Magical Gatherings

[BowlingAriel]

Has anyone booked or used the "NEW" magical gatherings that Disney is offering. I also am curious about the "Princess & Prince" add on?

Planning a Family escape in July was trying to find the best options. We live here in Florida so we wont' be needing air.

Thanks

 

[BowlingAriel]

bumpin up for anyone??

 

[bridegirl]

our family of ten booked to do three of the magical gathering events during our 2003/2004 new years week trip.

Each was it's own disaster - either we would show up and there would be no record of our reservation, or they would charge our credit card multiple times for the same thing, or the night we showed up for a fireworks cruise that had been "cancelled due to non-payment" regardless of the fact that we had paid in full long before our trip and had the credit card records to prove it - and we could never actually speak to anyone who could help us or "fix" it. They would only say that the guy who we had booked all our events with "no longger worked there" and that "a manager would be calling us back soon". We were there for eight days and NEVER GOT EVEN ONE CALL BACK from anyone "in charge" at magical gatherings.

Magical gatherings gets a huge thumbs down from us

We visit WDW every year in December (last year being our 8th year in a row) so we were very excited to have some "new" activities to try out - but magical gatherings was a total bust

Susy

 

[extreme8]

Sorry your MG didn't work out for you bridegirl. my experience was just the opposite.

Our group of 18 just returned from the Magical Gathering I planned and nobody had anything but wonderful things to say about our experiences.
We did the breakfast at Tony's and the Wishes dessert cruise.
Tony's was great, and Tony himself was absolutely fantastic. He and the other characters had a full house to entertain but each group felt like they were the only ones in the place. Tony, Chip & Dale, Goofy, and Pluto were walking around during the meal, then we were ushered into another area for our audience with Mickey himself. We were never rushed and everyone had all the time they wanted with the characters.
The Wishes cruise was equally impressive. We met at the CR marina about 45 minutes before we were supposed to set sail, had soft drinks and desserts (sponsored by Nestle!), and got a meet and greet with Hook & Smee. Again, all the time we wanted for pictures and autographs. In fact they were there so long the kids started to get tired of them!
Once we were on the boat we met our pirate "Patch" who entertained us with pirate jokes, stories, and Disney songs. Incredibly funny and entertaining guy. Nobody on the boat stopped lauging or singing during the entire trip.
We got to see the EWP up close, and then Wishes with the best view in the house and full audio piped onboard.
Upon our return to the dock we were greeted by (an admittedly creepy) Peter Pan for more photos and autographs.

Before the trip about 14 of our group of 18 just "didn't get" the whole Disney thing.
By the time we left they had all decided to cancel their summer vacation reservations and put the money away for another Disney trip in the fall. It was funny to see the group that never cared for WDW buying pins all week and carrying their Mickey plushes back on the plane.
I hooked 'em and the Magical Gathering events had a lot to do with it.

 

[Mike]

I don't think that anyone is questioning the quality of the events. It is the nightmare of trying to book them and dealing with the Magical Gatherings CMs. They don't have a clue. You call up and get jerked around. One CM tells you what you need to do and how you need to do it. You follow their instructions to the letter and then get told by another MG CM that you can't do it that way. That CM tells you something different only to be told something different by another CM. It is really pathetic that a company like WDW can't create a simple process and then educate their employees. I am keeping my fingers crossed that our Magical Fireworks Voyage goes off without a hitch in June - but I have my doubts judging by the hoops that we had to go through to register as a MG group and then book this event.

 

[Mrs. Toaster]

As with everything else, it seems that it depends on what CM you get. We have a Magical Gatherings trip for 11 people booked for August of 2004. When the 7 for 5 package was released last week, I spoke to 2 different CMs (not in Magical Gatherings), and they completely screwed up our reservation. It was the CM in Magical Gatherings who finally fixed everything for us. My brother called back to confirm with them, and it was all correct. Our confirmations also show it as being correct. I am calling soon to book our fireworks cruise, so hopefully that will go smoothly!

 

[BowlingAriel]

Wow, you know I have never heard soo many horror stories as I have lately. What is going on with Disney? I am seriously rethinking my Disney Summer plans. Universal is looking better.

Thanks for all the input.