large party - seating on rides

[hvanes]

Our group is 14 people: 7 adults and 7 children. Children's ages are: 7, 7, 9, 12, 12, 14, and 16.

We do not plan to tour together the entire trip, but most of our FP rides are all together. When the CMs ask how many are in our party, do we really say 14?! Or should I break us into smaller groups depending on the ride seating? It would be nice to all be on Soarin' together, for example, so half of us aren't waiting for another ride cycle to complete, but I don't want to be rude/unreasonable either. We've never gone with this many people, and I'm just not sure what to expect.

 

[ShirikiUtundu]

Yes you should really say 14. The CMs are well-practiced at ride loading and numbers.

 

[kiramay]

That’s a good question. We’re going as a group of 11 in November. I was planning on saying 11 at the rides we’re doing together.

 

[gap2368]

Yes just said 14 The CM will let you know how many can sit in each row. If you know this like space hold 6’people per car at lest then when your in the line then you can decide who will ride with who. But I would just let the CM know your total in your group

 

[hvanes]

Thank you so much!

 

[StarSeven7]

We went with that many people in January and it’s no problem to say 14! But it’s helpful to figure out how you will sit on each ride. Some rides you can squeeze 3 people in so it’s good to let the CM know if you’re doing that (say “we have 14 people and we’ll sit 4 cars with 3 people and 1 car with 2 people” etc). And figure out rude partners in advance as well to speed things along!

 

[bgirl29]

I agree that you should say 14. Just wanted to share on our last visit part of a tour group got ahead of us in line at soarin. When the asked the group of 8 or so ahead of us how many in their group the answer was 66. The castmember handled it well. Just said something along the lines of well you will have to be splitting up and started directing the 8 into groupings.

 

[thegales]

We had 17 for Thunder Mountain and Seven Dwarfs, and it worked fine. The 7DMT Cast Member was even impressed that we had that many people with a Fast Pass. One word of advice, have someone in the back who is not afraid to talk to people. For Thunder Mountain, the back part of our group was stopped at the top of the ramp, as we were standing on the left side. The groups behind us were hesitant to pass our group to fill in the right. My daughter kept telling everyone behind us that we were a large group, and they were more than welcome to walk past us to go down the right ramp.

 

[brockash]

Our group is 14 people: 7 adults and 7 children. Children's ages are: 7, 7, 9, 12, 12, 14, and 16.

We do not plan to tour together the entire trip, but most of our FP rides are all together. When the CMs ask how many are in our party, do we really say 14?! Or should I break us into smaller groups depending on the ride seating? It would be nice to all be on Soarin' together, for example, so half of us aren't waiting for another ride cycle to complete, but I don't want to be rude/unreasonable either. We've never gone with this many people, and I'm just not sure what to expect.

We go as a group of 11 each year. For most rides we say 11, so we're not broken up, but on smaller rides like WtPooh, Peter Pan, Test Track, buzz, ariel, haunted mansion ect. we just give the number that r going in each vehicle as they should just load us one after the other - we've found in those scenarios the CMs often get confused/overwhelmed by such the big number, so if it's a constant loader type ride we break it down for them, but if it's a cycled ride like tea cups, soarin, roller coaster, alien saucer, tot, dumbo type rides, boat rides ect. we give them the total number so we're all on the same "cycle."

 

[MainMom]

We said the total number. I found that I would be in the front and the CM would tell me rows 1-6 and I would go to 1 and everyone not immediately behind me would be confused where to go. I’m trying to figure out a better way to communicate this and be orderly. We leave Saturday.

 

[gap2368]

We said the total number. I found that I would be in the front and the CM would tell me rows 1-6 and I would go to 1 and everyone not immediately behind me would be confused where to go. I’m trying to figure out a better way to communicate this and be orderly. We leave Saturday.

Why not have the first person tell the CM how many then if need be the first person can then tell the rest of the group ok go to row 1-6 when the last person in your group go the first person then goes.

But the CM are good at moving a lot of people fast I have seen large groups at Disney and they do a great job. One group filled a full train on RNR ( beside the front row) and they had them loaded faster then other trains. If was just next two go to row 3 next two go to row 4 and so on

I have seen this at other rides too one thing the CM will sometimes ask is are you the last person in the group of ___. so it can be nice for the last person to say I am the last in this group

It really is not that big of deal just know how many people are in your group and if you can know who you are riding with ( before you get to the load area ) if your unsure how many can fit in a ride car there are CM out side each ride you can ask.

 

[GirlDreamer]

I agree that it's always best to tell them the total amount of people in your group. As a previous ride host (not in Disney), I would always have people who said they were 2 and then complain if they weren't seated together with the rest of the group. It's really not a problem for them to sort it out.

 

[mamamelody2]

Yep, when we went with the in-laws, who left me completely in charge of all planning (LOL), I would say "13, 2 of them in wheelchairs" and watch the calculations start in the CMs eyes. Hehe. Worked out fine.

 

[Minsc]

We did a trip with 12 in 2017, and except for Soarin' (we said 12), and SM (adults one car, kids one car) we did the "Ride Buddy" system based on lowest probability of someone punching a family member mid-ride.