MDE step by step guide?

[Nubs70]

I am inquiring if anyone has or know where I can find a step by step guide for setting up MDE account.

My situation is unique as is as follows:

When: Thanksgiving week 2016, Weds thru Sun.

Lodging: Offsite

# of persons: 200 person highschool orchestra

I am looking to put together an instructional tutorial/PowerPoint to assist the kids setting up accounts and making ride selections. The lead person for this trip was a little less than clueless about this aspect of the trip.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

 

[Hakunamatata]

I would think the travel agent you are using could take care of that?

 

[Nubs70]

I would think the travel agent you are using could take care of that?

I'm not signing up 200 people, just looking to see if there is a step 1-10 guide somewhere.

I'll make the PowerPoint

Present to the kids and give each a hard copy

Let them sign themselves up

Post PowerPoint here for future reference.

 

[Hakunamatata]

I'm not signing up 200 people, just looking to see if there is a step 1-10 guide somewhere.

I'll make the PowerPoint

Present to the kids and give each a hard copy

Let them sign themselves up

Post PowerPoint here for future reference.

Travel agent most likely would sign everyone up. I would check with Disney to see if they have something.

 

[Nubs70]

Travel agent most likely would sign everyone up. I would check with Disney to see if they have something.

Crap, I think I may have confused myself and you by extension. I am looking to create a guide to set up MDE so the kids can make their FP+ selections.

Due to their park/practice/concert commitments and anticipated crowd levels, if they fail to plan FP+, they will have a miserable time.

 

[disney4life2008]

You've been around for a while, you are probably just as knowledgeable as everyone on here about fp+.

 

[Nubs70]

You've been around for a while, you are probably just as knowledgeable as everyone on here about fp+.

I looked through things available here and on Disney web site. I have yet to find anything as simple as a step 1-10 guide. I have been to the world on MDE several times and when signing up for FP+, without fail, my wife is calling me an ahole within 20 minutes. I want to help these band geeks but I also want to avoid the wrath of 200 high schoolers.

 

[Rob562]

One thing to look into before going too far with helping people plan is to see how far ahead of time the kids will get their park tickets. I've never traveled with a group of that size, but from seeing posts on here from people who have it sounds like the kids often are not given their park tickets until they actually get down there. Without the tickets (or the numbers off of the tickets) they can't do anything involving linking their tickets.

-Rob

 

[dreamfinder]

Try sticking "mde step by step guide disney" into Google? I found a few that came up after this thread did in search results. But as @Rob562 indicated, you may want/need to check with the trip organizer/contact to see when they get the tickets or if they can even get the needed codes to associate tickets with MDE accounts in advance.

 

[Nubs70]

One thing to look into before going too far with helping people plan is to see how far ahead of time the kids will get their park tickets. I've never traveled with a group of that size, but from seeing posts on here from people who have it sounds like the kids often are not given their park tickets until they actually get down there. Without the tickets (or the numbers off of the tickets) they can't do anything involving linking their tickets.

-Rob

Thanks for this response.

When the kids actually get their tickets is an issue I am concerned about. Seeing crowd levels trend out to be 10,10,7,5,3 during their stay. If they do not pre select rides,.they will be in for a difficult time.

 

[HRHPrincessAriel]

Following along. I'll ask our band guy what they did. They went the 1st year MB's came out. I'm going this year. I know how to do it myself but it's a little daunting trying to explain the situation to the kiddos AND to make sure it's all done in time.

I think I may take us all to the computer lab one day and have them set up together. I know that's harder with you volume as I only have 35. Could you take yours in groups? Do you have an assistant/assistants that could go to other labs.

 

[WillCAD]

One thing to look into before going too far with helping people plan is to see how far ahead of time the kids will get their park tickets. I've never traveled with a group of that size, but from seeing posts on here from people who have it sounds like the kids often are not given their park tickets until they actually get down there. Without the tickets (or the numbers off of the tickets) they can't do anything involving linking their tickets.

-Rob

I've spoken to several other people traveling with groups, and they've had the same problem - they don't get tickets or even a reservation number in advance, so even staying on-site, they weren't able to make any advance FP selections, because they had no res or ticket numbers to link to their MDX accounts.

I recall having a back-and-forth with one mom whose kids were on a cheer squad, staying on-site for the Pop Warner championship in 2014, and trying to explain to her that she needed to track down those numbers. My information from Disney was that they always give those numbers out to the person who actually makes the bookings - either a travel agent or a group coordinator of some kind - but those people don't always pass the numbers on to the individual group members. So I told my friend to first talk to the person who took her money, and follow her money up the line until she got to the person who actually made the booking with Disney.

Her response was that she didn't know who took her money; she simply handed a check over to her kid, who handed it off to someone involved with the squad, and that was that. Personally, I thought that was a bit foolish - no receipt, no confirmation, and she didn't even know to whom this money was going. That's how people get scammed. It all worked out in the end; the squads coordinator eventually passed out the confirmation number and ticket numbers, but not until about two weeks before check-in, so FP selections were much thinner by then.

IMHO, if you're booking with a group or team, you should be tracing your money and speak directly to the person who books with Disney, to get those numbers ASAP. Whether the individual members of the group are savvy enough to create their MDX accounts and make FP selections at 60 or 30 days is up to them, but the trip coordinator should be passing the info on to everyone involved.

 

[Nubs70]

I've spoken to several other people traveling with groups, and they've had the same problem - they don't get tickets or even a reservation number in advance, so even staying on-site, they weren't able to make any advance FP selections, because they had no res or ticket numbers to link to their MDX accounts.

I recall having a back-and-forth with one mom whose kids were on a cheer squad, staying on-site for the Pop Warner championship in 2014, and trying to explain to her that she needed to track down those numbers. My information from Disney was that they always give those numbers out to the person who actually makes the bookings - either a travel agent or a group coordinator of some kind - but those people don't always pass the numbers on to the individual group members. So I told my friend to first talk to the person who took her money, and follow her money up the line until she got to the person who actually made the booking with Disney.

Her response was that she didn't know who took her money; she simply handed a check over to her kid, who handed it off to someone involved with the squad, and that was that. Personally, I thought that was a bit foolish - no receipt, no confirmation, and she didn't even know to whom this money was going. That's how people get scammed. It all worked out in the end; the squads coordinator eventually passed out the confirmation number and ticket numbers, but not until about two weeks before check-in, so FP selections were much thinner by then.

IMHO, if you're booking with a group or team, you should be tracing your money and speak directly to the person who books with Disney, to get those numbers ASAP. Whether the individual members of the group are savvy enough to create their MDX accounts and make FP selections at 60 or 30 days is up to them, but the trip coordinator should be passing the info on to everyone involved.

Thanks for the info. I'm glad this thing is a year off. In our case, the band director himself places the reservations.

 

[Dwarful]

we were there in Feb. with our band of 200 and chaperones. We had magic bands and stayed at music. We booked through a specific band/music travel company that specializes in WDW and other trips. We received our cards/tickets about 80 days in advance but didn't get the dining cards until we arrived. I felt bad for the kids who had chaperones who didn't know what to do....my husband had a room of 4 boys and I had a room of 4 girls. We had all 8 kids to our house and walked them and their parents through the process...the kids had to stay in groups in the park anyway and these 8 kids pretty much set everything up together.

 

[Dwarful]

I will also say...we had the worst travel company and I let them know that. There was no help for kids setting up for fast passes...except for the special daily 'bonus' fast pass..early on ride experience in each park before the park opened...but we had a lot of kids not prepared. some kids saw a lot and did a lot and had a great time....other kids got to hear all about that fun on the 18 hour bus ride home.