Walt Disney World with Large Groups

 Our family is little more than 100 days away from our big Walt Disney World trip in November. Actually, we’re 101 days away, (Today is our dalmatian day.. get it? 101 Dalmatians?) Anyway, we are having a mini-family reunion during the trip. We’re flying down with my parents and my aunt and uncle and 2 cousins are joining us for the first several days of the trip. Planning for such a large group is fun, but also needs quite a bit of coordination. I’ve been in charge of most of the planning- mostly because I obsess over it! But I needed everyone’s input on our plans. This weekend we all met up for a Walt Disney World strategy session! My aunt and uncle flew up from Florida and my one cousin drove in from Boston and we met at my parents’ house along with my other cousin who lives near my mom and dad.

101 days until we arrive

The first order of business, was our meals. As I explained in an earlier blog, you have to book most dining reservations 180 days before your trip. I had booked dinners and breakfasts for every day. I had told everyone about the dinners but not the breakfasts. Everyone was happy with dinner but we decided to only keep a couple of breakfast reservations.

This weekend, I met with my mother, cousin Katie,
Aunt Karen, Uncle John, my dad, and cousin Samantha to plan our vacation

Finally, we had to plan our itinerary for which parks we would go to on each day and which rides we want a fastpass+ for. Fastpass+ allows you to make a reservation for a ride or attraction, so you don't have to wait in line. You can get 3 fastpasses per day, but they must all be in the same theme park. If you're staying on property you can book your fastpasses 60 days before you arrive. For off property guests, you have to wait until 30 days before. We decided to do EPCOT on our first day followed by Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom on each of the following days.

We had been doing all our planning on a group text

Family reunions at Walt Disney World are hugely popular and if you're planning a trip for a large group, I definitely recommend getting everyone on board with a strategy session. If you can't meet in person, you can do it with a conference call, group text or Facebook messaging. We recently went on a Walt Disney World trip with my husband's family. That time there were 15 of us, and we weren't able to get together before the trip, so we did all the planning through group messaging on Facebook.

If you're just starting your trip planning, be sure to go back and read 5 Must Dos Before Booking your Walt Disney World Vacation, and Dining at Disney, a 180 Day Adventure