Grand Gatherings & DVC

[mello]

Anyone done this? Anyone know if we must book Grand Gatherings through DVC MS, or if we can book directly with Grand Gatherings?
We're beginning to plan a trip for 15 people, and I'd love to hear from anyone with recent experience or info on this.

I did a search, but most of the results are at least a year old, and the research looks discouraging... reports that DVC and regular GG's aren't linked, people's dining ressies getting lost in the shuffle, or worse yet- DVC members missing out on special event ressies due to the 90 day window being on weekends and events selling out before MS opens Mon morning.

I'm thinking it sounds easier to book the GG NOT through DVC, but is that even possible when staying in DVC resorts? Maybe it's easier not to do a GG at all and just do everything myself, but some of the events do sound really cool.

I'd sure welcome any info, advice, experience, stories, etc. that anyone's got about GG's!

 

[BeccaG]

Bumping and Subscribing. . . planning a large trip and would like to know too. .

 

[disneydenisel]

I planned a trip for 13 of us last Thanksgiving (2005). I was going to do a GG, but we opted to just do our own thing. It worked out just fine for us as we celebrated my Dad's 70th. 13 of us flying from the West Coast! I'd plan it again in a heartbeat! Have fun!

 

[mello]

How'd you work it with ADR's, seating for lots of folks, and such?

 

[Nanajo1]

For a trip in Feb 2006 I had to get my Magical Gathering number through MS. The GG people didn't have access to my DVC ressie. You need this number to book any GG event. I did do one event the Wishes Fireworks cruise but the best thing about the MG was I got several calls to assure my group of three rooms was close together. I did the rest of the planning myself. Polling each family then reaching a consensus of mealtimes and places. We usually did one meal a day together. It might be at a Character meal or just meeting for breakfast in one of the villas. I'm waiting for a call from MS to get my MG number for my Nov 2007 Trip. I did find that if you have a big group the earlier in the day you book your ADR the better. At the Princess Breakfast we have 19 people the later the ADR the longer it took to get tables close together. So now I book the earliest ADR available.

 

[disneydenisel]

How'd you work it with ADR's, seating for lots of folks, and such?

We didn't make any advance reservations, not organized enough for that . Everyone likes different food and one is vegetarian. We'd meet at a park each day, hang out, find someplace to eat a quick lunch, split up, and often meet back for dinner. We have the youngest children (3 and 6 at the time), so we were on a different schedule and different rides. We also had most of the group staying offsite (we had planned to all be on site, but it saved about $6K for most of the families to use another timeshare). We had our Thanksgiving dinner together, offsite.

We did a similar gathering at Lake Tahoe (Northern California) during this past summer. 15 of us. We had 5 timeshare units that we rented. We met at the beach and met for dinners every night. Two out of four dinners, we cooked in at someone's timeshare unit. Worked out great.

Anyhow, it was easier for us to just be there and not have anything that we *had* to do at a certain time. We stayed in touch via cell phones and always knew where everyone was. Plus, it was easier on our budget and time to have less sit-down meals and no special events. If we had a lot of money to spend, we probably would have done it differently.

 

[mello]

I did find that if you have a big group the earlier in the day you book your ADR the better. At the Princess Breakfast we have 19 people the later the ADR the longer it took to get tables close together. So now I book the earliest ADR available.

Ah, that's a helpful tip on the timing! Makes sense. I'll try to do that whenever possible.

Did you book your Wishes cruise through MS or through the Magical Gatherings phone #?

What did you think of the cruise? We're considering it.

 

[AInWonderland]

We did a Grand Gathering last June. I booked the Grand Villa and 5 studios and after had the grand gathering people give us a number so that our chances of being close together were better. They were all in the same building except one which was nearby. We only had one meal at a restaurant together and they had told me that we would be at 3 separate tables , but they put all 29 of us at one table, it was fabulous. With a large group I would get the number just as one added measure to try and keep you all together.

 

[Lady SnowElla]

We were just at WDW for Christmas with a grand gathering of 8 people. We did get our number through MS. It seemed to be necessary when we booked our breakfast at Tony's. We had to make a date change on this event while at Disney & MS was very helpful! I highly recommend the breakfast at Tony's. There were huge groups there celebrating 50th anniversaries & special birthdays. Tony recognized them all. The character interaction & food were both wonderful!