Grand Gathering with DVCers & nonDVCers?

[wrighter]

Wondering . . .

A.) If this is possible, and
B.) If so, what is the best way to do it?

I was thinking that we, as DVCers, should just make our ressie through MS - and our family members should make theirs through CRO. Then someone makes a phone call to link all the ressies together? Who do we call to do that? Never done a Grand Gathering before . . .

Anyone have insight or experience on this one?

 

[DenLo]

Here's the information on the WDW website:

Travel parties with at least 8 Guests over the age of 3 staying at a Walt Disney World Resort hotel may purchase a Walt Disney World Magical Gatherings vacation package. A Magical Gatherings planning specialist will help you coordinate accommodations, as well as make your reservations for dining, recreation and special experiences. You may also choose Grand Gatherings, unique dining and entertainment experiences that can be booked up to 180 days in advance. For more information, call (407) 934-7639. Guests under age 18 must have parent or guardian permission to call.

To my knowledge there is no problem that some of the guests are staying in DVC villas and others are cash guests. The only requirement is that they are staying on Disney Property. We were having trouble getting some dining reservations for a group of 11 and the grand gathering people found us a time that worked for the group at the restaurant we wanted. We chose not to do any of the Grand Gathering festivities because they are rather expensive and not all of our group could afford them.

If you have already made your DVC reservation go ahead and call them and get some information.

 

[parlay]

We are DVC (staying on points) and the other 3 families that we are doing the Grand Gatherings are not. I did call DVC MS and they connected me with their CM (there are only of few of them) who sets up the Grand Gathering groups. It took about 45 minutes to put in all our information, get our Grand Gathering number - I also put in the hotel reservation information for the other 3 families (they could have called themselves and used our group number to add themselves on). As long as the other families were staying on Disney property we had no problem adding them. We booked the Illuminations dinner/dessert Fireworks GG - which doesn't have to be paid in full until 45 days before. (Nice thing is each family has their own "event" number for the GG - in case one family cancels we still have enough participants and all our "event" reservations will stand.)