Magical Gathering suggestions needed, please!

[mom22boys]

We are currently planning a family trip to WDW for May 2007!!! We are all so excited, especially my MIL, SIL, and me!!! There will be 12 of us ranging in ages from 2 to 66. For all of you who have attempted a "Magical Gathering" what advice (besides don't do it ) do you have to offer? I know our trip isn't for a year, but with ADR's being made at 180 days out and with our group being fairly large, we thought we should start planning now!

Much thanks!!!

 

[cjb71870]

Most of the guests at our DW wedding weren't from FL. But, all knew how often we went and how much we loved it. When we said it was at DW the response was " where else would it be?'. So, I wanted everyone to get a feel of why we love it there so much. After the rehearsal, instead of taking everyone to dinner we said there would be a Magical Gathering. We surprised them and took everyone to EPCOT for a private roped off area with open bar to veiw Illuminations! They thought it was incredible. It was awesome!!!!!

 

[CapeCod53]

There are 4 official grand gathering activities Mk Fireworks voyage, breakfast at Tony's in MK, Safari & dinner at AK & Dinner & Illuminations desert reception at EC. All include special activities & characters for the kids. They are rather expensive $20-$25 for kids, $35 to $60 for adults.
We are planning a grand gathering for Thanksgiving of 13 DF & DM 76, myself & DS in 50's, DB & SIL in 40's & 7 "kids", 6 of them male, 16,20,21,21,22,24 & 25. We are staying in 4 FtW cabins because we need separate beds for all the "kids" & myself & my sister & regular USA hotel rooms do not work for us with their 2 doubles or 2 queens. This gives us some privacy, altho we are not concerned about getting along for a whole week, my parents took the whole family (I have another brother & family who are not coming to wdw) to Scotland for their 50th anniversary & the 18 of us stayed together in a manor house. We are not certain about doing any of the special GG activites because with 13 adults that's a lot of money, we already have to decide about the CP dinner & MVMCP as additional out-of-pocket expenses. We are going to eat together on Thanksgiving & have a big cook-out at least 1 nt at the cabins, but we're not going to stay together all the time. We are going to let the "boys" go to the ESPN club & watch football(thank God the Steelers & Patriots don't play each other in regular season this year, we have die-hard fans of both teams in the family)while the "girls" resort hop to see the Christmas decorations & have afternoon tea at the GF. Other dinners are rather up in the air & we only have a couple of weeks before our 180 days.
That is going to be the hardest thing to take care of.

 

[Cruz Family]

I have never been to WDW with that many people, good luck . Considering you are staying at FW I would say the Hoop de doo Review is a must.

 

[korbbec]

1. Plan on splitting up. Everyone likes different types of attractions, so bringing the whole group everywhere does not make sense. People should group up and do what interests them, then get together for shows and meals.

2. Plan on splitting up. Some people are morning, some night people. Night people are grumpy in am, morning people grumpy in pm. Forcing the whole group to get up at 6:30 is not everyones idea of vacation. Forcing a morning person to stay up until 1am because that's when the park closes is not fun either.

I guess what I am trying to say is that Disney is a great place for a magical gathering as long as you are not expecting, or worse demanding, that the whole group stay together all day everyday. Everyone should get to do what they enjoy.

Bring walkie-talkies or cell phones.

 

[angelsmom920]

Take the advice of the previous poster! I recently returned from a Magical Gathering with 16 family members and it was a tought trip! I planne dit and only wanted the group to be happy, but everyone wanted to do their own thing and did not really make that know. I had 2 magical meltdowns, and will never travel to Disney with a large group (unless we all have the same ideas) again! We are all happy now that we are home!

We also participated in the Safari Celebration Dinner option. It was ok, the safari part was the same safari as the morning safari, even the same story, well until my dd5 and dn4 runied by giving away the ending because we had the am safari. The am safari is nice because the animals are all out eating, in the pm for the private safari, not so many animals. The dinner was delicious! We had some picky eaters who were not so thrilled but everyone else was pleased!

Tip on where to dine - 'Ohana's Best Friend's Breakfast in the Polynesian. We loved it! It was loud (perfect for us) and the kids had a blast with Lilo, Stitch, Mickey and Pluto!

Have a great trip - good luck!

 

[mom22boys]

Thanks for the advice! We will definitely be splitting up for a lot of things, so that everyone gets the most out of their vacation. We will also bring cell phones so that when we want to be together as a large group (to eat or watch fireworks) we can.