Tips for LARGE family groups?

[AshleeH]

I'm in awe of people who can go with huge extended groups. I am way too much of a planner for these types of scenarios, so I salute all of you!

 

[pigletgirl]

I'm in awe of people who can go with huge extended groups. I am way too much of a planner for these types of scenarios, so I salute all of you!

The only thing I'm really planning is our dining reservations. Everything else is up to that travelling party. Now with more people coming, I'm still only booking for the original group.

 

[jenPSU]

I'm also going with a large group. It's a family reunion and this is a very laid back group. I am the only one really trying to plan anything. I'm not even sure who is coming yet and we're less than 2 months out. I sent an email in the beginning and everyone agreed to do dinner on the first night and brunch on the last day. Now it turns out only my family will be there for both of those times, so I'm canceling large dinner and brunch reservations . Also couldn't get everyone to join and link to me on My Disney Experience either.

My new strategy is just to plan for my family and let everyone know what parks we'll be in, and we'll just play it by ear. The group dinners will be pizza and beer in our room (3-bedroom), maybe!

 

[MommyBryn]

We've traveled with a group of 19-24 people about three times now, all the way from the other side of the US. (grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc) For us, we mostly meet up for a few meals, maybe do a couple Grand Gatherings, but otherwise it's just too hard to plan for so many people. I'm usually the designated planner and I absolutely hate it, as it's nearly impossible to make the perfect schedule for all of them.

 

[jenPSU]

We've traveled with a group of 19-24 people about three times now, all the way from the other side of the US. (grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc) For us, we mostly meet up for a few meals, maybe do a couple Grand Gatherings, but otherwise it's just too hard to plan for so many people. I'm usually the designated planner and I absolutely hate it, as it's nearly impossible to make the perfect schedule for all of them.

What are Grand Gatherings?

 

[Legendteri]

In 2012, we went in a group of about 13. I unofficially became the queen planner, so when I said " Today we are going to EP because the crowds will be better " they believed me and followed. I told everyone I was making reservations at Akershus and Biergarten and they were welcome to join us if they wanted, but if they did, they had to tell me by a specific date. No one but my mom was interested and that was fine. Didn't think my sister's family would join since she only had a 4 year old boy.

I personally thought it was pretty easy and we all knew we would be splitting up as I had a daughter and my sister had a son and they just didn't want to do the same things. So when we got to the parks ( at rope drop) the others would ask what they should do first so I would say something like " you should go to Splash Mountain First and Big thunder mountain railroad second and get those out of the way, so as soon as we enter you will want to make a left at the castle. We can't go with you because we are going to meet the princesses, but we will call you in about an hour and maybe we can meet up later and ride dumbo or something. " So like others said. We split up some of the time and were together for other parts. It gave each family the freedom to do as they pleased and there wasn't any complaining about having to meet princesses they weren't interested in.

I also told everyone ahead of time how important rope drop was and they understood. Therefore, there wasn't any problems with other family members not being ready in time. Even if there were people who wanted to sleep in, they knew we were ok with leaving them and meeting up later.

So again, we tried to do some stuff together, but it wasn't a big deal if we were separate as there weren't any expectations of spending the whole vacation as one group. Getting an idea of everyone's expectations before the vacation is a wise idea so as to avoid frustration and disappointment.

 

[MommyBryn]

What are Grand Gatherings?

I think they may have discontinued most of them (if not all), but they were special evens catered toward large groups. Like we got a semi-private safari in AK followed by a "private" dinner at Tuskar House, for one. (there were a couple other GG groups with us, but it was a relatively small amount of people overall)

 

[Lisa J]

I'm trying to plan a trip. How can I book multiple rooms under one reservation? I read I can do that and then call and have them linked together. If its one reservation I can buy travel insurance once. If we have to book all rooms as separate reservations then we must have separate insurance and memory makers. We've almost had to miss a trip because of a death in the family days before our trip. So, we know the importance of travel insurance. I have not been able to find any info on how this will works. I have planned all of our 6 trips in the past. We have had free dining on all but a couple. So, I am trying to do that again in the fall. It's just the number of rooms that I unsure how to book. I'm hoping someone can help.

 

[sunflowerfields]

I returned home Thursday from a family trip with 16. Ages ranged from 6mos. to 63yrs. Myself and one of my daughters had been before and we both enjoy the planning part of the trip, so we began planning at about 18mos. in advance. We booked our trip at 8mos. and booked our adrs at 6mos., and fastpass+ selections at the 2mos. time. I feel like we were extremely well organized and everything went smoothly. We held many family meetings to keep everyone informed and spent lots of time letting everyone know what was important for them to do and the reasons why. For instance we let them know long before the trip why we felt rope drop was necessary, and how taking time to go back to the resort in the afternoons is helpful etc. We also kept notes on what to take, and anything we felt would give everyone a great trip. We kept notes of the great tips/ideas from the disboards too. Then we made sure they all knew these things were only suggestions and they were free to do what worked best for their individual families. Which everyone did.

At some point before it was time to make fp+ selections we sat down as a group and explained how that all works and the importance of making your choices early. After everyone made their families selections and times they wanted them my daughter organized them all and send the info to our travel agent. For the most part we pretty much had all the same selections and they all ended up overlapping by no more than 10 min. So at the end of each day we went over the plans for fp rides for the next day. Usually it worked out we all rode together but when it didn't it was no big deal. for instance we would say, "if everyone wants to ride safari together we will need to meet at 2:30". whoever didn't show up then rode at a different time. no big deal.

When making our adrs we requested two tables of 8 close together. We had one wheelchair and 1 highchair in our group. At some meals all the guys sat at one table and other meals we just grabbed a seat anywhere. It gave us a chance to visit with everyone in our group. We were always close enough to visit with either table too. I feel it worked out well.

Our group consisted of two families of 4, three families of two and 2 singles. We tried to make sure nobody had to ride or do things alone, but found out that at some times they actually wanted to go alone and do their own thing. We also didn't stay in our individual groups the whole time. Sometimes the kids would want to do things with grandparents, or cousins, aunts or uncles.

I wanted everybody on the trip to be happy ALL THE TIME we were there and I stressed that often. That did not happen, and really it is pretty unrealistic to expect that. We did have both crabby children and grown ups once in awhile. We all just did the best we could.

I think communication is the most important thing to stress when planning for a large group. People are not mind readers. We had one incident when one of our group members wanted to eat dinner at the castle instead of breakfast, but didn't express that until after the adr was made and by that time nobody really wanted to switch. One day I was so intent on not letting my son have to be alone I guess I was smothering him. Finally he pulled his dad aside and explained he didn't want to hurt my feelings but there were different things he wanted to see and do.

 

[Brancaneve]

I am leaving tomorrow with my group of 22. I'll tell you all about it when I get back. Thank you to sunflowerfields for the perspective.

 

[sunflowerfields]

I returned home Thursday from a family trip with 16. Ages ranged from 6mos. to 63yrs. Myself and one of my daughters had been before and we both enjoy the planning part of the trip, so we began planning at about 18mos. in advance. We booked our trip at 8mos. and booked our adrs at 6mos., and fastpass+ selections at the 2mos. time. I feel like we were extremely well organized and everything went smoothly. We held many family meetings to keep everyone informed and spent lots of time letting everyone know what was important for them to do and the reasons why. For instance we let them know long before the trip why we felt rope drop was necessary, and how taking time to go back to the resort in the afternoons is helpful etc. We also kept notes on what to take, and anything we felt would give everyone a great trip. We kept notes of the great tips/ideas from the disboards too. Then we made sure they all knew these things were only suggestions and they were free to do what worked best for their individual families. Which everyone did.

At some point before it was time to make fp+ selections we sat down as a group and explained how that all works and the importance of making your choices early. After everyone made their families selections and times they wanted them my daughter organized them all and send the info to our travel agent. For the most part we pretty much had all the same selections and they all ended up overlapping by no more than 10 min. So at the end of each day we went over the plans for fp rides for the next day. Usually it worked out we all rode together but when it didn't it was no big deal. for instance we would say, "if everyone wants to ride safari together we will need to meet at 2:30". whoever didn't show up then rode at a different time. no big deal.

When making our adrs we requested two tables of 8 close together. We had one wheelchair and 1 highchair in our group. At some meals all the guys sat at one table and other meals we just grabbed a seat anywhere. It gave us a chance to visit with everyone in our group. We were always close enough to visit with either table too. I feel it worked out well.

Our group consisted of two families of 4, three families of two and 2 singles. We tried to make sure nobody had to ride or do things alone, but found out that at some times they actually wanted to go alone and do their own thing. We also didn't stay in our individual groups the whole time. Sometimes the kids would want to do things with grandparents, or cousins, aunts or uncles.

I wanted everybody on the trip to be happy ALL THE TIME we were there and I stressed that often. That did not happen, and really it is pretty unrealistic to expect that. We did have both crabby children and grown ups once in awhile. We all just did the best we could.

I think communication is the most important thing to stress when planning for a large group. People are not mind readers. We had one incident when one of our group members wanted to eat dinner at the castle instead of breakfast, but didn't express that until after the adr was made and by that time nobody really wanted to switch. One day I was so intent on not letting my son have to be alone I guess I was smothering him. Finally he pulled his dad aside and explained he didn't want to hurt my feelings but there were different things he wanted to see and do.

Something I should add is that with doing rope drop and needing to be up and around for that by 6:30-7:00, my thought was we would eat a muffin type breakfast in our room before leaving for park and then be ready for an early lunch by 11. Thinking then we would be ready to eat our table service meal around 4:00. Four was way to early because it didn't really give anyone enough time to really leave the park for a rest and get back by 4 to eat. That is the one thing I would do differently is make a ts meals for later in the evening. Maybe 7 would have been a better choice.

 

[Brancaneve]

Hello everyone! Our group of 22 had a great trip to Walt Disney World in late May, early June! We live in Northern California and used the Southwest Airlines group reservations to get a great rate on our airfare. We flew from Sacramento to San Diego and then SD to Orlando. Here are a few tips that helped us have a positive and successful experience:

Before the Trip:

• I suggest having several meetings before the trip to explain EVERYTHING. If many in your group have never been, it is imperative to discuss even the most basic aspects of WDW and what to expect. For example, what are the four parks, how does one get around, where is the resort in relation to the airport and parks? Although we are DLR experts, I was surprised that many did not know much about WDW. Clearing up the basics made further discussions much easier.
• Identify the most experienced person/people and let them lead. My sister in law and I have been to WDW before and we therefore took over the Fastpasses and MDE accounts. Although we listened to requests for restaurants and attractions, we had to make some executive decisions based on our experience and what was available. Our group was great about letting us lead.
• I find the most stressful thing about traveling in a large group is transportation. Getting from point A to B can be a challenge. Therefore, make sure that your planning meetings include who is renting a car and who is riding in the car? Will there be an alternate form of transportation? Is everyone using Magical Express luggage service? Since we were going to Cape Canaveral for a cruise, transportation was a very important discussion and we even rented jeeps in Cozumel. Did I mention we had 35 people for the cruise!!??
• Before the trip, I emailed everyone and asked them to give me a shopping list. We were spread between two, 2 bedroom villas and a studio at AKL's Kidani Village and had access to a kitchen. After we arrived we took an Uber car to the Super Target on Irlo Bronson Way and my shopping list was so wonderfully handy!
• Make a spreadsheet of the plan and give a copy to everyone. Our spreadsheet also included stateroom numbers on the cruise, rental car information, park times, Fastpass information and more. This avoided the planners becoming the travel agents. I found that no one constantly asked me, "What are we doing tomorrow? Where are we having dinner? Where is so and so's stateroom?"
• As strange as it sounds, doing the work up front releases your responsibility later. I told myself that I had done so much planning (cruise and WDW) that the day I set my foot at the airport meant that I would stop analyzing, and making decisions and simply enjoy. I wanted to live in the moment and let the planning guide me, instead of me guiding the planning.

During the Trip:

• When traveling, do you notice that you spend a lot of time waiting? The group waits while someone goes to the bathroom or purchases a drink. Do you notice that the person returns and no one has noticed? Someone in your group has to step up and be watchful and fortunately my husband took on that role. He would do a head count, throw up his arm and make a "looping the laso" move that meant "LET'S GO!" If he hadn't done that, we would have wasted hours!
• We also had a "pull over" signal because there is nothing more annoying than having a large group of people stop in the middle of the walkway. I did not want us to be "those" people. If you are all going on an attraction together, tell everyone to exit the ride and then pull over to the right in an open space that will accomodate everyone. My husband also led the group and would hold up his hand so everyone could see where he was going.
• We absolutely loved the Fastpass Plus feature because those designated hours were our family time. Once the last fastpass was over, people could split up and do as they liked.
• Understand that when in a park, in the heat and with jet lag, people will have "needs" that may disrupt the "wants" of others. For example, in our party we had a type 1 and type 2 diabetic, teenagers with tons of energy, parents in their 60's and a 7 year old who was too old for a stroller but too young to keep up with us. If someone ditches the group or delays the group, it is NOT because they are seeking revenge for the fight that happened 6 years ago. Your brother/sister/father/mother in law is not getting back at you. Your neice or nephew is not being selfish. Realize that people need to rest, need to eat, deal with low blood sugar and hydrate. Do not take rash or unspoken absences personally.
• Don't be afraid to make executive decisions. As the planner, you may find yourself at a cross roads and asking 22 people what they think can be difficult. Ask a co leader or two and then make the move. This could mean catching a show, taking a different route, choosing where to eat a quick meal or taking a break. This was especially important for attractions that we did not have fastpasses for. Sometimes we had to quickly decide that the wait time in the stand-by line was too long and it was simply not worth it. Don't be afraid to make those decisions for your group, especially if your group is not very opinionated. Our group was willing to go with the flow so someone had to step up!
• One thing I would do differently is plan dining a bit differently. We couldn't reserve tables for 22 so we had to split into 10 and 12, for example. Even 10 or 12 is a large group and I found that I could only have a conversation with the 4 people near me. I would have instead booked four to five tables of 4-6 people to make conversation and paying easier. It took FOREVER at Via Napoli for all of us to pay using our Disney gift cards and make sure that the right amount on the right card was used. Plus, I couldn't see or hear the group at the other end of the table.
• Acknowledge that you will not be able to accomplish as much as if you were in a smaller group. Once you accept that and tell yourself you are coming back, then it is easier to forego the things you really want to do. I always feel that I want to leave WDW or DLR with a longing to come back.

After the trip:

• I learned that traveling with such a large group is possible and fun. We have many memorable moments that will always be treasured.
• We chipped in to purchase Photopass and are very happy we did! It was fun to see all of our large group photos throughout the parks.
• Please let me know if you have any questions!

 

[vek239]

We just returned from a trip with 15 extended family members, ages 5 to 70. Lots of good tips already given. Know your group and go from there. Plan but don't overplan, and keep logistics in mind when making ADRs. We used our DVC points for all the rooms at AKL and had people arriving and departing at different times and two people didn't go to the parks but somehow it all worked out that everyone had a chance to visit with everyone else at some point. The ONE main thing I stressed was to GET TO ROPE DROP, and I was thrilled that everyone did! (and it didn't take long for them to see the wisdom in this.) DH did handle all the FP+ for everyone and that worked out well. Beyond that, people were free to do what they wanted with who they wanted and there were no Must Be There! rules yet we all managed to meet for dinner at Boma and a group photo in the lobby. This trip actually exceeded my expectations. No melt downs from adults or kids and we're still on speaking terms; ha.

 

[margot31]

Last time I went with a big family the FP+ wasn't around. But we let people do their own thing. We split up into 3 groups basically. We only had full family meals the day we arrived and one morning but after that it was whatever. Maybe you could do something like that?