DLR Guest and Non DLR guest trip

[geekswearlpstk2]

So, most of the people in our group are staying at Paradise Pier, but one family isn't. I know we get EMH everyday and they only get 1 Magic Morning at Disneyland.

Best advice in trying to do things together?
I'm an early morning riser and they aren't. And I know we need a room key to get EMH.
I'm thinking we'll just have to plan afternoons to do things together as our mornings will be totally off schedule if we get in to the parks early.

Thoughts, ideas?

 

[Angrose]

You could add them to your rooms and then they would receive room keys with their names on them. You can have up to 5 people listed in each room.

 

[maltdizzy]

I've always preferred overlapping trips with our people than traveling with other people because large groups are a nightmare to steer and please. Groups can often swap out as well. I have no problem letting a group of tweens and older go explore on their own (they'll have more fun that away anyway), or some adults swapping out time with smaller kids.

Planning a half day together every day sounds fine. The Magic Morning means they don't all have to be afternoons, and honestly, you can connect sooner than scheduled or hang out longer than scheduled since plans often changed according the lines and downtime.

 

[figment_jii]

You mentioned that it's a family that isn't staying at PPH, which makes it sounds like this is a pretty big group (maybe multiple families?). I agree with maltdizzy, that the more people you have in your group, the harder it is to coordinate things. I would plan a few specific activities to do as a group - not necessarily entire afternoons - and then let the rest of the time be for whatever folks want to do either with others, their own families, or as a group. The largest group I've ever tried coordinating with was about 11 people and it was really tough...people didn't want to do the same things, it took forever to get everyone moving, people would get side tracked. We gave up trying coordinate everyone by the second day.

 

[Christina-B-Na]

Sorry to be a downer but I will have to echo the idea of meeting up for a period of time and then separating to enjoy the park individually as families. We traveled once with one other group of our family and it was an absolute nightmare full of irritation and frustration. I will happily meet up with people but never again with the purpose of spending the whole time together.
It is extremely hard to get everyone coordinated and on the same page for the whole time. It makes it hard to enjoy yourself and tour the park the way you may want to when there are so many other people with their own needs and wants.
Just a suggestion but maybe you could meet up for a couple of rides and then plan to meet up again for dinner or fireworks...etc.

 

[Geemo]

So, most of the people in our group are staying at Paradise Pier, but one family isn't. I know we get EMH everyday and they only get 1 Magic Morning at Disneyland.

Best advice in trying to do things together?
I'm an early morning riser and they aren't. And I know we need a room key to get EMH.
I'm thinking we'll just have to plan afternoons to do things together as our mornings will be totally off schedule if we get in to the parks early.

Thoughts, ideas?

Large non-family groups can be a real challenge, not that family groups aren't.
With varying age groups, personalities and so on... It can be hard to get everyone on the same page of the daily plan.

If you're an early riser and they aren't, there's nothing you can do about it.
Go and enjoy EE in the parks with those that early risers like you. After all you're there to have fun and EE is the prime opportunity.
Make afternoon plan or evening plans for that matter. Keep it simple. Remember sometimes it's best to break in to sub groups to keep as many happy as possible.

If the large group style isn't working for you and your family, don't be afraid to speak up.

Good luck

Geemo

 

[smartlabelprint]

Meet for lunch and everyone goes on a selected ride together.

Then split up again.

 

[Lesley Wake]

Yeah, I would say come up with a few things mid-day that you can do together, specifically stuff that doesn't require a fastpass. Maybe a specific showing of Frozen or Parade, as well as an evening show. That way if some people do decide they want to do more things together, they can plan on grouping off after that. I'd have a group text set up, so people can check in every once in a while.

Will you guys be getting Maxpass? If so, you can connect all together on a few devices to book things together for later in the day, even if you are in different locations (though in that instance you would need to wait until everyone has entered a park that morning).

 

[Niltiac]

Meeting for lunch is good because if you have a reservation at a certain time, you don't need to coordinate everyone, you just need to make sure everyone knows about it and it's on them to show up. Then during lunch it's likely people will start talking about what they want to do next, and if interests correspond, people may naturally coordinate their after-lunch activities. I wouldn't specifically plan rides together - with a large group you'll have to split into different ride vehicles anyway.

One thing I would recommend is that if the one family is staying within walking distance and they have teens, and if it's ok with their parents, give the teens someone's cell phone number and let them come join you in the morning (after EMH) if they want to while their parents sleep in. I know from experience that kids, especially kids on a fun vacation, might be morning people even if their parents aren't.

 

[VandVsmama]

So, most of the people in our group are staying at Paradise Pier, but one family isn't. I know we get EMH everyday and they only get 1 Magic Morning at Disneyland.

Best advice in trying to do things together?
I'm an early morning riser and they aren't. And I know we need a room key to get EMH.
I'm thinking we'll just have to plan afternoons to do things together as our mornings will be totally off schedule if we get in to the parks early.

Thoughts, ideas?

I second everybody else's advice. If you're morning people and the family staying off site are not morning people, then you should go ahead and take advantage of your EMH every day. Go go go all morning as if the other family isn't even on the trip with you. Tell the off site family to just call or text you when they arrive at the parks. Then you call or text them back to let them know where exactly you are and it's up to them to meet up with you. But don't wait around. Don't sit there waiting for 20, 30 min for them to get through the main gate and saunter over to wherever you are in the park. Continue on with your existing plans and they'll catch up.

On one trip to DL, we made arrangements for a So Cal local friend to meet us in the late afternoon at DL. We waited at the prescribed time and location in the park, but 20 min went by and no sign of her and she didn't call or text either. So with cranky DH and children, we decided to continue on. 90 min later, she arrived. She'd run into horrible traffic and it took forever to get into Mickey & Friends parking lot, etc., etc. It was like a comedy of errors.

If we'd sat there and waited for almost 2 hours, even I would have been mad.

You can still have a wonderful time with the off site family. But this way, nobody will be angry, frustrated, or resentful that they had to wait around or get up way earlier than they're used to in order to make everybody happy.