Magical gatherings

[Disney Crazy Debbie]

Anyone plan a magical gathering? Any advice would be greatly welcomed!

 

[mommylo]

Anyone plan a magical gathering? Any advice would be greatly welcomed!

Hi Disney Crazy Debbie,
We are leaving for a Grand Gathering trip this Saturday. I booked through AAA. You need a group of at least 8 people. Each group has individual booking with Disney but is also under 1 Grand Gathering Number. With Grand Gathering, you can book excursions only available to Grand Gathering groups. We booked Magical Fireworks Voyage and Illuminations this time, but there is also Safari Celebration at Animal Kingdom. If you want to find out more about Grand Gatherings and people's reviews, check out www.allearsnet.com, under Reviews. Grand Gatherings have their separate reviews. Good Luck!

 

[Disney Crazy Debbie]

Thank you for responding. Let me know how it goes!

I have checked with AAA for price checks against 6 in the FW cabins and getting 2 cabins. Since we aren't going until 2009 we are just thinking out loud as to what would be most economical. There will be about 12 of us so we were also thinking about renting a 12 person villa and splitting the cost. Is it better to let each group pay for their own instead of one person collecting and applying it to the "package"?

 

[mommylo]

Thank you for responding. Let me know how it goes!

I have checked with AAA for price checks against 6 in the FW cabins and getting 2 cabins. Since we aren't going until 2009 we are just thinking out loud as to what would be most economical. There will be about 12 of us so we were also thinking about renting a 12 person villa and splitting the cost. Is it better to let each group pay for their own instead of one person collecting and applying it to the "package"?

In our case, each family paid separately. AAA provided a separate invoice for each family. We decided that it's better to have some privacy. I don't know how much "rack" prices will be for Grand Villa, but assume they are quite high. If you are DVC member and booking through points, that might be not too bad.

 

[HannaBelle]

Heya Debbie!

Here are links to other threads that have talked about traveling in groups and the grand gathering experiences...

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1450310

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1440091

I am not sure how close your group is, but vacations can be a bit stressful. I cannot say that I would want to share a grand villa with my extended family. heheh....who gets the remote? There might be a melt down at our villa! I personally really enjoyed the privacy of coming back to my own room with my own little family for some down time.

Have fun planning!!!

 

[sconnell]

Ok, here's the deal. I don't know how much the people in your group go to Disney, but these are my suggestions. If you are the DIS-aholic planner, then plan some events for everyone, like the cruises, and some meals, BUT, don't plan more than that for everyone. Just plan for your family. You may even want to post park hours, etc. We've gone with our best friends and this works great. The first time we went together, we thought we had to be together all of the time, but we found out by accident that splitting up is great!
We split by families or girls and boys or even dads take kids (probably to pool) and moms do something then another night moms take kids (probably bath and bedtime movie) and dads do something. We did the last thing by letting the dads go to evening EMH at MGM and moms did evening EMH at MK, but you could do golf or tea or spa or date night where the couples get a turn out by themselves, whatever your group is into.

Make sure to take lots of photos with photopass and share a CD! They will help you get a great pic of the whole group!

 

[lmdelan]

I planned a grand gathering trip fro 12 people(10 adults 2 kids)for Sept. 26-oct. 3. Everyone paid for there trips but we all got a grand gathering number used to group us together. I first started off booking everyone with room only because there was no discounts for that time. Then I got a deal and booked everyone with packages. Then 2 weeks ago another better deal came out and I booked with that code. AAA was not cheaper for us but they do the work for you on that part of the trip. We are doing the fireworks boat ride but the safari/dinner was closed for the time we are there because of the restaurant being redone. I did all the leg work. I booked the character breakfasts and some dinner reservations. We didn't do lunch ressie's because we probably won't be together all day. They are going to try to put us all in the same buidling at the port orleans but can't garauntee it. Just to let you know that some of the restaurants needed for us to be at a couple tables because of the size of our group. I did make the ressie's on the 1st available day i could. Last month I ended up adding another 4 people to some of the ressie's and they were very accomodating to me and now my party of 16. It ended up being $1240.00 per person for 8 day hooper with water and more, 7 nights at port orleans, dining plan, air( I found a great deal on southwest for 140.00 per person round trip) and the fireworks cruise. Good luck and have a great time.

 

[Tinks Girls]

Ok, here's the deal. I don't know how much the people in your group go to Disney, but these are my suggestions. If you are the DIS-aholic planner, then plan some events for everyone, like the cruises, and some meals, BUT, don't plan more than that for everyone. Just plan for your family. You may even want to post park hours, etc. We've gone with our best friends and this works great. The first time we went together, we thought we had to be together all of the time, but we found out by accident that splitting up is great!
We split by families or girls and boys or even dads take kids (probably to pool) and moms do something then another night moms take kids (probably bath and bedtime movie) and dads do something. We did the last thing by letting the dads go to evening EMH at MGM and moms did evening EMH at MK, but you could do golf or tea or spa or date night where the couples get a turn out by themselves, whatever your group is into.

Make sure to take lots of photos with photopass and share a CD! They will help you get a great pic of the whole group!

This what we do as well. No matter how much everyone gets along it is still nice to have seperate family time. We meet up for dinner and such and most mornings we are all together but seperate later depending on what everyone wants to do. We have evenings were the adults go out without the kids for a late dinner and to the parks to ride a ride that our DDs and their DS can not go on. Everyone takes turns watching all the kids.

Now about your original question -- We are doing the Illuminations fireworks desert cruise with dinner at Epcot. This one sounded the best for our group of 13. It got the most votes. In all the times that we have been going to WDW, we have never seen the Epcot fireworks. So, we are pretty excited to be able to see the from the lake while cruising.