Dec 31- Jan 7 - We are looking to join a grand gathering event?

[riu girl]

We (a party of three) will be in Disney Dec 31 - Jan 7 and would love nothing more then to join a grand gathering for a Magical Fireworks Voyage:

"Magical Fireworks Voyage" -- After bidding farewell to Captain Hook and Mr. Smee on shore, your group will sail with Patch the pirate along Seven Seas Lagoon by Magic Kingdom. This memorable evening includes ideal "seaward" viewing of the "Electrical Water Pageant" and the spectacular new "Wishes" fireworks extravaganza over Cinderella Castle. The voyage features group trivia and song activities and a celebration for special occasions like birthdays, reunions or anniversaries. The irrepressible Patch regales you with tales of Peter Pan on the trip back to shore. Speaking of Peter Pan, he awaits your return to pose for photos and sign autographs. Ages 10 and older, $29.99; ages 3-9, $14.99.
There is also a great dessert reception/dancing included prior to the cruise.


We need 8 to become a grand gathering and since there will only be 3 of us we are unable to book this event on our own.
If anyone is part of a grand gathering and are planning on booking this event and have room for 3 people please let me know at your earliest convenience.
Thank you
Suzy V.

 

[riu girl]

I am just giving this a little bump
If I don't get any repsonse in the next day or so I might post a new thread over on the theme parks board.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!!
Suzy V.

 

[mackeyapp]

We are planning a trip from Dec. 28-Jan 9 and may possibly be interested. I am not familiar with this, perhaps you can tell me more about it. We are a group of 4, two sons age 8 & 9.

 

[riu girl]

If I can get together my party (3 people) plus 5 others who are interested we can form what is called a grand gathering ( 8 people needed in total). You must be part of a grand gathering to go to these grand gathering events. There are a few to choose from but this is the one that we are most interested in.
If we can get 8 people together plus a date or two when everyone would be interested in doing this event, I can contact the grand gathering department at Disney and be assigned grand gathering number.
To get the number I'll need your reservation number, name, and number in your group (adults/children), with children's ages. Please include children under 3 in your count. They are free, but we still need to know that they'll be there.

After we've made the reservation for the magical fireworks voyage, Disney will add the cost for your portion directly to your reservation. You will then need to contact Disney 45 days prior to the magical fireworks voyage to pay. You may cancel any time up until 6 days before the event and still receive a refund.

Any questions, feel free to ask and I'll do my best to answer. This is the first time I've done considered doing anything like this so I'll try my best. I would prefer to simply join a grand gathering already in the works but don't know if that will be an option.


This is from a tread by a DIS who has already done this event:

We went in June, and we were told to be at the Contemporary at 7:45. It is on the 4th floor right up the escalator. If you get there early, that is where all of the shops are, so you have something to keep you busy. They have an area fenced off for you to go into. Around 8:00 or so, they called us by family into the area. We were each given a Magical Fireworks Voyage pin (one of the collectible pins) to wear. Then they brought out the food!! There were lots of different cookies, brownies and fruit. We also had water and cokes and coffee to drink. While we were eating, Captain Hook and Mr. Smee came out. They spent LOTS of time goofing off with the kids and taking pictures. The kids had plenty of time to talk with them and they were really animated and fun! That all lasted until around 9:00 or so. Then they split the larger group into 2 small groups and we went out to the boats. They are pontoon type boats that hold around 50 people. You are by no means crowded in, though. We were very comfortable. We got to meet our pirate (who, by the way, was the same CM who played Tony at the restaurant the next morning!!) and we headed out across the lagoon. The pirate sings and makes jokes all along the way. He was really great! We stopped and saw the Electrical Water Parade and when that was over, we went across to the other side to watch Wishes. While we were waiting, he sang and took individual pictues and just goofed off a lot. Then...Wishes started. That was the most beautiful thing that I have ever seen . The music is piped into the boat, and you can see well from every seat. It was so great. When it was over, we headed back to the dock. During that time, we played a pirate trivia game and he gave out prizes. As we headed back to the dock, we saw Peter Pan. We met him and he signed autographs. We were probably done around 10:30 with everything. I was a truly wonderful experience.

Suzy V.

 

[mackeyapp]

Hi Again We just read over the info you sent and we both think it sounds great. We do have one concern-our 9 yr old is very afraid of the loudness associated with fireworks. Do you know if we are far enough away from it that it will not be a major concern, if not we may have to pass on this for this year rather than ruin everyone's evening.

 

[riu girl]

Sometimes noise is also an issue for my DD8. We saw the fireworks last time we were in Magic Kingdom (12/04) and she had no problems with the noise from them. I believe on the magical fireworks voyage you are quite some distance from the Magic Kingdom so the noise would be much less then if you were in the Magic Kingdom. The soundtrack that is played during Wishes (the name of the fireworks display) is piped in on the boat so you get to enjoy the music as well on the cruise. I have also read on the disABILITES board that some people bring ear muffs for their children who may be very sensitive to this type of noise. But this was when they were talking about their children being right in the parks for the fireworks, outside the noise would definately be less. But to be on the safe side I will post a thread on the DISabilities board since a lot of people on that board have children with noise issues.

If you are still interested let me know and we can form a Grand gathering. We need to be a group of eight. Technically we are now a group of 3 (me, DD8 and DS5), but there is a chance that either my mom or my DH may be joining us. On our Disney reservation, I have my mom listed so if we formed a grand gathering we would have 8 including your family. My DH has told me if my mom can't make it (my father is terminally ill so her plans are not firm ), he will do everything in his power to be in Disney with us that week.

If you have any more questions, please ask away. You could also do an advanced (title only) search on DIS by entering the keywords Magical Fireworks Voyage. Thats how I obtained a lot of my information on it.
Please let me know what dates you would also be interested in for the event. We will be staying at POP Dec 31 - Jan 8, so any dates between Dec 31 and Jan 7 would be fine for us. I bet though Dec 31 would be particularly difficult to obtain, but later in the first week of January might be easier since crowd levels are lower then.

This event has to be booked 90 days out (any less days then that and there is very little chance to get it due to its HUGE popularity with grand gatherings). Also prior to the 90 days out I would have to contact Disney (with our Disney resort reservation numbers, names , ages of children) to get a grand gathering number. Without the grand gathering number you are unable to book this event.

Have a great evening.
Suzy V.

 

[riu girl]

I posted a new thread about this on the disABILITES board and here is a link to it.
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=9981576#post9981576

I hope the link works. If not, please go over to that board and check it out.

Let me know what you think of that thread. I think the fireworks last a total of about 10-13 minutes approx. I have also read that you are on the boat for approx. one hour (the rest of the event being held pre and post voyage) . When at a theme park and if the fireworks get to be too much for someone you can simply leave. My only concern is that your son would not be able to get off the boat if he needed to and it would be terrible for him to suffer. My DD8 had some noise issues when she was younger and it was hard to see her trying to manage certain things sometimes. But for whatever reason the noise issues have pretty much gone away in the past few years.
Suzy V.