on trips with family, I make a plan based on both what we want to do and restaurant info they have given me. I make a photocopy of the plan for each family and tell them they can follow the plan or not as they want. It allows for having dinner together, and a few breakfasts but people also feel they have a choice.

Good luck!

 

[jennifer293]

You are all better people than me..There is NO WAY I would want to be the one in charge of making all the ADR's. I know in my family someone would complain about something. We are going with Dh's dad and stepmom again this year and I get nervous just making ADR's for them because DH's father won't eat chicken, seafood, he eats some beef and he likes pork. So in looking at menus I was getting all stressed trying to find stuff I knew he would eat. I could not imagine finding food for that many people...

MY HAT GOES OFF TO YOU ALL!!!!! Disney should give you a discount for all the stress you have and will go through. Here is a little pixie dust to help you out!!!

 

[colonels cruisers]

We have a 11 this June. I decided to do the ADRs bc I wanted to at least know we had something planned for our TS. The DGD said he wanted dinner as a family so that made it easy. We are all free for the day but must meet up with the Grandparents for supper.

I have read that at peak times it is hard to get into a restaurant, with that in mind I would at least get yourselves some sort of plan (even if it is just for your immediate family)

Have a good trip

 

[MinnieGi]

Almost all of our trips are group vacations. We love being at WDW with a crowd. I also am the group ADR planner. For this past trip we had a total of 20. For the week I made two ADR's for our entire party. Together we did the Cape May Clam Bake and lunch at Crystal Palace with Pooh & Friends. I did these through group dining and did not have to leave a cc as a deposit.

I then made other ADR's for people who were interested in attending the meals such as a princess lunch. Smaller groups of our party also did WCC, San Angel and CM's but not everyone was interested in attending. It worked out nicely.

Our trip was fantastic. I never get grief for the restaurants, I always get compliments and thanks for arranging everything.

In the parks many days we do all go to the same one and meet up here and there but split up also for different rides people are interested in. I guess we always have an easy going group b/c this is never very difficult to manage.

If your group has never been to WDW order them the WDW DVD planning kit so they can see for themselves everything they can choose to do. Before you leave try to set up a loose plan for everyone to see and encourage the others to list attractions they would really like to see. Try to also encourage or at least set up the expectation that you will be at times splitting up and at others together.

Have fun with your group!