Just Booked Our Grand Gathering!!!

[kristenrice]

Dad has been planning this trip for 5 years and we were finally able to make the reservations today! My parents are treating the family (3 kids/spouses and 6, soon to be 7, grandchildren) to a weeklong trip to WDW, staying at OKW. They are paying for nearly everything...rooms, tickets, airfare and food.

We are DVC members and dad "rented" points (which were actually transfered into our account) so that we could reserve the 5 weeknights of our trip. For the weekend nights, he's paying cash.

I called Member Services today with Dad standing by. Our phone call took just shy of 2 hours to complete everything. The CM, Calvin, was so patient and helpful. We had a complicated reservation...

...first night on cash, (2) 2BR units, each with 7-8 people on the reservation...
...second night on points, same (2) 2BR's plus the Deluxe Dining Plan...
...third-sixth nights on points, same (2)2BR's...no dining plans...
...seventh night...couldn't book it yet because we are outside of 11 months and we are paying cash for that night.

The poor guy had to create six different reservations (all booked under one confirmation number) and manually input everyone's names and ages. Then, he made the mistake of asking if we have any special celebrations...

...Mom and Dad's 40th Anniversary...
...Nephew's (the ONLY grandson) birthday...
...Niece's birthday...
...My daughter's birthday (same day as my niece's)
...SiL's birthday...
...and 4 children and 1 adult will be making their first visit.

He input ALL of the celebrations on EACH segment of our reservation. Then he put us on hold for about 10 minutes...

When he came back, he profusely apologized...apparently, the system DELETED all of the celebration information on each reservation...but he got it fixed.

Dad was super-excited because he had budgeted about $810 per night for each of the 2BR's that he's reserving on cash. His jaw hit the floor when the CM told us that the rooms were available with the DVC member discount. The total for each room came to "only" $605 per night. Dad was elated because he realized that the $800 he saved would almost completely cover the DxDDP for the one night.

After our reservation was complete, the CM transferred us to the Grand Gatherings advisor and we registered as a Grand Gathering. This took almost 30 minutes because she had to "review" the reservation and create a "database" for us, manually adding everyone's names and ages again.

So, we are now officially booked! The next steps are to add the last night on cash (I'll be calling on Saturday to do that), add the DxDDP to the second night of the trip (for some reason, the computer wouldn't let him do it today) and then book Magical Express. Oh, and then the fun part....DINING ADR's

[dwkay8]

Woohoo! Now you can check part 1 one of your list and get to the fun part. That'll be a big group, but OKW is a good place for it. Hope you all have an amazing time!

[chipndale]

Congratulations! It sounds like you are going to have a fantastic trip! Hope you are able to get the dining ressies that you want.

[kristenrice]

Well, minor snafu with our plans...

Disney has eliminated the segmenting so we can no longer add the dining plan to only one night. Since they also eliminated the Grand Gathering events, we really have no need to do a DP anymore. We will have a TiW card to use towards our group meal. I have been advised that we will be able to split the bill and put 10 people on one bill (to use the TiW discount) and the rest on a second bill. This will be a lot cheaper than adding the DxDDP.

I'm leaving in 22 days to take DSiL on her "research trip". It will be just the two of us and it will be her first trip EVER to WDW. I was hoping to bring along my sister too, since it is us ladies that will need to do all the planning for our families, but she is quite pregnant (due November 5) and so she is unable to travel. She has been there before, but not since 1988!

Getting excited....

[dwkay8]

I didn't realize they were retroactively not allowing segmenting. Guess I need to catch up on my DVC gossip

TIW is a good backup. Then you can do and eat whatever you want!

Less than a month out...you're going to be there before you know it!

[kristenrice]

I didn't realize they were retroactively not allowing segmenting. Guess I need to catch up on my DVC gossip

I think this is why they were unable to add the DxDDP earlier when we tried to add it. They are honoring the ones that were already in place, but now, the only way to "segment" is to actually separate your reservations. If you want to switch rooms or resorts, you can still segment. Since we need to *guarantee* that we won't need to move, we are not going to take the chance.

We have a lot of options for where to have our group dinner. I would like to do Boma. It is my favorite restaurant plus it would let everyone see our other "home". My dad was thinking about doing dinner at CRT, but we found out that they absolutely cannot seat all 15 of us together. I had a great conversation with a DVC CM who used to work in the dining division. She gave me a list of some restaurants that would be able to accomodate our group. One of the ones she suggested was 1900 Park Fare. I've only eated breakfast there (twice) so I don't really know how dinner is. How does it stack up against Chef Mickey's?

Here's a thought that dad and I are tossing around...

We are staying 7 nights (Sat-Fri) and dad bought 6-day park hoppers for everyone. We aren't really planning on going to a park on arrival day because we have no idea when we will arrive. If we have the time or inclination, dad said he will pay the extra $$$ to add a day. So, on arrival day, we thought we'd try the "monorail tour". Here's the plan...
...take the bus from OKW to Epcot...
...ride the monorail from Epcot to the TTC...
...take the resort monorail to either the GF for dinner at 1900 PF or the Contemporary for dinner at Chef Mickey's...
...head to the MK and catch the bus there back to OKW, or maybe enjoy the MK if it is open late (this will be a Saturday in June!)

We're also thinking about doing a group breakfast at Olivia's on our departure day. Again, we don't have our flights yet so we have no idea what schedule we are dealing with. Unfortunately, we may be driving to Detroit (instead of GR) to fly direct so after the 2.5 hour flight, we will still be facing a 2.5 hour drive home. That means that we will have a fairly early DME pickup so breakfast might not happen.

Sorry this post got so lengthy...talking about the June trip is taking my mind off of my October trip. I am in limbo....too early to pack...too late to do anything else...just sitting here passing the time and counting the days!

[dwkay8]

One of the ones she suggested was 1900 Park Fare. I've only eated breakfast there (twice) so I don't really know how dinner is. How does it stack up against Chef Mickey's?

Sorry this post got so lengthy...talking about the June trip is taking my mind off of my October trip. I am in limbo....too early to pack...too late to do anything else...just sitting here passing the time and counting the days!

I can't recall ever hearing bad things about 1900 Park Fare's dinner. It's high on my to-do list.

For our Jan/Feb trip, I started packing way too early. Then for our August trip, I didn't want to do that again, and it ended up I didn't pack until about 9:00 the night before! One week out is a good time to start packing...and that's only two weeks away...

[shmily1]

Wow! This sounds like a super fun trip that you are planning! No matter where you have dinner, you will still have a blast! Have you thought about Cape May for the buffet? It's kind of "off the beaten path" so that may be a good option for some great seafood. If Art was still there, it would be even more special.

What are your plans for what you are showing your SIL in October? Is she as excited as you are? It's always so much fun to take someone who has never been especially when they are excited!

[kristenrice]

Wow! This sounds like a super fun trip that you are planning! No matter where you have dinner, you will still have a blast! Have you thought about Cape May for the buffet? It's kind of "off the beaten path" so that may be a good option for some great seafood. If Art was still there, it would be even more special.

Believe it or not, there is not a seafood fan amongst us! My mom will occasionally order salmon, but other than that, nobody likes it. We prefer the land animals. My dad loved LeCellier when we took him there, but I don't know if they would be willing to accommodate a party of 15.

What are your plans for what you are showing your SIL in October? Is she as excited as you are? It's always so much fun to take someone who has never been especially when they are excited!

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.

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!**

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.

[dwkay8]

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.

I hate to say it, but you're missing out! If you don't go out of your way for it, you probably won't do it since the line gets so long. If you don't do it first thing, try to grab a Fastpass sometime early, perhaps after Tower & RnR. I know not everyone likes the same things, but it good enough to at least give it a shot

Sounds like you have a wonderful day planned for your birthday!