virgin welcome meetings

[penlanspice]

is it worth going to the welcome meeting? this is my first trip, so do you think it would be of use or not.
does anyone know around what time the virgin meeting starts, and how long does it last. and any recomendations what we do for the rest of our first day.
thanks

sam

 

[BevS97]

Personally I wouldn' t bother - they won't tell you anything you can't find out on here, they will try and sell you lots of things (including apparantly very expensive sun cream) and you could make much better use of your first morning in one of the parks - since you will be awake bright and early you don't want to be hanging around waiting for the welcome meeting when you could be in MK as it opens.

Other's may find them useful, but I have never been.

Bev

 

[Fantasia Sam]

Well I found the first one I went to useful but then I hadn't known about these here boards at that time.

I agree with Bev, I think you could make better use of your time not going. If you are a frequent virgin (then you can still get discount on your admission passes from your rep there) but then I'd say that you'd probably be better off getting them before that anyway and there are loads of tips from the boards about where to get tickets and what the best ones are etc etc. The other thing that the meeting will tell you about are other trips/excursions e.g. say a day trip to Clearwater, well most of the guest services at the hotels offer this service so again saving you time.

Since coming on these boards I have never been to a welcome meeting and I don't regret it.

But if you felt more comfortable going then it ususally starts anytime from 9.30 onwards they keep them rolling as they show a film etc (if it is still at Pleasure Island AMC). You could then perhaps go on from there to Downtown Disney, Disney Quest and then perhaps go shopping at on eof the Fashion Outlets or Malls.

 

[AlisonB]

I personally wouldn't bother going either. You'll be awake about 4 or 5am and you don't want to be hanging around til 9.30 am for the meeting. Get an early brekkie in and get going to a park nice and early!!

 

[Silver]

No, don't bother unless you want to go to Downtown Disney for your first day anyway.

All they will do is try to sell you expensive excursions and tickets. You will get much better advice off these boards and cheaper tickets elsewhere.

And they don't even give you the free tickets to Arabian Nights any more as an incentive.

Julie

 

[Janice]

Hi Sam

I can only add to what everyone else has said here and that is - if you do your homework and research before you go, then why waste a whole morning listening to stuff you could probably tell them about!

We went to the Virgin Meeting on our very first trip back in 96 BD (Before Dis ) and sat through a couple of hours of talk, then queued for an hour to get our Park Tickets. I really begrudged that amount of time out of our valuable holiday!

I feel confidant that you will learn more here on the Dis than you would by attending the meeting - so if you have any niggling queries, no matter how trivial you may think they are, just post a new thread and we'll all help and guide you through We have all been first timers at one stage - we know exactly how it is


Hope this helps

 

[DisneyAli]

this is our third trip and we have to go to the welcome meeting to collect our pre paid tickets, can we just go and pick them up or do we have to stay for the meeting?

 

[Silver]

Hi Alison

We had booked our Sea World/Busch Gardens tickets through Virgin and had to exchange the voucher (for another voucher by the way). We asked at the airport and were told we could either go to where the welcome meeting was held and pick them up - we didn't have to attend the actual meeting, or go to the Swan or Dolphin (can't remember which but it is the one which is the Virgin Flagship hotel) as they have a desk there where you can exchange tickets.

We went to the welcome meeting venue on our first morning, just explained that we only wanted to pick up our tickets, not attend the meeting, and they let us straight through. It didn't take more than 10 minutes and we were on our way again. They were open really early too - I think it was from about 8.00 am until 11.00 am.

What I didn't realise though was that the Virgin voucher was just exchanged for another voucher which we then had to exchange for tickets at the Sea World Guest Relations.

If you ask the Virgin rep at Orlando Airport when you arrive she will give you the details of Welcome meeting opening times.

 

[kazzie]

When I last booked tickets with Virgin you received the vouchers with your flight tickets and then exchanged them when you went to Universal etc.

It is so unneccessary to give you a voucher to exchange for a voucher to then exchange for the actual tickets.The only reason can be to make you go to the welcome meeting and hope you book other stuff while you're there

 

[DisneyAli]

thanks silver and kazzie, i will ask when we land, but if we have to pick them up from the welcome meeting we will just zoom in and out as this is our third time we will know what we are doing and where we are going (hopefully). we have pre booked all our tickets including DC so we know that the money we take with us is what we have to spend.

 

[Elaine Guidi]

Good question, and one that has crossed my mind. We don't go until Feb 03 but I was thinking I would grudge using my precious park time, especially on my first morning when we are all geared up and enthusiastically anticipating WDW. I have booked 5 day Disney pass and a Flex ticket along with my holiday booking, are these the tickets you are meaning when you say about exchanging the vouchers. If we did (and I do doubt it) go to the meeting, what park would be recommended for a Saturday, leaving accomodation after the meeting at say 11.00 am