My Disney Experience + large family

[crazee4mickey]

We are heading to WDW in February, there will be 14 of us, 10 adults and 4 kids.
Can we put all of us on one MDE account? We are buying memory maker and want to get a bunch of group pics and thought this might be the best way.
Or do we all need to have our own MDE and memory maker?

 

[Disney_Alli]

We are heading to WDW in February, there will be 14 of us, 10 adults and 4 kids.
Can we put all of us on one MDE account? We are buying memory maker and want to get a bunch of group pics and thought this might be the best way.
Or do we all need to have our own MDE and memory maker?

As long as everyone that has their own MDE account is linked and has selected that they want to share pictures with their friends and family list they can all use the same Memory Maker. Personally unless some of the adults are never planning to travel to WDW again I would have each nuclear family make their own MDE account so that they can eventually all take trips on their own and reuse their MDE accounts, Magic Bands, etc.

 

[CarrieR]

You can definitely share one MM.

I just did a trip with 13 - designate one (maybe two) people to be the "planner" - the one who makes all reservations and FPs. This will probably be you. In our group, it was two of the AP holders... we had a third AP and the rest were newbies. They were pretty much forbidden to touch reservations without clearing it first. Further, my friend had some of their logins/passwords - they can always change them but it let her get in to mess with dining etc (some of the res were in others' names.)

It worked pretty well.

If you want any tips for hauling groups around WDW, let me know!

 

[hsmamato2]

You can definitely share one MM.

I just did a trip with 13 - designate one (maybe two) people to be the "planner" - the one who makes all reservations and FPs. This will probably be you. In our group, it was two of the AP holders... we had a third AP and the rest were newbies. They were pretty much forbidden to touch reservations without clearing it first. Further, my friend had some of their logins/passwords - they can always change them but it let her get in to mess with dining etc (some of the res were in others' names.)

It worked pretty well.

If you want any tips for hauling groups around WDW, let me know!

I'd like more tips!!! still planning for next spring with about 14 people....and since MDE is SO glitchy (myDsis can still my every plan on her linked page from years ago,even though we've tried numerous times to limit it) We all plan on having our own MDE acct-and just trying for maybe one fp+ per day together(?)

 

[TIS Grandma]

I'd like more tips too! Going in Jan with 6 adults and 3 kids (6,6,4) I've done all the planning and when I ask -- no one cares what we do!! We haven't been since my kids were teens -- this trip is with them and their kids, so essentially we're newbies.

 

[tlmadden73]

I went with a big group (several families). .. basically every family had their own MDE account and they managed their own spouses, children, parents, etc. We
You just have to make sure you link the accounts together (sometimes a challenging process in itself). We easily shared a Memory Maker for the week and it worked great.

We made our own plans (Fast passes) and just tried to overlap the Fast pass times where we wanted to go on things together. Wasn't bad at all. THe hardest part was just getting the other people to respond to the "friend requests" to get everyone linked together.

 

[CarrieR]

So I actually did two trips almost back to back: the first was a friend's extended family (13 people) and the second was a group of friends with people popping in and out all trip (11 max).

Group 2 had a "core" group and some others who joined us for a few plans but mostly did things on their own.

Group 1 insisted they wanted to do everything together. We proposed rope drop together, then family units branching off, with 3-4 TS meals together throughout the week. Family insisted on basically ALL TS meals together. (We sent emails out about seven months ahead of the trip saying "We will be at Epcot, choose from a, b, it c - and if they chose differently, someone changed until they were all on the same page.)

My friend and I divided and conquored to get the ADRs we wanted.

About three months before the trip, we sent out an email requesting "must do"s. We only got a handful back (which is fine.) From there, we built our touring plan. We normally do RD - nap - PM park, so kept with that schedule. Family was given it to review but did not request any changes.

FPs were made at 60 days - divide and conquer with me, friend and TA.

As we approached the trip, with an eye on trying to keep 13 people on the same schedule, we laid a few ground rules. These boiled down to:

1) This is the "core" plan the 'tour guides' will be using. You can join or not - we are fine either way - but the plan will not change based on one group member's whim. If you want to do something else, go do it - but the core plan will not change.

2) Every morning had a "bus time." Expectation was those participating in RD would be at the stop by bus time and we would board the first bus after that time. Those running late were welcome to join later, but we WOULD NOT wait at RD for latecomers. Please join at second ride.

3) Blowing off ADRs results in financial penalty. (We explained $10 fee etc.)

We used a "daily sheet," every room got one sheet per day stapled in a packet. I felt like they were a little drill seargent-y but they LOVED them. Both trips. We still had lots of flexibility (more than it looks like) but it gave clear expectations per day. Example here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KPn5MhMuNlgdH1OHf4CxEEi4__PPt6D_4YWAlDBvrOI

Early in the week, everyone joined; we wore them out as the week went on but the clear-cut expectations helped a lot. There was no drama about who wanted to do what, everyone communicated and we never really got "derailed." Family's family of course but all in all they had a really good trip.

HTH!

 

[CarrieR]

Oh! Memory maker. Three of us are AP holders, so memory maker loaded automatically. No issues. I downloaded pix after we got home & uploaded them to Dropbox to share.

 

[crazee4mickey]

Thanks everyone for your replies, this is overwhelming, LOL We are now 16 people--12 adults and 4 kids! Does each individual person need to have a MDE account or just each family?

 

[TinkLoverSam]

Thanks everyone for your replies, this is overwhelming, LOL We are now 16 people--12 adults and 4 kids! Does each individual person need to have a MDE account or just each family?

I would have each nuclear family make one account and add all additional family members (of their nuclear family) as managed profiles. That way as each family can eventually travel alone and reuse magic bands and profiles. After each family makes their profiles have each “leader” invite the other leaders to share plans and photos. Make sure all names are spelled the same and email addresses are the same.

 

[Buzzsgramma]

All of the family 14 are on my account...all adults for many years....i ask where they want to eat and which parks and base or hoppers...etc i make all the plans did so last MAY for all of us at BWV's.....
It all went well....they think DVC is confusing...too many rules....my hubby says...'Don't die".....(.we think it's funny..)