Grand Gathering

[NY GOOFY]

We are a party of 10 and booked a "grand gathering" and were given a group number. Has anyone ever done a "grand gathering"? If so, what is it all about (perks, etc.)?

[MuchLovedMama]

We are part of 8 & going in September & are considered a Grand Gathering. Basically any party of 8 or more is just called that & gets a number & supposedly priority over other guests when making requests or ADR's. You are also able to do special dinners or tours that only parties or 8 or more are able to do. You can searuch Grand Gatherings on the Disney site or type it into Disney Grand Gathering into Google & it'll be the first thing to show up. You can also have special shirts made for your party & there's something about a photographer made availabe to you. We aren't doing anything special from being a Grand Gathering but it's nice to know we could if we wanted. Have fun! :mickey:

[nyobabe2]

We had a party of 13 down there in October for our Grand Gathering and honestly it wasn't as big of a deal as I thought it would be!
We were entitled to some special dining/cruises so we did take advantage of the cruise. Basically you started out in the contemporary and they had a bunch of snacks and drinks (which you were allowed to stock up on even as you were leaving for the boat), Smee and Capt. Hook showed up and played with the kids, took pictures etc... Then our pirate captain came who was EXCELLENT! We had to walk a pretty decent walk to get to the boat, once on there, the pirate captain got everyone involved with songs and jokes, even including special occasions and little prizes for the kids. Then Wishes began, they piped in the music from the park and it was amazing! We got back to the dock and Peter Pan was there signing autographs/taking pictures. It was a great experience but costly. Oh yeah, they also give you a special Grand Gatherings collector pin as well.
We didn't do any more than that because it just seemed so ridiculous to spend the extra money for it, there was no special treatments or anything like that. And I would assume you could make up shirts here for a heck of alot cheaper than the ones they have!

[tink'72]

We had a Grand Gathering about 3 years ago and like the other posters said it was honestly no big deal. I honestly felt it was more of a hassle than anything. Restaurants were annoyed by our party size. I know they won't guarentee everyone seated together but we were in totally different sections of the restaurants. We were entitled to different events. We at a multy cultural dinner at the Odesseey in Epcot, we were at a private dessert reception for Illuminations and I know some of our party went on a boat "cruise" with Peter Pan and he read the little kids a story..

Overall it was nothing special.