First Large Group, wisdom please!

[Chuck S]

I had a group of 16 people for 8 nights a few years ago. Washers and dryers are important, so I would use as a many 1 bedrooms and two bedrooms as needed to get the most in room washers and dryers. We got 2 - 2 bedrooms and a 1 bedroom at OKW, which gave everyone some room to spread out, and 3 washers/dryers.

 

[CaliAdventurer]

I knew I count count on you! Thanks so much for all the food for thought. Based on it, Plan A is going to be VGF GV and 1 two bedroom. It's the most point intensive option but hey, if we're going this far. I'll require a firm in or out by 11mo and if there are truly more folks then I will revise but I think one or 3 will prob fall off. Maybe I'll grab a studio for safekeeping and give it up at 7 mos if we dont need it. One will be in med school, one just quit her job to travel so...

My husband saw the video of the GV and really wants the king in that room and all the common space will be great. This is will also allow us to put the youngest and "busiest" of the Millenials in the other room but with one of the oldest adults on the other side just in case, if you know what I mean!

2 ADRs is all we will do for the group and we will pay so no issues there. I will def call, thanks for the tip, at 180 days. Napoli was the other option I was thinking. Prob much cheaper with the giant pizzas but Biergarten is just so darn fun! the steins and the songs!

Really, half the group are our minions and they'd happily sit back and see what we'll offer. One trip my baby brother (hes 30 now and almost solvent) was given $150 disney dollars like everyone else for food during the days. He never bought a single thing (not when its his money of course!) but waited until everyone else ate and then happily accepted the leftovers. This strategy was particularly wise and I think he ate better than the rest of us! At the end he had to scramble to spend his money on souvenirs. Haha

I talked to my SIL and she is also someone who would prefer to just show up and not think about it. I'm going to make our itinerary before 180 days and let her circle the things she wants in on and make the ADRs for that. They can afford to pay and will. She def wants to have the kids do Pirate Cruise with mine and we are all going to do Club Villain. We'll post our itinerary on our event FB page and if the others want to make res also, I'll include the phone number. I know better than to front the $! Maybe a reservation Club Villain will be another good prize. I know my 22 yo DS would pull a tonya Harding to get that. : )

Money wise, I'll make sure everyone is very clear about what they need to prepay or prepare to pay. I still want to have some group meals in the GV but you're right, I'll retool how that can work. I do want to younger ones to have the opportunity to "adult" as they like to say and offer something.

I plan to send the young ones off for any contests. The only times we'll be all together is at the hello and goodbye meals. At Epcot we will be split into Team Eat and Team Drink.

Fast passes are a tough one. I doubt if I give the info many will book FPs in a timely manner to get the good rides and times. Most this will be there first trip and dont have an idea what's what. I'll have to think about that.

Love the Pinterest idea. Going to have fun for months on there. I love the tees that have Walter from Breaking Bad wearing a Mickey Mouse hat that says Walt in Disney font. I think the young ones will love that. Maybe not for the kids : ).

This really is like 2 families who have no interest in planning and our 9 college aged honorary children and us. As long as there's time for golf the guys will be totally on board. The hard part will be that its only a week and with 2 days f & w, lots of golf , and the long flights from the West there is only so much you can do.

 

[CaliAdventurer]

I had a group of 16 people for 8 nights a few years ago. Washers and dryers are important, so I would use as a many 1 bedrooms and two bedrooms as needed to get the most in room washers and dryers. We got 2 - 2 bedrooms and a 1 bedroom at OKW, which gave everyone some room to spread out, and 3 washers/dryers.

Tipping point! I have to wash. And I hate when its in use when I want it. Def not studios then.

 

[crisi]

We like our space and privacy. So we've done GV trips for six, and when we took my family, it was my immediate family (the four of us) in a two bedroom - and my sister, her husband, their two kids and my parents in a second two bedroom. I like my family - but a two bedroom is too small to be tripping over my sister's family. (Do not ask about that same group, plus my other sister and her husband, on a houseboat!)

When the group is small, we handle all of the fastpass reservations and dinner - the last trip was four adults and my seventeen year old and a friend. I made Fastpasses and dinner reservations for all six (except for a few meals the girls went out on their own for), but most days the girls would break off and we might bump into them at Fastpass time. Moving more than six to eight people through the park together is its own logistical nightmare.

 

[CaliAdventurer]

We like our space and privacy. So we've done GV trips for six, and when we took my family, it was my immediate family (the four of us) in a two bedroom - and my sister, her husband, their two kids and my parents in a second two bedroom. I like my family - but a two bedroom is too small to be tripping over my sister's family. (Do not ask about that same group, plus my other sister and her husband, on a houseboat!)

When the group is small, we handle all of the fastpass reservations and dinner - the last trip was four adults and my seventeen year old and a friend. I made Fastpasses and dinner reservations for all six (except for a few meals the girls went out on their own for), but most days the girls would break off and we might bump into them at Fastpass time. Moving more than six to eight people through the park together is its own logistical nightmare.

See thats my thinking ,I was thinking that we would take the two bed with some of the group that we travel with regularly and know are chill and put everyone else in the GV. But my husband is is the one who wants the GV/bed over three 2beds. ( not that I cant just tell him it was unavailable : ) I like the idea of a GV for common space. I'm just not sure I want to be in all the time. : o. Well, the benefit of paying for the accomodation is that I get to set it up to suit our family and no one need know where they sleep until just before we arrive. I even thought of another 1 bed just for us but its so expensive it doesnt make any sense. More to consider!

 

[crisi]

The thing to ask yourself, and really ask yourself, is "how much will other people's common space habits bug me." A grand villa is big....but it isn't that big when you put eight or twelve people in it. The kitchens remain sort of small, so if you have eight people trying to get breakfast together before getting out the door, it takes some coordination and patience. There are a number of flat surfaces where people will dump their "come back from the park" stuff - is that going to bug you? That many adults means you'll need to organize laundry time.

With my brother in law, I know from 30 years experience that he is a kitchen putterer. It can take him fifteen minutes to make coffee - and his coffee needs to be made to his specifications, he can't just drink the communal pot (you know how Sally in When Harry Met Sally is high maintenance - she has nothing on my brother in law). He gets peevy when people wake him up in the morning before he wants to get up, but his booming voice will carry at 11pm at night when he isn't yet ready to go to sleep. Add in my nephews - who are their father's children - and my sister - who is the great enabler - and I'm not sharing a Grand Villa with them anytime in the near future. I like them, and I enjoy vacationing with them - when its "meet up and spend some time together" and not "trip over the results of their shopping expedition walking through the door." And youth does not temper the maintenance issues with my nephews.

Are they going to get their own dishes done, or with you in the room are you going to become the maid who makes sure there are clean coffee cups in the morning? Are they going to be prompt about moving laundry around - and be willing to answer a communal call for "hey, I'm washing undies - everyone bring theirs out - here's a Sharpie for your initials in the waistband" - or are you going to be looking at loads of four items, sitting in the washer, with a lot of "I don't know whose that is" when its time to move it.

We regularly do an annual big vacation up at a friends house on Lake Superior - its four couples and then some kids. We divide up dinners, we have a pretty negotiated system for beds, people tend to pitch in fairly to keep dishes done and spaces tidy, and we tend to work fairly well together over a long weekend. But its taken fifteen years to get there - and its only a long weekend. Plus we bring in a housekeeper to clean at the end - the point of contention became the end of stay cleaning.

 

[CaliAdventurer]

The thing to ask yourself, and really ask yourself, is "how much will other people's common space habits bug me." A grand villa is big....but it isn't that big when you put eight or twelve people in it. The kitchens remain sort of small, so if you have eight people trying to get breakfast together before getting out the door, it takes some coordination and patience. There are a number of flat surfaces where people will dump their "come back from the park" stuff - is that going to bug you? That many adults means you'll need to organize laundry time.

With my brother in law, I know from 30 years experience that he is a kitchen putterer. It can take him fifteen minutes to make coffee - and his coffee needs to be made to his specifications, he can't just drink the communal pot (you know how Sally in When Harry Met Sally is high maintenance - she has nothing on my brother in law). He gets peevy when people wake him up in the morning before he wants to get up, but his booming voice will carry at 11pm at night when he isn't yet ready to go to sleep. Add in my nephews - who are their father's children - and my sister - who is the great enabler - and I'm not sharing a Grand Villa with them anytime in the near future. I like them, and I enjoy vacationing with them - when its "meet up and spend some time together" and not "trip over the results of their shopping expedition walking through the door." And youth does not temper the maintenance issues with my nephews.

Are they going to get their own dishes done, or with you in the room are you going to become the maid who makes sure there are clean coffee cups in the morning? Are they going to be prompt about moving laundry around - and be willing to answer a communal call for "hey, I'm washing undies - everyone bring theirs out - here's a Sharpie for your initials in the waistband" - or are you going to be looking at loads of four items, sitting in the washer, with a lot of "I don't know whose that is" when its time to move it.

We regularly do an annual big vacation up at a friends house on Lake Superior - its four couples and then some kids. We divide up dinners, we have a pretty negotiated system for beds, people tend to pitch in fairly to keep dishes done and spaces tidy, and we tend to work fairly well together over a long weekend. But its taken fifteen years to get there - and its only a long weekend. Plus we bring in a housekeeper to clean at the end - the point of contention became the end of stay cleaning.

You're so right. When i see FB pics where there are multiple families with kids vacation it boggles my mind. No, thanks! Everyone we have in mind sharing the GV with, the adults are really type B. My husband and I are for sure the strongest personalities. BUT my nephews used to be hellions. I'm not sure how much they've out grown it the last few years and their parents are wimps who let them call the shots. But then there's only 5 kids just my two and the nephews would be in the GV. My son will want to be with his cousin for sure. My daughter will want to be with the twenty somethings so I was going to put one couple who we have taken with us many places and whom we adore with the 8 of us. But yes, other peoples kids and other peoples stuff... Last year we did a big trip to Vegas for my DS 21st and we got a giant suite for the younger ones and it worked out great. It looked like grenades had gone off at some point but I didnt have to live in it.

No one will be preparing actual meals in the rooms anyway aside from breakfasts id we push that but youre right, lets skip that so I dont have to deal with the haphazard cleanings. Thats no vacation to me.

Only slight concern is my SIL is an emotional and passive aggressive type. I could see her feeling slighted (but saying nothing) if she was in a separate room from the "better" although I'd argue a 2 bedroom is pretty awesome. Maybe better to pack the GV with all other than us and put the devils we know best with us. I wonder if my DH will accept not being in the GV. We could go back to the original 3 two bed plan but I really want the guaranteed fireworks view at least as an option. Hmmmm. This is why we plan 18 mos in advance on this site hahaha

 

[jcanary]

concerning the points - have you thought about renting all of your points thru Dave's and then going onto the rent/trade board here and renting the points you need from a private person? If you are doing the drinking and eating around the world at Epcot, I would really suggest getting BCV or BWV since it is walking to and from. Your trip sounds like a wonderful thing to do for family and friends and I am sure they will all be very appreciative. I would love to do that for our family and extended family but not enough points. Have a great time and I will be watching for updates.

 

[DenLo]

We had 3 two bedrooms for a group of 20, for 24 I would throw in another studio or 1BR. Because you would want one living room not being used for sleeping so you can all gather in that room from time to time. I would not plan on everyone going to each park together. Plan one day at a park for everyone to take group photos and another evening at a second park to enjoy the fireworks and/or parade. We did an early breakfast at MK for one of the group days and arrived as early as possible to take photos in front of the castle before breakfast. And then we toured the park sometimes in group other times with just a family doing their thing. And a night gathering you can do a group ride at one attraction and then let families separated and meet up for planned events like a parade or fireworks. After that let each family plan their own park days for the rest of the trip. Then you and your DH join a single family for a day or evening at a park until you have covered all of the families.

 

[Pirate Granny]

Dean, we have got a reservation for ten at Narcoosee's...we had to call the restaurant directly, and even then they insisted that it had to be two (5 person) reservations, but they would sit us together and they had to be right when they opened at 5pm...we were good with that :

 

[Pirate Granny]

Oh yea, look at the space at the GF grand villa, the living room doesn't have much seating. We were 10 in a 2 bedroom (legally) for two nights at GF, and it suited us fine, and yes, I snagged it at 7 months, lakeview...we were so surprised. My family didn't care for the looks of the GV at GF (which was also available, but lots of points). As it was, in the 2 bedroom the bathroom was almost as large as the 2nd bedroom, nice, but a real waste of space...we are trying out AK GV at Jambo house on Saturday ... can't wait...we rented points at the 11 month mark (there are only 6 GV at Jambo), and then rented our points out...was easy and painless and I actually made a few bucks (rented out more points than the AK points required).

 

[Dean]

Dean, we have got a reservation for ten at Narcoosee's...we had to call the restaurant directly, and even then they insisted that it had to be two (5 person) reservations, but they would sit us together and they had to be right when they opened at 5pm...we were good with that :

Thanks, that's reasonable but since they could not guarantee seating together, what would have happened had they not been able to do so or there was a significant wait. Since I'm often booking for 10 or 12, I'll frequently end up with 2 reservations at the same location for the same or close times. Almost all of the time our group adjusts in numbers enough or I get something larger that it's a non issue. I've only had a couple of times when we had to go somewhere with 2 reservations and a couple where we had one or 2 over the listed #. In every case I was realistic on expectations, up front with them for our situation and appreciative that things worked out. In all but maybe one, I was able to let them know ahead of time the day off as well. OTOH, I've shown up with a smaller group not uncommonly though if there's much difference I try to make alternate reservations then cancel the other. Now if they start charging for those that don't show up, and they likely should, it'll affect my approach significantly.

 

[BillPA]

We had a group of 34 at Chef Mickey's, we were all seated in the same room, just a few steps above the main floor. Many tables, not one long one, there were 2 other people in that room with all of us. It had to be the first seating to be able to get the reservation. The kids had a blast, lots of face time with all the characters.

 

[ain0004]

We have done a large group.
#1. Problem MDE fastpasses. I had to get everyone's names on MDE account. It was a pain. Next fast passes. You need to lay out. I am making the fast passes if you don't like it then you modify them, etc.
#2 Food. We did almost all of our meals in our Grand villa. We had them pre made. All we had to do was put in the crock pot or oven. We brought 2 crock pots and used them everyday. We had one family in charge of X meal. That family was to have everything ready for that meal. It worked out well. No one went hungry. Snack was great to bring in the parks.
#3. Time off. Not everyone can get the same amount of time off. In fact my family arrived 5 days prior to my brother and his family. Our schedules are getting so crazy. We are planning 2019. No excuses that we didn't have enough of a warning. Plus everyone wants to see Star Wars Land.
#4 Not everyone will want to be together. Trust me it can cause problems in a hurry. We usually planned to do one meal a day together. Everyone said what they wanted to do and then we moved together or separate ways. There was no hard feelings every family had their own separate time.

We had a wonderful time. we stayed at BLT grand villa.

 

[mustinjourney]

have you considered transferring in some BCV or BWV points and then renting your VGF points? You'd maintain control over the points and get the 11 month advantage...which you'll need for October. Presumably we're talking October of 2018?