a word of caution or how not to ruin someone's vacation

[pakdayton]

We spent the last week of august in wdw enjoying free dining at port orleans -riverside. We arranged our plans for our DD to spend her 12th birthday in "the world" on august 31.

We're DVC members and this year we have PAPs ... so i've been around the disney block a few times.

Everything was planned ahead of time ... we registered her birthday and brought her US passport. The night before her birthday, she received a card from Mickey with a 20% discount photopass in the room. On the actual day of ... all was smooth as silk. We arrived early at guest services at MK and DD choose the birthday fun card, wore her birthday button, and birthday hat. It was a great day.

Late afternoon, we headed back to PO- for swim/rest. In the lobby restroom, a woman approxiamtely my age (41) wished my daughter a happy birthday and she told us that it was her birthday too.

At the time it crossed my mind ... to keep my mouth shut but i plowed ahead. "Where's your button?" I asked. "Packed away" she replied because they were leaving in a few minutes for the airport. Again, i thought "maybe she doesnt know?" ... but asked cautiously "Did you get to spend your birthday in a park?" "Oh yes," she replied "We went to DHS." Okay great, i'm thinking if she went to DHS, she must know about "get in free on your birthday" right?

So I asked "did you get a present from mickey?" (thinking get in free, fun card, fastpass) and she responds "Well i got the fastpass." I say "Oh how nice." And then she politely asks my DD "Did you get a gift?" to which my DD replies "Well, i picked the giftcard."

It becomes instantly obvious that she doesnt know what we talking about ... "GIFTCARD? what giftcard? I got the picture fastpass in my room last night. Did you get that?" (she meant photopass)

DD says "Oh yes I got that too, but today i picked the birthday giftcard."

So i spend the next few minutes in the bathroom of po-riverside explaining to this woman on her birthday about the "get in free on your birthday" promotion. She had "seen the commericals" but didnt know that you had to do anything ... she had thought the 20% photopass was nice, but didnt know to go to guest services and is now leaving for the airport in a few minutes.

She was not happy, we saw her a short time later, apparently explaining all i had told her to her husband and pressuring him to go to guest services at the resort so they could "do something" about her missing out.

I did not stick around for the outcome. I would like to aplogize for ruining her birthday, but doubtful she hangs out on The Dis if she missed something so important.

When i later told the story to my husband, he reminded me that i did a similar vacation ruining tactic in august of 2005 (1st year of free dining)

On a bus from CB, a father of three small children was complaining about the price of food and i said "did you get free dining?" You could have heard a pin drop ... no they didnt. They had booked through AAA, they had never heard of it, and they were not the only people on the bus.

yikes.

[wheezy19]

I definitely don't think it's your fault that she didn't understand the promotion.

Personally I can't fathom how someone with a television and two brain cells to rub together could fail to understand the promotion, but what do I know...

[kiranic]

I find it hard to believe with all the information out there on the internet about Disney like disboards, allears and even the Disney site itself that there are still people out there who aren't very well informed. I still am amazed by all the people who really don't understand the Fast Pass system. I guess that is why it pays to be obsessive/compulsive sometimes!

[Mlissa88]

Originally Posted by pakdayton

We spent the last week of august in wdw enjoying free dining at port orleans -riverside. We arranged our plans for our DD to spend her 12th birthday in "the world" on august 31.

We're DVC members and this year we have PAPs ... so i've been around the disney block a few times.

Everything was planned ahead of time ... we registered her birthday and brought her US passport. The night before her birthday, she received a card from Mickey with a 20% discount photopass in the room. On the actual day of ... all was smooth as silk. We arrived early at guest services at MK and DD choose the birthday fun card, wore her birthday button, and birthday hat. It was a great day.

Late afternoon, we headed back to PO- for swim/rest. In the lobby restroom, a woman approxiamtely my age (41) wished my daughter a happy birthday and she told us that it was her birthday too.

At the time it crossed my mind ... to keep my mouth shut but i plowed ahead. "Where's your button?" I asked. "Packed away" she replied because they were leaving in a few minutes for the airport. Again, i thought "maybe she doesnt know?" ... but asked cautiously "Did you get to spend your birthday in a park?" "Oh yes," she replied "We went to DHS." Okay great, i'm thinking if she went to DHS, she must know about "get in free on your birthday" right?

So I asked "did you get a present from mickey?" (thinking get in free, fun card, fastpass) and she responds "Well i got the fastpass." I say "Oh how nice." And then she politely asks my DD "Did you get a gift?" to which my DD replies "Well, i picked the giftcard."

It becomes instantly obvious that she doesnt know what we talking about ... "GIFTCARD? what giftcard? I got the picture fastpass in my room last night. Did you get that?" (she meant photopass)

DD says "Oh yes I got that too, but today i picked the birthday giftcard."

So i spend the next few minutes in the bathroom of po-riverside explaining to this woman on her birthday about the "get in free on your birthday" promotion. She had "seen the commericals" but didnt know that you had to do anything ... she had thought the 20% photopass was nice, but didnt know to go to guest services and is now leaving for the airport in a few minutes.

She was not happy, we saw her a short time later, apparently explaining all i had told her to her husband and pressuring him to go to guest services at the resort so they could "do something" about her missing out.

I did not stick around for the outcome. I would like to aplogize for ruining her birthday, but doubtful she hangs out on The Dis if she missed something so important.

When i later told the story to my husband, he reminded me that i did a similar vacation ruining tactic in august of 2005 (1st year of free dining)

On a bus from CB, a father of three small children was complaining about the price of food and i said "did you get free dining?" You could have heard a pin drop ... no they didnt. They had booked through AAA, they had never heard of it, and they were not the only people on the bus.

yikes.

On our first trip back to Disney in the late 90s we paid full Deluxe price room rack rates for our rooms because we did not know there were codes and specials. Live and learn.

I haven't paid full price since.

[purplebelle]

Originally Posted by wheezy19

I definitely don't think it's your fault that she didn't understand the promotion.

Personally I can't fathom how someone with a television and two brain cells to rub together could fail to understand the promotion, but what do I know...

With all the information we're subjected to on a daily basis (commercials, ads, TV, radio, internet) I can't believe there are people that still say, "How did you not know about that?!" As if all that's ever on TV is the one and only ad about free dining. People aren't going to retain identical information.

As for the family on the bus...by saying "Didn't you get the dining plan?" (or however it was worded) you could say, "Before we were aware of this deal, we were like you. Next time ask Disney about their free dining plan." I know that's a mouthful but it's a long bus ride sometimes. I'm sure half of us wouldn't know our Disney deals if fellow Disney-peeps hadn't told us.

[Shock13]

I think some of these comments are a little harsh. I personally don't watch much TV and when my family/co-workers are talking about something on the news or promotions etc, I'm usually in the dark. Before my first trip to WDW, I did some planning and thankfully found the DIS boards but my sister isn't like that as she just doesn't have the time to sit in front of a computer and start researching. She usually just wings it when she goes on vacation. Not everyone is a die hard Disney fan like most on this site.

[wheezy19]

I was mostly kidding, but seriously, the woman SAW the commercials, deliberately went there on her birthday, and didn't look into it further?

I just don't think the OP was wrong in assuming that she took advantage of the offer, nor should she feel badly for talking about the offer in front of her.

That's all! I'm not going to hunt her down and yell at her for not doing her research!

[disnut8]

Originally Posted by Shock13

I think some of these comments are a little harsh. I personally don't watch much TV and when my family/co-workers are talking about something on the news or promotions etc, I'm usually in the dark. Before my first trip to WDW, I did some planning and thankfully found the DIS boards but my sister isn't like that as she just doesn't have the time to sit in front of a computer and start researching. She usually just wings it when she goes on vacation. Not everyone is a die hard Disney fan like most on this site.

I agree the comments are harsh. We all come on these boards and we all consider ourselves Disney experts. Now, plan a trip to the Washington, DC and see if you can figure out everything there is to know about the best bargains, deals, where to stay, where not to stay, how to travel with the transportation provided (if you can figure out the Metro fare system by reading it on the internet, consider yourself very gifted), and assorted other details. Can you imagine planning a trip to DC and after all your reservations are made, you find out there is a huge demonstration march going on that day? It happens all the time. A person who knows DC would save "why didn't you research that? It was in the papers all over the country"

True story - when I was a kid, my father would plan out our two week vacations fairly well. One time, he decided to make reservations at a campsite in Kentucky. Turns out the weekend we were there, a Starcraft (our brand of camper) convention was going on. The place was packed - wall to wall campers of all shapes and sizes. We had a reserved spot but we had absolutely no idea we would literally be shared space with thousands of other campers.

[TDSAXX]

You don't have to be a diehard fan to know about this promotion. It's been plastered all over TV. Plus the women said she had seen the commercials but didn't understand the promotion. Well then she should have asked a CM about it.

[bluejasmine]

Oh Honey its not your fault ppl dont research things! Honestly it sounds like things Id do! Guarantee those ppl will look out for FD and free bday pass in the future!

[phyllis1966]

Not to add any fuel to this fire, but I fully research any vacation destination before I book it. TripAdvisor has forums for every destination you can imagine - the link pops up when you do a search on a location. The people who frequent those forums have been very helpful, especially when I was planning our trip to Aruba last year. Even if you just read the threads, there's lots of great info. to be had before you go anywhere.

Vacations cost too much money not to do some research. I would never condescend to anyone who didn't, I just don't understand it.

To the OP, I would have felt bad, too, if I were you. You were only trying to be helpful, though.

[freepixie]

Originally Posted by wheezy19

I definitely don't think it's your fault that she didn't understand the promotion.

Personally I can't fathom how someone with a television and two brain cells to rub together could fail to understand the promotion, but what do I know...

Wow! That is harsh!

Originally Posted by kiranic

I find it hard to believe with all the information out there on the internet about Disney like disboards, allears and even the Disney site itself that there are still people out there who aren't very well informed. I still am amazed by all the people who really don't understand the Fast Pass system. I guess that is why it pays to be obsessive/compulsive sometimes!

Believe it or not, there are still MANY people in our country that do not have their own computer let alone the internet. Some, gasp, choose not to have the internet!

[Spikekc1]

The last time I was at WDW, I had read one guidebook and thought I had done my research. While on vacation, we didn't have a good touring plan and didn't realize that we had selected one of the busier travel weeks during the year. On the first day of our trip, I realized I had not done enough planning. Another guest made a similar comment to me about what I "should" have known and told me that it was all over the disboard. That person actually did me a favor. You can bet that this time, I have done the research. . . .at least, I think I have!

You didn't mean any harm and might actually have done that woman a favor. Maybe next time, she'll realize that it would benefit her to do a bit more research.

[letthewookiewin]

Her reaction in no way is your fault and in no way did you ruin her vacation. If her own lack of planning ruined it and she wanted to make a scene about it, that is all her own fault.

Originally Posted by wheezy19

I definitely don't think it's your fault that she didn't understand the promotion.

Personally I can't fathom how someone with a television and two brain cells to rub together could fail to understand the promotion, but what do I know...

Actually I have a television in nearly every room, and I'm farely certain that I have more than two brain cells to rub together. However if it hadn't have been for the fact that I'm an OCD WDW trip planner, I wouldn't have known about it. The biggest problem some people have is they don't realize the amount of playing a WDW trip takes. My family is always suprised at how much I do. It's kind of like, when you've known how to do something for years. Then when you have to teach someone else, you can't understand why they just don't get it like you do. We that frequent Disney message boards sometimes forgot there are many out there that don't. Things to us that seems as common as how to breathe in and out, isn't to them. Even though we own many televisions, I rarely watch them. I got too sick of there being nothing on. If there is a show that I want to watch I watch it online, where I usually don't see any Disney commercials or many commercials at all.

[PIRATEGIRL007]

It is not suprising to me the woman didn't know about the promotion. I am suprised at the number of people that will jump into a rather expensive vacation (at ANY destination) and not do any research. And to the PP that mentioned not having internet, back before we did have internet people actually went and saw travel agents for vaction planning and help. Plus you can also call and ask questions, Disney has thier number on all of thier advertisements.