How to plan ADRs for large group

[jjarman]

We are going in about a year and a half. It will be at least me, DB, DSIL, their 2 boys who will be 6 and almost 8, their neighbors and their little boy who will be 5. The neighbors and I are big Disney fans and they love WDW almost as much as I do. I know DSIL will want me to do most of the planning and there is a forseeable scenario where all of us eat supper each night together. I am wondering how to get us all together on choosing where to eat. Since DB and DSIL have not been in ages (20 plus years) it will be up to me and the neighbors to guide them. I thought I would print out all the menus for DB and DSIL to look at and then let each group choose say 3 restaurants they really want to eat at. Then all of us get together to compare notes.

Also, DB has some serious food issues due to illness. I know there are some restaurants that it would be easier for him to choose and I know the chefs are very accomodating.

 

[wdwrich]

I did the planning for an extended family group of 22 people last summer. Our plan was very similar to yours- each family could plan the daytime activities as they wished, and we would all meet up for dinner (ADRs were made at the 180-day mark). You won't be able to accommodate everyone's specific wants, so what I did was to book restaurants that consistently get good reviews across the board. We ate at Coral Reef, Le Cellier, Boma, 'Ohana and Chef Mickey's. I received no complaints from anyone. As a matter of fact, they were all pleased with the choices. No small feat with that number of folks!

 

[disnut8]

I've done dinner planning for large groups before. I chose not to give them all the menus because there are so many places and they each would have given me three different places.

Since you have someone with some special needs, start with that person. Eliminate the places that would not work out for him at all. And then ask the rest in your party if there is something they absolutely cannot eat. For my brother-in-law, that would be anything you need to cut with a knife and fork and chicken. I don't like having Italian food in a restaurant so that would eliminate some places. Check kids meals. You don't want to have one kid who can't find anything they can eat.

I ended up making a spreadsheet with everyone's names on it and their "cannot" do and their "rather not do". Then found common ground.

Then I gave everyone menus from the restaurants that worked.

 

[jjarman]

Good ideas. DB has several things he can't have due to chronic migraines (yes, his migraines never go away). He can't have hard cheeses like parmesean or cheddar, msg, nuts, beans, lots of spices. I am thinking the seafood restaurants would be good for him. You can always get grilled fish and a potatoe. We are from the south so we love seafood. I was thinking Boma too since there is such a wide variety (and one of my favorites . I would make sure a chef walked around with him and showed him what was off the list.

I think I will discuss it with the neighbors who go alot too and see if they can make suggestions on restaurants as well before we give a list to DB and DSIL.