bridgemanva
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Apr 2, 2003
- Messages
- 254
I've had many snafus in planning our Magical Gathering thought I'd share the info to hopefully help someone else avoid the complications I've experienced. If you're using points for accomodations DVC MS must initiate the Magical Gathering number -this took 6 business days for me to get notification of the number. Hoping to use the 180 day ADR/PS reservation window I was only able to get the schedule for Magical Gathering Experiences a week before the 180 day window opened -- this made for some frantic emails among our families. For planning purposes we had projected out the schedule based on the pattern of previous months -- that turned out to be totally wrong.
When I spoke with the MG-CM to verify the schedule the week before the 180 day reservation window she had difficulty finding our MG and info - we reviewed and updated each individual's info on the ressies and contact info for each ressie- to have it set up so when I called at the 180 mark it would be good to go. So armed with my MG number and new plans on the spreadsheet I called to make ADR/PS arrangements at 7am this morning. But - this turned out to be not the case we had to go through the reservation info all over again and each had to be done individually.
Then we moved on to the actual event reservations 1st the Wishes Fireworks Cruise which we'll pay for as it's not a meal so don't want to use TS credit and tell her I'll pay these now rather than wait and chance their cancellation 45 days out. Each room requires it's own reservation number; so had to do each for each event. The CM moves on and books the Safari and International Dinner. The computers were ungodly slow once the dinners are finally booked the CM gives totals for the meals; my reply is they're 2 TS's and we plan to use the meal plan. Well, had to cancel those and start again b/c there's a different code she'd needed to enter back at the start of the reservation. So we go back a few steps again and rebook the dining reservations -- as we're reviewing the reservations I get hear an "UhOh" then "we need to call DVC to confirm you're on the dining plan" -- can't secure the reservations til then. It's 8:15am I tell her MS doesn't open til 9 unless they have another way of contacting them -- I was a bit frustrated and suggested I'd guarantee the reservations with a creditcard pending their confirmation from DVC -- couldn't do that; expressed my frustration that I'm on the phone at 7am at the 180 day window to ensure we are able to secure the reservations we want that my experience with Grand Gathering/Magical Gatherings has been less than magical I find it very cumbersome and if not wanting for these specific activities I'd not utilize it --I gave up on it in the past as they'd not really provided any benefit for us. Finally she said she'll put the reservations through as I've been on the phone soo long I gave her my cell number to call if there's any problem. or they require any other information.
In the end I think it all has worked out-- I'll reconfirm things later today; but the lack of computer communication between DVC and the rest of WDW is frustrating and time consuming.
When I spoke with the MG-CM to verify the schedule the week before the 180 day reservation window she had difficulty finding our MG and info - we reviewed and updated each individual's info on the ressies and contact info for each ressie- to have it set up so when I called at the 180 mark it would be good to go. So armed with my MG number and new plans on the spreadsheet I called to make ADR/PS arrangements at 7am this morning. But - this turned out to be not the case we had to go through the reservation info all over again and each had to be done individually.
Then we moved on to the actual event reservations 1st the Wishes Fireworks Cruise which we'll pay for as it's not a meal so don't want to use TS credit and tell her I'll pay these now rather than wait and chance their cancellation 45 days out. Each room requires it's own reservation number; so had to do each for each event. The CM moves on and books the Safari and International Dinner. The computers were ungodly slow once the dinners are finally booked the CM gives totals for the meals; my reply is they're 2 TS's and we plan to use the meal plan. Well, had to cancel those and start again b/c there's a different code she'd needed to enter back at the start of the reservation. So we go back a few steps again and rebook the dining reservations -- as we're reviewing the reservations I get hear an "UhOh" then "we need to call DVC to confirm you're on the dining plan" -- can't secure the reservations til then. It's 8:15am I tell her MS doesn't open til 9 unless they have another way of contacting them -- I was a bit frustrated and suggested I'd guarantee the reservations with a creditcard pending their confirmation from DVC -- couldn't do that; expressed my frustration that I'm on the phone at 7am at the 180 day window to ensure we are able to secure the reservations we want that my experience with Grand Gathering/Magical Gatherings has been less than magical I find it very cumbersome and if not wanting for these specific activities I'd not utilize it --I gave up on it in the past as they'd not really provided any benefit for us. Finally she said she'll put the reservations through as I've been on the phone soo long I gave her my cell number to call if there's any problem. or they require any other information.
In the end I think it all has worked out-- I'll reconfirm things later today; but the lack of computer communication between DVC and the rest of WDW is frustrating and time consuming.
