Give me your best extended family tips!

[staceychev]

We're going in the fall with extended family: my family (me, DH, DD9, DD5), sisters family (her, BIL, nephews 6 and 9), and my mom. We're planning to stay at Wilderness Lodge, although my sister might stay at GF or CR. I've been several times in the past 8 years (twice chaperoning a senior trip, once with DD5 and DD-infant). Sister hasn't been since we were kids. We're doing 5 days in Disney, and 1 at LegoLand. Leaving on day 7.

So, what are your best extended family trip tips? Give me everything--planning, eating, fast-passing, special events.

 

[disney-inspired]

Firstly I would acknowledge that you won't all be together at ALL times. Every family has their own way of touring and being glued to a totally different style of touring would make anyone crazy. Your family is experienced while it sounds like your sister's family are total newbies to Disney. Is that right?

it might be best to schedule some, maybe all (if you all like the same things), dining reservations together so you can meet up after you've gone your separate ways during the day.

You could also make one or multiple meeting times throughout the day if you're in the same park. I.E. Let's meet up at 12pm at the Partners Statue to check-in. All your kids are kind of young so they probably like the same things. Perhaps the adults could switch off having all the kids and let the other couple rest or tour alone.

Just some ideas. It sounds like it will be super fun!

 

[glassslippergirl]

Like PP said, just don't plan to spend all of your time together. Talk in advance about what rides you all want to FP and some places where you want to eat. Have one person make those plans and give the itinerary to everyone (adults) to approve. You may also want to plan some times where the 5-year-olds are together doing something awesome and age appropriate for them while the nine-year-olds go on a thrill ride or two (assuming the younger ones can't go on the thrill rides). Girls and boys may want to split up for other things.

When we visited with DH's brother and his family, we figured out in about an hour that we weren't going to spend much time together in parks. Different touring styles, different goals. We just made sure they knew where and when to meet us for dinner. It's important to stress that everyone respect the times to meet up. If you think it will be an issue, you may also want to consider your mother. Who will she go with each time the families split up?

 

[disney-inspired]

Like PP said, just don't plan to spend all of your time together. Talk in advance about what rides you all want to FP and some places where you want to eat. Have one person make those plans and give the itinerary to everyone (adults) to approve. You may also want to plan some times where the 5-year-olds are together doing something awesome and age appropriate for them while the nine-year-olds go on a thrill ride or two (assuming the younger ones can't go on the thrill rides). Girls and boys may want to split up for other things.

When we visited with DH's brother and his family, we figured out in about an hour that we weren't going to spend much time together in parks. Different touring styles, different goals. We just made sure they knew where and when to meet us for dinner. It's important to stress that everyone respect the times to meet up. If you think it will be an issue, you may also want to consider your mother. Who will she go with each time the families split up?

Yes! You know the saying two many cooks in the kitchen? Same goes with trip planning and making reservations.

 

[DisneyRegulars]

We just went on this exact trip. While I tried to suggest that we split up, my BIL's family preferred to do everything with us. What worked for us was making fast pass reservations for the morning, and starting off our days together, then we split up for the afternoons.

Here is my trip report, I thought it was going to be awful but it turned out great:
http://www.disboards.com/threads/wh...the-inlaws-an-ssr-gv-pre-trip-report.3361964/

 

[jitterbug]

Every night, pray for patience.

 

[EPCOTgrl1]

I didn't do a extended family trip but I have done a trip with close to 15 people... So here are my tips:

Sit down as a group and find out what everyones expectations are. That way you can all find out what really to expect when you are down there. Open communication is the key with a large group.

When I went down with my group I basically sent out an email saying here is what park we will be in and here is the general plan for our day. With my group everyone had been to WDW on multiple occasions, so that made it easier. We always met for dinner that night. I was the one who planned the dinners. Because our group was so large I would either make 2 reservations at the same time or I would have to call the restaurant directly to make my reservation. We were told that the restaurant could never guarantee that we would be sitting at the same table but they would always do their best. That being said we never had a problem, but we were always willing to wait.

Knowing that we would not be together in the parks the whole time we would split up but kept in communication with phones. It made it easier. What also made it easy is that within the subgroups we would split. For example my DH and I would go around with my sister and a friend from one of the other subgroups. We basically broke down into what rides we wanted to do, not by family. (note we did this all before Magic Bands, so no FP+)

I would also like to put it out there that this is the most planning I have ever done for a trip. My family has been so many times we are lucky if we make ARPs before we go. Normally we wing it, i.e. get on the first bus that shows up, get same day dinning, etc. So that fact that we had a plan on what park we were going to each day was weird for us.