Tips for traveling with a large group to WDW.

[Grace and Mickey]

Hi
i'm planning a trip for 16 people 11 Adult s2 kids, 2 toddlers and 1 baby.
Looking for ideas on what work for you and what did not.
Thanks

 

[ZoZo]

I'd suggest that you be willing to split up the big group into smaller "sub groups" part of the time. Especially since you have a few kids that are napping-age. It would be really hard to expect to keep the entire group together 100% of the time. Even under the best of circumstances, people have different habits and schedules (early risers, late risers, those who expect to eat mainly table service meals, those who eat mostly counter service, etc.). By being willing to split up the group at times, I think you'll have a better chance of getting along.

Luckily, with cell phones, it's easy to split up temporarily and keep in contact. Have a great time!

 

[Mskelton]

When everyone in the group wears matching t-shirts (or at the very least everyone wears the same color) it helps everyone stay together. My family (11 total ranging in ages from 11 - 67) always wears matching t's. we take three or four different ones depending upon the length of our stay. You can see examples from our most recent trip (Dec. 15 - Dec. 22 at OKW) on my Facebook page. Go to facebookdotcom / stardesignstn

 

[Grace and Mickey]

I'd suggest that you be willing to split up the big group into smaller "sub groups" part of the time. Especially since you have a few kids that are napping-age. It would be really hard to expect to keep the entire group together 100% of the time. Even under the best of circumstances, people have different habits and schedules (early risers, late risers, those who expect to eat mainly table service meals, those who eat mostly counter service, etc.). By being willing to split up the group at times, I think you'll have a better chance of getting along.

Luckily, with cell phones, it's easy to split up temporarily and keep in contact. Have a great time!

Thank you you for the tips, they will be helpful

We are looking at doing 2 0r 3 sit down meals together, 1 being Be our Guest. wonderful if we should to 2 small group or all together.

Planning on staying at same resort not sure which one yet.

Anymore tips will be greatly appreciate. Thanks again

 

[ironpig70]

Get everybody involved in planning.

Make up itineraries and leave open time as sometimes things go wrong/seperate time/etc

Don't know who has the kids but pass them around. We did this and my brother and his 2 sons took my son. So it was all guys Meanwhile I took the wife and 2 daughters to do Princess stuff.

Most of all have fun and be flexible.

 

[msp2mco]

We've taken several large groups to Disney and done most of the organizing but got everyone involved. We gave everyone a survey asking them to prioritize their top things to do in each park. We probably asked them for 2 "must do's", 2 "nice to do" and 2 "if there is time" attractions. Then we put a plan together for each park with an itinerary that included everyone's top 2 things (usually we got to do a lot more than that too!). It worked great because none of the people we took had been there before so it made them explore the parks before they got there and to understand that they wouldn't be able to do everything.

I may be a bit comando, but we started our day together at RD and did a few attractions. Then we split into smaller groups and usually met up again for dinner reservations. The beginning of the week was much more scheduled than the end of the week because we figured by the end of the week, people would know what they want to return to.

I think it is a challenge to keep a big group moving. Usually there is one person that needs to go to the restroom, so everyone waits. Then someone else wants to step into a store to look around. By keeping the group together for a few attractions, we tried to eliminate a lot of waiting. Also, we always encourage our kids to do their shopping the last couple of days so they have a chance to see everything.

Good luck! A big group can be tons of fun.

 

[halld6479]

we all divided in to families and did our own thing and met for meals and a few group pictures no one has same ability to keep up with anyone else. we all took out own individual family member's, my daughter took her kids, my son took his and if anyone wanted to ride something the rest of there family they called on cell and someone would come to cover smaller kids not wanting or couldn't do the ride. that word for our group.

 

[iamfishie]

We had 14 on our trip (12 adults and 2 kids) and we pretty much winged. I made ADRs for the entire group, but other than that we made it up as we went along. At night, we'd discuss what time we wanted to meet in the morning. At the parks, we'd split up based on what rides we wanted and meet up through out the day. It worked well for us. When I made the hotel reservation, I let CM know there would be a bog group and she gave us a group number. When the others made their reservations, the made them by phone and gave the CM the group number. That way our rooms were all near each other. We tried a couple Apps like "Find my Friends" but it wasn't quite accurate enough to locate each other.

 

[jtjohnson]

I go with a large group and we make shirts for the group. We also eat a couple meals together as a whole group. Other than that everyone breaks into smaller groups and does their own thing.

 

[Toulouse]

Can't recommend splitting up enough.

Same thing with us, we have 21 going and are meeting for two ADRs and the rest in smaller groups based on what we want to do.

No matter whether you have kids or not, the best advice I can give is to go hard early in the morning, come back to your hotel room during the hottest part of the day for a shower/swim/nap and then go out early evening again for some more fun for a few hours.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

Take lessons in herding cats!

 

[Bearadise]

I'm the planner for our group. A lot of great suggestions have been made in the previous posts. You're going to find that some people in your group will think you can just wing it. You can't. You'll need to make solid reservations for some things, EG dining. Some firm plans, EG Shows, parades, fireworks, that "Must-Do" ride. And of course everyone will need some free-range time.

My suggestion is this. My family lives in different parts of our state and even other parts of the country. To facilitate communication and help build excitement, we've created a WDW family Facebook page. You'll find a link to it in my signature line below.

I hope my modest suggestion is helpful.

Have a Disney Day!!
Rich

 

[Grace and Mickey]

I'm the planner for our group. A lot of great suggestions have been made in the previous posts. You're going to find that some people in your group will think you can just wing it. You can't. You'll need to make solid reservations for some things, EG dining. Some firm plans, EG Shows, parades, fireworks, that "Must-Do" ride. And of course everyone will need some free-range time.

My suggestion is this. My family live in different parts of the state and even other parts of the country. To facilitate communication and help build excitement, we've created a WDW family Facebook page. You'll find a link to it in my signature line below.

I hope my modest suggestion is helpful.

Have a Disney Day!!
Rich

Thanks for the tips. and yes it is helpful
Your facebook page is amazing Not sure if I am smart enough to create one, i would like to do t shirts too. is the Design form Creative DISign forum? I have been l l looking for a large
group design,
And very magical day to you too.
Grace

 

[Bearadise]

Thanks for the tips. and yes it is helpful Your facebook page is amazing Not sure if I am smart enough to create one,

To be honest, It's only because Facebook is easy to navigate and is pretty user friendly, that I was able to make, then keep up the page. Plus, It's FREE!

i would like to do t shirts too. is the Design form Creative DISign forum? I have been l l looking for a large
group design,

I created this design myself, again because it's simple and straight forward. If you look farther down our Facebook page, you'll see lanyard hangers, room signs and other knick-nacks I created. I used MSPaint to do them in and my local print shop produced the hard copies.

As for making your own design, you can go from mild-to wild! There are people in the Creative DISign forum who can assist you with tips, tricks and helpful suggestions on how to make your idea(s) a reality. In fact they have people there that will work with you to proof your design, or based on your sketch(s) and description(s), will produce a design for you.

And very magical day to you too.
Grace

Thanks for the kind words. We've reached the 30 Day mark now. Every day from here on in just sparkles a little bit more!

Rich