Cheap/Free Welcome Gatherings?

[goin' goofy]

Anyone have any ideas for something cheap (or even better, free!) to do with a group of about 23 people? My DF is starting to freak out a bit as things begin to add up, so I'm trying to "cut corners" on some things. Since I'm not sure everyone will even be in town yet for this, I don't want to plan something too elaborate anyway. Thoughts or ideas??

 

[lurkyloo]

Our welcome gathering was totally free. We called it a "No Pressure, Come If You Want To Meet 'n' Greet" and we held it between 4pm and 6pm the day before. (We picked that time so that it was between meals and people could make their own eating arrangements.) We all got together in one of the public areas of our hotel (The Parlor at the Beach Club Villas) and just sat around chatting and getting acquainted. It was nice!

I've also heard of people ordering pizza and serving it near the pool as a welcome party. As long as your group is respectful of other guests, it should be no problem.

 

[Eeyore's Tailfinder]

I remember one Disney Bride (Laura - Princessdisneybelle) did the campfire movie over at Fort Wilderness, which is free for anyone to go along! Just in case you haven't heard about it, they show a movie outside under the stars, there's a singalong with Chip and Dale, and roasting of marshmallows!

Laura is soo crafty, and even made cute little Smores kits as favours for her guests:

(Her PJ is Here)

I think it's a great idea, you could do something similar!!

We are doing a sort of welcome dinner - we're just going to have a meal at Whispering Canyon, anyone who wants to come along can do so, and we'll tell them it's 1 Dining Credit, or $XX. We thought of paying, but our guests are family and close friends and they told us not to be so silly. Maybe this is also an option?

 

[figmentfan814]

In addition to the camp fire program at Fort Wilderness you can also have a private hay ride which is what I did for a Welcome Party. It cost us $200 and the wagon holds up to 30 people. Not sure if that's still out of your price range, but it is still relatively low cost in Disney terms Our guests loved it!

Here's some of my posting on it copied from my TR:

Here were my invitations that I made for the Welcome Party:

We took the bus to Fort Wilderness and then transferred to one to head to the area with the campfire program. The guys were already back by Pioneer Hall and were trying to decide if they were staying there or if they would come up to meet us. We got there before the movie while the ranger was leading the sing-a-long with Chip and Dale.

We didn’t stay here too long. I think it would have been much better if they would have gotten to the singing, but the ranger was doing some banter back and forth with Chip and Dale and this was kind of overdone and her voice was a little irritating. I also would have loved to see the movie that was suppose to play a little later too. Monsters, Inc. was going to start right before we left for the hayride. The campfire program is nice and I think if you went just for the movie it would be better. They had campfires set up where you could roast marshmallows which would have been yummy! If you don’t have kids I suggest skipping the sing-a-long part and go straight for the movie.

When we got to Pioneer Hall it was nice to see that a lot of our guests had already arrived. This was wonderful because we hadn’t gotten to see everyone yet.

The wagon then pulled up and they said that we could start loading.

The hayride was a lot of fun especially for the kids. It was a nice peaceful retreat compared to all the running around that we had done. Also, it was the first time we had a large group of everyone together since their arrivals in Orlando. We spent quite a bit of time in the woods and they pulled on the beach where we could see the castle and Space Mountain (sorry about the quality of the picture)

The private hayride was a lot of fun and was an affordable option for a family friendly welcome party We went this route since we couldn’t afford to add a huge event, but everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and it was something that no one expected out of Disney. The total ride lasted almost an hour. I originally thought it was only supposed to be 40 minutes, so that was a bonus. They took us through a large area of the campsites and up to the front by all the stables too.

 

[Eeyore's Tailfinder]

That sounds like a lot of fun!! Now I'm tempted to do that!!

 

[figmentfan814]

Here's a link with the phone number, etc. It looks like the price has gone up to $300, I wonder why the big jump, but I guess that's Disney for you (although the more I think about it I believe we paid $250). But, its still pretty reasonable at $10 per head.

http://allears.net/btp/carriage.htm
Group Wagon Rides at
Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground

Group wagon rides are available throughout the year. They can be booked by calling the Trail Ride Reservation area at 407-824-2734. The rate for a group is $300 per hour. The wagon will hold 30 adults or a combination of 35 adults and children.

 

[mermaidbride1108]

You could also do something at one of the miniture golf courses...

Sorry everyone else said my suggestions already, lol!

 

[rpmdfw]

Similar to Carrie's "No pressure meet and greet", we rented a villa at the Boardwalk and then bought our own chips, dips, sodas, beer, wine, and liquor and hosted a hospitality suite. This was MUCH cheaper than doing anything through Disney, and because we're DVC members, we rented the villa on points, so it didn't cost us anything other than for the items we provided.

It was a HUGE hit, and quite a few people joined us in the hospitality suite after the wedding reception, as well.

 

[goin' goofy]

Our welcome gathering was totally free. We called it a "No Pressure, Come If You Want To Meet 'n' Greet" and we held it between 4pm and 6pm the day before. (We picked that time so that it was between meals and people could make their own eating arrangements.) We all got together in one of the public areas of our hotel (The Parlor at the Beach Club Villas) and just sat around chatting and getting acquainted. It was nice!

I've also heard of people ordering pizza and serving it near the pool as a welcome party. As long as your group is respectful of other guests, it should be no problem.

I remember reading about that in your trip report (can't forget a party title like that! ) Can you pick any public area? Did you have a lot of people coming through your "party"?

And I thought about having a pool party at POR (where we will be the first part of our trip), but I was worried we'd get in trouble for having people at the pool that weren't staying at that hotel....

Laura is soo crafty, and even made cute little Smores kits as favours for her guests

We are doing a sort of welcome dinner - we're just going to have a meal at Whispering Canyon, anyone who wants to come along can do so, and we'll tell them it's 1 Dining Credit, or $XX. We thought of paying, but our guests are family and close friends and they told us not to be so silly. Maybe this is also an option?

I those smores kits, too cute! Unfortunately, I have some "Disney Haters" in the family (I know, I don't understand it either!), so I'm trying to avoid overdosing them on the Disney fluff, which I think a Chip and Dale sing-along might fall under.

I liked the idea of doing dinner, but even the less costly buffets add up with a large group. How did you go about doing an invite that made it clear they were expected to pay for their own?

In addition to the camp fire program at Fort Wilderness you can also have a private hay ride which is what I did for a Welcome Party. It cost us $200 and the wagon holds up to 30 people. Not sure if that's still out of your price range, but it is still relatively low cost in Disney terms Our guests loved it!

I remember that from your trip report and thinking it sounded like fun! But is it an actual "hay" ride? It doesn't look like it from your photos, but both my father and I have some pretty severe allergies to hay - I don't want to be dying through my Welcome Party!

 

[goin' goofy]

You could also do something at one of the miniture golf courses...

Sorry everyone else said my suggestions already, lol!

I don't know, my future groom and I are pretty competative, this could be trouble!!

Similar to Carrie's "No pressure meet and greet", we rented a villa at the Boardwalk and then bought our own chips, dips, sodas, beer, wine, and liquor and hosted a hospitality suite. This was MUCH cheaper than doing anything through Disney, and because we're DVC members, we rented the villa on points, so it didn't cost us anything other than for the items we provided.

It was a HUGE hit, and quite a few people joined us in the hospitality suite after the wedding reception, as well.

I love this idea! However, not being DVC members , I'm thinking by the time I paid for the suite and food, it would be cheaper to just take my group out to dinner... maybe I'll look into renting points and seeing if that will bring the cost down a bit. Thanks!

 

[Wish on a Star]

Our welcome gathering was totally free. We called it a "No Pressure, Come If You Want To Meet 'n' Greet" and we held it between 4pm and 6pm the day before. (We picked that time so that it was between meals and people could make their own eating arrangements.) We all got together in one of the public areas of our hotel (The Parlor at the Beach Club Villas) and just sat around chatting and getting acquainted. It was nice!

I've also heard of people ordering pizza and serving it near the pool as a welcome party. As long as your group is respectful of other guests, it should be no problem.

WE are doing something very similar. Its my version of a "dessert party" I wish I had the money for a real one, but we are just going to have people over to our room (We're in OKW and it's pretty spacious). We are going to a local store to pick up desserts, coffee and wine to meet everyone (including my future in-laws for the first time AH!) the night before my wedding.

 

[honey2741]

I remember one Disney Bride (Laura - Princessdisneybelle) did the campfire movie over at Fort Wilderness, which is free for anyone to go along! Just in case you haven't heard about it, they show a movie outside under the stars, there's a singalong with Chip and Dale, and roasting of marshmallows!

In addition to the camp fire program at Fort Wilderness you can also have a private hay ride which is what I did for a Welcome Party. It cost us $200 and the wagon holds up to 30 people. Not sure if that's still out of your price range, but it is still relatively low cost in Disney terms Our guests loved it!

The private hayride was a lot of fun and was an affordable option for a family friendly welcome party We went this route since we couldn’t afford to add a huge event, but everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and it was something that no one expected out of Disney. The total ride lasted almost an hour. I originally thought it was only supposed to be 40 minutes, so that was a bonus. They took us through a large area of the campsites and up to the front by all the stables too.

What a WONDERFUL idea. It would be awesome to do during Christmas time in December.

 

[lurkyloo]

I remember reading about that in your trip report (can't forget a party title like that! ) Can you pick any public area? Did you have a lot of people coming through your "party"?

And I thought about having a pool party at POR (where we will be the first part of our trip), but I was worried we'd get in trouble for having people at the pool that weren't staying at that hotel....

The cool thing about the Parlor is that it's an actual room with a door rather than a breezeway like the Solarium at Beach Club Villas, and it's sorta off the beaten path. So when our group of about 20 people congregated in there, no one else even poked their head in the whole time we were there. I can't think of an area like that at any of the other Disney resorts I've been to, although you could certainly all gather in a lounge (like Bellevue Lounge at the BoardWalk Inn) and no one would bat an eye.

I know what you mean about the pool party - I was a little too scared to try it, but from what I've heard from those who've done it, no one really checks to see who's an actual guest.

WE are doing something very similar. Its my version of a "dessert party" I wish I had the money for a real one, but we are just going to have people over to our room (We're in OKW and it's pretty spacious). We are going to a local store to pick up desserts, coffee and wine to meet everyone (including my future in-laws for the first time AH!) the night before my wedding.

That sounds like a really good idea! If we could've gotten a big DVC room like you and rpmdfw we totally would have done that.

 

[PrincessShea]

We are all gonna go to the Giordano's in Lake Buena Vista for pizza. Doesn't get much cheaper than pizza for food and since we are all Chicagoans, I know everyone will like the food

 

[figmentfan814]

I remember that from your trip report and thinking it sounded like fun! But is it an actual "hay" ride? It doesn't look like it from your photos, but both my father and I have some pretty severe allergies to hay - I don't want to be dying through my Welcome Party!

As far as I remember, no actual hay in the wagon since there were bench seats. I don't even think there was any on the bottom of it. If you're interested I'm sure they could let you know if you call the number at Fort Wilderness.

What a WONDERFUL idea. It would be awesome to do during Christmas time in December.

I agree, it would be a blast at that time of year. Plus, if you're looking for a private night out with DH they now offer carriage rides all year and special ones for Christmas and Halloween.

 

[disneygal922]

We are all gonna go to the Giordano's in Lake Buena Vista for pizza. Doesn't get much cheaper than pizza for food and since we are all Chicagoans, I know everyone will like the food

MMMMMMMM Giordano's!!! I had no idea there was one in LBV. I might have to look into that.

 

[mermaidbride1108]

LOVE THAT PLACE!!!

Can anyone tell me the address to Giordano's? I couldn't find it when we went in March.

Sorry to Hijack your thread - but I second that as a good choice for a pizza welcome party!!!

 

[honey2741]

I agree, it would be a blast at that time of year. Plus, if you're looking for a private night out with DH they now offer carriage rides all year and special ones for Christmas and Halloween.

Do you remember who you contacted for the carriage ride? Great idea!

 

[beach bride 2010]

LOVE THAT PLACE!!!

Can anyone tell me the address to Giordano's? I couldn't find it when we went in March.

Sorry to Hijack your thread - but I second that as a good choice for a pizza welcome party!!!

I agree...I LOVE their pizza. just a fair warning though, it is not cheap and they raised their prices a little not too long ago. I think we paid $16 for a small stuffed crust (feeds 2-4) with 2 fillings when we ordered from there about 2 weeks ago. Sorry I don't know the specific address because I am at work but it is on 535 really close to WDW. Just drive out the WDW exit that is by Crossroads, make a left, and it is about 5 minutes down the street (if that). There is another one on 192 but we always get much better service from the 535 location.

 

[lurkyloo]

Do you remember who you contacted for the carriage ride? Great idea!

You can schedule all kinds of recreation, including carriage rides, by calling 1-407-WDW-PLAY.

LOVE THAT PLACE!!!

Can anyone tell me the address to Giordano's? I couldn't find it when we went in March.

Sorry to Hijack your thread - but I second that as a good choice for a pizza welcome party!!!

Just had to add that I am also very excited to hear there's a Giordano's close to WDW!