Family Reunion At BWV

[NJDVCmember]

We are so excited....we got a BW grand villa and two studios at the seven month window!! I was shocked. But so happy. There is a total of 17 of us (two are under 2, two are 4, and three older kids, and 10 adults) Any ideas of special things we should do? My family (dh, and the three older kids) are the only ones that have been to WDW a lot.
I was thinking of the speciality cruise to see the fireworks...any other ideas out there.
And how nice is the BW grand villa? We have stayed at the grand villa at HH and just loved it.

 

[RWishbone]

We have a large family group planned for the BWV in January. We have a Grand Villa and 2 two bedroom villas reserved. I have been given a tour of the BW GV but I have never stayed in one. They look great. Some things that we are plaaning to do:
- Eating dinner with a large group is very difficult to do. Spoodles has a large area near the back which can accomodate a large party. We are eating there again.
- We are signing up for two Bike and Boat plans. WE have a large group - 24 people - but there are a lot of little kids so two plans should work out well.
- We are doing a Fantasmic dinner at Mama Melrose's. That worked out very well for us.
- We love Net Grocer and will be doing that again.

We usually travel with a large group of family members and, if you have never done it, it makes sense to plan as much as possible in advance while at the same time being flexible. Little kids and big kids like different rides so we are always splitting up with an agreed upon meeting point later in the day. We have used the Family Service Radios and they work pretty well for keeping large groups in contact with one another. Have a great trip.

 

[Alysa]

We went over Christmas and stayed in a BW Grand Villa and 2 studios - there were 17 of us and we had a wonderful trip. The villa was absoloutely wonderful! We even brought a tree and decorated it in the middle of the living room. A few tips:
1. We used yourride which was excellent transportation to get everyone to and from the airport and our driver Rabbit was wonderful.
2. We ordered our groceries from goodings (my aunts suggestion) and they were wonderful, inexpensive and delivered it right to the hotel (be prepared for a big tip for the cast member who delivers it all to the kitchen!)
3. At first everyone wanted to do everything together but this is just too difficult and unpractical. In the end we had one character breakfast at Donald's Breakfastosaurus and one dinner show at the Whoop-Dee-Doo-Revue all together and for everything else everyone did their own thing. We still did lots of stuff together but it didn't have to be everyone and that worked out better - more spontaneous and fun. We had a wonderful time at Chef Mickeys for a birthday dinner and everyone met at Epcot for the fireworks one night which was great - the fireworks dinner cruise sounds wonderful!
4. Ask that the studios be as close as possible to the villa - the halls can be miles long.
5. We have a super photo of everyone in the lobby of the BW - make sure to do this - ours is so lovely and we gave one to each family as a thank you for coming gift. You might want to hire a photographer but there were dozens of helpful guests who were happy to do this (use every family's camera and take lots of shots - we had about a dozen photos but only one where everyone was looking and no little ones were crying).

Have a wonderful time. No matter how prepared you are (and this board is the right place to do that) there will be slightly stressful moments. Just take a deep breath, relax, laugh a lot and enjoy every minute. You will remember this trip forever!

 

[Mary Ellen]

Originally posted by NJDVCmember
I was thinking of the speciality cruise to see the fireworks...

Just keep in mind that with 17 you'll need two boats, as they only hold 12.

 

[nhmomx2]

We leave in 6 days for our BWV Family Reunion (24 people in all!). Here's what we have planned as a group:

* Matching T-Shirts / Group Flag (joke gift for FIL)
* Breakfast at Chef Mickey's
* BBQ by the quiet pool
* Fantasy in the Sky Fireworks Cruise (2 boats!)
* Boys are doing the watermice and girls are doing the
Princess Breakfast at Cindy's
* Big boys are doing Richard Petty Driving Experience
* Adult Only Dinner at LeCellier

Other than that it's a free for all. You spend too much time together and there is likely to be a few people not speaking to one another by the end of the trip. This is also why we opted for individual rooms instead of a GV. 3 Studios & 1 2 Bedroom. We all have our little havens to return too - lol!

Have fun...and I can't wait (or maybe I can...I'll let you know after!)