Grand Gatherings

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Shimmer73083

Active Member
Well my parents went to Disney World this week without me and I have been stuck here left to suffer through all the magical picture messages my dad has been sending me from the parks. I think he misses me though - he requested I look up information about Grand Gatherings so that our family can plan a huge Disney trip!!!

There will probably be about 20 of us with quite a few first-timers. Has anyone used Grand Gatherings? What does it entail? What kind of Disney property would be best suited for us?

Thank you for your help!! :wave:
 
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k.hunter30

k.hunter30

New Member
We did a grand gathering last May, though I don't think I'll be too much help to you. There were only 8 of us. Once you register as a "grand Gathering" you get a gathering number, which you give to WDW everytime you make reservation. I can see how that would be helpful for larger parties that may get split up throughout the trip--they'll always have that number so they can double check on their own where and when the group is getting together to eat. It didn't really benefit our party too much.

Each member of your party is also given a "Grand Gathering" button, which was neat. You can also pay for special events/activities that are only available to grand gathering parties. We did the Magical Fireworks Voyage, which we absolutely loved. It was definitely one of the highlights of the trip.

We all stayed at POFQ, our favorite moderate resort. I don't know how/if certain resorts have special deals or offerings to grand gatherings. With only 8 of us, it wasn't that big of a deal.

I'm sorry I can't be of more help, but I hope I at least gave a little insight.
 
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S

Shimmer73083

Active Member
Original Poster
Thank you - that definitely gave some insight. I like the idea of the special events for the Grand Gathering group, too. How do you go about booking something like that? What did the Magical Fireworks Voyage involve?
 
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k.hunter30

k.hunter30

New Member
Shimmer73083 said:
Thank you - that definitely gave some insight. I like the idea of the special events for the Grand Gathering group, too. How do you go about booking something like that? What did the Magical Fireworks Voyage involve?
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The special events are listed here: http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/wd...roducts?id=GrandGatheringsSpecialProductsPage
They may even do some other special stuff (I'm sure they'd do almost anything for a price), but we just went with the package that was available. Our group consisted of me and DH (mid-20s), my parents (60s), my brother and his wife (early 40s) and their two children (8 and 6). Everyone in our group had a blast on the Magical Fireworks Voyage.

My parents went through AAA for our trip, so I think our AAA agent booked the Voyage. But if I was doing it over again. I would just handle everything myself, since I couldn't make any changes to the reservations once the AAA started the ball rolling on everything.
 
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momofnine

momofnine

Member
Hi, We are a "Grand Gathering" everytime we go!:ROFLOL:
You don't have to do anything special to book a Grand Gathering.
When you are ready to book, call the reservation number, when you tell them how many will be in your party, they automatically transfer you to grand gatherings, you can't book a trip through regular reservations when you have a big party. There are different offerings of special things to do for large groups. We have done the fireworks voyage at Halloween time, it was awesome. We have also done the Tony's good morning gathering 2 times, We were not as impressed with it this last time, our time with Mickey one on one was just "snap a quick picture" at the front of the room and move on. The first time that we did this breakfast, we had time with Mickey in a separate room. You could call Kingdom Konsultants if you have any questions, I'm sure they could help you book your trip. Have a great time! The more the merrier!:sohappy:
 
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Cinderella1976

Cinderella1976

New Member
We were a Grand Gathering Group of 12 on our last trip in December. We were all given Grand Gathering Pins and we booked the Magical Fireworks Cruise, Illuminations Dinner and Dessert Reception, and the Good Morning Breakfast at Tony's. All three grand gathering events were well worth the money, in my opinion. Everyone in my group had a wonderful time. But if I HAD to choose one, I would say we enjoyed the Magical Fireworks Cruise the best. Patch was our "Pirate" and he was very funny. After we watched Wishes, we were greeted by Peter Pan at the Contemporary boat dock. Before the cruise you get to meet Captin Hook and Mr. Smee and they also provide you with snacks and beverages. It was definately a magical night!! Have a great trip!!
 
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Pioneer Hall

Pioneer Hall

Well-Known Member
We help put together Grand Gatherings. There are special things that can be planned since you guys are a larger group and you can have rooms that are near one another in most cases. If you need some help planning or booking please email me at evan@kingdomkonsultant.com . We handle a number of grand gatherings.
 
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Katybug

Katybug

New Member
My advice to you....If you want to stay together stay off property. I personally like to be on property because you get to ride the buses and you don't have to drive everywhere. But your party is REALLY big!! If you don't mind not all staying together I would recommend one of the value resorts.

My family of 12 will be taking a trip next March and we came to the conclusion that would be the best value. We will have 3 rooms that join together. It's really just a matter of choice if you want to stay together or not.
 
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coltow

coltow

Well-Known Member
We will be a GG in August. We will be at POFQ. The first thing we did obviously was pick dates, we then had everyone create a hotel budget so we quickly found out that we would not be at a deluxe, but POFQ fit just fine. We will be trying the Wishes cruise one night, the others didn't appeal to everyone in our group. We were able to book all of our meals together. I am normally the planner, but to be honest with 17 people including 4 first timers and 4 under 5 I just couldn't do it. I went with Kingdom Konsultants to help and Marie has been fantastic she has answered the 100+ questions that I have had and it's nice to have a contact person rather than a random person when you call WDW. Marie booked my Wishes cruise as well as all my dinners and handled everyone's rooms and park tickets. We did to our own airfare.
 
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lac628

lac628

New Member
We were a GG of 17 in Jan/Feb. We stayed at Pop and we had 5 rooms all next to eachother. The only issue we had was making dinner reservations for a party that large. We couldn't sit with each other at most meals. I think the only one that accomidated us was the Polynesian. My sister and BIL started booking about 180 days in advace, so we didn't wait till the last minute.
 
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RiversideBunny

RiversideBunny

New Member
We have found that just being in the same Disney resort is really close enough. It doesn't have to be adjacent rooms, or even the same building.

As long as we can say, 'Meet you in the food court at 7 am.', or 'OK. Meet us at the bus stop at 7:15 tomorrow morning.', and things like that, then it was fine.

You're together a lot in parks anyway.

:)
 
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