GAD FP for groups over 6 - report back thread

[Marshay]

When you hand in the additional tickets, are the tickets scanned or anything? Or are they just 'eyeballed' to see if they have multiple days on them. Must those tickets be used that day?

The reason I ask is one member of our party is joining us just for this day. He has a multi-day pass he wants to use for a future trip since he didn't purchase the Non-Expiration option. So he wants to show that ticket in order to get the GAD FP but plans to use a one day ticket he got as a promotion previously to enter MK.

Is this even going to be possible?

I'm thinking that having a Grand Gathering isn't all it's cracked up to be now

Thanks for any thoughts!

 

[jjmm]

Each ticket is definatley scanned on the side swipe thingy of the computer the CM is using. I don't know how this will affect your friend using this ticket in the future. Maybe it's swiped to just confirm it is a multiday ticket but there could be a chane that it is electronically coded to be used that day also. Sorry, not sure.

 

[Marshay]

Each ticket is definatley scanned on the side swipe thingy of the computer the CM is using. I don't know how this will affect your friend using this ticket in the future. Maybe it's swiped to just confirm it is a multiday ticket but there could be a chane that it is electronically coded to be used that day also. Sorry, not sure.

OK, thanks for letting me know that it does get swiped. I guess we'll just ask the CM to be sure. He definitely doesn't want to use the ticket in July since his next trip isn't until the fall.

 

[englishrose47]

Okay what is a GAD ?? I will be going with a group of Developmentally disbled in October and as there will be 10 of us we have enuff people but how do you get these? Thanks in advance

 

[get_us_to_WDW]

We redeemed one GAD voucher at Magic Kingdom. From the moment we approached the window I got a very bad vibe from the CM...he seemed annoyed that we were there before we even spoke. There were 8 of us there so we handed all 8 of our passes to the CM. Based on these boards we felt pretty confident we would be given 8 FP exchange cards...but that was not to be. The CM informed us that the limit was six. My husband asked (very nicely) if there was any way he could make an exception and was told flatly no.

 

[Marshay]

We redeemed one GAD voucher at Magic Kingdom. From the moment we approached the window I got a very bad vibe from the CM...he seemed annoyed that we were there before we even spoke. There were 8 of us there so we handed all 8 of our passes to the CM. Based on these boards we felt pretty confident we would be given 8 FP exchange cards...but that was not to be. The CM informed us that the limit was six. My husband asked (very nicely) if there was any way he could make an exception and was told flatly no.

This just seems to be a recurring story -- either grumpy and given the passs or grumpy and not given them. I wonder why MK CM aren't feeling magical when the other 3 parks 'don't blink an eye' about it. It seems like it is the CMs personally ... makes me wonder how well the manager is doing there...I'd wager a guess that he/she is just one of those 'dot your eyes, cross your t's" type of people who has forgotten about the magic...

 

[Kailua's Belle]

We redeemed one GAD voucher at Magic Kingdom. From the moment we approached the window I got a very bad vibe from the CM...he seemed annoyed that we were there before we even spoke. There were 8 of us there so we handed all 8 of our passes to the CM. Based on these boards we felt pretty confident we would be given 8 FP exchange cards...but that was not to be. The CM informed us that the limit was six. My husband asked (very nicely) if there was any way he could make an exception and was told flatly no.

I'm very sorry to hear that you weren't able to get enough for your group. I hope you were able to make it work. It's a bummer that the CM's at Magic Kingdom are like that. I actually honestly wouldn't have thought I would get extras originally, but then based on reading people's experiences here and then my first day at DHS was such a breeze, I though everyone else was going to be glad to spread the magic to large groups. It's a real challenge touring with that many people, so I greatly appreciated the help. I felt kind of bad, though, at MK when the lead was so rude to the CM right in front of me. I agree with a previous poster that said I think that's probably where it's coming from.

 

[SignMeUp]

We exchanged our vouchers during Memorial Day week. On June 1st we had one voucher for our party of 12 at Epcot and the CM was very nice, said it wouldn't be a problem at all to get everyone a GAD FP card. I had everyone's KTTW cards in hand, but she did ask if everyone was physically there and sorta did an eyeball count.

We only had 3 vouchers and used the other 2 at DHS and MK when there were only 4 in our party, so obviously no problems there. I was concerned that they wouldn't let us get 12 FP card with one voucher, but thankfully it was not a problem at Epcot... this was at the International Gateway entrance right at park opening.

 

[englishrose47]

Pleeeeeese tell me what GAD is and how I can get it ?????

 

[Poohlovr]

These are vouchers from the "Give A Day, Get A Day" promotion that Disney had earlier this year.

You did a day of volunteer work with an agency approved by Disney and in exchange were given the vouchers which could be exchanged for fast passes, one day admission to the park or a collectible.

It ended in, I believe March or April, after 1,000,000 people h ad signed up to volunteer.

 

[englishrose47]

These are vouchers from the "Give A Day, Get A Day" promotion that Disney had earlier this year.

You did a day of volunteer work with an agency approved by Disney and in exchange were given the vouchers which could be exchanged for fast passes, one day admission to the park or a collectible.

It ended in, I believe March or April, after 1,000,000 people h ad signed up to volunteer.

Thank you !! I guess it wont apply to us even though I am volunteerin for the trip!!

 

[Momtomouselover]

We were just at Disney World for 7 days and had 11 people and 8 of us had vouchers (other 3 were under 6 so couldn't volunteer). On any given day we had from 5-11 people and were never given any problems. We only had 11 twice with once at AK and once at Epcot. We did have 9 at MK one day and 8 on another and were able to get FP for all.

For those of you who were denied where did you try to obtain your passes? We went inside the MK and then to guest services. Everyone we encountered were very nice about our passes. Only one time did we have a slight issue and that is that a couple of us (3) had uses GAD FP at DHS earlier in the day so the adults could go ride big rides while the little ones slept, anyways we found out that you aren't supposed to be able to use GAD vouchers at two different parks in one day. Who knew?? Anyways...he did give us little yellow paper passes good for the 3 adults since we were clueless about this rule. Definitely pixie dust that day! GAD FP for 5 AND yellow passes for the other 3. Thank goodness since the kids are so young we like to ride with them.

The passes were wonderful for us. I definitely recommend using them for FP if you are there on a busy day.

 

[yeslek]

So you can't use more than one voucher on a single day? I'm just asking because we're only visiting more than one park on one day (a MNSSHP). And I don't mean having left over "credits", I mean having a completely different voucher.

 

[BluEyezNSC]

So you can't use more than one voucher on a single day? I'm just asking because we're only visiting more than one park on one day (a MNSSHP). And I don't mean having left over "credits", I mean having a completely different voucher.

We were unable to use a second voucher on the same day: we had used one for our whole group in the morning @ Epcot but they wouldn't let us use a different one when we arrived at Magic Kingdom late that afternoon. From the explanation we received, it sounded as if we had not used our son's park ticket to get the FP card earlier that day on someone else's voucher, we may have been able to use it with his voucher to get FP cards for everyone later that day. YMMV

 

[doconeill]

FYI, others have reported that they were able to redeem two GAD vouchers for FPs i the same say (both at the same park and different parks), but it does require a supervisor override. They may be getting more strict about it, or you just got a CM who figured it wasn't allowed because the computer wouldn't let him do it.

 

[Esteri]

We are a party of 12 with 4 GAD vouchers between us. We were able to get 12 GAD FP (what a god send!) with just one voucher at each of the parks. Here's our experience...

Wed 23 Jun: EPCOT: We were initially told that he could only give us 6. (Which was fine - we weren't going to fight it.) But we'd messed up and neglected to tell him right off that we wanted the fastpasses. So, he'd issued a 1-day park pass for DS13. He had to call in his supervisor to undo our mistake. And the supervisor told him to give us 12 and keyed in the override. We were most thankful (use their names!) and apologetic for being such trouble. And happily used our 12 passes during the day.

Thu 24 Jun: AK: The CM automatically issued us 12 passes, and turned to her supervisor, who was in the booth, for the override. Again - thanked everyone by name - CM & Supervisor.

Sat 26 Jun: DHS: The CM automatically issued us 12 passes, and turned to his supervisor, who was (again) in the booth, for the override. Thanks all around by name.

Wed 30 Jun: MK: Based on what I read here we entered the park and went to Guest Relations in City Hall. I'd saved our youngest (and cutest) GAD holder for this one since I'd heard it was harder to get. (Who wants to say "no" to an 8yo?) 12 passes were automatically issued. The supervisor was handy - standing nearby - and thinks were issued to everyone by name.

The key appears to be how easy it is for the CM to get a supervisor override. If the supervisor is someplace else and had to be called in (and it there's a line behind you) then I'd say you're less likely to get the override.

Overall, the GAD FP were a god send. And, interestingly we never used all six of our options. Well, maybe the teenagers did, but those traveling with younger kids didn't. We were also in parks on least crowded days - so even though we had the option, using it wasn't always necessary.

A couple of alerts:

MK: Splash Mtn is a Donald choice, even though it wasn't listed on our sheet.

DHS: Even though it's listed on the sheet, there doesn't appear to be a way to get a FP for Lights, Motors, Action! show. They had all the FP machines covered. There wasn't a special one for GAD like other places.
.

 

[Marshay]

Thanks for the updates! We leave next week and plan to use the FP option for 9 of us.

So at MK, I may try to just go to guest services in the park like you did. It sounds like I may get better customer service there.