Though I’ve planned multiple trips for my family, this will be my first time planning a trip with another family - my brother’s. I have a good relationship with him and his family, and I CANNOT WAIT for my nephews to experience the Disney Magic!
For those of you who have planned successful multi-family trips, I would love to get your thoughts, primarily about the planning timeline. How far out would you advise having the first “planning meeting”? I was thinking about 7 mos out, but maybe that is not far enough out?
We are DVC, so we have taken care of rooms, and tickets have already been purchased (prior to ticketing changes). So, I’m not sure when I should get together with them to start the REAL planning. Did any of you ask your family members to do some “homework” by reading like the Unofficial Guide or The Easy Guide? It’s been a long time since my brother has been to WDW, and I’m not sure if SIL has ever been or only went as a child/teen. So, I’d like for them to be able to actively and knowledgeably plan with me.
Anyway, would love to hear from y’all about when (and how) you got the planning kicked off! Thanks!!!
I believe I can speak on this from the aspect back in 1999 I took my mother, sister, and her three daughters to Disney. Prior, it was just me and hubby who went to Disney, so I have a little bit of input for you. I basically planned the WHOLE trip. The ONLY thing I asked my mom and sister to do was to read some guides I told them about and provided one to them and find out what specifically they wanted to do, character wise and ride wise. We stayed at the Shades Of Green because back them my hubby was in the Air Force. That saved us tons of money! I purchased the tickets through the base ticket office as it came out just a tad cheaper than the FL ressie ticket. I would be the only one using it anyway, so it just made since to get all tickets through the office on base. I told them around the six month point that I was taking them to Disney and we talked about things that whole time. Back then it was paper fast pass and I explained we would handle getting those once we got there and saw what the lines were like. I don't think we waited beyond 30 minutes in any line....and this was in June. It was unfortunate, however, that trip was one of the WORSE trips I've ever had at Disney. All the hard work I did, wasn't appreciated and all I got from my neices, who were 2, 7, and 9 at that time was how come we can't have this? Why can't we do that? How come Aunt Denise won't spend money on that? I took them to Universal too and the money I dropped on that trip should have hurt my pocket, but only because hubby and I lived on base had very little bills to pay and a VERY nice refund that year, was the reason it didn't.
Get input from everyone you're travelling with and remember, while there, it is quite alright to split up on one or two of your days. You don't have to spend every waking moment together. Maybe plan a nice lunch or dinner together on those days and make sure on the day or days you are all together, everyone is as much in sync as possible. I remember the time I left my family and went off to EPCOT on my own. THAT was the ONLY time I enjoyed myself on that trip. Over 7 or 8 days I fully enjoyed that half day I spent at EPCOT on my own. It was either EPCOT or AK, I truly can't remember, but the point is, when I went off on my own, that was exactly what I needed. My mom, sister, and her girls have never been back to Disney. Myself, I have returned 3 times since then. I asked hubby could we go in 2000 on our anniversary to make up for that horrible trip and he said absolutely. THAT trip was near perfect and I was very thankful that my husband was okay with us going. Since then, we've been with our son in 2011 and 2015 and the trip in 2015 was a bit disappointing. My son, who was 7 by that time, just had this thing about the dark that he wasn't ready to deal with and all the rides that was dark, except Test Track, he had issues with.
His first trip in 2011 he was only 3 and was much more laid back about the dark then, so all the rides were easy. My son LOVED the characters and had I known that before the trip, then you better believe I would have focused on character greets more so than rides and would have been just fine with that. THIS time, it's just going to be him and I next summer, but I've showed him videos of most rides and his thing with the dark isn't an issue anymore.
The only issues we both have are scary or intense rides....so Expedition Everest, Dinosaur, and Flight of Passage are no gos for both of us.
I'm sorry I went off on my own story, but I hope I've helped you somehow. No matter what...enjoy! You're going to be at Disney!!!!