Incredibly Frustrated RE July 20th Trip

[happybear025]

Have a reservation checking into BRV on July 20th for three nights, only booked One Day Park Hoppers.

(1) Park Hopping is not available, just spent over an hour on hold to be told that I cannot use the cost of my now defunkt Park Hopping feature to upgrade to Two Day Base, as all new ticket sales are paused.

(2) Cannot make any dining reservations

(3) No information on what fastpasses/lines will look like so can't really plan

(4) Watching all dining reservations and park availability slowly dissappear from the system

(5) Very frustrated and hurt by Disney not even attempting to keep me informed of basic courtesy. I can't even get a straight answer about WHEN I should expect to be able to do anything. I'm fine with waiting, but there is just no information. I finally was given access to a Chat Window for help on My Disney Experience and I swear they are looping me to a new CM with each question. I'm being given contradictory information, told I AM allowed to make Dining Reservations and its my browser's fault. When I ask a clarifying question, such as, please explain how the Dining Tiers are decided and the dates they are available to different groups the response was "Hello! I will be here to assist you with your Disney Vacation soon!" then told I have been eligible since June 30th, yet MDE keeps giving me an error that I need to have had a dining reservation CANCELLED on me this year to be eligible. GR!!


(6) I know this is a difficult time and I am trying to approach everything with patience and a good attitude, but I'm starting to wonder how big of a fool I am rushing to give this company my money when their reopening plan seems to just be chaos and disinformation.



Just venting and curious if anyone is in a similar situation or has any insight.

 

[zoo2tycoon]

Have a reservation checking into BRV on July 20th for three nights, only booked One Day Park Hoppers.

(1) Park Hopping is not available, just spent over an hour on hold to be told that I cannot use the cost of my now defunkt Park Hopping feature to upgrade to Two Day Base, as all new ticket sales are paused.

(2) Cannot make any dining reservations

(3) No information on what fastpasses/lines will look like so can't really plan

(4) Watching all dining reservations and park availability slowly dissappear from the system

(5) Very frustrated and hurt by Disney not even attempting to keep me informed of basic courtesy. I can't even get a straight answer about WHEN I should expect to be able to do anything. I'm fine with waiting, but there is just no information. I finally was given access to a Chat Window for help on My Disney Experience and I swear they are looping me to a new CM with each question. I'm being given contradictory information, told I AM allowed to make Dining Reservations and its my browser's fault. When I ask a clarifying question, such as, please explain how the Dining Tiers are decided and the dates they are available to different groups the response was "Hello! I will be here to assist you with your Disney Vacation soon!" then told I have been eligible since June 30th, yet MDE keeps giving me an error that I need to have had a dining reservation CANCELLED on me this year to be eligible. GR!!


(6) I know this is a difficult time and I am trying to approach everything with patience and a good attitude, but I'm starting to wonder how big of a fool I am rushing to give this company my money when their reopening plan seems to just be chaos and disinformation.



Just venting and curious if anyone is in a similar situation or has any insight.

Did you just start to plan this trip? It has been stated since Disney announced park opening that there was no park hopping, limited hours, no fastpasses, etc.

From reading dining reservations started last week.

CMs honestly get conflicting information as this is totally new even to Disney. With situation in Florida so bad now it’s probably changing constantly still!

Think people going in first few weeks need to be patient and understanding as nobody knows what the changes are.

Hopefully things will get better in your planning!

 

[happybear025]

Did you just start to plan this trip? It has been stated since Disney announced park opening that there was no park hopping, limited hours, no fastpasses, etc.

From reading dining reservations started last week.

CMs honestly get conflicting information as this is totally new even to Disney. With situation in Florida so bad now it’s probably changing constantly still!

Think people going in first few weeks need to be patient and understanding as nobody knows what the changes are.

Hopefully things will get better in your planning!

Yes thank you for your reply!!

I did know about the fastpasses, but I had hoped that we would know if they are planning to employ Virtual Queues for certain rides or even what capacity is would be helpful.

I totally agree with you about patience and being realistic - I know choosing to go at this time is choosing to compromise on a lot of things.

I just thought at this point they would be more forthcoming. And it’s also weird as hell to be doing Disney with literally no plan whatsoever

 

[kimmar067]

....OP, I certainly feel your pain. My DS [who is DVC] and his GF had made plans back in January, for arrival date of May 7. Since March, he has pushed his arrival date back 4 times, to July 20 also. However, unlike you, he has had NO LUCK WHATSOEVER in getting passes OR park reservations. Here's where his story is a bit different than yours:
My youngest DS is a CM at Disney Springs. Originally, he was going to use his maingating privileges to get my other DS and GF into the parks. Because of this circumstance, my DS neglected to purchase tickets. SHAME ON WDW for not advising my CM DS that maingating is now on hold until further notice. If that weren't bad enough, now he's going to have to shell out close to $800 that he wasn't anticipating, but they went OFF SALE the day my DS [in Florida] was notified that maingating was no longer an option. In addition, the "paper" tickets that he already had banked and earned from work, would not be available to him either. So, now my DS and his GF are going to WDW and they cannot even visit one single park!

 

[JM23457]

Have a reservation checking into BRV on July 20th for three nights, only booked One Day Park Hoppers.

(1) Park Hopping is not available, just spent over an hour on hold to be told that I cannot use the cost of my now defunkt Park Hopping feature to upgrade to Two Day Base, as all new ticket sales are paused.

(2) Cannot make any dining reservations

(3) No information on what fastpasses/lines will look like so can't really plan

(4) Watching all dining reservations and park availability slowly dissappear from the system

(5) Very frustrated and hurt by Disney not even attempting to keep me informed of basic courtesy. I can't even get a straight answer about WHEN I should expect to be able to do anything. I'm fine with waiting, but there is just no information. I finally was given access to a Chat Window for help on My Disney Experience and I swear they are looping me to a new CM with each question. I'm being given contradictory information, told I AM allowed to make Dining Reservations and its my browser's fault. When I ask a clarifying question, such as, please explain how the Dining Tiers are decided and the dates they are available to different groups the response was "Hello! I will be here to assist you with your Disney Vacation soon!" then told I have been eligible since June 30th, yet MDE keeps giving me an error that I need to have had a dining reservation CANCELLED on me this year to be eligible. GR!!


(6) I know this is a difficult time and I am trying to approach everything with patience and a good attitude, but I'm starting to wonder how big of a fool I am rushing to give this company my money when their reopening plan seems to just be chaos and disinformation.



Just venting and curious if anyone is in a similar situation or has any insight.

You should call and talk to someone on the phone. Forget about using chat. As you've seen, it's inadequate for your questions. If you get a busy signal or lines are busy message, just continually keep calling until you get put on hold. That typically only takes a few minutes.

Just keep in mind that they won't know park capacity. That's not a question Disney shares info on-none of their CMs will know. There will be no FPs or virtual queues at all. It will be an old-fashioned arrive & stand in line process for all rides. Check blogs & online reviews upon reopening (they will begin coming out immediately) to get an idea of what lines will be like. CMs, and no one else, really, have any way of knowing what lines & touring will really be like until reopening.

Since they suggested you might have an issue with your browser that's keeping you from making dining reservations, I strongly suggest that you call Disney IT first. I don't have the number offhand but you can easily find it by checking their website or doing a Google search. They are very helpful in my experience.

And btw we leave for our trip in 2 days, and I have had to call Disnry IT & regular Disney for various issues multiple times. Calling does help.

 

[happybear025]

You should call and talk to someone on the phone. Forget about using chat. As you've seen, it's inadequate for your questions. If you get a busy signal or lines are busy message, just continually keep calling until you get put on hold. That typically only takes a few minutes.

Just keep in mind that they won't know park capacity. That's not a question Disney shares info on-none of their CMs will know. There will be no FPs or virtual queues at all. It will be an old-fashioned arrive & stand in line process for all rides. Check blogs & online reviews upon reopening (they will begin coming out immediately) to get an idea of what lines will be like. CMs, and no one else, really, have any way of knowing what lines & touring will really be like until reopening.

Since they suggested you might have an issue with your browser that's keeping you from making dining reservations, I strongly suggest that you call Disney IT first. I don't have the number offhand but you can easily find it by checking their website or doing a Google search. They are very helpful in my experience.

And btw we leave for our trip in 2 days, and I have had to call Disnry IT & regular Disney for various issues multiple times. Calling does help.

Thank you for your reply!! Any recommendations for blogs to check where people will be posting updates? Like here at the DIS for example, would that likely be under Trip Reports?


Thanks again for your insight, I'm going to carve out some time to get on the horn.

I appreciate the reminder not to expect something from the CMs they are not able to give. As a general rule, I never want to be someone taking my frustration out unfairly or blaming CMs for something outside of their control! I know they are working their butts off and everyone here is really trying

 

[happybear025]

....OP, I certainly feel your pain. My DS [who is DVC] and his GF had made plans back in January, for arrival date of May 7. Since March, he has pushed his arrival date back 4 times, to July 20 also. However, unlike you, he has had NO LUCK WHATSOEVER in getting passes OR park reservations. Here's where his story is a bit different than yours:
My youngest DS is a CM at Disney Springs. Originally, he was going to use his maingating privileges to get my other DS and GF into the parks. Because of this circumstance, my DS neglected to purchase tickets. SHAME ON WDW for not advising my CM DS that maingating is now on hold until further notice. If that weren't bad enough, now he's going to have to shell out close to $800 that he wasn't anticipating, but they went OFF SALE the day my DS [in Florida] was notified that maingating was no longer an option. In addition, the "paper" tickets that he already had banked and earned from work, would not be available to him either. So, now my DS and his GF are going to WDW and they cannot even visit one single park!

Yes!!! It's very hard and the information has been sporadic for everyone involved! I would think with them waiting a month after Universal, there would be a more comprehensible schedule for things like Dining, ticket sales, etc.

 

[kimmar067]

Yes!!! It's very hard and the information has been sporadic for everyone involved! I would think with them waiting a month after Universal, there would be a more comprehensible schedule for things like Dining, ticket sales, etc.

.....frankly, I'm really shocked about how WDW does NOT appear to have their s**t together. Conversely, US/IoA has had very minor hiccups and it's been pretty much smooth sailing [in the bigger scheme of things] for them....