Hi Devyn,
Welcome to planDisney!
First visits to the Walt Disney World® Resort are quite magical! With nine guests, you will need to plan carefully. First things first, be sure that you have a MyDisney account and that everyone in your party has a profile. You can create accounts for them that you manage or you can let the adults create their own accounts. Personally, when I travel with family in a larger group, I prefer to manage all of the plans.
Next, you need to consider whether or not you are buying a
vacation package with the resort hotel, theme park tickets, and, possibly, one of the
Disney Dining Plans. Keep in mind that some resort hotels, like Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa, have 2-Bedroom suites or villas that might work, particularly if one of your guests is a child under 3-years old. If all nine guests are adults, consider a 3-Bedroom suite or villa or, you could book a few standard rooms. Once you decide which hotels you might prefer and the type of room, do some price comparisons to see which fits with your budget. Use the
Explore Hotels planning tool online to check pricing and then you can add theme park tickets to the resort hotel to create a vacation package.
With a group that size, I also highly recommend making
advance dining reservations. Looking at your arrival date, you are within your
advanced dining reservation booking window, so I would definitely make those dining reservations as soon as possible. Once you book your resort hotel or a vacation package you can make those dining reservations for the length of your stay up to 10 nights.
Next, I recommend downloading the
My Disney Experience Mobile App. We typically use the mobile app while we are in the parks and resorts to check, make, or modify our plans. Consider adding
Memory Maker as well so that you will have access to digital downloads of your
Disney PhotoPass® Service photos. I would take a look at the
Enchanting Extras Collection to see if there are special experiences you would like to enjoy while there. The Caring for Giants and Up Close with Rhinos Tours are ones that my family enjoyed.
Devyn, finally, review the details about
Lightning Lane passes and
virtual queues as well as
Disney MagicMobile Service and
MagicBand+. My family prefers to use MagicBands to enter the theme parks and scan in at attractions but Disney MagicMobile works and is currently no additional charge. I know it may seem like a lot to learn! One of our girls is usually my assistant trip planner and she helps me to make and keep track of all of our plans. So, consider who in your group may be able to help. In the meantime, you are visiting at a busy time of year, so get that vacation package booked and dining plans made!
Magic and memories,
Donyell