Just Booked Our Grand Gathering!!!

[kristenrice]

OMG!! It is going to be a whirlwind! Since she has never been there and she is an uber-planner like myself, she needs to gather as much info as she can so that she can plan for her family. Their kids will be 10, 9, and 7 when we go and my brother hasn't been to WDW since 1988, so he will be of no planning help.

Right now, we have one day in each park. We are staying our first 2 nights in a lake view studio at Bay Lake Tower on the Deluxe Dining Plan. Then, we will move to a standard view 1BR at the Boardwalk Villas for the last three nights. I have never stayed at either of them so this will be new to me too! We only have 4 full days in the parks so my plan is to experience the "biggies" but just point out the other stuff. Here is my list of "must-dos"...

Arrival night: Heading straight to DHS upon arrival so we can catch the 8pm show of Fantasmic! Afterwards, we will probably order one meal from in-room dining and split it.
Our flight ended up being delayed by almost an hour, but we still made it to DHS in time. It took the CM at guest relations quite a while to get us our AP's and my TIW card so she comped us with 4 instant FP's. We then head straight to Fantasmic and got seats...ALL the way to the left in the second to back row...but we got to see it. After the show, we found out that the park was actually open until 10 so we used our instant FP's and went on the Rockin Roller Coaster. It was my DSiL's first ride at WDW and she loved it!

After that, we took the bus to the Poly and shared a meal at Kona. Since we were on the DxDDP, we shared the crab cakes appetizer, the teriyaki NY strip entree and the Kiluaea torte dessert. Since I was wearing my "It's My Birthday" button, we also got 2 cupcakes. We were stuffed! After dinner, the monorail was still running so we hopped it back to BLT and hit the hay.

Day 1: Animal Kingdom
Expedition Everest, Kilimanjaro Safaris, Festival of the Lion King and Finding Nemo: The Musical...after those are done/scheduled, I'll consider Dinosaur, Flights of Wonder and Kali River Rapids (weather-permitting). On our AK day, we are eating breakfast at Chef Mickey's at 7:30am (staying at BLT so transportation to breakfast is a non-issue) and the AK opens at 9. We have to be out of there by 4:30 since we have a 5:15pm dinner at Boma. After dinner, we're going to head back to BLT and go to the Top of the World Lounge, hopefully in time to catch the 8pm showing of Wishes.
**Update: Just read that Wishes will be at 9pm that night so we should have no problem making it!**
This day went as planned...great breakfast...got to the park a little later than planned. Went to EE and got FP's, then hit the safari ride. We ended up doing everything, including Dinosaur, but skipped Kali since DSiL does not like getting wet (more to come on that later....) and we had dinner at Boma later. We ended up leaving the park around 3:30 and then meandered around Kidani Village for a while. We stopped by the lounge at Sanaa and used the TiW card to get a couple margaritas. Yummm!! I loved sitting out by the firepit, watching the animals and sipping a cool one! We walked over to Jambo house and we were about 30 minutes early for our dinner ADR but they seated us right away. Dinner was awesome, as always. Afterwards, we took the bus to the MK and walked back to BLT. We went up to TOTWL and I had "a few" drinks and then we watched Wishes. *THAT* was awesome! But, I can honestly say, it was the *only* thing that would make me consider staying at BLT again. After the fireworks, we stopped by the community hall and grabbed POTC:The Curse of the Black Pearl since DSiL has never seen a single POTC movie. We through that in the DVD player, but I think we both konked out before it was over.

Day 2: Epcot
Breakfast is again at 7:30am at The Wave. Then, it's off to Epcot...Soarin', Test Track and Spaceship Earth ("the big ball", as the kids call it!); we also have a culinary demonstration at 3pm and a wine seminar at 4pm. Somewhere in there, we'll escape over to BWV where we'll check in to our 1BR villa that we'll have for the next 3 nights. Dinner is at the Polynesian for the 8pm luau.

Day3: MY BIRTHDAY!!!...and DHS
Breakfast will be something simple in the room. At DHS, I want to do Tower of Terror, Rock n Roller Coaster, Lights, Action, Motors (or whatever the car stunt show is called) and the Beauty and the Beast show (that is on DSiL's must-do list). I've never done Toy Story Midway Mania but I know it is a hugely popular ride. I don't think we are going to go out of our way for it, but we might try it. We'll need to leave DHS around 5pm to get to Epcot for dinner. I have a 5:50 dinner reservation for us at LeCellier! After dinner, we're going to wander around Epcot and take in some more of the F&W festival and then stay for Illuminations.

Day 4: Magic Kingdom...finally!
I'm planning on hitting the MK early and doing "the mountains", with the possible exception of Splash Mountain. Jungle Cruise, Pirates of the Caribbean, Buzz Lightyear and Mickey's Philharmagic are all on my "must-do" list. Around noon, we're going to take off for OKW resort for lunch at Olivia's. This isn't something I would normally do, but since it is a research trip, I want to show DSiL where we will all be staying in June. I have stayed at OKW twice, but I have never eaten at Olivia's. I figure this will be a nice break in our day. At some point, we will work our way back to the MK. It is EMH night and there is an 8pm Main St. Electrical Parade (MUST SEE!!!!) and the park is open until midnight.

Day 5: GO HOME!
Breakfast is at 10am at Kouzzina. Our flight leaves at 2:45pm so I am planning on a DME pickup around 11:30. This gives us an hour for breakfast so I hope that is enough. I am doing only carryons and DSiL will check her bag before breakfast. After breakfast, it will be one final stroll down the Boardwalk and then we will be headed home.

So, that's the long and not-so-short of it. When I made this plan, I tried to make sure that she could experience things that would appeal to her children (or not) and also a few things that are more adult-oriented. I have taken trips with and without my children and they are two completely different experiences. It is hard to combine them into only 4 days, but I think I did OK.

I'll get to the rest later...stay tuned....

[Shadey55]

Stupid question here...but what is a Grand Gathering? I have a large group of folks headed down in the fall of 2013, so I would be interested to know. Thanks so much!

[dwkay8]

Stupid question here...but what is a Grand Gathering? I have a large group of folks headed down in the fall of 2013, so I would be interested to know. Thanks so much!

They are for groups of about 8+ people traveling together. If you wanted to be one (it wasn't necessary to become one) you could book directly with the Grand Gatherings department. In addition to each room's reservation, you had a Grand Gathering number that linked all of your reservations together. They also had special events that only Grand Gatherings could attend. However, they discontinued those events at the beginning of this year. There really isn't much benefit to being one. You can link your reservations together without being a Grand Gathering, so that isn't a plus either. Actually, they aren't even on Disney's website, so maybe they've completely gotten rid of them now.