Tips for traveling with large family group

[2tinkersmom]

We are going to Disney the first week in June as a magical gatherings group. Our group consists of my husband and I, two daughters ages 10 & 6 and then my husbands sister, her husband and three teenagers 18,15 (girls) & 13 (boy). We will be there for five days, four nights.
Obviously with the teenagers, we have a wide spread in interests not to mention endurance levels.
What would you recommend.....should we make PS for once or maybe twice each day and then just be in the same park so we can meet up to eat? Should we try to stick together every day? The teenagers have never been to Disney before, any recommendations for must sees for them? Do you think they would like the character meals?
I'm worried about not imposing our schedule (early risers, fairly early to bed) on them but at the same time we haven't seen them in a year and a half so we want to spend time together!
We won this trip which included the Illuminations Dinner and Dessert reception at Epcot so we already have that booked for one night and it sounds wonderful.
I would appreciate any advice you could offer to make our trip the most magical trip possible!

 

[kimwim8]

I just traveled with my immediate family this past October. The only advice I have is to make a plan. If your husbands sisters family wants to split off, then ok. I had a plan, but we still spent to much time standing around & saying "where do you want to eat, let's see how crowded this place looks" stuff like that. Or we'd split up & be stuck waiting for them at the next meeting place (even with walkie talkies).

Just be up front with them & see how they want to tour the parks. Setting up PS's for meeting times/locations are probably a good idea.

Good luck and have a great time!

 

[brynnsandra]

We are going to Disney the first week in June as a magical gatherings group. Our group consists of my husband and I, two daughters ages 10 & 6 and then my husbands sister, her husband and three teenagers 18,15 (girls) & 13 (boy). We will be there for five days, four nights.
Obviously with the teenagers, we have a wide spread in interests not to mention endurance levels.
What would you recommend.....should we make PS for once or maybe twice each day and then just be in the same park so we can meet up to eat? Should we try to stick together every day? The teenagers have never been to Disney before, any recommendations for must sees for them? Do you think they would like the character meals?
I'm worried about not imposing our schedule (early risers, fairly early to bed) on them but at the same time we haven't seen them in a year and a half so we want to spend time together!
We won this trip which included the Illuminations Dinner and Dessert reception at Epcot so we already have that booked for one night and it sounds wonderful.
I would appreciate any advice you could offer to make our trip the most magical trip possible!

Did you get a grand gathering number when you booked your trip? They give you a seperate dining line (not so crowded) and it makes you eligable for other tours that normal parties are not.

 

[the kabuki]

Planning is good of course, but I would talk to SIL first and find out her ideas on what she and her kids think they may want to do. With the difference in ages, I would personally plan on touring the parks separately. Or you could plan one day in a park with the everyone together for that day, then the rest of the time everyone's on their own.
Trying to meet up for dinner every night may be difficult. Sometimes plans change, or they may have had a late lunch, be in ride for a line etc. You could do maybe 2 PS dinners instead of one every night.

I would talk to SIL first no matter what you do.

 

[lovethattink]

I just traveled with my immediate family this past October. The only advice I have is to make a plan. If your husbands sisters family wants to split off, then ok. I had a plan, but we still spent to much time standing around & saying "where do you want to eat, let's see how crowded this place looks" stuff like that. Or we'd split up & be stuck waiting for them at the next meeting place (even with walkie talkies).

Just be up front with them & see how they want to tour the parks. Setting up PS's for meeting times/locations are probably a good idea.

Good luck and have a great time!

We met family and did the same thing, wasted too much time in the parks getting nothing accomplished. Had 4 kids with us and each one wanted to do something different. We ended up staying in the same parks, eating 1 meal together a day, but splitting up in between. It worked much better. Having our cell phones was the biggest life saver at meeting up with each other!

 

[cvsockwell]

Every two years we take anywhere from 15 to 19 family members to Disney. DO NOT try to do every thing together. It will not work and it will waste time. DO schedule dinners or lunch or breakfasts together from time to time and DO have the little walkie-talkies as we will hook up from time to time when we are in the same parks. Usually we have a dead day after we arrive where we will schedule a character breakfast together and then ride the monorail. We then go to downtown Disney or go to the Disney outlet. We will also schedule a character lunch during our trip as well. We have a time to meet at the restaurant and then eat together. I plan what my immediate family is going to do each day and let everybody know, if they want to tag along, fine, but I remind them that I do not wait for anybody. Many times, we will meet at restaurant at the resort at night and eat together. Be flexible when planning, but have a plan. We will also try to get a fireworks cruise and whoever wants to go will go(Mom always goes). Other nights, we may take agroup to play at the miniture golf courses, again it is whoever wants to go as some want to stay at the resort. I guess what I'm trying to say is have some things together, but schedule them ahead of time and let everybody know what your going to do and if they want to go they can but ifthey want to do their own thing, that is fine also, just have some communication before you go and when you get there.

 

[Angie_Ohio]

We took three families and grandparents in Nov. '04. We felt like we should do things together but it just doesn't make sense with such a big group (10 kids). We ended doing some things together in our rental houses in the evenings (swimming, dinner and cards) but did the parks with only two families or one family and DGP. Cell phones were great to have. We did a PS meals twice.
I think an open discussion ahead of time takes the pressure off everyone. Noone feels responsible for the others fun or lack thereof. Teens will find loads to do by themselves and much they can do with the family especially at Epcot and MGM.
Angie_OH

 

[ROCK1472]

It's great that all of you are going together , enjoy it .
I feel you all should decide when to get up & have Character breakfast at Chelf Mickey's or Ohana's together(Mickey,Minnie,Goofy,Chip,Dale & Pluto.)
Typhoon lagoon is a must to do together(the Wave Pool).
If you want the teens to go on the separate way for a few hours , use a cell phone or walkie talkie . The best parks are Epcot (it's a circular park) or MGM .The other parks Magic Kingdom & animal Kingdom are to huge for teens to go on their own . Do you know what resort your staying at? Allstar Movies or Pop Century (Value),Carribean Beach (moderate),Polynesian or Yact & Beach (Deluxe).The difference between all these resorts is How many places to eat in the resort & How many different kinds of Transportation?
Think about this at the end of the night , all of you heading back to your resort(very tired) waiting 15-20 minutes for a bus .In addition your at the end of the line (you won't find a seat) during your 20-30 minutes ride .
Lastly make all your Lunch or Dinner reservations early as possibly .Also if it's your first time ,I recommend the Disney's Birnbaum book 2005 $16.00 (any Barne's & Noble) It tell you everything ,you could possibly want to know & more.

 

[allforpooh]

We just got back a couple of weeks ago, there was 12 in our group - 3 families - 2 with teenagers and 1 with little children 5,6...Here is what we did--

I made up a tentative schedule - things like Mon MGM - PS 5:30 Boma's etc - I made 1 Dinner PS for every day. Everyone had the option to either show up or call me on my cell phone 30mins before so I could change the PS when I checked in. I also listed the special events like Spectomagic, Wishes etc since some of these were on once or twice while we were there. (I put this on a lg Index card to carry in backpak)

The first day we stuck together, that helped everyone get familiar with buses, park etc. Then after that we just told everyone the evening before what we werer going to probably do in the morning and the time we were going they had the choice to go with us or not. Cell Phones worked perfectly, if we wanted to sleep in we would just give them a call when we got up and found out what they were doing and where.

We usually started out together in the morning, but then would break off - we were pretty lucky and did not spend alot of time standing around trying to decide what we wanted to do.

We had a great time, it was better than I could ever have expected. Everyone was pretty layed back and relaxed so things went well.

I also listed must see's on the schedule (back) - Rock n Roller Coaster, Fantasmic, Illuminations, CRT breakfast was a highlight of our trip. If you make early morning PS for CRT then you will get to go into MK before the park opens, get your picture taken in front of the Castle then off to breakfast. Even the teenagers had a great time there. Don't forget to get a Photopass and take lots of pictures, it doesn't cost anything to get them taken then you can view them online once you get home and order what you want.

Have fun,
Denise