grand gathering questions

[4 mickey]

Hi
Well another two have decided to joigned us so we are now 8 and are part of magical gathering
did any of you did the fireworks voyage ?? is it worth it (39$) ?
And also I have read you can buy t shirts any pics anyone ?? also do we get them ( tshirts ) by mail or when we get there ?? how much ??
Thanks
can't wait lol...lol

 

[bettydau]

Subscribing.

 

[TheDizMom]

We just came back from a Magical gathering. We were 11 and overall had a great time. We didn't get t-shirts, but we did get pins to wear from the front desk when we checked in. We didn't really try any of the special thing you can do as a large group so I can't help you there. We didn't want to spend the extra money and since we were at the Grand Floridian we could see the fireworks every night from the dock so it was free. Have fun though! Just remember to keep your sense of humor, you are going to need it.

 

[bless7ings]

We were a GG in 2005, but alls we took advantage of was the priority dining for attatching our parties together and connecting rooms because some of our kids stayed in my parents room.

But I have read recently that you can use 2 dining credits and go on a private safari tour and then eat after. I will look into that. We will hope for free dining in Sept 2008 and save some credits because all the meals are so big.

 

[*KeepMovingForward*]

Hi
Well another two have decided to joigned us so we are now 8 and are part of magical gathering
did any of you did the fireworks voyage ?? is it worth it (39$) ?
And also I have read you can buy t shirts any pics anyone ?? also do we get them ( tshirts ) by mail or when we get there ?? how much ??
Thanks
can't wait lol...lol

We recently had a magical gathering of 27. We did opt to do the fireworks cruise as well as the safari ride. Pricey for some in the group, but the consensus was that we will not get the opportunity to do these things often...so what the heck! We had a thoroughly enjoyable time! Nobody had issues with fear of fireworks/water or problems with getting up early/staying out late for some of the stuff...so all went well for us. We did not get shirts from WDW...we made our own for the group to wear when we would all be together (part of the fun IMHO). We did get the pins, but not everyone wore them.

 

[Picmac]

We are a party of 14 (four families) for our Grand Gatherings in Nov 2007 for SIL with cancer, I'm interested in the safari adventure, can you tell me more?

I also looked at maybe the fireworks cruise, but like another dis'er said it may be a financial issue for some in our group. We were thinking of sending the kids on the "family magical tour" at MK. Anyone hear good/bad about that?

Also, my DH and myself keep telling everyone that we don't have to do everything together, but I don't think anyone is listening. We are going to put together a temporary itinerary and share it with the group with the caviot that we don't have to be together every minute. Any recommendations from fellow travelers of big groups?

What was your experience with booking ADR for the group?

Sorry so many questions. Thanks!

 

[Grand fan]

We are going April 25-30th and are doing both the Safari trip and the fireworks cruise. I will let you know when I get back!

 

[momsully]

We did the fireworks cruise last year and loved it. While it was a little pricey from our standpoint it was worth the money. The dessert buffet was great and the kids loved interacting with Hook. We then went out onto the boats and the music from Wishes is piped in. The view of Wishes was spectacular. While we were waiting the boat driver told lots of stories and we had trivia contests to keep the kids entertained. I can't wait to do another grand gathering to do this again.

 

[LisaNJ25]

Hi
Well another two have decided to joigned us so we are now 8 and are part of magical gathering
did any of you did the fireworks voyage ?? is it worth it (39$) ?
And also I have read you can buy t shirts any pics anyone ?? also do we get them ( tshirts ) by mail or when we get there ?? how much ??
Thanks
can't wait lol...lol

I was just talking about this last night will another Diser.... she has some great reviews.
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1277896&page=1649
read post #24725 and #24730 by sweetinmaine..I am joining another group and doing the gg illuminations dinner and private seating. I am almost positive I will also be doing the Pirate Fireworks cruise also.

 

[bless7ings]

I did a search on this board for all of the differant GG things. You will get tons of links to view!!!!!!!!

 

[TheDizMom]

We are a party of 14 (four families) for our Grand Gatherings in Nov 2007 for SIL with cancer, I'm interested in the safari adventure, can you tell me more?

I also looked at maybe the fireworks cruise, but like another dis'er said it may be a financial issue for some in our group. We were thinking of sending the kids on the "family magical tour" at MK. Anyone hear good/bad about that?

Also, my DH and myself keep telling everyone that we don't have to do everything together, but I don't think anyone is listening. We are going to put together a temporary itinerary and share it with the group with the caviot that we don't have to be together every minute. Any recommendations from fellow travelers of big groups?

What was your experience with booking ADR for the group?

I agree that a basic itinerary is a great idea . We did this and it was a huge help in making things less stressful. I made a tentative itinerary and then we all went over it as a family, made necessary changes and settled on one and it worked great . We never had to worry about what we were going to do the next day because we had our planned days to go to each park and where dinner would be every night. We were able to get all our TS reservations as we had already agreed on where we would go. We never had to discuss where to go the next day, only to go and have fun. We never said we had to do everything together but I must say the majority of the time we did. We jsut got back on the 6th and we had an awesome and fairly stress free vacation . Not bad for 11 people!!!

 

[Picmac]

Thanks TheDizMom- great info. You validate our thoughts that yeah we have an itinerary and if we all happen to hang out togehter great, but it's not necessary. We were thinking of having our TS meals together.

I called WDW yesterday and spoke with a very nice grand gatherings CM who also made the recommendation that when we call for our ADR's to make sure we have a first and second choice just in case.

I guess I'm feeling the pressure to make sure that everyone has a good time- we always have and I want to share that with the rest of them.

thanks for listening.

 

[TheDizMom]

Thanks TheDizMom- great info. You validate our thoughts that yeah we have an itinerary and if we all happen to hang out togehter great, but it's not necessary. We were thinking of having our TS meals together.

I called WDW yesterday and spoke with a very nice grand gatherings CM who also made the recommendation that when we call for our ADR's to make sure we have a first and second choice just in case.

I guess I'm feeling the pressure to make sure that everyone has a good time- we always have and I want to share that with the rest of them.

thanks for listening.

Glad I could help . I know exactly how you feel. I was the family point person so to speak, so I was responsible for making all the plans and was the designated person on our GG with Disney, so I felt the pressure to make sure everything went smoothly . If you make the itinerary though and you all sit down and agree on it and your TS restaurants together, everything else will fall into place. The other benefit is if you have a complainer you have the "we all agreed on this" factor working for you , or just tell them they are welcome to go and do their own thing. We didn't have a single issue with it though. I might also recommend if you have the time to plan one day to just do whatever you want, or just stay at the hotel and enjoy what it has to offer, do it. We had hotel day and the whole family just sat around at the pool . The kids swam, the mom's got a tan and the dad's had bloody marys and talked golf. My IL's even watched the kids later that afternoon for us so we could go to DD sans kids . We had a great relaxing day . Get to work on your ADR's asap! When you have a lot of people sometimes the restaurant doesn't have a table large enough and you have to go into 2 or even 3. If you can spare 2 TS meals I recommend the HDD dinner show with a large group . It was so much fun for us and though the menu is limited to backyard bbq type food it is so worth it. We really enjoyed the food and they were even able to get my niece a hot dog because she wouldn't eat anything else on the menu. I think I will remember it as one of my favorite things from this trip .

In the end just don't sweat the small stuff, go with the flow. I'd expect to get frustrated at least once with your family members and know it's just going to be inevitable . Lucky for me it didn't happen until day 6 of 8, when I was just getting sick to death of waiting for the rest of the family to get to something at the designated time. If you tend to have chronicly tardy family members, give them an earlier call time then everyone else when you really have to be on time(like at your TS meals).

 

[Princess_Michelle]

We did the fireworks cruise last year. It was totally worth the money; but it was just a little different from what I was expecting......

We met at the Contemporary Resort with all the others, I'd say about 20-30 other people. The "Dessert Buffet" was actually a table with prepackaged brownies and cookies, along with fruit, chocolate gold coins and sodas. I was expecting something a little more fancy there. Then, out came Captain Hook and Smee and some CM's dressed as Pirates. Everyone had a chance to get your picture taken with the characters and then we were led down to the boats. The boats were regular old touring boats, nothing fancy. We set out on our voyage and our "Pirate" had a great sense of humor and was really funny. We stopped to watch that light show on the water, it was cute. Then, we did trivia games and sang "A Pirates Life For Me" etc. It was REALLY fun and we laughed a lot; the breeze and night air felt wonderful. Then the music started and the fireworks show began. It was nice to sit and watch. When we returned we were greeted by Peter Pan and everyone was given photo-ops with him to end the event.

So, it wasn't as "fancy" as I thought it would be, but it was fun none the less. My son was only 2 and he didn't really care too much; he ended up falling asleep So, do it if it sounds good, just remember that dessert buffet, means bagged brownies and cookies, not creme brulee and cheesecake

 

[*KeepMovingForward*]

The "Dessert Buffet" was actually a table with prepackaged brownies and cookies, along with fruit, chocolate gold coins and sodas. I was expecting something a little more fancy there.

I agree. We were also a bit let down by the food spread. We had the impression it was so supposed to be fancy as well. IMO they should have just said that snacks were provided...certainly didn't deserve to be billed as a "dessert buffet". Oh well...it was a unique and fun experience for us anyway.

 

[jenrein]

We just came back from a grand gathering. We took part in the Illuminations dinner- that was really fun and we got front row "seats" to view the fireworks. This took 2 dining credits and could be another option to the Fireworks Cruise. We did not get the t-shirts or pins so no sure about that. Now I was also the person who planned everything- they left it all up to me. So knowing that 8 people are not going to want to do the same thing at the same time, I made up a card for each day. I put on there important times- parade times, dinner times with the confirmation #, tour confirmation,etc. This way once we did split up then we have the few points throughout the day where we still meet and everyone has that info.

Good luck and enjoy!

 

[FairyGodmotherJen]

I'm the point person for our group as well. When we booked originally, we only had 7 people - one short! A month later, we added two, but they decided to stay at a different resort. Because of that, according to my AAA travel agent, we couldn't get a Grand Gathering number. I didn't like it, but I dealt with it. Now, all of a sudden (a month later) she calls us to tell us we CAN do the Grand Gatherings thing, and gives us a number.
Now I'm wondering - what did I miss out on? One of the CMs I talked to when making ADRs asked me if we had a GG number, but I told her no. We're only seated together for two meals out of five. If I call back and give them that number, would they be able to change that? Keep in mind that we leave in 34 days cool1: ) and I don't know what they'd be able to do in terms of reservations. Also, we might be interested in the fireworks cruise. Do you think there's any hope of getting into one at this late date? I'd love opinions from anyone who's been there/done that!

 

[justwinnie]

To FairyGodmotherJen:
There's a group dining phone number you can call (just ask to be connected when you call the regular #). They can help you out and perhaps seat all of you together.

I had called pretty late for some ADRs when we had a GG of 13 go in Feb. I was able to get a table at CRT when the regular dining # told me it was sold out! Mind you, February is a much slower time, so you may not be as lucky.

GGs do not all have to stay at the same hotel-- they just have to all stay in a Disney hotel (Swan/Dolphin don't count). If you link all of the guests in the GG together, those staying in the same hotel will be placed close to each other, if not next door to each other. It depends on availability though.

We only went on the fireworks cruise. It was a lot of fun for the kids and the Pirates were quite silly. We received fireworks pins that were our "ticket" to get on board. These pins are suitable for trading, if you're so inclined. We traded our pins b/c who really needs 3 of the same one? The dessert buffet wasn't very exciting, but I was glad that I had read on beforehand that it was pre-packaged goods. People there were loading up on snacks to bring aboard the ship, and perhaps save for later too. They kept on refilling the food, right up until we left. So, I guess it's fine to take what you want (some CMs were encouraging ppl to do so). You can also load up on soda and water. You can't count the fireworks cruise as a DDP TS like some of the other events-- it's not a full meal, so it doesn't count.

----
My friend just returned from a GG and went on the Safari dinner. Said the safari was pretty much the same as the one you go on at AK. Just paused longer. The dinner was so-so. Not worth the 60+. She and her family are Disney fanatics and highly enthousiastic about everything, so if she says it wasn't so great, I believe her.

 

[SalandJeff]

I just called to make ADRs for our Oct/Nov trip. We will have between 11-19 people at dinner. They transferred me to the group dining as well. Apparently different restaurants have different rules about the seating of groups. At some, you can only do certain times, etc. At most of our ADRs we will have 3 tables near each other.

I was looking at the grand gatherings also and thinking about the fireworks, but we just seem to keep adding things and are running out of time and money.

When you got your pins at check-in, were they free? And are there any other benefits to being a grand gathering other than the option to book the safari, fireworks, illumination?

 

[justwinnie]

The pin (big button) is free. If they don't have it at the hotel (Pop didn't when I asked), they'll have them at guest services at any park. They're the same size as the birthday buttons that are given out.

Ours had The Incredibles on them. But I don't know if they change the design often or not.

You can check their website to see what else is special with the Grand Gatherings.

I know at one point, I felt like having us listed as a Grand Gathering was more more a headache-- any changes to any of the room reservations had to go through their office. However, as a GG, we were able to have all of our rooms next to each other.