Wanting to surprise the family with a resort upgrade?

[mikesteffen]

We are planning a trip early next year and staying on property and taking Magical Express, but I want to surprise my family with a resort upgrade. I don't want them to find out until we get there, hoping not until we are loading onto our Magical Express bus. But I am concerned about the luggage tags for Magical Express to have our luggage picked up and delivered to our room. Can anyone tell me if those tags have the resort name on them?

 

[bumbershoot]

Not 100% sure.

But maybe you can take care of checking the bags? Have the tags on you, and after the other adult shows ID at the ticketing counter have them go off and do something else, and you quickly put the tags on?

Or...from the "DME luggage tag info" sticky thread on this forum....don't put the tags on, and...

...you can have Disney claim them for you as if you did have those yellow tags. Bypass baggage claim, and go straight to the Welcome Center. From there, give the Cast Member your luggage claim tickets. They will create replacement tags for you, find your bags, tag them, and send them to your resort.

 

[wilkeliza]

We are planning a trip early next year and staying on property and taking Magical Express, but I want to surprise my family with a resort upgrade. I don't want them to find out until we get there, hoping not until we are loading onto our Magical Express bus. But I am concerned about the luggage tags for Magical Express to have our luggage picked up and delivered to our room. Can anyone tell me if those tags have the resort name on them?

The tags do have the short form of the hotel written on them if I am remembering correctly.

As Pp said maybe just put the tags on at the airport so they dont have time to exam them. Make sure mickey mail gets intercepted too because they write the hotel on that stuff as well.

 

[mikesteffen]

The wife is going to be watching for the luggage tags, she gets all excited about that stuff.

 

[burne99]

The other thigh to do is get the luggage tags sent with the original hotel and res number then book the other hotel. Ring magical express to send new tags and have them sent to your work address. You wife has tags and you can trade them on the day

 

[goofy4tink]

This is what I would do.....I would make the resort change. Then, call DME and let them know of the change. As long as the reservation number stays that same, you can just cross the old resort name off and write the new one in on the luggage tags. Now, whether or not you can do that, who knows. Your wife may take those tags and guard them with her life!!!! Or, just take the chance that the new info will go into the DME system. If you do nothing to the tags, you may get the bags in the new resort room....or they may go to the original resort!!! That's what happened to us.
If you're the one handling the bags, for loading into the car, and then unloading at the airport, and at airport checkin, then you might be able to get away with writing the new resort name on them. Send the wife on ahead, lie, saying you need to get something out of the bag. Then, when she's walking away from the car, you can quickly write in the new name. Hopefully, you won't have many bags to make the change on!!!

 

[tjmw2727]

This sounds like fun - but its going to be difficult ! The DME luggage tags do have the resort listed on them and personally I wouldn't mess with them. You could just skip the luggage delivery feature and bring the bags to be loaded on the bus with you.

The other issue is MDE - if anyone in your family has access the new resort will be listed. This is how my daughter found out I upgraded from POFQ to BWI for our November trip. Early Christmas gift (with a good AP discount).

 

[bumbershoot]

The wife is going to be watching for the luggage tags, she gets all excited about that stuff.

If she gets excited about tags, is it possible she's getting excited for the resort your family chose? Watch out for that; an upgrade doesn't always feel like an upgrade, if you're happy about where you're staying!

 

[goofy4tink]

This sounds like fun - but its going to be difficult ! The DME luggage tags do have the resort listed on them and personally I wouldn't mess with them. You could just skip the luggage delivery feature and bring the bags to be loaded on the bus with you.

The other issue is MDE - if anyone in your family has access the new resort will be listed. This is how my daughter found out I upgraded from POFQ to BWI for our November trip. Early Christmas gift (with a good AP discount).

When I checked in at the DME podium at MCO last May, we had only one tagged checked bag...it belonged to my dd's bff. We had driven in, so we had our bags with us already. When we checked in, with our MBs, they tried to direct us to the Pop line. I told them no, we were going to POR..we had made the change to the reservation 2 months prior, same reservation number. He looked at me and sent us over to the 'desk' podium, so we could get it figured out. They finally found the right resort listing and said it was a good thing we didn't have any tagged bags!!! Well, of course we did...and told him so. He asked if I had written in POR and crossed off Pop. Said no, I had been told, by many CMs, not to do that. He heaved a huge sigh, saying that no, we should have crossed it out and put the correct resort in!!! It would seem there isn't as much scanning going on anymore!!! And that one tagged bag took almost 8 hrs to get to us, and we had checked in at 5:30pm!! Yes, it had been sent to Pop...where it sat for hours on end.
So, yeah, cross out the old and put the new one in!!

If she gets excited about tags, is it possible she's getting excited for the resort your family chose? Watch out for that; an upgrade doesn't always feel like an upgrade, if you're happy about where you're staying!

Oh come now....I get just as excited when I'm staying at Pop as when I'm heading to BWVs!! I'll bet she will love the upgrade.

OP...so tell us....where does the wife think she's going, and where is she actually going?

 

[tjmw2727]

Oh I agree -and my response was actually based on your prior mention of this as well as a few other similar accounts.

What I meant was that I would either book DME to the "upgraded" resort to reduce the chance of misdirection even though the surprise could be ruined - or skip tagging the bags and take then with me to the bus to be loaded underneath. For me missing bags would be worse than a missed surprise

When I checked in at the DME podium at MCO last May, we had only one tagged checked bag...it belonged to my dd's bff. We had driven in, so we had our bags with us already. When we checked in, with our MBs, they tried to direct us to the Pop line. I told them no, we were going to POR..we had made the change to the reservation 2 months prior, same reservation number. He looked at me and sent us over to the 'desk' podium, so we could get it figured out. They finally found the right resort listing and said it was a good thing we didn't have any tagged bags!!! Well, of course we did...and told him so. He asked if I had written in POR and crossed off Pop. Said no, I had been told, by many CMs, not to do that. He heaved a huge sigh, saying that no, we should have crossed it out and put the correct resort in!!! It would seem there isn't as much scanning going on anymore!!! And that one tagged bag took almost 8 hrs to get to us, and we had checked in at 5:30pm!! Yes, it had been sent to Pop...where it sat for hours on end.
So, yeah, cross out the old and put the new one in!!
.
snip

 

[goofy4tink]

Oh I agree -and my response was actually based on your prior mention of this as well as a few other similar accounts.

What I meant was that I would either book DME to the "upgraded" resort to reduce the chance of misdirection even though the surprise could be ruined - or skip tagging the bags and take then with me to the bus to be loaded underneath. For me missing bags would be worse than a missed surprise

Me too!!! I would just not tag the bags and get them at baggage claim. So much better to spend an addtl 15 mins there and have the bags in hand vs not having them for hours on end.
I would also call DME and make sure they had the 'new' info...just in case.

 

[mikesteffen]

Yeah the upgrade is from AllStar to French Quarter. We stayed there years ago and loved it, but have been doing the value for some time since prices started skyrocketing. We did some deluxe years ago also, in 1994 we did Polynesian for around $104 per night with AP discount.

 

[Jewel3k]

You can always tell your wife, "Oh look Disney made a mistake! Let me fix that for us." We surprised our kids with a hotel upgrade last year. I was going to surprise my dh, but couldn't contain the secret. I made it almost 2 weeks. We managed to get the kids to the new resort before telling them where we were staying. We told them Disney was letting us get on a different Disney Express bus so we could do X instead of heading straight to the hotel.

 

[tjmw2727]

We Love POFQ, my kids would love that as well. Maybe instead of trying to do an arrival surprise you could do something fun for a no reason gift or a holiday gift for everyone? Get some of the necklace beads from oriental trading, maybe book a carriage ride and include pictures, and make up a surprise gift bag? (make some beignets? LOL)

Honestly we all love planning so much (and it sounds like your wife does! too) that this would work better for my family. Then they could look forward to staying at POFQ for a couple months and you could still surprise them.

Good luck

 

[goofy4tink]

You know....I love a surprise as much as the next person. In fact, I surprised my dd (21) and her bff last May. We were booked at Pop, but I changed the 2 night stay to POR, in a royal room!!! It was a great surprise. However, dd noticed it when she was checking her DME account. But, she didn't see the RR...so that was a terrific surprise for them. But, here's my issue. If your wife is the one that does all the planning...FP+, ADRs, etc., her plans may be impacted by a change in resort. So, I would be very tempted to let her know before heading down. Maybe as a Christmas gift...that way she can tweak anything that might need tweaking.
For me? I have to say that the few months up to my trips are a huge source of fun for me. I love planning, and replanning, and then replanning yet again!!! Your wife may have the same feelings.