Picking up park tickets earlier than check-in

[stargazertechie]

Is anyone else worried that we haven't heard from Cheshire Figment on this? I will believe whatever his official word is on the issue.

Please, magically reappear and tell us things will be OK.

I have a feeling he won't chime in until he knows 100% for sure what is going on.

He did mention in one of the other threads (along with Hook's Girl [hope I got the name right]) that getting tickets early is not a problem.

 

[TaraBara]

I could be wrong, but I'm thinking you can get that refunded if you have to. And I most assuredly would, based on principle of nothing else.

I thought making any changes to your package (and I assumed this meant tickets as well) would result in a change fee. We are 3 weeks away from leaving. I guess I will look into this further.

 

[Chipndalenut]

I just hope that whatever the correct answer is, that Disney gets all of the CM's "on the same page" so they all give us the same answer. When I called today, I was told one thing and when someone else called yesterday, they were told something totally different. And when people who work in GR told us what they know it was something different.

I'm just confused and a bit furstrated. We wait all year long for our ONE trip to WDW each year, so it is well thought out and planned ahead of time. I just hope we get the REAL answer soon.

Anyone have Mr. Iger's email address??? LOL

 

[mom2rtk]

I thought making any changes to your package (and I assumed this meant tickets as well) would result in a change fee. We are 3 weeks away from leaving. I guess I will look into this further.

I'm by no means sure. But I'm thinking I read you could get it refunded in the park. If you can't, let us know back here and I'll cut my tickets a couple days before my 45 day window and just add back on what I need to later.

 

[DisneyBamaFan]

Easy for us - If this policy is enforced when we go in 2 weeks, we will just go to Universal instead. Disney will lose our reservation for 3 additional nights.

I wasn't trying to save money by doing it this way. I ordered my tickets and made plans based on well established policy. If Disney has changed that policy, so be it. I won't lose sleep over it, but Disney will get less of my vacation money this year.

There is a lot to do in Orlando besides WDW.

 

[Reddy]

I"m thankful that I'm not having to worry about this. sounds like the policy has been there but they didn't enforce it & now they are going to start (possible too many people are doing it this way)

 

[Robo]

I"m thankful that I'm not having to worry about this. sounds like the policy has been there but they didn't enforce it & now they are going to start (possible too many people are doing it this way)

There are too many people doing a lot of things.

But, they are not doing something which is damaging or causing a loss of revenue to Disney by doing this (picking up tickets before checking in.)

 

[Brian Noble]

Is anyone else worried that we haven't heard from Cheshire Figment on this?

No. Positing on DISboards is not his day job.

 

[mom2rtk]

So why is that every time Disney is faced with a problem, they choose the resolution that hurts the average honest guest?

Got an issue with the monorail? Diminish the guest's access.

Tangled line too long? Take away half of the attraction.

People trying to cheat the ticketing system via early pickup? Don't fix your computers. Take away the guest's ability to do this.

 

[Robo]

People trying to cheat the ticketing system via early pickup? Don't fix your computers. Take away the guest's ability to do this.

I agree with your sentiment, but in THIS case, there is no "cheating" going on.

 

[mom2rtk]

I agree with your sentiment, but in THIS case, there is no "cheating" going on.

I was just taking the report at face value that another poster brought here from their phone call to Disney on this matter. The implication was that some were apparently getting tickets issued early at GR at the parks, then again at the resort.

If there wasn't some "loss" on the part of Disney, then I"m not sure why they would be changing it at all.

 

[Robo]

If there wasn't some "loss" on the part of Disney, then I"m not sure why they would be changing it at all.

Bingo.

And, THAT'S the whole "world of confusion" that this is generating.

Getting tickets "early" is of no loss to Disney.
It actually stands as a revenue enhancement.

Bizarre.

 

[mom2rtk]

Bingo.

And, THAT'S the whole "world of confusion" that this is generating.

Getting tickets "early" is of no loss to Disney.
It actually stands as a revenue enhancement.

Bizarre.

Absolutely bizarre.

Are you not buying the story about people being double issued their tickets?

 

[Robo]

Absolutely bizarre.

Are you not buying the story about people being double issued their tickets?

No.

Not saying that it didn't (or can't) happen.

Just saying that it can't be of epidemic proportions enough to stop the sales of extra days on a ticket.

 

[wish*i*was*in*the*vi]

Maybe so. I knew I had read here that this could be done, never tried it myself, so I asked her and she said as far as she knew you could do it at GR, just not at the resort. Then I came over to CF sticky, which confirmed what she told me.

There was also something else about not being able to do it if you were staying off property prior (not sure on the exact wording on that one), which I can understand, but we are still at Pop for the entire 7 nights. That may change if we can't pull them for one day.

CF's sticky states that you CAN do it if staying off property....

 

[wish*i*was*in*the*vi]

Huh? If a person arrives early and gets a room-only, they are paying MORE to WDW. If they are getting their tickets early, they are going into the parks EARLIER, they are going for MORE days, they are there with souvenirs crying out to them for even MORE days. They are dining, at FULL cost, for those days of the room-only reservation, when they have tickets to be in the parks, as well.

If this policy is changed (I'm having a hard time with the idea of it being an unenforced policy considering that CF gives us the way to help a CM get to the policy via their Hub), those people will NOT stay onsite, they will NOT be looking at souvenirs in the parks, they will NOT be dining at WDW. They will go to any of the OTHER places in Orlando.

This is going to LOSE WDW money.




And IMO hurts it.



.

And theres alot of scenarios where Disney doesn't stand to make alot of money by allowing people to do this. For instance with our next trip, we are staying off property for the first 4 nights, if they let us have free dining when we check in on the 8th, they're saving us money. Whether or not we get free dining we will still spend the same amount of money on tickets. We will not be lining Disney's pockets with $ for a hotel room those first 4 nights, and we won't be eating breakfast or dinner at the parks only lunch. And we spend very very little on "stuff" while at the parks. Once we check into the Poly on January 8 without free dining, we will be spending $ to eat for those 3 1/2 days instead of having them paid for with a free dining package. In this scenario it is to Disney's advantage to block us from picking up our tickets early.
Besides, nobody ever said anything that Disney does made sense to anybody but them.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

GR calls DRC for approval to do it. Approval will not be given.

Here's an update, for what it's worth...

I just got off the phone with a CM from the "877" number we have to use as agents. I told her about the big dicussion on this subject. She said "yes, previously you could pick up the tickets in advance but NOW, I have worked the passed three days and EVERY DAY we have received the same e-mail reminding us to let the guests know that they CANNOT pick up tickets until their package starts."

She also said "This must be a pretty important message because they continue to send it to us daily."

That's what I know for now........

About five days prior to arrival date is when reservations are transferred from WDTC/CRO to the Resort where the reservation will be. Once that happens WDTC/CRO is out of the loop.

If a Guest want Early Package Ticket Pickup, they go to a theme park Guest Relations Window and the interaction is between GR and the Resort. CRO has no control at this point.

And I check the Advisories section of The Hub daily. Normally something of this significance will stay up for several days; such as the advance notice of "Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room Opening Soon at Magic Kingdom" having gone up today and shows it will remain until August 15. There has been nothing posted to the Advisories on this subject.

 

[lpizzuro123]

I called last night to get prices of the new Free Dining promotion. My DS has an AP so I wanted to check the difference in prices between AP rates and the Free Dining promo. We will be getting to Disney the Friday of Thanksgiving weekend and the promo is not good for Friday and Saturday so we would have to pay rack rate for these nights. I told them we would check in Friday and start our Free Dining package on Monday. Before I even got those words out of my mouth the CM said we COULD NOT pick up our tickets prior to the beginning of our package. We have two days left over from our old 10 day nonexp tickets so that would not be a big deal for us. I still need to work out the numbers but I think the AP rate would be better for us then the Free Dining Promo.

Linda

 

[Lehuaann]

About five days prior to arrival date is when reservations are transferred from WDTC/CRO to the Resort where the reservation will be. Once that happens WDTC/CRO is out of the loop.

If a Guest want Early Package Ticket Pickup, they go to a theme park Guest Relations Window and the interaction is between GR and the Resort. CRO has no control at this point.

And I check the Advisories section of The Hub daily. Normally something of this significance will stay up for several days; such as the advance notice of "Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room Opening Soon at Magic Kingdom" having gone up today and shows it will remain until August 15. There has been nothing posted to the Advisories on this subject.

Thank you for advising.

 

[tjmw2727]

And theres alot of scenarios where Disney doesn't stand to make alot of money by allowing people to do this. For instance with our next trip, we are staying off property for the first 4 nights, if they let us have free dining when we check in on the 8th, they're saving us money. Whether or not we get free dining we will still spend the same amount of money on tickets. We will not be lining Disney's pockets with $ for a hotel room those first 4 nights, and we won't be eating breakfast or dinner at the parks only lunch. And we spend very very little on "stuff" while at the parks. Once we check into the Poly on January 8 without free dining, we will be spending $ to eat for those 3 1/2 days instead of having them paid for with a free dining package. In this scenario it is to Disney's advantage to block us from picking up our tickets early.
Besides, nobody ever said anything that Disney does made sense to anybody but them.

Tickets cost the same regardless of if they are part of a package or not. By letting you pick them up early they are guaranteeing that you will visit Disney instead of sea world or universal etc therefore gaining revenue from in park purchases.

So if you can't pick up tickets early you will purchase say 5 day tickets and visit disney 5 days. If you can pick up tickets early you would purchase say 8 day tickets instead. Of course the cost of the extra days is minimual but Disney stands to gain money from the purchase of meals and snacks etc for three days that would have otherwise gone to the competition.

I don't think free dining has anything to do with it as this would be in effect for all packages paid dining and free dining.

I still say its a computer issue. If the CM at guest relations doesn't handle the early pick up properly and/or let the resort know you have your tickets. Or if the resort CM's are having troubling separting the tickets back off the KTTW cards and indeed issuing double tickets that is a bigger problem.