Grand gatherings

[kmyamz]

Anyone participated in a grand gatherings? I am visiting Disney world in June with several other families and am wondering if it's worth it.

 

[gottalovethem]

They don't do each of the activities every day, so you have to contact them about what's available on a particular day before you make plans. It's also complicated to get everyone's room reservations connected if everyone is paying seperately.

We were going to go this route in June and quickly changed our minds.

Good luck!

 

[MrsPooh]

Keep in mind our grand gathering was nearly three years ago so they may have improved since then.

Personally I wouldn't do it again.

We appreciated that the group would have rooms near each other but at check-in we discovered that this meant none of us had balconies. Our family really wanted a balcony because we needed the space. Our group ended up having rooms changed at check-in so everyone could get the room type they each wanted.

The special grand gathering events and group reservations didn't work out very well for us. We book a grand gathering dinner at AK and an Illuminations dinner and fireworks viewing at Epcot. We also had dinner/Fantasmic reservations for our large groups on evening and large group dinner reservations for three other evenings. Our grand gathering and large group dinner reservations were made on the first possible day.

We all had various agenda worked out, seperate character meals reservations and other dining arrangements made far in advance. About two and a half weeks before our trip we were notified that one grand gathering was cancelled and the other had changed days of the week that it was offered.

Since the Illuminations event was cancelled we were offered the option of a "special viewing area" for during the event. Truly we could have found a better location ourselves. Since the other evening was changed we had to reschedule several of our meals in order to accomidate the new schedule. Disney made absolutely no effort to help us get reasonable dining times for a large group when we had to change advance reservations. We were stuck eating at times that didn't work for us at all just to be able to all eat together.

Considering this was my first Disney trip I was very upset and disappointed before we even arrived.

I think I would register as a grand gathering group for the possiblity of improving room locations if you would all like to be near each other but I'd skip the actual grand gathering events.

 

[YodaMouse]

We took part in two Grand Gatherings in Aug 07. We did the Safari and Illuminations (don't recall the longer, official names). I liked both of them. The safari dinner was, at the time, served as a family-style meal, but I understand now that it is a buffet. The Illuminations dinner was also good, but I liked the safari dinner better.

I booked my own rooms and asked for them to be in close proximity to each other. The rooms were fairly close, which was nice. I did not use the rest of the services offered through the Grand Gathering program, so I cannot speak to that.

We are going for Christmas this year and I will be setting up the GG Fireworks Voyage which sounds like fun.

Hope that helped...

 

[mom0299]

We went on a GG this past New Year's. We had 12 people in 3 rooms. Everything worked great for us. We had a TA book everything for us. Our rooms were all next to each other at our resort. We booked the Safari Celebration Dinner. The dinner was served family style to begin with and then we went to the buffet line whenever we wanted more. It was a great experience. We were also able to get large seatings for all of our other dinners. We didn't have any problems and I would definitely do it again. It doesn't cost any extra and you get a few extra perks.

 

[BlakeNJ]

We did a GG in 2006. We requested connecting room and did not receive them at first. They were very understanding of our needs and let us wait for a connecting room to become available. It was a slight inconvenience considering I felt the effort should have been made ahead of time.

As far as the events, we did the Safari and loved it. The safari itself was great--no silly story about the baby elephant--just info about the animals and a nice long ride. The meal was excellent and the kids loved the music and Chip n Dale.

I think this trip we will try the fireworks cruise if it's available on one of our nights.

Blakely

 

[kmyamz]

Thank you all for your insights. All comments helps so much in planning. I think I will try and book them. Even with all the complications it sounds well worth the trouble.

 

[heartbeeps]

you hsould know that the GG safari dinner is not available every day. For us, it was offered 5/1 & 5/8 but everyone was in after 5/1 and out b4 5/8 so it didn't work at all.