Family of 14 - Need an Attack Plan

[Sebastian Lopez]

Hi guys so let me introduce myself.

My name is Sebastian I am from California and in 2 days we will be leaving to Orlando with my family, and in 4 days we will set foot in the magic kingdom. Its me, my two brothers, best friend, five cousins, two aunts, two uncles, and grandma. I have planned this entire trip on my own. I did everything from the flights, hotel, disney tickets, food we will buy, and cars we need.

Of course the top of my priorities is going to be how we can make the best of Disney. Clearly, this isn't the typical family size and we have all discussed that we want to travel together so making the best of our huge crowd is crucial.

Therefore, I am asking if you guys and girls, can give me a few tips on how to go about the day and ensure we get to see all major attractions, some good sightseeing, and the nice smaller attractions around all parks.

P.S.- ten of us have 3 day base tickets for Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, and Hollywood Studios. The other 4 of us have 4 day base tickets for all four disney parks.

Thanks!

 

[mweier]

I went to WDW with a family of 9 that spanned 3 generations this past February. It's a great time and an incredible memory to share. When we heard they were going, we piled on with the plan since when else would this be possible!

Here are some of the things that seemed to help make our trip a huge success:

1) Understand everyone's priorities before you lock in plans. If everyone can communicate if there's a show/attraction/dining that they HAVE to see, that helps. In my case, I really only had to satisfy the kids as the rest were pretty go-with-theflow.
2) Feel free to divide and conquer. Keeping that many people together as a single mob isn't always easy/possible due to crowds, bathroom breaks, shopping, different attraction ages, etc. Knowing that you've got a way to break out into groups for parts of the day helps, even if it's as simple as "you 4 can hit star tours and TSMM while the rest of us hit RnRC and ToT". You can establish goal times for meetups (the easiest of which to coordinate are meals)
3) Planning ADR's together is a good way to let people go their own way for some/all of the day but have a plan to share a sit down together. Here too, we found a couple times where splitting us was equally great (e.g. date night for 2 while the rest have a different dinner; etc). If you don't already have dining reservations, it may be a challenge to find restaurants who can handle that many people together so check the dining site asap.
4) Link all your accounts if you want centralized Fastpass+ and ADR mgmt. Hopefully you've already got this sorted but I needed phone support to figure this out as it's not super simple if not everyone has an MDE account already. If you can't get them all linked to show up in your MDE account, you can still use the FP+ kiosks in-park too for "day-of" tour planning.
5) hit rope drop for headliners as much as possible, but don't be surprised/upset if some of your group doesn't want to get to the park until later. See #2.
6) If you are just looking for a general touring plan to see as much as possible, Touringplans.com has awesome prefab ones or you can generate one on-the-fly based on what everyone wants to add to a personalized one. Well worth the price of subscription and works great in-park with their app. This more than anything helps me avoid being stuck in a long line or forced to skip something because I didn't want to wait for 70min+.
7) Make sure you understand how much walking everyone can handle. Not everyone may be up for 10+ miles of criss-crossing parks to take it all in with the shortest waits. Be aware of when some people need to take a break. I built a 3-4 hr break in the middle of each day for us which helped us all, but it still wasn't uncommon for 1-2 others to take a break on their own in order to relax a bit extra.

 

[Sebastian Lopez]

Thank You so much and I did set aside a table for us over at EPCOT for the Biergarten Restaurant for a big and nice family lunch.

And I did consider splitting up at the park to avoid having to deal with so many people because there comes a point when too many people pose a problem.

I do have all of their fasptasses set aside for all 4 days.

Should we split up into smaller groups and then we all meet together during our fastpass times or give them the opportunity to choose their own attractions.

 

[mweier]

Should we split up into smaller groups and then we all meet together during our fastpass times or give them the opportunity to choose their own attractions.

That depends on how similar of stamina/interests everyone has. The main deal is that 1) not everyone may want to do the same thing, which may even necessitate splitting up or even forking the FP+ and 2) trying to navigate the parks with that many people requires a "tour guide leader/tour group followers" mentality and a lot more time to do less. Don't mean to imply that you can't sick together, just that you need to lower your expectations of how much you can pack into a day (even with a touring plan)

What are your group's ages? Similar interests? Also, what FP+ choices/times do you have?

 

[CheshireCat12]

Having visited in a large-ish group before, I would say:

1. Split up based on interests and meet up for some meals
2. If you have older folks, and you are going now (its HOT) be sure to take some time. Do you need to rent scooters/ECV? Do you have little ones that have to see the kiddie stuff (Dumbo, Barnstormer)?
3. Realize that in 3-4 days you will not see everything. Have a list of your must-dos and be sure they are FP+ or that you get there at rope drop instead. If you travel in a large group, it will definitely slow your pace down and you will miss a lot.
Have a nice time!

 

[Wikkler]

Yeah, split up based on interests in the area. If you have both thrill junkies and small children in the party, split up and do both Monsters, Inc. and Space Mountain, for example, when you get to Tomorrowland. Meet up at the Central Plaza.

 

[Sebastian Lopez]

We do have similar interest in mind primarily because everyone has agreed to follow me haha. I do think that we should split up because some of my family likes to walk a little slower and do sight seeing. I am debating over whether or not to go into two smaller groups and give one of them a disney account so that they can manage their fastpasses. in our entire group there is only one of my cousins that is scared of rides, and I wouldnt feel right asking her to wait in line with us and then leave not board the ride when we are up.

 

[JillC LI]

I agree with the above excellent suggestions, particularly getting there before rope drop and splitting up into smaller groups. I would make sure that everyone has reasonable expectations - you will NOT be able to hit ALL the major attractions most likely, but you should be able to hit the highlights that are most important to you if you have a game plan for each park.
Your lunch at the Biergarten with such a big group should be a blast!

 

[EpcoTim]

Jameson.

 

[Wikkler]

Jameson.

Congratulations! You win best post of the day!

 

[kamr211]

I travelled with a group of 11 ranging in age from 5 to 65.
For the most part they were all Disney rookies.
I was the planner, organizer, reservation maker.
I asked the kids ahead of time what they wanted to see. The adults just went with the flow.
I made sure everyone had a copy of the touring plan and knew the fears/height restrictions of the kids.
We hit every park 15 minutes before rope drop and the group tried to stay together.
We made variations like small kids did AstroOrbiter while big kids did Space Mountain..
I also announced what was up next in case anyone wanted out (everyone stayed together)
We only split up for a few minutes when some needed extra bathroom breaks and when some wanted to head back to the hotel after lunch for a pool break.
We had a blast!!!!

 

[wendysue]

Wow..I commend anyone who can coordinate that many family members and actually have a good time. That's awesome. Couldn't happen in our families (tears hair out)...

 

[Sebastian Lopez]

Ok so today marks our 3rd day in Florida and just yesterday we went to the magic kingdom and it was awesome. It wasn't as big as I anticipated. We saw the whole park and got on quite a couple of rides. The fastpass system worked flawlessly but I couldn't figure out how to make new ones when we finished our fastpasses. The big group wasn't a problem because everyone moved through the crowd swiftly. Tomorrow comes EPCOT

 

[RMichael21]

Ok so today marks our 3rd day in Florida and just yesterday we went to the magic kingdom and it was awesome. It wasn't as big as I anticipated. We saw the whole park and got on quite a couple of rides. The fastpass system worked flawlessly but I couldn't figure out how to make new ones when we finished our fastpasses. The big group wasn't a problem because everyone moved through the crowd swiftly. Tomorrow comes EPCOT

I know you'll have a great rest of your vacation!