Virgin Welcome meetings?

[lisaj]

Like most people I consider a welcome meeting a waste of valuable touring time. I imagine Virgin like most tour operators uses this as a way to sell more tours etc. however, as we have booked a trip to the Space Centre and a week at St Petes I imagine we will have to show up for a meeting to get the details.

Does anyone have any experience of this?

Thanks for your help.

 

[Boo Boo Too]

I would hope that details about tours that you have prebooked would be given to you when you check into your hotel (i.e. you would get an envelope from Virgin with all of it and more) IF you con't get the details when tou receive your tickets...

Alternatively, if none of this happens, I would look for the rep's hours at your hotel (presumably they have a desk at the hotel or something and a nottice up saying that they are at the hotel between certain hours?) and go and see them for 5 minutes to pick them up.

Agree with you - welcome meetings are a waste of time. Might be quite useful/interesting if you have NEVER been to Orlando before. But if you have been to Orlando before and done all of your research (on here and in guide books), then I wouldn't bother.

We generally avoid package holidays altogether (unless we are VERY unfamiliar with the area) - we find the reps much more hassle than use.

Boo

 

[jen_uk]

When I went to the Virgin meeting 1999 it was very long and very boring and basically just a huge sales pitch. It was a real waste of a morning. If you are not given the details you need then there is a Virgin rep every morning at DTD in Raglan Rd Pub so you could pop along there and see them. Personally I would not waste my first morning at the meeting!!

 

[Elise79]

We did a week in St Petes with Virgin Holidays in 1998 and all the details of the transfers were in the pack we got with our tickets so I think it would still be the same.

Elise

 

[fuse04]

Hi, last year was our first trip to Orlando and went with Virgin Holidays via Thomas Cook. First week in WDW, the second week Barbados; had to fly from Orlando to Miami, then Miami to Barbados (45 min connection time!).

Anyway bought the Unofficial Guide before going and used this site, didn't bother with the Virgin meeting and had no real problems. We did need to contact Virgin as they said there was a free shuttle from WDW to Discovery Cove (and of course there wasn't!) and the local Virgin office was a waste of time on the phone and yold us we would have to sort it our ourselves! so we sorted out a shuttle with Mears.

We found by doing our homework and using this site, we knew more about WDW than Thomas Cook and Virgin, and we had never been before!

Fuse04

 

[PChef]

We're off on our first trip on Thursday! I have already had one phonecall and 2 e-mails from the Virgin reps in Orlando - sounds like they are really desperate to sell me an excursion! We are not planning on attending the welcome meeting, don't want to waste half a day when we could be in a park! We will have a car, we have done lots of research, so don't feel the need to attend the meeting, especially if it's all going to be hard sell!

 

[wayneg]

The Virgin rep we got in Clearwater also sold Timeshare, what a waste of time that was.
The first time we went to Orlando we did the welcome meeting, they were useless. One thing that has always stuck in my mind was them telling us Seaworld was only a half day park.
We have had annual passes for past 4 years and been in about 20 times but still enjoy it just as much. I would struggle to walk it in half a day without any shows.
Sorry reps I have always found you a waste of space in Orlando.

 

[lisaj]

Thanks for the responses. Hopefully we will have our trip tickets and transfer details at CSR when we check in. If not I will take your advice and just contact rep later in week.

 

[daipp]

We used the Virgin rep the first time we ever went there but not since.

The disboards are just fantastic for help, information, and advice.

David

 

[Lisash]

We've never been to one and can't say we have missed out as a result. Our Brits Guide and the Disboards have always provided us with all we need to know and lots of useful tips you would never get from a rep

 

[Twilight Terror]

We did it the very first year we were there, but we were supposed to drive. In the time it took us to get from the airport to the hotel, my mum refused to drive any further; she didn't want to drive to the hotel three doors down to return the car! Anyway, we went the first time purely because we were new to the area and we werenow carless and needed to find out best way to get around an dstuff.

Oddly enough though, our mum drags us to the meeting every time we go now. Although it was worth the effort this last time since Virgin have started their own taxi service between certain hotels and Disney that is cheaper than arranging with the hotel and they are more frequent (like every 15/30mins rather than every hour) and the times are better.

I expect very much that we will be going to the welcome meeting when we go in the summer, as it's our first time staying on-site and this time we will need to see what arrangements we can put in place to go off-site, and I think we're leaving the Universal tickets to buy when we get there are the welcome meeting, although I should investigate if it's' cheaper to buy now, rather than when we get there. I know this year's prices on their guide sheet from the meeting were pretty much identical to buying before you went. Only thing to your advantage buying when you arrive could be the exchange rate.