Tips for touring with a large-ish group?

[egoldber]

DH, DD and I have to WDW several times. In November, we have used our DVC points to take a Grand Villa at BW and we will be accompanied by MIL & FIL, SIL & her DH, and other SIL and her fiance. MIL and FIL have been once a couple years ago, but SILs and their SOs have never been. We will be there from a Saturday to Saturday, the week before Thanksgiving.

Just wondering about tips folks might have for doing the World with a group like this. DD is the only child (obviously) and normally DH and I just wander around doing whatever she likes to do. We usually have a minimal plan, but no hard and fast must sees and must dos. We have a CRT lunch ADR for one day and a PSB lunch ADR another day because those are "must dos" for our princess loving DD, but other than that, no real plans.

I don't expect us all to do "everything" together, but I think that some kind of plan would be useful to keep us all still liking each other by the end of the trip.

Any thoughts and tips would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Bob P]

Hi and welcome to the DIS!

The most important thing I think you can do is to make sure you build in some "apart" time each day. We often go with a large group and we will usually start out together but split up at some point, meeting back up for a meal at a certain time.

The idea is, the larger the group, the harder it is to keep everyone happy. So why not sacrifice some "togetherness" to keep everyone happy!

Bob

 

[RedRuby]

DH, DD and I have to WDW several times. In November, we have used our DVC points to take a Grand Villa at BW and we will be accompanied by MIL & FIL, SIL & her DH, and other SIL and her fiance. MIL and FIL have been once a couple years ago, but SILs and their SOs have never been. We will be there from a Saturday to Saturday, the week before Thanksgiving.

Just wondering about tips folks might have for doing the World with a group like this.

On all sorts of group vacations/outings, we tend to use meal times to provide structure. For our upcoming WDW trip, we've got one AR each day.
This way, people can stick together if they wish but if not, they atleast have a place and time to meet up (and potentially a way of leaving messages -- eg at the podium with the host if there's a problem).

And, don't forget about rest/nap/swim time in the afternoon. That's another less structured way to meet up and confer on plans...helpful if you're staying at the same resort.

We've got a similar set up with different friends/families who are going to be at WDW at the same time -- we've got some shared ARs booked and may hang out at the pool together or tour together after the ARs (as the children's schedules as preferences allow.)