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

[DisneyAuntie12]

Thanks for the feedback, I was thinking mostly about the logistics of reservations but didn't think about how 11 people being all up in each others grill for 5 days might work out, lol! We are a close family and do a lot together so I think that will help but still, probably better to have a backup plan. Maybe I will insist that a couple of other family members learn how to use the FastPass system so that they can 'lead' a small group if need be.

 

[sponica]

Thanks for the feedback, I was thinking mostly about the logistics of reservations but didn't think about how 11 people being all up in each others grill for 5 days might work out, lol! We are a close family and do a lot together so I think that will help but still, probably better to have a backup plan. Maybe I will insist that a couple of other family members learn how to use the FastPass system so that they can 'lead' a small group if need be.

I'm in the process of prelim planning a trip for 7 adults and 4 kids, I've made the decision we're not staying together as a horde (or even in the same place as my sister's family will want to stay at a campsite).

I just did a smaller trip with my in-laws and we had growing pains on day one (hot tired people are prone to temper tantrums), so even though logistically groups of 11 can stay together build in some "me time" for everyone's sanity

 

[gharter]

We've done it a few times with groups of 12. The last time worked the best, we kept everyone together the first day. After that, we met for a quick breakfast, then let everyone do what they wanted for the day, even different parks, and then met back up for a late supper, then let everyone do what they wanted again.
That worked much better. And kept the peace much better.
It was fun to run into some of them when we were in the same park, and fun to hear what everyone else did for the day when we met up for dinner.

 

[MomOTwins]

I have three small kids and our family of 5 is forced to split up regularly! With different kids being able to ride different rides due to height restrictions, or just different preferences (e.g., one loves Haunted Mansion, another is scared stiff of it etc.), DH and I frequently split up to ride nearby rides with various combinations of children and meet up after. Just agree upon a shaded meeting place with seating where you can find each other after the ride (e.g., benches outside Tangled toilets, Gaston's tavern, the little tot play area outside Splash mountain). Sure, we could force all the kids to ride the same thing, but that sort of defeats the purpose for us, which is to give each of our kids the happiest, most magical vacation ever.

 

[tchris4]

Over an 8 day trip, we had a varying group size from 11 to 15. I was able to book things together: ADR and FP. However, after about day 3, DH and I decided it was too stressful and found that for our young kids (the only little kids on the whole trip) it was best if we spent the majority of our time at MK. At that point, everyone started splitting up and we would meet for dinner.

 

[scrapquitler]

We don't even keep our family of three together the whole time! I think that you are going to find out that people will either want to split up or just naturally wander off in smaller groups at various times. Its easiest to plan for specific days/times to meet up and do specific things and be flexible about people doing something different in between.

 

[sjrec]

As grandparents, it’s not that we can’t keep up-it’s that by lunch time we’re ready for a drink and pool time
And for the young parents, they should be able to spend time together, just the three of them.
We spend a fair amount of time together, but no one gets bothered if we split up.
I would just make sure everyone knows it’s ok to have couple/family time as well as doing things together.

 

[DisneyFansInNYC]

We are a minimum group of 8 but usually 10-12. We make all of our ADRs together and all of our FPs. A few times if there is a ride a few people won't go on - we might split off just for that time and meet up right after. Since our immediate family goes to DW so often - we are a lot more flexible with what we see. We love all being together - we have so much fun.

You will have no problem staying together. Enjoy - sounds like a great group.

 

[Nancyg56]

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.

Yikes! We travel as a group, however while we tend to start the day together, we may not make it to lunch all together. We split off and meet back up, and some may head back tot eh resort, to the pool or somewhere else. We have dinner together.

If we tried to keep all together all day every day, we would despise each other before the trip was over. There is a lot to be said for letting everyone do as they please.

 

[KBoopaloo]

I've done trips with a large group of extended family 3 times now - we were a group of 15 in 2011, 12 in 2014 and 16 in 2018. We stayed together in 3 DVC villas on each trip so we were all together A LOT. I do all the planning - ADRs, FPs, Villa reservations, plane tickets, park passes, etc so I have a lot of control. LOL Our youngest on our first trip was 2 and the oldest was 68 so we had a wide range of ages.

The first trip was a bit tricky with some very little kids, some elementary age kids and some HS age kids. The older kids were less understanding about doing kiddie things for the littler kids on that first trip. Now that the youngest in our group is 9, things are way easier. The older kids are also more understanding and have more patience.

We spend probably 75% of the time we are there together moving as a group with at least one ADR everyday and at least 2 FPs together. The older "kids" (who are now 17, 20, 21 and 25) often stay out later at the parks riding more of the thrill rides and they don't care if everyone hangs out together to do Pirates and Peter Pan during the day because they know they'll have that other time later to do the bigger stuff multiple times. We do sometimes break up into smaller groups but we are always in the same park and it is usually only for a little bit before we regroup.

I've found most Disney restaurants are good about accommodating ADRs for large parties. Some of our favorites which we have done more than once are Boma (breakfast), Tusker House, Via Napoli and Chefs de France.

Good luck and have fun!

 

[ninergrl6]

We've done it a few times with groups of 12. The last time worked the best, we kept everyone together the first day. After that, we met for a quick breakfast, then let everyone do what they wanted for the day, even different parks, and then met back up for a late supper, then let everyone do what they wanted again.
That worked much better. And kept the peace much better.
It was fun to run into some of them when we were in the same park, and fun to hear what everyone else did for the day when we met up for dinner.

This is how I feel on cruises. We split up into smaller groups during the day and then all come together for dinner to share stories about our adventures. It's the best way to handle big groups IMO.

 

[Mickey's Best Girl]

Thanks for the feedback, I was thinking mostly about the logistics of reservations but didn't think about how 11 people being all up in each others grill for 5 days might work out, lol! We are a close family and do a lot together so I think that will help but still, probably better to have a backup plan. Maybe I will insist that a couple of other family members learn how to use the FastPass system so that they can 'lead' a small group if need be.

My advice based on this post from you is to simply sit down with the group and make sure everyone is on the same page about splitting from the group.

When we went with the grandparents, my brother and I (who are 13 months apart and very close) and nieces/nephews, my parents thought it would be great to be together the whole time. I didn’t think that would be realistic simply based on the needs of members of the group. I knew our parents would need to take a slower pace and perhaps break a little more often than the younger generations or my brothers fam would want to have more pool time than my side etc. so we made a simple rule.

No hard feelings if we decide to go our separate ways during the trip. And it worked perfectly.

We started the day together and by about noon (no ADRs for us, too restricting) we were heading off in different directions. Some days my DD would go back and chill at the resort with her grandparents, my brother would go to HS with my niece and my nephew would decide to spend the afternoon with his cool aunt at AK.

And we saw plenty of each other - with zero drama.

 

[Suejacken]

I travelled with a large group several times and I am doing it again in July. Since there are some rides some people don’t want to do I book all the fast passes for the same ride at the same time then modify them. That way the modification first looks for other rides in that time frame or close to it. That way no one is standing around waiting for other people to go on a ride

 

[annieinva]

We have traveled over Xmas/New Years over the past ten years usually with a group of 8-10. All age groups. Much easier when one person books ADRs and fast passes. Never had issues getting ADRs for a large number but booking at 180 days is important at that time of year. Also we stay on property so if we split up it’s easy to go back to the rooms. Nieces and nephews are in their 20s now but still ask to go back to Disney every year. Big auntie smile!!!

 

[mom22boys]

We did a group of 12 with kids ranging in age from 2 1/2 to 16 and had no trouble booking FPs and ADRs ahead of time. Our day of FPs, we had much better luck breaking it into smaller groups and then looking for an overlapping time, like one small group might have the 1:15-2:15 slot an another small group would have the 1:30-2:30 slot. And, yes, we stayed together the whole time over a 5 day trip with the exception of the rides the littlest ones couldn't go on and for that we used child swap. For us, being with family was the point of the trip! We had no desire to break up our group.

As for advice, I was the only one who would add and modify FPs. I know that sounds controlling, but I was so worried about someone accidentally deleting one that I just made up that rule. Another piece of advice, pack a lot of patience. Just know that 11 people means bathroom breaks take longer and are often more frequent. Ordering food and eating also takes longer. You probably won't feel like you ride as many rides, see as many shows, etc. compared to when you go on trips with smaller groups, but, hey, that is not what large group trips are about, at least not for me. It is more about the memories and enjoying the moment. Hope you have a great trip!

 

[jimim]

We do 9-11 regularly once a year. Adr’s is hard for above 8 I feel. I went 4 for 9 for the November trip and had to do 2 tables for the others. All were signature places. I got all worked out to 1 table now except flying fish after a few emails. Fast passes r a bigger issue for all the same time. I have to usually do a lot of staggering of times to overlap for a 1 hour period.

I like going with a group. Grant it it’s my parents and my family and usually a very close friend and his family so it’s easy touring all the time with them.

We r pretty easy going group in general. My parents don’t care what we do. They just follow. They just like being in the moment with the grandkids regardless and being with us.

 

[Hopefully]

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!

2 things. Logistically it is doable. But I, like many, many here wouldn’t want to.
Secondly the “ orange flag comment” was a tongue in cheek, sarcastic comment

 

[buddyjo143]

Thanks for the feedback, I was thinking mostly about the logistics of reservations but didn't think about how 11 people being all up in each others grill for 5 days might work out, lol! We are a close family and do a lot together so I think that will help but still, probably better to have a backup plan. Maybe I will insist that a couple of other family members learn how to use the FastPass system so that they can 'lead' a small group if need be.

That is a good idea. Even the best of families can get tired of too much togetherness.

 

[motherof5]

We stayed together 9 kids 4 adults for about 1/2 the day and it was fun and easy. We only separated since the older kids wanted to ride some things the little ones couldn't do. Be flexible and you will have loads of fun. We didn't feel obligated to be together but had fun when we were. And the kids and adults have wonderful memories.

 

[ILoveMyDVC]

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!

This makes me smile. Enjoy every minute. Don't listen to the naysayers - this a different dynamic (everyone is focused on the children). Those children are lucky to have you in their life. Hoping your trip is magical in every way.