Anyone find out if we can book reservations through the Magical Gatherings Planner?
No, you can't book through the online planner. When you call to make your initial room reservations, call the Grand Gatherings Planners at (407) WDW-PLAN. They will make your room ressies, and designate you as an official Grand Gathering and assign you a Grand Gathering number. This number will be what links all of your reservations together.
Though this program allows everyone in your group to make their own reservations and link them under the Grand Gathering number, since our group was mostly newbies and DH and I are fanatics, I have done all the planning, reserving, etc. I made all the reservations and have all correspondence sent to me. In addition, after ressies were made, I contacted each paying family member, told them the amount of the deposit and asked how they wanted to take care of it. Not wanting to be bothered with the details, every paying person provided me with a credit card number to pay for all of their charges (room deposits, prepaid events, etc.) I simply email them a total anytime I make a charge and always wait until the last day or 2 to do it so they don't pay any earlier than they have to. This may not work for every family, but it worked for us because 1--they all trust me, 2--I know what I'm doing with the ressies and they don't, 3--as a cheapskate they know I'm trying to save money everywhere I can, 4--with everyone paying their own way, we don't have to bother with reimbursing each other for stuff, and 5-- if someone backs out at the last minute, they lose the deposit, not me! (BTW, noone at Disney has ever blinked an eye when I called in and used 6 different cards in 6 different names to pay for our stuff. I just tell them I'm the family coordinator and they're fine with it. Plus, I've been doing this for months and they can see there's been no complaints on our accounts.)
Also, anyone know of a place that can accomodate all 17 of us for dinner or lunch at one table, but not the disney dinner & show programs?
Most restaurants will be happy to help you, although there are limitations. First, for any group over 13, you must use Group Dining to make your reservations (407) 939-7707. They will tell you any restrictions at the restaurants you want. For instance, at most restaurants, to guarantee you tables together, they may insist that you eat either in the first 20 minutes or last 20 minutes of the seating times. (Fore example--Boma--dinner for our group of 20--to guarantee seating together we could only have a PS for any time between 5:00 and 5:20 pm or 9:20 and 9:40 pm. Too early and late for us, so we're doing 2 PS for 10 people at 8:00--and plan on showing early to kindly ask to be seated together. If we're not, it was a risk we took to eat when we wanted.) So far, we have PS at Boma (breakfast and dinner), Candlelight Processional dinner at Marakesh, 1900 Park Fare dinner, Ohana dinner, and CRT (but only for 8 of us).
Just in case you haven't heard of them--you should check into some of the Grand Gatherings events. Your Grand Gatherings planner can tell you all about them, and there's info here on the DIS. We have the Magical Fireworks Voyage reserved for Dec. 20. I'll post a review after we get back. There is also a breakfast event at MK, and dinner events at Epcot and Animal Kingdom. These events are only open to Grand Gathering groups and only offered twice a week. They include special events and character interaction in a more intimate setting. (MFV leaves from Contemporary Marina, hosted by Capt. Hook and Smee, storytelling by Patch the pirate, fireworks viewing and desserts, greeted by Peter Pan on return to marina for visiting time/photos/autographs.)
For our trip, we have one whole-group activity planned each day (usually a meal) and then the rest of the time is for small groups to plan as they wish. Now within 10 days, it looks like most of our group will be following me, DH, DD (3years), and DS (16months) around the parks, which is fine with us. We'll hit the same park, pick somewhere to meet for lunch, and be able to spread out from there. With lots of "plan-as-you-like" time, noone feels pressured to always stay with the group, the kidless couples don't feel like they are in romper room all day, the grandparents feel free to take some leisure time, and we feel free to take time for our own little family, all without hurting any feelings. We're hoping this will be the perfect balance of family and alone time....we'll let you know after the holidays!
Hope some of that helps..and feel free to ask with any other group questions!
Katie