WDW visit, some disappointments

[Mcbain]

I just came back from WDW this evening, and heres what happened regarding VMK there....

First of all, both my mother and I play VMK. So, we both had things to "cash in" (wristbands, hidden mickey prizes, etc.). We get to the Magic Kingdom, and the 1st thing that I suggest we do is get the quests out of the way and get our prizes so that we have time to do other things. We do the quests real quick (already had the answers from July ), and go to turn them in. Heres where the fun part comes. Stepping back for a second, we had one person in our party of 3 purchase the tickets (1 day park passes). So, the same name appears on each of the 3 passes. So, with that said, my mother redeems her quest vouchers, hidden mickey prizes, etc. no problem. I go to redeem my prizes. I hand the CM my things, and she promptly tells me that I cannot get any of the prizes. I ask her why, and she tells me, in more words than one, that since we had 1 person purchase 3 park passes, and each pass has the same name on it, that they are considered to be 1 pass. She didn't seem to understand that we were 3 separate people with individual passes. We even tried all 3 passes, and each one said that we needed to wait 90 days to redeem any more prizes, even though we had only used 1. At this point, I can feel my blood start to boil because nowhere does it state that each park pass must be purchased individually in order to redeem your VMK prize. Plus, I helped my mother complete her quests, so they were rightfully mine. So after trying to explain our situation to the CM and how unfair that was, we left VMK central quite unhappy.
Rather bitter over what just happened, we decided to head over to Guest Relations and see if they could offer any assistance. I asked the CM there if she had any clue about it, and she stated no. She said that there were other CM's there that knew more about VMK, but they weren't available at that time. At this point I'm quite angry over the whole situation. We are only able to visit the area once, maybe twice a year, and sometimes the Magic Kingdom, sometimes Epcot. Plus, with the price of tickets being what they are, and I mainly wanted to go there to redeem my VMK stuff, I wasn't a happy camper. So I decided I would wait it out until the VMK Central CM left for shift change.
Jump to a few hours later. I decide to check and see if the CM was still at VMK Cental, which she still was. My plan was to see if another CM would be more understanding and hopefully get what I had spent hours staring at my screen to get. So, I headed back to Guest Relations again. This time, the CM that helped me out (I wish I could remember his name, he was very helpful) knew of the CMs that had VMK experience and talked with them. He then informed me he was going to contact the manager of that particular store, which he did. I was then instructed to go back to VMK Central to redeem my prizes. I explained to the manager (Jim) what had happened before, and he told me that it sounds like the CM that was there earlier either did something wrong or didn't know what she was doing. He swiped my pass and it worked fine. So, after all that garbage, I finally got my prizes (I thought).
I turns out too that they are no longer giving out the Pirates of the Caribbean quest cards. I begged several times, but to no avail. The CM told me that they are working on a quest (I'm guessing like the pamphlets available for Fantasyland, Frontierland, and Adventureland) for the Pirates, and that they no longer had any cards available. This irked me because they were the only cards that I really need (aside from Inferno which doesn't have a card), since the quest started a week after I went in July, and apparently ended not too long ago . If anybody has any Pirates sets they'd be willing to part with, I'd love them forever. Also, didn't get the quest pins either. Was I supposed to get them, or is/was there something that I'm supposed to do to get them?
So, to make a long story short (sorry about the length, I basically did a brain dump), no more Pirates quest at WDW, and make sure you get a CM that knows what they're doing so that you don't get burned on your hard-earned prizes.

BTW, if I wasn't successful in getting my prizes, this was going to be a thread basically burning the CM that would have burned me. However, since I was successful, I figured I'd be somewhat nice.

 

[cat_herder]

I'm sorry to hear that, it really sucks.

We also bought one day tickey, well- my husband paid for them, so he really bought them. But we each had to show a Florida ID, so I guess we each has our name on them.

 

[4fosterkids]

wow, what a story!
I keep thinking....these are just virtual cards for a virtual game....its not like we are asking the castmembers for a free real hat, clothing or furniture from a store!! I don't understand that some castmembers will hold out and make people that unhappy....at the happiest place on earth, over a card with a pretend prize!!
If they only knew how one little card (or set of cards) can make guests so happy!

Let me know what quest stuff you need and I'll search my inventory for duplicates.

 

[Adventuredaz]

Thankfully our experience in October wasn't that bad, but it was very, very simmilar. we also dealt with inexperienced cast members claims that some certificates had already been used and limited amounts given for whatever reason - the two big kickers were that we did not get the quest pins eitherand the certificate they would not honor was for the tour claiming we had redeamed 1 in the last 90 days. That wasn't true as it had been years since we were near the place and may again be years. We tosses out whatever I had so as not to carry it around. A little bit expensive this trip was to be waisting time solving problems so we decided to move on. But not only should it not be a big deal to them because it is virtual and not real product but actually it is real product to us that is part of why we came that is and was to be part of our Disney experience. We did go to guest services and when they could not help us we again did not waist anymore time. We also contacted VMK, I guess we all know where that is at. So all planning on including VMK in the experience, don't feel too let down and don't let it ruin the rest of the time. It just isn't that important.

 

[pilikia97]

I thought I had read in another thread here that the quest pins are only from Disney Land? I went looking for that answer too because we just did all that at WDW (no problems, thankfully) and we only got the pirates quest pin which came in the bonus stack of cards for having turned in all the quests at one time... I am sorry that your experience was so bad!

 

[Azure]

I'm sorry to hear that CL_Mcbain

 

[disvaclub92]

Sorry to hear that McBain.

 

[Maleficent2]

Glad everything worked out for you in the end...I really think some of these CM need happiness training!

I keep thinking....these are just virtual cards for a virtual game....its not like we are asking the castmembers for a free real hat, clothing or furniture from a store!! I don't understand that some castmembers will hold out and make people that unhappy....at the happiest place on earth, over a card with a pretend prize!!.

I know I totally agree you think it came directly out of their paychecks!