Magical Gathering for 16

[Cinderella89]

In June 2003 my aunt died of cancer and of course my family(my mom's side anyway) has been a lot closer, and we were already a very close family. I wanna show them my aperciation and how much I care for them by having a Disney Vacation for ALL of us! But there's one problem....I only have 35 dollars in my savings(don't worry, my life savings has more) and I'm working on talkng my parents into it. So here are my questions: Is a magical Gathering for a family with 75 years old to 3 years old be a good idea and what would be a good way to talk my aunts,uncles, and grandparents(just celebrated their 50th! Going to Las Vegas sometime during spring) to chip in some cash for our first BIG(literally) family vacation?

 

[maci]

I think it is a great idea!
I would just suggest it at a family event. If your family loves Disney, I think it will be an easy sell!

Have you thought of having each family pay their own way?
With that many people, and dont see how any one person would be able to or want to foot the bill!

We are doing a family gathering with 11 people in 6 weeks! I am hoping it will be magical!!!

Good luck!

 

[SRUAlmn]

I think your expectations to pay for it all by yourself are admirable, but may be tricky. I don't know your personal financial status, but my friend from work is planning a Magical Gathering for her group of 15 next May and is being quote about $10,000 to stay at a Value resort. That's a lot for one person to take on.

My family also took our first big group trip the Christmas after losing my father and I can say that it was one of the best things we've ever done. Our group was smaller than yours, but it made an already close family even closer, and now everytime I'm in Disney I can feel a little piece of my dad there.

Just be realistic with your expectations for such a large group. It may be difficult if everyone wants to always do everything together. You may spend a lot of time standing around saying 'ok, now what?' and then getting 16 different opinions on what should be next. If you want to all stick together, I would suggest having a touring plan in place before you leave.

I think once you tell your family your idea they will all be thrilled to go. I know I would be. If they don't wanna go, you let me know, I'll go with ya

 

[Cinderella89]

we have experience in this. Going to different local amusement parks(i love living so close to cinder point), but it was only with half. These trips has since then ceased and I wanna reawake that funness. So thank you for any tips i get! I REALLY wanna pull this off!

 

[brtls5]

I originally started planning our trip for 15, however two of the family cannot make it. My dh and I are taking our 3 children, my parents, my sister , her husband and their son, my dh's parents, his sister and my brother and his wife were originally to go and cannot now. He's military..

IT is our Christmas gift to them. At first I wanted to pay for it all, however that was not going to work. So we paid for the room and the park tickets for everyone. All they ahve to pay for is their plane ticket and food/spending money. We are going for 7 nights. We have to stay at Pop Century because I didnt want to spend the money to stay somewhere else. Besides, it looks like a fun place. None of us have EVER been so we're all excited.

I have planned one sit down meal per day for us. That will be a meeting time/place. I have planned what MY immediate family is doing and everyone else is welcome to do their thing or follow us. Makes no difference to me. It's a ton of work to plan for so many people. I know it'll be rewarding and I can't wait.

I'll be glad to help or give tips or heck, maybe learn some myself. I'll have even more after we get back next month.

 

[SRUAlmn]

Another tip that my friend who is planning a Magical Gathering had to share is this:

In her group, there are 4 different 'families.' They decided they would each take 2 nights and pay for everyone's dinner. It works out cheaper in the long run for everyone except the grandparents (whom there are only 2 of) than it would be if they bought their own individual family dinner each of the 8 nights.