Advice, please. TA says we won't get FP until 10 days before arrival.

[momof2n2]

I love People Mover. But it's never a crowd-drawing attraction.
Til now?

 

[Freekncreekn]

OP - this seriously stinks. I would be fuming.

I 100% agree, and I'm impressed with how calm the OP's post is because I would be going bananas if it were me.

Well, initially I was more sick to my stomach than fuming. I try to keep things in perspective - and in the grand scheme of life, this isn't worth getting too upset about to me. That doesn't mean that I won't try to move things along a little faster, and it doesn't mean that I won't have an alternate strategy in place - but ultimately we'll have a fun time in WDW either way.

I thought the OP said she was underwhelmed and unimpressed.

Yes, to be clear - I haven't called the travel agency incompetent (at least not yet - hopefully they will prove to be competent and helpful in the end). My initial comment was that I was unimpressed and underwhelmed with their reservation process. As some of you stated, I think it is the difference between me dealing one-on-one with a travel agent who is working with me alone on a Disney vacation and a large travel agency who is handling the reservations for thousands of teenage girls and their families for a sporting event. I knew from the beginning that the level of service would likely be compromised.

I have a friend who went to Disney for her daughter's cheerleading group and I remember her telling someone that they specifically did not book through the group so that they wouldn't have to deal with stuff like this. They booked on their own.

I debated handling the reservation on my own, but ultimately, the discounts offered through the sporting event are really designed to funnel the participant through the event TA. As an example, I purchased six (family of 5 plus one grandmother) 7-day PH/WP+ tickets for about $400 less than I would have spent if I had purchased through UT or other authorized re-sellers. If I had known at the time of purchase that they would not arrive until 10 days prior to arrival, I probably would have gone ahead and ordered them on my own and just spent the extra money to ensure that we were able to maximize FP+ reservations. But, it's done now and we'll make the best of it.

This will be a learning trip for us as we haven't been to WDW since FP+ was implemented. I'm sure I'll have an opinion on its merits (or possibly lack of) when we return. Thanks again for the lively discussion and for the valuable advice and input.

And BTW, I'm the dad.

 

[Freekncreekn]

to OP how soon will you or do you already know times your child is competing? if not how do you plan to make FP+ ressies?

We don't know exact times that she is competing since that will change depending on whether they win/lose - which does make it even more difficult to make FP+ reservations, especially for her. But we know the days she competes and we have extended our trip several days before the competition and several days after the competition to allow her to spend some full days in the park. And even on the days of competition we know the general time windows where she will be competing and were hoping to plan around those (typically more late afternoon and evening FP reservations).

 

[kittyninja]

We don't know exact times that she is competing since that will change depending on whether they win/lose - which does make it even more difficult to make FP+ reservations, especially for her. But we know the days she competes and we have extended our trip several days before the competition and several days after the competition to allow her to spend some full days in the park. And even on the days of competition we know the general time windows where she will be competing and were hoping to plan around those (typically more late afternoon and evening FP reservations).

With later afternoon and evening it really should be a non-issue. Things already calm down around that time and even stand-by waits shouldn't be too bad!! Hope it all works out and keep with your awesome positive dad-ittude!! Also, good luck to your daughter!!

 

[Angel Ariel]

You know, I've never done either of those attractions. I guess I'm not missing much?

DH got an amazing picture of the castle from the people mover on our 2007 trip. It was he golden hour (of light) near sunset - absolutely gorgeous! Sadly taken with a not great camera, so no potential for enlarging it. We ride people mover every trip now trying to catch that same shot - still haven't gotten it!

 

[ArwenMarie]

You know, I've never done either of those attractions. I guess I'm not missing much?

You've never done CoP? You must! A classic

OP sorry to hear all of this, hope it all works out and you have a great trip

 

[TinkPirateMom]

I think that's the way it is with these big groups. My daughter is going on her senior class trip to WDW on June 7th and we have not received the tickets yet even though we paid in full in September and the group was paid in full in January. They're apparently not getting MB's either even though they're staying on-site.

 

[subtchr]

They're apparently not getting MB's either even though they're staying on-site.

The good news is that I believe she will get a magic band, to use as her room key. The BAD news is that it cannot be connected to MDE, so it can't be used as her park ticket/FP+ access media.

I am a group tour director, working mostly with bands and choirs. I have taken three groups to WDW this spring, with 2 of them staying on site. As of now, for large groups, they are given gray MBs on arrival to use as room keys. According to the group folks at WDW, they are working on the system to allow them to also use the MBs as links to their individual MDE accounts, but so far that is not possible.

Having said that, my company ensures that all our groups receive their ticket numbers 30 days in advance. We have an interactive website for trip payments and other group details, and our travelers can pull up their individual accounts to retrieve the ticket number to link to their MDE. Then upon arrival, we distribute the RFID park passes for them to use at the gates and for FP+.

So a TA who is familiar with Disney CAN get you the number in a timely manner.

 

[Colleen27]

I can't imagine why Disney wouldn't handle all groups the same way. One of the marching bands in our district went this year. They got their ticket numbers far enough in advance to make FP+ reservations. A business class went as well. Same thing. We're going for a Girl Scout event that is handled through the Youth Education Series program. We got ours in time too. But I've heard complaints about not being able to get ticket numbers in advance from two sports parents. Maybe it has to do with the shorter booking window associated with teams needing to qualify for a particular event, as opposed to planning well in advance like non-competitive groups do?

 

[subtchr]

I can't imagine why Disney wouldn't handle all groups the same way.

It's not "Disney" who is handling groups in different ways, it is the travel agents that the groups use. Some are more aware than others about the FP+ booking guidelines. Or, I should say, whether they are aware of them or not, some ensure their clients have the information in time to meet the FP+ booking windows, and others don't.

My company, and I know others, understand how important this is to our clients, so we obtain the tickets early enough to provide the numbers to our clients. We can't do ANYTHING about the MB/ticket disconnect for our onsite groups - THAT is Disney's current limitation within their system.

Having said that, there are times that the group might not provide the information they need to book everything to the agent in a timely manner. And that may be the issue with some sports teams, as you mention. The agent can't buy tickets for everyone if they don't know how many tickets to buy!

 

[cakebaker]

Thanks subtchr for your perspective. Good to know that with the right TA it can be done!

 

[itchin2go]

It's not "Disney" who is handling groups in different ways, it is the travel agents that the groups use. Some are more aware than others about the FP+ booking guidelines. Or, I should say, whether they are aware of them or not, some ensure their clients have the information in time to meet the FP+ booking windows, and others don't.

My company, and I know others, understand how important this is to our clients, so we obtain the tickets early enough to provide the numbers to our clients. We can't do ANYTHING about the MB/ticket disconnect for our onsite groups - THAT is Disney's current limitation within their system.

Having said that, there are times that the group might not provide the information they need to book everything to the agent in a timely manner. And that may be the issue with some sports teams, as you mention. The agent can't buy tickets for everyone if they don't know how many tickets to buy!

Thanks subtchr for your perspective. Good to know that with the right TA it can be done!

I think she provided a big qualifier in her response (see bolded).

This may be a situation where there's a less than competent or less than caring travel agent. There are other possibilities (and plenty who have offered them in this thread), but let's just examine this one for a minute.

How does that help OP? If I've read this correctly, she didn't have any say over which travel agent the group used. I don't know how many of these group trips you've participated in, but trust me. You have little say, and you have to work within the parameters you're given to a large extent.

OP is at the mercy of the TA and the current FP system for the most part.

I (like you, I think) expect there to be pretty good availability for most things even at 10 days out (with the exception of parades/fireworks, A&E and SDMT). There may not be perfect times, or availability for large groups. OP may need to look for overlapping times - which is something even I had to do for a party of 3, with a larger booking window! (This is one example of where learning the ins and outs of this relatively new system can help.)

I also think prevailing upon the TA to move as soon as is humanly possible is a good strategy.

But choosing a different TA isn't possible now, and I'm not actually sure it ever was, given the nature of these group trips.