Odd Experience Phoning Disney

[krismas29]

Has anyone here ever gotten a hard sell when calling Disney? I just thought I had an odd experience today that I wanted to share and see if it was unique.

I called to make a dinner ressie for Tony's on Oct. 17th and asked for something prior to MNSSHP. The agent (sorry, forgot his name) immediately asked me if I had tix yet. I said "no" and he started a hard sell telling me I better buy them right away (I assume from him) even before I made the ressie. He told me it was "nearly sold out". In a very calm but forceful tone I asked him if he was truly telling me that Oct. 17th was already close to capacity. He immediately hemmed and hawed and checked something and told me it was at code yellow meaning over 50% sold.

Anyway, not to make a small story into a major drama but when I told him I was waiting to read the DIS reports after the Sept 15th date, he seemed to know all about the issues and told me that while CM's would not be asking day guests to leave, the day guests would not be able to do anything at the party.

I was tired of the conversation and asked if we could get back to the ressie but he started again trying to get me to buy the tickets right then .. then he asked if I had park tix yet. I don't, so same deal again! He was so pushy about buying tix. It took me at least 15 mins to make a single dinner res.

Anyway, thought it was an odd conversation and wondered if anyone else has experienced a hard sell lately.

 

[addicted2disney]

Nope... Ive never had that happen in the past 14 trips Ive called and made ressies for! Weird! I just made all of my table services for next month, and my CM, Cameo, was awesome! Hope it was just a freak thing.

 

[willis37862]

I had once try to tell me where to eat after I already had my mind made up. I just told them I already had everything planned out and thanks for there suggestions maybe next time. Maybe they just get over eager sometimes.

 

[intrep93]

Maybe they are having more trouble selling tickets after all the talk and so are pushing it a little. Could be they want to KNOW you are really coming before they give you a table, too. I had booked a bunch of ADR's for our trip that is during free dining and was having trouble shifting some times because the resteraunts are so booked. When I decided to switch our park days, I called and made a bunch of new ADR's for the same resteraunts, same times, different days - no problem. Told the CM I would go over our itinerary, tighten everything up and call back the next day to cancel the old ressies to free them up for someone else - fine, no problem. Next morning I call back to schedule a few more that I had miss, then was going to run down my list and call back with my cancellations - No Go!!! The new CM said she couldn't double book me for two resteraunts at the same time. I wasn't really ready to cancel yet, and actually wouldn't have needed to because all the times she booked for me were off of the ressie times by 5-10 minutes, but I was really surprised because the lady the night before hadn't said a word. I think a lot of it depends on the CM. Regardless, your call does sound odd.

 

[grumpymakesmehappy]

Nope, no problem here. All the agents I've dealt with both recently and in the past have been helpful and not pushed me towards anything. Maybe some agents are a little overeager to share the magic and it just comes off pushy.

 

[LadyOmega]

I've had Cm's try to sell me MNNSHP tickets the last 3 or 4 times I called to try to make an ADR. I already have our tickets for Oct. 5, so of course when I told them that, that was the end of the conversation. But I had never thought of WHY they were all of the sudden asking about that. I sort of just assumed it was because the ADR I was trying to make was on that night in or near the MK, and they wanted to make sure I knew the party was that night. But I guess it is possible that they are seeing a difference in ticket sales since this whole closing-at-7 thing. Hopefully so.......

 

[KarlaG4Kids]

I have to admit, if I hadn't already bought my tickets I wouldn't be buying them if I knew that they would be letting day guests stay without buying the MNSSHP tickets. I won't be pleased if I spent $70some when others haven't had to pay any extra. It will be interesting to see what really happens.

 

[krismas29]

It was strange, but perhaps the CM's have been asked to sell the parties. Although if the capacity for Oct. 17th is only at 50% maybe they need to push the date. Assuming 20,000 capacity for MNSSHP (just a wild guess) that could mean 10,000 tix available. Certainly not a "must buy now" situation!

 

[maciec]

I had a hyper guy CM repremand me for not having my reservation number when I was trying to cancel my 1 night stay at the CR. He admittedly told me that he thought he had drank too much coffee that day.

 

[DeterminedOne]

I had a similar experience last December and posted about it here. I called CRO to check room availability and ask questions about the package we wanted. The CM started saying how I needed to book right away, that I could always cancel, etc. I explained that we hadn't made any decisions and weren't sure about the travel dates, but she kept insisiting that I go ahead and book. She was very persistent, so much so that I felt like I was on a used car lot.

 

[MinnieGirl33]

I've had the sales pitch for the DDP. Repeatedly.

It's one thing to say "Do you know about our plan?" or "would you like some details about the plan?" But being totally aghast that our family has the nerve to not like the DDP (we prefer DDE) & for now, choose not to use the DDP, is out of line IMO.

 

[Sleeping Becca]

Maybe they are having more trouble selling tickets after all the talk and so are pushing it a little. Could be they want to KNOW you are really coming before they give you a table, too. I had booked a bunch of ADR's for our trip that is during free dining and was having trouble shifting some times because the resteraunts are so booked. When I decided to switch our park days, I called and made a bunch of new ADR's for the same resteraunts, same times, different days - no problem. Told the CM I would go over our itinerary, tighten everything up and call back the next day to cancel the old ressies to free them up for someone else - fine, no problem. Next morning I call back to schedule a few more that I had miss, then was going to run down my list and call back with my cancellations - No Go!!! The new CM said she couldn't double book me for two resteraunts at the same time. I wasn't really ready to cancel yet, and actually wouldn't have needed to because all the times she booked for me were off of the ressie times by 5-10 minutes, but I was really surprised because the lady the night before hadn't said a word. I think a lot of it depends on the CM. Regardless, your call does sound odd.

I agree with the 2nd CM, you shouldn't be able to double or triple book ADR's, esp during a busy restaurant time like free dining or Food and Wine festival.

 

[Sleeping Becca]

I have never been given a hard sell for anything. One year I was asked everytime I called if I wanted to purchase La Nouba tickets. Which would have been OK if the show was there during my stay. I had to inform every CM that I spoke to that La Nouba was on break for the entire length of my stay. You think that if they were trying to sell me something, it at least should be something that I could actually buy.

 

[DisneyGirl4188]

I have had them ask if I already had tickets for MVMCP and CP. I told them yes and they said that was good because these events are very popular. I imagine if I didn't already have tickets, they would have tried to get me to buy them.

 

[BeckWhy]

I did a couple days ago. I called to price the new discount code for the Disney Visa holders for December (since that's when we were originally going to go, I wanted to price it out to see which would have saved us more money, free dining plan saved us more, btw). Anyways, the CM was like can I have your name and phone number blah blah blah... and I was like I just want to price a discount code. He's like ok. So I gave him my name and phone number and he goes, "You have a vacation planned for WDW in a couple of weeks." I said "Yeah I know. Can you tell me how much it costs for december?" He's like "you want to reschedule for december?" I go "No I want to price a new vacation." He says "You want to come more that once?!?!?!" My jaw like dropped, cuz I know so many people on the Dis may go mulitple times in a year, I didn't think it was that big of a deal. I was like 'Yes I want to go twice, there are two different celebrations going on!" So he priced it for me.. how ever much it was I can't remember off the top of my head.

 

[MScott1851]

Every time I call to make an ADR, I get offered La Nouba tickets.

 

[joshsmom]

I called a few weeks ago to get my tickets and hotel reservations for May 2007. The day I called was the day before the ticket prices changed--whatever that day was. The CM I talked to was EXTREMELY nice, but she really pushed the dining plan--sorry, not interested--and adding water park tickets--sorry, don't do water parks. She was very nice and let it drop, but she was really pushing a "package." I had the reservations for the hotel and all park tickets done by this time, but she wanted me to add my airline. For the first time in our history of going to Disney, we decided to drive. (I know, I said NEVER at one point, but I've learned to never say never.) Told her we were driving so we won't be doing rental car, airline, etc. Then she said something about "when you add vacation insurance that will make it a package." By this time, I was a bit confused. I told her I wasn't adding insurance, I just wanted hotel reservations and park tickets. Then she went back to the water park and dining plan thing. Again, she was VERY nice, but kept suggesting that DS10 would really like the water parks and we should try them, etc. The call literally took almost 25 minutes just to get hotel and park tickets. I thought that was a bit excessive--but she was so nice, I just couldn't say anything other than "thank you but I'm really just interested in park tickets and hotel reservations."

 

[jenjersnap]

... he seemed to know all about the issues and told me that while CM's would not be asking day guests to leave, the day guests would not be able to do anything at the party.

Oh yeah, explaining it that way is really gonna help him sell more MNSSHP tix. Makes me want to run away from dropping $170, not encourage it.

 

[dizplanner]

I had one CM mention I might want to take a tour and since I was DVC, I could get a discount. Since I was considering taking a tour, we talked about the ones I was thinking of, but he had no problems when I didn't purchase right then. It was just a friendly conversion, not a hard sell.

 

[SnwflkCts]

Hmmmm ... didn't have anyone try to hard sell me anything. I'm soooo glad because it makes me uncomfortable. Now I usually just have everything already spelled out and am rather business-like in my approach and then straight to ADRs (loving that food) but I don't know why that would make a difference.

Maybe because I always get EVERY option known to mankind ... so what else is there to sell to me!!

(I am really just glad they don't push the La Nouba tics - that show kinda creeps me out for some reason ... even though my sister enjoyed it immensely!)