How do you handle reservations when traveling with extended family?

[AlternateID]

Long time member and frequent visitor, but posting under an alternate ID.

We are traveling to the world later this year with the in laws. Now we've traveled with other family members before and it's always been fine because I have always been "the planner" and everyone else follows along. This time it's different because MIL is "the planner" for her family group. We're all frequent visitors to Disney, but this is our first time going together. It's coming up on our six month mark and the biggest question right now is who makes the ADRs? Do you let one person handle them for large groups (We'll have 8 total, a group of 4 and 2 groups of 2) or should we make our own ressies for our group of 4 and let MIL make ressies for their group for the same times? Can we note that we are traveling together and would like to be seated together? The idea of giving up control of my ADRs is stressing me out!!!

 

[parrotheadlois]

Let her do the planning and go with the flow! You'll get to relax and joy. You can't go wrong keeping your MIL happy!! You don't have to be attached at the hip. If your party of 4 wants to do something different - go ahead.

 

[RogueKnits]

If you all want to eat together, it's easier if one person makes the reservations for the whole group. You can link up all of your MDE accounts so that you can see all of the plans and make reservations including other family members.

We're doing a big family trip this summer with my husband's brother and his family and we ended up just deciding to make our own dinner arrangements. We will try to do QS together for lunch, but it was too difficult for us trying to please everyone in order to eat together. Husband and I have no kids, and BIL has 3 under 7, so what we expect in a dining experience and the times we will want to eat are vastly different.

 

[scrappinginontario]

We are going with my brother and his family this fall as well as another family. For the reservations where all 10 of us wanted to be seated together, my SIL booked those as her family is arriving one day before ours so it made sense for her to grab those.

For meals where it's just my DD and myself I booked those myself. I enjoy the planning too and am normally 'the planner' but was happy to step aside and let me SIL book our group meals and take care of our own meals myself.

 

[Mommy2TwoMickeys]

Our traveling party is a bit more large..family of 15. We have 3 groups of 2, 1 group of 5 and one group of 4. Normally we designate atleast "2 planners" to make the reservation so we don't get the "your party is too large" message. It works out pretty good with having 2 planners selecting reservation times very close to one another. Some restaurants are very accommodating with "merging" the reservations so we can all sit together, but it doesn't always work out that way.

Our trip in December is going to be a bit more difficult for the following reasons:

1. My brother MAY be getting married while down there(he will know if his wedding date is available by Thursday ) which means his future -in -laws of 10 would be joining us...That would be way too much to coordinate dinners for everyone's taste and preference so I am sure that will be narrowed down to a big dinner the night of the wedding.

2. We have booked a Grand Villa(VGF) that will have 8 people total..my parents, my family(me,dh,ds4,ds1) and my brother and his girlfriend. With making reservations, I am worried that we are going to run into the problem of "you currently have a dining reservation booked." If my family books, say chef mickeys for breakfast at 9:00am and my brother books Grand Floridian Cafe at 9:30am.

 

[Dismomof2boys]

I was wondering the same thing about ADR's. 13 of us will be heading down to WDW in October. We have 3 parties of 3 and my party of 4. Six of those going have never been to WDW before so I have become the official planner of all things. To make matters even more difficult, my niece and nephew are the pickiest eaters I have ever known. They won't eat hot dogs, chicken nuggets, hamburgers, or even steak. I know: what's left, right? Basically, they like peanut butter and jelly. However, they are both in their teens so they will be ordering off the adult menu - like it or not. I think the best bet for large parties is to stick to buffets. I know that Ohana, 50's Prime Time, Akershus, Liberty Tree Tavern, Via Napoli and Boma can seat 13. I do a practice run for my ADR's by logging into the reservation site and putting in dates that are now available just to see if they could get that many seated. I don't actually book the reservation since I am more than 180 days out. Anyways, good luck with your large party - I'm going to need it too!