Planning a large extended family trip.

[Chavaleh]

My husband and I are taking my son, my mother and father and my brother with his wife and three kids to WDW Aug. 25 - Sep. 2, ten people total ranging in ages 8 to 64. We'll be staying in two LM AoA suites. I am not worried about planning meals and FPs at all really, it'll be our third trip in 2018 and I have some experience to draw on in that area. My worry is that actually making the reservations for that large of a group for dinner and FPs is going to be hard. Should I split us up into two groups and have two people making reservations? I don't want to lose out on an important fastpass or dinner because I'm inept or because the party is too large. Am I worrying over nothing?

 

[QueenIsabella]

I've been a number of times with big groups (11-12 people). What we found was, we could make a reservation in one name for everyone, but they would typically seat us at 2 tables. My concern with splitting up is, you might not get 2 identical reservation times--it shouldn't matter, but you might be seated half an hour apart, at different ends of the restaurant. They never had an issue with me actually making the reservation for 11-12 people, and we did actually sit at one big table sometimes--buffets, mostly (Crystal Palace, Chef Mickey's, etc.).

I can't help you with the fastpass thing.

In general, we found that, with a large group with a wide range of ages/interests, that it was best to NOT plan to be all together, all the time. Instead, we would plan to be in the same park on the same day, and meet up for 1, maybe 2 meals a day. We just found it too difficult to get everyone synced up, you know? For your family, it might work better to have 3-2-5, in the sense that you pick your family's fastpasses, then your parents pick theirs (could coordinate with you, maybe not, depending on what they want), then your brother's family doing their own--again, maybe coordinating. When we went, we had the little kids, MIL didn't care much for rides, Dniece loved thrill rides that my kids wouldn't touch--you get the idea. And after spending the days in the parks, it was great to catch up over dinner.

 

[mjkacmom]

It’s been years, but we were a group of 9 (our family of 7 and the grandparents), and we had an ADR every day, at the same table.

 

[Surgie2]

I just reserved several dining ADRs for a group of 10 last Sunday which was my 180+10 day. I had no trouble reserving 1900, BOG, Tusker House and ‘Ohana. For CRT I had to reserve a group of 6 and then go back in and reserve a group of 4. Everything went very smoothly and I got all the times I wanted. I did get online immediately at 6:00 est and I already had everyone in my MDE and my CC on file in advance.

 

[momto3pirates]

We are a group of 13 over thanksgiving week. I had no problem with dining reservations or fp. I did split up our adr at Ragland road but was able to call the restaurant directly and have it combined into one.

 

[sweetpeama]

I went as part of a party of 12 in 2010 and we did 2 of our meals together dining at Biergarten and CRT. Biergarten we were seated in the 3rd tier ( the floor with the stage I am counting as tier 1-yes I looked up floor plans) this is also the tier where the buffet if located. The tables on that level all seemed to be ones that would seat 12. Looking at pictures I can find online the 2nd floor looks like tables that seat 8 and are long ones. The floor with the stage has a mix of 2-8 seating tables. Being as there are 10 of you I would guess there you would be seated at one of the tables that seats 12 with or without a party of 2 added to your table. There was no problem in doing 4 different payments for the dining plan for each room.
At CRT we were seated along the edge under one of the arches along the outside edge with a booth seating for those who had their backs against the wall and chairs for those of us seated on the opposite side. A high chair would go on this side.
We did the rest of our meals in smaller groups though there were some that all but my family dined together because they figured my kids would not like it and my youngest especially would protest and cause a scene-this was done without consulting me.
My advice is figure out among the adults what meals you want to do together which does not have to be every meal and which ones will be done in smaller groups.

 

[MNDisneyMommy]

We got 10 at the same table on my trip in 2015, we ate at: Tusker House, Boma, 50s Prime Time, Crystal Palace, Le Cellier, Be Our Guest, 'Ohana and 8 at Hoop De Doo.

I did veer towards places I knew would have wider appeal (buffets and such) but all my ADRs were for 10 and we were always seated together. I was actually most worried about Be Our Guest since we were there for lunch when its kinda quick service, but we had zero problem finding a table for everyone.

I definitely second the advice about flexible planning - our party makeup was quite similar (grandparents, my family, my brother's family) and we did mornings together and a lunch together, but then it was split up time after that. Sometimes we hung out in specific small groups, sometimes it was everyone except us, sometimes people stayed later places, etc. It was a great trip overall.

 

[Chavaleh]

Thank you for sharing your experiences. We've already talked to my brother and sister in law as well as my parents about how they wanted to handle grouping vs. not grouping and I think they'd rather stay together as much as possible. While my husband and I have been to WDW quite a few times now my niece and nephews have never been and I think all six of us adults are looking forward to watching them have fun as much as we are having fun ourselves.

I am sure we'll end up having plenty of 'alone' time tucked in here and there but in terms of planning they wanted us to mostly do things together I believe. It's good to know many of you were able to be seated together for meals. I was worried about that. I think my mom wants to take "the littles" as we call them (my son and my niece and nephews) out to eat at the dino themed place so that the grownups can have some time.

We've already had a couple of family "planning meetings" which really just means that my husband and brother get to hang and geek out watching youtube WDW videos while my SIL and I try to actually formulate plans. We're also planning together via a FB group. My personal approach to WDW is to make plans but know enough that you can improvise on the fly is need be. It's worked so far and if we find that we're getting sick of each other we'll just rearrange.

 

[My2Qtz0205]

There were 11 of us last June. We ate at CRT, Tusker House, Hollywood & Vine, Be Our Guest, and Crystal Palace. The only place we had to make 2 separate reservations for was CRT. We were able to sit together at every restaurant.

 

[MickeyWaffles]

Always travel with 10-12. Most recently we have eaten together with 10 people at the following places in 2016 or 2017.

CRT, Akershus, H&V, Via Napoli, Crystal Palace, 1900 Park Fare, BoG (dinner).

Never have much trouble getting ADRs. FP also not an issue (although we do split some of the FPs up - ie, a few of us skip Space Mountain to take my small kids on PP again instead, etc.)

 

[shellyj]

I don't think you have anything to worry about. We usually travel as a group of 15-20 and we don't have trouble with dining reservations as long as we make them right at 180 days. FPs shouldn't be difficult, for the most part. FOP and any other new rides that are open might be tricky, but they'll be tricky for smaller groups, too. On your FP day, make sure you immediately go for the FPs that are most important to you first, get them for your entire group, even if some are too short to ride. Then you can go back and add or edit as necessary.