Illuminations DP: Arrival question?

[minniebride]

Hi there!

We have booked an Illuminations DP at French Lower Terrace the night before our wedding (I will not be wearing my wedding dress).

According to my BEO, we are booked from 9-10 and the fireworks will be from 9:30-9:45.

Some guests will be using their park tickets, others will not. Do the non-ticketed people meet the event guide at the International Gateway entrance? If so, what time should I tell guests to plan to be there & how long will the event guide wait before he/she leads the guests to the event?

For instance, what if a guest arrives late around 9:15 or so-how will they get into our event?

Lastly, for those of us who will be in the park already before the DP starts, can we just walk right over to the DP location? Will the Cast members have a guest list they will be checking off?

Thanks!

 

[Jules~Marie]

Hi there!

We have booked an Illuminations DP at French Lower Terrace the night before our wedding (I will not be wearing my wedding dress).

According to my BEO, we are booked from 9-10 and the fireworks will be from 9:30-9:45.

Some guests will be using their park tickets, others will not. Do the non-ticketed people meet the event guide at the International Gateway entrance? If so, what time should I tell guests to plan to be there & how long will the event guide wait before he/she leads the guests to the event?

For instance, what if a guest arrives late around 9:15 or so-how will they get into our event?

Lastly, for those of us who will be in the park already before the DP starts, can we just walk right over to the DP location? Will the Cast members have a guest list they will be checking off?

Thanks!

Hello!

We had all of our guests meet outside the park entrance, whether they had tickets or not. Our dessert party started at 8, fireworks started at 9, and we were told that our guests should meet at the entrance at 7:15. We waited around 15 minutes for all of our guests to arrive. Our guide was very patient and it seems she would've waited until all of our guests were there before entering. When it was time to enter Epcot, the guests that had tickets went through the ticket counter and our guide marked off how many people had tickets, and then everyone that didn't have tickets went through the stroller gate.

We had 3 guests that were inside the park already. They were running late (about 30 minutes late, they were stuck on test track), our guide waited outside the entrance to UK Lower and she let them in when they walked over to her. She didn't have a guest list, we just told her that there were some more people that would be arriving a little later.

Hope that helps! Try not to worry too much...I was so concerned with the logistics of everything, I worried that everybody would be lost wandering around Disney the whole weekend, and it actually all went very smoothly, everyone paid attention and made it to all of the events we had planned without any complications!

 

[minniebride]

Thank you so much~that was a really helpful reply!!! Many of our guests are traveling to WDW for their first time, so I'm worried about them finding our way around!!

We are having a Swan wedding and the majority of our guests are staying at the Swan, Dolphin and BW area resorts so that is really helpful, but we do have a few people staying in the Value & Moderate resorts. I am going to Epcot a few hours early to have dinner and hang out with my bridesmaids and sister-in-law.

So your DP started at 8, but they told you to arrive at the gate at 7:15? That's good to know! I had better check this with my planner about our 9pm DP! I assumed they should meet at the gate at 8:45, but now that you said 45 minutes before the DP, that would make much more sense.

Thanks again!!