Vacation for 17--please help!

[Ms. S. White]

I'm trying to plan a Disney trip for four families. We'd be traveling with my inlaws, 2 brother-in-laws and their families and our family. I guess you would say it is sort of like a little family reunion.

Does anyone have any suggestions or comments that would help our family of 17? (Restaurants, photo ops, etc.)

 

[ToyStory Fan]

Seriously you are going to need it with trying to coordinate schedules if you plan on sticking together throughout the trip.

1st off PS for dinners will be difficult unless you book really early...and even then it'll be tough to sit together.

2nd invest in some FRS radios, or you could use cell phones, but they're not as quick and it's technically a long distance call for each of you

Get a feel from your group what their intentions are as far as "sticking together" goes thru the parks, for meals etc...maybe propose a couple of park itineraries, and have "teams" sign up for the proposed "tour". It's kind of tough...especially if there are little kids who will want to do their own (possibly seperate) things.

Sounds like you have your hands full...don't be afraid to delegate some stuff to others in the group - remember it's your vacation too!

 

[SilverL]

Wow! 17! And I thought my mom and I had a job planing for 10!

For any site down meals you want to do, make reservations, or you'll probably end up having to wait a while.

Make a list for each park that says what ride you're doing first, where you're having lunch, blah blah blah. Try to do everything. Makes copies for everyone and look over them together, so you can mke changes if needed.

 

[SuzieQMomof3]

We did a trip of 16 in August, in two different resorts, just like you, four families and two in-laws. Here's my $.02:


Plan early and plan a lot. We did a couple of meals together all 16 of us, plus a couple of meals with just 2 of the families. Our best restaurant experience was the Character Breakfast at Hollywood and Vine MGM. We also got a group picture taken there by one of the roving photographers that are near the entrance. Our worst group dining was the Rainforest Cafe. We were separated by three different tables and it was so noisy no one could talk.

Try and schedule one afternoon or evening just to sit by the pool. The kids will like the down time and so will the parents. Your in-laws will have forgotten how much energy kids can have and won't be able to keep up (and probably won't want to).

Two way radios are GREAT, but you can only use them within one park. You can't talk to someone in Animal Kingdom from Magic Kingdom.

Whatever you do, don't think all of you can do a park together. You will move too slowly to see or do anything at all.

I sent a card to the other families in our group a week before we left. I addressed it to them at their hotel and put the reservation number under their name. Just a note to wish them a fun vacation. Kids love to get mail. Then mail a postcard from Mickey to all the kids just before you leave telling them he's glad they came.

Have fun time!

Susan

 

[mikesmom]

We had a trip for 9 last May and came back with several thoughts on the matter-

Plan a few "together" activities, but plan for plenty of freedom for folks to go off on their own. We tried to "stick together" and I would say generally it didn't work well. We had a couple of "commandos" who tended to drag everyone from place to place thus making the "take time to smell the flowers" people miserable! One day we had 2 members of the party riding Tower of Terror and the rest of us waiting in the street alongside for them to finish before we proceeded to the next thing. We ended up standing in the rain for a solid hour. That was carrying "stick together" a bit far IMHO.

I second the notion of off time around the pool. We had a 2 bdrm villa and had a couple evenings just hanging in the room with everybody, pizzas and salad. Great fun!

We found our cell phones worked just great around the parks. I don't know about other plans , but AT&T will let you change your plan to more minutes for one month to allow for the extra talk time, and then drop back to the original plan. Worked great for us.

 

[catwho]

Do you want to spend 24/7 with all 17 of you? You might want to have a big family meeting or conference call to find out what everyone's idea is of going. It may be that you split up each day and meet for lunch or dinner. Maybe have a few planned activities together such as a meal or a photo-op in front of the castle. Perhaps you decide to go to the same parks each day but you go about doing different things. You didn't mention how old the kids are, but is there going to be kid swapping so the kids can spend time with cousins (or away from siblings LOL!)

I would definitely schedule in some free (unstructured) time to hang out at the pool or do some casual shopping at DTD. Perhaps a ladies shopping trip to DTD or Mainstreet while the guys watch the kids or do something with them for a few hours.

What resort are you going to stay at or is each family responsible for making their own details? Staying at the same resort would make meeting up easier. I second the idea of cell phones. Our plan has no long distance and no roaming so we use them alot when we are at WDW.

Remember you can always regroup your plan. Last year we went for the first time with my parents and we really felt that they "drug us down" On the fourth day we finally said, "Hey, we are going back to Epcot. YOu can join us if you want, but I knowyou had planned to go back to MK." Just a difference in how we do things. You may find after one day that you want to all split up or that you miss each other and want to do more together. Nothing has to be written in stone.

 

[MELSMICE]

With so many in the group the one thing I would NOT plan are days at the parks together. Even if you go to the same parks on the same days it is almost impossible to stay together & get things done.

Try to have a few dinners together. Probably the best time to be together as a group will be pool time & maybe evening time at DTD or the Boardwalk.

Travelling w/ a group is fun, we have done it many times, but sometimes it can be too much if people expect to be together the entire time.

Have a great time when you go.

 

[ahutton]

We've done trips with groups for several years in a row. We've found that planning a couple things for everyone worked really well. The Cape May clam bake was one of them, they have great variety in food and can handle serving a group that size without batting an eye. Actually, most buffet places can do that much better than table service, it is simply difficult for any kitchen to turn out 17 meals on time and hot.

One thing to consider doing that we have enjoyed tremendously was call group dining and arrange a special seating area for Illuminations for your group. You can do something as simple as dessert and coffee or as elaborate as you can imagine. It is something we did as part of our wedding, and then again through group dining a few years later. It is so nice to meet up at the end of a long day and have a relaxing and special time like that.


We have also found that by letting each group within the family do their own thing and run at their own pace we can let everyone have the trip of their dreams. The couple commandos we have go do their thing, and the rest of us move at our own varied paces. Ironically we often ran into eachother and ended up doing something together. It is sort of like the mini-meets that people talked about for DIScon. Set a time and attraction that you want to gather at, and if people show great and if not no big loss.

Have a ball!