Is my friend being scammed.... private tour?

[SOCALMouseMommy]

I offer VIP tours at Disneyland and they are totally awesome. I only have five-star reviews. My only rule is you have to be related to me or be my friend. Oh, and I don’t charge anything for my VIP tours.

 

[Disneysince82]

While there is a known isolated incident of somebody selling access to DAS as a tour guide, admission to the program was modified largely due to abuse. Not that the abuse has stopped, as there’s oodles of blogs and websites that coach people how to fake their way into the revised program, without requiring a doctor to sign off. Sad.

I agree this is sad and for me personally I have to be coached to do something -- I am not going to do it nor am I if my doctor is not willing to sign off. And this comes from someone who truly believes you have to advocate for yourself & I 100% understand that there is so many times(especially for women) that medical professionals will overlook things. But I did look at the advised rules and what they were recommending for those they were not approving.... and they are totally acceptable.

 

[Disneysince82]

oh gosh, big hugs, wow you have been through it.

Unfortunately this is the reality. People have this false sense of Disney Bubble, where everyone is just the nicest of people and everyone has the same morals as you. The reality is very different.

The reality is a lot of people have a me me me, sense of entitlement and will find loop holes and ways to bend the rules, basically the Disney version of white collar crimes, sure why does it matter, its only Disney, no one is being killed mentality.


Yes. They use software to get the dining reservations and then sell them on.

Its also how the Disney resellers make their money. When there is a high demand merch release, they are the ones waiting in lines and buying multiples. The personal shoppers you see advertised on social media, yep thats them, using their Annual Pass to go to the park, buy the merch and then sell it online for profit, at a far higher cost than the original in park price.

Theres so many side hustles which are big business, all finding loop holes to make money from the first time out of town, out of state and international Disney fans.

Thanks for letting me know -- because I will 100% NEVER use any of those reservation services. I probably wouldn't of but I wont lie and say I wasn't tempted when I 1st heard about them but something just didn't sit right with me. It just might be 100% be me wanting to have control LOL

Those pics of resellers of merch is just insane.....it is also why I am glad I never got into pins. I know we think Disney could stop them but you never can stop people who are willing to run a hustle. The only way to help curve it is not to purchase it. I didn't realize they were still doing it with Pokeman cards! I like to think it is those resellers selling to other reseller/collector types that are spending $$$$$

 

[Disneysince82]

Just curious...what am I missing? I do not associate Jurassic Park with Knotts. There is Jurassic Park stuff at Universal though.

Wondering too

Oh I worded that worded it oddly! I meant I would be go to Universal and also Knotts Berry. I have really fond memories of Knotts Berry Chicken Dinner Restaurant as a young kid. I need to bring the kids to Universal if anything for the Jurassic Park & to meet Blue -- that she really loves! I just tend to only focus on DL when we go.

 

[MonocularVision]

Thanks for letting me know -- because I will 100% NEVER use any of those reservation services. I probably wouldn't have but I wont lie and say I wasn't tempted when I 1st heard about them but something just didn't sit right with me. It just might be 100% be me wanting to have control LOL

The reservation notification sites that people recommend here are not making the reservations nor are they selling them. They just notify you when they are available and you have to get it from Disney.

There are probably sites out there that are doing this but I don’t believe any of the ones recommended around here are offering to sell them.

 

[Disneysince82]

The reservation notification sites that people recommend here are not making the reservations nor are they selling them. They just notify you when they are available and you have to get it from Disney.

There are probably sites out there that are doing this but I don’t believe any of the ones recommended around here are offering to sell them.

Ok! Thanks for explaining that to me. I didn't even know there was people out there selling actual reservations I am just clearly out of the loop

 

[BrianL]

The reservation notification sites that people recommend here are not making the reservations nor are they selling them. They just notify you when they are available and you have to get it from Disney.

There are probably sites out there that are doing this but I don’t believe any of the ones recommended around here are offering to sell them.

Yeah, I've used those before, but they are just telling you about the availability. It's up to you to jump on it. They are often gone by the time you do - at least when I get the text at like 3 AM. I have had it work for me too.

 

[ParkHopper1]

I offer VIP tours at Disneyland and they are totally awesome. I only have five-star reviews. My only rule is you have to be related to me or be my friend. Oh, and I don’t charge anything for my VIP tours.

I admittedly do the same...but just to be clear, when on one of those amazing tours the VIP is ME!

 

[crystal1313]

Didn’t a bunch of people get banned from WDW for doing something similar?

 

[Disneysince82]

Didn’t a bunch of people get banned from WDW for doing something similar?

I am went to down the rabbit hole & it seems like it was very popular over there -- and is very much still going on. I was able to just change a wording(that most people would use) and a tons of stuff comes up. I think the banning was a with some of the micro influencers doing it and also probably the really popular ones/selling DAS. I also noticed many claim to do 'virtual ones' I think as a way to cover them almost as just itinerary planning but than was you dig more it is clearly a private tour. If you also reach out to them they will disclose its just that.

I've always been a DL person so WDW just isn't for me. I have noticed over the years that WDW does seem to have a lot of almost 3rd party things like this that many are ran by old CM -- there was even a really popular FB group for it. They will do like in room BBB, room service boxes, photo shoots, and even elopement/mini weddings onsite, and a lot of other things -- so I shouldn't of been shocked of this. I have seen several rouge elopements over the years at WDW. Out of all the things on that list I wouldn't try to do is that particular one at WDW because they have a huge wedding dept there. At DL it would be a lot 'easier' and happens. I seen it myself just were it is clearly a couple privately exchange vows over by the Snow Whit themselves(you can self somelize I believe in CA) with just a few others. I saw a blog post a while back of a couple that did it on Storybook Land the CMs knew 100% what was going on and offered to even give made sure their small party got alone on the boat. I think for the most part DL CM if you aren't blatant & going to get them in trouble kinda look the other way. The ones at WDW offsite companies are doing more than that.