Can MS help me with "grand gathering"?

[ellenmiele]

We have an extended family trip planned for Nov to celebrate my parents' 50th wedding anniversary. My part of the planning is the rooms and I will be using my points. We are too many people for a grand villa so I will need multiple rooms. To give each indivial family some privacy but still give some of the cousins a chance to room together I plan to book 3 studios and 1 two-BR but I want everyones rooms to be close together (at least on the same floor). Other than just putting in a request when I book and/or at onlinecheckin is there any other way to facilitate this ?

 

[RweTHEREyet]

My understanding is that they have stopped doing all the "special" functions for Grand Gatherings. We have a group of 8 this September, and I was looking for some different things to consider, and in researching I read that those events were no longer available.

 

[jekjones1558]

We had a "travel with" number that I got through MS. Supposedly the room assigner gives some preference to "travel with" reservations. I don't know if these have been discontinued, but my guess would be that they have not. In Oct. we had a GV, a 2 bedroom and 2 - 1 bedrooms all very close together on 5th floor of BWV. I was so pleased because there aren't that many BW view rooms so getting them close seemed like a long shot. Give MS a call and see about a "travel with" number. Good luck.

 

[kristenrice]

We had a "travel with" number that I got through MS. Supposedly the room assigner gives some preference to "travel with" reservations. I don't know if these have been discontinued, but my guess would be that they have not. In Oct. we had a GV, a 2 bedroom and 2 - 1 bedrooms all very close together on 5th floor of BWV. I was so pleased because there aren't that many BW view rooms so getting them close seemed like a long shot. Give MS a call and see about a "travel with" number. Good luck.

We were also given a "travelling with" number for our party of 15. We have (2) 2BR's booked at OKW and so we want to be as close together as possible.

 

[KBoopaloo]

On our trip in April 2011, we had both a "travel with" number and a Grand Gatherings number (we were staying at POFQ for the first part of our trip and at Kidani on points for the latter end of the trip and when I called MS they told me I should have both numbers?) At any rate, our rooms at POFQ were all right in a row next to each other. At Kidani, despite our "travel with" number, our two bedroom units were located near each other but our studio unit was on a different floor and on the opposite wing of the building. They ended up moving the folks in the studio on our second day but were unable to do it at check in.

 

[SamSam]

Last month we had a huge celebration for our 40th, we got the rooms at Kidani using our points. It started as a grand gathering, then they discontinued that and had us listed as a 'travel with'. We had a grand villa, a 2-bedroom, and 2 studios. We were assured several times that we were all linked and the would get our rooms as close together as possible.

The grand villa and 2 studios were on the same floor and close to each other, the 2-bedroom was on a different floor and on the other side of the lobby. What was really annoying is that we were the first 2 check in and the cm that checked in took lots of time assuring us that we were all close together, even pointing out on a map where the rooms were. At that time she said the 2-bedroom was on the floor directly beneath us, right below the other rooms. Not! Since the people coming for that room (kids and grandkids) arrived a little later than others, I assumed that was the problem. Frustrating though after a year of planning. Still we all had a great time, can't let things like that ruin a trip.

 

[paults]

We have an extended family trip planned for Nov to celebrate my parents' 50th wedding anniversary. My part of the planning is the rooms and I will be using my points. We are too many people for a grand villa so I will need multiple rooms. To give each indivial family some privacy but still give some of the cousins a chance to room together I plan to book 3 studios and 1 two-BR but I want everyones rooms to be close together (at least on the same floor). Other than just putting in a request when I book and/or at onlinecheckin is there any other way to facilitate this ?

I called in NOv 2011 (11 months out) and booked 1 (standard 2 bedroom) and 7 standard studios at BWV for OCT 2012 and after they were booked the CM asked me if I wanted to talk with there (travel with ) CM. I said yes and they transferred me over and the CM noted it on our ressies.

Ellen, where are you staying and are you booking at 7 months out. I hope you can get those rooms if it's during the F&WF.

 

[chainkid]

I have had several large gatherings in the past and they always put us in the same hall way at the BWV. I am also going Thanksgiving thru DEc 2 this year and have a grand villa, two bedrrom villa and 7 studio's all boardwalk view. In the past they gave me a magical gatherings number but this time it is travel with #. I hope we will be as lucky . we once went and had three villas and two were close and one was on the other side of the resort and a real pain. They seem to have tried harded lately to get it right when they can. I'm much more woriied about the logistics of getting 29 plus people dining reservations as most are on the plan. In the past i have been the one to do all the planning but with the new rules I'm reluctant to put my credit card down for all the various reservations as then i'm on the hook for no shows. In addition to tryign to break people into smaller more managable groups. Not going to be fun and with my family i will not put dwon the credit card and be responsible for some of them. The success I have had with these trips is that I am not responsible for their stuff except to help plan dinner..got to rethink this now.

 

[ellenmiele]

I called in NOv 2011 (11 months out) and booked 1 (standard 2 bedroom) and 7 standard studios at BWV for OCT 2012 and after they were booked the CM asked me if I wanted to talk with there (travel with ) CM. I said yes and they transferred me over and the CM noted it on our ressies.

Ellen, where are you staying and are you booking at 7 months out. I hope you can get those rooms if it's during the F&WF.

My home resorts are SSR and AKV but for this trip I want BWV, BCV or BLT. (I know, I know )