Cheap/Free Welcome Gatherings?

[figmentfan814]

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

Thanks, Carrie That includes carriage rides at Port Orleans too if you don't want to do the one at Fort Wilderness. Although, POR only has the standard ones all year.

 

[MyMelody]

WOW all of these idea's are great Thanks Ladies!

 

[kcampbell]

There are a ton of great ideas! This is what we did:

We held a "Welcome Cocktail Hour" at the Martha's Vineyard Lounge @ the Beach Club. (It's right next to Ariel's- there was a long drawn out reason for choosing the locale) Anyways, it was on Thursday night (2 days before the wedding) for anyone who was already in town and wanted to come. We all just met there told the bartender what was going to happen and actually ended up having the place to ourselves. My mom just ordered a bunch of apps for everyone and they all ordered whatever they wanted to drink. I think the bill only ended up at like $500, including a nice tip, for approx. 20 of us. (which is pretty reasonable considering sometimes people go hog-wild when they know they aren't paying for their own drinks)

You could always choose one of the lounges or pools at your favorite resort, tell the bartender you'd only like to offer beer and wine, N/A drinks, or whatever- tailor it to your budget. It's a great way for everyone to start to get to know eachother and if you have it in the late afternoon/early evening with a set timeframe (ie. 4-6, 5-7) your guests will know you're not necessarily feeding them and that they'll have to make their own dinner arrangements.

Happy planning!

 

[goin' goofy]

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.

So is this a room that you booked, or did you just show up? I was also thinking of maybe Scat Cat Lounge at POFQ, but A) I don't want to get roped into paying for all those drinks, B) I'm not sure kids are allowed in there, and C) I don't want to be out real late the night before the wedding, since we're hoping for a 10:30am ceremony!

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

Much love for Giordano's!! I wish they had one closer to my house, the best we have is Gino's East.

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.

I love this idea, too! Maybe I'll look into what it would cost for a DVC room the first couple nights of our stay instead of POR the whole trip....


You all have such great ideas, I went from "no clue" to "too many options"!!

 

[kcampbell]

So is this a room that you booked, or did you just show up? I was also thinking of maybe Scat Cat Lounge at POFQ, but A) I don't want to get roped into paying for all those drinks, B) I'm not sure kids are allowed in there,

I think the lounge at your resort is a good idea- esp. if a lot of your guests are staying there. (I wish we could've stayed at the lounge at our resort, but again- long story). If you word it properly, like "Welcome Gathering"/ "Welcome Meet and Greet"/etc., I don't think you'd be obligated to pay for anyone's drinks. If they want one- there'll be a bar close enough by to get one. And Kids are allowed in the lounges at Disney.

 

[Ember]

Just a note: I floated the idea of a welcome party... But one of my guests mentioned that they were only there for three nights / four days. Take away one day for the wedding and you aren't left with a lot of time to see Disney. Keeping this in mind, I scheduled the rehearsal for breakfast time so I could feed people and send them on their way. Had I tried to do before and after wedding events I would have taken up people's entire holiday.

I'm not sure how much this would apply to anyone else, but several of my guests were first time Disney visitors. Maybe just something to keep in mind...

 

[lurkyloo]

So is this a room that you booked, or did you just show up?

We just showed up! It's not really book-able, but I was pretty sure there wouldn't be a lot of people hanging out there in the middle of the day, and there weren't!

Just a note: I floated the idea of a welcome party... But one of my guests mentioned that they were only there for three nights / four days. Take away one day for the wedding and you aren't left with a lot of time to see Disney....

I'm not sure how much this would apply to anyone else, but several of my guests were first time Disney visitors. Maybe just something to keep in mind...

I couldn't agree more - this is why ours had the unwieldy name! We really wanted people to know that they had absolutely no obligation to give up part of their already short vacations to see us. In fact, originally we weren't going to do a welcome gathering at all because I had such an aversion to over-scheduling our guests. But I guess it was expected b/c people kept asking if there would be one...

 

[rumrunnergirl]

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