Looking for Ideas for Planning a Family Trip

[Thinktink1982]

Hello, My name is Amanda

My DF and I just booked our Disney Honeymoon at the end of October. The planning for this was really simple because it is just the two of us and we knew exactly what we wanted to do.

We are planning a family trip in July 2010 and since there are going to be a lot of us we wanted to start planning ASAP. This vacation will be to celebrate my BIL's birthday. He loves Disney and has requested the vacation as a birthday present although we will not be there on his actual birthday. These are the for sure things that we want to do: First he wants to stay at the AKL for the views of the animals. No one in the family has stayed here so we don't know much about it. I am unsure at the moment exactly how many days we will be there. I am pretty sure we will want to do the Park Hopper passes because without them it limits the resturant choices that you have each day. For our honeymoon we booked the Deluxe dining package. But we are unsure if we will need to do a dining package for our family trip. The reason being that no one in the family really eats three meals and we don't want to spend that much money and not get full use of it. So I was wondering if anyone has done the pay as you go dining at disney? Can you give me a ballpark figure for how much you spent on dining? Nothing else has really been decided at this point. I know that we should be able to make our dining reservations 90 days prior to our trip and so most likely that is what we will do. This will be a large family trip for us. Total count is 10 I think. We will also have an almost 3 year old on this trip. I think it will be her first visit to Disney. So any tips you can give us on the best things to do with small childern that would be great. We want her first time to be a memorable one. Thanks so much and I look forward to hearing your ideas!

 

[nichrismom]

I don't know yet if its going to be as good as I hope but my family and I have booked an Illuminations cruise which can seat up to ten people in a pontoon boat and you go for a cruise to watch the fireworks. I have a little boy who is turning three while we are there and we will be doing this on his birthday. The idea of a little privacy and what is supposed to be the best view was worth the price IMO. I'll let you know if its any good when we get back. 31 days to Disney World. Have fun planning your trip.

 

[Goofy_Dad_24]

This vacation will be to celebrate my BIL's birthday. He loves Disney and has requested the vacation as a birthday present although we will not be there on his actual birthday.

Maybe I am reading this wrong, or making bad assumptions, but your BIL asked for a trip to Disney for his birthday? This sounds absolutely ridiculous.

 

[kpgriswold]

Start with a call to the "grand gatherings" folks at WDW. They were really helpful in helping us plan for our group of 10.

I would suggest getting rooms near each other at the same resort, picking the same park to visit on a given day, and then letting each smaller family tour that park at thier own pace. A newlywed couple will cover alot more ground in a day than a 3 year old can possibly do!

Tell the parents of the preschooler to seriously consider going back to the resort for a nap each day. That way the little one may be able to do a parade or fireworks show in the evening, and the rest of you will enjoy watching her enjoy it.

Book one TS meal each day for dinner. You can all meet up, reconnect, and compare what you liked best about the day. If you do, the dining plan might be worth your while. We ate one CS and one TS most days even when we were paying out of pocket, and found that the DDP saved us quite a bit.

Also really consider doing one of the Grand Gathering events (2 TS credits, if you do the DDP). They are pricey, but it is rally cool to get to do something that most people don't. we really liked the Safari Celebration dinner at AK. We got a longer safari tour than usual, and the animals were more active than they had been earlier in the day.

Hope you have fun!

PS -- I have to agree with a PP that it IS a little nervy to demand a trip to WDW for your birthday. Most people would settle for a card and a cake!

 

[zarvgirl]

We had our first WDW experience last April. Our youngest DD was 2.

We all had a great trip and truly look forward to going again, hopefully sooner then later!

Things that worked for us with a youngster:

--a stroller was a must, we actually used a double as our 7yr.old got tired. And not a small fold up one. I saw adults that must have had sore, sore backs and legs after bending over and pushing one of those for 8 hrs in a park.
We used a stroller swap, try the budget board, or Orlandostrollerrental has gotten good reviews by others.

--mid-day breaks also proved a must, really for all of us!!

--snacks and drinks, with the use of a stroller a small cooler easily fit underneath!! Again we all were happy with this!!

--fastpasses, reduce time needed to entertain.

--Rider switch passes--this was a great benefit of having a little one--we joke that next time we may rent a youngster!!!
--this basically works like this:
one adult enters the line (preferably fastpass) shows the CM the other adult with the child that cannot go on the ride due to height restrictions.
The CM gives the 1st adult a riderswitch card, which entititles up to 3 ppl to go through the fastpass lineup. This worked so great for our family of five!!

--Character Dining-if you choose the DP, having at least one Character meal is a great thing especially for the little one.
And really everyone loves to see the characters no matter the age!!
Basically got two things accomplished, had a good meal, saw characters.

--a small bag of entertaining tricks- what worked for us, small metal lunchbox
(found at Dollarstore) I put markers, stickers, magnets, Polly Pockets, notepad, something new each day.

have fun planning and then enjoying your trip.

 

[Thinktink1982]

LOL no he isn't demanding the trip for his birthday gift. I guess I should worded that better. He loves all things Disney but hasn't been a long time so his wife planned the trip for his birthay! He sort of joked about it when she asked him what he wanted to do in 60th birthday and said let's all go to Disney!! And so we were all like yay sounds good! So basically it is a family vacation plus his birthday!! Sorry for the confusion!! LOL

Thanks everyone for the suggestions they are all great!!

 

[Thinktink1982]

LOL no he isn't demanding the trip for his birthday gift. I guess I should worded that better. He loves all things Disney but hasn't been a long time so his wife planned the trip for his birthay! He sort of joked about it when she asked him what he wanted to do in 60th birthday and said let's all go to Disney!! And so we were all like yay sounds good! So basically it is a family vacation plus his birthday!! Sorry for the confusion!! LOL

Thanks everyone for the suggestions they are all great!!

 

[dormouse72]

We're doing that for my niece's birthday coming up in two weeks. I made plans for a trip and picked Columbus Day week - then looked at my calendar and said "whoops". She's an only child and would be heartbroken not to have my kids at her birthday.

So I called my SIL and said that we were looking to go down that week and wouldn't be around for a party either the weekend before the actual birthday or the weekend after. I also asked her if she'd want to come down with us that week. She said she's always wanted to do that and would love the kids to all have a trip together. So now with her mom, my mom, and some extras we're a group of 12 (possibly 13 now - we may have picked up someone else at the last minute).

We booked as a grand gathering because of the size of our party but didn't pick any of the special "grand gathering" experiences. We have a few first timers with us so we figured it wasn't worth the money when they'll be so overwhelmed by everything anyway. Most of us have the DDP (we got the free promotion) but not all of us do (my SIL booked through Expedia and couldn't get it). We have one TS for each day to make sure we have some catch-up time but while I made the reservations for all of us, some people are opting out due to money (those people not on the DDP). I can understand but I left them on the ADR's in case they change their mind.

Since I'm the one doing most of the planning I've made sure to tell people (especially my SIL) that we don't all have to move in a lump and that it's more important that everybody does stuff they want to do. With a big group, the nice thing is you can usually find someone who wants to do the same thing as you do. My kids are Disney commandos so going back for a break has never worked for us - we're too keyed up - but my SIL isn't a big theme parks fan - she'd much rather sit by the pool. So I told her that if she'll watch my youngest (who is not big on thrill or dark rides) sometimes so I can ride the fast rides, I'll take my niece to the parks sometimes so her mom can relax. Have everyone pick three or four things with are "must do's" so no one's big moments get overlooked.

A stroller is a must for a little one - even the not so little ones want to crawl in! Now that I have no stroller I have nowhere to hang my bag - I'll have to actually carry everything now...

For my niece's birthday (turning 6) I'm going to arrange a birthday wake-up call for her, make sure she has the birthday button, she has the birthday FASTPASS, she'll get a cupcake at our TS lunch that day, then she has the BBB with my younger daughter as her present from us, and the Halloween party that night. I'm thinking it will be a birthday to remember!

It's a lot of planning on the front end but you should all have a great time!

 

[Nurse_Mommy4]

I noticed you said 90 days out for your ADR's but if your going next July you can actually book ADR's 180 days out starting 10/27/09, so your looking at January not April.

I just would hate to see you miss out some ADR's, especially for a large group.

HTH!

Have a wonderful trip!

 

[Thinktink1982]

I haven't been on in a little while we just got back from our honeymoon at disney! It of course was perfect! Now to really get serious about planning the family trip! Thanks so much for letting me know about the ADRs that will help out so much since we are going to be a large group! All these ideas are great keep them coming!! thanks again

 

[happymommy]

We did a larger group a couple of years ago as well. Honestly, dinner every night is too much for some groups.

I do agree: pick which theme park most want to go to that day, or that morning, then split up. Have a meet daily - one day at the pool, one day at dinner, or something.

One nice thing when we went was that we had concierge level at AKL - the lounge was a great meeting spot. It is more $ but you can have a nice large area to meet up every morning for coffee and breakfast, and evenings wine and food. Also the concierges there can assist with plans, which is so helpful. I highly recommend doing that if you are at a deluxe resort.