Magical Gathering?

[CJK]

I'm not sure if this is the appropriate board for this question or not. We just confirmed that we are in fact taking a family Disney trip this year!! I'm now investigating resort options. We are a party of 8 so we qualify for a "Magical Gathering". I can't seem to get a handle on what this actually means. Do we get hotel discounts? Other perks? No perks at all? All I know now, is that Disney will help us organize our itinerary and will send us periodic itineraries in the mail (to each family in our party). Is this it or is there something more I'm missing? Thanks so much!

 

[232271]

We are doing a "magical gatherings" and it has been nothing but headaches.
No special discounts, however, you can book the expensive tour packages since you are a party of 8 or more.

They made us pick one person to be in "charge" and that is the only person who can make/change our reservations for dining/shows, ect.. (not the resorts, though, that is on your own)

I have been round and round with Disney becuase you have to call a special number, once youre a magical gathering group.
So, unless you are wanting to do some of the tours I would say just book
like a normal vacation.

good luck!!

 

[dreams91]

I second those comments!!!! We were a grand gathering for our wedding. Oh boy, nothing but problems. If you wanted to change your reservation (like when the AP discount came out) you had to go through a special number and I think those people don't like their jobs. I had nothing but problem after problem when I booked the gathering. I'd try to talk to the regular line and they said that they couldn't help me since I was a grand gathering...

The only "perk" is the 4 spendy "special" tours that you can do. You have to sign up and pay for them. One was a pirate firework cruise (instead of the normal cruise), another one was an Illuminations buffet dinner w/special area to stand for Illuminations (this was $60 pp with a minimum of 8 attending).

I'd run far the other way before doing this again.

 

[MariettaC]

testing

 

[MariettaC]

We have 21 people in our party and have had nothing but trouble making our CBR reservations. Although my credit card has been charged for all the rooms I have only received mail confirmation for some of the rooms. I'll be using my statement as proof when we get to the hotel. Disney needs to work on this before people give up using it.