FP+ for large groups?

[autumnpalm]

Our family vacation this summer seems to be growing and growing-- we now have a large group of 16 family members.

I have gotten everything figured out with the resort and dining reservations but am looking ahead to the FP+ reservations and wondering what is the best way to go about making them.

With such a large group, the way I have been planning to tackle FP+ is to just initially make the same FP+ reservations for every family member and then if smaller groups or families want to adjust their FP+s and change things up, they can go ahead.

So, it seems I will be in charge of making the reservations for all 16 of us at the 60 day mark (we are all staying on property and linked as Family and Friends through MDE).

Does anyone else have experience with making FP+ reservations for large groups? If we are linked through MDE, will it be easy to make all of the reservations in one transaction? Or will I need to break us up into smaller groups and try to match up the times?

Thanks!

 

[olafgypsy]

I made FP+ reservations for a group of 11 for a trip Dec. 6 - 14. I was able to get all our desired fast passes for everyone in our group a few days after our booking window opened (i.e., not logging in at midnight on first day), including very in-demand ones like 7DMT, TSMM, and Test Track.

About two weeks after our booking window opened, I noticed much less availability. I was still able to switch some of our FP's but I had to use the strategy of splitting our group into smaller parties (by giving some FP+ for a different "placeholder" attraction, or by staggering our times on the same attraction), and then staggering our FP+ with overlapping windows on the attractions we wanted. Sometimes I would have to make reservations for just a few people and wait for more to open up (checking back multiple times daily).

Something that everyone (but especially people in larger parties) should be aware of is a glitch in Disney's system: when you attempt to copy your FP+ from one person to another (or one person to several) and the system finds not enough availability, it MAY delete peoples' Fast Passes and reassign three in a random "best match" configuration of the system's choosing. This glitch resulted in me losing some 7DMT Fast Passes; I had to call Disney IT to fix it.


Now that our trip is over, my advice to anyone managing FP+ for a large group is: make sure that the "decision maker" or "head of household" for each smaller group in your party has the ability to manage their OWN FP+ after the trip begins. Once we were in the parks, smaller groups wanted to split off and do their own thing. Of course that was totally fine, but this resulted in me constantly being on my phone trying to get the smaller groups the FP's they wanted, because I was the only person who had the ability to make them.

Hope this helps!

 

[autumnpalm]

Now that our trip is over, my advice to anyone managing FP+ for a large group is: make sure that the "decision maker" or "head of household" for each smaller group in your party has the ability to manage their OWN FP+ after the trip begins. Once we were in the parks, smaller groups wanted to split off and do their own thing. Of course that was totally fine, but this resulted in me constantly being on my phone trying to get the smaller groups the FP's they wanted, because I was the only person who had the ability to make them.

Hope this helps!

Thank you so much, that is VERY helpful!

Re: the bolded- is this something that needs to be done on MDE? Or is it automatically possible as long as each party has a smartphone/is willing to visit the kiosks?

Thanks!!

 

[Mikie]

My group was 12 traveling in October (moderate crowds, level 4-7 over the course of our trip)

Disney IT recommended doing just as you said - make the FPs for the whole group at once and change it for any smaller sub-groups who don't want to do the "main attraction".

As long as you are linked as family and friends, you can easily make selections for everyone. If they also have their own MDE account, they can change their own FPs. In my group, a couple adults did not have their own MDE and were "owned" by me. They could not make any changes without me logging in for them. Could be avoided if Grandma (no account, but in a room with Grandpa who DID have an account) were added and "owned" by Grandpa instead of by me. Likely if we split up, grandma and grandpa would be together & he could make changes for them both in MDE. Instead, as unofficial travel agent for the group, I put every non-account holder into MDE and they became my responsibility.

I happened to still be up at midnight on my 60 day window, so I booked 7 dwarfs at that time, because I knew it was hard to get. I had a few choices available on my first planned MK day early in my trip, and lots of choices available for the MK day later in my trip. I went to bed and made all the rest of my picks for other parks and days late in the afternoon of my 60 day. I did all of these for the whole group of 12 at once, not needing to break down into smaller groups to find good rides/times. I made a few changes between 60 days and 45 days prior to my trip and still had plenty of luck for the whole group, not needing to split smaller. After that, I was happy with my plans and don't know what availability was like closer to the trip.

If you are the group travel agent, I recommend you find out if anyone wants to be fully involved (online with you on picking day, picking days and rides), or wants to give input on ride choices while leaving you to finalize, or if they truly want you to do it all and just tell them when to show up!

My group's goal was mostly togetherness, but with some breaks. Many here on DIS recommend more of a separate touring with only a meeting for a meal or fireworks or show each day. If you're a "togetherness" one, I liked our strategy of planning FP near in time and location to our meals. Best was late morning FP followed by lunch, then next 2 FPs back to back. This gave us FPs as lines got longer in late morning and afternoon, and also meant we were only "clock-watching" once. Get to that first FP, then just progress through ride, lunch, ride, ride, then back to unstructured touring with just a general idea of .let's spend today in Fantasyland and tomorrowland" or "FPs in future world and tour the right half of world showcase today". My group made it to rope drop with varying degrees of success, but we did our own thing and just caught up wherever we were or at least once our first FP hit.

Have fun!

 

[2goofykiddos]

I posted a question about this today, but received no response. My large family (20) is arriving in 2 days. I made FPs for everyone and then individual parties changed what they wanted. Now is there any way to block them from changing mine without removing them as a friend? The whole app become bogged down with everyone's information, but I am not sure how to change this.

Any ideas would be appreciated!

 

[Mikie]

I posted a question about this today, but received no response. My large family (20) is arriving in 2 days. I made FPs for everyone and then individual parties changed what they wanted. Now is there any way to block them from changing mine without removing them as a friend? The whole app become bogged down with everyone's information, but I am not sure how to change this.

Any ideas would be appreciated!

I am not sure. I see in the My a Family and Friends tab that you can Edit and choose between "can see all my plans" or "can see only our shared plans". I don't know if a FP at the same time constitutes a "shared plan", so selecting "show only shared" wouldn't really change anything. I think if you unlink each other as friends - as long as you tell everyone! - you may end up with a cleanerMDE to navigate, as it definitely does get clumsy and slow with all those people.

Sorry I'm not more help. Maybe call IT -they're pretty quick and helpful 407-939-7765

 

[autumnpalm]

My group was 12 traveling in October (moderate crowds, level 4-7 over the course of our trip)

Disney IT recommended doing just as you said - make the FPs for the whole group at once and change it for any smaller sub-groups who don't want to do the "main attraction".

As long as you are linked as family and friends, you can easily make selections for everyone. If they also have their own MDE account, they can change their own FPs. In my group, a couple adults did not have their own MDE and were "owned" by me. They could not make any changes without me logging in for them. Could be avoided if Grandma (no account, but in a room with Grandpa who DID have an account) were added and "owned" by Grandpa instead of by me. Likely if we split up, grandma and grandpa would be together & he could make changes for them both in MDE. Instead, as unofficial travel agent for the group, I put every non-account holder into MDE and they became my responsibility.

I happened to still be up at midnight on my 60 day window, so I booked 7 dwarfs at that time, because I knew it was hard to get. I had a few choices available on my first planned MK day early in my trip, and lots of choices available for the MK day later in my trip. I went to bed and made all the rest of my picks for other parks and days late in the afternoon of my 60 day. I did all of these for the whole group of 12 at once, not needing to break down into smaller groups to find good rides/times. I made a few changes between 60 days and 45 days prior to my trip and still had plenty of luck for the whole group, not needing to split smaller. After that, I was happy with my plans and don't know what availability was like closer to the trip.

If you are the group travel agent, I recommend you find out if anyone wants to be fully involved (online with you on picking day, picking days and rides), or wants to give input on ride choices while leaving you to finalize, or if they truly want you to do it all and just tell them when to show up!

My group's goal was mostly togetherness, but with some breaks. Many here on DIS recommend more of a separate touring with only a meeting for a meal or fireworks or show each day. If you're a "togetherness" one, I liked our strategy of planning FP near in time and location to our meals. Best was late morning FP followed by lunch, then next 2 FPs back to back. This gave us FPs as lines got longer in late morning and afternoon, and also meant we were only "clock-watching" once. Get to that first FP, then just progress through ride, lunch, ride, ride, then back to unstructured touring with just a general idea of .let's spend today in Fantasyland and tomorrowland" or "FPs in future world and tour the right half of world showcase today". My group made it to rope drop with varying degrees of success, but we did our own thing and just caught up wherever we were or at least once our first FP hit.

Have fun!

Thank you so much! That is extremely helpful. Sounds like you did an amazing job with your planning!

2goofykiddos, I'm sorry I don't know the answer to your question but I hope someone will be along soon to help you out. Good question!

 

[mek17]

I'm about to need to book FP+ for a group of 13 -- 4 adults and 9 kids. I have linked MDE with the other 3 adults and can see and book them. I can also book my 5 kids, whose accounts I own. But I cannot see or book the 4 kids whose accounts are owned by other adults in our group. Any way around this or do I have to book for my kids and have one of the other adults book for her kids?

Thanks.

 

[Mikie]

I'm about to need to book FP+ for a group of 13 -- 4 adults and 9 kids. I have linked MDE with the other 3 adults and can see and book them. I can also book my 5 kids, whose accounts I own. But I cannot see or book the 4 kids whose accounts are owned by other adults in our group. Any way around this or do I have to book for my kids and have one of the other adults book for her kids?

Thanks.

In MDE, the other adult who "owns" the child's info can go to her Zfamily and Friends list and Edit the kids and find an option for saying who is allowed to make plans for each child. I looked in my family and thought I would see a way to assign FP planning privileges, but I only have the option of saying yes/no on allowing others to see the kids's photos. It's worth a call to IT to ask - they're pretty quick and very helpful. If you're making all the reservations, it will definitely be easier if you can pick them all at once vs. telling the other mom to try to duplicate what you got. I put their # a few posts above.

 

[mek17]

In MDE, the other adult who "owns" the child's info can go to her Zfamily and Friends list and Edit the kids and find an option for saying who is allowed to make plans for each child. I looked in my family and thought I would see a way to assign FP planning privileges, but I only have the option of saying yes/no on allowing others to see the kids's photos. It's worth a call to IT to ask - they're pretty quick and very helpful. If you're making all the reservations, it will definitely be easier if you can pick them all at once vs. telling the other mom to try to duplicate what you got. I put their # a few posts above.

In reading through the FAQ on the website, it sounds like they may not allow other adults to make plans for a child -- that it will be limited to the adult who manages the child's account. Has anyone had success in letting another adult make FP+ reservations for a child? I hate to waste time calling IT if they simply don't allow it.

 

[Sherrkel]

Our family vacation this summer seems to be growing and growing-- we now have a large group of 16 family members.

I have gotten everything figured out with the resort and dining reservations but am looking ahead to the FP+ reservations and wondering what is the best way to go about making them.

With such a large group, the way I have been planning to tackle FP+ is to just initially make the same FP+ reservations for every family member and then if smaller groups or families want to adjust their FP+s and change things up, they can go ahead.

So, it seems I will be in charge of making the reservations for all 16 of us at the 60 day mark (we are all staying on property and linked as Family and Friends through MDE).

Does anyone else have experience with making FP+ reservations for large groups? If we are linked through MDE, will it be easy to make all of the reservations in one transaction? Or will I need to break us up into smaller groups and try to match up the times?

Thanks!

Hi . . .I just made FP+ for my family & in-laws, 20 people (six families). Four families (including mine) arrive on one day, and the other two families arrive a day later. So I had to wake up at 1:00am both days to make FP, that was a little tough. But we got everything we wanted like A&E on two different days for a couple of people, and SDMT on two different days for all 20 of us.
I enjoy planning our disney trips, but this level of detail and the time it took was a lot, even for me. After it was all done, I felt pretty good though.

I think your strategy is right on, and that jumping forward in your trip to your last few days to book the popular ones (like mine) is a good plan.
Important tip: try not to use the "cancel" feature in FP+ unless your family wants to cancel a full day (3) worth of FP+ . . . I mistakenly canceled 1 attraction out of 3 and couldn't rebook the 3rd one (newbie mistake that I had read about in advance, but at 1:00am I wasn't that sharp). A quick call to Disney IT fixed it though. Use the "change attraction" feature to modify them (unless you are entirely switching parks).

Good luck!

In reading through the FAQ on the website, it sounds like they may not allow other adults to make plans for a child -- that it will be limited to the adult who manages the child's account. Has anyone had success in letting another adult make FP+ reservations for a child? I hate to waste time calling IT if they simply don't allow it.

That was not true in my case, and other things I have read don't support that your CANNOT make plans for other people's children.
When we did our F&F list in MDE, the other adults (in-laws), had to go in to their accounts (where they manage their children) and submitted a F&F request to me, and I'd accept it. Worked fine when I reserved FP+ for everyone last week.