Grand Gathering?

[monnolan]

? for those experienced Disney goers ... What benefits does Grand Gathering offer? What does it mean? We have 10 in our party, only 2 under 2? When I called to change something, they told me we are a GG now?? any info is helpful!

Monica

 

[disneydad78]

we are now GG also, 10 people.I asked the planner on the phone(WDW),ok and what does that mean. He said your just a big party, no discounts nothing,just a big group. He said its just some fancy words and laughed.

 

[MrsPooh]

When we went back in 2005 we were a Grand Gathering. We were told that this would allow us to all have rooms near each other at the resort. Unfortunately I was VERY unhappy with the room assignment and our request for a different room upon check-in was at first not treated nicely because they kept insisting they had to keep us all together. Finally I convinced them to move two of the families to a different floor. I was not impressed with this "benefit" of a Grand Gathering.

The other thing we choose to do as part of a Grand Gathering was to make reservations for the special Grand Gathering events. There was a special Grand Gathering Safari at AK and an International Dinner and Fireworks Dessert at Epcot. Our goal was to plan one meal per day together so in addition to these two Grand Gathering dinners we had an dinner reservation for 10 each night. Two weeks before our trip we were notified that the Safari was rescheduled from Monday evening to Sunday evening and the Epcot one was cancelled all together although they would provide us with a "special" viewing location for the fireworks. This threw all of our daily plans off because of the day change. Disney was not able to help adjust other dinner reservations and since it was close to the date we were stuck with dinner reservations at 3pm to fit a party of 10. Plans were totally messed up.

We stayed at Poly and it was nice to all be in the same long house but I do not think I would ever participate in a Grand Gathering again. It was nothing but problems for us and Disney did not seem to care.

 

[mom0299]

We did a Grand Gathering over New Years (07-08). It allowed us to have our rooms right next to each other at the resort. We also were able to choose from several different special events (usually involving dining) that are only offered to Grand Gathering parties. We chose to do the Safari dinner at AK. We (along with other GG's) went on a special safari after the ride closed right at sunset. The didn't do the usual "chasing after poachers" thing. We rode slowly and really got a good look at the animals. After that we walked to Tusker House and had a wonderful meal! During the meal we had African musicians, characters and animals for the kids to pet (in another room). We all had a great time! There were several other things we could have done, but we just did regular meals besides that one. We had the option of paying OOP or using DDP credits for that event.

 

[a1tinkfans]

we did GG last year! It allowed us to all get rooms near one another at the resort.
It opened up other opportunities, but we passed on them anyway.