Virgin Early Entry ro WWoHP

[Shazzie B]

Has any body taken advantage of this? If so how does it work please. When 1st advertised it seemed like you just had to turn up at the front gates for 7:30am to be walked up to Three Broomsticks for Breakfast (and I suspect a 'Welcome' Meeting) before enty into WWoHP at 8:30. We planned to do on our 1st day as we'll be up early anyway.

However DH thinks it's now changed and you have to go to the 'usual' Welcome meeting to pick up tickets for early entry etc - can't be bothered with that - besides it's not on my schedule

 

[boomski]

Hi, we took advantage of this just a few weeks ago. We had to go to the 'welcome meeting' on the first morning, which was at the house of blues for us, this was where we were given our invitation to WWoHP. We then went the next morning to the WWoHP.

We arrived at the Universal car park at 06.45, we met the virgin reps at the entrance of Islands of Adventure, we had to wait until about 07.30ish and then we were taken to the Three Broomsticks for breakfast, after this we went and rode the Forbidden Journey which we all found fantastic. We would all recommend going straight to this ride straight after breakfast as Universal let their resorts guests in to WWoHP just before 08.00. We got some lovely photos of an empty Hogsmeade.

We are glad we did this, yes it was early, but we were still on English time!!!

 

[Shazzie B]

Thanks for the reply - what time was your welcome meeting? Our days are pretty packed! Just trying to decide whether it's worth it or not - We'll be going in October so hoping for low crowd levels.

 

[boomski]

Hi,

The welcome meeting was at 0930. This was not on our itinerary for the first day and did disrupt our plans, but the benefit for the early entry was worth the disruption.

 

[Shazzie B]

Decisions, Decisions

Think I'll keep an eye on the Universal forum - they have a WWoHP queue update-then make my mind up.

Thanks again

 

[WSussex]

Hi

We went mid June when it opened (nightmare!!) but we like you did not want to go to the welcome meeting so our virgin rep organised for us to collect invite at the airport!! Well worth it trust me!!

Sx

 

[Shazzie B]

Thanks for that tip -I'll try that then

 

[yummymummywales]

Hi

We went mid June when it opened (nightmare!!) but we like you did not want to go to the welcome meeting so our virgin rep organised for us to collect invite at the airport!! Well worth it trust me!!

Sx

That sounds ideal - we have a CRT reservation on the first morning so can't go to the welcome meeting. Did you phone anyone in particular to sort this out? Would be grateful if anyone knows any number I can speak to someone sensible on!

 

[WSussex]

Hi

Our virgin rep phoned us about 2 weeks before we left - she wanted to make sure we had all the tickets we needed etc (she is based in Orlando) and she gave me an e mail address and her mobile number - I emailed her with lots of queries and she was fantastic - she sorted the collection from the airport. If you have booked a virgin package I think you will get "the call" too

Sx

 

[yummymummywales]

That's great - put my mind to rest a little bit now! Thank you

 

[wdw75]

Has any body taken advantage of this? If so how does it work please. When 1st advertised it seemed like you just had to turn up at the front gates for 7:30am to be walked up to Three Broomsticks for Breakfast (and I suspect a 'Welcome' Meeting) before enty into WWoHP at 8:30. We planned to do on our 1st day as we'll be up early anyway.

However DH thinks it's now changed and you have to go to the 'usual' Welcome meeting to pick up tickets for early entry etc - can't be bothered with that - besides it's not on my schedule

Hi

We went mid June when it opened (nightmare!!) but we like you did not want to go to the welcome meeting so our virgin rep organised for us to collect invite at the airport!! Well worth it trust me!!

Sx

Yes they have "Moved the goalposts"..

I seems that you now have to waste the first morning of arrival, to attend a welcome meeting just to get authorisation for early entry at WWOHP the next day (and attend another meeting no doubt)

We had our email from the Virgin rep, and made it clear that we had no intention of attending the extra welcome meeting, and asked if the voucher could be left for us at the airport. The rep replied saying that he/she would be happy to leave it for us...

On the condition that we bought a minimum of $50 of attraction/excursion tickets from them!! There is no way we are going to do that, as we stay on property and seldom venture out of Disney - we are making an exception this time to visit WWOHP, no doubt the only time we will be going there!

The whole thing is a con and is purely a commision making scheme for the reps at Virgin. We will now be visiting IOA at normal opening time and paying for parking out of our own pockets, much better than sitting through a time wasting excercise and then having to get to Universal's parking lot for 6:30 a.m.

Rant over!!

 

[EvertonCJ]

We visited US/IOA only a couple of weeks ago. The best time to go to Harry Potter was the evening. We arrived at Harry Potter land at 7.30pm and waited 30 minutes to go on the big ride. We then went on the Unicorn ride and then decided to go on the Forbidden Journey again. The second time we only queued for 15 minutes. Earlier in the holiday we arrived at IOA at 7.30am. We were allowed into the park immediately and then queued until 8.30 when we were allowed into Harry Potter land. We then waited a further 20 minutes to get on Forbidden Journey. This was in August so I am sure the wait in October will be even less.

 

[EvertonCJ]

Yes they have "Moved the goalposts"..

I seems that you now have to waste the first morning of arrival, to attend a welcome meeting just to get authorisation for early entry at WWOHP the next day (and attend another meeting no doubt)

We had our email from the Virgin rep, and made it clear that we had no intention of attending the extra welcome meeting, and asked if the voucher could be left for us at the airport. The rep replied saying that he/she would be happy to leave it for us...

On the condition that we bought a minimum of $50 of attraction/excursion tickets from them!! There is no way we are going to do that, as we stay on property and seldom venture out of Disney - we are making an exception this time to visit WWOHP, no doubt the only time we will be going there!
The whole thing is a con and is purely a commision making scheme for the reps at Virgin. We will now be visiting IOA at normal opening time and paying for parking out of our own pockets, much better than sitting through a time wasting excercise and then having to get to Universal's parking lot for 6:30 a.m.

Rant over!!

Don't mention parking to me.We visited on August 9th and the cost of parking was 14 dollars. This annoyed me as it was only 12 dollars in August 2009. We then returned again a few days later and the cost of parking was 15 dollars. I think they definitely want to make as much money out of Harry Potter before the novelty wears off.

 

[tracipierce]

I didn't know anything about this, we have booked with Virgin and are going to Universal, but have already bought our tix elsewhere, do you have to buy universal tix from Virgin to qualify for this? Sorry to be dim, but like I said, I hadn't heard of this before and would like to do an early morning rather than evening.

Thanks for any info

 

[smelly123]

Hi I have been on the phone to virgin today enquiring about this, as this was the only reason i bought my tickets through virgin to get this early entry and breakfast etc, I am a bit worried as they told me I have to use this invitation in the 1st 2 days of arrival, in my case 8th and 9th October as we don;t arrive till 8th at 14.30 It will have to be the 9th that we go , I asked where do we get the special invitation from and she told me the welcome meeting!!!! Then she said the wecme meeting will be at the airport . Is this true ??? I am worried If the welcome meeting is not at the airport and happens to be the next day, then we will miss the start of our day as we have to be there at 7.30 for the breakfast in the 3 broomsticks, and early entry.
Has any one took advantage of this offer and how does it work?

 

[Linda67]

I too have been trying to find out more information about this but don't seem to get a straight answer from Virgin

If you land on a Saturday afternoon, can you do the welcome meeting on Sunday and IOA early entry on Monday?
When they mention 'must be taken within the first two days' would they count the Saturday afternoon arrival day as day one? If so then surely you would have to go to IOA the day after you arrive and then I don't see where you can fit in a welcome meeting

I wish Virgin would make these things clearer

 

[smelly123]

I am hoping I get the phone call from the virgin rep 2 weeks before like the other member, I will ask then If we can collect ours from The airport, I have done an itinary and don't want to miss the 1st morning at a welcome meeting but am desperate for the early entry as we are huge Harry Potter fans

 

[Cochise]

Our rep has specifically stated if we order from them they will provide the invites/voucher etc otherwise we have to attend the meeting. Rules are rules, plans changed for the 1st morning then.

 

[yummymummywales]

We have been locked in a fairly long "discussion" with one of the reps over this!! It does now seem that the only way to get the early invite at the airport is to buy other tickets/excursions with them as they then bring those tickets to the airport on your arrival and bring your early entry too.

We have an early breakfast reservation in CRT the morning after we land so there was no way I was going to a welcome meeting on the first day. Apparently though there are a few held at various times and locations throughout the day including Downtown Disney which may prove more useful to some of you guys. Also it does seem they are a little bit more flexible than the 2 days we were initially told about. Our rep told us that they "advised" us to go within the first 3 days but when pushed admitted that that wasn't compulsory.

In the end we have ended up paying for a meal voucher for a meal at Hard Rock Cafe which can be used on any day/time which means we do get the early invite to WWoHP given to us at the airport too. For us its definitely worth it as we would probably have gone here anyway and it just seemed the easiest way to get everything sorted.

Hope everyone has an amazing time - as my DD says, it's only 29 sleeps to go now Mummy!

 

[Shazzie B]

We plan to go to Kennedy Space Centre and haven't bought these tickets yet - so think we'll 'order' from Rep when they ring - Probably slight price difference than ordering direct but it'll be worth it for early entry (free parking will save us $15 too!).

Thanks for the info every-one - only 24 days to go for us!