Planning extended family trip-tips needed

[Td1290]

So we decided to ask our relatives to join us for a trip to Disney, 6 families in all. .. Planning for next summer, Any tips, advice etc. One family has 5 members, which throw a loop in accomodations, not sure what to do....

 

[GOOFY4DONALD]

I don't know how much advice I can give you because I am doing the same thing. We have mainly decided to stay in different resorts because we couldn't agree. I am most likely going to give them our itinerary and try to meet up a few times and have a few meals together. We all have different tastes and if we tried to do everything together I think we would all have a miserable time.

 

[sk!mom]

Just returned from ten days with 21 people. It went really well, I think better than anyone expected.

We all stayed at the same resort- All Star Movies. This was a good decision as the kids could then hang out at the pool easily and the adults could visit late at night. If you set it up as a Grand Gathering then they block your rooms together. Two families in our group had 6. So they each booked 1 room and then split a third room. One family booked it adjoining and then they each had their two DD's in that room.

I planned the itinerary since I'm the veteran and I knew what my family wanted to do. We ended up starting all but one day together but often split up in the afternoon or evenings according to what people wanted to do. This worked well since I had a plan that allowed us to hit rides with no standing in line in the mornings. Evenings- some would go back to the park, some would hit BB or TL in the afternoon, a couple of nights some went to DQ.

We booked 5 sit down meals (Ohana, Chef Mickeys, Sci Fi, Prime Time, and Donald's Safari Breakfast) for the whole group and CRT for girls only- As time went by some people started to do some of their own planning and booked a few individual meals. If we ever do this again we will likely stay at a Mod or Monorail hotel and will definitly book more sit down meals. Going in to this trip though we were dealing with a bit of sticker shock for some who haven't vacationed a lot and we were trying to make it affordable for all. Now that they've been, I think everyone would want more meals and a nicer resort pool.

Most of my group didn't want to do any planning and only one other family had ever been and they went with my family and I planned that trip as well.

 

[tink2]

I've been with my whole family 3 times- but that only entails 11 people. The best advice I can give is to set expectations for the trip with everyone. Are you all on the same page- if not, try to get on the same page. Examples: how much time are you going to spend together in the parks, does everyone want to eat every meal together or not, talk about what rides YOUR family wants to do the most and see what everyone else wants to do, etc. etc. If the kids are close in age, it would be easier to spend more time together. If they are at different 'stages'- RNR vs. Small World- you will have to plan to spend more time away from each other. I just say- talk EVERYTHING through before you go! That way, there are no unspoken expectations and less hurt feellings!
Our trips were magical and wonderful. I wish we could all go back togehter- work schedules and finances prevent that right now...

 

[Darcy03231]

I planned my family's itinerary and then gave copies of it to everyone. This way everyone knew what we were doing and were welcome to join us or not. We have older teens so once we were in the parks they tended to split off and do their own thing. The adults tended to stick together with the younger kids.

 

[Luhts]

We're doing this, but we rented a 6 bedroom house as my dh and I are the only ones that have kids, and one couple will only be there for 3 days. We will save so much money this way, and those that want to hang back and relax can do so. We are already planning to split up for most of the time, and just enjoy each other's company and stories of their adventures in the evenings back at the house.

 

[zoeyh2000]

My family, I have 3 sister and a brother, their spouses and children (17 altogether) are going to WDW in July. We rented a 6 bedroom house, which saved tons in lodging ($1600 for 10 days-total). Each family has their own bedroom and we have a 'spare' room we use for the kids. There is also a gameroom and play room which will be used for sleeping AND we get a full kitchen and private pool. We are about 3 miles from the park and our gaed community has many resort type ammenities. As for WDW itself, we go spend the mornings riding everything together, leave the park for lunch, and then break into two groups for the rest of the day (older and younger kids). Hope this helps.

 

[Mouse House Mama]

So we decided to ask our relatives to join us for a trip to Disney, 6 families in all. .. Planning for next summer, Any tips, advice etc. One family has 5 members, which throw a loop in accomodations, not sure what to do....

Liquor. Bring lots and drink lots.

 

[AmyBWV99]

After you pack the boxes of liqor , i have to agree with the PP, don't try to do much as a whole group outside of a few meal meetings and other random planned out things such as pool days .

You can't tour much together (imagine trying to herd flaming cats, it feels just as brutal as that sounds) it just makes everyone insane since there tend to be kids of all ages and no one seems to want to do the same thing at the same time. We always have the best times when we go en masse; going our seprate ways in the mornings and meeting for long afternoons at the pool for all the kids to recharge and the adults to relax with some 'Mommy Juice' hanging out. Typically this is when some child will decide that a 3 hour hair wrap is in order and since we are planning to vegitate anyway no one is stressing the legnth at which it can take an 8 year old to choose beads for said wrap.

Staying at different resorts works well for our groups and when we go it's no less than 22. The kids get to swim at various pools with their friends and we in turn get to participate in sampling various libations at a variety of swimming themes. Some of our group have larger familes and have found he cabins at FW to work well for them where we are DVC members and find a hotel with out room service to equal some sort of roughing experience, everyone gets to choose the accmodations that appeal to them the most with out hurt feelings on not getting to stay at the resort of their dreams.

 

[LuckyMamaInDE]

Make each family responsible for booking/paying for their own room, tickets and airfare (if needed). You won't be stuck if something comes up and someone needs to adjust dates or cancel altogether.

Plan on getting the whole group together once a day----to explore a park in the morning, for a meal, for a nighttime event (Spectro, etc). DO NOT try to stay together the entire day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We're going on our third extended family trip in August

 

[sk!mom]

Liquor. Bring lots and drink lots.

That's funny! We did drink quite a lot in my mom's opinion. She's a total nondrinker and I think was surprised to see how much her adult children drank over 10 days. We drank our way around the World Showcase, had Lapu Lapu's at Ohana, and some did bring alcohol in their checked baggage. Dh also had the small airplane sized bottles in his carryon.

Now that you mention it, maybe that was the secret to our successful trip- We were too buzzed to be annoyed.

But hey, Disney transportation was our designated driver

 

[sk!mom]

Make each family responsible for booking/paying for their own room, tickets and airfare (if needed). You won't be stuck if something comes up and someone needs to adjust dates or cancel altogether.

This is very good advice. I set up our Grand Gathering and passed on the number to everyone so that our rooms would be in a block but everyone made their own ressies and paid their own deposits.

I did make all of the group dining res. but the only prepaid one was CRT- everyone paid but I could have canceled and been refunded if anyone had backed out.

Everyone bought their own tickets. One family wanted hoppers- no one else did.

Fifteen of our 21 live in the same town but we were on three seperate flights and airlines as everyone found different deals and times that worked for them.

Finally we asked for and got seperate checks at all sit down rest. without a problem.

 

[Terry36]

I am also planning a trip for 9 so I am anxious about this as well.