We recently did a trip to Disney World with a Large Group: 22 to be exact. There are a lot of challenges that come along with taking that large of a group to Disney. However, it can be a ton of fun and provide a lifetime of memories for everyone involved. We learned a few tips and tricks along the way and wanted to share them here.
Our group was comprised of the following: Great-grandpa, Great-grandma, two Grandpas, Grandpa’s girlfriend, two Grandmas, eight parents, and seven children (all under 4).
Planning for Disney with a Large Group
Anytime you are going to Disney World you need to plan for your trip ahead of time. This becomes even more important when you are going to be traveling with a large group. We will be sharing some of the things that we think are most important for Disney World with a large group.
Research Done by Each Family
The first step in planning should be for each family to get familiar with what Disney World has to offer. This means restaurants, character experiences, rides/attractions, and hotels. It’s important that everyone has an idea of what they might want to experience on their trip.
Large Group Phone Calls
In the months leading up to our trip we scheduled group calls so that we could plan and talk about what we wanted to do. On these calls we talked about the different parks, rides, restaurants to eat at as a group and on an individual basis. We also discussed things like Genie+ and just the basic itinerary for the trip.
Genie+
A new very important factor of any Disney vacation is whether or not you will be purchasing Genie+. For us we thought it was worth it and decided to use it for everyone in our group on each park day. We were very happy with our choice as it made riding things as a large group or multiple groups much easier. We were able to plan our day better based on when we were riding certain rides.
Genie+ can be confusing so if your group does decide to purchase it everyone should know how it works. You should also know what rides are offered through the Genie+ service as well as what rides you are interested in riding.
We did learn throughout our trip that Genie+ is probably not a necessity for every park or if you don’t plan to ride much. It’s important that you do research to determine how many rides you plan to ride in each park and come up with a good strategy. If you really plan strategically you can probably get away without Genie+ at EPCOT and Animal Kingdom. The biggest rides in each of these parks: Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind and Flight of Passage are both “Individual Lightning Lanes” meaning you don’t need Genie+.
Itinerary
Having a flexible itinerary is very helpful in Disney World, especially with lots of young kids. Building in a resort day or two throughout the week as well as hotel rest in the middle of the day will help give you a break from the walking and constant stimulation.
Disney seems to be sticking with the park pass reservation system. You will need to plan which day you want to go to each park ahead of time to ensure everyone can get a reservation each day. If you are a go with the flow kind of person this might seem annoying but it’s very beneficial to have a plan in place and make sure everyone is on the same page.
Park Days with your Large Group
Most of our park days look more or less the same: rope drop and morning in the park, afternoon rest at Animal Kingdom Lodge, and then back to the park in the evening for some rides or fireworks.
In order to have successful park days it is important to communicate with your whole travel party about your plans for each day. We chose to do this the night before so that everyone could be on the same page ahead of time.
When getting ready in the morning we would check the My Disney Experience app to see when the first bus was set to arrive and as many of us as possible would try to make that bus or the next bus.
After spending the morning riding rides and often getting lunch we would head back to the resort for some rest in those hot, busy afternoon hours. Depending on dinner plans we would head back to the park before or after dinner.
Evenings in the parks is a great time to ride things as a group, our favorite group ride was Pirates of the Caribbean. Also a great time to take pictures in the parks or get snacks as a group while walking around or getting a spot for fireworks.
Resort Days
The goal of resort days is to rest as much as possible. Instead of setting alarms to catch that first bus to the parks, sleep in. Make sure everyone does whatever they want on this day. That may mean you have separate groups of people but if everyone should be relaxing how they want. Hangout by the pool, stroll around Disney Springs, have a relaxing lunch, take an afternoon nap, etc.
Our resort day looked a lot like I described. Our girls let us sleep in a bit which is rare for them. We had breakfast and spent the morning by the pool. Had an amazing lunch at Sanaa. Walking back to Jambo House both our girls fell asleep in the stroller so we took the opportunity to nap as well and ended up napping for a couple hours. When we woke up we went back to the pool and ordered pizza for dinner and then hung out with our giant group in the lobby of Jambo House.
Resort days don’t have as much excitement as a park day, but they are a necessity and will set you up for success the rest of the week. These days will give you a much needed chance to relax and recharge as well as creating some awesome memories with your travel group.
Animal Kingdom Lodge is such a great resort to have a resort day. It is so relaxing and the perfect place to get away from the craziness during your trip.
What Does Each Day Look Like?
Each day for us looked pretty much the same but depending on the park we woke up a little earlier or got to sleep in a bit more. We always tried to wake up in time for rope drop. Our group chose to meet at the bus stop instead of in the resort that way we weren’t starting our day waiting on people and missing our chance to get into parks early.
After resting for the afternoon we would meet up to discuss the evening plan and most of the time all head into the park together in the evening. When staying for fireworks we would do dinner, rides, dessert, fireworks, more rides and then leave. If you stay for fireworks you really want to ride a couple of rides afterward in order to avoid waiting in line at the bus stop. It makes for a very late night but so worth it, at least once.
On the way back to the resort for our late evenings we would discuss our plan for the following day so that when we got back we could just go to bed.
Rides with a Large Group
There are a surprising number of rides that work well with large groups. it’s a Small World, Na’Vi River Journey, and Kilimanjaro Safaris are perfect for all ages. Pirates of the Caribbean was great for our group but some younger kids may get a little scared. If you have older kids, Splash Mountain is a great group ride. We found that starting and ending the day with a ride as a large group was so much fun and very memorable for everyone.
Staying Together in the Parks
We found that staying together at the start of the day and the end of the day worked well. Staying together all day would be cumbersome and impractical especially for the amount of young babies and toddlers that were in our group. Staying together is also good for specific rides and meals.
We also found that when staying together everyone needed snacks and bathroom at different times and it just didn’t make sense for everyone to wait around when we could be moving on to the next attraction.
Splitting Up in the Parks
Splitting up your large group makes navigating the parks much easier. You can do whatever you want, go see anything you want, and eat any snacks or meals you want without worrying about if everyone wants to do those things or not. If someone else in your group is doing something you aren’t interested in or has a reservation for something you don’t you don’t have to wait for them to finish before moving on.
Dining Reservations
Each family that is part of your large group should research on their own to decide what reservations they want. There should be at least one member from each family that makes it their job to research any restaurants they may be interested in.
It is very important that you make your dining reservations on time. 60 days before the first day of your resort reservation at 6am EST. I recommend getting on a little early and refreshing the page right at 6 for your best chance of getting the reservation you want.
Depending on the size of your group, dining reservations with everyone can be extremely difficult to book. You may need to break your group into smaller groups or choose slightly different times. For our large reservation at ‘Ohana we didn’t get our preferred day or time and also had to call and still ended up with three tables next to each other in order to have a signature meal together.
Final Thoughts
As you can tell, going to Disney World with a large group can be challenging but if you follow all of the tips and tricks we have laid out for you I’m sure you will have the trip of a lifetime. Let us know if you have any helpful Disney World travel tips that would work well with a large group.
