Grand Gatherings?

[Biddler]

Can someone tell me if there is more than 2 Grand Gatherings. I knew about Epcot but I just read about the AK gathering. That sounded really fun. I was just wondering if there were any more. Thanks .

 

[kathbuet1]

There is a breakfast at Tony's Town Sqaure Restaurant in MK. You get special time with Mickey. That is what we are doing on our trip next week. I believe there are a few more but not sure what they are off the top of my head.
Come to think of it I think there is a boat cruise that lets you see Wishes fireworks at MK too.

Kathy

 

[Soupermom]

There is a Pirates Cruise for Wishes...you go to the dock (not sure where this is...maybe the Contemporary Resort?) and have yummy desserts with Capt. Hook and Smee (or others) and then you go on a cruise thru the lagoon for the water Pagent/Parade and on to Wishes. All the while the capt. tells you Pirate tales, etc! When you return you are greeted by Peter Pan himself! Check out the WDW website and go under Grand Gatherings, you should get all off the info/prices etc. there. I know it's going to be $114 for my family of 4: DM, DH, DD11 and DS8; you have to have 8 in your total group, which we do (but you are with a larger group of other GG people) HTH!!! I can't wait to go and hope I get my Ressies!!!!!!

 

[UrsulasMyHero]

There are 4 grand gathering events:

Good Morning Gathering with Tony at Tony's Town Square
Illuminations Dinner and viewing
Safari Dinner
and the Wishes Fireworks cruise.

I've been to the Good Morning Gathering and it was FUN. I loved the "italian toast" and the eggs were with 4 cheeses. YUM

 

[Magical_One]

There are 4 experiences. I have been on 3 of them. The only one I have yet to attend is the Magical Fireworks Voyage. This is out of the Contemporary Marina. It holds the least amount of people (kinda obvious, as it is on a boat), and is the most popular. I have only heard great things about it from my guests.
The Good Morning Gathering is at Tony's Town Square at MK. It is fun, and is better then a regular character breakfast in my opinion. Not only do the characters visit your table, but the invite you to come up and sing and dance with them. After everything is done, they take you for a private meet and greet with Mickey, and you can take as many pics as you want. When I went they had a park photographer there, and you could have the pics put on your photopass. Of course, they let you use your own camera as well. And Ursula is right about the eggs!!
The Safari Celebration Dinner was also excellent in my opinion. I love Kilimanjaro Safari anyway, but this was better then the day time one. Not only did they stop for you to look at the animals, but the normal storyline with the Warden that runs during the day isn't run. You also have not just a driver as you do during the day, but a safari guide as well, who will tell you about the different animals and things that you encounter along the way. Dinner was very good. It is cooked with african spices which anyone who has ever eaten at Boma or Jiko can tell you makes the food flavorful, not hot in a spicy way. I tried the lamb stew upon recomandation of a friend, and it was very good. This coming from a girl who **HATES** lamb!
The International Dinner and IllumiNations Dessert Reception is great! Dinner is served buffet style, and features items from Italy, Moracco, China, Germany, and has a kids area as well. There is music and storytelling during dinner to help keep the kids busy, and as you are finishing up dining, you are joined by some of the characters, (Minnie and Goofy the time I went) who dance with the kids. After dinner you are directed outside to the VIP viewing are for IllumiNations, where desserts and beverages are served, while you watch.
In all the guests that I have either booked on these experiences, or assisted that went on these experiences, I have only ever heard rave reviews about all of them.

 

[TinkerBess_SnowTori]

We just went on the Magical Fireworks Voyage and I cannot say enought about how wonderful it was - the desserts were so good and plentiful as well as the drinks - lots of soda, tea, coffee and bottled water.

Meeting Hook and Mr Smee before we left was so fun -- such a treat and we had lots of time with them to take pictures and play.

The voyage itself was great!! Our pirate captain was wonderful - laughing and joking with us - telling stories and singing. Seeing wishes from the water was wonderful and we heard more of Jimmie Cricket than I had heard before, it was in short Magical and if you can go - do it.

Now to talk my husband into a trip back to do the Safari one!!!

 

[Soupermom]

TinkerBess...did you see Peter Pan at the end?

 

[TinkerBess_SnowTori]

yes - he was there waiting on the dock - just a little spritely guy -- kinda hopped all over(you expected him to take off flying any minute) and he crowed with my oldest daughter when she showed him how well she could crow.

He was wonderful

 

[jrogers345]

There is a breakfast at Tony's Town Sqaure Restaurant in MK. You get special time with Mickey. That is what we are doing on our trip next week. I believe there are a few more but not sure what they are off the top of my head.
Come to think of it I think there is a boat cruise that lets you see Wishes fireworks at MK too.

Kathy

So how was the breakfast? What did they serve and what time is it?

 

[HulaHoop]

Is there a DIS Grand Gathering in the works? My family of 3 would love to join a group for the Fireworks gathering at MK. We could do it Dec. 19, 21, 22, or 23. We'd also be interested in the other gatherings, but the MK sounds wonderful.

 

[1000th happy haunt]

There's always a Grand Gathering in the works. Call the GG number on the WDW website.

For the Pirate/fireworks cruise, you can book 90 days in advance--and it sells out fast! We had a large group and our GG coordinator actually let us pre-book by a couple of days so there would be enough space for us. Once the cruise is booked, you can only waitlist and hope.

 

[HulaHoop]

There's always a Grand Gathering in the works. Call the GG number on the WDW website.

For the Pirate/fireworks cruise, you can book 90 days in advance--and it sells out fast! We had a large group and our GG coordinator actually let us pre-book by a couple of days so there would be enough space for us. Once the cruise is booked, you can only waitlist and hope.

But, don't I need to have a group of 8 BEFORE I can reserve?

 

[riu girl]

Hula hoop, I think that yes you have a group of 8. BUT, I read on DIS about someone wanting to go on a grand gathering event and said that they would go ahead and organize it if they could get enough DISers together to "make " a grand gathering (8). Perhaps someone who knows more about this will post.

BTW, if anyone is planning a grand gathering event (the peter pan cruise) for anytime between Dec 31-Jan 7, please let me know. We (a group of 3) would love to join you.
Thank you
Suzy V.

 

[HulaHoop]

Thanks everyone for your help. Will the CM want the list of eight names when I book?

And my DH had a good question: what would happen if part of the group cancelled?
Would Disney cancel the whole group, and give refunds to all if it was within the required cancellation period; OR would they give us a chance to replace the ones who canceled to keep a group of 8?
If it was too close to the cruise date, would they cancel the whole group anyway, and not give refunds; OR would they continue the cruise since they would be keeping the money of the ones who canceled??

 

[Goofy4]

Thanks everyone for your help. Will the CM want the list of eight names when I book?

And my DH had a good question: what would happen if part of the group cancelled???

Before booking a GG event, you need a "GG Number". To obtain that, you'll need 8 or more (they seem rather strict about that).

When you book the event, you'll need to identify who in the GG group is going. They tend to ask many many questions, I believe mostly to make it a more "magical" event should you be celebrating anything (as well as for the Disney marketing machine, I'm sure ).

Just a thought: the computers were having difficulties during our ressies so we had to provide information more than once. If you lacked rather detailed knowledge of your group (who's related, where they are staying, etc), that could make for a rather "awkward" conversation . If someone cancelled, that too would could create much "awkwardness" -- so much so that you might want to avoid it.

The Fireworks cruise takes something like 40 or 50 (I believe). They would not likely cancel the entire cruise if 1 group can't make it. As for the refund policy, I'm not sure about that, but they would probably want to go "8 or nothing" for the GG group -- you would still need 8 from your group.

 

[riu girl]

What sort of info. are you asked for about each member of the group. I assumed it would be just name, disney ressie number and vacation dates. Also: do all of the grand gathering guests have to have the exact same check in and check out dates or is it ok if there is overlap?
Thanks
Suzy V

 

[Goofy4]

What sort of info. are you asked for about each member of the group. I assumed it would be just name, disney ressie number and vacation dates. Also: do all of the grand gathering guests have to have the exact same check in and check out dates or is it ok if there is overlap?

Many of the CMs are so pleasant to talk to that you find yourself discussing more than what the computer calls for. In my previous post, I was thinking that if a CM asked "who's been to Disney before" and you didn't know, that might be "strange". Name, ressie, and "age of child at time of travel" is what I recall them asking for.

Overlapping ressies should not be a problem. We have a split stay with different numbers and they never asked for the second set of numbers -- but we did have to explain the situation more than once.