New years trip with family!

Thanks for sharing. I always like reading how other families manage a big travel group.
With all the post-pandemic changes, it has definitely become more challenging. I thought I had become really adept at planning and managing big groups, but all the changes, LL, Genie+, have made it so much more difficult. Dining has become a headache with the group size we typically travel with.
We usually have 13 to 15 people in our group.

Friday was our AK / Epcot day.  So an early day again!  Although this time it was known it would be early, and so lunch was at a much more reasonable 11:30 am.  We did the following things:  FoP, the safari, some of us did expedition Everest, and then we did the bird show.  While the brave few were doing EE, the rest of us did some wandering.  We went back to discovery island to see the puppets and we were also able to catch the little show there with the macaws.  (I may have planned to catch these things).  I think we also took a picture and saw the tail of one of flotillas.  Lunch was at Tusker house.  It was fine.  I don’t think it was as good as pre-COVID, and I actually preferred the family style state of affairs to this.  Meh.  Maybe it was just an off day?  Also, the server there gave my sister a hard time about getting my discount.  Because I wasn’t at the same table.. .I”m sure he was doing his job, and he ended up letting them have it in the end, but it was a bit annoying.  If we could get a table for 11, we would have!  No issues at any of the other restaurants.  

My mom commented to me that AK must be really popular because it was so busy.  And I was like, actually… no.  It’s just that bad at absorbing crowds.  Also, what she observed during the FoP rope drop was not great.  They were quite a bit farther back from us, and the crush of the crowds was worse.  She saw someone fall and she was very worried she was going to get hurt.  My parents are getting older and they were definitely refusing the idea of riding a scooter, but falling is very scary.  It’s probably something to consider, not doing the rope drop and instead LL in the future if that’s a concern.  But this particular crowd was really bad.  

After AK, we went to Epcot.  There, we rode Soarin over California, living with the land, the 3 cabelleros, Frozen, gotg, and we did walked through Moana.  My mom has told me since that Soarin over California was her favorite ride.  She didn’t associate the Moana attraction with Moana, but she also really enjoyed that one too.  We got her to go on gotg and she declared that one too much!  Hah.  She also said the boat rides were tough because the seats are low.  She has very long legs and so it’s awkward to sit like that.  Plus it’s hard to get up and out of the boats, she said they made her feel old. 

For dinner, we at San Angel Inn inside the Mexican pyramid. My BIL and I rushed over to make the check in and then we went over to the tequila bar to wait. We switched to the policy of ask to sit together, but quickly accept that the tables won’t be close to avoid waiting that long. But we had a few minutes of down time and I had never been in the tequila bar. It was nice to do something new and different. The tables were ready before the margarita I had ordered arrived, but the server put it in a to-go cup and it was brought to me. We really enjoy this restaurant, and it was excellent. I got the brisket tacos and the soup. No regrets.

Friday went really well considering. I was unable to get genie+ to work for me at 7am (I think this was a common problem, but I have no real data..) and by the time I did get it to work I wasn’t able to get ratatouille. And the time for Frozen was after dinner. I had hoped that we could get ratatouille and then get frozen as our second, because it looked like that was possible on the 26. I was really bummed and a smidge stressed that our day wouldn’t go well. But it worked out OK. At some point I was reading Disney tourist blog and I saw that the parks were hitting attendance ‘ wait times that were the worst in 4 years! I also saw that genie+ sold out at AK today! With that knowledge, I was really relieved that we were as successful as we were. Also, GOTG was down for most of the afternoon. I think we rode that after Frozen, and the queue for the LL was almost to the bathrooms!

The little bit of down time with my BIL was really nice. We discussed our different experiences with disney, and how DH and I have evolved so quickly. BIL is a Floridian, and he’s gone many many many times. He noticed that we would enter a queue and it would have some wait (that wasn’t accurate) and we would wait (not as long as the wait time) but when we left the ride, the wait time would be 2 or 3 times more than what it said before! When he realized that we had a method to our crazy timeline, it became a lot more fun for him.

Wow. That's a lot of activity.

Saturday! this was our least scheduled day. Basically, we had a plan to rope drop HS, do all the things that we couldn’t do the first day, and then we would do… whatever mom and dad wanted. So we did: slinky dog, TSM, (Aerosmith&TOT) or (MMRRx2), ROTR (this time it was a complete version), and star tours. Not necessarily in that order. Mom rode slinky dog! She didn’t hate it (but probably didn’t love it either). Dad built a lightsaber with mom as his +1. For lunch we ate at ABC commissary. That was a crowd pleaser, and with a little bit of luck (and going to the right, not the left…) we found a large table for all of us. We also made sure to have dad get a picture with his light saber and since be also bought a cloak, DH may have made him put it on! They even went traipsing through looking for the perfect picture, it was the doorway. Haha. My dad was confused. But I think he loves the end result. It’s fantastic. Obi Dad Kenobi!

Mom really wanted to do some more exploring at Epcot. She had gotten a taste at the Norway and Mexico pavilions, so she wanted to do that. Dad wanted to take his new stuff back to the campsite, so he went off on a tour of Disney transportation. Mom would have preferred dad to stay with her, but she wanted to explore and she knew the rest of us wanted to ride rides. I told her of course! I showed her on her phone how the map worked. I think she got confused about what direction to walk in, or she did what she thought and went ALL the way around. But when she was done, she called me and said, oh Cathy, I’m lost. I was hoping she had made it around and was in the Mexico pavilion, but actually she was in the Italy one! So you know how everyone hated the barges for fireworks staying out? Well, when you’re trying to get to your mom and it’s headed towards dinner time and everyone has walked too much for 3 days…. That’s when the drawbridge is up and the barges are going through! But mom met me at the bridge, and we found each other.

This being the last day for the extended family, AND Dec 30th, we thought it would be great to see MK’s fireworks. I had done some research and new that we could see them from just outside of Gasparilla’s grill, and that should be an OK experience. It was a great experience. The music being piped in, the fireworks being close (but not too close), going in and eating dinner at the grille right afterwards…. Everyone was happy.

I think I’ve done MMRR a few too many times this trip. HAH. I really enjoy that ride, but … it’s not that repeatable!

So.. thoughts.

We have never really traveled with family. Any traveling is to go to family, or have family come to us. Not go with family to do something. So this was completely new. It was surprisingly successful. I don’t think it would have been successful if we had added another sister and their family at all. (I have 3 sisters..). I love them all, but DH would have gone absolutely bonkers or we just wouldn’t actually do anything with anyone. DH did think that in this case everyone adjusted to our schedule/plan because Disney is our 3rd place.

Dining: I think this came across, but it was a pain in the ass. Sorry, not sorry. It worked OK. I don’t think I want planning for large groups to be my usual thing. I think I would consider paying for a service if I had to do this again. I probably wouldn’t because I’m frugal.

Touring went great! That was honestly the easiest part. I think next time I would solicit from everyone what their must do rides in each park were and maybe we’d have multiple groups going around depending. It’ll be easier as some of the kids get older and they can wander the parks by themselves.

I wish we could have made park days one more day so we could have spent half a day down time at the campground. It was a missed opportunity that we didn’t spend any time at the campground. Mom and dad did make it into the trading post, and mom had fun looking at all the merch. But the only displays we saw were the ones right next to mom and dad’s campsite. They were over the top.

We stayed at VGF! This was our first time as our family staying there, and it was great. It’s just as comfortable as Riviera, it’s just as nice. DH likes the food better. Transportation was fine. There was one night coming home from Epcot where we waited (and waited) for the monorail to start going from the ticket and transportation center. But the skyliner will slow/stop too and there can be delays. Bus service was good. I think we were successful at getting on the first bus of the morning. There isn’t a huge crowd that early, at least one morning we were the only ones on the bus.

If we go again as a group, I think we will try to coordinate staying in a grand villa or at least staying at the same hotel. It turns out we have enough points to book a few nights in a grand villa. But this first time, I knew mom and dad wanted to stay in the campground.

I am planning to go back with just this sister in the fall. We’ll go to the Halloween party, ride whatever we want, and slowly wander around all the shops in world showcase. Maybe try a few food&wine things. It’ll be amazing. I think that’s the best part about this trip. She had so much fun and she was ready to go back before she left. <3

I believe it’s 12 for genie+, and 10 for ILL.  

There are some restaurants that will make reservations for 12.  But not many.  It might be worthwhile checking now to see what could be available.  But getting 2 tables for 6 with two different MDE accounts does work.  It’s also probably easier if you’re not going at New Years!  I think all of our reservations were within 20 minutes, but usually 5 minutes or the same time.  The person who made the reservation doesn’t even need to check in. Anyone in the party can check in with the name.  And you can give new phone numbers for call backs.  So that part isn’t too bad.  

Do a better job at getting pictures with everyone!  We only got that to happen once.  

I have to remember for dining reservations, to not have everyone on my MDE account.  I typically manage everyones. Makes it harder with their system to make the overlapping dining reservations.  This last trip, our friend fortunately had her own and we were able to get a few booked close together.  But for meals where they weren't joining us, it was harder since our group was still bigger with 10 total.  For those the dining times were less than desirable.  I think we had the last seatings for Fairytale Dining and Beaches and Cream.  Not fun with little kids. 

It does sound like a successful trip.  Agree about OKW studios.  They're okay if just husband and I, but as a last choice.  Hate those window coverings.  We do however love the 2 bedroom for larger groups because they are so roomy.