Grand Gatherings...your thoughts?

[RangerPooh]

We are considering going through Grand Gatherings for our next trip as there will be 12 family members. I can not get Disney's Grand Gatherings page to load in order to get the info (who to call, etc). So I am hoping that you can provide me with your thoughts of the option. Do they give you special rates? Or have you found that it's a better deal to book each room (needing 3) separately ? Any guidence would be appreciated.

Thanks.
K.

 

[3littleHalls]

This is our first trip as a GG, we didn't book through GG, but were given at GG# for our trip. So far this is what I know. You don't recieve a group discount that I know of. But they do have a planning service where they can do your ADRs for you. When you do your hotel rooms, they try to keep you together(same floor, and area) as much as they can. There are special offerings like GG restaurants, character meals, etc) We booked through our local AAA office(had 4 rooms, park hoppers, dining plan) and then when free dining came out we wanted to switch so they needed our GG # to it to the free part and we added another room. Disney dining has done a great job accomodating our party size at the restaurants. I know there are many more that are much more knowlegeable than I on this subject. Just a bump to keep it going.

 

[Cyndy]

I have to say that I was not impressed, we often travel with a large group of Kids and GKids but we stay at DVC so the room part I am not sure of. I planned to use GG last year for a trip and registered the group and found that while everyone I spoke with was polite etc., I could do a better job (at a better price) of planning things myself. That said, if you had a really large group with a lot of strong opinions, the voteing via e-mail part plus some of the other features may work for you. My group is happy to let me plan and pay and they show up to enjoy! It seems to be working well for all of us

 

[princess mom of 4]

I emailed guest services (thru the "contact us" on the website) about the problem with that section of the site...I got a nice email back stating that they were aware of and working on the problem. It also described the 4 different group "special events" that are available, but didn't answer my real question - What's the cost of those events, per person? per group? and do they charge for the coordination of resort reservations, ADR's, etc. ? anybody out there know?