Grand Gathering - Magical Firework Voyage

[auroraarielella]

I am interesting in the Grand Gathering Magical Firework Voyage from the Contemporary Resort and have a few questions.

We are traveling at the same time as another family. Both families are staying on DVC points at BWV. There are 8 of us total. A Grand Gathering requires 8 or more persons staying at a Disney resort.

Does a DVC stay with 8 persons qualify as a Grand Gathering and can we book a Grand Gathering special event?

And, if we can...
Do we have to do anything with Disney to "register" as a Grand Gathering to get the special events?

Do I just call Disney Dining 180 days prior and make the reservation for the Magical Firework Voyage?

Do I have to do my booking through Member Services?

Does anyone have any details about how many groups they book onto a single boat, what size boat it is, is there enough character interaction, do you get a good view or the Water Pageant as well as the fireworks? (I have fond memories of watching the water pageant from our CR balcony when I was a child, but I have not seen it as an adult.)

Any other input/advice on this or other Grand Gathering events?

 

[wildernessDad]

Most definitely. I have done this. I actually wrote a procedure on this. See below. Let me know please how this procedure should be changed. They may do things differently now.

How DVC Members Can Set Up Grand Gatherings (GG's)
Hi, all! I thought that I'd post a procedure, that I basically discovered by trial and error (mostly error), on how DVC members can set up grand gatherings. I will list it as steps.

1. Think about who you want to invite and what DVC resort you want to stay in. I will assume in this procedure that your party will all be staying at your home resort. I assume this because that was the case for me. If you have a different plan, please post here with how my procedure should change.

2. If you and your GG people own a PC, you can look up more info on the Disneyworld website.

3. Assuming that you are the 'group leader,' make sure that you get all of the names AND addresses of everybody in your party AND also get their ages. Disney needs their ages so they can put in whom in the party can officially check in. Nobody under age may do so.

4. Plan out what GG special products (GG events), if any, your group wants to experience. This step can be quite significant if you are informing others about these events. You may be dealing with people who have never been to WDW before or have not been there 'like this.' So, you may have to do a lot of explaining to them on what it's all about. You are the expert! They are not! Tell them what it's all about!

5. AS SOON AS YOU CAN, call DVC Member services (DVCMS) at 1-800-xxx-xxxx to make your room reservations AND tell them
that you have a GG. Give DVCMS all of the information about your party. DVCMS will then contact the GG folks and inform them of the upcoming GG. DVCMS will get a magical gathering (MG) number back to you in a few days. It was only a day wait for me. Remember that number. It will be very important.

6. Call the GG people at 1-407-939-7526 to make reservations for your GG 'events' using your MG number. The Safari Celebration dinner, the International Dinner and Fireworks show, and the Good Morning Gathering can be placed on the dining plan (DP). If the DP is not available yet for when you are going, my recommendation is to call the GG people and make the reservation BEFORE the DP becomes available. If the DP IS available when you want to make the GG event ressies, then skip this step ONLY for all ressys for which you want to use the dining plan and see step 7 below.

7. After the DP becomes available, and assuming that you want to use the DP, call DVCMS to add the DP and also to tell them that you will be placing one or more GG events under the DP. At that time, DVCMS will call the GG people and transfer you over to them. They will have to rebook the ressy, if you had one, under a new number and cancel the original ressie. If you had to go to step 6, then the original ressy was a placeholder until you could get the ressy with the meal plan. If by now you are wondering if this is all a big runaround, then my answer is yes. The GG people,
like the Disney dining people, do not have access to the DVC room reservation numbers, which makes all of his a necessity.

8. Now that you are done, sit back, relax, and let Disney magic take you where you need to be.

 

[Mahusky]

Yup ... that is te procedure. It works wonderfully! We are doing the Magical Firework Voyage GG in August! Can't wait!!!!!

 

[auroraarielella]

A long procedure, I'm glad to print it off and use it as a checklist. How many credits do these grand gathering events use? I was not going to add DDP since I will have a kitchen, but maybe I should....

 

[MinnesotaChill]

I have read horror stories about being sent back and forth from group dining to GG number to MS. Have those kinks been worked out? I plan to book the Magical Cruise for our first night (with two families that have never been there), preceeded by dinner at Chef Mickeys. We will be there in Jan. Any idea what time I should make dinner adrs for?

Also -I only saw about three things listed for Grand Gathering /Magical Gatherings on the WDW website. Are there more?

Finally, we are planning to do a few dinners all together. ADRS through group dining or MS or GG or...?

Thanks!

 

[wildernessDad]

How many credits do these grand gathering events use? I was not going to add DDP since I will have a kitchen, but maybe I should....

We had to use 2 TS credits for the Safari Celebration Dinner. It was well worth it imo. We could not use credits for the Magical Fireworks Voyage. Details can be found in the DisneyDining pdf guide. Here is the webpage for it.

http://adisneyworld.disney.go.com/m...agespecific/eng/nontheme/tickets/07Dining.pdf

 

[wildernessDad]

Btw, we had a blast at the Magical Fireworks Voyage. I'd do that again, most definitely!

 

[auroraarielella]

Btw, we had a blast at the Magical Fireworks Voyage. I'd do that again, most definitely!

Can you give any details about how many groups they book onto a single boat, what size boat it is, is there enough character interaction, do you get a good view or the Water Pageant as well as the fireworks?

I suppose the time it leaves varies with the start time for Wishes? How much earlier than Wishes does it begin?

 

[wildernessDad]

They used like two or three boats for the MFV. Our group was in the 'Hook' boat. I am not sure how many groups per boat, but it did not feel cramped. The boats left early enough to get a very good viewing of the Electrical Water Pagent, albeit a reverse-side viewing. There were trivia contests on the boat with 'prizes' handed out for correct answers.

We met at the Contemporary resort and they had all sorts of goodies, including a treasure chest filled with wrapped chocolate coins. Do not eat dessert that day. There was plenty of character interaction before the voyage with Hook and Mr. Smee as well as with Peter Pan afterwards.

Given the opportunity, we'd do this again.

 

[auroraarielella]

Do you get the soundtracks for Wishes and the Water Pageant on the boat?

 

[wildernessDad]

Do you get the soundtracks for Wishes and the Water Pageant on the boat?

No, I did not. I don't even know if those were available.

 

[Inkmahm]

No, I did not. I don't even know if those were available.

I think she meant if the music was piped in so you had music to go along with the fireworks. (you can easily hear the electrical parade I'd say.)

I'm doing a grand gathering in December and decided against the boat for the fireworks because I thought the view inside the park would be much better than from the water.

 

[wildernessDad]

I think she meant if the music was piped in so you had music to go along with the fireworks. (you can easily hear the electrical parade I'd say.)

Ahh, now I get it - finally. Yes, they pipe in the music on the boats and it sounds excellent.

 

[auroraarielella]

I decided against the boat for the fireworks because I thought the view inside the park would be much better than from the water.

I'm considering the boat because my children get a bit frightened when the fireworks and booms are too much in their face. I think being on Seven Seas Lagoon would not be exploding right over their heads. Hope I'm right

For example, when they went with my parents this past spring, they loved to watch illuminations from the Epcot resorts - but not right on the railing of World Showcase Lagoon.

(They also have to February to mature a bit.)

 

[mello]

Thanks for the procedure Wilderness Dad! I'm getting ready to book a Grand Gathering too. I would love to hear from others who've done it and how things went, what activities you did, etc.

For ours, some will be staying in a 2br villa with us, some will be doing a split stay in a dvc studio and a moderate, some are renting points from a friend of theirs - not sure yet if they'll be at the same dvc as we will, and finally some others are staying the whole time in a moderate. 17 people for 15 days, with people coming and going the whole time. It should be very interesting. We're going to try to get the Wishes Cruise and the Sunset Safari. I'm also thinking of trying to arrange an Illuminations desert party rather than doing the Illuminations GG dinner thing, since I keep reading mixed reviews on it, and everyone in our group wants to have dinner in the actual countries rather than in the Odyssey. All I can say is, even though I love to plan trips, I'm probably going to be ready to check into a sanitarium instead of a dvc by the time the actual trip gets here

 

[Inkmahm]

Thanks for the procedure Wilderness Dad! I'm getting ready to book a Grand Gathering too. I would love to hear from others who've done it and how things went, what activities you did, etc.

For ours, some will be staying in a 2br villa with us, some will be doing a split stay in a dvc studio and a moderate, some are renting points from a friend of theirs - not sure yet if they'll be at the same dvc as we will, and finally some others are staying the whole time in a moderate. 17 people for 15 days, with people coming and going the whole time. It should be very interesting. We're going to try to get the Wishes Cruise and the Sunset Safari. I'm also thinking of trying to arrange an Illuminations desert party rather than doing the Illuminations GG dinner thing, since I keep reading mixed reviews on it, and everyone in our group wants to have dinner in the actual countries rather than in the Odyssey. All I can say is, even though I love to plan trips, I'm probably going to be ready to check into a sanitarium instead of a dvc by the time the actual trip gets here

I'd be curious about the dessert party. I decided against booking the Illuminations GG dinner, too, for the same reason you did. Do they have dessert parties only for such a small number of people? I've only seen them for 50 people or so in the past.

I didn't do the safari, either, because the animals are more active first thing in the morning so I wasn't interested in being at Animal Kingdom late in the day.

 

[wildernessDad]

I have read horror stories about being sent back and forth from group dining to GG number to MS. Have those kinks been worked out? I plan to book the Magical Cruise for our first night (with two families that have never been there), preceeded by dinner at Chef Mickeys. We will be there in Jan. Any idea what time I should make dinner adrs for?

Also -I only saw about three things listed for Grand Gathering /Magical Gatherings on the WDW website. Are there more?

Finally, we are planning to do a few dinners all together. ADRS through group dining or MS or GG or...?

Thanks!

When I was setting this up, the GG people were willing to help make my dining reservations as well. I had already made them, but it was nice to know that they could do it.

I THINK that we needed to meet for the Magical Fireworks Voyage (MFV) at around 6 pm. Double checking my iCal, I see that's about the time. Make an early dinner ressie at Chef Mickeys.

 

[wildernessDad]

Thanks for the procedure Wilderness Dad! I'm getting ready to book a Grand Gathering too.

We're going to try to get the Wishes Cruise and the Sunset Safari.

Don't you mean the Safari Celebration Dinner? The Sunset Safari is limited to AKL and AKV concierge guests, I believe.

We enjoyed the Safari Celebration Dinner very much. The animals were not cooperating that evening, however. I did not get good pics that time.

 

[Mike]

I'm doing a grand gathering in December and decided against the boat for the fireworks because I thought the view inside the park would be much better than from the water.

I'd have to strongly disagree with this. I have done the Magical Fireworks Voyage twice and I have seen Wishes from Main St. several times. The view from the boat is far better IMHO. It is truly breathtaking from the water.

 

[kimberh]

We are going in Dec as a group of 8. I sure didn't know that Member serivces could set up a GG. Thanks for the Info!