A bit miffed....

[Ciorsdah]

After having such a wonderful experience booking our holiday through Virgin Holidays, I have to say that their "Florida Concierge" service is a joke.

I had been given their contact details as I wanted to arrange a couple of things through them (such as car hire, early entry to Harry Potter etc) and I dropped them a short email just asking how I would go about arranging these.

I have already purchased my Disney tickets and also the Universal Studios multip park doodah tickets, which come with early HP entry, booked through VH.

The concierge replies back saying I " must attend the local welcome meeting to receive all tickets, and to arrange a time to use the Harry Potter entry voucher. This voucher must be used within 2 days of arriving in Orlando".

Our welcome meeting will be the Sunday (day after we arrive) meaning we must use the HP voucher on the Monday or loose it.

However if I had "booked via the concierge service, vouchers can be redeemed at anytime during the stay, without the requirement to attend a welcome meeting"

Needless to say VH and the concierge service got a very strongly worded email from me this morning.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. I dont like being forced to a welcome meeting to be told things I already know and guilted into buying trips I dont want. Had I known this from the start I wouldnt have bothered going via VH.

Lesson to me: Research before even enquiring with a company.

Just needed to vent on here, sorry everyone!!

K xx

 

[zippy99]

We had a similar experience with First Choice.

Arrived on Thursday and could not collect our tickets until Saturday at 6pm during our welcome meeting.

We were staying at Pop Century - I was in tears at the desk calling the rep trying to make arrangements. Fortunately Disney have amazing customer service and the CMs on the reception desk gave our whole family complimentary park tickets to last us until our allotted welcome meeting.

Maybe it is worth you cancelling all the tickets and booking them with someone else. I understand your upset and think it is a disgrace! Normally VH issue e-tickets though that can be redeemed at the applicable attraction.

I am sure you can sort it out though

 

[Ciorsdah]

We had a similar experience with First Choice.

Arrived on Thursday and could not collect our tickets until Saturday at 6pm during our welcome meeting.

We were staying at Pop Century - I was in tears at the desk calling the rep trying to make arrangements. Fortunately Disney have amazing customer service and the CMs on the reception desk gave our whole family complimentary park tickets to last us until our allotted welcome meeting.

Maybe it is worth you cancelling all the tickets and booking them with someone else. I understand your upset and think it is a disgrace! Normally VH issue e-tickets though that can be redeemed at the applicable attraction.

I am sure you can sort it out though

What a horrible situation, I hope First Choice were nice to you after that?

I am fizzing at the moment, I know that part of this is my fault for not fully researching the HP stuff, but the VH rep just told me that if i get the Universal Tickets through her, we get early entry into HP. Guess it serves me right for trusting a commission based sales girl...

 

[MarkF0wle]

We had/have a similar situation.

We booked everything through Virgin so we could get the 10% frequent flyer discount applied to tickets & everything. We thought we would get an early entry pass as what was said, but when the holiday rep from Florida phoned she said we had to go to her to pick it up & it had to be used within 2 days.

As we are going for 3 weeks, the Universal tickets are only 2 weeks long so we want them in the middle of our stay. So using them within 2 days of arriving just wasn't possible for us. We just declined, we have been there twice before since it opened so the early entry is no major deal for us. But was annoyed they wanted us to go to a welcome meeting, we explained that as we had been there 13 times before it wasn't needed.

All of our tickets we purchased at the time of the booking came via e-ticket with our travel documents which we can exchange at the parks for our tickets. So we have no need to go to the welcome meeting, but we just don't get the early entry.

 

[ChipnDaleRule]

I don't know what hotel your staying at but if your staying in one of the Universal hotels the early admission to Harry Potter & Spiderman is included. VH won't tell you this though, as I've just asked them

 

[Ciorsdah]

We are staying at POR so no early entry to Universal, however I am toying with the idea of booking 1 night at the Hard Rock Hotel for that reason, you also get the Universal version of FP for the duration of yoru stay as well, which would be amazing.

Still no feedback from my complaint to Virgin....

 

[DCLMan]

Virgin Holidays are a joke full stop. I will never use them again after our holiday in August.

 

[zippy99]

Out of interest - when are you going?

We have been to Universal in October the last two years and never experienced major queues - on our first trip (October after HP opened) we did see queues between midday and 3pm peak at over 60mins - however, come late afternoon it was fine 20 mins. I have never felt the need to have this benefit - fine if it is free but if it is a major headache to get this... is it worth it. In terms of the other attractions never had a wait on anything really.

Also bear in mind - the fast pass/ Xpress pass is not valid on Harry Potter Forbidden Journey.

Mind you, it is probably different with your Disney Tickets as they are given when you checkin - but personally I would cancel the Universal Tickets with VH and order them with a company that delivers real tickets so when you do get to Universal - you can go straight in and not have to queue (we did e-tickets one year - lesson learnt!)

 

[cornish pixie]

We are staying at POR so no early entry to Universal, however I am toying with the idea of booking 1 night at the Hard Rock Hotel for that reason, you also get the Universal version of FP for the duration of yoru stay as well, which would be amazing.

Still no feedback from my complaint to Virgin....

Hi sorry about the above when we have been and are flying with them this August but totally understand where your coming from regarding having to go to their meetings I feel for those poor people that get sucked in as well, anyway what I wanted to say was that we always stay at RPR even if it's only for 1-2 nights as it gives you the front of line early entry etc that itself is worth it to us also they are lovely hotels. By staying club level even for 1 night you can check in early go up grab some breakfast ( even if your rooms not ready ) then go to the parks the club level is open all day and you can get sodas,hot drinks h20 etc then at 5pm it's happy hour where you can get beer and wine and lovely nibbles ie, cheese and crackers nachos with fixings then generally 2 hot dishes, then at 9pm you get desserts and cookies, and you can do this all again the next day even though you are checking out as your card expires at midnight of that day. you will use the club room as you don't waste any time queing. Sorry to waffle but I suppose Im saying go for a night there you wont regret it
cornish pixie
We generally look at booking direct and if you are an AA member you can get that rate ( AAA equivalent )

 

[wayneg]

Virgin Holidays are a joke full stop. I will never use them again after our holiday in August.

Not used them for a few years now due to prices. We have used them a few times over the years with no problem but I basically booked flights and hotel with them, never added anything or contacted them for any reason. They seem OK for a straight forward booking but problems start if you try do anything different.
I prefer to book everything myself, agents just seem to add to the hassle. This year even flight only I have found far easier direct with the airline than thru an agent (ebookers) Delta cancelled our route via NYC so we had to re-plan, I rang Delta direct and all sorted in a few minutes, I booked same flights for relatives vis ebookers, took almost a week and numerous phone calls to sort out.
Good luck to anyone having issues with them.

 

[queendisney]

We are staying at POR so no early entry to Universal, however I am toying with the idea of booking 1 night at the Hard Rock Hotel for that reason, you also get the Universal version of FP for the duration of yoru stay as well, which would be amazing.

Still no feedback from my complaint to Virgin....

Depending when you are going if you get to IOA, as they open the gates, you will be fine in Harry Potter World with the lines etc. We got there early and we was as POR and we managed to do all of HP with no problems.

We have alway had really good service from VH in the past but tend not to buy any tickets from them or go to the welcome meetings. VA on the other hand has been a bit of a pain in the backside on a few occassions. Its certainly better to book each element seperately, its cheaper and you are in control of everything.

 

[Disney-PartyOf5]

Hi, we booked with Virgin for our trip last August and had early entry to WWOHP. We told VH that we wished to take advantage of this offer the morning after we arrived and arranged to collect our vouchers from the rep at the airport. The only way they would let us do that was if we purchased something else from them so we bought a meal voucher for the Hard Rock Cafe at Universal. (lovely meal!). We had no problems with collecting the tickets and took full advantage of the fact that we were all wide awake at the crack of dawn on our first full day. We never attend the welcome meetings.....been too many times! Good Luck!

 

[Ciorsdah]

We are heading over in late September, so I am hoping we should be fine.

I should have booked things myself TBH, I know enough about the place but I guess I got lazy!! But I shall know for next time.

Disney-partyof5 - I wasnt aware that could happen, although being a stubborn mule I would argue that if the concierge service is a Virgin company and everything I have is a Virgin product then I shouldnt have to buy anything else. Also, I dont need any other vouchers or trips so it would be a flase economy. I'm determined to make them see how rediculous this is

I got an email back from my VH rep in Edinburgh who sounded very shocked at this, it seems they were not aware of the concierge's inability to help in anything not booked via them, very apologetic etc. I also got an email from their customer services explaining that this seems to be an "unusual situation" and that they have "Not had any problems with the florida concierge service".

In short, I have decided to cut my looses, cancel the Universal Tickets through VH and purchase my own. I am also going to be treating myself and DBF to a night in the Hard Rock Hotel. Booked seperately and not through VH.

Lesson learned for next time!

 

[flortlebap]

I think you made the right choice. Now you get early entry and FotL access. And a night in what looks like a great hotel!