[Littlered]

Originally Posted by Persnicketty

Largest we did was extended family group of 12. 9A & 3C, blood relations and in-laws, various generations.

Hindsight is a great thing, and with that said, we would never do it again. :-)

At least, we would never do it in the manner we did. 12 people who routinely gather for family celebrations, all seemingly pleasant, even-tempered, likeable and yet it took only 2 days for one person to erupt and behave extremely, totally out of expected character. Cast a mood over the rest of the holiday and damaged relationships for a long time after.

We were wrong in assuming everyone was aligned in how best to all occupy the 7 bedroom villa and that our expectations of how to "do Florida" were equally aligned. This happened despite a lot of open planning/consultation within the group before departure.

Truth is, the anticipation of being on holiday always struggles to match the reality of it... lack of privacy, annoying habits, conflicted priorities etc. By week 2, even we hd gotten weary of being unable to chill poolside, since you really had to keep an eye on the kids safety - their stressed parents would use you as unofficial babysitters.

We decided that in future, we would never share the same space with so many people, nor always plan the same activities every day. And a car for each family group for added independence, though i agree one being a larger car to save on parking fees is worthwhile.

We've done groups since and it definitely works better than being crammed together.

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Reading your post has made me giggle! Exactly how I remember it when 12 family members shared a villa/ cars/ days out etc for 3 weeks... We are planning to go back in 2021, with our grouping now jumping to 15! Let me add we are having 2 villas this time/ 3 cars/ hopefully that will stop all the dramas.