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Grand Gathering

Posted: Jul Sun 20, 2008 6:06 am
by Cazza and Livvie's Mum
:D My family were together last night for the first time in two years and a discovery :idea: was made. The year that I am 50, my eldest brother will be 65, my eldest sister will be 60, my son, niece and son's best friend will be 18, my daughter's Godmother will be 50 too and there are other random milestones of other firends and family too.

So it was decided that we are all going to WDW together for 3 weeks and stay in a Magic Kingdom resort (still to be decided) In total we will have a grand gathering of 60 at least. :!: I want to have a party in Munchkin Land so I'll have to hope and pray they don't close the Great Movie Ride. :roll:

Has anyone else done a collective celebration at WDW?

Posted: Jul Sun 20, 2008 6:53 am
by AKLRULZ
60 people is a huge GG! I've never done a GG, but I've assisted clients (largest was 19 people) and Disney has some cool things for large parties.

Enjoy - it'll be a blast planning and even more fun doing!

Posted: Jul Sun 20, 2008 6:45 pm
by kcarts
Nothing like that. I have been down there for a wedding. Reception was at the top of the Contemporary. Great view of the Wishes fireworks.

Posted: Jul Tue 22, 2008 6:18 pm
by jcodirewolf
Hey kcarts did you come to our wedding? :)

75 people at our wedding, reception was at California Grill.

My only advice is if the event planners for Grand Gatherings are anything like the wedding planners, be sure to check, and recheck every detail.

I've said this before nothing HUGE went wrong. And if any one, or two of the things that happened had happened, I don't think it would have even registered. But there must have been 20 little things that seem like they should be simple and where a big deal or little things that got dropped.

For instance. We wanted to see some pictures of Flower arraignments for ideas. And the florist people kept saying "We can do anything you want." Great how about some ideas? Or the fact that we sent them our final guest list (as an excel document) and the wedding planners never sent it to the florial/catering so we got charged for a few extra people (the money was refunded afterwards, but they had us pay and then wait for the final settlement and a refund.) Lots of little irritations like that.

Overall the issues were transparent to the guests. Just those of us who where doing the planning. And also since we where paying for our own wedding, we most likely watched the money closer than a lot of people do.


johno

Posted: Sep Fri 26, 2008 7:34 am
by sallyporsche
Wow -- 60 people!! You will need a good battle plan!

My family is planning a "small" Grand Gathering compared to that ... only 13 people at Christmastime. We've already gotten ADRs for places to eat each day. That is where we will "for sure" be together each day. We've got a few different age groups with the kids, some of which have been there before and some that haven't, so I'm sure we'll be splitting up a lot during the day. My kids would rather be in Epcot than anywhere else and they're college age, so I'm sure they will be hanging at Epcot most of the time and I'll see them when we pass through :lol:

Posted: Sep Fri 26, 2008 9:02 am
by sherabby
Wow that sure is a grand gathering group! Will you be able to go in 2009 on any of your actual birthdays?

Posted: Sep Sun 28, 2008 11:48 pm
by aboden
That is huge, even my family and the extended part of it wouldn't come up to that lol bet u will have fun.

make sure u get matching shirts :D

Posted: Sep Tue 30, 2008 8:41 pm
by JWG
I don't know if I even know 60 people...
Ok, that's not true, but I can't even fathom nor do I want to a group of that size.

Posted: Oct Sun 05, 2008 2:57 am
by HSolo29
Wow! 60!

I just got back and we had a small Grand Gathering this time and we had a blast! I agree with aboden about getting shirts done. It's definitely worth it! We had shirts this past week and we got all sorts of attention(including in the Laugh Floor :lol: )

Have fun!

Posted: Oct Sun 05, 2008 11:55 am
by Cazza and Livvie's Mum
Wow that sure is a grand gathering group! Will you be able to go in 2009 on any of your actual birthdays?

Sadly it won't be in 2009, but you never know they might extend it until 2015 :wink: That's the Magical Year for us and the resort is to be the Contemporary...

and we've decided (already) that the only days we will stay together as a group will be the first day in MK and 'party day' as I don't think CM's would believe us when they ask "How many in your party?" Do you think we could fill up the Blue Line?

Posted: Jan Tue 27, 2009 8:02 pm
by Enchantment
I'm still on 3 weeks. I wish! Can't wait to grow up to be like you one day!