WDW with 16 people across 4 generations with a 74 year age span

Walt Disney World Trip Reports
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Sept 28-Oct 5

Our group consisted of 16 people, ages 5 to 79, spanning 4 generations. We stayed one night at the Dolphin, then transferred to Bay Lake Tower for 5 nights. We then stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel for 2 nights.

Planning for this number of people was quite an undertaking. Executing the plan also had it’s challenges. My DDad(79) and DM(74 with Alzheimer’s) slept in most mornings, and met us for our lunch reservations at whatever park we were visiting for the day. I printed up some posters at Costco that listed our daily itineraries, with ADR’s, FPP and other pertinent scheduling information. This made it easy for my folks to find us when they were ready. I must say that onsite accommodations were crucial for us…the transportation options are what made this feasible for them.

Friday, Sept 27: Arrival day
Everyone arrived in Orlando at different times this afternoon, and everyone was on their own to get to the Dolphin. We didn’t have a solid plan for this night, just because arrival times tend to be unpredictable in my experience. Some of us ate on the Boardwalk, some ate offsite. Some rented a surrey bike and rode around. Everyone was ready to get the party started. We tried to get to bed early since we had EEMH at HS the next morning. Our plan was to meet in the lobby of the Dolphin at 5:15am the next day…which was 2:15am for those of us coming from AZ. Yikes.

Saturday, Sept 28 (EEMH at HS, MK, The Void, 1900PF)
We went to EEMH at HS 3 different days of our trip. Our first morning in Florida was one of these days. We had been told that the boats didn’t start running until 5:45am, so we planned on walking. We left the dolphin at about 5:15, and we were barely too late to catch the first boat. Good to know. We lined up near the Trolley Car Cafe about 5:35 and we were among the first 50 people maybe? When they let us in the park we went straight to SDD and rode it twice before 6:20am. We rode TSMM and ASS and then headed to SWGE around 7? Waited about 35 min for MFSR (posted 65). Then we walked around, got some blue and green milk, and took in the sights. We left there about 8:15 and headed to ST and then HTH and RRC. We were done with every single ride in the park before the park opened. It was freaking fantastic. We went back to the Dolphin, and packed up our things to move to BLT and then hit MK for some FPP rides. We had received conflicting reports about whether or not the Dolphin would transfer our bags, but the morning we needed it, they said they would. And there were several other baggage carts lined up, ready for transfer. So we left our bags with them and got on our rental van, heading to BLT. We parked at BLT with no issues. My brother went in to check-in, and the rest of us headed to MK. MK was suuuuuper busy. We did our FP and got outta there. We went to DS and did the Void, and then we had dinner at 1900PF. I was a little worried about this reservation because of the teenagers in our group….I didn’t know how they would react to a character meal, but I know these characters are a blast, so I took a chance with it.

It was so much fun. My 16 year old nephew was really targeted by the step sisters, and he took it all in stride. They were all over him, asking about how many kingdoms he had, and that sort of thing. He was beet red, but such a good sport. It was a super fun meal for all ages.

Then we headed back to BLT to find our room. We received a text a few hours previously saying our room was ready. It’s noteworthy that the baggage transfer was not without issues. We had a busy day, so it was probably about 7:30pm before we got back to the hotel for the night. My husband and I stopped at the desk to set up a CC on our MB (btw…they do this now….we were staying in the same room as my brother, but hooked up our own CC and PIN to our MB….so we could charge meals and snacks to the dining plan with the rest of the peeps, but CC charges we did went straight to our own CC.) While we were at the desk we asked for them to send up our bags. At 9pm we had still not seen the bags. We called downstairs and after a bit of time and identifying the bags, they found them. They said they had a random cart of bags that had been dropped off, with no identifying marks on the cart. Srsly??? Okay, Dolphin, what gives?? Also, all the bags had our personal luggage tags on them….Disney couldn’t look at one of them and look up the name in their system? Whatever. As soon as we identified some of the bags on the phone (colors and designs and number of bags), the bags arrived quickly.

Our room was fantastic. We were in a 3br grand villa on the 14th floor of BLT, with a park view, and it was INCREDIBLE. It was awesome to not have to wait for buses or monorails, and to just walk to and from MK. And I didn’t mind watching the fireworks from our room at all.

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Sunday, Sept 29 (MK)
Sunday we were at MK all day. Everything was going smoothly until I decided to modify some FPP. MDE was freaking out and would not let me modify FPP for7 people in our group. I stopped by one of the “Guest Experience” tables and told my group I’d meet them at the next ride. Yeah. That didn’t happen. I was about 90 minutes with the CM. He was great, but it just took forever for IT to fix the problem. After about 70 min of him on hold with IT, and from the texts and calls I was getting from my family, the CM realized that I was missing breakfast at BOG. The CM that was relieving him at the GE stand was there, and he told me he would walk me to BOG while we waited for IT to figure it out. He was about to take my number so he could text me about the resolution when IT got back on the phone with him and told him it was fixed. Apparently MDE had dropped my brother’s family’s tickets from their MDE profiles. It’s especially weird because I had FPP attached to them at 60 days out, and they had already used the tickets 2 different days to get into the parks. Whatever. They gave our whole group 2 Anytime FP to compensate for our time. We went on with our day, riding rides and enjoying the park.

At 4:25 we had reservations at Skipper Canteen. We’ve loved this restaurant on previous visits. This day, however, we were 65 minutes past our reservation before even being seated (and we had checked in 20 min early). The service was incredibly slow, and it was after 6:30 before we finished our meal. Between 90 min at Guest Experiences earlier, over 2 hrs at Skipper, and the park closing for MNSSHP, we didn’t have time to use our extra FP. Whatever. We left the park and went back to BLT to get rested for another EEMH at HS the next day. Except it was opening day for the Skyliner, and my niece and I really wanted to ride it on opening day. So we rode the monorail to the TTC, a different monorail to Epcot, walked through the park, and caught the skyliner at the international gateway. We rode it to Carribean beach, switched to the other monorail, and took that one to HS. From there we decided to take a bus back to BLT. It took us about 2 hours all together. I would do it again though……I love it when I get to do new Disney stuff on opening day. It’s just good memories. And in light of the skyliner incident this weekend, I feel extra lucky that it only took us 2 hours for the journey.

Monday, Sept 30 (EEMH at HS)
The second time we did EEMH at HS was Monday, Sept 30, and it was not nearly as awesome. It was sooooo much more crowded than Saturday, and we didn’t finish all the rides until after 11am. Still….done before noon. I stopped by a GE desk sometime that morning to ask if they’d be willing to transfer our Anytime FP from the day before, and the CM agreed to move one of the FP to HS for the day. She noticed that my mom had 2 MDE accounts and she called IT to combine them, promising it wouldn’t be a big deal, and it would just “clean things up.” We saw a show or two, and I noticed that my mom’s name had dropped from all of our 60-day FPP for that day, and for the rest of the week. I stopped by GS on the way out of the park, and told the CM that I was frustrated about all the time I was having to spend sorting out MDE issues, and that I was no longer able to see my mom’s FPP. She was still linked to my account, and I could still make new FPP for her, but I couldn’t see the ones made in advance. This turned into another 90 min visit. What a mess. He explained that it’s because I’m managing such a big group. MDE can handle hundreds of FPP/reservations, but when I have a group of 16, and all of their FPP and reservations, it’s more than the system can handle. Okay. After being on hold with IT for about an hour, he set my mom up with FPP for all the ones the rest of us had that week, and gave us more Anytime FPP to use the rest of the week. It was nice of him to not attach them to a certain park or day. They did exclude the usual….Pandora, Toy Story, and Town Square Mickey. Even so….I was so over GS and MDE. The guy who helped us was great, but I was starting to get kinda disillusioned by Disney in general. Not good going into an evening that didn’t end up being magical either.

We left the park for a couple hours and then came back for our Oga’s reservation at 5pm, followed by Savi’s and the Droid Depot. Oga’s. Was. Awful. I had 2 reservations for 8 people each. They seated one of our groups pretty quickly, but then the other group took 35 min to seat!!! And they only give you 45 min in the Cantina, which means our groups didn’t overlap by much… The second group didn’t get seated until my 25 year old niece got pretty direct with the gate-keepers. (She asked them if reservations were a 2 way agreement…… Like if I agree to show up with my group at 4:55, do you agree to have a table ready for us at 4:55? And if you are 45 min late with the table, does that mean that we can be 45 min late to the reservation too?) I was in the first group and as soon as we sat down, my brother mentioned that something smelled awful and the table was sticky. We brought it to the server’s attention and he cleaned the table for us, but it was seriously a drop in the cess-pool bucket at our table. My DSIL had to order for my brother because the smell of vomit was seriously overpowering him. The floor was sticky with vomit, and there were even chunks. The kids had their shoes on the ground, and then on the bench, and all over, so then the nastiness spread. We had one drink and had to go. My bro couldn’t even stick around for the bill. As I was standing near the table, waiting for the server to run my card, I told a CM nearby (with a headset on) that the table and benches and floor were horribly covered with vomit and that it needed to seriously be cleaned before seating another group. A few minutes later another CM came in with a group to seat at the table! I told him (and the other guests) that the area was horrible with vomit, and that it needed to be cleaned. He looked at me, said nothing, then looked at the new guests and directed them to the table. For reals?? And they sat down!?! Then a CM that seemed supervisor-y came over and asked me what the problem was. He listened and nodded and then walked away. Wow.

Savi’s and the droid depot were fine. Honestly, the evening was really ruined for me by the Oga’s experience. I just had a really hard time getting past it. It was especially disappointing and disheartening because I had really been looking forward to making a droid, but the evening was just a loss. I did get some good information to pass on about Savi’s and Droid Depot reservations though. Savi’s has a 5 min grace period on the reservation, at which point you go to a “standby list” and then if they have room in another time slot you can go in. The Droid Depot is much more flexible with their reservations. (We had SDD FP after Oga’s, but before Savi’s and I was worried about making our Savi’s reservation, so I asked before we headed to SDD.)

Monday was a really rough day. The highlight was Gus at Docking Bay 7. We went in for breakfast and he was awesome in helping us find an area for 16 people. When he saw that it was just my SIL and me waiting for the food at the mobile order pickup counter he told us he would keep an eye on us to help us carry everything when the food came out. A few minutes later more of our group came to help and Gus stopped by to say that it looked like we were covered. The group took the first order and went to the table. When my order came I was carrying 2 trays and he hurried to me to take one and help me carry it. After we finished breakfast, I got our group together just outside the door, and I stepped back to take a picture. He came running out and told me to go get in the picture and he would take it. Just wow. I tweeted my experience with him to #castcompliment and he :heart:'d it!! I was happy to know that he saw it. I tweeted several cast compliments on this trip, and his was the only one I’ve heard back about so far.

Tomorrow: Tuesday Oct 1: Epcot in the morning, MNSSHP in the evening.

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Oh you had a couple of rough days, I’m sorry. “The system can’t handle your party” sounds like rubbish to me - people go with big parties all the time and I’ve never heard of anyone having the IT issues you did.

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Yeah, I agree. What a mess.

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Tuesday, Oct 1: Epcot and MNSSHP

We started out with a PPO Garden Grill ADR, and it was great! It was a little rocky and flashback-ish at first. We were the first group there, but they asked us to wait for them to get the table ready. And then they started seating groups that had come after us……but they called us back after maybe 10 minutes. The food was great, and our server was amazing. She was so quick and friendly and efficient. One of our little guys was in the bathroom when one of the characters came around, and she made sure the character came back after our little guy returned. She also asked if we had Soarin FPP, and then suggested a time for us to be at the attraction to beat the RD crowd. At the end of the meal I asked if I could take a pic of her name tag. Her face lit up and she asked me if I was going to tweet it. Then she told me that she gets her pic up in the break room if someone tweets a compliment about her. I thought it was super cute that she was excited about it.

Oh, I forgot to mention that when I got up this morning I checked MDE to make sure everything was still ok. Sadly, the system had dropped one of our anytime FPP that we had been given the day before. So now everyone’s profiles said they had 1/1 instead of 2/2. Super frustrating. I mentioned it to my group, and they really encouraged me to NOT go back to GS over it. They said GS had taken enough time from us, and we were doing just fine with the FPP we had booked in advance. So I didn’t go, but it festered……

After our PPO Soarin we RD’d to TT and the wait wasn’t too long at all. We had a FPP for Frozen, and the music in the big “Let It Go” room was off. We could hear the music from the next room, but it was weird and muffled. Whatever.

We had a late lunch ADR at Teppan Edo. They also took a VERY long time to seat us…maybe 50 min past our reservation time? I get that we are a big group, but at this restaurant I had one reservation for 16 people that I made 180 days in advance. It’s not like we just showed up and expected a table. Sigh. The food was decent. I had really been wanting try some of the fall treats at L’Artisan so I skipped dessert at Teppan Edo. I was not disappointed with the pumpkin spice macaroon ice cream sandwich. Very yummy. From France we went and used our anytime FP at Soarin….it’s my dad’s favorite ride and he had not been with us that morning.

Then it was back to the hotel for a couple of hours before MNSSHP.

MNSSHP was much more enjoyable to me this year than it was last year. I think the crowd was bigger this year (it was the first sold-out party of the year), but it was just more fun. Maybe it had to do with my expectations. Last year was my first time at the party and I was disappointed because it felt PACKED, the ride lines were long, we didn’t get a ton of candy, the party treats that were for sale weren’t amazing. This year, however, I adjusted my expectations. I had 2 goals: I wanted to ride Space Mountain, and I wanted a chocolate/pumpkin waffle sundae from Sleepy Hollow. I made an agreement with myself that I would be content if I were able to just do these 2 things. And I told the other people in my party that I was hoping to just do these, and other than that I was along for the ride. As we approached the tapstyles I saw the signs saying that there were no more tickets for sale because it was sold out, and I was worried. But getting into the park was super smooth….they routed the party guests to a supplemental walkway adjacent to Main Street, and passed out trick-or-treat bags and the starter packs of candy back there. We were able to navigate around pretty well. It’s always tricky with a group so large, but I don’t think we lost anyone. We rode a couple of rides and we were happily surprised to find trick-or-treat stations in a few of the ride lines. We watched the fireworks show from in front of the Crystal Palace, and we rode SM 3-4 times in a row. It was so much fun 100% dark! I opted out of the waffle sundae because I was totally sugared out. All in all, the party was super fun, and it turns out I would go again, even without someone twisting my arm.

Next up:
Late start day: Chef Mickey and then AK

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Wednesday, Oct 2: Chef Mickey and AK

I planned a “late start” morning with Chef Mickey at 9am this day. It was a welcome sleep in, that’s for sure. Chef Mickey was fun. The food was good, and the characters were a blast. I have always wanted to eat there….I remember seeing it on the Monorail when I went to WDW as a kid. So it was definitely a bucket list item for me.

We wrapped up breakfast and headed to AK for a relatively slow-paced day. We had FPP for EE, FOP and KS. Earlier in the week we had unofficially decided that rider swap with a group of 16 was just not a good idea. So we had just been trading off riding the big rides and sitting with the kids. For FOP though, I really wanted everyone to get a turn. So we were in Pandora for a good 90 minutes trying to get everyone through. Worth it though. My Dad and Mom joined us a little earlier today (go figure since the night before was their latest night of the trip). They did KS with us, and it was a pretty awesome safari. We saw lots and lots of animals. I was worried because I know that high noon isn’t necessarily the best time to see animals. It was the best time for our schedule though. And then we went to Yak & Yeti for lunch around 2pm. We always love the food here. The servers had a pretty hard time with the dining plan and putting the right people on the right plans. We had 2 tables and 2 different servers. One server was awesome and got everything out quickly. The other table was not so fortunate, and they ran about 30 min behind, even though both tables were seated at the same time. In fact, they waited so long for dessert that they just got up and left before it came. From there we did another ride or two, and then headed back to BLT… Pretty lazy day.

My brother’s 16 year old son had decided to not attend MNSSHP the previous night, so my brother stopped by GS on his way out of the park to see if he could get it refunded. After about 30 min of waiting in the car he texted me and asked for a pic of the back of my magicband.
This led me to believe that he was trying to recover our lost Anytime FP, and I was right. He did get it back for all of us and he did get the party ticket refunded.

After that, the group had an early return to the hotel. I had been trying to enter Epcot 4 times over the course of the week so that I could get the AP F&W coasters. At this point I was only one visit away, so my husband and I decided to stop by Epcot. The coasters are super cute. :slight_smile: Also we went to the Chocolate kiosk and got the liquid nitro chocolate treat. It was sooooooo good!!!

Next up: one more EEMH at HS and move to HRH at Universal

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Wednesday, Oct 2: Chef Mickey and AK

I planned a “late start” morning with Chef Mickey at 9am this day. It was a welcome sleep in, that’s for sure. Chef Mickey was fun. The food was good, and the characters were a blast. I have always wanted to eat there….I remember seeing it on the Monorail when I went to WDW as a kid. So it was definitely a bucket list item for me.

We wrapped up breakfast and headed to AK for a relatively slow-paced day. We had FPP for EE, FOP and KS. Earlier in the week we had unofficially decided that rider swap with a group of 16 was just not a good idea. So we had just been trading off riding the big rides and sitting with the kids. For FOP though, I really wanted everyone to get a turn. So we were in Pandora for a good 90 minutes trying to get everyone through. Worth it though. My Dad and Mom joined us a little earlier today (go figure since the night before was their latest night of the trip). They did KS with us, and it was a pretty awesome safari. We saw lots and lots of animals. I was worried because I know that high noon isn’t necessarily the best time to see animals. It was the best time for our schedule though. And then we went to Yak & Yeti for lunch around 2pm. We always love the food here. The servers had a pretty hard time with the dining plan and putting the right people on the right plans. We had 2 tables and 2 different servers. One server was awesome and got everything out quickly. The other table was not so fortunate, and they ran about 30 min behind, even though both tables were seated at the same time. In fact, they waited so long for dessert that they just got up and left before it came. From there we did another ride or two, and then headed back to BLT… Pretty lazy day.

My brother’s 16 year old son had decided to not attend MNSSHP the previous night, so my brother stopped by GS on his way out of the park to see if he could get it refunded. After about 30 min of waiting in the car he texted me and asked for a pic of the back of my magicband.
This led me to believe that he was trying to recover our lost Anytime FP, and I was right. He did get it back for all of us and he did get the party ticket refunded.

After that, the group had an early return to the hotel. I had been trying to enter Epcot 4 times over the course of the week so that I could get the AP F&W coasters. At this point I was only one visit away, so my husband and I decided to stop by Epcot. The coasters are super cute. :slight_smile: Also we went to the Chocolate kiosk and got the liquid nitro chocolate treat. It was sooooooo good!!!

Next up: one more EEMH at HS and move to HRH at Universal

Our last EEMH at HS was also our last WDW day. It was much more like the Saturday EEMH, where we were able to do everything before the park opened to the regular guests (including MFSR twice and SDD 3 times). Lots of fun. We had breakfast at Docking Bay 7 again, but no sign of my buddy, Gus. We ended up being ready to leave the park about 10am, but one of my nephews really had his heart set on another light saber churro….and that place didn’t open until 10:30. So we killed a little time before leaving.

Then we went back to BLT and picked up our things from the room. We arrived to our room at 10:53, and Mousekeeping was literally outside the door, waiting for us to get our stuff out. Sheesh.

My brother had decided to ship the light sabers and droids home, but he didn’t trust anyone besides HS to do it safely. So we dropped him and his wife off at HS, and we went to DS to use the last of our dining credits and do a little shopping at World of Disney. I was really surprised how long it took to ship the droids. We dropped him off at 11:30pm and he didn’t arrive at DS until about 1:30pm. It was fine. We had plenty to do. We ate at the Polite Pig, which I’ve been wanting to try for a long time, and I loved it. Everyone in the group loved it except my husband. He is a meat-n-potatoes kinda guy….the only spices you need are salt and pepper. So if it has anything interesting in it, he’s out. The rest of us enjoyed it.

I had planned on converting our unused TS credits to snacks at World of Disney, but they informed me that the only place at DS that could do it was Goofy’s Candy Co. So we went over there and got a huge bag of Diet Coke to take to Universal with us. Oh, and some rice krispie treats.

And just like that, our time at WDW was over. :frowning:

Parting thoughts:

I much prefer to visit WDW as the last part of the trip (as opposed to WDW and then Universal)… I like Universal, but it’s just rougher around the edges. I feel like I have to keep my guard up a little bit all the time at UOR. I love going from UOR to the bubble….it feels even better than going from home to the bubble. We knew this preference going in, but the suite we wanted at BLT was only available at the beginning of our trip. I feel like the basic differences of WDW compared to USF can be summed up in MNSSHP vs HHN. At WDW they just want you to feel welcome and be happy. At USF you can be sure that they are out to get you, and if you make it to the back of the park, watch out for the gangs from The Purge. Don’t get me wrong….the coasters at USF are fun, and I LOVE both Harry Potter areas of the park…but the overall atmosphere at WDW is hard to beat.

If I ever do a huge group like this again I think I will do it differently. The dynamics of me planning the trip ended up feeling like a TON of pressure. I’ve always been a people pleaser, and this was just too much for me. I felt responsible for everyone’s experiences and feelings and enjoyment all the time. This is probably why Monday evening was so rough for me….I had felt like I was letting down the people in my group, and that they weren’t having fun because the things I planned hadn’t worked out. Yeah, tears at Disney are not supposed to happen. Next time I would probably plan a coordinating meeting (at about 7 mo out) with one person from each of our immediate families where we would coordinate some TS ADR’s. We would use these reservations as touch-points and together time. And then each of the groups would be on their own to plan their days and make FPP. I think this would make navigating around the parks much more simple, changing plans on the fly or modifying FPP would be much less complicated. And maybe I’d get to smell the roses a bit.

That’s it! Thanks for reading!

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Thank you so much for this report. I am planning for our multigenerational family (ages 4-70 in 2021) of 15 people, staying at BLT! I not only appreciate the report, but the notes on planning, moving things around, and your preferences for Universal first. I may come back with questions for you as time goes on, if I may.

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Great report! We took 14 several years ago. But that was before fpp. Being the planner is a daunting task! . I’m sure it’s twice as hard today!
How did your mom do? My mom also has Alzheimer’s and at this point I’m pretty sure her and my dad couldn’t do a trip with us. Do either of your parents have mobility issues?

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Thank you for sharing this report! You accomplished so much with a large group! I hope your family appreciates at least a little how much better you made their trip.

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I’m happy to answer any questions! One thing I would suggest:

If you aren’t the manager of everyone’s MDE, it would be good to have pictures of the backs of everyone’s magicbands. I managed 3 people, my brother managed 6, my niece managed 3, and then we had 4 people who managed their own. I needed pics of the magicbands for the people who managed others, and then the individuals who managed their own. So, for instance, since my brother managed his kids, I only needed a pic of his band…I didn’t need pics of his kids’ bands.

Oh, and the first couple of times I went to WDW I asked for the physical tickets as well as the electronic ones when I bought the park tickets, but we never needed the physical ones because it’s just always on MDE. On this trip when I was at the Guest Experience counter, the CM told me to always get the physical tickets also. It could’ve saved me 90 minutes that day.

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How did you request the physical tickets? Was that on site or did you get them online?

p.s. thanks for the great report!!

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Mom actually did pretty well. She is the reason they slept in every day, because she wears out quickly. My dad is the energizer bunny and could run circles around me. They definitely took their time, and mostly would meet us for lunch and spend a couple of hours in the parks with us. They actually rode Big Thunder with us, as well as 7DMT, Dino, and SDD. Haha. So cute. It didn’t really bother my mom (she has always loved roller coasters), but my dad gets motion sickness. I definitely worried about my mom getting thrown around…she doesn’t have a lot of balance or muscle tone.

Mom doesn’t love travel, and doesn’t even remember being there last week. But if there were moments that I could tell she was getting frustrated by being away from home I would just remind her that she is making memories for her grandkids and great-grandkids. I would tell her that I know it’s not her favorite, but I really appreciated her being willing to come. She gets frustrated when she feels “managed” and when she feels like she doesn’t have control. So for me to kind of put into words what I thought she was feeling, and to validate those feelings seemed to help. Also the fact that she values family helps…she would do just about anything for the little ones.

It helped a lot that we were staying onsite and could use Disney transportation. My dad feels really comfortable navigating around the property, and finding his way around the parks. It also helped that we tend to be creatures of habit…we seem to visit the same restaurants for lunch each trip, so he knows where to find those locations. We are also iphone people, and the “find friends” app is so convenient.

She doesn’t have the cognitive ability to pilot an ECV without running over someone, and she’s also super tiny, so we brought her manual wheelchair from home. It was great to have it at the airports and also be able to take it back and forth from the hotel to the parks. And great that it was small…the ones they rent at the parks can be pretty big.

One additional benefit of them coming (even though it’s a little more work to have them there) is that the kids see how we take care of each other. My brother is AMAZING with my mom and with helping her and trying to give Dad a break. He is so considerate and helpful, and at one point he wasn’t there, and I saw his 16 year old son jump in and do the things that his dad had been doing. It was super touching. I spent a little one-on-one time with my 9 year old nephew, and during that time I got a text from my dad indicating that he knew it was more work to have them there, and he didn’t know if it was worth it. I sighed out loud, and my nephew asked what was up. When I told him he got an incredulous look on his face, and said “Is it a little more work? Sure! But it’s totally worth it! It’s like if you had to walk up a little hill, but when you got to the top you would get a million dollars! Would you do that?!? Of course you would!” I just thought it was the sweetest thing.

These trips are a lot of work, but they are totally worth it. Just the bonding time and experiences with the extended family. It’s hard to put a pricetag on the value of that.

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When you buy the tickets from Disney there’s a little (hidden) box to check. There is an additional charge for mailing them, but it’s minimal.

I’m not sure how to do it from UT. It’s probably similar…an extra charge to mail them.

Also if you already received the electronic tickets you can go to GS when you get to the park and request the cards. There was one day where Mom and Dad got to the park without Mom’s magicband. Dad went to GS and they gave him a card for her. It ended up being so much more convenient for him to just have it in his pocket and grab it out to use for FPP or entry into the park. It was hard for her to reach the Mickey to scan, and get the angle right. The fingerprint thing was also an issue, but after a day or two they just coded her ticket to Dad’s fingerprint like they do with little kids. I’m sure anyone could request that on the first day.

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Thanks, that is so helpful! I’ve got a squirmy 3 year old who will benefit from this :blush:

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Becky thank you for taking the time to offer this detailed response to my question! What an encouragement to me and I’m sure others as well! Sounds like you’ve got a great family and we certainly want our moms to be around to be part of the memories and the good times!

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What a sweetheart your nephew is! You all are doing something right in your family if a 9 year old can be that profound and heartfelt as his first response. Thank you for taking the time to share your trip with us :blush:

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