Have you ever had any multigenerational holidays with your family? We are just back from Disney World where 13 of us stayed onsite at Coronado Springs and it was brilliant! I have been asked about how we planned and organised a big family trip so I have hopefully answered your Disney World questions here!
Getting To Disney World
We were a family of 13 that included a nine-year-old, 13-year-old, 14-year-old, then parents, uncles and aunts and finally grandparents. We had booked the trip a year in advance and had decided to stay at Coronado Springs Resort for the duration of the Disneyworld holiday.
The advantage of staying onsite is how easy everything is. We didn’t need to hire cars as Disney transportation is brilliant. For the days we did go offsite – shopping and Universal we used Uber which was easy to navigate.
We flew from Birmingham to Orlando with Tui which took about 9 hours and then the transfer to our Disney resort was about 90 mins. Checking in took a while as our rooms had been muddled up despite our travel agent knowing who should share with whom! This mattered as we had room credit attached to each room and it needed to be linked to the right family!
We had it all right on the Disney app but it seems that Disney World doesn’t always link everything up. We had not checked in using the app as we had expected some issues checking in a large multigenerational family. Having multiple people with the same surname and initials was confusing.
Finally, we had it all sorted and our 5 rooms were all in a really convenient row.
Coronado Springs Resort
Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort at Walt Disney World is a vibrant, Southwestern-themed hotel that offers a blend of modern comfort and cultural charm. The resort is known for its striking architecture inspired by Spanish, Mexican, and Southwest American influences.
The rooms are well-equipped with free Wi-Fi, flat-screen TVs, mini-refrigerators, and coffee makers. Guests can choose from standard rooms, suites, and the more luxurious Gran Destino Tower rooms, which feature enhanced amenities, including smart TVs, elegant furnishings, and beautiful views. The resort also boasts multiple dining options, a sprawling pool complex with a Mayan pyramid-themed waterslide, and extensive convention facilities, making it a popular choice for families and business travellers alike.
The bedrooms all have two large double beds in, as we are a family of five adults we had two rooms. A girls room and a boys! There is plenty of space and the shower was always hot and powerful. We had housekeeping or ‘mousekeeping’ as it is known every other day.
There is also plenty of lounge seating available and a great bar. Staying onsite means that we can utilise the free Disney transportation to all the parks. Characters also popped into the hotel lobby and we were lucky enough to find Goofy and Donald Duck one afternoon as we returned back to the resort.
There are plenty of dining options at Coronado Springs including a self-service which was ideal for quick service snacks. We recommend the nachos and my teen loved the rice bowls after a full day at the park!
We were also able to buy a reusable cup that you can fill up in the resort as much as you want and a hot chocolate in the evening became a staple for all of us. These refillable mugs cost just $21.99 and we certainly made good use of it from the first evening on!
At the swimming pools guests can also get towels for swimming and therefore you don’t need to take any towels in your luggage. The same applies at the Water Park for hotel guest, they just ask which hotel you are staying at.
Visiting the Parks
As we were staying onsite we can make use of magic hours which is an early half hour in the parks before others. Although I had said I didn’t plan to rope drop I found myself doing just that with the family!!
We were up and out of our rooms at 7.30 the first 4 days so that we could go to each park together. Our plan was to arrive together, do a couple of family-friendly rides, have breakfast and then split off into smaller groups. This worked well for us and even better was that my sister in law was on it with the virtual queue and got us quickly on the newest most popular rides! You can get in a virtual queue at 7am but these go super fast. Thankfully she secured Tianas, Guardian of the Galaxy and Tron this way. On the first day at Magic Kingdom we walked onto Buzz this way.
It is important to have a plan of action to make the most of the early start. Not all rides are open so do your research! In Animal Kingdom for example we headed straight for Avatar knowing it can be a 2 hour wait otherwise! We managed to get on within 40 minutes. It was a ride we could do with the grandparents too.
Before we went to Disneyworld we had created a rough idea of what parks we were doing each day. We had also pre-booked four family meals that my parents wanted us to enjoy together. This meant we had several touchpoints throughout the holiday where we came together. This included a character meal at Hollywood and Vine before watching Fantasmic together.
How long were the queues?
The queues were less than I remember from 10 years ago. The parks seemed generally quieter to me and I didn’t queue for anything longer than about 45 minutes. We didn’t buy any lightning lanes and we went on everything we wanted. As I said my sister-in-law was the queen of the virtual queue and got us on Tiana’s twice (which was our favourite ride).
Pin Trading at Disney World
Pin trading is a big thing and my adult son, brothers, nephews and teen daughter loved trading pins. My son prefers this to the big rides and would often go off trading by himself! You can trade pins with cast members in the shops or those wearing them in the parks. Some are blind trades, some will ask a Disney trivia questions and others just swap.
There are also traders that sit in designated areas and enjoy showing their collection or trading with other visitors.
One tip is to buy some pins before you arrive – making sure they are official Disney ones with the right backs of course. We bought a load on Vinted for a fraction of the price because we knew that they would be trading! It really doesn’t matter which pins you start with if you are trading. Also, you can buy new pins in the outlets cheaper than in the Disney shops at the parks.
Disney Dining
We have had Disney dining previously and love it. Unfortunately, it was unavailable ‘for free’ when we booked this year but our ‘bonus’ was a room credit of $70 per day. This was given as a barcode via email. We simply had the barcode scanned and it took the cost off the bill. It could be spent in the Disney shops on merch or on dining.
Again we preplanned how to spend this and as we had 4 rather expensive dining meals I used our room credit to pay for this which suited our family of five adults. We had two rooms so had $140 per day! This paid for meals at Rainforest cafe, Hollywood and Vine, Be Our Guest and Liberty Tree plus left us with a little extra each for snacks!
The credit is given on check-in in a lump sum so you can use it as and when you wish. The receipt also shows how much is left so that you can keep track!
The Disney App
Initially, we found the app really frustrating as it was not showing all our group and had people in the wrong rooms etc but it was finally sorted with a phone call before we even left the UK.
The app does have some great features including booking meals and the virtual queue so it is necessary. The app also stores all your photos if you have the photo package. We recommend the photo package as there are photographers everywhere to capture your memories for you. It also means that you get the photos from the rides. You can then download the photos and use as you wish. We had hundreds taken during the stay and the quality and positioning is great.
The app also tells you ride queue times and has a hints section which can help you spot when rides are quieter. We used the app extensively and found it to be accurate. If anything ride times were 10 min or so less than the app suggested. This helps with planning your day.
Does it Rain Much in July / August?
Yes it can! When we were there the weather was so hot! However, there were also a couple of storms in the late afternoon. We had a tornado warning whilst we were there and a big storm came in. That was unusual and it rained for a couple of hours. The rest of the time the rain would come in and be gone within half an hour. When it rains it pours but then disappears and is replaced by the heat again!
Tips for Multigenerational Holidays
- Before you go have a discussion about expectations of when you plan to be together and when you may have some downtime.
- Disney holidays need some planning if you want to fit everything in! I used TikTok to work out what Disney snacks I wanted to try!
- Don’t try to do everything together! We all need a little space and have different priorities on a holiday.
- Have a group communication channel, we use WhatsApp to update each other on our plans during the day.
- Decide how family meals will be paid. We were each paying for our meals and the servers were brilliant at splitting the bills accordingly for us. Therefore we were able to get four bills for our group meals.
We hope this information and our tips help you make the most of your multi-generational Disney holiday.
