Going with a Group of 10..any tips??

[dixiegirl]

Well As the title says, hubby and I along with our 4 1/2 and soon to be 8 year old are going with 6 other people...2 boys who will be 8 when we go (one who has never gone before...disney virgin woohoo!) and 4 other adults.
The Other
adults are grandparents...3 who are taking their grandsons and My mother inlaw....One couple is staying at one of the ALL Star resort while my mother inlaw and her friend with grandson is staying at the same resort as us being Saratoga Springs....
We go every year once, twice and if were lucky three times a year(hence why we're DVC members)..We are not renting a car , using the disney transportation....We are going in September..Have all our ADR's ready...Including MNSSHP......WOOOO!!
Ok so there is the background of it all , my question is does anybody have any tips with going with a group this size?? I ask because hubby and I are so use to going just the 4 of us...Beyond the normal ADRS we just go, play evey day by ear , Sometimes hitting 2 or 3 parks a day . Our girls are use to going to Disney...They are Seasoned Disney nuts, They are use to the Walking , characters, keeping late hours at the park or going early and coming back to resort for a Break
and such....I Just have this vision in my head because we go so often to Disney of the Guy in the Bird Show (I think its called the Flights Of Wonder) at
Animal Kingdom Who is the tour Guide....With His flag Yelling "tour Guide Here"......I just want to make sure A good time is had by all, basically..
So feel free give us tips.......Oh by the way, we are not doing any of the Magical Gathering things (love to) because of trying to say money for everyone!!!....Sorry to ramble...
Did I mention we leave in 81 more days!!!!!!!!:hammer:

I have afeeling with three 8 year olds and a 4 1/2 and grandparents....Hubby and I might be taking the liquid tour around epcot!!!!!LOL

 

[tigsmom]

The biggest thing I have to say is DO NOT spend every waking moment with the group. We went with a group of 9 (all family, 5 kids) and we spent just about the entire day together. :zipit: The fact that you are in 2 different hotels helps.
Buddy up the kids so there is no fighting about who sits with whom on the rides (this can change everyday if you want). Have a leader when you go into a ride, this way when the CM asks how many there is not a bunch of people saying "10!".
Have one adult at the front of the group, some in the middle and one at the back to catch stragglers (mainly kids) so you don't lose somebody.
Take a break to go swimming (or nap) if you need to in the afternoon, take advantage of EMH and Fastpass. When eating at CS places get tables first, if possible, and leave somebody there to watch them or you will never be able to stay together.
Relax and have fun, take a ton of photos, print up a set for each family (and if they do the same) you will have a great memory album for all to enjoy.
Have at least one group photo taken and make that the first photo in the album.

Have fun!! :wave:

 

[RachelP6877]

Do your own thing and meet for dinner

 

[Jessie&Buzz]

I've gone with a group of 10 + about 3 times now. This last trip we split up a couple of time and it was nice. Normally we try to stay together. One thing we did for the kids was had "moving buddies" like on Toy Story. We would ask if they had their moving buddy before heading off to the next ride/show. They loved that. We had 3 girls ages 10, almost 9 and 6 and 1 boy age almost 4. Also remember with a group that large you are slowed down. We didn't get to do everything we wanted. We also started making it a rule that if one person needed the bathroom then we all went because 10 minutes later someone else would have to go.

Hope you have a wonderful time!

 

[MicheleK]

We also have gone several times with a group of 12 family members, 6 adults, 6 kids. For us my cousin's family was always the "stragglers" getting up and ready and in the parks (which I knew before we left). So the deal there was, "call my cell when you get to the park and we hitch up." It worked out well as my family and my brother's family would meet nice and early, have fun and my cousins would show up two, three, four hours later. But being the "pokey" type, they really slowed us down :shrug:. Oh, well, what can you do, I was still in my "happy place".

My advice to you is to do some things on your own and don't let others frustrate you. Also realize that you're not going to be able to do/see everything you ususally do/see, it's virtually impossible with all those people.

Most of all have a "magical" time and do a TR for us when you come back with lots of picture :wave:.

 

[Nemo14]

We often go with a group of 10, and it works well for us (but we stay off site). However we went one year with a different group, and all I can say is "Never again!" with them.

I think the best advise is to not try to do everything together, and prepare your kids (and yourselves)for the fact that this time it will be different (and there's always next time for you). I'd buy them a guide book and give them a couple of weeks to digest it, then try to meet all together for a planning-type meeting. Stay flexible, but make sure they know that some planning strategies are necessary. Come up with a general plan for which days for which parks, and plan some free time where you can all seperate.

Just keep in mind that you will be moving at the rate of your slowest member, and that meals, and transportation issues are going to take a lot longer. Just relax and enjoy it!

Have fun, and hope you have a truly memorable trip!

 

[DisneyJoe]

Don't try to all stay together as a group, you'll go insane.

- make sure everyone has a copy of a cell phone list

- arrange some daily meets, ie. meet for a meal or a parade or a fireworks show or a ride; we planned a park of the day, and we would have planned meets and also spontaneous meets - sometimes the spontaneous ones were a lot of fun

- have planning/discussion parties/meetings before you go, to brief the newbies on all of the things that there are to do

We did a trip of 15 in June 2002, there were 4 groups; we made dining reservations for one meal per day for the entire group, one day we had made 2 meal reservations. We also arranged to meet for a parade or fireworks each night.

In the end, at almost every case, we had 3 of the 4 groups present at each meal and event/fireworks, except for Cinderella's breakfast and the Hoop Dee Doo Revue, when all were present - because of the credit card guarantee! It wasn't always the same group missing, it was a good mix...

We also had quite a few spontaneous meetups.

Just to reiterate, if you all try and stay together, you will be at the mercy of the slowest people in the group - getting up in the morning, getting dressed, eating, getting to the parks - in our case, if we had waited for the slowest group, we wouldn't have arrived at a park each day until 10 or 11am, and we get up at 6!!!

 

[dixiegirl]

OH boy!!! You guys are getting me nervous!!!! Well like said in another post at least I'll be in my happy place and they'll always be other trips...I hope I can handle it, I'm well a very very fast hyper person naturally, the hubby is very use to it , so is the mother in law.....I'm hoping that the rest of the group will go on their own if they choose to and not feel the need to be all together....We have told my mother inlaw to relate this to the rest of the group just in case they do have plans to go on their own and at their own pace!!!!..My mother inlaw in pretty good, she pretty much goes with the flow of what we do.. We're usually up and out to go to the parks by 8 or 9 in the morning ....as far as the others??? I can tell I'm i'm gonna need that "adult beverage" at dinner time!!!!!!

 

[MrImagineer]

Wow...we're doing the same thing in October :ROFLOL:. Try and split up into two groups, and meet for meals. Oh, and figure out whether you're splitting the bill or who is paying the entire bill!

 

[SpongeChampion]

Ten people huh. That's like almost $700. You want to take the risk of paying that much.

 

[cblodg]

I will reinterate what Rachel said... don't even try to please everyone. As much as we'd all love for the group to stay together, everyone has their own things they want to do.

When we went with a large group of people in November of 2002 for Thanksgiving, we did insist that the whole group go on rides where a group picture would be taken (ie- splash mountain, TOT). After those the group could split up. And boy were we glad to get away from that large group every so often. It can be a serious drain. But if you don't try to plan everything out and just let them do what they're gonna do, your trip will be great!

Have a great time!!

 

[DisneyNme]

I say...send the kids off on there own......let the adults play. Im Kidding, Ive been with 10 people before, although no kids, it was tough to please everyone, so ive learned to just go with the flow. To much organization on vacation puts me in an UGLY mood.

Splitting up isnt a bad thing, but i find it much more fun when everyone is together and just going with it. We went for 10 days, so it gave us plenty of time to do what we wanted....

Yes, you must do the liquid tour of the world showcase!

 

[BlizzardPoke]

I would basically agree with everyone else here. We did a trip of 11 in April, and we tried to stay together most of the time. It just doesn't work as there are some different things that everyone wants to see, so by the end of the trip we were splitting up and meeting for meals and parades. The pre-trip planning meetings are vital, especially for WDW-virgins, so you don't have to explain what each thing is on that day.
We laid out a plan as to what parks we were going to hit each day, and then during our meetings I got everyone to rate each attraction based on how they would feel if they missed it. Then I put together a basic itinerary making sure that we hit each person's "must do's" as well as most of the "want to do's". Just know that you will be moving through the parks slower (not necessarily a bad thing) and there will be LOTS of bathroom breaks. Most of all, have fun, and take joy in showing the new people all that WDW has to offer!

 

[eagles]

i just got back from our trip with 10. i have to say i will never ever do it again.

the one big advise i would give, (besides don't do it) would be split up! and someone else mentioned having pre-pared groupings for the rides, that would have been a good thing to have thought of.

you will not please everyone and only make yourself miserable. split up, split up and please, split up.

 

[chris chris]

make sure its people u relate to. lve gone in a group of 10 and we were fine. we did do what DisneyJoe just said. we went in a group of 18 a year later. i will NEVER do that again. it was just too much all we did was walk (sarcasim) :animwink:

 

[DizneyPryncess]

I can relate very well to you. Once a year, my fiance & I go to WDW alone, and one a year we go with a group of 20. My best advice to you is to realize ahead of time that this trip will be totally different from when you go with only 4.

Expect things to move a little slower, and take that time to enjoy your time together rather than fighting and trying to move quicker. Everyone is going to have different things they want to see & do, and if you all stay together all day, everyone has to understand that. Our pace is much slower with a big group, and we don't get as much done as quickly, but it's so nice to see the whole family too.

It's not a bad idea to split for a few hours, and set a meet up time. That way everyone can do the things they've prioritized without actually doing your own thing all day. The point of all going together is to spend time together, but splitting up for a short time is okay.

That's my best advice! I'm sure you will have a great trip. :wave:

 

[Mybails]

Suggestion:

The grandparents may want a slower pace sometime - set up a kid's speed and an adult's speed. In the afternoons take the kid's so the grandparents can go back and swim or nap and your family can host the other kid's to your regular pace and meet the "old folK" back for dinner and the evenings.

 

[Timmay]

I have done groups of 8 and 13, both times I was the "leader", so to speak. This was something I didn't really want to do, but afterwards I saw it was needed. So:

#1 You do need a leader, someone that everyone else is going to listen to...period. If not, then it simply will not work with that many people.

#2 The first time with 8 people we were able to be together the entire time. We got the park hoppers and we rented a 15 passenger van. With the "leader" concept, this worked out great. Now, with 13 of us, we knew it was going to be different. We still used the "leader", but we went with Disney transportation, did one Disney park a day (no park hopper) and we split up several times each day and kept in contact with cell phones. What was funny was that even though we would split up in samller groups, we always seemed to run into each other. Anyway, we met up at the same time each morning, but we seldom ate together, although we did try to end up together at the end of the day.

Just remember you need to worry about having a good time yourself, and your good time does not depend on how much fun others are having. It just won't work out well that way.

 

[dixiegirl]

Just remember you need to worry about having a good time yourself, and your good time does not depend on how much fun others are having. It just won't work out well that way.

This I know I must do!!!! Because if not I won't have a good time!!!!
I think perhaps between the hubby and myself will be the "leaders"....No, I "know" we will be the leaders!!!!! Thats It!! We spent to much money not to have a good time!!!

 

[MicheleK]

I got to be leader on our trip too:sohappy:. I did enjoy it and everybody seemed to listen (I loved that ). There was one point that I got into a conversation with someone in the group (my cousin) and stopped "leading" and proceeded to get yelled at by the others in the group for "slacking" off. Maybe you and your husband could switch off every now and again so you can have a little "conversation" time with others :lol:.

One more thing, please don't be one of those people who stand in line and "save" a spot for the other NINE members of your group. It's different if you hold one or two spots, but not nine. I hate it when that happens. There's nothing like standing in line for an hour and then having 10 people cut in front of you when you're almost to the ride :fork:.