Disney 5/16 - 5/21 - Just about ready to go but...

[dfherrera]

Had an "odd" experience recently and just wanted to see if it was a fluke or if anyone else has experienced something similar.

For a little background, this is not a dig in anyway at Disney, in fact, it's because of the usual high bar they set for service that this even stuck out to me as a concern but I have been seeing odd things here and there on my upcoming reservation.

I am a DVC member and booked this trip back at 7 months for the AK Kidani Village. We are getting a 2 bedroom with points. Right at the 180 day mark I made my dinning reservations without an issue and at the 60 day mark, did the same with my Fastpasses. Everything was "normal" up to about 30 days from arrival. At this point, when I went onto My Disney Experience, my reservation for the hotel was missing. I linked it and it had previously been showing fine. I logged into the DVC dashboard and could see it there so I did not think to much about it.

A few days later when I logged in again to My D Exp, it was back so no worries. Then, last week my wife asked me about our Magic Bands as they had not arrived yet and I did personalize them. I called Disney on Monday and were told that for some reason (they did not know why) they did not ship. Because it is so close now, they said they will ship them to AK Kidani. Then my wife asked me about the Luggage Tags that also have not arrived and she called them yesterday. The Cast member told her that he had no idea why they did not ship but they were "not needed" for the bus but only to make the luggage transfer easier.

Today, these individual "odd" issues, while all small, got me a bit worried about my reservation so I called Disney DVC back. I was assured the reservation was fine and everything looked right in their system but I was told a different story about the luggage tags. Today I was told they shipped out on the 5th of May and should arrive "any day".

I guess I am just not used to the varying stories and uncertainty with the reservations and communications. Disney always does such a great job that when something outside the "norm" occurs, it makes you question more if your room will be there when you show up...

Anyway, wondering if you all think I should be worried or if I am just making too much out of unrelated events.

I will post updates next week once we get there and let you know how it went, hopefully from my hotel room.

 

[plainoldt]

i received my yellow tags with no issues....still waiting for my magic bands for our may 16th trip. supposedly on their way to me between saturday and monday.....yup....not too worried (yes I am)

 

[chicagoshannon]

I didn't even have the option to customize magic bands for our Poly stay through DVC. I didn't bother inquiring since we have enough of them.

 

[coast2coastmickey]

Our last trip was in February. I had the opposite: everything seemed fine (booking looked good, magic bands received) but then there were tons of issues getting my magic band sorted out to open the hotel room door and then there were more issues at park entrance the next day when it wouldn't link to a valid ticket. Took about 2 hours over the two days to get it sorted (this was after a super delayed Magical express bus the night before....2.5 hours from arriving at magical express to arriving at hotel). Needless to say, I was pretty upset.

I asked kindly for a couple of fast passes for compensation since, in my opinion, 1 hr at concierge at the hotel and 1 hr at guest services was horrifically long by Disney standards, yet they looked at me like I was crazy. I decided to "forgive and forget" and the rest of our trip was fine, but needless to say I felt no magic.

I sincerely hope that all your issues are sorted out at the beginning. It was no way to start a vacation, for me.

 

[tracysis]

i received my yellow tags with no issues....still waiting for my magic bands for our may 16th trip. supposedly on their way to me between saturday and monday.....yup....not too worried (yes I am)

That's odd we leave on Monday the 14th for BWV and have had our magic bands for at least 2 weeks.

 

[sjrec]

I called very last minute for Magical Express one year and they got the tags out to me by Fed Ex-so hopefully yours will arrive soon.
Hope everything else goes smoothly for you-we got home last week from a great stay at Kidani. Have a wonderful vacation!

 

[Jennasis]

If your luggage tags don't arrive before you go, simply collect your bags from baggage claim upon arrival in Orlando and bring them to the Magical Express counter with you. No worries.

 

[thegales]

We are arriving at Poly on May 16th, booked on points. Our Magic Bands arrived April 19. I believe I had until April 15 (maybe the 13th) to customize them. It appears they shipped right after the customization deadline.

My assumption regarding the luggage tags was that the first CM did no research to determine the exact status. Since he/she knew they were not a true necessity, it didn't matter if they shipped or not.

Since you have to go to the front desk to pick up your Magic Bands, ask if there is a way they can test them. Maybe go to the store to buy a souvenir. But before anything else, I would go to the room to verify all the MB's work on your door. My main concern would be that you leave the lobby, get in your car to park closer to your room, take all your luggage up to your room, and the MB not work. Then you have to leave someone with the luggage in the hall way, while someone else has to go back to the lobby to try to fix things. If you just have people having to go back and forth, it might be easier.

IMHO, the good news is, your reservation is on the DVC page, so there should be no issues with you actually having a room.

One last thought, have you done the online check in? If that all works, then you should get a bit more comfort.

 

[dfherrera]

So I am not sure if it is good news or bad that so many others have had similar issues. I chatted with someone again today at DVC and they confirmed that at least the hotel reservation is good. They said they cannot see the My Experience or can they see anything about the Magic Bands. I did do the online check-in a while back and it also has an error. I got my email today to verify my check in and it still has an error. Can't see what the error is nor does the website highlight anything wrong so this will be fun...

Hoping for the best - 4 days to go...

 

[plainoldt]

That's odd we leave on Monday the 14th for BWV and have had our magic bands for at least 2 weeks.

I found out what the issue was....supposedly....

My husband wanted a gray band. I personalized all 4 with names, 3 different colored bands, but because his was still gray, it was assumed that I didn't finish personalizing them so it was not processed....????

Don't know that I believe that 100% The CM on the phone got the order moving and now, as per my text tracking notices, we should have them by tomorrow night. PSHEW! crisis avert!

 

[Sue M]

Very odd, but I find the MDE glitchy. We always pick up our bands at the desk as WDW doesn’t ship outside the US.
It’s true you don’t need the DME tags. Just go to DME desk with a description of luggage. I’d take photos on cell phone to show them also. But I’d do what other poster did and phone DME directly and have them fed x tags.

 

[thegales]

Regarding the error for online check in. I also received an error while trying to finalize my on line check in. I even called tech support, and their suggestion was to try again later.

After digging around, I found my issue. I clicked on the edit details, then went to the arrival time. I had nothing selected, so it gave an error. It would have been nice if it highlighted the error instead of making me dig for it. It also would have been nice if the tech person suggested I look at all the details.

I will suggest looking at each of the details of the online check in, to see if there appear to be any problems.

I am also calling out the CM who said because Grey was selected, that it caused a problem. I chose Grey for myself, and had no issues receiving the MB's.

The good news is, in less than a week, you will be at the happiest place on earth!!

 

[AngiTN]

If your luggage tags don't arrive before you go, simply collect your bags from baggage claim upon arrival in Orlando and bring them to the Magical Express counter with you. No worries.

Actually, without luggage tags all you have to do is skip baggage claim completely, go to ME stand, give them you claim check and they will go to baggage claim and get your bags for you.

All this is explained on your ME instructions. Yellow bag tags are not required to use ME bag service, provided you arrive before 10PM and after 5 AM

 

[Bostonbeans99]

I have heard and seen from Disney and members ... that only cash paying customers receive luggage tags, not DVC members.

 

[AngiTN]

I have heard and seen from Disney and members ... that only cash paying customers receive luggage tags, not DVC members.

OP is not referring to the luggage tags that match the magic bands. They are referring to the yellow tags that you use for ME. Different tags. EVERYONE that registers for ME gets yellow ME tags. Only those who book packages get the fancy name tags that match magic bands.

 

[Bostonbeans99]

Oh, okay, gotcha!
BTW no more matching luggage tags.....they seem to be lately throwing in whatever they have left over. No big deal though.