Hiya Tina!
Thanks for visiting planDisney! I am just on my way home from a Disneyland Resort vacation with my family of four, plus my parents and my cousin, so I've been traveling with a party of seven for the last few days in the parks. I'd be happy to help you!
There are a few aspects of planning that take a little extra pixie dust when you're with a bigger party.
The first big question is where do you want to stay? The
Disneyland Resort Hotels do have great options (we were at the Villas at the Disneyland Hotel this week) and it's sometimes possible to get adjoining rooms. You could always opt for a larger suite, too! There are some
awesome benefits just for hotel guests, like early entry to one of the theme parks each day, special entrances to the parks, and more. Our family loves riding the Disneyland Monorail to get to our hotel and save a few steps!
Another option is to choose a
Good Neighbor Hotel for your group, which we've done many times as well. I like to pick a hotel within walking distance so that if people want to take a break or swim during the day it's easy to pop in and out of the parks. Having a little flexibility is essential when you're with a bigger group!
The trickiest part of planning for a larger party is
dining reservations. Not every dining location requires reservations, but those that do can be hard with a big group. This week I had good luck with a party of seven at a few different locations, including
Carnation Cafe and
Wine Country Trattoria. My best advice is to look for dining reservations starting 60 days in advance early in the morning (starting around 6:00 AM EST) and keep checking if you don't see what you want right away. Another option is to recruit a planning friend with their own account so that each of you can make a reservation for three or four people, keeping the reservations as close together as possible. Then you can request to be seated near each other when you arrive.
Everyone will need to
purchase theme park tickets and make reservations for each day of their visit. Since you'll be there during the holidays I would get those tickets purchased sooner than later! Park reservations for the dates of your visit will open soon, so keep an eye on the
availability calendar to see when you can purchase tickets and reserve your dates.
If your group will be using Disney Genie+ Service to access
Lightning Lanes then you'll absolutely want to link your tickets together in the Disneyland Mobile App so that you help each other make reservations for attractions. A nice bonus of that service is that it includes digital downloads of attraction photos and photos taken by Disney PhotoPass Photographers, which is awesome with a big group!
I know that was a lot of information, Tina! If you have more specific questions about any of these topics or a totally different question,
I'd be happy to keep planning with you. Just send me a note and we'll get some pixie dust going right away!
Keep moving forward!
Amanda