Is it possible for a group of 10-11 to stay together all day?

[DisneyAuntie12]

We will likely have a group of 10-11 at a busy time next spring for about 5 days, spread across MK, AK, and Epcot. We have two families with kids and then doting grandparents and uncle / aunt (that would be me!) who are going because we want to see the kids experience Disney, so we won't want to split up.


My question is, is it possible to make reservations for a group of 11 so that we can be together the whole time? And even if it's possible to do the 60 day Fast Passes and dining reservations in advance, at least, should I basically just forget the idea of doing same-day Fast Passes and not factor that into our plans?

 

[Gwmort1]

Yes, we are a group of 13 going in July and I booked everything (even though we are staying multiple rooms etc...).

As for staying together in the parks just get one of you to walk around with an orange flag on a stick, you'll see plenty of other groups doing it

 

[mamamelody2]

We went with a group of 13 in September 2016. We stayed together all day as per grandma's wish, which we honored as she paid. LOL.
I had no trouble getting all the FP we wanted and was able to change some during the trip as our plans changed.
Our TA also got all the ADRs we wanted. A few we had to get 2 ADRS, one for 6 and one for 7, but then when we got there, we were seated together. Only at LeCellier were we separated, but we were at 2 tables right across from each other.

 

[Wild4Walt]

Make sure someone is the 'leader' so they can link all reservations on the App. It will make it quite a bit easier trying to plan and have everyone updated.

 

[buddyjo143]

I found it easy when our nieces and nephew were ages 11 and under. As teenagers, it became nearly impossible. They were old enough to go off on their own. Sad auntie face.

 

[kristenu]

I planned our trip with 21 family members ranging from 3 years old to 68 and had no problem booking our fastpasses together! There were a few times where I split us up because of the age differences (Frozen ride vs Test Track for instance) but we'll just meet back up when those rides are over. Also there were a few restaurants that I had to call and make 2 separate reservations but we're all linked up and ready to go! I'm so excited!

 

[wgeo]

Is it possible? Absolutely. Do you want to do it? That's another question. It depends on the age range of your group and the desires of everyone. Are some people ok with sitting around a lot while others ride a ride? Or is it better to split up for a few hours so some can ride fast rides and some can do "kiddie" rides and then meet back up at dinner. It's all up to what you want the vacation to look like.

 

[NJ Goofy]

I think it's possible, but not very realistic to do it for 5 straight days ! I think a better plan would be a morning one day and maybe an evening the next day. That way everyone has an afternoon to "do their own thing" at their own pace. You didn't mention how old the kids were, but if they're a little older they won't want to go at grandparents "speed" for the whole 5 days.

 

[Farro]

We went with (lucky) 13 a few years ago.

What we did was everyone chose their own adventures during the day, but we made a dinner ADR each night for all of us to eat together. Really worked out best that way and we found we all seemed to find each other at the pool during the afternoon.

 

[ChanduTail]

We went with a group of 13 a few years ago. We had breakfast together, "divided and conquered," then met back up for dinner. There were a few days when we stayed together the whole time and it was fine. We had no trouble booking FP+ or ADRs.

 

[tjmw2727]

We have done several multi family vacations and there is no way I would plan everything together - Kudos to those that do

The biggest trip was mother in law, her son (my bil) and sister in law and 4 kids, myself and my 2 dd's and my sil and her 2 kids and my sister. I totally understand "seeing this through their eyes" but that may include melt downs, bathroom breaks and other issues that parents can usually handle without thinking twice but can be issues when your with a group. We also had teens to toddlers so that made planning a bit more complicated. Vacation is pricy and we were all paying our own way so it was rough when xx wanted to stop and get a coffee/beer etc and watch a live performance in Epcot while the youngest kids were antsy. He was totally in his right to do so and fwiw he did not expect others to wait but that's just one example.

What we ended up doing was having at least one meal together each day, some were sit down others just counter service, we did a couple nighttime events and parades together as well. We also did a few rides together that all could and wanted to ride and then we separated into either families or like minded groups. There were a few days we took my youngest niece as she was my dd's age and her sisters were older so they could ride thrill rides while the youngers enjoyed other rides together.

Honestly, a highlight was a waterpark day! Kids could swim and float and it was so easy to split the party up for an hour or so to ride age appropriate slides and then meet back for the lazy river or wave pool as a group.

Have fun with your family !

 

[DisneyAuntie12]

Yay, I'm super relieved to hear that this is feasible - I was afraid I'd get locked out of every dining reservation and Fast Pass! Regarding splitting up - I hope that we will be able to go back as a family (maybe an even larger family!) every 2-3 years, so I'm sure we'll do that as the kids get older. Right now the kids are all young and the experience of people having grandchildren, children, nieces and nephews is still new, so we're in that paparazzi phase where we follow them around taking 500 pictures of everything they do - it would be like, the end of the world right now if Grams and Gramps had to choose between watching someone meeting a princess and waving from a flying carpet, lol! Thanks for the heads up about the flag as well, I never would have thought of that!

 

[MickeyWaffles]

We are a group of 10-12 usually.

-All our ADRs are usually 10-12 people and we have eaten at some of the most popular places with no trouble.

-I have two toddlers and all the adults in our group love experiencing the parks with them. A few adults break off from time to time. I book everything - at their request I book them for everything we plan to do with the kids. Then they will edit a couple of their FP to something else if they want (for example, we always book Peter Pan’s Flight twice for the kids. A few of the adults in our party may decide they only want to ride it once and change their second FP to something else.)

This always works out well for us. A larger group does not have to hold you back. Everyone in our group is super flexible so it works out great.

 

[ninergrl6]

Is it possible? Absolutely. Do you want to do it? That's another question. It depends on the age range of your group and the desires of everyone. Are some people ok with sitting around a lot while others ride a ride?

This was my experience when I went with a group of 10 family members (3 generations) a few years ago. I was frustrated and felt like a lot of my time was wasted waiting for other people. My aunt, the trip planner, bless her heart, made sit-down lunch and dinner reservations for all 10 of us every day. To me that made the trip feel extremely limited and inflexible. "I want to go on XX ride, but we have lunch reservations in 40 minutes, which isn't enough time for XX ride, so I'll just sit here and people watch instead." On the last day I broke off from the group by myself to try to fit in things I'd missed previously. It was my favorite day of the trip!

 

[DizneyMommy]

Possible is subjective. To me it’s like herding cats, everyone wants to do their own thing AND stay together. Like when one person just stops dead in their tracks for a churro with no warning and we all have to stand around and wait. Oy.
You know your crowd better than anyone, but I’ve done it and it’s what I would call impossibly aggravating!

 

[DizneyMommy]

As for staying together in the parks just get one of you to walk around with an orange flag on a stick, you'll see plenty of other groups doing it

Wait... that was a joke, right?

 

[Kkb0517]

Whatever you decide to do please don’t walk in rows of four or five people across blocking a block walk way that people are trying to walk at a adult normal pace for people who know where they are going and trying to get to fastpass etc on when your group is walking at toddler/grandparent pace or snapping photos or discussing where you want to go next for an hour cause it takes forever when it’s a large group. Thanks in advance for not doing this, in case it’s ever me who is trying to use a walk way to walk when ur group is there.

 

[Jennasis]

We went with a group of 8. Stayed together the whole time and by the end of day two, none of us were on speaking terms and we all wanted to kill each their. Do what is right for you but we prepared and willing to change things up as necessary to preserve sanity.

 

[ilovetotravel1977]

We just did a group of 10 in February - 1 family of three, 1 family of 4, 3 grandparents. I was the leader / organizer.
My BIL/SIL's family ended up doing a couple of character meals on their own and a few different rides, but for the most part we stayed together.
I was kinda worried about this as we also had four room side by side at POP. It all worked out great.

 

[kathy884]

Smaller groups usually work better. At SeaWorld we with that size of group usually naturally split up into two or three groups. We once had a family group of eight do a whole day together at HS, My brother and I outlined a touring plan and made copies for everyone and distributed them the night before. We all jogged together and were first at the rope drop line and did TSM twice before there was much of a line at all. Only two people made it there before our group. I thought we would end up splitting up, but everyone was so into the plan and my nieces and nephews were saying Aunt Kathy this is so much fun, what do we do next on the plan. It is unusual for our extended family group to even have a party of eight stay together all day, though. // The one thing I would recommend is never insist that all stay together or even go to the same park We would let our big group know what the core group was going to do and even do a detailed plan and let others know in case they wanted to join for all our part of that. This was before FP+ which typically means earlier advanced planning now.