Magical Gatherings/Grand Gatherings

[joyerbides]

Is there anyone who has ever done a magical gathering/Grand Gathering? Me, DH, DS-13,11,6 and DD-3 plus my Nephew/wife and their kids are going in August for the first time together. Just wanted to get some information concerning this. Please help. Thanks.

 

[KIRSTIN'S MOMMY]

I've done it twice, once with a group of 16 and once with a group of 22. Basically what booking as a Grand Gathering does is "link" all of your reservations together to make it easier to book things like dining and some of the Magical Gatherings Experiences that are available. Everyone must be staying onsite at a Disney resort to be included in the group of 8 or more, but you don't have to all stay at the same one. We had family split over 3 resorts this last trip! If there are 2 or more rooms at the same resort, they will try to put your rooms together via the GG number. Also, you will be able to book dining for the whole group if you are the planner, just call 407-wdw-plan and give them your GG number and they will be able to pull up everyone associated with the number and include them in the dining reservation. Hope that helps, have a great time!

 

[joyerbides]

Yes, that does help. Thank you very much.

 

[BlakeNJ]

As I am sure you know, travelling in a large group can be tought--but do-able! We did a GG with 9 people. Three rooms in the same resort. All our rooms were in the same hall--very close to one another. We did request connecting rooms and had to switch the next night but it was really important that the grandparents had a connecting room to babysit!!

We did the Safari Celebration which was great. We split up most of the day--kids of different ages, different sleeping schedules--early risers/late risers so meeting up later in the afternoon was perfect. We had a private safari with other families--once the park was closed. Dinner was at Tusker House-great food and live entertainment. Chip & Dale did a meet and greet towards the end of the evening. We were not rushed and took lots of pictures.

I have heard great things about the Wishes Cruise but it did not work with our schedule. Each event, Safari, Wishe Cruise, Breakfast with Mickey were scheduled on different days so it depends on your schedule of parks and if you have park hoppers or not.

I did not feel like there was anything special about the reservations process but I will say that they did a great job in seating us all together at meals even though at the time of booking they can't promise this.

Good luck and if you are the "planner" bring your patience with such a large group!!

Blakely

 

[KIRSTIN'S MOMMY]

I totally agree about not staying together in the parks, with a large group it just makes moving through the crowd too difficult. What we did was schedule one sit down meal per day and everyone met there. It worked out great! We've done the Wishes cruise twice, once the Grand Gatherings one, which was worth every cent, and once with two pontoon boats, also worth it! Both times, that was the way we "kicked off" our vacation. I booked a dinner reservation with the cruise following on our arrival night, (no parks that day since we had people coming in from all over the country) and it was such a fun and relaxing way to start off our week. Ditto on bringing your patience...I can't tell you how many times I heard "We have to talk about Disney AGAIN??? How am I supposed to know what I'll want to eat in 6 months??" Just stress the importance of a good plan and how much more they will experience if you have one, and then just go from there.

 

[joyerbides]

I'm not sure how much we can split up in the parks. We have 4 adults and 8 kids. Ages ranging from 14 years old to 3 years old. We're going with my nephew and his wife and kids. We have 4 kids + (I'm taking my 14 year old nephew with us), and they have 3 kids themselves. I haven't been to disney since I was 17 years old, so I don't know whether it's okay to let the 14, 13 & 11 year old, go off by themselves. What do you think?

 

[deejohn]

I just booked my first GG yesterday, when a friend of ours said they wanted to go too. I asked the person at GG what advantage does this give us. She gave me this web site: http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/wd...s/ggLandingPage?id=GrandGatheringsLandingPage

Basically, there are 4 main advantages are:
1. Resort rooms near each other
2. Planning (Dinner reservations ,Access to tours, ect.)
3. Special products
4. Merchandise

I’m going to pass on the GG number to the rest of my relatives, along with the phone number to see if we can get even more people!!!

 

[KIRSTIN'S MOMMY]

I don't know that I would let them go off on their own, I was assuming that more of the group were adults for some reason. We did fine with a group of 8 getting through the parks, but with 22...forget it! Plus the little ones will be easy to keep up with if they're in strollers. I think I would still do a TS meal a day, just to get out of the August heat for a litttle while and recharge. It's amazing what a little time in the A/C can do, lol.

 

[joyerbides]

I probably will not let them go off too far without me. With 4 adults, we'll have two kids to each adult. Not too bad. We'll have to see. Out of the 8 kids, 6 of them are boys. I don't know how much they are going to love, Cinderella and it's a small world.....

 

[SalandJeff]

Does anyone know what the special products and merchandise are?

 

[KIRSTIN'S MOMMY]

I know they have t-shirts available with "Magical Gatherings" on them, and when we did the MG Fireworks cruise we got a special pin. You can look on the WDW website for more things available too.

 

[MrsPooh]

We did this with a group of six adults and four kids ranging in age from 3 - 16. The room deal didn't work out for us because the put us all together but that meant none of us got balconies or the long house we wanted. Two of us switched rooms to get balconies but I think the room deal would have been better had we not all been grouped together. We planned it so that we basically ate dinner together each night. We made reservations (pre-paid) for two magical gatherings and Illuminations dinner. That turned into a mess because Disney cancelled one of the gatherings and changed the day of another. This through all of our daily park plans and other dinner reservations off and they would not work to get us good replacement seating times. Since we were a larger group we ended up having to eat at stupid times in order to all sit together. Overall I wasn't really impressed with the grand/magical gathering but we did get a special pin for the dinner we had.

 

[lisamark]

We are going as a grand gathering in October - wanted to do the Illuminations dinner - thought that sounded really cool and would be a good way to end our trip - but unfortunately neither that OR the safari is offered the whole month of October....have lots of character meals planned so not interested in the breakfast...may try the pirate cruise??? Not much offered for us!!!
Good luck with your planning...I am doing the planning for our group with little to no help or suggestions...very difficult...at this point just planning dinners based on what my family wants to do and let everyone figure out their own stuff I guess!!

 

[hygienejean]

I am planning a trip with 22 people (so far) in April 2008....Has anyone done the Epcot gathering??? Now that Tusker House will be a full service restaurant, will the safari GG still be available? How did you like the one at Tony's?

Would love to hear more reviews of each gathering...

Thanks!

 

[keb55]

We are going as a grand gathering in October - wanted to do the Illuminations dinner - thought that sounded really cool and would be a good way to end our trip - but unfortunately neither that OR the safari is offered the whole month of October....have lots of character meals planned so not interested in the breakfast...may try the pirate cruise??? Not much offered for us!!!
Good luck with your planning...I am doing the planning for our group with little to no help or suggestions...very difficult...at this point just planning dinners based on what my family wants to do and let everyone figure out their own stuff I guess!!

International Dinner is closed for Food and wine but Safari is offered in OCT just not avail yet avail to book call back 180 prior to arrival

 

[Candid]

I am planning a trip with 22 people (so far) in April 2008....Has anyone done the Epcot gathering??? Now that Tusker House will be a full service restaurant, will the safari GG still be available? How did you like the one at Tony's?

Would love to hear more reviews of each gathering...

Thanks!

We are looking at a GG with........45 people (I know, a logistical nightmare, lol)!!!!! Would love to do the safari GG!!

 

[KIRSTIN'S MOMMY]

Wow! That's quite a gathering! The most we've done is 22, with the exception of my sister's wedding dinner and fireworks cruise, where it was more like 60 or so. I would definately go through Grand Gatherings, since you have such a large group, if you guys want to eat together you will need to call Group Dining for your ADR's. Their number is 407-939-7707. Usually with larger groups they ask that you be seated at the first or last seating of the day to make things easier. Definately check into some of the special Gathering experiences, they really are great! Good luck!

 

[Candid]

Wow! That's quite a gathering! The most we've done is 22, with the exception of my sister's wedding dinner and fireworks cruise, where it was more like 60 or so. I would definately go through Grand Gatherings, since you have such a large group, if you guys want to eat together you will need to call Group Dining for your ADR's. Their number is 407-939-7707. Usually with larger groups they ask that you be seated at the first or last seating of the day to make things easier. Definately check into some of the special Gathering experiences, they really are great! Good luck!

Thanks for the info! Luckily for me I am NOT the planner on this trip !!

 

[Bobsdisneymoney]

We have 7 people that are staying at VWL and I know 3 friends that are going at the same time and staying at SS. I think it will be a blast!! We are all doing our own thing, but we are trying to meet for dinner. We have a birthday for one of the kids while we are there. He will be 9 years old. Which celebration would you recommend? I am thinking about the Fireworks cruise. What is the boat like? I would really like some in-depth details about the trip. Please help me out.

 

[Aunt Flancy]

Has anyone done the special photography session? That is the only thing that we might be interested in for our GG in October.