Thank you to this board, but our upcoming group trip will be one and done!

[JakeAZ]

Yes. Our day at USO was so great! It was the best day of our trip. Enjoyed WDW as well but doubt we'll be back - partially due to the planning and wait times but also due to the kids being older.

Awesome!

What were the average wait times with the express pass like?

Also, did you get to ride Hagrid? If so, what’s the process like these days for that since EP can’t be used?

 

[mkb3]

This was so me in 2017, super frustrated that I had to plan so many things in advance and it really made me not look forward to the trip and thought it would be one and done. I've since gone back every year and get sad when the planning is over with as that is my favorite part. I do think the fast pass system should go away to ease line congestion.

No way in the World would I plan a trip to WDW with a large group. I would tell them we will plan for our family and if time allows for us to tour together at some point fine.

 

[JakeAZ]

No way in the World would I plan a trip to WDW with a large group. I would tell them we will plan for our family and if time allows for us to tour together at some point fine.

The funny thing is we have only scheduled one meal per day with the whole group. All FP reservations are up to each family (I don't mind making them, but they will dictate what they want to do). But even with just the one meal per day, it will still be a challenge to arrange FP picks around dining, shows, rest, park hopping, park hours, HS tiers, ROTR, etc. I am 100% confident park hours will change between now and April. They will more than likely be extended, but not until after our FP window opens. I'd also love to see them start up HS after hours parties again. I am pretty confident I'd be able to fit it in, but who knows if they will bring them back. It's just a lot to pre-schedule without having all the info needed to make a confident decision.

 

[Alli1988]

0% chance my immediate family will ever vacation with or coordinate a vacation to Disney with another family. I've been 5 times in 5 years, understand the systems, actually LOVE all the things you complained about, and would NEVER consider a trip like this. Your plan, mindset, and intentions are setting you up to be annoyed... and probably annoyed alone, making it feel even worse. I would also never go the week before Easter just with my immediate family, so we clearly plan differently.

 

[Pesky]

I can appreciate where you are coming from and glad you felt comfortable and safe enough to vent! What you say is actually the reason I won’t go with another family too. It’s just unwieldy and difficult. I don’t mind the pre-planning and get with as many people as come through WDW, it’s needed. FWIW I’ve found DLR to be more amenable to light planning.

 

[JakeAZ]

I can appreciate where you are coming from and glad you felt comfortable and safe enough to vent! What you say is actually the reason I won’t go with another family too. It’s just unwieldy and difficult. I don’t mind the pre-planning and get with as many people as come through WDW, it’s needed. FWIW I’ve found DLR to be more amenable to light planning.

Thanks for the reply.

If we were all trying to get on all the same rides, I wouldn't have offered to coordinate. My job was to book the meals / shows and then help each family navigate the system. I am more the happy to help all of them with that. I just wish I had all the info from Disney before having to start planning.

We grew up 30 minutes from DL. We love it there and yes, it's more of a show up and play type place.

We'll have a great time on our DW trip, but it's because we've put in the time to plan. I just don't to go through this process again, anytime soon. At least not again until my kids are teenagers...at the minimum.

 

[Melissa55]

1. Dining reservations 180 days out (before park hours are finalized. You don't know which parks will be opening early / staying late longer. You have an idea, but Disney can change however they want).

3. Not being able to book multiple parks for the first 3 in advance, if you have park hoppers. Why is this even a thing?! I paid more to be able to "hop". I should be able to schedule FP at whatever park I want, as long as my ticket will get me in. I do understand tiers would still apply. But tiers are also another reason the system isn't friendly.

1. The nice thing is if you book a dining reservation before the park opens, they will still let you in. But yeah kind of annoying for sure.

3. This is actually my biggest pet peeve with WDW! I think it is the dumbest, dumbest, dumbest thing. I understand that after I use my 3, I can book in a different park but if I already know I'm only spending a few hours in one park before going to another, and I have a park hopper or annual pass on my account, it's stupid that I can only book one park at a time.

 

[JakeAZ]

1. The nice thing is if you book a dining reservation before the park opens, they will still let you in. But yeah kind of annoying for sure.

I get what you are saying about the PPO breakfasts and yes, that is good to know.
I meant more for things like maybe booking a later dinner if the park we were in would be closing later that night. Or, knowing where the EMH or hard ticket events would be in case we wanted to participate or avoid! Once you book those ADRs they pretty much dictate what parks you're going to be in that day. I just wish we had more info available when we start putting things together.

3. This is actually my biggest pet peeve with WDW! I think it is the dumbest, dumbest, dumbest thing. I understand that after I use my 3, I can book in a different park but if I already know I'm only spending a few hours in one park before going to another, and I have a park hopper or annual pass on my account, it's stupid that I can only book one park at a time.

This to me is just Disney exerting control where they don't need to. It solves no issue. In fact, it might make things go smoother if people decide they don't want to hop and thus don't use those FP at another park.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

I can appreciate where you are coming from and glad you felt comfortable and safe enough to vent! What you say is actually the reason I won’t go with another family too. It’s just unwieldy and difficult. I don’t mind the pre-planning and get with as many people as come through WDW, it’s needed. FWIW I’ve found DLR to be more amenable to light planning.

I agree.

I have never been to Disney with another family and never will. I've actually told my closest friends (who I travel with on a yearly vacation) that Disney is a different beast and not something to do all together. My brother is going in August and asked me to go too. I told him no thank you. I was going a few years ago and a cousin of my SO's said she wanted to go at the same time as us. I told her we already had our resort and flights booked and we do our own thing while at Disney.

The only way I would do a group trip is if my kids get married and have their own kids. Then I would be open to a vacation with the kids and the grands.

 

[JakeAZ]

I agree.

I have never been to Disney with another family and never will. I've actually told my closest friends (who I travel with on a yearly vacation) that Disney is a different beast and not something to do all together. My brother is going in August and asked me to go too. I told him no thank you. I was going a few years ago and a cousin of my SO's said she wanted to go at the same time as us. I told her we already had our resort and flights booked and we do our own thing while at Disney.

The only way I would do a group trip is if my kids get married and have their own kids. Then I would be open to a vacation with the kids and the grands.

I totally get it and don’t blame you. But how sad is that? “Family friendly” Disney isn’t where people want to go with their family.

 

[Mome Rath]

I've been with a large group of disparate people and had a ball... the key is not putting the trip on one person, having a working knowledge of the parks, and not trying to stay together all the time. It's more about touring style and knowing what you're doing than something Disney has done to make it "hard," IMO. I think the advantage was having Disney Veterans mixed in with newbies. We were going to have fun no matter what as everyone was just excited to go on vacay together. Having said that, I wouldn't want to travel in that big of a group anywhere else, as it would probably stress me out on the level of the OP. Familiarity with the parks, and with the travel group is what made it fun from the beginning, so I get not everyone is going to have that.

 

[5kidsmommy]

I totally get it and don’t blame you. But how sad is that? “Family friendly” Disney isn’t where people want to go with their family.

I just don’t like vacationing with people. We went once with my parents. It was nice. We camped in two sites next to each other. My mom and dad really just wanted to go along to help since our kids were little. It was great because they were just happy to be there.

in general though we just don’t vacation with others. Now my husband and I just like to go alone or with one or two of our kids. That might change as they have their own families. We have no friends that we would vacation with as a family. We do girl and guy trips but other than that it honestly sounds like hell.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

I totally get it and don’t blame you. But how sad is that? “Family friendly” Disney isn’t where people want to go with their family.

Well I really don't want to vacation with my family anywhere. I travel with a group of friends yearly (sometimes twice a year) and we have a fantastic time (we've done Mexico, PR, NOLA, OuterBanks, Jersey Shore, etc.) since we are all easy going, laid back and have the same kind of vibe. The kids are around the same age (all are 13 and older) and hang out while the parents hang out. It's really a good mix. We also do girls and guys trips (no kids). The girls have Nashville planned and the guys are going to Clearwater. But Disney is on my "never do as a group, even with my friends" kind of trip. It's just too much.

I think a Disney group trip would only work if you aren't together all of the time. It's hard enough to plan a trip with 4 different likes and dislikes and that's just my unit of 4. I can't imagine fitting that in with a group of 15. I don't see that ever being a good thing. ( I recently did a mother daughter trip with DD12 and planning that was so easy and different. I truly believe Disney is even more magical is smaller groups! LOL)

The reason I said no to my brother is because my SIL and brother bicker...a lot. I can't deal with it and they would want me with them all of the time to tell them how to do things. But they have a 5 year old who can't do all of the rides and I would want to go on my own way. That could trigger my brother.

The reason I said no to my SO's cousin is because they never run on time anywhere and they would expect us to wait for them and tour with them the entire time. Again they have two small kids. My kids are teenagers. We will be doing different things. And they have a tendency of getting upset when people do their own thing without them.

 

[JakeAZ]

Well I really don't want to vacation with my family anywhere

lol, I get that.

My extended family get a long pretty well, so we enjoy going places together. Each family will do their own thing once in the parks though. We'll meet up once a day for a meal and probably hit a few rides together, but everyone is in full control of their plans.

Just for the record though, I'd have basically the same critiques of Disney's system, even if I was just going with my wife and 2 kids. The planning and inflexibility once planned, combined with Disney just adding events or changing hours after you've started planning...is ridiculous IMO.

 

[Lilsia]

I totally get it and don’t blame you. But how sad is that? “Family friendly” Disney isn’t where people want to go with their family.

I consider my family as my husband and kids. My sister and I, one year, had planned overlapping trips without knowing it until a few weeks out. We even had FP for FoP for the same time. So we ended up riding that together and then split up. I love my sister and we hang out, but we do WDW in very different ways. Her kids are much younger then mine and they all just have different likes/dislikes. I think that there are just too many personality differences for that many people to jive on a WDW vacation.

 

[leahgoogle]

I agree it is very hard to plan a trip for multiple families. My friend and I booked at trip for the same week over labor day. We did our own thing and our families were able to meet up about three times during the week. We are planning a big trip in 2021 at the same time as three other families. All of the families are Disney veterans so it makes a big difference. To keep from going crazy, DH said he will plan days based on our family's needs and we can work out meeting up with other people as we go. It's very easy to be stressed and miserable otherwise.

 

[joedplumber]

I hear this! April break 2019 we stayed at Universal for five nights and had the express pass and planned absolutely nothing. The experience of not being on any type of schedule was amazing and eye opening. It was one of our best and most relaxing vacations in a very long time. It is going to take a lot of convincing to get the family to agree to the planning and scheduling to get us back to WDW, which is unfortunate. In terms of dinner reservations we really didn't try to make any. Our family tends to "graze" throughout the day so big meals really are not our thing. Although, we did eat lunch by the pool one day and had amazing sushi in the hotel lobby restaurant one night.

 

[JakeAZ]

I hear this! April break 2019 we stayed at Universal for five nights and had the express pass and planned absolutely nothing. The experience of not being on any type of schedule was amazing and eye opening. It was one of our best and most relaxing vacations in a very long time. It is going to take a lot of convincing to get the family to agree to the planning and scheduling to get us back to WDW, which is unfortunate.

Our one day over at USO is the day I'm looking forward to the most. Zero planning done for that day once I got the express passes.

 

[JakeAZ]

So today was our FP day. I am very happy with what we were able to get, considering our party size and week we are going. Again, thank you to this board for all the advice. No way I would have known about AK day positioning, HS tiers (and new tiers) and everything else needed to have a successful FP morning.

That being said, man that process sucks! You can just feel the stress, especially as you are going after your "must dos". Every time you have to click something, you feel like someone else is getting ahead of you! I can't imagine going through that not knowing all the tips / tricks. The average guest is just so far behind the curve.

After I finished, and went back to bed, I felt a wave of calm come over me. It's nice to have that over with.

Everything appears to be set now. I just hope we win the RotR early BG lottery. I am firmly in the camp of the RotR BG process has no place in DW's current heavy planning environment, but it is what it is for now.

 

[MichelleElle]

It feels like learning a whole new language!