I have been reading the advice and opinion on this forum for the past few hours and was wondering if anyone could answer a few questions.
My family is taking our first family vacation in over 10 years, and I am plannin a trip for 13 people in a wide age group. We are travelin to orlando on 12/22 to 12/28 and stayin in a villa just outside of WDW.. I dont know how far it is but my mom says its nearby. There are 6 adults, and 4 girls ages 18-25, and 3 kids, 11,9,and 2.
1) Besides WDW and universal, what other things are there to do for adults and my sisters and I who are 18-25?
2) What attractions in WDW/ which parks would be the ones to see for the kids and my sisters?? Its everyone's first time at WDW besides mine and I havent been there sicne i was 6.
I would highly recommend buying a Guidebook or two and reading them. When planning a large and complex trip for essentially brand-new visitors, you need to get a baseline of knowledge before you can fully absorb specific tips. The guidebooks will also get you acquainted with the parks as a whole. I would suggest perhaps Birnbaum's Official Guide and the Passporter Guide.
3) Any Advice on Christmas DAY?? WE are going to be at MK that day because my dad says they have a parade there.. and no idea if its changed or not .
The Christmas parade goes through slight variations every year. This year they've even given it a new name, I think. My first suggestion, though, would be to avoid the MK on Christmas Day if at all possible. It's one of the three busiest days of the year.
If your sole reason for going on Christmas Day is to see the parade, be aware that the Christmas parade will be running two times daily from 12/23 through the end of the month. I would suggest going to the park some other day during your trip to catch the parade.
For specific parade and fireworks times, you can visit the WDW website at
www.disneyworld.com and click on "Calendar".
4) Does anyone know of any places that serve good vegetarian food since half my party is vegetarian???
I can't speak from experience, but AllEars has quite a number of pages with info about dining in the parks as a vegetarian/vegan.
http://www.allearsnet.com/din/special.htm
My primary other suggestion that I give to ALL large groups: split up! Yes, it's fun to tour the parks as one large family. And by all means spend a lot of your time as one large family, enjoying each others' company (it *is* a family reunion, after all). But don't stay together all 13 of you 24/7, otherwise you WILL have problems. Take a large chunk of a day or two and split apart into 2 or 3 smaller groups, separated by interests (and make sure that at least one person in each group has a way to be contacted by cell phone or radio).
If you're in Epcot, some of the adults might want to stroll through World Showcase while the thrill seekers check out Test Track and Mission Space.
In the Magic Kingdom, the little ones will probably want to spend all their time in Fantasyland while others will want to ride the Mountains.
Then everyone meet up again for a group dinner.
And when you're all together as a group (and even in the smaller groups) appoint a group leader. They are the ones to lead the group where they're going next. (it'd be a bonus if the leader knew the layout of the park and.or had a map...) Patience runs short when you stop after every ride or show and go through five rounds of "What do you want to do? I don't know, what do YOU want to do?" etc etc. So if the group leader has an idea of what people want to see, they can lead while everyone else follows. (That's one thing the Brazilian tour groups got right... Just don't run people down while clapping, chanting and singing your way through the park....)
I'm the group leader when my friends and I tour the parks. Even though we've only gotten as large as 5 people, I know what they'd like to do, so I just herd the group in that direction. And if there's choices to be made, I give them specifics: "would you like to go to xxxxx or yyyyyy?"
And speaking of dinner, if you haven't made your reservations for your sit-down meals, CALL TODAY!!! You'll probably be very limited in your selections, but at least you own't be turned away outright as a walk-up.
-Rob
