Howdy Stephanie!
Family vacations to Walt Disney World are always the best. As a matter of fact, we did a family vacation with 14 of us just a couple of years ago. There can certainly be challenges when planning for a large group, but I think I can give you a few tips that will make planning for your “Ohana” super manageable.
So for dining, you have two options to choose from. The first is quick-service dining. I love this dining method, especially if you want to eat and get back to enjoying rides, shows, or parades. Each park has quite a few restaurants to choose from, with cuisines for even the pickiest eater in your group. Now, one of the best things about quick-service is that many of these restaurants let you order your food via the
My Disney Experience app and choose your pickup time. This would be perfect if you have multiple people in your family who want to eat at different restaurants and meet up quickly when they're done.
The second option would be table service dining. Table-service dining requires an advanced dining reservation. Dining reservations for guests staying at a Walt Disney World Resort Collection's Hotel open up 60 days before the first day of your vacation arrival. My favorite way to book dining reservations is through the My Disney Experience app. From the home screen, tap on the 3 bars (≡) at the bottom right-hand corner. Next, you will see the Reserve Dining button. From there, you can enter your party size, date, time, and the location where you would like to dine, and then choose the restaurant that works best for you. If you can’t find a date and time at the restaurant you are looking for, I would suggest breaking your party into smaller groups and making two reservations. For example, try a reservation for two groups of 6. Once you arrive at the restaurant, inform the cast member, and they will do their best to seat you as close together as possible, in my experience.
Another quick recommendation is to purchase Memory Maker. Memory Maker allows you to take as many family photos with
Photo Pass Cast Members as you would like. This is a great way to capture all of the great memories your family will make during your vacation. Finally, I'm including a great video with tips for large families that I think you will enjoy.
Stephanie, I hope this helps your family have a magical vacation. If you have any further questions, please come back and see us here at planDisney!
See ya real soon,
Robert