Disney' Magical Gatherings

[akline]

Has anyone else experienced great difficulty booking the Magical Grand Gathering events for groups of eight or more? Cast members don't seem to know the software, and I've spend hours (literally) on hold while they ask for help. Dates have been wrong, and they even forgot to book one family for an event, and it filled up .. and now they can't go. I am really nervous about our trip next month, out of fear that things weren't booked right .. and we'll just be running around in circles and very disappointed. Anyone had a good experience .. I'm wondering if it's just me.

 

[Mike]

I was very disappointed in my experience with these folks. They don't seem to have a clue. The first time I called, the CM mapped out very specifically the steps I needed to take. I wrote them down and then reviewed them with her to make sure I understood them correctly. When I then tried to follow through, I was told that I could not book the events as I was instructed. I was then told that my TA could book for everyone (even though I was the only one that booked thorugh this TA). On the 90 day mark I was informed by my TA that the wouldn't allow her to book for everyone. So the scramble was on to get a person from each group to call.
The whole experience was extremely painful - from getting a GG# to booking the event. There are a lot of bugs to be worked out of that system which I can forgive. However, different CMs from the same small GG office giving conflicting information is inexcusable. Develop a process, train your employees, and execute. How hard can it be??? It is almost comical.

 

[kathylovesdisneyworl]

We also found that the staff for a magic gatherings seemed lacking the information they need. It was very frustrating to deal with them most of the time. I had a few occasions when I got a very good CM but for the most part they are either not trained correctly or it is the system they have to use.

 

[Mickey Moose]

Click here for a link to an earlier thread re: a similar debacle I had with GG. It was worth it in the end because the magical fireworks voyage was very special. I was worried right up until the time that we checked in at the Contemporary marina that something would go wrong, because of all the earlier problems. The only problem the evening of the voyage was the desert reception was delayed because the treats were late arriving. Everything worked out in the end.

Click Here to see some pics from our voyage with Peter Pan, Captain Hook and Mr. Smee!

Mickey Moose

 

[mommystieg]

Although the process was kinda slow I did not experience any real problems booking our Grand Gathering or the fireworks voyage. The CM did seem to have a little trouble manuevering around the software but was very polite.
Mike--I don't know if this applies to your situation but on our first trip to Disney we booked through a TA. When we tried to call and make a room request we were told that since the reservation didn't "belong" to us we had to handle all of our requests through our TA. Maybe that confused the GG CMs....

 

[Mike]

Originally posted by mommystieg

Mike--I don't know if this applies to your situation but on our first trip to Disney we booked through a TA. When we tried to call and make a room request we were told that since the reservation didn't "belong" to us we had to handle all of our requests through our TA. Maybe that confused the GG CMs....

Yes, that was certainly the root of one of our problems. But I knew this may be an issue beforehand and called about it. It was made very clear to the CM that my reservation was the only one associated with the TA. The CM said that wouldn't be a problem. Even the TA called to make sure. But on the day we were supposed to reserve, the TA was told that she could not do this. This was just one of several issues and for each one we were quoted different rules/policies and told what we needed to do only to find out that it was wrong. I understand that it is a WDW tradition for CMs to give out conflicting info, but my understanding from talking to one of the GG CMs is that the GG office is small and there are only a handful of CMs working there. Of course .... who knows if even that is accurate The CMs couldn't even get it straight what night the GG events were on. Two different calls on one day gave very different answers to that question as well. I had to call back a third time for "the tiebreaker". It is really quite pathetic that a business is run in this fashion. I am keeping my fingers crossed that nothing goes wrong with our Magical Fireworks Voyage. I called to confirm that everyone was booked but you never know .....

 

[mommystieg]

Originally posted by Mike
I understand that it is a WDW tradition for CMs to give out conflicting info

We only booked one GG event and DH did call to check on it since one of the names was not on the confirmation--seems that the computer software did not have enough room for all of the names You would have thought that they would have worked out all the bugs before they rolled the Grand Gatherings stuff out. I hope everything works out for ya'll. Note to self: Triple verify ressies for fireworks voyage