2014/2015 Beach and Yacht Club FAQ, Friends & Fun, Sept 2014-Mayl 2015

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OK, here's my point of view on the subject of driving versus the bus. Every time and I mean every time we go to Magic Kingdom, I park at a resort and use the bus to Magic Kingdom. And it will be faster!!! If you drive, you will park and then probably walk a good distance to the tram. You will wait to get on the tram. Then the tram takes you to the TTC. You wait for either the monorail or the boat. Even if I wait 25 minutes for the bus, it will be faster. Once you get there, you walk right into Magic Kingdom. And even a longer and slower way from the Y&B would be to walk thru Epcot. I speed walk and let me tell you, with no crowds and a clear field, it would take me at least 20 minutes to get to the front of Epcot and that's really really moving. Then you would wait for the FIRST monorail that takes you to the TTC. Then you get off that monorail and wait for the second monorail that takes you to the Magic Kingdom. Absolutely the longest possible way to get there. However, the kids that love the monorail and are being pushed thru Epcot in a stroller probably would vote that way every single time.

I would NEVER drive and park there. However, if I was staying at a resort and in a real rush to get to Magic Kingdom (for whatever reason), I would take a cab and have them drop me off at the Contemporary Guard Gate. Then I would have a 5 minute walk into Magic Kingdom.

Thanks for the great transportation breakdown!!

I have to agree with Teena - even when we drive to Disney we never take our car to parks. Disney transportation is usually faster. The one exception (and we take a cab there) can be DTD.

We drive to wdw, too. We always use our car for AK, DTD and the water parks... And also our down days when we eat resort restaurants (got Ohana and whispering canyon cafe for this trip). Oh and we will cruise over to Sanaa for dinner after our day at AK. What can I I say...we are Californians and we love our cars!!
 


Thanks for the great transportation breakdown!!



We drive to wdw, too. We always use our car for AK, DTD and the water parks... And also our down days when we eat resort restaurants (got Ohana and whispering canyon cafe for this trip). Oh and we will cruise over to Sanaa for dinner after our day at AK. What can I I say...we are Californians and we love our cars!!
LOL! So many ways to do Disney.....we just love losing our car for the week and being transported everywhere from the resort! One of our favorite things about a Disney vacation is freedom from our cars!
 


This is totally random, will probably be long (to explain it), and really has nothing to do with the YC or BC, so feel free to skip it!:offtopic: I'm only posting this here because I need some advice on what to do and the folks here are by far the most friendly and helpful people on the DIS. DH and I took a 5 day trip and stayed at YC earlier this month and had a fabulous vacation! However, our last family trip (the one we just took was just DH and myself, we left the kids at home), was a horribly awful experience that we never want to repeat. I won't go into specific details, although I have already to some extent in this thread, but we showed up at our resort and they did not have a reservation for us. Things went downhill from there, and nothing on our MagicBands worked for the first half of our trip. We had no tickets, no room access, no meal credits for our meal plan, no ADRs, and no FP+...all had been wiped out even though everything was meticulously planned in advance. To make matters worse, no one could fix it, and every time we tried to enter our room/get into a park/use a meal/anything else at all on property, it would not work and we would have to go to guest services. We spent over 30 hours in lines at guest services, missed the first 3 days of our trip, and were not reimbursed for it, but eventually (after canceling and rebooking our whole reservation...twice!), they were able to make things work and the second half of our trip went well. A lot of things were replaced (most of our FP+) but other things (all of our ADRs) couldn't be recovered and we had to book new ones. It was much worse than that, but that's the Cliff's notes version, and we agreed never to take another family trip to WDW. Oh, and by the way, we had DRIVEN there from Minnesota (30 hour drive) with our kids who were 7, 4, 2, and 4 months at the time. Try keeping 4 little kids busy while spending 30 hours in line at guest services...now try it with no hotel room, no food, no parks, no rides, no pool, and NO DIAPERS!

Okay, so DH and I decided to "take the plunge" and go again this year because it was just the 2 of us, it couldn't be that bad again, and if things went wrong, it was just us and we could deal with that. Nothing went wrong and we had a great time! So, my cocky self decided that maybe we could book another family trip and take the kids again. Maybe the MagicBand kinks were worked out, maybe things would turn out fine, maybe, maybe, maybe....and we were really looking forward to it. We booked a BB offer for December, and although we weren't able to do BC or YC, we booked at POR and figured December was a fine time to book a moderate since we may not be able to swim at SAB, etc. We were excited to book another trip while my oldest was 9 (still a child) and before my youngest was too old to sleep in a Pack n Play so we could still stay in a 5 person room one more time. I booked the BB, spent 45 minutes on the phone confirming the dates, everyone's date of birth, etc. and put down the deposit. I was also REALLY excited because we've never been to WDW at Christmas time and I've always wanted to go. However, since it was still this year (no BB for 2016 yet), we were on a strict budget. We decided we would only go if we could do something under budget, and I came in really close with $40 to spare. We have not booked airfare yet, but I've been watching like a hawk and ready to do it at any moment. So, today I got the confirmation packet in the mail, and now I'm convinced that we are Disney cursed when we try to go as a family!

I opened the packet and started reading. Everything looked great until I got to the dining plan page and noticed they were missing a kid on the total number of meal credits. I thought they must have made an error on the dining plan, so I called them. Well, nope, it was more than that. Although they have the correct date of birth in the system for our 3 year old (12/28/11), she was showing up as a 2 year old. Therefore, she has no park ticket and no meal plan. I explained the situation to 3 different CMs, including one at guest relations, and they are insisting that (now that I've said she's 3...because she is) we will have to pay $850 more than the price they gave us. I'm not trying to get something for nothing, but I correctly gave everyone's DOB and they confirmed them all. I gave them everything, they put it in the system, and their computer system screwed up calculating her age. They will not honor the price they gave us because they hadn't included the 3 year old, and I can't do the new price because our budget is really strict to make this work this time. We can't move the trip to next year because they have to BB offers for next year yet, and we can't move to a value because we have 6 people and would need 2 rooms, which would cost even more. They also won't let us take off the dining plan because it was "part of the quoted offer for the BB." I tried to explain that, since I booked over the phone and confirmed everything, I had no idea that they computed something wrong and this wasn't my fault. The CM said it isn't their fault because when they add another person it increases the price and they can't adjust that. They also say they won't honor the previous price because they can only honor what got sent in the mail (which has us as 2 adults, 2 children, and 2 infants) and now that they know DD isn't an infant they can't honor it anymore. I'm so frustrated! I'm pretty sure we are going to cancel (DH was in the background yelling that we would go to Universal instead), but I didn't do it on the spot because I wanted some input from someone else first.

I'm mad out of principle (it was their error), mad because of our prior history of problems, mad that we just can't seem to take a WDW trip as a family, and upset that we really just can't stretch the budget this time. Any suggestions? Should I cancel? Should I wait and see if any BB offers come up before our payment date and try to push it out? Should I fight this with Disney and try to get them to honor their quote and/or take credit for their error that I had no control over? Should we really just go to Universal? Universal is definitely in budget, and our oldest is a HUGE Harry Potter fan, but we have 2 really little ones. Would they have any fun? Should we just scrap all things Orlando and forget about ever having a family Disney trip again???? I'm open to all suggestions and would love to know what you would do.
 
LOL! So many ways to do Disney.....we just love losing our car for the week and being transported everywhere from the resort! One of our favorite things about a Disney vacation is freedom from our cars!

I totally agree with you. We have our car at the resort obviously when we stay and even if our dinner is at another resort, we'll use Disney transportation. The car won't get used once. And now with the parking the way it is for Downtown Disney, there is no way I'll ever drive there again.
 
This is totally random, will probably be long (to explain it), and really has nothing to do with the YC or BC, so feel free to skip it!..snip...Should I fight this with Disney and try to get them to honor their quote and/or take credit for their error that I had no control over? Should we really just go to Universal? Universal is definitely in budget, and our oldest is a HUGE Harry Potter fan, but we have 2 really little ones. Would they have any fun? Should we just scrap all things Orlando and forget about ever having a family Disney trip again???? I'm open to all suggestions and would love to know what you would do.
Okay, my two-cents worth of thought on ths, first, thanks for posting. I do feel your frustration as it has happened to me before (not at WDW). You need management intervention as CMs on the phone don't have authority. You can ask for managment when you call, but that won't get you has high as you need to go. I'm not sure if taking your post and sending it to WDW c/o Reservation Management will get you as high up as you need but that would be a start. Perhaps someone on this thresd has a name of a person to directly correspond with, that would be helpful. Perhaps a letter to the GM of the YC can get your correspondence where you need it to be. Keep your reservation for now. You can cancel in September if you don't get any satisfaction and get your deposit back. WDW in December is great, but I understand family budgets and the fact that if the money isn't there, it isn't there. Bottom line, if they don't come back to where you were at the start, cut bait and wait until some future date when the budget will allow it. Deals and discounts do happen all the time ahd there is that "magical" reservation site that does seem to offer great deals. Good luck. I think you are on the right track here. Many on this thread go to the the "dark side" and enjoy themselves. If it is in budget, do it. But give WDW mangement a shot first.
Katesdad
 
This is totally random, will probably be long (to explain it), and really has nothing to do with the YC or BC, so feel free to skip it!:offtopic: I'm only posting this here because I need some advice on what to do and the folks here are by far the most friendly and helpful people on the DIS. DH and I took a 5 day trip and stayed at YC earlier this month and had a fabulous vacation! However, our last family trip (the one we just took was just DH and myself, we left the kids at home), was a horribly awful experience that we never want to repeat. I won't go into specific details, although I have already to some extent in this thread, but we showed up at our resort and they did not have a reservation for us. Things went downhill from there, and nothing on our MagicBands worked for the first half of our trip. We had no tickets, no room access, no meal credits for our meal plan, no ADRs, and no FP+...all had been wiped out even though everything was meticulously planned in advance. To make matters worse, no one could fix it, and every time we tried to enter our room/get into a park/use a meal/anything else at all on property, it would not work and we would have to go to guest services. We spent over 30 hours in lines at guest services, missed the first 3 days of our trip, and were not reimbursed for it, but eventually (after canceling and rebooking our whole reservation...twice!), they were able to make things work and the second half of our trip went well. A lot of things were replaced (most of our FP+) but other things (all of our ADRs) couldn't be recovered and we had to book new ones. It was much worse than that, but that's the Cliff's notes version, and we agreed never to take another family trip to WDW. Oh, and by the way, we had DRIVEN there from Minnesota (30 hour drive) with our kids who were 7, 4, 2, and 4 months at the time. Try keeping 4 little kids busy while spending 30 hours in line at guest services...now try it with no hotel room, no food, no parks, no rides, no pool, and NO DIAPERS!

Okay, so DH and I decided to "take the plunge" and go again this year because it was just the 2 of us, it couldn't be that bad again, and if things went wrong, it was just us and we could deal with that. Nothing went wrong and we had a great time! So, my cocky self decided that maybe we could book another family trip and take the kids again. Maybe the MagicBand kinks were worked out, maybe things would turn out fine, maybe, maybe, maybe....and we were really looking forward to it. We booked a BB offer for December, and although we weren't able to do BC or YC, we booked at POR and figured December was a fine time to book a moderate since we may not be able to swim at SAB, etc. We were excited to book another trip while my oldest was 9 (still a child) and before my youngest was too old to sleep in a Pack n Play so we could still stay in a 5 person room one more time. I booked the BB, spent 45 minutes on the phone confirming the dates, everyone's date of birth, etc. and put down the deposit. I was also REALLY excited because we've never been to WDW at Christmas time and I've always wanted to go. However, since it was still this year (no BB for 2016 yet), we were on a strict budget. We decided we would only go if we could do something under budget, and I came in really close with $40 to spare. We have not booked airfare yet, but I've been watching like a hawk and ready to do it at any moment. So, today I got the confirmation packet in the mail, and now I'm convinced that we are Disney cursed when we try to go as a family!

I opened the packet and started reading. Everything looked great until I got to the dining plan page and noticed they were missing a kid on the total number of meal credits. I thought they must have made an error on the dining plan, so I called them. Well, nope, it was more than that. Although they have the correct date of birth in the system for our 3 year old (12/28/11), she was showing up as a 2 year old. Therefore, she has no park ticket and no meal plan. I explained the situation to 3 different CMs, including one at guest relations, and they are insisting that (now that I've said she's 3...because she is) we will have to pay $850 more than the price they gave us. I'm not trying to get something for nothing, but I correctly gave everyone's DOB and they confirmed them all. I gave them everything, they put it in the system, and their computer system screwed up calculating her age. They will not honor the price they gave us because they hadn't included the 3 year old, and I can't do the new price because our budget is really strict to make this work this time. We can't move the trip to next year because they have to BB offers for next year yet, and we can't move to a value because we have 6 people and would need 2 rooms, which would cost even more. They also won't let us take off the dining plan because it was "part of the quoted offer for the BB." I tried to explain that, since I booked over the phone and confirmed everything, I had no idea that they computed something wrong and this wasn't my fault. The CM said it isn't their fault because when they add another person it increases the price and they can't adjust that. They also say they won't honor the previous price because they can only honor what got sent in the mail (which has us as 2 adults, 2 children, and 2 infants) and now that they know DD isn't an infant they can't honor it anymore. I'm so frustrated! I'm pretty sure we are going to cancel (DH was in the background yelling that we would go to Universal instead), but I didn't do it on the spot because I wanted some input from someone else first.

I'm mad out of principle (it was their error), mad because of our prior history of problems, mad that we just can't seem to take a WDW trip as a family, and upset that we really just can't stretch the budget this time. Any suggestions? Should I cancel? Should I wait and see if any BB offers come up before our payment date and try to push it out? Should I fight this with Disney and try to get them to honor their quote and/or take credit for their error that I had no control over? Should we really just go to Universal? Universal is definitely in budget, and our oldest is a HUGE Harry Potter fan, but we have 2 really little ones. Would they have any fun? Should we just scrap all things Orlando and forget about ever having a family Disney trip again???? I'm open to all suggestions and would love to know what you would do.

First of all I am so, so sorry this happened to you. :( I can completely understand how this happened because Disney has hired quite a few folks who have absolutely NO IDEA what they are doing. We TAs commiserate about this all the time. I commonly hang up and call back when I get one of these idiots on the phone. It is frustrating and also dangerous. Dangerous because they make critical errors when making bookings that are often nearly impossible to fix. I find that I rarely call at all anymore unless it's something I can't fix myself online. When I do call I can usually tell within the first couple of minutes of the call if this person is working from their home (dogs barking in the background, voices of children, etc). I don't even bother talking to them. You definitely have a good case to take to a higher authority. When you call ask for guest services or their supervisor. If they can't connect you then hang up and keep calling back until you get a person who knows what they are doing. Cases can be escalated and investigated, I do things like this all the time. I had a family booked last summer whose reservation became "corrupt in the system" and I had to rebuild it from scratch with the help of management, mail them replacement bands, etc, so I know it can be done. Your biggest hurdle is that if the agent entered the reservation as 2 adults, 2 children, and 2 infants with only ages and no birthdates (which sounds like they did even though you gave them the dates they evidently didn't enter those dates) and the email confirmation you received from Disney has this mistake listed on it then they are going to blame you for not checking your confirmation for accuracy. But still don't give up because they can actually go back and listen to the phone call to further investigate. $850 is a lot of money, so it could be worth the extra time and effort to fight this. My heart goes out to you, but please don't let an incompetent agent ruin your chances for a magical Disney trip. :)
 
Good morning!

Another MK bus question here - we have an 8:20am reservation at CRT in September and would like to know what time we should be down at the BC bus stop? I don't want to start my daughters birthday frazzled that we'll be late for our reservation.

Thanks!
 
Did anyone else see this announcement? If this is true, I'm glad there will be a universally accepted and enforced rule. I was told you could use a QS meal as a continental breakfast...a pastry, a piece of fruit and a drink. Some establishments have done this while others refused to do it.

http://www.orlandoparksnews.com/2015/05/disney-dining-plan-enhancements-begin.html?m=1

Seems like a waste of meal credits to me, but if you can't use them up before you leave, at least maybe you can take snacks for the trip home, or the nicely wrapped fresh cookies (we like those chocolate chip ones!) as little gifts....
 
Huh, DH and I really like The Captains's Grill! We like the breakfast buffet in the morning and sometimes had lunch there and enjoyed that too!

We really like the CG when we just need a quiet sit down breakfast.

I find restaurant 'likes' can be so subjective. We often go back to places where we've had not so good experiences to give them a second chance. We've had bad meals (usually service) at places we love. I hate recommending or condemning because you can always have an not so magical experience a great place.

LOL! So many ways to do Disney.....we just love losing our car for the week and being transported everywhere from the resort! One of our favorite things about a Disney vacation is freedom from our cars!

Same with buses. I've stopped recommending or condemning them.

We've had great trips where the bus to the park we are heading to pulls up every time we walk out and trips where we see the bus to our park pulling off every time we walk out.
 
Good morning!

Another MK bus question here - we have an 8:20am reservation at CRT in September and would like to know what time we should be down at the BC bus stop? I don't want to start my daughters birthday frazzled that we'll be late for our reservation.

Thanks!

If it's me I'd be at the bus stop a little after 7. I'm like you and don't like frazzle. I'd much rather be in the park and relaxed early than sweating it at a bus stop.
 
Just realized I'm under 100 days for my Poly/YC trip! Can't believe it! I want to lose 45 lbs. before then. Guess I'd better get cracking!

I'm trying hard to lose too! Down 17 so far and hoping to lose at least another 10 before we arrive. I hope! :D

I need to drop 10 pounds. Anyone want a fitbit buddy, PM me for my email address?

@treeme01... I would take this as a sign from God and go somewhere else. However - I see your point on family size and age - next time you attempt a trip you will need a suite or two rooms. Maybe I would give upper management one chance to fix it. Good Luck.
 
We've had great trips where the bus to the park we are heading to pulls up every time we walk out and trips where we see the bus to our park pulling off every time we walk out.

I agree with this...the inconsistencies are what I can't stand. I don't like the stress of having to run to the bus stop because it's loading and we don't want to be left behind (and sometimes you don't make it) and I don't like standing on a bus either! Although I admit that after Teena's thoughts on the buses, I will probably give the BC to MK buses a try, I will never take a bus from GF to AK or HS. I guess some of it is personal preference...I like the comfort of being in my own car (even a rental) where I don't have to worry about getting a seat. But we have always had good luck with driving to the parks time wise...it always takes the same amount of time:)
 
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