Hi Christine!
Your friends and family should definitely thank you many times over for helping plan this Walt Disney World vacation. It takes time and effort to make all the decisions and reservations and I commend you for taking this job on. I hope we can help make it even easier for you along the way.
Walt Disney World offers many great
Dining Options for you to choose from. You do not need to know specific names at this time to make a reservation but you will need to know the number of guests. Once you have booked something it is or can be very difficult to add on to that number. You cannot just show up with extra and expect to be seated as well. Try to get the number or as close as possible and book it for the larger amount. If one or two do not show for a reservation you will not be penalized.
When booking for a large group it is easiest to use the
Dining reservation number. The cast member can assist you in getting as many of your guests at as few tables as possible. It will be likely that no restaurant can seat your entire group at one. My family often traveled with 16 and I found it actually better if we split up into two or three tables. I developed a game so we would never know who we would sit next to at each meal. Babies stayed with a parent but all other children could be split up with aunts and uncles and cousins. We would check in to the restaurant to see the table assignments and then draw names for who would sit at each table. It was so much fun sharing stories with each other and making new memories.
This would take a few seconds to draw names but we never had the time wasted hearing "I want to sit with....". This might be a perfect solution for your large group and dining once you get the reservations.