Large family vacation help

[josh0208]

Hi everyone. Well...my hopes to have a family reunion in Disney is coming true. I suggested it to my family today and they loved the idea!

Now I need help. This is the first time doing something like this. From reading tons of posts, I see this is something others have done.

We are planning to got in Summer of 2007 for 10 days due to the school age kids. Out of June, July and August, which month is the coolest? I can only imagine June is. Would you say that June is the busiest out of the 3 months?

There could be up to as many as 20 of us (including kids) going. Ages will range from 2 1/2 to 72!

My mom wants all of us to stay in one house together. I've seen some houses that you can rent that can fit up to 19. I'm just wondering if you ever asked to go over the limit by one? I'm thinking the 2 1/2 year old will probably be in a Pack and Play yet...not sure. Has anyone rented a large enough house that can fit this many people? Can you give me addresses to those sites?

Any help will be much appreciated. Everyone on DIS has really been helpful with planning my much smaller trip coming up in April and I hope you can do it again with this new one!

Thanks!

Shirley

 

[doubletrouble_vb]

I notice you are from Wisconsin. Having had parties with large numbers of people in the house in this southerly location...I would have to imagine that 19 bodies in the house is going to make for a warm house...air conditioning or no air conditioning. And unless there are three full baths that would be a problem too. What about two adjacent houses?

Crowding aside...I would start my reservation in mid-August. I'm not sure the heat of June would feel any different that the heat of August (unless you go in early June). A lot of the southern schools go back in August so the crowd levels are lower.

 

[josh0208]

Thanks Doubletrouble!! That's helps with planning. I'll suggest to everyone we go in mid August then. More time for everyone to save money and plan.

I'm really thinking the total will be about 15ish. I've been looking at the 7-8 bedroom with at least 5 bathrooms. The more bathrooms the better. There are so many of them out there that I have no idea what to pick.

My mom has requested that one of the bedrooms be on the first floor which is not going to be an issue. All of them have bedrooms on both floors. I also want at least 2 of the rooms to have twin beds in them for the kids. I want the house to be close to WDW maingate. I have about 4 young adults (20-24) coming and I think they will be spending a lot of nights at Pleasure Island.

 

[jultomzach]

We have rented houses many times with several family members. One of my suggestions would be to find a home that has at least two living spaces. Not everyone wants to be doing the same thing at the same time and the two seperate living spaces really is nice to have.

 

[josh0208]

Thanks for the suggestion. I did notice most of the houses I found actually have at least 2 living spaces, plus a game room and computer area. I even found one with it's one cinema!

Another question...do you find the kitchen being a tight area with such a large group? I'm thinking it would be no different than being at one of our homes for the holidays. It's usually mine and it's no where as big as the ones I'm seeing in these pictures.

 

[Seahunt]

Just wanted to make sure that you realize August is in peak hurricane season down here? Yikes! Just something to be considering also while you are doing your planning

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

June would also be the least humid and the "coolest". Though that is relative depending on how the temps are behaving that month.

I love and respect my humidity--and even this Floridian can tell that is starting to feel like a sweat box when August rolls around.

 

[Disbug]

Hi! I have also planned a WDW Vacation for 17 family members! YIKES... it was only 3 years ago, but I still remember the night sweats during plannin! I also agree about going in early June. If you are from Wisconsin, the heat is going to melt you in August. July is the busiest month, I think...The crowds don't thin out until mid August as the previous poster stated. I have been the first week in June and the crowds are not bad. You might also want to check out which weekend is the Gay Days at WDW, because that is usually the first weekend in June. While this does not affect the crowds, it might startle your Grandmother!

It sounds like you are finding some nice housing options. I would assume they all come with a Pool with a screened enclosure? That will be a definite need for FL summers. The enclosure will keep the mosquitoes off, especially if you opt for a night time dip!

 

[josh0208]

Thanks everyone for your advise.

Believe me Disbug, if you knew my mom, you would know nothing would phase that woman. She's seen so much in her life.

Okay, so now it will probably be mid June since our kids get out of school around the 10th of June each year. As long as we use the Fastpass at the parks, I think we can manage it. Plus we plan to do many other things besides the parks.

I think with DH and I taking our 2 DS's this April, it will help.

I was definetly planning on getting a pool with a screen enclosing it. That is a must. I've never been to Disney in June so the bug situation will be a first. Hopefully it will be comparible to here.

Thanks again for all the advise. If anyone else has any, please keep it coming. It truly helps with our plans.

 

[pezpam]

Don't forget that although southern schools are back in session in August, a lot of northern schools go through at least half of June - we usually go until the 24th or so up here. Plus, while our July trip featured the "It's 4:30 so now we will have a half-hour of torrential rain after which the sun will come back out" weather, I'd rather deal with that than worry even a bit about hurricanes. That's just me, though......

 

[josh0208]

Okay...so August is out. My mom has bad asthma so I don't think I want to deal with that humidity. Plus I'd rather not have to worry about hurricaines while on our trip. Especially since we plan to take a drive over to Clearwater Beach.

Now I'm looking at June 13th to June 23rd as a possibility. This depends on when DS's last day of school is.

Next question...tickets. If I buy 10 day hopper passes with no expiry for this years trip and save 5 days for next year, do you think I'll have a problem? DH is not coming with us in 2007. Would it be a problem if my sister used his remaining 5 days for 2007? I've never done this before, so I'm new to it.

 

[PattiPB]

Hello!

We did this last 12/04 for 11 of us, and are doing it 8/06 for 27 of us! It is a lot of fun, and based upon the needs of my family, renting a house is the absolute best way. We are a group from 76 down to 6!

Obviously you have been on vrbo or some other site, and found some houses you are interested in. Go to the Other Orlando Hotels and Attractions board---those people are a wealth of information! All of the houses have screen-enclosed pools, and I haven't seen any without at least one master downstairs. There are a number of developments that are VERY close to WDW---make sure you narrow your search to those developments. You probably don't want to be in a purely residential area---no restaurants or food stores handy!

Assigning bedrooms was a "thing" for us---who got which room? Obviously my parents had the downstairs master, and I only looked at homes with enough masters (en suite) to accomodate all of the couples. The oldest teens got the last en suite bedroom.

Be sure you have a BBQ---it worked out great one night. Pick a night to order pizza and eat by the pool. One lunch we had BLTs. Otherwise, you were responsible for your own family's meals.

I could go on and on! I love being the planner WDW expert in the family, but it is quite a job finding ways to please all those other people!

Oh yeah---stick with June if you can. We are stuck to school schedules including our year-round schedule, and having 2 teachers and 1 College coach in the family, not to mention the 15 students!!!

 

[PattiPB]

Boy, did I ramble or what!!!

 

[blessedby3]

To answer your questions about sharing the ticket- no you cant use 5 for your DH and the other 5 for your sister. The tickets are coded biometricly (sp?) and once your DH uses it and it scans his fingers they are incoded on the ticket and no one else can use it. You would need to get him a 5 day expiring pass if he is not coming back the next trip. Also, my DH has a family group of 13 that we travel with every couple of years. As of the last trip we took we will not travel and stay all in one house again. We went to Gatlinburg and rented a 5 bedroom house and it was not good news. It was just too many people in one place. I would suggest that with that many people you get 2 houses next to each other and split up according to similiar schedules etc. I would never house that many people together in one place but that is just me. We have learned from experience that family is fine except for when you have to live that closely for an extended period of time. You just have so little privacy with that many people all together, even with the bedrooms, its just not the same.

 

[elf]

I planned our family trip of 22 people 2 years ago to Disney. We had so much fun we go away every year for a short vacation all together now (not to Disney).
We went Aug. 15 for a week, I thought it was still pretty crowded. It rained every night torrential downpours. Though it usually stopped there were a few nights it rained everynight.
I've been there in June, July and Aug. I found each month to be extremely humid. So I'm not sure how that would affect your Mothers asthma.
It more like drizzled daily last June 5-10. We all decided we liked it better going on big reunion vacations at the beginning of the summer we couldn't wait til the end of summer to go on vacation.

We did one thing that was a lot of fun, but very expensive (around $30-35 per person), there is a 20 person minimum. I rented out space for watching Epcot illuminations. I knew we couldn't get boats to fit us all. It was great we had our own private area off of England. You only get one hour, but they have all kinds of drinks and lots of great desserts, the service was great. We felt like real VIP's.

 

[josh0208]

Thanks again for all the advise. It sure helps.

One of my sisters cannot go in June so that month is out now. That was the month I was hoping for. I let the family know the pros and cons of July and August and told them to let me know. I'm really fine with either one but I think they should make the decision.

PattiPB...I also love to plan so please keep your suggestions coming. This is my first time planning such a big vacation that I'm very excited. So is everyone else in the family.

My family is extremely close and have done smaller trips before. Not all of us at once but in nice numbers. We've never had a problem with staying in the same place. They were actually very excited to hear about staying in a house together.

We already decided to rent at least 3 cars so we have enough opportunity of freedom. Especially the 6 cousins that are all in their low to mid 20s. I figured they will want to go off and do things by themselves.

A BBQ is a great suggestion. I'll have to make sure that is a must when I'm looking for a house. I'll start posting in the Other hotels area for suggestions.

Thanks again everyone. You have been a great help to me and my family as we plan for a very big event in 2007.

 

[grlzmom]

Planning for a large group is sometimes a headache, but it is so nice when everyone gets together

We rent from a lady that has two HUGE beautiful vacation homes, we have stayed in both of them.

premierdisneyhomes.com

They are very nice and well equipped for everyone. Grills, swingsets, etc.

Good luck in your planning.

 

[josh0208]

What development areas near Disney would you recommend?