Moonlight Magic Reservations-help!

[darby888]

While I agree with them addressing the mess that was this past Thursday, it sounds as though you've been lucky to attend other events this year. Personally, I'd be happy with just one.

Once this year, Jan 2018 and the other time, Feb 2017. And was I really lucky? ... Is my recent experience the way it's supposed to work? Why does Disney promote these offers so far in advance then? .... I agree, make it a lottery. I'm sure there are plenty of owners that can't afford to take the time due to other commitments in order to jump the hoop required to snag a reservation. If you were "lucky" enough to have a reservation during one of these events, get Disney's emailed link for booking, then spend the time and effort at precisely 9am, just to have it turned out to be a very frustrating futile waste of effort. Disney definitely needs to make some revisions.

 

[TexasChick123]

I must admit, we added on a night to our previously planned trip because of MM. We planned this trip around Christmas last year with friends to go to F&W with no regards to MM dates. We booked the extra night in March (7-month window) once we saw a MM date was just the night before the already booked trip WAY before all the craziness with MM registrations for TL, Epcot, and HS had happened. I didn't see a ton of people reporting huge issues with the MK and AK event that a call to MS didn't fix, so I never thought we wouldn't be able to get in. Hindsight is 20/20, and I never would've done this now. However, the plane tickets were purchased by the time the TL debacle happened having us arrive that extra day earlier. I even looked at changing our plane tickets after the TL registration PITA, but they went up from the 8k points on that first leg on both 10/3 and 10/4 to 10K or more and haven't come down with all of the "sales" SWA has done. We had the backup plan of going to Universal that night just in case after all this happened. BTW, the Halloween stuff at Universal looks super scary. My DH and I would love it, but I was afraid it would terrify my 4 year old. However, lesson learned by me, and I won't ever add a day here or there for MM again.

 

[bobbiwoz]

I must admit, we added on a night to our previously planned trip because of MM. We planned this trip around Christmas last year with friends to go to F&W with no regards to MM dates. We booked the extra night in March (7-month window) once we saw a MM date was just the night before the already booked trip WAY before all the craziness with MM registrations for TL, Epcot, and HS had happened. I didn't see a ton of people reporting huge issues with the MK and AK event that a call to MS didn't fix, so I never thought we wouldn't be able to get in. Hindsight is 20/20, and I never would've done this now. However, the plane tickets were purchased by the time the TL debacle happened having us arrive that extra day earlier. I even looked at changing our plane tickets after the TL registration PITA, but they went up from the 8k points on that first leg on both 10/3 and 10/4 to 10K or more and haven't come down with all of the "sales" SWA has done. We had the backup plan of going to Universal that night just in case after all this happened. BTW, the Halloween stuff at Universal looks super scary. My DH and I would love it, but I was afraid it would terrify my 4 year old. However, lesson learned by me, and I won't ever add a day here or there for MM again.

I had added the night of October 3rd to my original BCV reservation because of the MM announcement, and lost out too.

 

[TexasChick123]

I had added the night of October 3rd to my original BCV reservation because of the MM announcement, and lost out too.

We did get tickets for MM, but the jury’s out on whether it was worth the stress. I was trying to point out that I won’t be adding nights for something like this in the future again as it was a huge gamble in retrospect. If a MM event falls during dates already booked, and we get tickets, great. If not, oh well. I would most likely skip it at TL and HS in the future since I will have already been to those as long as the weather is ok for HS come October.

 

[bobbiwoz]

I have just gotten my second or third email from DVC regarding how happy I am with their response to my emails regarding MM.

I gave them the suggestion to let us register when we book the date of MM. We will know if we got in from the start.

 

[TexasChick123]

I have just gotten my second or third email from DVC regarding how happy I am with their response to my emails regarding MM.

I gave them the suggestion to let us register when we book the date of MM. We will know if we got in from the start.

Maybe, if nothing else, this should make people pause when thinking about a direct purchase because of this perk. Clearly, this perk is not a sure thing nor is it even an easy get. I know a lot buy direct for the AP's, but there has been a lot of noise about these MM events only being available to eligible members. Maybe they should phrase it like this, "Moonlight Magic is only available to members who qualify. Even if you qualify, it'll take a great deal of time, patience, and luck to register for these events. Best of luck to our Members!!!" That would be a honest descriptor for the event.

 

[n2mm]

I managed to go to the February one, but it was very stressful booking. Took over an hour to finally book. Went to WDW April/May 9 nights, no event during that time. Went early June and again missed out on any event as they were the week before and week after. Then they released the passholder mornings in September. There for 9 days, but again by the time I got the email, there was not a single time left to reserve. I tried to book less than one hour after getting the email. We are back in November and again no event within my dates. I was glad to grab one event in February. The day before the September booking my internet went out, so really had to work at getting in. Both my husband and I was going to try to get in, and in the end I had to do it myself. I wish it was easier. I’m only 2 people. But can’t understand why you can get more people than your reservation. I think you should be restricted to the number of people in your party on the first booking for those with reservations.

 

[n2mm]

I have just gotten my second or third email from DVC regarding how happy I am with their response to my emails regarding MM.

I gave them the suggestion to let us register when we book the date of MM. We will know if we got in from the start.

I know you’re not going to be able to book the next time, but was thinking, why not check with some of the other members who got shut out who will be trying again on 9/13 to see if they can grab you the tickets you need. Since each member can book 6 tickets, there may be a chance this way. Just thinking outside the box.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

I've been able to attend the first MK event, Epcot last December and AK this April. I also was easily able to register for AK the previous year but then ended up cancelling plans. For the first two events we were already going so timing just was perfect. For AK in April I added 1 day ahead of our originally planned arrival. I would not bother doing that again until such time as they improve on whatever has gone wrong with the registration process. It was previously nothing like what has been described for the most recent events unless perhaps you tried right when registration opened so I never did and the events were not "selling out" on the first day either.

It's not a perk if you can't do it. IMO it's also not a perk if it's so stressful to try and do it!

 

[zavandor]

I think you should be restricted to the number of people in your party on the first booking for those with reservations.

I strongly agree with this. Let members only book the event for people staying in the room, then when reservation opens for everyone, they can try to book for guests.
The fact that the events became more and more difficult to book might be due to:
- the MK events were announced way within the 7 months window. by that time almost everything was booked, by people who might not even know or care about the events. This reduced competition. For September events party nights were booked way before the surrounding nights, meaning a lot of one night bookings by members wanting to book the event
- party became more and more popular with reports on blogs and social media
- DHS event might have fewer places available as there are fewer attractions in the park and they don't want overcrowding (I hope this is true)
- as people didn't get into the earlier events trying to book later, everyone decided to book right on the second when reservations opened to not risk it

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

But can’t understand why you can get more people than your reservation. I think you should be restricted to the number of people in your party on the first booking for those with reservations.

DVC's event and DVC's decision really.

But with variations of room size, family make up etc it's pretty fair IMO to have it be the number of people in your room (ex a 2BR filled with 9) or an "up to xxx" amount.

 

[karrit2000]

How long has it been this way?....I guess MM in the winter months aren't as popular as the couple I signed up for didn't sell out as quickly. As I recall, even up until open enrollment. This past Thurs was beyond frustrating and I was unsuccessful in the end. Went to voice a complaint with member services just to hear the wait was over 180 minutes. Grrrr.... Emailed them instead and received as response, stating I could try again on the 13th. Their system needs improvement stat ... I wonder why they don't offer more nights if this has gotten so popular? It can't be good for business when this is offered as a perk, just to find the reality is "Welcome home, you'll will need to be able to devote possibly an hour trying to secure your reservation to enjoy 3 and still may get shut out"

I didn't attend any of the 2017 events as none of my trips matched up with any of the scheduled dates. When they announced the MK event I had a reservation already that matched up with the February date. I had plans to be at AK for the D23 event for AK's anniversary so I was already going to be there during one of the AK parties. I purposely booked a reservation to cover the dates for 2 of the HS parties figuring it would be a good chance to get on the new Toy Story rides. I cancelled part of my reservation that would have included the September date but kept my October dates. I'm lucky I am now retired because if I was still working there is probably no way I would have been able to try for any of these events as the personal effort needed to secure a spot is ridiculous and I wouldn't have had the access at work to get online to book.

I used to go in late on F & W festival booking days because their booking process is somewhat similar in that you have to call the Festival Dining or regular dining # beginning at 7AM on a specific day & if you aren't lucky enough to be one of the first calls through you wait on the phone for sometimes several hours only to find out either the events you want are full or they haven't even loaded them into the computer system yet. There are people who use multiple phones and sometimes both husband & wife & maybe some of the kids are all calling on their cell phones because whichever one gets picked up first they get to try to book all the events for their party. More often than not it isn't the person who got into the phone queue first. Some people even split the list of the events they want between several people just to be sure one of them gets everything booked because sometimes the calls get dropped in the middle of the booking process.

This is just a little history of why I said we've learned to attempt booking through multiple devices. This system of going online at a specified time on a specified date is totally unfair to everyone because not everyone is able to drop everything in their complicated lives just to book some party that is supposed to be a "Magical Extra". Believe it or not there are those who don't have computer or mobile access so they have no chance at all. And one of the parties I tried to register for the link didn't work for several hours before they finally got it to work so people who planned to try at the specified time had to give up & go on with their real lives.

My other beef with this whole process is they really need to open the registration up prior to the 30 day cancellation window of the first date.

I guess the first events last year weren't booked up so quickly because people didn't have months to plan & get reservations before they announced the dates. So if you didn't already have a reservation it wasn't to easy to get a room for the party dates. This year with all the dates announced early people planned trips specifically around the party dates. I almost didn't get to book this one because I was supposed to be on a cruise & wouldn't have had computer access to register. I ended up cancelling the cruise months ago because it just didn't work out for me this year.

 

[n2mm]

DVC's event and DVC's decision really.

But with variations of room size, family make up etc it's pretty fair IMO to have it be the number of people in your room (ex a 2BR filled with 9) or an "up to xxx" amount.

I absolutely agree with this. Last year I had a 2 bedroom with 8 people and had no problem getting event tickets for typhoon for 8. But why if there are only 2 people in my room or 4 people in my room am I allowed to book 6 total tickets? So someone could very well book a room that hold 4, but get 6 tickets. That is actually taking 2 tickets away from someone who has a room reservation. I still believe that those with room reservations should be limited to the occupants of that room whether it’s 2 for a studio or 12 for a grand villa. Those extra tickets that that party of 2 people in a studio or a WDW room are getting really add up. Btw, I’m a party of 2 who got 2 tickets. If I had friends joining us I would’ve added them to my room reservation. But I couldn’t have added 6 to my studio or even a one bedroom, so that limit of 6 just doesn’t make any sense.

 

[bobbiwoz]

I know you’re not going to be able to book the next time, but was thinking, why not check with some of the other members who got shut out who will be trying again on 9/13 to see if they can grab you the tickets you need. Since each member can book 6 tickets, there may be a chance this way. Just thinking outside the box.

We are OK. TY.
The FL friends who would have come with us to MM, are coming on Tuesday instead and we’ve made adjustments to the schedule. We are staying in BCV, and SAB is all of our favorite. FoP FPs for Wednesday night has helped. We have been in Toy Story Land, and it is cute.

 

[Matty B13]

I really hope they don't announce the MM events before the 7 month booking window moving forward, this would cause a lot of holes in peoples vacations that were going for a whole week or more and not just one night.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

I absolutely agree with this. Last year I had a 2 bedroom with 8 people and had no problem getting event tickets for typhoon for 8. But why if there are only 2 people in my room or 4 people in my room am I allowed to book 6 total tickets? So someone could very well book a room that hold 4, but get 6 tickets. That is actually taking 2 tickets away from someone who has a room reservation. I still believe that those with room reservations should be limited to the occupants of that room whether it’s 2 for a studio or 12 for a grand villa. Those extra tickets that that party of 2 people in a studio or a WDW room are getting really add up. Btw, I’m a party of 2 who got 2 tickets. If I had friends joining us I would’ve added them to my room reservation. But I couldn’t have added 6 to my studio or even a one bedroom, so that limit of 6 just doesn’t make any sense.

There are just so many iterations to traveling groups that allowing 6 is one of the most fair things IMO.

Why I think allowing up to 6 is perhaps the fairest way for DVC to handle it is, as I mentioned, the various make up of DVC owners and families. For example if it followed what you are outlining then for the MK event I would have had to go solo - or just chosen to not go and to stay with my travel companions who were not in my room. Is it then more appropriate that someone to get 8 tickets for a 2BR and because my group composition meant another room for my travel companions that only I would qualify to go even though our room occupancy allowed was also 8? Or, for example say that it's a couple with no children that owns DVC so they are the ones in a studio. And in another case it's a couple with 3 children who are booked into a studio. Shall the benefit be greater for that family because they are larger even though their ownership cost the same to purchase and they pay the exact same dues and use the exact same points for the room as the couple who have no children. Or perhaps they have adult children who stay in their own room and would have to either choose to leave the others to do their own thing on the family vacation or to skip attending?

Those are just a few examples of why allowing up to 6 tickets per membership is as fair of way to do it as anything. All owners who qualify deserve to attend with others IMO. It may just be that these events have already run their course as they may be showing they aren't large enough to fully accommodate the membership. Or, another possibility is that the screening is not properly limiting who is qualified - ie, I wouldn't be surprised if offsite owners are able to book during the onsite window. There's been those reports before too.

In the end these are really sales driven events - they either have already encouraged people to buy direct because of them or if people bring others they may decide it's worth it so they can come back again on their own.

 

[karrit2000]

My understanding of the initial intent of these parties was it was a perk for members who had already booked a reservation in a DVC resort that included the night of a party. If they didn't fill up then local members and those members booked at other resorts could claim tickets. If I remember correctly the first few parties were scheduled around higher visitation times like spring breaks & busier summer weeks. When they announced the schedule for this year all at once it caused members to purposely book trips during dates a party was scheduled for so the surprise factor was gone and the demand has increased exponentially. DVC created this monster & they need to figure out a fair way to fix the problem they created. They will either try to fix it or just sit back & let the situation get worse until they use that as an excuse to stop this program. No matter what they do it won't be fair to someone as nothing ever is. I personally believe that you should need to be booked in a DVC resort on points or on property using your points in order to attend but there are plenty of other members who will disagree with me.

 

[TexasChick123]

They will either try to fix it or just sit back & let the situation get worse until they use that as an excuse to stop this program.

I think this is exactly what they're going to do. These parties are expensive. They'll blame the dissatisfaction of members with the process on why they discontinue them. I know they've said they'll continue them next year, but I will be very interested to see how long they actually continue.

 

[bianca]

We had our October trip booked at the 11 month window long before they announced MM. You'd think that I would have been able to get tix ..... nope. Locals that booked one night after MM was announced and had already attended 3 or more events were competing with me for this event. It would have been fair to limit MM events to one per membership. I think they'd have a lot less problems now. In all likelihood, they will cancel these events. Haven't been to one yet, but hey, fun while it lasted? That's okay. You know what my favorite "perk" over all the years of owning DVC has been? ....... the 15 year anniversary canvas! I had it professionally framed and it is placed for me to see everyday. I also like the idea of the new AP cutting boards. There are so many things that they could do that benefit ALL members. I look forward to that day.

 

[bobbiwoz]

We had our October trip booked at the 11 month window long before they announced MM. You'd think that I would have been able to get tix ..... nope. Locals that booked one night after MM was announced and had already attended 3 or more events were competing with me for this event. It would have been fair to limit MM events to one per membership. I think they'd have a lot less problems now. In all likelihood, they will cancel these events. Haven't been to one yet, but hey, fun while it lasted? That's okay. You know what my favorite "perk" over all the years of owning DVC has been? ....... the 15 year anniversary canvas! I had it professionally framed and it is placed for me to see everyday. I also like the idea of the new AP cutting boards. There are so many things that they could do that benefit ALL members. I look forward to that day.

I like that 15 year anniversary gift too!