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

[Freekncreekn]

My 14 year old DD is playing in a large sporting event at EWWS the third week of June. One travel agency (who has been rather underwhelming and unimpressive so far) is handling hotel and ticket reservations for all athletes and their families for this particular event. We have booked 6 nights at CBR through this travel agency and also purchased theme park tickets through said travel agency. This will also be our first visit to Disney since the implementation of FP+. When I called this TA earlier this week to inquire about 30/60 day window for making FP reservations, the person answering the phone said the tickets would not be delivered until 10 days prior to the event and that we could not make FP+ reservations until the tickets arrived. 10 days prior to a mid-June arrival seems to put me at a terrible disadvantage for making FP+ reservations.

For those with extensive experience with FP+ reservations during a busy part of the season, how difficult is it going to be to get FP for popular rides (3 kids ages 14, 11, 9 who like to ride) 10 days before arrival? Any other helpful strategies that anyone else has for making FP in such a short time frame? Any other advice or counsel? Thanks!

 

[fancifull]

You'll likely have a lot of trouble with the more popular things. You can check out what the availability is like through the 30/60 day windows now here:

http://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=835236

You can see FOF is booked through mid-June, Anna & Elsa completely through June, Mine Train through early June. For most of the other less popular things, you just might have trouble getting the "perfect" times but they'll likely be available some time in the day

 

[Freekncreekn]

Thanks so much, Fancifull. That website is a great resource that I had not seen before. Very much appreciated.

 

[jmkjr72]

i would ask the ta why they are waiting till 10 days before the trip to give you your tickets
at that point if they can't get b them to you before the 30 or 60 day window demand a refund and buy them elsewhere

 

[grecorj]

Doesn't sound like this agency is a Disney specialist unfortunately. Something doesn't sound right. Have you tried linking reservation # in MDE?

 

[bumbershoot]

The Sports events make things HARD in terms of MDE and FP+. It's just the nature of the beast, it seems, unfortunately.

 

[Freekncreekn]

Went down that road a few days ago jmkjr72. TA would not issue a refund - but their sporting event reservation policy did clearly state no refunds or exchanges. I then grilled the young guy on the phone why it would take almost 30 days to receive tickets from the time of purchase. His response was that they had to order them from Disney, get them from Disney, and then mail them out, blah, blah, blah. I'll be calling them every few days to help "encourage" them to act faster than this.

grecorj, I did try to link the reservation but no luck. I think this particular TA is the one and only TA for this particular sporting event at EWWS. It sounds like they handle travel plans and reservations for many large, national sporting events - but they did NOT seem to be very knowledgeable about Disney.

 

[grecorj]

That stinks @Freekncreekn

Hope it works out and good luck to your DD in the event!

 

[supersnoop]

i would ask the ta why they are waiting till 10 days before the trip to give you your tickets
at that point if they can't get b them to you before the 30 or 60 day window demand a refund and buy them elsewhere

This is normal for group events. Last I heard was that they wouldn't give you tickets until the day of, or they were not eligible for advanced fp+ at all.

 

[jmkjr72]

Then the next thing I would do is start a calling group. Let everyone who booked know how hard it will be to do things at Disney by not getting the tickets till 10 days befor

The more that call and to complain the.Better the chance for results

 

[DVCcurious]

At this point you're already well into the 60 day window. A&E and 7DMT are most likely gone for your trip anyway.

My advice is to just book what you can whenever you get the tickets then do Rope Drop or stay through close to get some shorter lines for the rides you can't get FP+ for.

 

[mom2rtk]

That's really an unfortunate byproduct of this new system. Sorry, OP. I agree with the above idea to get other members of your group calling so you can light a fire under them.

 

[Grumpy92]

This is why I am very picky about a TA. I have seen too many mess up a Disney vacation because they did not know what they were doing. Cant tell you how many times guest would arrive at FW and think they were staying at WL. They would be really disappointed to find out they were booked into a cabin instead of a hotel room or worse into a campsite and they had no camping equipment. If you are going to do Disney through a TA pick one like Dreams Unlimited or another that specializes in Disney vactions.

 

[Astridia]

We booked through Costco Travel online and it was about $500 less than anyone else. No problems.

 

[cakebaker]

That's really an unfortunate byproduct of this new system. Sorry, OP. I agree with the above idea to get other members of your group calling so you can light a fire under them.

Sounds more like the byproduct of an incompetent travel agent than the system to me.

 

[mom2rtk]

Sounds more like the byproduct of an incompetent travel agent than the system to me.

People could still have full ride access every day (by FP) in spite of an incompetent travel agent until FP+ came along.

OP, I'm sorry you're in this spot. I hope you have some success nudging them along.

 

[cakebaker]

People could still have full ride access every day (by FP) in spite of an incompetent travel agent until FP+ came along.

That's highly debatable but nonetheless, Disney shouldn't have to tailor their systems so that ta's not doing their jobs can get away with it.

I too hope the OP gets things settled. The good news is even 10 days out, availability can be quite good. A&E will be tough, SDMT should have some availability with limited times. But hopefully, you get the TA to move on this and do what they ought to do. Sorry for you problems, I know it can be frustrating.

 

[Betty Rohrer]

from what I have heard sport groups are not handled the same way what I will call normal family vacations. these are group things not treated as single. a lot of times sport groups will not get their tickets until the arrive at Disney. I heard from a friend that even though she was given the ticket number for lack of a better term she was not able to make FP+ because the ticket would not let her until day of visit. these tickets are not the same as the ones you get when making normal ressies so it might not be the TA

 

[mom2rtk]

That's highly debatable ....

I'll pass on the debate, thanks. That wouldn't be helpful to anyone here.

 

[Astridia]

I have a friend who's a Disney TA and she only books large groups: cheerleaders, pop warner type of events. She says receiving theme park tickets 10 days before the trip is typical. It was never an issue before FP+, but now it's become a real problem. She's discussed the issue with Disney on several occassions but nothing has changed.