Oh my gosh! I need advice!

[Redbudlover]

I am a seasoned Disney veteran who owns points in DVC. However I am now in charge of planning a trip for a bunch of people with multiple generations and entangled relationships! I have no idea how to begin. All the trips I have planned before have been for at most 3 people! This trip is going to be very different.

This trip will be with my DH,66, me at 72, ( I use a scooter) and my DGD, 13, both of whom have travelled often with me to WDW. Joining us will be my DS,43, his new wife DDIL, 37, her DS, 8, and her parents, both mid 60s and pretty active. I adore my new DDIL and new step grandson. I went to DL last New Years at my DS and his fiance's invitation, staying in the same room for 3 days with them and DSGS and had a blast.

This time each couple will be staying in their own AK studio - renting points, my DSGS with his parents and my DGD with my husband and myself.

HELP! I don't know where to begin to plan to make this an easy fun trip where everyone gets along and gets to enjoy the best of the world without being overwhelmed or stressed outl. I don't think we all have to stay together in the parks and my DGD is all excited about taking her new cousin around. My DS and DsGS both love coasters, the bigger and badder the better. Neither child is interested in characters. But how do I get things planned to have the easiest time when DDIL's parents don't have any familiarity with the parks and won't know why certain things work better than other things? BTW I am a total planner who plans each detail, but then goes with the flow once in a park - up to leaving that park if it is too busy or crazy.... Please help with suggestions! I know there are a bunch of you who have done this before and can point out what to watch out for and what to include to make this a great trip for everyone! Thanks to you in advance...

 

[summerskye]

Just remember that no matter how hard you try, there will be some hiccups. Life is not perfect. Family is not perfect. Everyone is different. So when it happens, remember you put in all the effort and hopefully everyone will be happy that you tried. I wish you the best of luck.

 

[Oneanne]

Well, first off - good luck! I think your idea to not expect everyone to stay together is right on. I think I'd have everyone at the same park and taking meals together. And I'd probably plan out mornings together, then split up in to groups of like interest for the afternoons/evenings.

 

[bababear_50]

Breathe,,,,,,,,,,,,, now another breath
it will all work out.
AK is a great place to stay for big families.
When is your trip?
Are you staying at Kidani or Jambo?
Just a heads up that Disney's Animal Kingdom Resort Jambo House's pool is due this Sept for renovations and they will be offering transportation over to Kidani for pool use.
http://www.wdwinfo.com/wdwinfo/rehab.htm
" Uzima Springs Pool- Jambo House, Uzima Springs Pool and Uzima Springs Pool Bar closed 9/1/2018- Winter 2018."

Maybe get together ahead of time to discuss everyone's expectations and touring styles.

Hugs Mel

 

[CarolynFH]

In March 2017 we took our DS (a WDW vet who hadn't been since FP+ was implemented), his new wife our DDiL who had only been once as a child, and their combined 3 kids, two of them 8 and the other 14. One of the 8-year-olds had been several times at age 5, the other two had never been. I made each of the kids a guidebook to the parks (you could purchase one or refer them to a good website, but I wanted to organize the information a certain way) and created a checklist for each park. Basically, I wanted each person to check off the 3 attractions that were most important for them to do in each park and which attractions they would like to do if we had time. That way I could be sure we didn't miss anything that was a must-do for anyone and didn't spend time doing something that no one was interested in. And I will say, I was surprised at some of the choices, so I was very glad I had asked them! Of course there were some things everyone wanted to do as well as a few things that only one person wanted, but knowing what their interests were made it much easier to plan.

Unfortunately we were staying off site in two different timeshare developments, so we planned to be together in the mornings and early to mid afternoons. I scheduled 3 FP for each park (most of them together but some separate) and developed a general touring plan for my own guidance. We also booked a TS lunch each day for the group (which we paid for as part of the gift). After those FP and lunch were completed, we didn't plan anything together - DS had his own MDE and was able to book extra FP for his family, and DH and I went off on our own too. That avoided issues related to "too much togetherness"!

So, my suggestion is that you help the newbies learn at least a little about what there is in each park and let you know what they're most interested in so that you can schedule initial FP or make recommendations to them about what to schedule, how long to allow to get from one to the other, etc. Schedule some group meals (I'm not sure what the plans are for eating or for paying for meals, etc.). Hopefully everyone agrees that there's no need for everyone to be locked together at all times!

 

[nighttowll]

As someone who has planned these big multi age multi family trips before, the first thing you have to do is get everyone on the same page expectation wise.

• Are they wanting you to take over and plan everything, and they are just going to go along?

• Are they expecting to do their own thing and just meet up with you for a meal or two or a few activities?

• Do they even have a general idea of what they are getting into? Crowds, size and number of parks, types of attractions?

You’d be surprised how many people don’t even know there are 4 parks, not to mention 2 water parks.

I had a coworker who was going with her son’s family to Disney who told me that she wasn’t planning on riding anything because she doesn’t do thrill rides and was only going for the grandkids. She was shocked when I explained that most of Disney’s rides moved slower than her ECV and involved simply sitting on a bench. I brought her an old map I had and highlighted all the tame rides for her. She came back so happy thanking me because she had a great time riding everything and had no idea Disney wasn’t another Six Flags.


The second thing to figure out is what type of vacationer everyone is.

• Is anyone on a budget? Do they understand how expensive TS meals are?

It’s all fine to agree to do a bunch of fun sounding meals when you are expecting them to be priced at a normal level or maybe only slightly higher. The fun disappears quickly when sticker shock sets in if you weren’t expecting how expensive they are.

• Are they interested in other add-ons like dessert parties?

• Are they early morning or late night people? Open to rope drop? Expecting afternoon breaks?

• Aware of the weather during the time of year you are visiting? Aware afternoon storms are common and roll in and out very quickly?

We had a bit of a fight over that one trip. One of the guys on our trip was in a cranky, tired, hot mood. I love that it was the adult giving us crap and not the well behaved children. When the rain came in he started freaking about dangerous storms and getting out of the park ASAP. We were trying to explain to him it was just a normal afternoon shower, nothing to worry about, but he just wouldn’t listen. He knew better than us. I will admit to finally loosing my calm and screaming at him in the Star Tours gift shop to get him to listen. Over my dead body was everyone returning to the room when the storm would be over in an hour or less. We finally got him to check the radar on his phone. He saw the rain would be gone in about 15 minutes, calmed down, and apologized, and our day continued, but oh my gosh, big groups can be hard.


I suggest having a pre-Disney meeting, maybe over dinner or appetizers if possible. Maybe a Skype call if you guys aren’t near each other. It doesn’t have to be some long drawn out thing where all the details are ironed out, but get down the basics. Explain briefly about what a Disney vacation is like for the ones who haven’t gone. Get everyone’s opinion on what they are wanting to get out of this vacation. Is there anything they feel strongly about doing or not doing? What type of touring are they ok with doing? Do they want to stay together or not or only some of the time? Until you have all these answers, it will be hard to really plan much of anything.



I’ve been lucky that most of our trips the people I go with tell me they don’t really care, to just plan whatever I want to. I still try to ask their opinion if I am in doubt about something or if there is an add-on I think would be worth doing but would cost them extra money. I try to make sure that I include something special for each member of the group I know they’d really enjoy. That way no one is left out. I find out in advance if there is anything each person really wants to do or not do. Then keeping the agreed upon budget in mind, I plan from there.

Sometimes we all stay together the whole trip. Other times, we do our own thing for the most part. Other times, we stay together in the morning, have lunch, and then go our own ways after that. It really depends on the trip and the expectations of that particular group.

Once I have it all figured out, I usually make a schedule or brochure with all of the plans (where we are staying, what we are doing when, meals, scheduled entertainment, and free time). I give one to everyone. This ensures we are all on the same page. There’s no confusion about what the plans are. If someone doesn’t want to do one of the steps, they can easily catch up with the rest of the group later by seeing where the schedule has us when they are ready to regroup. It also means I don’t have to keep answering what’s next all the time.

 

[Princess Madeleine]

I usually make a binder for even the smallest of trips, but it's an especially useful practice for larger groups.

First, I start by dividing the party into smaller groups with similar interests. Usually for me, this means nuclear families stick together and they get personalized plans. You can split it differently though, I'm sure on my next big trip, there will be instances where my sister and I (both 20 something's) will take our cousins (young teenagers) around while our parents do other things. I always try to get the family together for one big event in the day (for us, it's a table service meal because my whole family likes the dining plan), but it could be that everyone meets up for a quick service meal, fast pass, the pool, etc. Beyond that, if there are overlapping interests, I try to line those up as well.

I usually ask each member of the party or each sub group to make a list of their top 3 choices for one credit table service restaurants, and then build a plan around those preferences in hopes that each person will have something they love. Being the trip planner, I reserve the right to judge dining options against my own preferences

Past that, I pretty much just plan however many separate trips as I've made groups. I allow them as little or as much input as they want to have. Of course, I find planning vacations to be my happy place, so I enjoy this much detail work. Hopefully you can get some amount of help from this!

 

[hopemax]

It's been awhile since I've done a large group, and I was lucky in that, since my immediate family was the only ones who had been to Disney, they were content to let me lead everyone around. But I tried to be cognizant of what could be grouped together easily. And I purposefully, didn't have us running back and forth using FPs that were far apart from each other. It may have not have been the most efficient touring schedule, but it was about making sure people got to see the best of WDW (signature attractions and shows) and fed with the least amount of effort on their part.

For example at AK, a Festival of the Lion King show, FP for Kilimanjaro Safaris and a meal can make a nice block. You might even be able to do something like FOP FP, FoLK, Meal, KS FP as a block. Then have free time, because maybe somebody wants to do the trail, someone else is interested in the band, and someone else just wants to get a drink at Dawa bar but all of those activities could take 15min-1 hr depending on individual styles. While the block group pretty much has a hard start/stop or length. Or you might be able to do Nemo, Everest, Rivers of Light as a block.

At Epcot, in might be a FP for Frozen/Test Track/Soarin depending on interest, dinner, free time, Illuminations.

You can plan out more besides the key block, but make it clear people don't have to participate in everything.

 

[MHSweb79]

When we had a large group, all were Disney vets but some were early birds while others were night owls, which kind of made things difficult. What we ended up doing was having the earlies meet up in the morning, then meeting for a group lunch with everyone. After lunch was free time. We all met up for evening shows/ parades for those who wished to see them.

There was plenty of alone time for each family, with part of every day dedicated to the group, which kept everyone happy.

 

[kappyfamily]

I’m planning for 10 now, and have also booked for 14 in the past. Like others have mentioned, you won’t make everyone happy all the time. I also have a dinner/face time call with everyone about 2 weeks before my ADR day happens and let everyone know you will do your best with dining and fast passes but there’s a good chance we could be split up. I’ve also found sometimes this is a blessing in disguise too. That many people and personalities can get a little cranky so it always seems to work out.

Have fun planning and an even better trip!

 

[Bobb_o]

Take everything you'd normally do and half it. That way it's less things for everyone to sync up on and if things go sideways it'll be easier to react. Focus on must dos early as you never know when your night time plans (or morning plans for that matter) will get changed.

I hope that they trust you and go with what you say but for some people that's hard to just give up control to someone else. Good luck!

 

[Redbudlover]

Breathe,,,,,,,,,,,,, now another breath
it will all work out.
AK is a great place to stay for big families.
When is your trip?
Are you staying at Kidani or Jambo?
Just a heads up that Disney's Animal Kingdom Resort Jambo House's pool is due this Sept for renovations and they will be offering transportation over to Kidani for pool use.
http://www.wdwinfo.com/wdwinfo/rehab.htm
" Uzima Springs Pool- Jambo House, Uzima Springs Pool and Uzima Springs Pool Bar closed 9/1/2018- Winter 2018."

Maybe get together ahead of time to discuss everyone's expectations and touring styles.

Hugs Mel

Hi, We will be staying at Jambo and the trip is a year from October, so hopefully the pool is open! I am not a Kidani fan.... but love Jambo. I wish we could get together buy my family is in Austin Texas and my DDiL and family are in Calgary Ontario. Maybe SKYPE... Maybe after I send them some things...

 

[Redbudlover]

As someone who has planned these big multi age multi family trips before, the first thing you have to do is get everyone on the same page expectation wise.

• Are they wanting you to take over and plan everything, and they are just going to go along?

• Are they expecting to do their own thing and just meet up with you for a meal or two or a few activities?

• Do they even have a general idea of what they are getting into? Crowds, size and number of parks, types of attractions?

You’d be surprised how many people don’t even know there are 4 parks, not to mention 2 water parks.

I had a coworker who was going with her son’s family to Disney who told me that she wasn’t planning on riding anything because she doesn’t do thrill rides and was only going for the grandkids. She was shocked when I explained that most of Disney’s rides moved slower than her ECV and involved simply sitting on a bench. I brought her an old map I had and highlighted all the tame rides for her. She came back so happy thanking me because she had a great time riding everything and had no idea Disney wasn’t another Six Flags.


The second thing to figure out is what type of vacationer everyone is.

• Is anyone on a budget? Do they understand how expensive TS meals are?

It’s all fine to agree to do a bunch of fun sounding meals when you are expecting them to be priced at a normal level or maybe only slightly higher. The fun disappears quickly when sticker shock sets in if you weren’t expecting how expensive they are.

• Are they interested in other add-ons like dessert parties?

• Are they early morning or late night people? Open to rope drop? Expecting afternoon breaks?

• Aware of the weather during the time of year you are visiting? Aware afternoon storms are common and roll in and out very quickly?

We had a bit of a fight over that one trip. One of the guys on our trip was in a cranky, tired, hot mood. I love that it was the adult giving us crap and not the well behaved children. When the rain came in he started freaking about dangerous storms and getting out of the park ASAP. We were trying to explain to him it was just a normal afternoon shower, nothing to worry about, but he just wouldn’t listen. He knew better than us. I will admit to finally loosing my calm and screaming at him in the Star Tours gift shop to get him to listen. Over my dead body was everyone returning to the room when the storm would be over in an hour or less. We finally got him to check the radar on his phone. He saw the rain would be gone in about 15 minutes, calmed down, and apologized, and our day continued, but oh my gosh, big groups can be hard.


I suggest having a pre-Disney meeting, maybe over dinner or appetizers if possible. Maybe a Skype call if you guys aren’t near each other. It doesn’t have to be some long drawn out thing where all the details are ironed out, but get down the basics. Explain briefly about what a Disney vacation is like for the ones who haven’t gone. Get everyone’s opinion on what they are wanting to get out of this vacation. Is there anything they feel strongly about doing or not doing? What type of touring are they ok with doing? Do they want to stay together or not or only some of the time? Until you have all these answers, it will be hard to really plan much of anything.



I’ve been lucky that most of our trips the people I go with tell me they don’t really care, to just plan whatever I want to. I still try to ask their opinion if I am in doubt about something or if there is an add-on I think would be worth doing but would cost them extra money. I try to make sure that I include something special for each member of the group I know they’d really enjoy. That way no one is left out. I find out in advance if there is anything each person really wants to do or not do. Then keeping the agreed upon budget in mind, I plan from there.

Sometimes we all stay together the whole trip. Other times, we do our own thing for the most part. Other times, we stay together in the morning, have lunch, and then go our own ways after that. It really depends on the trip and the expectations of that particular group.

Once I have it all figured out, I usually make a schedule or brochure with all of the plans (where we are staying, what we are doing when, meals, scheduled entertainment, and free time). I give one to everyone. This ensures we are all on the same page. There’s no confusion about what the plans are. If someone doesn’t want to do one of the steps, they can easily catch up with the rest of the group later by seeing where the schedule has us when they are ready to regroup. It also means I don’t have to keep answering what’s next all the time.

I love this post. I would like to send it to our new family if that is okay. It seems like a great way to get the conversation going. If people could answer some of these questions we could then get to more detailed ones. thanks!

 

[Redbudlover]

I usually make a binder for even the smallest of trips, but it's an especially useful practice for larger groups.

First, I start by dividing the party into smaller groups with similar interests. Usually for me, this means nuclear families stick together and they get personalized plans. You can split it differently though, I'm sure on my next big trip, there will be instances where my sister and I (both 20 something's) will take our cousins (young teenagers) around while our parents do other things. I always try to get the family together for one big event in the day (for us, it's a table service meal because my whole family likes the dining plan), but it could be that everyone meets up for a quick service meal, fast pass, the pool, etc. Beyond that, if there are overlapping interests, I try to line those up as well.

I usually ask each member of the party or each sub group to make a list of their top 3 choices for one credit table service restaurants, and then build a plan around those preferences in hopes that each person will have something they love. Being the trip planner, I reserve the right to judge dining options against my own preferences

Past that, I pretty much just plan however many separate trips as I've made groups. I allow them as little or as much input as they want to have. Of course, I find planning vacations to be my happy place, so I enjoy this much detail work. Hopefully you can get some amount of help from this!

 

[Redbudlover]

I usually make a binder for even the smallest of trips, but it's an especially useful practice for larger groups.

First, I start by dividing the party into smaller groups with similar interests. Usually for me, this means nuclear families stick together and they get personalized plans. You can split it differently though, I'm sure on my next big trip, there will be instances where my sister and I (both 20 something's) will take our cousins (young teenagers) around while our parents do other things. I always try to get the family together for one big event in the day (for us, it's a table service meal because my whole family likes the dining plan), but it could be that everyone meets up for a quick service meal, fast pass, the pool, etc. Beyond that, if there are overlapping interests, I try to line those up as well.

I usually ask each member of the party or each sub group to make a list of their top 3 choices for one credit table service restaurants, and then build a plan around those preferences in hopes that each person will have something they love. Being the trip planner, I reserve the right to judge dining options against my own preferences

Past that, I pretty much just plan however many separate trips as I've made groups. I allow them as little or as much input as they want to have. Of course, I find planning vacations to be my happy place, so I enjoy this much detail work. Hopefully you can get some amount of help from this!

I love the idea of a binder! We will all be getting together in July for the wedding before the trip in October. It might be ambitious but it would be a time we could be face to face to discuss this. Maybe I could have a littleprint out with check boxes they could use and send to me....

 

[ambellina]

This seems like a lot of work for you! Is it possible for you to use a travel agent who might have experience in this sort of thing to help you along? At the very least you'd have someone else that other family members could call to help if things get tumultuous.

 

[momimouse27]

Have you thought about having a family "get together" with everyone or at least most of the people who will be on the trip. Even if it's just a family dinner, if you can talk about Disney, you might get an idea of what everyone's expectations of the trip are. At least that's somewhere to start. Looks like there are lots of people here who have done it.

I have planned a trip for my whole family(9 people) but we have all been before and we all assume we're each doing our own thing except for a few family dinners. I know you can do it...you'll have a blast!

 

[Princess Madeleine]

I love the idea of a binder! We will all be getting together in July for the wedding before the trip in October. It might be ambitious but it would be a time we could be face to face to discuss this. Maybe I could have a littleprint out with check boxes they could use and send to me....

WDW Prep School blog has a great section about preparing vacation binders. If you decide to go that route, search for that post, it's what I use to structure my plans.

 

[nighttowll]

I love this post. I would like to send it to our new family if that is okay. It seems like a great way to get the conversation going. If people could answer some of these questions we could then get to more detailed ones. thanks!

Thanks. Glad I could help. Feel free to send it to whoever.

One more thing I forgot to mention, double check Disney actually means Disney. You’d be surprised how many people equate Disney with any large theme park located in or near Orlando. There’s one coworker I had who kept telling me about her trip to Disney when her kids were younger. The thing is, she wasn’t talking about Disney. She went to Universal. Despite me telling her this multiple times, she doesn’t get the difference. Any theme park in Orlando is Disney to her. Make sure your family understands that Sea World, Busch Gardens (Tampa), Universal Studios, and Island of Adventure (2nd Universal Park) are all separate parks located in the area in addition to Disney’s 4 parks, Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios, and Epcot. No matter how hard they look, they aren’t going to find HP land at Disney.

 

[Bob Dolewhip]

I’m the Planner for my family and I like to ask everyone traveling what their top 3 Must Do things are. I structure our plan around those top things and fill in with all the other disneyness.

One thing I learned the hard way is to make sure everyone has their Disney IDs set and linked up as friends before fast pass reservation day. Ugh headache.

If you have another Disney addict going, enlist his/her help on booking days to get all the adrs and fast passes. You both try to book everything and then compare what you got