Where to stay for family reunion

[Glory Days]

We usually come down at Easter, but we're playing with the idea of a family reunion with kids from 2-23, parents, and grandparents to have a surprise 76th birthday party for grandpop who lives in Florida. Some of the younger families may want to stay at the AS, but some of us with the grown kids are looking at the deluxes. I figured it would be a real treat for the grandparents.
So, any suggestions, and does anyone know if you can get discounted rates at the Poly in the summer? (July 5th-12th, 2003) I know I can get a few rooms at the Dolphin with my teacher's rate, but the grandparents love the flowers and would probably love the Poly. For all the times they visited us, they never stayed at WDW, so we know this would be a great treat for them.
This seems really early to be looking into, but with 7 kids with their own kids and spouses involved, I figured it's never to early to organize and budget . TKS.

 

[Dallas_Lady]

There are discounts available for thsi sumer... however when I was planning before the discounts came out I planned for "the worse," meaning going and only being able to use my DC rate. This was just in case no discounts came out. I didn't want to low-ball my budget.

Check out mousesavers.com. For this summer's discounts, moderates are $94/nt, AllStars are $74/nt and the Deluxes range from $129-$345/nt depending on which one you stay at. The Poly standard is $199.

 

[PatHill]

I hosted a family reunion in 1999 and we had about 50 members attend. We stayed at the Port Orleans French Quarter. This resort is beautiful and has plenty of amenities and is reasonable priced for everyone. If you need any ideas or suggestions or would like to know what we did at our reunion please email me directly. I would be happy to share with you.
Good Luck.....
Tracy
Disney51@prodigy.net

 

[treefrog]

For family reunions, I would suggest the Fort Wilderness cabins. They have all been redone and have maid service. The resort always feels spacious. Just think, it would be like having your family live in their own little community if you have several cabins.

 

[domiii]

We did the same as PatHill in 1997. We were are the Port Orleans - French Quarter. Everyone was pleased with the location, size, coziness and the pool! The food court was pretty good and was reasonable.

A word to the wise. Don't plan every minute for every one! We planned 2 big events for the 29 of us, a character breakfast and the Illuminations Cruise - it took 2 boats!

We also stuck to the 15 minute rule ... we set up a few locations and times to meet, if the others aren't there in 15 minutes of the designated time, we moved on the the next attraction. It worked out really well for us.

Good luck and enjoy.

 

[Disneydenise]

If you like the Polynesian feeling without the price and you don't think you will need to use the monorail and TTC why not try the CBR? The tropical feeling the lager size of the moderate room and the food court might be a nice comprimise. Or how about having the GP's stay at the Poly and then everyone else make their own plans for their budget and get a nationwide long distance cellphone package. You can call between the resorts for free you just have to go thru the front desk and the operator. It is a pain but doesn't cost $.75 a call. There maybe a group planner somewhere in the Disney CRO system. I would call and see if you get an answer from them. You do have a large group. Our Highschool had a great trip this past April for a reasonable price and they had it planned by an agent from DW.

 

[stacy6552]

My family went down about 10 years ago for a reunion. We booked 3 treehouses at whats now the disney instatute resort. disney put us in next door to each other and it worked out really really well.

i would say any of the home away fromhomes would be the best bet.