Disney for FOURTEEN?!

[kimberlymautz]

Good afternoon everyone! I've posted on here before, initially asking about going to Disney in January with my boyfriend, our daughter, and our best friends and their two girls. Now, our trip has expanded to absolute craziness.

The travelers will be:
Myself, my boyfriend Angel, and our two year old daughter Allyson.
My best friend Jillian, her fiance Colin, and their daughters Riley and MacKenzie.
Jillian's cousin Frankie and a friend of Frankie's choice.
Our new friend Samantha and her boyfriend Aubrey.
Jillian's friend Sandra, her boyfriend Ray, and their baby (she'll be 10m) Serenity.

I thought trying to plan a trip to Disney for seven was going to be difficult, so let's just add seven more I suppose!

Has anyone ever traveled with that big of a group before?
If so, what was it like? How was it getting on rides?

Well be staying off site at a rental house we are getting a really amazing deal on.

And we'll most likely be driving down.


Any other suggestions for traveling with an obnoxious amount of people?

 

[RandomPrincess]

Number one tip is you don't have to do everything together!

Here is what we did -

We went with 12 people and we rented a house off site so 5 bedroom 5 bath with a pool in the yard. It saved us tons of money since the house was split between the families (they have bigger houses too). We had 4 cars as well so each family could do their own thing if needed. I picked the park for each day and one sit down meal for lunch around 2:00 and booked them. I then sent my itinerary to each family and told them they were welcome to join us or do their own thing. I sent them links to the tours and outings Disney offers along with a link to check out each park. I told them I would be happy to book things for them if they wanted.

The first day everyone stuck together as the week went on less and less people stuck together. It was fine though as we would meet up for meals or see each other in the mornings and evenings at the house. The multiple cars came in handy as people decided to check out different parks or leave half day. Families that like to sleep in can meet you later etc. The house was also great for having taking turn staying with the kids so adults could enjoy DTD or other local restaurants for some alone time. They would put the kids to bed and then head out to dinner.

 

[lunchbox1175]

I have been with that many, and it was an absolute blast! We did most things together, but no one felt obligated to do so, and there were plenty of times that we split up and went to do things we each wanted to. You definitely will want to call on the 180 day point for dining reservations as that many is hard to accommodate at a lot of the places. The best advice I can give is to relax and take your time, don't be like a tour group that is out of control, some of your best memories will be of the conversations you will have just standing in lines waiting for rides. Good luck!

 

[kimberlymautz]

That's a good idea. The homes we're looking at are between 4 and 5 bedrooms, and while they don't have private pools most of them have community pools within walking distance.

I already know some people might split off, especially Sam and Aubrey because they'll be the only couple without a child, but I'm almost certain Jillian and I will stay together for the majority of the trip. Our SO are best friends and the girls are all best friends too, so it'd be harder to split from them then just stick together. Haha.

We're hoping we can have one night where the guys will watch the kids so the girls can go out, and in return we'll let the guys go out one night as well.

 

[JIMINYCR]

WOW... 14 ... At least you'll have plenty of adults in the group to help with driving. You'll be your own tour group. I don't think I could ever get that many people to agree on what to do at any one time. Don't go crazy trying to make plans for everyone or be their tour guide. Keeping track of everyone will be difficult. You wont be able to enjoy your trip. Help them with plans, get them started and then split up and arrange to possibly meet up as a group later.

 

[RandomPrincess]

I used http://www.villadirect.com/ to find our house. You can plug in your requirements.

 

[jkl2000]

Yeah, as long as you split up when necessary, that should be fun. I go a bit crazy if too many people try to plan just going to a movie together, so it might not be my thing, but.

I hope that 10-month-old lives up to her name - Serenity. That might be ONE thing that's in short supply during the visit.

 

[disneyfan56]

Fourteen? Amatuer!

I've gone several times with family members/friends groups of up to 25 people. It does get crazy when everyone tries to everything together. We ended up having to split up in to smaller groups and then it was much better without as much drama.

 

[luv]

Don't even attempt to please all those people. Give them the names of the Unofficial Guide and the name of this site and let them do it themselves.

Even if you spent ten trillion hours to plan something everyone said they wanted, they'll change it when they're there and all your work will have been for nothing.

Agree to meet for a few meals, but do not attempt to tour together. If you all tried to stay together 24/7, you won't do it forever and there will be fights.

Split up!

That's my best advice.

 

[foreverbelle]

I agree, we had a family gathering of ten, while it wasn't fourteen it was dif a lot more than we usually do. We didn't do everything together. While we did end up going to a lot of the parks, we went separate ways from time to time. Allowing us a little bit of freedom from one another. We also only did three of the seven nights all together. The other times were spent either with another person, ourselves and we took turns having dinners with my parents.

Looking back it was a lot of planning but at the same time it was a lot of fun....

 

[stevehousse]

I used http://www.villadirect.com/ to find our house. You can plug in your requirements.

We have used them the last 3 Disney visits with great success and great places to stay! Highly recommended.

One thing I will say is use the site to google the address of the home so you can see just how far you are from the Disney property. Most of the villa direct homes are fairly close to the parks, but you can never be too safe!

The last 3 houses we have stayed at all were less than a 10 min drive. I say becareful because we have had friends use other vacation home sites that say they are close to Disney, and they ended up being over 30 minutes away!

 

[Disney Shib]

Good afternoon everyone! I've posted on here before, initially asking about going to Disney in January with my boyfriend, our daughter, and our best friends and their two girls. Now, our trip has expanded to absolute craziness.

Try http://www.solana-resort.com/. I go down with 10-14 people once every year and these vacations are perfect! It's about a 10-12 minute ride from the WDW MK exit on I-4. The place also has a great clubhouse with a pool, jacuzzi, playground and tiki bar. Most of the houses have their own private pools and jacuzzi's but it's nice for little ones.

Try the Hoopty-Doo Review too! It's a great way to bring large groups together.

 

[dreamfinder]

Don't try to plan for everyone. Maybe 1 group activity a day, and then if you spend more time together, great. If not, no worries. Be it a lunch, a dinner, a meeting for parade/fireworks, etc. While you may all get along and enjoy each other, trying to keep 14 people happy at once will be darn near impossible. Some of the kids will need naps, some might scream bloody murder at seeing a 5 foot tall Mickey Mouse, etc. Having that one group activity lets you all see each other and spend time together, but there is no pressure if one group doesn't want to do ToT, while another wants to ride if 13 times in a row and skips all the DHS shows instead.

 

[WellFedDave]

I've done trips with groups ranging from 2 people to 17 people. I think the break even point is right around 8 people for keeping it together as 1 big group. Any larger it gets to be too much trying to plan to keep the entire group together the entire day. Biggest thing to be is flexible. Make sure you have multiple modes of transport, especially since you'll be offsite. Do try and do one large group experience together...like a character breakfast or a fireworks cruise.

 

[fam]

We've done 10 multiple times...but...4 of them were small children. No issues at all. Disney is very welcoming and understanding when going into lines just say "all 10 of us are together" and they will do the rest. Youll want all your dining reservations done well in advance with correct numbers but 10 was easy..The more the merrier, for example, you can space out and give yourselves room in lines if you dont want to be bunched up...
Have fun.

 

[Zman-ks]

I used http://www.villadirect.com/ to find our house. You can plug in your requirements.

I use Villa Direct also.

 

[PrincessNelly_NJ]

While I've never been with 14 people, I have been with a group of 7 and what we did was get together one night and pop in the WDW vacation planning guide and get a feel for what everyone was most interested in doing. We looked at how people preferred to eat at WDW, some like TS meals while other were fine with hot dogs so we split up during meals times occasionally. I think splitting up might be a great idea since 4 of you dont have kids

 

[GoalieGirl16]

We have 21 people on the wedding trip. I have an 8 page master itinerary to manage it. I divided the original 21 people into 7 teams by roommates and length of stay and arrival time. I have somehow managed to plan times to spend with each group in the parks as well as group activities surrounding the wedding. I gave up totally on trying to stay together as a group very early on. It is already insanity. To quote my friend "I have travelled to places that required the permission of the State Department and it was less complicated". That being said if you want to see the itinerary I will be happy to PM it to you.