The difficulties of a large group

[bilnsheldodisney]

This is quite a pickle! People who have never been to WDW don't understand the need to research and plan out their trips. They think they can just figure it all out when they get there. This is understandable since it's true for most vacation destinations. When these families travel to WDW on their own, they tend to stand around a lot in long lines, miss a lot of attractions, and then come home and say "WDW is horrible and I'm never going back!"

But, when you are traveling with these people it becomes a much bigger problem. They become overwhelmed and you become a very convenient target. In my experience, many people like the idea of Disney World and have a romanticized view of the resort and the idea of spending extended time with family. Below is a list of the most common issues I have experienced in traveling with a group.

1. Certain families view time as a suggestion. They agree to meet at the bus stop at 8:15am. In reality, half of them show up 20 minutes late to let you know that Billy is still in the shower and Maggie went to get a bagel at the Food Court. They are actually ready to leave at 9am. They feel zero guilt about making everyone else wait because they TRIED to make it on time. If you don't wait for them, they become insulted because they thought you were taking this vacation to be with them.

2. People underestimate the physical stamina needed to experience the parks. They become tired and cranky. Or their knee starts acting up. Or they get a headache. The reality is they just can't keep up with the group. Some graciously park on a bench or return to the resort. But others expect the group to slow down their touring.

3. Shopping. Some people cannot go past a shop without spending 10-20 minutes looking at the merchandise. Others can spend a week at Disney and never do any shopping at all. In my experience, shoppers and non-shoppers don't mix very well. Shoppers hate being rushed. Non-shoppers hate waiting for shoppers.

4. Bathroom breaks. After lunch, the group stops at a restroom. 10 of the 14 people use the facility. The other 4 stand around waiting for them. 15 minutes later, 2 of the non-goers now want the group to stop at the next bathroom. "Why didn't you go 15 minutes ago?" "I didn't need to go then." People also differ on how often they need to go. Some people are good for 5-6 hours, others need to visit a restroom every 45 minutes. Neither group is right, just different. However, with a large group you will spend a LOT of time waiting for others during restroom breaks. This drives some people absolutely crazy.

5. Ideas about meals. Some families spend 1-1.5 hours each day at sit down, table service meals. They look forward to the experience and spend a lot of time thinking about and talking about food. Others eat all their meals at counter service restaurants and believe in general, that eating is a waste of park time and you need to get it over with as quickly as possible. Again, no right or wrong, just different. And, neither group has much tolerance for the other.

6. Spending money. Some families have (or are willing to spend) more money than others. One family might be trying to get the group to skip a pricey sit-down character meal that another family is really excited about. The bottom line is that family #1 doesn't want to spend the money and they don't want family #2 to go either. Why not? They don't want family #2 kids to experience the character meal and tell their kids about it. So they pressure the other family not to go.

7. Spending money on souvenirs. Some parents buy their kids lots of stuff on vacation, others don't. Once again, no right or wrong here. The problem is that the kids of the non-spender parents get jealous when they see the other kids getting things they can't have. And the non-spender parents get resentful that the other parents are buying when they don't want to. In my experience, non-spender parents in this position often become very judgmental about the parenting skills of the other parents. It gets ugly quick.

8. Child discipline. Families differ on how they discipline their kids. I once traveled with a Mom and and a 3-year old. The little girl screamed at the top of her lungs every time she didn't get her way. It was ear piercing. I finally said something to the Grandma. She said "We are so used to it, we don't even hear it any more." And she was right. The Mom had the ability to totally block the screams out, while no one else had learned that skill. I have also found that some parents threaten their kids or give them lots of chances without following through with the consequences. This drives other parents crazy, especially when their kids start acting up as well. Again, judgmental statements are made and all heck breaks loose.

9. Amount of downtime/sleep. Many families spend the entire day at WDW from open to close, day after day and seem to become energized by it. Others, need lots of resort time, or pool time. Some kids need naps, others don't. We traveled with one family whose 3 and 5 year old sons took a 2-3 hour nap every afternoon. The problem was they expected the entire group to come back to the resort and wait with them while their boys napped. They didn't want their kids missing anything.

10. General intolerance. Some people believe their way is "right" and everyone else is wrong. If they don't want to do something they don't want anyone else to do it either. Some people also get very cranky when they perceive things are not going their way. I have a brother who cannot wait in line for a bus more than 10 minutes or his head explodes. It made for a very uncomfortable trip as he took it out on everyone around him. He now rents a car and drives himself to the parks.

That's about it! In my experience its differences in how multiple families handle these issues that makes a trip work or not work. The problem is that most of these things are not known until the trip is underway. You can only predict how people will react to a limited extent.

I sincerely hope you have a wonderful trip! My advice to you is the same as others. Pick a different park each day. Pick 3 fast passes for early afternoon and let everyone know that they are free to change them if they wish. Pick a TS dinner spot for about 6:30pm, again letting people know that if they wish to eat on their own that's fine. End the day with the evening event in that park (Illuminations, Wishes, Fantasmic) and pick a meeting spot so that you can experience that event together.

very well said and spot on!

 

[bilnsheldodisney]

I don't think ill have those comments... but im 100% sure i will have other comments like that. which ill be sure to post after the trip

i don't know why some people can be so negative in the most positive place.

you have such a great attitude about this, really, that I think you will be fine. Ta heck with them - that's the attitude I finally adopted - and it worked. You can lead a horse to water but you can't make them drink and all that! I can't wait to hear about your trip!

 

[vigliottec]

This is quite a pickle! People who have never been to WDW don't understand the need to research and plan out their trips. They think they can just figure it all out when they get there. This is understandable since it's true for most vacation destinations. When these families travel to WDW on their own, they tend to stand around a lot in long lines, miss a lot of attractions, and then come home and say "WDW is horrible and I'm never going back!"

But, when you are traveling with these people it becomes a much bigger problem. They become overwhelmed and you become a very convenient target. In my experience, many people like the idea of Disney World and have a romanticized view of the resort and the idea of spending extended time with family. Below is a list of the most common issues I have experienced in traveling with a group.

1. Certain families view time as a suggestion. They agree to meet at the bus stop at 8:15am. In reality, half of them show up 20 minutes late to let you know that Billy is still in the shower and Maggie went to get a bagel at the Food Court. They are actually ready to leave at 9am. They feel zero guilt about making everyone else wait because they TRIED to make it on time. If you don't wait for them, they become insulted because they thought you were taking this vacation to be with them.

2. People underestimate the physical stamina needed to experience the parks. They become tired and cranky. Or their knee starts acting up. Or they get a headache. The reality is they just can't keep up with the group. Some graciously park on a bench or return to the resort. But others expect the group to slow down their touring.

3. Shopping. Some people cannot go past a shop without spending 10-20 minutes looking at the merchandise. Others can spend a week at Disney and never do any shopping at all. In my experience, shoppers and non-shoppers don't mix very well. Shoppers hate being rushed. Non-shoppers hate waiting for shoppers.

4. Bathroom breaks. After lunch, the group stops at a restroom. 10 of the 14 people use the facility. The other 4 stand around waiting for them. 15 minutes later, 2 of the non-goers now want the group to stop at the next bathroom. "Why didn't you go 15 minutes ago?" "I didn't need to go then." People also differ on how often they need to go. Some people are good for 5-6 hours, others need to visit a restroom every 45 minutes. Neither group is right, just different. However, with a large group you will spend a LOT of time waiting for others during restroom breaks. This drives some people absolutely crazy.

5. Ideas about meals. Some families spend 1-1.5 hours each day at sit down, table service meals. They look forward to the experience and spend a lot of time thinking about and talking about food. Others eat all their meals at counter service restaurants and believe in general, that eating is a waste of park time and you need to get it over with as quickly as possible. Again, no right or wrong, just different. And, neither group has much tolerance for the other.

6. Spending money. Some families have (or are willing to spend) more money than others. One family might be trying to get the group to skip a pricey sit-down character meal that another family is really excited about. The bottom line is that family #1 doesn't want to spend the money and they don't want family #2 to go either. Why not? They don't want family #2 kids to experience the character meal and tell their kids about it. So they pressure the other family not to go.

7. Spending money on souvenirs. Some parents buy their kids lots of stuff on vacation, others don't. Once again, no right or wrong here. The problem is that the kids of the non-spender parents get jealous when they see the other kids getting things they can't have. And the non-spender parents get resentful that the other parents are buying when they don't want to. In my experience, non-spender parents in this position often become very judgmental about the parenting skills of the other parents. It gets ugly quick.

8. Child discipline. Families differ on how they discipline their kids. I once traveled with a Mom and and a 3-year old. The little girl screamed at the top of her lungs every time she didn't get her way. It was ear piercing. I finally said something to the Grandma. She said "We are so used to it, we don't even hear it any more." And she was right. The Mom had the ability to totally block the screams out, while no one else had learned that skill. I have also found that some parents threaten their kids or give them lots of chances without following through with the consequences. This drives other parents crazy, especially when their kids start acting up as well. Again, judgmental statements are made and all heck breaks loose.

9. Amount of downtime/sleep. Many families spend the entire day at WDW from open to close, day after day and seem to become energized by it. Others, need lots of resort time, or pool time. Some kids need naps, others don't. We traveled with one family whose 3 and 5 year old sons took a 2-3 hour nap every afternoon. The problem was they expected the entire group to come back to the resort and wait with them while their boys napped. They didn't want their kids missing anything.

10. General intolerance. Some people believe their way is "right" and everyone else is wrong. If they don't want to do something they don't want anyone else to do it either. Some people also get very cranky when they perceive things are not going their way. I have a brother who cannot wait in line for a bus more than 10 minutes or his head explodes. It made for a very uncomfortable trip as he took it out on everyone around him. He now rents a car and drives himself to the parks.

That's about it! In my experience its differences in how multiple families handle these issues that makes a trip work or not work. The problem is that most of these things are not known until the trip is underway. You can only predict how people will react to a limited extent.

I sincerely hope you have a wonderful trip! My advice to you is the same as others. Pick a different park each day. Pick 3 fast passes for early afternoon and let everyone know that they are free to change them if they wish. Pick a TS dinner spot for about 6:30pm, again letting people know that if they wish to eat on their own that's fine. End the day with the evening event in that park (Illuminations, Wishes, Fantasmic) and pick a meeting spot so that you can experience that event together.

Great points! I hope every one takes the time to read them all.

I think we are lucky in the fact that there are no one under the age for 26 going. I have a feeling this will be the last time we go not having to deal with children.

Many of your points make me think its a very good thing to get the DDP for large groups.

 

[GaryDis]

For our group trips, I set up a private Pinterest board

But if you're dealing with techies, the result is "Why use Pinterest when you could just use Google Docs?" Or "I don't want to sign up for yet another service." Or "They're not as secure as xyz". Or "What's wrong with Twitter?"

 

[vigliottec]

But if you're dealing with techies, the result is "Why use Pinterest when you could just use Google Docs?" Or "I don't want to sign up for yet another service." Or "They're not as secure as xyz". Or "What's wrong with Twitter?"

Ya im using Google Doc / email for everything. Nothing like 100s of spreadsheets to try to stay organized.

 

[serenitynow]

But if you're dealing with techies, the result is "Why use Pinterest when you could just use Google Docs?" Or "I don't want to sign up for yet another service." Or "They're not as secure as xyz". Or "What's wrong with Twitter?"

Just tell people this is what I've done, you are free to participate or not

 

[JPKnapp]

On my large family trip (15 ppl including kids) we tried to do one meal a day together. It got to be a bit stressful mostly because someone would be running 5-10min late to the meal. You'll get a text "on our way... monorail broken.. be there in 10" so rest of group would wait longer. Since they'll only seat the whole party, no one wanted to say "too bad" (tacky). So that part caused some headaches. Not sure there is much you can do about it though.

As for FP, I would suggest at least 1 or 2 character M&Gs as a group (especially a Mickey/Minnie one). They make for great keepsakes (staring at mine now). We had M&M come together with the whole group for one big photo and we used on of our CRT photos as a group shot too.

 

[vigliottec]

As for FP, I would suggest at least 1 or 2 character M&Gs as a group (especially a Mickey/Minnie one). They make for great keepsakes (staring at mine now). We had M&M come together with the whole group for one big photo and we used on of our CRT photos as a group shot too.

i hadn't planned on doing this... but you're right it's a very good idea.

 

[Lady Hiss]

Julylady has said it perfectly. Everyone is different! We've even had a tough time traveling with just 4 adults so I'd never attempt to coordinate events with a large group. If you want to avoid hurt feelings and crabby people, just plan the group meeting time/place/event for once a day. Divide and conquer the rest of the time - there's absolutely no need to be together for each meal, ride, or show. My 2 cents...

 

[fifthdimensiondweller]

Big groups can be a huge hassle- and I think you're right, OP. The best thing is to manage expectations and accept that at the point the group will have to split for awhile. We went on a Disney cruise with a group of 22 this past February for our wedding at Castaway Cay, then did WDW for four days with everyone afterwards. It was so chaotic trying to plan fastpasses for people ranging in age from 18 Months to 80 years old, plus three people in wheelchairs, one pregnant woman, and almost none of them knew what was going on!!!! But they are the most important people in the world to me and I wouldn't have wanted it any other way. Seeing how absolutely thrilled my grandmothers were at being back "home" after many years away and seeing my little cousins meet Mickey for the first time made it all worth it. Just remember you won't be able to move around in one big mass all day. I think a lot of people in our group thought we could do that but we would have wasted so much time waiting for the little ones to get done in the play areas and they would have gotten cranky waiting in the heat while we road Test Track. What we did was always plan to have one meal together every day and one ride all together, other than that we split up in little sub groups and switched on and off throughout the day depending on who was wanting to do what. It worked out great!

Like I said, our group was full of a truly diverse group of people and we were able to have fun and stop stressing once we took a deep breath and realized we'd never be able to do everything together.

 

[Aliceacc]

I think the difference between a regular large group and a destination wedding is that these people haven't actually chosen the location of their vacation. They're going to WDW because that's where you've chosen to have your wedding.

As a result, I think the bride and groom owe their guests a bit more guidance than they would a regular large group family vacation. Not a full on touring plan for everyone. But some guidance, and some plans to spend some time together.

 

[JJZMgailey]

My fiancee and I are getting married in Disney in a few months. I have the task of planing the whole thing for all 16 guests. All of the guests (most have never been) have expressed their desire to follow us around the parks (I doubt this will go well). Fast pass bookings are 10 days away. This brings me to my main question, do I need to have every guests Disney account tied to my account or can does it work more like the dining reservations?

Part 2:
Does anyone have any tip and tricks for larger groups

Thanks in advance!

Thanks for starting this great thread and congratulations on your upcoming wedding! We liked your thread so much that we've featured on the DIS Daily Fix!

 

[vigliottec]

I think the difference between a regular large group and a destination wedding is that these people haven't actually chosen the location of their vacation. They're going to WDW because that's where you've chosen to have your wedding.

As a result, I think the bride and groom owe their guests a bit more guidance than they would a regular large group family vacation. Not a full on touring plan for everyone. But some guidance, and some plans to spend some time together.

I think your right. I just haven't found a way to get them all excited and involved enough yet.

 

[vigliottec]

Thanks for starting this great thread and congratulations on your upcoming wedding! We liked your thread so much that we've featured on the DIS Daily Fix!

i was so excited to see this!

 

[vigliottec]

Big groups can be a huge hassle- and I think you're right, OP. The best thing is to manage expectations and accept that at the point the group will have to split for awhile. We went on a Disney cruise with a group of 22 this past February for our wedding at Castaway Cay, then did WDW for four days with everyone afterwards. It was so chaotic trying to plan fastpasses for people ranging in age from 18 Months to 80 years old, plus three people in wheelchairs, one pregnant woman, and almost none of them knew what was going on!!!! But they are the most important people in the world to me and I wouldn't have wanted it any other way. Seeing how absolutely thrilled my grandmothers were at being back "home" after many years away and seeing my little cousins meet Mickey for the first time made it all worth it. Just remember you won't be able to move around in one big mass all day. I think a lot of people in our group thought we could do that but we would have wasted so much time waiting for the little ones to get done in the play areas and they would have gotten cranky waiting in the heat while we road Test Track. What we did was always plan to have one meal together every day and one ride all together, other than that we split up in little sub groups and switched on and off throughout the day depending on who was wanting to do what. It worked out great!

Like I said, our group was full of a truly diverse group of people and we were able to have fun and stop stressing once we took a deep breath and realized we'd never be able to do everything together.

I wonder if its possible to move as a group "land by land" and break up to small groups within the land.

 

[fifthdimensiondweller]

I wonder if its possible to move as a group "land by land" and break up to small groups within the land.

You could probably do that! : D The only difficulty I'd see with that is some people wanting to leave after five minutes and some wanting to dwell a while.

 

[olliesmom]

This is pretty much exactly the situation we faced about a year ago, only we had a group of 12. Half of our group had not been to Disney before and I was the designated travel planner for the whole group. I read lots of advice about planning for large groups that suggested everyone splitting up and doing their own thing, then meeting up for a dinner/fireworks/etc., but what I found in practice was that every single person on our trip just said "we'll just follow you and do what you do!"

I did initially try to do what you have been doing, sending out information emails but I found the same thing-- I don't think very many people read them, and possibly because the amount of information was overwhelming and it's hard to understand exactly how much detailed planning is required when you haven't been to WDW before!

Our trip ended up being WONDERFUL, so I'll share what my planning process was below:

1) Once I realized everyone expressed that they didn't want to plan anything for themselves and just expected to follow us around everywhere, I did link all of our accounts on MDE.

2) I sent out an email with a list of ADRs I expected to make, and asked each family to respond with any reservations they wanted to join. I think there was one of two meals where some group members said they would just find nearby CS or eat breakfast in the room, but for the most part everybody wanted the same ADRs as well which meant I was booking for pretty large groups! Honestly, I didn't try to negotiate which restaurants we were choosing or make group decisions-- our group just wanted the planning to be easy, so they didn't offer much input and went with my suggestions! It was a bit of pressure, but I felt like by sending out links to menus and prices beforehand, there wasn't any complaining when we arrived at any restaurants because everyone was given fair warning of what to expect in terms of prices, cuisine, etc.

3) I made all of our ADRs by calling the ADR line and it was no problem at all making reservations for a large group. I did call 180 days in advance, but we even got a 6:30pm 'Ohana reservation! We did have some meals where people dropped out last minute (weren't feeling well, longer naps) and we were never charged a no-show fee.

4) I also sent out a list of FP+ I expected to make. Again, all families (even those with little ones) emailed back saying they were happy with whatever we were doing. So, I just booked large group FP+! With everyone linked in MDE, it was fairly easy and we got all the dates and times we wanted. We did do park hopping, so I notified all families that if they wanted to follow our ADR and FP+ reservations as planned, they would need to add a hopper as well. Everyone did so with no complaints.

5) We all stayed at the same resort which made things easy for resort reservations. I did use a travel agent for booking the packages as I didn't want to be solely responsible for this. We had a great experience with using a travel agent and I directed all questions about Magical Express, pricing, etc. to the travel agent. However, I did send a room request ahead of time (through our agent) asking for rooms in the same location and we ended up in rooms all in a row which was very convenient for mid-afternoon breaks and rallying the troops in the morning!

6) This may have been a little over the top, but it worked well for us! I didn't want to be answering constant questions about our itinerary, so I made laminated cards (one for each adult) for each day with the following information: park hours for the parks we were visiting, time I planned to be at the bus stop, ADR times, FP+ times and nighttime entertainment times. That way I wasn't fielding multiple questions per day about what time we were doing ______ or what was next. These took a little bit of time but were extremely helpful! I emailed out an electronic copy in advance of the trip and then gave out the cards at the airport when we all met.

7) We all had phones, so I created one big WhatsApp group for everyone in the trip. That way, if someone did get separated, wanted to see a different attraction, take a break in a gift shop, etc., we could easily regroup and figure out where everyone was. This was a lifesaver many times!!!

I think that was about it!! One of the challenges really was getting everyone to the bus stop in the morning, but I was very clear that I planned to be at the bus at 8:20 every morning, and if anyone wanted to sleep in they were welcome to and could join us later by figuring out where we were via WhatsApp. It worked perfectly!

Overall, it was definitely a tremendous amount of work and very stressful at times during the planning stages, but we had an amazing vacation and over a year later the entire family still talks about what an incredible trip it was. I would do it all over again in a heartbeat! It is so much fun to be with a large group and see Disney through the eyes of those who are there for the first time. It takes some flexibility, a lot of organization skills and an expectation that nothing will go perfectly, but looking back I can say that it was the best trip we ever had.

Hope you have as wonderful and magical a time as we did!

 

[fifthdimensiondweller]

but what I found in practice was that every single person on our trip just said "we'll just follow you and do what you do!"

You're really lucky to have had that! My group was pretty flexible too, luckily, but we had a few people who wanted to do something different with their little one so we just split up for awhile. I NEVER thought of Whatsapp and I kicked myself when I read your post. That would have made things so much easier!!!

 

[BookGirl305]

q

 

[vigliottec]

This is pretty much exactly the situation we faced about a year ago, only we had a group of 12. Half of our group had not been to Disney before and I was the designated travel planner for the whole group. I read lots of advice about planning for large groups that suggested everyone splitting up and doing their own thing, then meeting up for a dinner/fireworks/etc., but what I found in practice was that every single person on our trip just said "we'll just follow you and do what you do!"

I did initially try to do what you have been doing, sending out information emails but I found the same thing-- I don't think very many people read them, and possibly because the amount of information was overwhelming and it's hard to understand exactly how much detailed planning is required when you haven't been to WDW before!

Our trip ended up being WONDERFUL, so I'll share what my planning process was below:

1) Once I realized everyone expressed that they didn't want to plan anything for themselves and just expected to follow us around everywhere, I did link all of our accounts on MDE.

2) I sent out an email with a list of ADRs I expected to make, and asked each family to respond with any reservations they wanted to join. I think there was one of two meals where some group members said they would just find nearby CS or eat breakfast in the room, but for the most part everybody wanted the same ADRs as well which meant I was booking for pretty large groups! Honestly, I didn't try to negotiate which restaurants we were choosing or make group decisions-- our group just wanted the planning to be easy, so they didn't offer much input and went with my suggestions! It was a bit of pressure, but I felt like by sending out links to menus and prices beforehand, there wasn't any complaining when we arrived at any restaurants because everyone was given fair warning of what to expect in terms of prices, cuisine, etc.

3) I made all of our ADRs by calling the ADR line and it was no problem at all making reservations for a large group. I did call 180 days in advance, but we even got a 6:30pm 'Ohana reservation! We did have some meals where people dropped out last minute (weren't feeling well, longer naps) and we were never charged a no-show fee.

4) I also sent out a list of FP+ I expected to make. Again, all families (even those with little ones) emailed back saying they were happy with whatever we were doing. So, I just booked large group FP+! With everyone linked in MDE, it was fairly easy and we got all the dates and times we wanted. We did do park hopping, so I notified all families that if they wanted to follow our ADR and FP+ reservations as planned, they would need to add a hopper as well. Everyone did so with no complaints.

5) We all stayed at the same resort which made things easy for resort reservations. I did use a travel agent for booking the packages as I didn't want to be solely responsible for this. We had a great experience with using a travel agent and I directed all questions about Magical Express, pricing, etc. to the travel agent. However, I did send a room request ahead of time (through our agent) asking for rooms in the same location and we ended up in rooms all in a row which was very convenient for mid-afternoon breaks and rallying the troops in the morning!

6) This may have been a little over the top, but it worked well for us! I didn't want to be answering constant questions about our itinerary, so I made laminated cards (one for each adult) for each day with the following information: park hours for the parks we were visiting, time I planned to be at the bus stop, ADR times, FP+ times and nighttime entertainment times. That way I wasn't fielding multiple questions per day about what time we were doing ______ or what was next. These took a little bit of time but were extremely helpful! I emailed out an electronic copy in advance of the trip and then gave out the cards at the airport when we all met.

7) We all had phones, so I created one big WhatsApp group for everyone in the trip. That way, if someone did get separated, wanted to see a different attraction, take a break in a gift shop, etc., we could easily regroup and figure out where everyone was. This was a lifesaver many times!!!

I think that was about it!! One of the challenges really was getting everyone to the bus stop in the morning, but I was very clear that I planned to be at the bus at 8:20 every morning, and if anyone wanted to sleep in they were welcome to and could join us later by figuring out where we were via WhatsApp. It worked perfectly!

Overall, it was definitely a tremendous amount of work and very stressful at times during the planning stages, but we had an amazing vacation and over a year later the entire family still talks about what an incredible trip it was. I would do it all over again in a heartbeat! It is so much fun to be with a large group and see Disney through the eyes of those who are there for the first time. It takes some flexibility, a lot of organization skills and an expectation that nothing will go perfectly, but looking back I can say that it was the best trip we ever had.

Hope you have as wonderful and magical a time as we did!

For the ADRs i did exactly the same, and it was so easy, 10 min on the phone i had every reservation i wanted including a Ohana @6:15

I was planing on doing the same for the itinerary... I make one every trip and laminate it, so ill be making one for everyone going.

I like the idea of having a WhatsApp group... but our group has many people that have a hard time with technology.