Grand gathering Indeed!

[TheMartellFamily]

We have just made ressies for another trip to WDW in Sept of 2008. SO far we have 21 and it could be growing in number. We are all on the dining plan and some staying in Ft. Wilderness other in POP. Some have gone to WDW and others this is their 1st time. What are some recommendations that we should do as a group and not. Thanks for the help.

[SunnyLee]

Good gracious!!! How much fun that will be for you all! Well..I would suggest the Loua at the PR, maybe doing a character dining (anyone would be great)! Hmmm...I wouldn't so much walk around all day together at the parks..however Epcot might be doable as a group...just walking around and enjoying the sights. Have fun!

[mizzoumouse]

There are 19 of us going as a Grand Gathering in July 2008! I am pretty much the family Disney Nut so I will be doing all the planning.
Here is my plan!
Any meals we do together as an entire group of 19, are going to be Buffets/Family Style (Chef Mickeys, Liberty Tree Tavern) I figure it would take SOOO long if we all ordered individual meals, this way will be more efficient, then we are going to break into a couple smaller groups for some meals (Teppenyaki in Japan), Then of course each family will do some dinners on their own.
As for group events, we are going to do the Illuminations prefered seating (my moms favorite) and maybe the Magic Kingdom fireworks cruise! We can use our dining plan for the Illuminations meal!
As for the parks, we are not expecting to all stay together 100% of the time. I am going to make each person an itinerary with dinner reservations and what our plans for the day are (we are the disney fans, and only a few of the others have ever been!), they are all welcome to meet up with us anytime they want, but if they dont, they will all have the dinner plans and we can meet up then. It is going to be a chore, but I think it is going to be alot of fun!
Like I said, I am the planner, we have been booked since July. I sent out a family disney newsletter in July with all the reservation information. in August, I sent out individually made envelopes for all the kids with Disney Dollars in them so they can start saving now! In October, I am going to do another newsletter. In December, everyone going is going to get a Mickey Mouse ornament with their name on it. In February there will be another newsletter. In april, everyone is getting personalized bag tags, then in June everyone will get more disney dollars and in July the final newsletter with all of the dining info and other pertinant information for the trip!
The planning has been so much fun already, I can not wait for the trip!!!
Good luck with your planning!!!

[TheMartellFamily]

Wow you are the planner. We have just put it that we are going these certain dates and here is our grand gathering number and everyone is on their own for ressies at hotel and decide what plans they want to go on. I think one thing we will do is take requests for meals and then plan accordingly. One thing that was mentioned was to go to the Biergarten in Germany for one big meal but there were many things on the menu that people did not like. I think that one is out. I think it would be great to have one night for Illuminations as for this is DH and DW favorite. Plus walking around the WS sampling is fun too. We thought for fantasmic dinner package we would do hollywood and vine and mama melrose. I know that some would like to do buffets and other sit down. The other thing is some may want to do waterparks where we do not. The kids like to hang out at the pool. I think one night at Ft. Wilderness for chip and dale sing along and movie night as a group would be fun too. While we love HDDR I think we will skip it this year. I think a night at DTD is fun too. When you get a big group like this we will end up filling a bus with one fell swoop. We are not all going to spend all our time together but we would like to do some things all together.

[TheRustyScupper]

1) We take 16-19 to WDW every Feb-Mar.
2) There are several things we do and don't do.

3) Do
. . . eat one meal per day all together
. . . go to the same park on the same day
. . . try to meet around the pool at then end of the day
. . . do provide for souvenir money for each adult and child
. . . do plan to cover EVERYONE'S three must-do rides
. . . let older kids go off alone, so they have the feeling of freedom
. . . do publish a tentative schedule 4-weeks prior to the trip
. . . do let Grand Gatherings schedule some things for you

4) Don't
. . . force people to stay together in the parks
. . . make one person "the boss", just a planner
. . . schedule every minute of every day
. . . go hog-wild and buy a lot of the expensive Grand Gathering options

NOTE: We have never buy the DDP, because unless everyone is well informed, people lose to much money buying the plan. Instead, we just budget meal money and sounvenir money. We find that $35/adult and $25/child for daily food is adequate, and $100 per person is good sounvenir money.

[mizzoumouse]

Most definately, I think it is impossible to think that all 19 of us can stay together all day every day. Not only would it be hard, but we would probably all hate eachother by the end of the trip!!! LOL...
All being in the same park is a great idea! I figure as long as we all have a GREAT time, even if we miss a meal or two together, our trip will be amazing!
Our only Rule is that on our 1st day, walking into the Magic Kingdom, we will all 19 be together as a group. I would not miss the faces of my family that have never been for anything in this world. We have taken my mom before, but this will be my dads 1st time along with others in our group!
I will never forget my kids faces that 1st time we went and I want to see that look in the faces of the rest of my family also!!!!

[TheMartellFamily]

Since we are going during the summer we will hang out at the pools much more this time during the day, after the torential storm that goes though. I think we will do the parks in the morning and at night and then in the afternoon hang out for those who need to nap.

[missbunny]

My dh and I are planning a grand gathering for December 2008. Right now we are just putting together a guide book with some information we learned from our trips and Intercot, of course.
We have 15 confirmed, but with the possibility of 30+ it will be one massive feat of planning. Thanks to Magical Journeys, I will have Debbie to help sort this out.
We are trying to get hotel plans set in place in the next few weeks. Has anyone used Disney's grand gathering planners to set things up? I was on disney's website but there wasn't a lot of information there.
Good luck to everyone else planning their own grand gathering. Maybe we can share ideas, problems and hopefully happy stories as we put our trips together.

[TheMartellFamily]

We are telling the people that they can buy what kind of package they want as for they some want the waterparks others want just room and tickets. For us we love the dining plan as for we make it work and it is so much nicer paying for it rather than haven taken from the pockets while on vacation. What other things does the grand gathering group resservation CM help with even though we do not want to buy the extra packages.

[traceyo1]

I have done several of the same things posted. Everyone really loves the newsletters. My first one was on the hotel we are staying at and the dining reservations. I am sending out 4 more based on each of the different parks, with the highlites of each park and special events and times-parades, fireworks, dinner reservations, etc. Also because I had a year notice, I sent each person a birthday card from the Disney gang and gave each person a piece of Disney clothing to wear (disney shopping online has lots of clearance items if you have time to spend shopping). This is our first Grand Gathering so hopefully everything goes well. We are doing 1 meal a day together and going to the same parks for 4 of the 6 days.

[mizzoumouse]

Thanks Tracey for the newsletter ideas!!!!! One on each of the parks is a great idea!