How DVC Members Can Set Up Grand Gatherings

[wildernessDad]

Hi, all! I thought that I'd post a procedure, that I basically discovered by trial and error (mostly error), on how DVC members can set up grand gatherings (GG). I will list it as steps.

1. Think about who you want to invite and what DVC resort you want to stay in. I will assume in this procedure that
your party will all be staying at your home resort. I assume this because that was the case for me. If you have a
different plan, please post here with how my procedure should change.

2. Check out the special products for Grand Gatherings here.
http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/wd...roducts?id=GrandGatheringsSpecialProductsPage

3. Assuming that you are the 'group leader,' make sure that you get all of the names AND addresses of everybody in your party AND also get their ages. Disney needs their ages so they can put in whom in the party can officially check in. Nobody under age may do so.

4. Plan out what GG special products (GG events), if any, your group wants to experience.

5. AS SOON AS YOU CAN, call DVC Member Services (MS) at 1-800-xxx-xxxx to make your room reservations AND tell them
that you have a GG. Give MS all of the information about your party. MS will then contact the GG folks and
inform them of the upcoming GG. MS will get a magical gathering (MG) number back to you in a few days. It was only
a day wait for me. Remember that number. It will be very important.

6. Call the GG people at 1-407-939-7526 to make reservations for your GG 'events' using your MG number. The Safari
Celebration dinner, the International Dinner and Fireworks show, and the Good Morning Gathering can be placed on the Disney Dining Plan (DDP). If the DDP is not available yet for when you are going, my recommendation is to call the GG people and make the reservation BEFORE the DDP becomes available. If the DDP IS available when you want to make the GG event reservations, then skip this step ONLY for all reservations for which you want to use the dining plan and see step 7 below.

7. After the DDP becomes available, and assuming that you want to use the DDP, call MS to add the DDP and also to tell
them that you will be placing one or more GG events under the DP. At that time, MS will call the GG people and
transfer you over to them. They will have to rebook the reservation, if you had one, under a new number and cancel the
original reservation. If you had to go to step 6, then the original reservation was a placeholder until you could get the reservation
with the meal plan.

 

[grizbuzz]

That last step is important. I did not know that I needed to do that and assumed that my GG reservations would be good when I got the DDP for my group. I later found out that Disney had canceled my Grand Gatherings reservations without notifying me, because I hadn't yet bought the DDP (I thought I had until 1 week prior to vacation or less to buy DDP). Even though I had a confirmation number and paperwork indicating that I had a reservation, there was nothing I could do to reinstate my grand gatherings - which had since sold out.


I'm still not clear on how the process was supposed to work, but I know that it didn't work for me and no one who helped me told me upfront what I was supposed to do and now I'm plain out of luck. Oh well. I did manage to get regular ADRs, so we will eat and we will have fun.

 

[Figment2]

Not everyone needs to stay at the same hotel. We have done quite a few grand gatherings where some of us stay DVC, some not. As long as you have your GG number, you are good to go.

We also have every family call in their own reservations for the grand gathering events. If they get locked out, it's usually because they didn't call right away.

Cyn

 

[wildernessDad]

Not everyone needs to stay at the same hotel. We have done quite a few grand gatherings where some of us stay DVC, some not. As long as you have your GG number, you are good to go.

We also have every family call in their own reservations for the grand gathering events. If they get locked out, it's usually because they didn't call right away.

Cyn

I will modify the procedures to reflect this.

 

[wildernessDad]

What do you think now?
How DVC Members Can Set Up Grand Gatherings (GG's)
Hi, all! I thought that I'd post a procedure, that I basically discovered by trial and error (mostly error), on how DVC members can set up grand gatherings. I will list it as steps.

1. Think about who you want to invite and what DVC resort or resorts you all want to stay in. Your GG party can stay in multiple Disney Resorts.

2. Check out the special products for Grand Gatherings here.
http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/wd...roducts?id=GrandGatheringsSpecialProductsPage

3. Assuming that you are the 'group leader,' make sure that you get all of the names AND addresses of everybody in your party AND also get their ages. Disney needs their ages so they can put in whom in the party can officially check in. Nobody under age may do so. Also get the information on which DISNEY resort they are staying in. They cannot stay offsite and do this.

4. Plan out what GG special products (GG events), if any, your group wants to experience.

5. AS SOON AS YOU CAN, call DVC Member Services (MS) at 1-800-xxx-xxxx to make your room reservations AND tell them that you have a GG. Give MS all of the information about your party including which resort they are staying in. MS will then contact the GG folks and inform them of the upcoming GG. MS will get a magical gathering (MG) number back to you in a few days. It was only a day wait for me. Remember that number. It will be very important.

6. Call the GG people at 1-407-939-7526 to make reservations for your GG 'events' using your MG number. Note that all in your party can call the GG people separately to make their reservations. This is useful if you have several different families or groups attending. They will need the phone number and the MG number. Make sure that they do this in a timely manner as the GG events fill up fast. The Safari Celebration dinner, the International Dinner and Fireworks show, and the Good Morning Gathering can be placed on the Disney Dining Plan (DDP). If the DDP is not available yet for when you are going, my recommendation is to call the GG people and make the reservation BEFORE the DDP becomes available. If the DDP IS available when you want to make the GG event reservations, then skip this step ONLY for all reservations for which you want to use the dining plan and see step 7 below.

7. After the DDP becomes available, and assuming that you want to use the DDP, call MS to add the DDP and also to tell
them that you will be placing one or more GG events under the DP. At that time, MS will call the GG people and transfer you over to them. They will have to rebook the reservation, if you had one, under a new number and cancel the original reservation. If you had to go to step 6, then the original reservation was a placeholder until you could get the reservation with the meal plan.

 

[ki711]

I am renting points and have a reservation at OKW for September. We have 10 people traveling with us and I wanted to plan at least one Grand Gathering event. I saw in a previous reply that someone's reservation for the GG was deleted because the DDP was not purchased. I have the DDP plan on my reservation but do not pay for it until check-in. Will this inhibit me from making a GG reservation and/or ADRs?

 

[DisneyBride'03]

Thanks for starting this thread~

I called almost 2 weeks ago, still no number...
Called MS again today to hear the GG group is 2-3 weeks behind in assigning numbers!?!

MS had no answers for me...I cannot book any group events, and they are all booked up anyway now.

Any suggestions of whom to email?

Thanks for any help.

 

[hrsmom]

Thanks for posting this!

 

[DisneyHumbug]

How many do you need for a grand gathering?

 

[DisneyBride'03]

8 or more...kids under (3) do not count...My nephew is 4 and we was counted towards our 8.....

 

[CarrianneB]

8 or more...kids under (3) do not count...My nephew is 4 and we was counted towards our 8.....

Do you have to have DDP for a grand gathering?

 

[DisneyBride'03]

I dont think that is a requirement....just that you have 8 in your group. We do not have DDP this trip, hope that helps

 

[hellerjw]

So do you have to pay for the DDP before they will hold the GG reservations?
We booked a trip in June for all the available Grand Gathering events and told them we would be using the DDP on all of them (with the exception of 1 which doesn't include a meal anyway).

We were never told we had to pre-pay for the DDP only that we needed our GG#, which we have and have already made reservations under this number.

I assumed since we were staying on points through DVC and had confirmation of our DDP request on our reservation letter that it is all taken care of. Are you saying this isn't the case?

I just want to make sure we haven't gotten mislead on how it is supposed to work.

 

[wildernessDad]

So do you have to pay for the DDP before they will hold the GG reservations?
We booked a trip in June for all the available Grand Gathering events and told them we would be using the DDP on all of them (with the exception of 1 which doesn't include a meal anyway).

We were never told we had to pre-pay for the DDP only that we needed our GG#, which we have and have already made reservations under this number.

I assumed since we were staying on points through DVC and had confirmation of our DDP request on our reservation letter that it is all taken care of. Are you saying this isn't the case?

I just want to make sure we haven't gotten mislead on how it is supposed to work.

You don't have to pay for the DDP before making GG reservations. We didn't even have the DDP when we first made our GG reservations as our trip was in January and the DDP had not yet been approved for 2007.

Once you add the DDP, you will need to remake the GG reservations that use Disney dining credits. It will not be done for you automatically.

 

[Pennykay]

If we don't plan on doing any of the special gatherings packages, is there any real benefit to having a grand gatherings number? We will be two families of five.

 

[wildernessDad]

If we don't plan on doing any of the special gatherings packages, is there any real benefit to having a grand gatherings number? We will be two families of five.

You could order a special t-shirt. That's about it.

 

[DisneyBride'03]

The T shirts are a bit pricey, and purple! lol (In Dec they were)

You could go to the creative Disigns board here and ask sometome to make your own design, etc...and print them out on iron transfer sheets and buy your own shirts and save a bundle!
Just a thought

 

[RweTHEREyet]

Has anyone done the International Dinner that is offered?

Can you tell me where this takes place and what types of food were offered.

 

[becca-becca]

When you say "when DDP becomes available" are you talking about the announcement of it for the next year (meaning 2008 is available now but 2009is not yet)? Or is there some time frame for which a DVC member has to wait to add DDP or are you talking about 6 month booking window? THANKS!!!