LINK TO MY TR POSTED 10/30 - I'm Ali & I'm Addicted to Disney Planning - Oct '10 PTR

[Simba22]

Joining in! I love reading about other people's plans. I think I am an addict!

Yay! Thanks for joining us!
I firmly believe that Disney is an addiction! Walt really had no idea what he started!

 

[Simba22]

Completely NOT Disney related but I'm excited about it so I thought I'd share!

We just bought tickets for........

It's coming to Worcester, Mass which is about an hour from where my sister lives! It will be me, Lumar, Mike, my sister Steph, and her boyfriend Rob - the show is December 18!

 

[jenny105]

I've never seen any of the Cirque shows, believe it or not. I think I'm missing out!

 

[Simba22]

I've never seen any of the Cirque shows, believe it or not. I think I'm missing out!

La Nouba is the only one I've seen so far, but we love it so much we made bought the tickets for Dralion even though we really can't afford it! There is another show called "Ovo" that is playing here in CT that we haven't even seen...but we bought tix to the one 2 hours away.... go figure!

 

[jenny105]

La Nouba is the only one I've seen so far, but we love it so much we made bought the tickets for Dralion even though we really can't afford it! There is another show called "Ovo" that is playing here in CT that we haven't even seen...but we bought tix to the one 2 hours away.... go figure!

I know there's a ton of them in Las Vegas. I've been there twice but have never seen any of them. The one that looks awesome to me is O. It's all over water!

 

[Simba22]

I know there's a ton of them in Las Vegas. I've been there twice but have never seen any of them. The one that looks awesome to me is O. It's all over water!

Wow that one sounds really cool! The shows are not cheap but it's worth it to us. We paid $80 each for the tickets for Dralion (plus a $10 "convenience" fee per ticket which I didn't notice before I completed checkout). The next level down was $60 but the seats were all the way to the side of the stage, which none of us wanted. If you're gonna pay $60 for bad seats, you may as well pay $20 more for good ones!

 

[jenny105]

Wow that one sounds really cool! The shows are not cheap but it's worth it to us. We paid $80 each for the tickets for Dralion (plus a $10 "convenience" fee per ticket which I didn't notice before I completed checkout). The next level down was $60 but the seats were all the way to the side of the stage, which none of us wanted. If you're gonna pay $60 for bad seats, you may as well pay $20 more for good ones!

Ugh, I hate convenience charges. Ticketmaster tacks on every possible charge they can. Livenation tends to have 'no fee' months but they usually only sell tickets to concerts.

 

[Nermel9]

I'd love to see a Cirque show someday! I really want to see the one they do in NYC around Christmas, Wintuk I think it's called! Or the Beatles one, Love. I'd like to do La Nouba someday but I can never bring myself to take time away from the parks to see it!

 

[Simba22]

Ugh, I hate convenience charges. Ticketmaster tacks on every possible charge they can. Livenation tends to have 'no fee' months but they usually only sell tickets to concerts.

I'll sign up for the site so I get their emails. You never know!

I'd love to see a Cirque show someday! I really want to see the one they do in NYC around Christmas, Wintuk I think it's called! Or the Beatles one, Love. I'd like to do La Nouba someday but I can never bring myself to take time away from the parks to see it!

Guess you just have to go for more days! That's pretty much what we did! We used to do just one day at each park but we lengthened our trip for a total of 8 park days so that we have time to do more stuff!

 

[Simba22]

45 DAYS!!!​

 

[DisneyFirefly]

Yay!

I'm at 49 days My last payment will be a couple days late, but such is life

I hope we run into each other at the parks!

 

[jenny105]

Both of our faves

Our trips are coming up fast!!!

 

[Simba22]

Yay!

I'm at 49 days My last payment will be a couple days late, but such is life

I hope we run into each other at the parks!

You're last payment will be LATE!?!?!?!!

IS THAT EVEN LEGAL!?! KIDDING!! I always pay mine in full when I book it because I use my income tax money, but I always wondered what would happen if the last payment was not made by the 45 day mark. I guess they don't just go ahead and cancel your ressie, huh?

We should run into each other, at least at the Halloween Party on the 26th! We may or may not have costumes, but we'll be there!

Both of our faves

Our trips are coming up fast!!!

I know!!!! I can't believe it! We were looking at pics of the MK all decorated for fall and it got us so excited!

 

[Simba22]

So I was thinking today about our schedule.....

It occurred to me that on October 27, we will be spending the day at AK and then heading over to AKL for dinner at Jiko.

However....

AK closes at 5pm.

Our ADR at Jiko was scheduled for 7:10.

Notice I said was.

The original plan was to go back to CSR and freshen up before dinner at Jiko. But after asking around here on The DIS, it was determined that Jiko's "dress code" really isn't enforced.

So I figure I will take a change of clothes with me in the backpack (maybe just a different shirt for each of us, and different shoes for me since I normally wear flip flops to the parks), and just change in the restroom when we get to AKL. That way, I'm not too dressed up or too dressed down.

So I changed our ADR from 7:10pm to 5:35pm.

This way, we can leave AK by bus and go directly to AKL. Then after dinner, we can take a bus from AKL to DTD and spend a few hours there. We can then take a bus from there back to CSR. This eliminates the alternate storyline of:

Take bus from AK to CSR
Take bus to a random park
Take bus from random park to AKL for dinner.
Take bus back to a random park
Take bus from random park back to CSR

That would have driven me nuts. So I like this new plan much better.

All I can say, is that I'm glad we did not go on this trip earlier! Look at how much we have changed in the last two weeks alone!


The following is a "This Is Why People Complain About Calling CRO" story but it's related to my Jiko ADR change.

After I was done changing the Jiko ADR, I took a look at some of the other ADRs we've already made. I found that seven of them have the wrong phone number attached.

Now, most of you know that when you make your ADRs online, it makes you login to your account PLUS it asks you for a phone number when you confirm the reservation.

Somehow, all of my original ADRs (the ones that have stayed the same since I booked them on my 180 day mark), have the wrong number. Any of the ones I made recently, have the correct number.

Before I get into this next bit, let me give you some backstory (but I promise, it's related!)

(Flashback)
Back in 2004, my step-father took us all to WDW. He booked it under his name, and obviously, with his phone number. That trip consisted of Step-Dad, Mom, Me, Lumar, Mike, and my sister Stephanie.

Since that trip in 2005, I have been trying to get them to split me and Lumar off onto our own account. They sent me emails about discounts that were meant for my sister (I complained to a CM one night about how it wasn't MY fault that they link the names in the system and that they sent the email to ME and not her, so they let me use the discount!) They have my step-father's phone number listed for us, so all of my confirmation papers and everything have the wrong phone number, and my step-father keeps getting mail about WDW stuff that is meant for me.

For example.... last year, Lumar and I had to make 2 separate reservations in order to take advantage of a discount. One set of Mickey Mail was sent to me. The other set, for the 2nd reservation, was sent to my mom and step-dad's address.

Everytime I call CRO, I ask them to update the phone number (they always claim to have the correct address) and no matter how many times I told them that we moved and we have a new address, phone number, email address, etc, it wasn't changing in the WDW system.

(Present Day)
Today, I decide to call WDW Dining and update the phone number on the seven ADRs that were wrong.

The CM changes the first 5, then tells me that I should talk to someone in resort reservations, because that is the main system and everything else runs off of that. She tells me that the changes she is making might not even stick. I told her that I've been trying for 5 years to get it changed, and it never does. I told her at this point, I was just concerned about my ADRs because if something happens and they need to cancel our ADR, I want them to be able to reach me. The CM says "well it doesn't even matter because we never call you." I said "well the reservation system on the Disney website asks for the phone number for a reason..." She said "well yeah, but in the last year we've only had to call people once because there was an emergency at the restaurant."

Ummm....isn't that THE POINT?? In CASE there is an EMERGENCY??

So I said "well, that is why I wanted to make sure you have the right number attached to my reservations so that they can reach me...."

She replies "all I can advise you is to speak to someone in resort reservations and they can change it in the main system."

I reiterated how I have done that before and it never gets corrected.

Again she says "well all I can advise you is to speak to someone in resort reservations...the dining system runs off of their main system so my changes might not even stick."

At this point, I've already refreshed my reservations page, and I can see the correct phone number in there for the ones she's changed.

So finally, after telling me for the 3rd time that "all she can advise me is to speak to someone in resort reservations...." I tell her fine, transfer me.
Keep in mind, she has only updated 5 of my 7 ADRs that had the wrong number listed.

So I speak to another CM, give her the whole story. She actually sounded like she knew what she was doing and she told me that the system does link accounts by address. I was in the system twice, once under my step-father and mother's address, and once here at our own address. I don't know what she did, but she says that the information is now totally correct and I shouldn't have this problem anymore (I won't hold my breath).

So before we hung up, I asked her if this would update the last two ADRs that show the incorrect phone number. She stutters and stumbles for words then says something about "everything with my name will link to this new information."

When I got off the phone, Lumar told me that he knows I didn't mean to, but I sounded like a B-word. I told him I was upset because the first lady sounded lazy, like she just didn't want to update the rest of my ADRs, and she kept interrupting me. And the 2nd lady was nice but she couldn't answer the question that was the main purpose of my phone call.

So now that I've vented to the only people who TRULY understand me, I feel much better! Thanks, guys!

 

[DisneyFirefly]

You're last payment will be LATE!?!?!?!!

IS THAT EVEN LEGAL!?! KIDDING!! I always pay mine in full when I book it because I use my income tax money, but I always wondered what would happen if the last payment was not made by the 45 day mark. I guess they don't just go ahead and cancel your ressie, huh?

We should run into each other, at least at the Halloween Party on the 26th! We may or may not have costumes, but we'll be there!

It's only going to be three days late, but yeah, it'll still be late. The person I spoke to said that they'll send me an email reminding me on the 45 day mark, and that as long as I have it paid in full by the 30 day mark, they won't cancel it. I would have used my tax return, but I thought I was still going in January I'm going to do that this year, though.

I'm not sure what I'm going to be at the 26th party, but I'll let you know

 

[ILMICKEY]

Hi Ali! I'm listening. How crazy they can't seem to get things linked to you. You have spent enough money there to certainly have your name in their system. GEEZ!!!

I'm glad to see your plans are coming along splendidly (great word)! I'm getting so excited for you. Won't be long now!

 

[Nermel9]

Your new plan for Jiko sounds much better than taking all those buses to get there! That would make me crazy!

And whenever you have to change personal info with Disney, it's a huge pain...when I changed my email address, they were still sending stuff to my old email address for a while. Then after I got married I changed my name and when I changed our reservation to POR and free dining, I also had the CM change my name and she was really annoyed that she had to do it. Sorry I got married! I also have half of my ADR's in my maiden name and half in my married name, and I was told by people on the dining boards that they will not change the name for you on your ADR's, and that I'll be fine if I have my confirmation #! Hope they are right!

 

[Simba22]

Hi Ali! I'm listening. How crazy they can't seem to get things linked to you. You have spent enough money there to certainly have your name in their system. GEEZ!!!

I'm glad to see your plans are coming along splendidly (great word)! I'm getting so excited for you. Won't be long now!

Hey Nikki! How have you been? Miss you!

43 Days! While we're there, I'll post pics to my FB so you can vacation vicariously though me!

Your new plan for Jiko sounds much better than taking all those buses to get there! That would make me crazy!

And whenever you have to change personal info with Disney, it's a huge pain...when I changed my email address, they were still sending stuff to my old email address for a while. Then after I got married I changed my name and when I changed our reservation to POR and free dining, I also had the CM change my name and she was really annoyed that she had to do it. Sorry I got married! I also have half of my ADR's in my maiden name and half in my married name, and I was told by people on the dining boards that they will not change the name for you on your ADR's, and that I'll be fine if I have my confirmation #! Hope they are right!

I like the new plan better as well!

Seriously! I don't know why it's such a big deal! The 2nd girl I talked to, who is the one who actually updated the info, was really nice. But the first girl in Dining just really sounded like I was inconveniencing her. I work in a Call Center...that would have been a failed call!

 

[HeatherBelle614]

How did everything work out with Parsley?? Leaving my babies is always my biggest fear during vacation! This time, they'll be staying with their grandparents, but next summer when we're all going to DLR, I'll be in the same dilemma you're currently in. It's a big deal to trust people with your fur babies!!

I say eat QS or the booths for lunch! That's why we ended up cancelling some of our ADRs - there are so many options that we want to try out and I know that the ADRs will always be there, but we might not be there during F&W for a LONG time!!

I think the new option with less transportation sounds fantastic; I always HATE having to go from one place to another to a few other places to get somewhere. That's my only complaint about WDW transportation!

 

[Simba22]

How did everything work out with Parsley?? Leaving my babies is always my biggest fear during vacation! This time, they'll be staying with their grandparents, but next summer when we're all going to DLR, I'll be in the same dilemma you're currently in. It's a big deal to trust people with your fur babies!!

I say eat QS or the booths for lunch! That's why we ended up cancelling some of our ADRs - there are so many options that we want to try out and I know that the ADRs will always be there, but we might not be there during F&W for a LONG time!!

I think the new option with less transportation sounds fantastic; I always HATE having to go from one place to another to a few other places to get somewhere. That's my only complaint about WDW transportation!

It worked out GREAT! We spent the day over there again today just to make sure they all get used to seeing each other on a regular basis. I'm so glad it worked because I was going to cry if I had to leave her in a kennel. Although, for a few moments, I seriously considered canceling our flights and driving down and checking her into the new Best Friends Resort! She'd be close by and well taken care of!

We decided to keep the ressies as they are for now and if we end up not needing them, we can cancel them when we get there. We decided to change our last day to an Epcot day instead of MK, so we will definitely be snacking at the F & W booths for lunch that day!

That is the reason we have not been back to Boma for breakfast! It was soo good but it's too much of a hassle first thing in the morning. All of the buses are dropping people off at the parks and not even stopping to pick anyone up unless a CM calls it in. Both times, a CM had to call the bus dispatcher and specifically request a bus to pick us up and bring us to AKL. I wish they would set up bus transport just to the resorts....like they set up a stop at every resort and when you get on, you just say what resort you need to go to and they bring you right there. Then you could get back just as easily, too.