Group of 12

[HelloTheDrakes]

Hello,

We are planning a trip in 2018 that will take an extended family of 12 to WDW, including 4 kiddos (8, 6, 4, 3). I could not find threads that discuss how to plan for this many people. I know we can make fast passes and dinner reservations together, and that will help solidify plans. However, I am just unsure on how to plan to attack the park. Do we all go together on all rides? Do we just meet up at FP+ and between them, we split up with kids depending on height requirements? I'm not sure what will work best and would rather go in prepared, since I know planning is key.

I'm just not sure what the best way to do this is and would love any advice/insight from someone who has gone with a group of this size. This will be my husband and my first trip with kids (they're all nieces/nephews) so, we already understand that it's all about them and watching them enjoy the magic for the first time. However, all of the adults also want to ride certain big rides as well. So, I'm just trying to make sure everyone will be happy on this trip (as much as possible), since it is a once in a lifetime experience for us to all go together.

Thanks for any input! I always appreciate the wealth of knowledge that comes from this site!! Without it, our trip 2 weeks back would have been disastrous.

 

[KristinE33]

I'll be following this as well. We are also planning a multi generational trip for 11 for next year. I have been reading every article i can on here for the last couple years and have learned so much. I feel like i have a pretty good handle on things but also would like some feedback from anyone that has actually already done this.

 

[Accident]

Jenny Lynn has a great description of this when she was younger and coming with extended family. (she used to part of disunplugged) The way she put it is when she was little the group would break apart by immediate family and she hated it. She wanted a certain type of ride that others in the group wanted but ended up always with the family doing basically what her parents wanted.

So the short is, not everyone is going to want to do everything together and you want to make some immediate family time as well. Come up with a loose plan where you do all meet. Like when you leave for the park, maybe spend the first hour or two, break apart by interest and go off to where it makes sense for that.. Have planned meals where you come back together or maybe all watch the fireworks..

It's not easy, especially as parents generally want to stay with younger kids but it's possible. Maybe start with a quick family survey on what most interests them. things like "A moment away from children, mostly thrill rides, whatever is fine, I've never been, do you want to see characters, do you want to sleep in and how often?".. etc etc etc....

 

[mukorasirish]

Hi! I am actually going down June 23 for 2 weeks. There are 16 of us (5 rooms of folks) going. We have done a trip with 11 of us but this is our biggest. I can offer what I have done and then let you know what worked.

I made all the reservations myself for everyone. We are eating all the meals together and I was able to get great reservations! (O'Hana, Chef Mickey's, Teppan Edo)

One cool thing I did was rent space at Epcot for the fireworks. We have 4 seniors with us and wanted to make it easier for them. I got space July 3 by England. We had to pay $100 rental fee and then spend $400 on food or beverages. So we shared it. Now we have our own private party area.

I made all the fastpasses. I asked for input form everyone and did my best to incorporate something from each family.

So at this point I created a daily itinerary for folks and sent that out. It lists our dining plans, fast passes and such. It also has notes on ideas of other things to do in each park and such. During our trip the expectation is the only REQUIRED things are dinners (I don't want my credit card dinged for folks not showing) - after that they all have the schedule. Follow- don't follow - do what they want. But the outline is there for them.

I can follow up after with what worked and what didn't if you like. Hope you have fun!!

 

[lklasing]

I was the ringleader of my extended family in July last summer - 19 of us in all, with 7 being kids younger than 15. A total of 6 families represented. The youngest turned 1 the day before we arrived and my dad was the oldest at 74. It was made even more complicated by the fact that not all of each immediate family stayed in the same room together, as they were split some among FW cabins. That was only was a planning issue for FPs (discussed below).

First thing we did was have each immediate family choose one person who was in charge of that family. That way, I could just email with the various heads of each family in making plans. Kept things slightly more streamlined.

Meals weren't a problem for us as we only did one big family meal out together (CM for breakfast). With most everyone staying at FW not minding cooking, we had lots of family meals together at the cabins.

The biggest challenge was figuring out a plan for attacking the parks and especially for fastpasses. What worked for us was for me to choose the 3 rides in each park that I would recommend for the majority of the group (with the understanding that not everyone would want or be able to do everything, especially the 1 year old). I sent that list out to each family head and had them tell me which, if any, of those rides any people in their immediate family couldn't/wouldn't ride those and in those cases, tell me which replacement they wanted. I then used that to make a general plan for FPs, well before our 60 day window opened up and emailed that plan back out to everyone for confirmation.

Here's the smartest thing we did: When 60 days opened up, we had each family head come over to my house with their smartphone or laptop, and we all did FPs together. We had several different MDEs at play and we were able to make sure our FP windows overlapped enough by sitting there together and talking it through.

I'm not able to explain very well, but I found my notes that we used that morning and can post them as an example if you want to see it. But if you can follow what I'm describing, it actually worked very well.

After making the FPs, then it was a matter of having our cheat sheets (or MDE screenshots) of who was to ride which ride and when. But we managed to all be able to ride everything we wanted to as a big group (Soarin', 7DMT, etc.) and it was truly SO much fun.

These big family trips can take lots and lots of planning but it was totally worth it for us.

I'm glad to try to answer any more specific questions if you have any.

Have a great trip!!

 

[HelloTheDrakes]

Hi! I am actually going down June 23 for 2 weeks. There are 16 of us (5 rooms of folks) going. We have done a trip with 11 of us but this is our biggest. I can offer what I have done and then let you know what worked.

I made all the reservations myself for everyone. We are eating all the meals together and I was able to get great reservations! (O'Hana, Chef Mickey's, Teppan Edo)

One cool thing I did was rent space at Epcot for the fireworks. We have 4 seniors with us and wanted to make it easier for them. I got space July 3 by England. We had to pay $100 rental fee and then spend $400 on food or beverages. So we shared it. Now we have our own private party area.

I made all the fastpasses. I asked for input form everyone and did my best to incorporate something from each family.

So at this point I created a daily itinerary for folks and sent that out. It lists our dining plans, fast passes and such. It also has notes on ideas of other things to do in each park and such. During our trip the expectation is the only REQUIRED things are dinners (I don't want my credit card dinged for folks not showing) - after that they all have the schedule. Follow- don't follow - do what they want. But the outline is there for them.

I can follow up after with what worked and what didn't if you like. Hope you have fun!!

I think that is fantastic and would LOVE to hear how it went when you got back! I definitely think we'll do dinner together and was thinking we would sit in two groups of 6 and make sure people sat together who didn't spend most of the day together. That way, we can hear what other people did when we split up. I think doing an itinerary with FP+ listed and then space with options of what to do is smart. Luckily, most of us have been before, so that will help, but one of the 4 families going hasn't been, so I'm wanting to make sure I set them up for success. I hope you have a fabulous time in June!!

 

[HelloTheDrakes]

I was the ringleader of my extended family in July last summer - 19 of us in all, with 7 being kids younger than 15. A total of 6 families represented. The youngest turned 1 the day before we arrived and my dad was the oldest at 74. It was made even more complicated by the fact that not all of each immediate family stayed in the same room together, as they were split some among FW cabins. That was only was a planning issue for FPs (discussed below).

First thing we did was have each immediate family choose one person who was in charge of that family. That way, I could just email with the various heads of each family in making plans. Kept things slightly more streamlined.

Meals weren't a problem for us as we only did one big family meal out together (CM for breakfast). With most everyone staying at FW not minding cooking, we had lots of family meals together at the cabins.

The biggest challenge was figuring out a plan for attacking the parks and especially for fastpasses. What worked for us was for me to choose the 3 rides in each park that I would recommend for the majority of the group (with the understanding that not everyone would want or be able to do everything, especially the 1 year old). I sent that list out to each family head and had them tell me which, if any, of those rides any people in their immediate family couldn't/wouldn't ride those and in those cases, tell me which replacement they wanted. I then used that to make a general plan for FPs, well before our 60 day window opened up and emailed that plan back out to everyone for confirmation.

Here's the smartest thing we did: When 60 days opened up, we had each family head come over to my house with their smartphone or laptop, and we all did FPs together. We had several different MDEs at play and we were able to make sure our FP windows overlapped enough by sitting there together and talking it through.

I'm not able to explain very well, but I found my notes that we used that morning and can post them as an example if you want to see it. But if you can follow what I'm describing, it actually worked very well.

After making the FPs, then it was a matter of having our cheat sheets (or MDE screenshots) of who was to ride which ride and when. But we managed to all be able to ride everything we wanted to as a big group (Soarin', 7DMT, etc.) and it was truly SO much fun.

These big family trips can take lots and lots of planning but it was totally worth it for us.

I'm glad to try to answer any more specific questions if you have any.

Have a great trip!!

I Love the idea of using multiple people to get FP+ reservations! Unfortunately, we are all in different states, so we won't be able to do that. However, maybe we can facetime/skype on computers to do something similar. Thank you for your input!! I am so excited to go with extended family this trip. I'm glad to know it's a doable thing!

 

[mindeola]

We break apart for a couple of hours at a time based on what people want to do. We always have at least one TS a day that we meet up for. But, we do not live near one another so we spend a good deal of the time together.

 

[robinb]

Hello,

We are planning a trip in 2018 that will take an extended family of 12 to WDW, including 4 kiddos (8, 6, 4, 3). I could not find threads that discuss how to plan for this many people. I know we can make fast passes and dinner reservations together, and that will help solidify plans. However, I am just unsure on how to plan to attack the park. Do we all go together on all rides? Do we just meet up at FP+ and between them, we split up with kids depending on height requirements? I'm not sure what will work best and would rather go in prepared, since I know planning is key.

I'm just not sure what the best way to do this is and would love any advice/insight from someone who has gone with a group of this size. This will be my husband and my first trip with kids (they're all nieces/nephews) so, we already understand that it's all about them and watching them enjoy the magic for the first time. However, all of the adults also want to ride certain big rides as well. So, I'm just trying to make sure everyone will be happy on this trip (as much as possible), since it is a once in a lifetime experience for us to all go together.

Thanks for any input! I always appreciate the wealth of knowledge that comes from this site!! Without it, our trip 2 weeks back would have been disastrous.

I have gone to WDW with big family groups in the past, but way before FP+. It's really like herding cats but I think that FP+ makes things wayyyy easier.

So, it's you and your DH, 6 other adults and 4 kids ... right? The littlest ones probably won't be tall enough for the thrill rides although the 4-year old might be 40" by then. The parents of the youngest kid(s) who cannot ride due to height restrictions will be able to "baby swap" at those rides which allows one adult to hang out with the kid(s) while the others ride and then that adult receives a paper "baby swap pass" that allows them to ride with up to two extra riders. You can leverage the baby swap passes if you have more than 2 kids who cannot ride and have 2 adults wait with the kids and each one of the them will be able to take 2 extra for a total of 4. If you are up to advanced FP+ planning, you can arrange for the younger kid(s) to go on another ride with the waiting adult while the others go on the thrill ride. For instance if you are riding Space Mountain while adult 1 waits with the kid(s) and they can all have FPs for Buzz Lightyear for the same timeframe. Adults 2-8, plus older kids all go on Space Mountain while Adult 1 and younger kids ride Buzz. Once the big group gets back Adult 1 can then go on Space Mountain with the baby swap pass and bring 2 extra people with them.

I would recommend that you make your FP+ reservations for the late morning. That would allow the late risers to sleep in and still ride and the early risers to get to the park at rope drop and knock some rides out. It will also get all the FP+ out of the way and allow the parents of the kids to go back to the resort for a break/nap/swim in the afternoon after lunch.

I would also recommend that you schedule no more than ONE meal per day. Family time is great, but everyone may not want to be joined at the hip for the whole vacation. You'll need to allow people to choose to be with the group or do their own thing outside of the FP+ and the meals.

 

[lynch34]

We are going with a group of 10 in June. I've gone with a group of 13 in the past.

The best way to do it is to set FP+ for one person and then copy the others over. It worked well for us. After everyone has FP+, do an inventory and see if there are people who aren't interested in Soarin', etc. After that - modify those FP+.

In terms of ADP - I think you will find there will be a lot of opportunity but if not, try to break the party up into two smaller groups. You often can find two similar times if you do that.

 

[Deirdres]

Friends of ours were kind enough to host six couples at their DVC resort for 5 days, she booked all of the ADR's about 4 months out. I volunteered to book the FP+'s since I am on the west coast, and at that time the window opened up at midnight et. I asked all of the group, what their 3 FP choices would be, then I took this information and made a game plan. I believe I reached out a couple of times asking if substitutions would be okay in a specific circumstance. Everyone was a bit flexible. At 60 days, I had a solid FP plan. I used the strategy of only selecting groups of 4 per FP search, and repeating. I was able to get most of what I wanted, but had to do some tweaking over the next few weeks to get it all lined up. I agree with PP to avoid early morning FP's, in case someone wants to sleep in. I then created a chart, so everyone knew the itinerary, but could go off script if they wanted too. Here is one of our days:

 

[HelloTheDrakes]

Friends of ours were kind enough to host six couples at their DVC resort for 5 days, she booked all of the ADR's about 4 months out. I volunteered to book the FP+'s since I am on the west coast, and at that time the window opened up at midnight et. I asked all of the group, what their 3 FP choices would be, then I took this information and made a game plan. I believe I reached out a couple of times asking if substitutions would be okay in a specific circumstance. Everyone was a bit flexible. At 60 days, I had a solid FP plan. I used the strategy of only selecting groups of 4 per FP search, and repeating. I was able to get most of what I wanted, but had to do some tweaking over the next few weeks to get it all lined up. I agree with PP to avoid early morning FP's, in case someone wants to sleep in. I then created a chart, so everyone knew the itinerary, but could go off script if they wanted too. Here is one of our days:

View attachment 237636

Awesome! I love this layout for the itinerary!! So Disney and fun and easy to read!! Thank you for sharing!

 

[Budzooka]

Hi! I am actually going down June 23 for 2 weeks. There are 16 of us (5 rooms of folks) going. We have done a trip with 11 of us but this is our biggest. I can offer what I have done and then let you know what worked.

I made all the reservations myself for everyone. We are eating all the meals together and I was able to get great reservations! (O'Hana, Chef Mickey's, Teppan Edo)

One cool thing I did was rent space at Epcot for the fireworks. We have 4 seniors with us and wanted to make it easier for them. I got space July 3 by England. We had to pay $100 rental fee and then spend $400 on food or beverages. So we shared it. Now we have our own private party area.

I made all the fastpasses. I asked for input form everyone and did my best to incorporate something from each family.

So at this point I created a daily itinerary for folks and sent that out. It lists our dining plans, fast passes and such. It also has notes on ideas of other things to do in each park and such. During our trip the expectation is the only REQUIRED things are dinners (I don't want my credit card dinged for folks not showing) - after that they all have the schedule. Follow- don't follow - do what they want. But the outline is there for them.

I can follow up after with what worked and what didn't if you like. Hope you have fun!!

Very similar to our plan. We are going down June 11 for 7 days with a group of 16 of us. 4 families with 8 adults and 8 kids, ranging from 6 years old to 70 year old grandparents. I've planned the entire trip, but set some ground rules from the start. First, we agreed to have breakfast in the room, QS for lunch, and TS every night for the whole group. We can stay together or split up for the rest of the day, but everyone will be at dinner. Had no problems getting reservations at 180 days for everywhere we wanted, including BOG and Ohana. We did have to split up into 2 reservations of 8 that were 10 minutes apart, but nothing major.

As far as FP+, I created TP itineraries and sent them to each family and said this is what our family is doing. You guys are welcome to tag along and spend the day with us, or you can break off and do your own thing. Provided them a list of FP+ reservations I was making for us and to just let me know if they wanted anything different. We are doing RD every morning, but they are welcome to sleep in and catch up in the park later. We have a break scheduled every afternoon to head back to the resort, but they can stay in the parks if they like.

The response from the rest of the family has been very positive. I made sure they each knew this was their vacation, and while I was planning, I needed their input to let me know what was important to THEM. They have all been very appreciative of me taking the time to plan all this out and we all have the same FP+ reservations. I expect there will be some bumps in the road and we will split up in the parks some (which may be a good thing!), but we've at least got a plan. It's everyone's first trip to WDW, so it will be a special family memory. Only 26 more days!

Good luck with planning your trip!