Big Family Trip July 2018

[osucbsb]

My wife's parents are wanting to plan a trip for a group of 12 to Disney World the last week of July 2018 (arriving on Sunday and leaving on Saturday). Since my family is the only part of the family that has ever been to Disney (WDW 4 times and DL 2 times), I have been asked to be in charge of the planning. We have been to the parks as a big group with my side of the family, but we have always stayed off site thru my brother's timeshares. For this trip, my wife's family wants to stay on site so they can experience everything Disney. An estimated budget would be to do it in less than $20,000.

We have talked about doing a 2 bedroom villa and a 1 bedroom villa at Old Key West to accommodate us all. We have also talked about just getting 3 rooms at either a value or moderate resort. We are planning on 4 days of tickets and the middle of the road dinning plan.

There will be 6 adults and 6 kids (ages 15, 15, 12, 10, 9, 1). My first question is where and when do I start?

 

[osucbsb]

There are so many things to think about..... Parents with a 15 year old are going to have different plans and must do's that the parents of the 1 year old. The 1 year old will need naps where the older kids may not. Because of this and other reasons I would say the more rooms/space you can have the better.
When it comes to meal plans they may be ok if everybody is on a separate reservation. 12 people on 1 reservation with a mixture of adult and child credits makes me really nervous. The other thing to think about is tips and extras. If parents "want to pay for everything" then gift cards may be the way to go so that all dining expenses can be charged to the gift cards. Or have everything charged to the room with the parents card as method of payment.
When it comes to MDE make sure each family has their own account. Putting them all on one can be a disaster if they need to be split up or adjusted in the future. I would offer to set them up for everybody and then email them their username and password. You can link them to your account so you can include them on changes if needed.

Before you leave make sure everybody is clear on expectations. We did a family of 11 trip a couple of years back and by the end we said we would never go with family again. As we were the Disney veterans there was a level of expectation that we would "hold their hand" from checking in at the airport through the end of their trip (we stayed 3 extra days). We had connecting rooms and by the end of 4th or 5th day we would quietly get ready and just go. We are all about helping family have a great time but in the end it was our vacation too.

We had a very similar experience as you. We laid out there the expectations before we left and by the end I was done. I felt like a travel agent and the bad guy trying to get everyone to the fastpasses and dining reservations. We set up the dining reservations and fastpasses to accommodate the other side of the family. Like I said in my other post, we were even changing fastpasses for when we thought they would be in the park. It is hard to mix different types of vacationers in this type of trip. I probably won't do it again.

 

[DfromATX]

We took lots of breaks and went at a very slow pace. I knew before we left that it wouldn't be their type of vacation. I was right. I just hoped the kids would at least enjoy themselves, but they fed off the negativity of one of the parents.

Sorry to hear that. I'm sure that's how it would be if I took my brother and his family.

 

[SuddenlyDisney]

We made it back from our trip. As far as plans go, the trip went really well. My family loves Disney and we hated to leave. We were able to get 4 character meals and fastpass most every ride we wanted. We didn't fastpass Flight of Avatar, but ended up waiting in line to ride it. All I have to say about that ride is WOW! It was well worth the 1.5 hour wait. We ended up taking a road trip to Daytona Beach and that was a lot of fun. With all of that said, this will be my last vacation with a big extended family. We had a great time with my wife's parents and would definitely go back with them. It is very hard to mix that many people who vacation very differently. My family are go-getters and we really toned down our pace to accommodate the other side of the family. Our toned down pace wasn't enough to satisfy them. By the end of the week (5 trips to the park and a trip to Daytona), the other side was spending about 75% of the time in their room at the resort. We were having to move around fastpasses for when they would show up to the park. I felt sorry for my wife's parents who put a lot of money into this trip. Disney was what they had hoped it would be, but the trip in itself was very hard on them.

Thank you for the followup. I'm currently planner in chief for our extended family of 10's 2019 Disney trip and different traveling styles is my main cause for worry. I'm hopeful planning for everyone to be together in the parks from rope drop until lunch and then again on some nights for the fireworks with afternoons left for everyone to go their own ways will make it feel less like spending a week herding recalcitrant cats. Glad you had a fun time and got to enjoy Daytona Beach.

 

[osucbsb]

Thank you for the followup. I'm currently planner in chief for our extended family of 10's 2019 Disney trip and different traveling styles is my main cause for worry. I'm hopeful planning for everyone to be together in the parks from rope drop until lunch and then again on some nights for the fireworks with afternoons left for everyone to go their own ways will make it feel less like spending a week herding recalcitrant cats. Glad you had a fun time and got to enjoy Daytona Beach.

Good Luck!! Have a great time!

 

[WDWMPrincess]

Good Luck!! Have a great time!

Thank you I'm certain we will.