Multiple family units planning: Help Please

[Planning fanatic mom]

I am planning a trip for January. This is the first time DH, Me, our 2 daughters, their spouses, and 1 grandchild are going together. We will be getting 3 rooms. I know we can link our reservations on My Disney Experience App for Genie + and paid extra rides.

Any advice you can give me about taking a group of 6 adults and 1 toddler who will be 3 would be greatly appreciated.

 

[sponica]

A) Make sure everyone agrees what type of trip it is. Many a trip have been ruined because someone thought it was a family trip at Disney when it was a Disney trip with family and vice versa.
B) Kids are unpredictable. They could love that ride or they could try to climb out in terror. Or they could be not interested. Let the kiddo set the pace and adapt.

 

[Silver saucer]

Be flexible.
Make sure you sit down and see what everyone's expectations are regarding a Disney Vacation. For some it's rope drop to closing. For others it hanging out at the pool and just being thrilled at not being home or at work.
Even if it's discussed before you go, be prepared for changes on the fly.
Let people split up and do their own thing if they wish at times. Meet up for dinner if this happens and share happy experiences. (You don't say how long you are going).
Not everyone wants to stay together 24/7. Or maybe you guys will want to.
The toddler will really control alot of what you do. Just relax and enjoy whatever is going on in the moment,
Have wonderful time!!!! Im envious!!!

 

[unrequited23]

#1 Tip--Do not under any circumstances invite the other set of grandparents.

 

[Planning fanatic mom]

#1 Tip--Do not under any circumstances invite the other set of grandparents.

LOL!! Not a chance!!

 

[Anna45]

We went with our family this past Easter, 5 rooms. We had a sit down meal together each day and really enjoyed those meals.

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

As previous posters have said, make sure everyone is on the same page about what kind of trip it is. We've done trips to DLR several times with multiple generations, and once to WDW (before we had kids). The DLR trips went more smoothly, not because of the park but because of the shared expectations.

Ahead of time, ask the other adults what their priorities are, and what the priority might be for the kiddo. Even if the trip is centered on the kiddo, I find it important to include at least one thing each person values, and have a strategy for rides that not everyone wants to ride. Set a schedule for TS that works for you, and let your family know what reservations you are going for, but let them tell you whether they want to join or do their own thing.

Most important of all, work out money ahead of time. Is one person paying for everything? Does that include souvenirs and all the food? Or are adults paying for their own food and souvenirs?

 

[tinkerjo]

Been there, done that. Doing it again in January with a similar scenario. We are going with 7 Disney adults( youngest DS is 15 the rest are true adults) and 1 yo DGD. We try and stay in the same park for the day and schedule dinners together. Other than that, we don’t do a ton together. DD and SIL will be focused on rides DGD will enjoy, adult DS and his girlfriend will probably focus on thrill rides, and DS15 will probably join them because big brother is more fun than mom and dad. It’s always fun to keep in contact with pictures/phone calls/FaceTime during the day and maybe even meet up for a ride or 2 and at least 1 meal. Believe me when I say we have traveled around as a group before and were MISERABLE!! A big group goes too slow and it’s hard to agree on what’s next. We ended up being irritable and did very little. Everyone has their preferred way to “do Disney” and that’s why we do it the way we do. Hope you have a fabulous time!!!

 

[brockash]

I am planning a trip for January. This is the first time DH, Me, our 2 daughters, their spouses, and 1 grandchild are going together. We will be getting 3 rooms. I know we can link our reservations on My Disney Experience App for Genie + and paid extra rides.

Any advice you can give me about taking a group of 6 adults and 1 toddler who will be 3 would be greatly appreciated.

We take an extended family trip each year. My mom, myself and family, my sisters family, and other sister and dh. We are usually a group of 10-11. I'm a big planner, so I'll get a rough itinerary together and will send them and make adjustments as needed. We don't stay together 100% of the time. but do the vast majority. The cousins love to be with each other, so we're together about 85-90% of the time.

We kinda have 2 main planners (those who touch MDE lol); myself and sister. We have recruited the teenagers for help securing fastpasses/virtual ques at the 7am drop, but otherwise she and I basically manage it while we're there. Before the trip, I'm the one that arranges everything. makes adrs etc., with what everyone wants. Closer to the trip I make a more detailed itinerary that lists. departure times each morning, the adrs with confirmation numbers etc.

It works pretty well for our group, however if you're traveling with ppl. who have different priorities or extreme differences in vacationing more separation will be better.


Eta: Another brought up a good point of it'll be slower going with big group and can at times feel like you're hearding cats lol. One rule I made for my kids (I'm the unfun parent in case you hadn't noticed), was if we were stopping to go to the bathroom, they had to go/try too.

The first time we went without extended family, I was shocked as to how fast we moved and got things accomplished.

 

[Rory607]

You have gotten good advice and I agree to communicate everyone’s expectations ahead of time. We’ve done trips with three different sets of grandparents and each trip has been different. My two cents:
1. There will most likely be rides the 3 year old can’t go on that their parents want to do. I would discuss how that will work. Will you use rider swap? Is there one adult who doesn’t do thrill rides and wants to sit out?
2. Discuss how you want to do meals. For us, personally, we do one sit down meal a day. My parents like doing a sit down dinner most days. It’s just a nice break after a long day. I usually try to get an earlier reservation, between 5 and 5:30 if possible.
3. Make sure all adults are very clear if they take the 3 year old somewhere! The bathroom, gift shop, snack stand, etc. We had a situation (not at Disney) when we couldn’t find my nephew because there was confusion over who was watching him and it turned out…no one was. Luckily we found him quickly and he was fine, but it was a terrifying few minutes.

 

[Itsmary2]

We had two families (4 adults and 4 kids ages 5,6,7, and 10) at WDW in 2 separate rooms in June. Here are my some things I found useful:
1. Request rooms as close to each other as possible.
2. Keep in mind it's hard to book dining reservations for larger groups. (We had no problems at Boma and Ohana).
3. The DVC lounge at Epcot was a lifesaver for the kids midday.
4. Bubbles worked great for keeping the kids entertained in lines. We had Genie +, but still had to wait up to 30 min. at times.
5. You might want to get a personal fan or clip on fan for the stroller. It gets hot!

 

[Princesca]

I came here to say that I'm planning a 'weird two family' trip and it's challenging. From past experience, make sure you:

1) Understand what rides/attractions are a MUST do

2) Same as above only ABSOLUTELY-NOT do

3) Just expect that the group isn't likely to stay together all day every day. When we went with my niece, she was super into character meets, and those eat up a TON of time that I (child-free at that time) had no interest in, so we ended up splitting up more often than not, after much frustration on the first day. We mostly managed to meet up at meal times.

4) Random note - if the child is newly potty-trained at that time, anticipate that there may be some regression issues. My niece was potty trained and almost three when we went, but she got spooked by the millions of auto-flushing toilets going off at once and basically had to be in pull ups the whole trip, which are not cheap at Disney. People recommend bringing a pad of post-its to cover the toilet sensor in case that becomes a problem.

5) Before the trip, when I go with little kids, I like to get some cheapo Disney stuff at the local Dollar Store and I wrap it up and sneak-deliver it to the kids and say it's Tinkermail. It's kinda magical.

 

[Princesca]

Also read up on Rider Swap, if you haven't already.

 

[Deb1993]

Our family did many group trips with a party of 12 (5 kids). I did all planning for the group. I put together an itinerary, booked meals and had a schedule of what park on what day and whether we were rope dropping - which was usually once or twice. Our trips occurred when there were paper fastpasses so I made sure I had everyone's ticket so we weren't all running all over the place. Because the kids were generally on the young side and we were staying in 3 rooms at Orange Lake we left the parks in the afternoon, did the pool and I cooked most nights for the group - menus were sent in the itinerary so everyone was on the same page. Rarely did we go back to the park in the evening - the kids had "sleepovers" in a different room for a few of the nights. We did have two or three sit down dining reservations. Since part of our group was from the West Coast and we saw them infrequently, we had one night at the condo where we had a large birthday cake we bought from Publix and basically lit candles and sang happy birthday to everyone in January, February, etc. That was fun and we laughed a lot. We own a Signature Unit at Orange Lake and we can see the fireworks from there so we watched them from our room which was nice for everyone. The units have screened in porches so it was extra nice.

Be flexible and know that you can't do everything. Know that a large group like that will move slowly - we had a scooter in our group each time and that was a challenge as well. All in all though, we have some wonderful family memories.

 

[julie-o]

Been there, done that. Doing it again in January with a similar scenario. We are going with 7 Disney adults( youngest DS is 15 the rest are true adults) and 1 yo DGD. We try and stay in the same park for the day and schedule dinners together. Other than that, we don’t do a ton together. DD and SIL will be focused on rides DGD will enjoy, adult DS and his girlfriend will probably focus on thrill rides, and DS15 will probably join them because big brother is more fun than mom and dad. It’s always fun to keep in contact with pictures/phone calls/FaceTime during the day and maybe even meet up for a ride or 2 and at least 1 meal. Believe me when I say we have traveled around as a group before and were MISERABLE!! A big group goes too slow and it’s hard to agree on what’s next. We ended up being irritable and did very little. Everyone has their preferred way to “do Disney” and that’s why we do it the way we do. Hope you have a fabulous time!!!

Yes, this is similar to my experience. Misery in a big group. Happy with a few planned meetups and otherwise splitting into smaller groups

 

[nat1234]

I’m also planning a trip for a large group this November. It will be myself, my husband, 4 kids, their partners and three grandchildren, 6, 6 and 5 months. We have three cabins at Fort Wilderness booked. I’m doing most of the planning so far like park reservations. I’m thinking that they’ll only want a few meals together. Right now I’m gathering the info and then we’ll get together and go from there. I’m really interested in all the advise since this also the first time I’ve planned anything like this.

 

[katyjeka]

We've taken several trips with extended family. My only advice is to allow time apart. On our very first family trip I had everything planned to the minute(I love planning Disney trips)but when we arrived i was "shocked" that everyone in the group was not on the same page. Getting up early did not go over well as they were on vacation. They could not understand why we'd walk past a ride with no wait to go another, for example they wanted to stop at Carousel of Progress and hit Space Mountain later. We finally decided to go our own way for awhile and meet for meals. After a couple days most of our group were beginning make sense of my craziness. After spending hours waiting in line and experiencing very little they decided to do it our way. We've had many successful trips since and have made some great memories. We are in the process of planning our next and I've decided to let those who choose to sleep sleep!!! Have a great time.

 

[Boopuff]

You have the exact same group as I do. My GS will turn 1 on the trip. We’re all staying in a grand villa. The guys like to golf, so we booked several mornings for them. I booked on sit down meal a day just to gather as a family. i Also booked a cabana at TL for the family. Other than that, everyone is on their own. Have fun

 

[Minnie_49]

We traveled with a group of 9 last summer. Every evening I sent a group text with our detailed plans for the next day, then they were welcome to join us or do their own thing. That way I didn’t have to nag in the morning to get everyone going. Worked great for us.

 

[Ursula J]

You're getting great advice here! I've been trip planner for a group of 8: my parents, my sister, her husband, their teen daughter, me, my husband, our teen daughter. Dad used ecv. Sister wasn't "all in" on Disney. Big things I learned: be a little selfish. I exhausted myself making everyone happy and ended up not really having a vacation of my own. Gave up a res to a restaurant I loved so my sister could experience it and she didn't even like it, never said no to a request from my folks, etc. Everyone remembers it fondly and I'm grateful we had the trip, but pick one or two things that are *all you* and prioritize them, even if it means telling people to (gasp) figure out something on their own Plan ahead on who will pay for what. Tell everyone to write down one or two things that are must-do. And enjoy! Have the cupcakes! Hug the characters!