Whoa, wait. How many people are coming?!

[kimberlymautz]

Hey everyone! Long time no see! I was on here a lot several months ago when planning my December trip to WDW with my boyfriend and well, we're heading back! Initially it was supposed to be a small trip with myself, my boyfriend, our daughter Allyson, and our best friends and their girls. Yeah, that has changed into a monster of a group coming and boy am I excited / nervous!

Here's the cast:
Kimberly (me!), Angel (bf), and Allyson (2)
Jillian, Colin, Riley (2), and MacKenzie (1)
Samantha and Aubrey
Frankie and Courtney
Amber and Mason (1)
Amanda and Steve

That's a whopping 15 people total! Luckily four of them are little, but none the less, it's going to be a CRAZY ten days.

We'll be traveling from March 28th - April 6th.
Which means we'll be there right before Riley and Allyson turn 3 (so they'll still be free!) and we'll be able to use the money we'd have spent on their tickets to do something fun, like a character breakfast or something.

But I've got some questions.
We're renting a house and don't expect everyone to stick together the entire trip, but is there anything that would be really great for a huge group to do together?
What kind of rides are best for little kids? I know Allyson and Riley will be able to go on most of the rides at Disney, but are there any that we should definitely hit? Avoid?
What character meal would be best for four little ones? They're all pretty well behaved in restaurants, but I'm curious to see what they would enjoy most! (Also, keep in mind that many of the "big kids" in the group are REALLY picky and won't try new foods *cough ANGEL cough*)



Thanks for your advice in advance! It's nice to be back.

 

[PrincessNelly_NJ]

Any character meal would be great. Most a buffet style with the exception of Akershus and CRT.
We have a tradition first day or last day meal, maybe you guys could do that together or check out the "hoop de due revue."

 

[luv]

Hoop Dee Doo is nice for larger groups, but I don't know how much the toddlers would enjoy it. There is lots of singing and dancing so they might! It would suck to go and then have to miss a lot of it if the baby got fussy and you had to go stand outside. Maybe just a meal somewhere? The dessert party might be fun.

Chef Mickey's and the Crystal Palace are great with little kids and have regular American food, but any character meal would do. Breakfast is the best meal at Crystal Palace, IMO.

Little kid rides that leap to mind are IASW, Pooh, Figment, Nemo (In the Seas pavilion) and the PeopleMover. The safari at AK might be great. It's been a long time since I visited with a little one.

 

[dreamfinder]

Have the little ones met characters before? Doing a character breakfast might be fun, or it might be a catastrophe. CRT or Akershus might be tougher to get a party that large into, but kids tend to react better to face characters for the first time. So possibly 1900 Park Fare?

Assuming they are ok in the dark, pretty much everything in Fantasyland should be ok. Playhouse Disney should be a hit, along with almost any show on property.

 

[kimberlymautz]

Thanks so much for your suggestions! I'm looking into breakfast somewhere in MK (Mostly so we can get a giant group photo in front of the castle without a thousand other people behind us!)

The kids haven't been around any characters yet, but I'm hoping to take them to Sesame Place in the next few weeks so we can see how they'll react to Elmo and friends. I think it'll be a good starter for Disney characters!