We did this a couple of years ago. My family and my best friend's family all went to Disney. We didn't get anything special and there was really nothing extra about it. The only thing we did do, was this "grand gathering breakfast" at Tony's. Nothing was discounted...but it was a lot of fun
I will say...that actually, it was one of the worse experiences we've had at Disney in terms of the resort and checking in etc. I was very disappointed with the way our resort handled it and because of it I will never stay at AKL again. I was paying for the entire trip and this was noted clearly on the reservation. However, my friend got there a couple hours before me and checked in. They took her credit card and charged it. When I arrived, I asked the lady to please change it and make sure my credit card was on both rooms for charges and incidentals and she was by far the rudest CM I've ever encountered. I wanted this to be a stress free time for my friends, and the CM was very put out that she had to spend five more minutes to make a computer change..it was embarrassing to my friend and her dh.
I had booked savannah view rooms. We got rooms close by..however, my friend's room stunk terribly of cigarette smoke and they could not get rid of the odor. She had to move rooms and they put them literally on the far other side of the resort. Mind you, we were there during a very slow time. I told them we'd be willing to move too. That's when they told us that we weren't guaranteed rooms together.
After waiting 7 hours for their new room (we went to MK and kept calling the resort to find out if it was ready), when the dad inquired at the front desk and was a little annoyed as his daughter was tired, the CM told him to "lay her down on the couch in the lobby"
It was truly a bizarre experience for Disney..and a deluxe resort!
I'm sure it was isolated, but the only special thing about our grand gathering experience is that we were all there together. Disney did nothing to make it more special for us. This was in 2006.
We still had a fantastic time. It's just a little bit of a bummer when you initially arrive and are treated so poorly.
To the best of my knowledge, they did not have the special illuminations viewing when we were there. The safari dinner rings a bell but we had other plans. We did the Good Morning Gathering at Tony's Town Square. Mickey was there. They say "one on one time" but honestly, it was similar to any other character breakfast. Darn good food though and the host was a riot!
