Grand Gatherings Questions

[LouRodriGIS]

My family has booked a trip to WDW this August, our 4th trip since 2002. However, we are planning to go with 2 other families and have registered our group with Disney Grand Gatherings. Question...has anyone out there done any of the Grand Gathering events listed below?


International Dinner and IllumiNations Dessert Reception
Safari Celebration Dinner
Good Morning Gathering
Magical Fireworks Voyage


If so, which event did you do and was it worth it? Tell me about it. Would you do it again?

Thanks!

[Hayden's Dad]

My family did the Good Morning Gathering at Tony's. It was awesome. Tony himself hosts it you get character interaction with Goofy, Pluto, Chip n Dale, and Mickey.

They play games with the children, Tony sings (What a voice) and it was all around a really good time. The restertaunt only had about four tables worth of people so there was alot of repeat interaction with the characters.

At the end Tony gave us all pins (that you can't buy anywhere) that acted as fastpasses to Philharmagic.

I would recommed getting there as early as possible. One you get an unobstructed view of Main Street and the Castle, and if you are the first people there you are the first group to see Mickey when he gets there.:blush:

I would highly recommend it if you have a large group.

[bcornette]

Last year our family did the Magical Fireworks Voyage. It was a huge disappointment for us. Possibly because our expectations were set very high by our travel agent and Peter Pan was very boring on the boat ride.
We were told that the dessert's before the boat ride was a Dessert Buffet of fresh fruit and desserts. It was packaged peanuts, brownies, cookies and cans of coke - not what we were expecting.
Our boat had Peter on it and he would not do anything with the children or the other people on the boat. When one child asked him to tell a story his answer was "Wendy is a good story teller I leave that stuff to her" this would have been an acceptable answer IF Wendy was there. The other boat had a pirate, we could here them singing and having a good ole time from across the water. Our boat was practically silent the whole time - once again not what we expected.
The view of the Fireworks and water show was one of a kind. It almost saved the experience for us but not quite.
If you go with the proper expectations it may be OK, I won't ever do it again.
I am however doing the Good Morning Gathering this year and am even more excited after reading the first reply.

[Dedivah]

We did the International Dinner and IllumiNations Dessert Reception last year.

We had a great time. The entertainment was entertaining the kids had a splendid time. We were able to take picutes with Minney and Goofy.

We had such a good view of IlluiNations we could feel the heat of the fireworks.

I would do this again if I didn't want to try other ones.