Hi all, super excited (and nervous) to be doing my first (pre) trip report!
I absolutely love reading others trip reports on here and with the help and encouragement of @Darstarr decided to give it a go!
This trip took some serious magic to come to fruition, and makes looking forward to it all the sweeter. Fun fact, this trip was arranged with a 2 week time window, as explained below.
I apologize ahead of time for the long winded explanation of how it is we will be traveling to Galaxy's Edge, but here it is!
Some back story to this unexpected trip, (and to explain the pixie dust part). We were at Disney in December of 18, and did not think we would make it back this year as my daughter will be getting married this October. But, we are annual passholders and I heard there would be an AP preview for GE, reportedly for people who have activated AP's. (This is where the pixie dust will come into play).
I started following the blogs much more closely. Why the blogs? Because we rarely to never get any communication from AP or DVC and no matter how many times I've chatted with their IT department has it been resolved.
And, sure enough the day the registration opened I didn't get an email from Disney, but got a notice from one of the blogs I follow.
So I jump on the link and there were all kinds of spots available, and I got my husband and I a slot to see GE and make a lightsaber! So exciting!
Now is where it starts to get more complicated. My 19 year old son who previously wasn't sure he wanted to go, now said he would love to go once he realized we were going.
So I start reading comments from several people who had been able to get a reservation, that they were able to buy an AP that morning and use it (unactivated) to register for the GE preview. (It wouldn't have mattered one way or the other, but I thought my sons AP was renewable but it had expired).
I go onto the website to try to buy a pass. But the pass would not stay in my cart. I call Disney and some how end up with a pleasant reservation lady who says it's true, you can buy a pass and link it for the preview. (She actually put me on hold and checked and said reservations were still available for GE, let's do this)!
So, she takes my credit card info for $950 (we're DVC), and then neither of us can link it to my account and I end being transferred to the AP IT people. They finally get it linked and, you guessed it, the reservations were now closed because at that point I had been on the phone 2 separate times, once for 1 hour 15 min, and the second 1 hour and 48 min (no joke). So at that point I figure we're not going if we can't all go and I (naively) ask them to refund the cost of the AP and cancel it. (They misinterpreted what I said and thought I asked for their first born). So, apparently this isn't done and I get told because we're DVC I have to talk to them. That lady at DVC thought I asked for 2 of her children and said I needed to talk to guest services. She in turn thought I was speaking a foreign language because she said if I wasn't currently on property she couldn't help me. So guess who she transfers me to, yep, back to the AP people.
But, this is where the magic starts, I'm talking to the AP lady and she says "honey I can't find you in our system at all", of course you can't, almost came out of my mouth. But then, she realized I paid full price and she is the lady you pay payments to for your AP. She asks if I can wait on hold she thinks she can throw some magic my way, and I thought are you serious?! I am now an hour into my 3rd phone call of the day, I am not going anywhere if you can help me! She connects me to guess who, yep, the AP IT people! Aggggghh. But things started to look brighter, because THIS lady told me she couldn't return my money, but could "escalate" our situation to the escalation team, but she couldn't guarantee the outcome.
And now I will apologize again for the incredibly long wind up to the resolution, but we waited for over a week and when I finally had given up that anything positive was going to come of this, I got an email from Hope. That was the name on the email, no lie, and their solution was to add my son to our reservation, and so we are headed to Batuu with less than 2 weeks to plan/schedule etc!
Now, who will be coming along. My son S who started all of the drama.
And my husband G and me! Missing this trip is my daughter and her fiance.
We will be there Aug 18-21, with our GE preview day on Monday morning. With such late notice, the only place I could find to use our DVC points was at Saratoga Springs. The Tree Houses no less! I have never stayed there before but from the sounds of it we will have plenty of room to spread out!
We are ridiculously excited to have this impromptu trip and can't wait to get there!
I absolutely love reading others trip reports on here and with the help and encouragement of @Darstarr decided to give it a go!
This trip took some serious magic to come to fruition, and makes looking forward to it all the sweeter. Fun fact, this trip was arranged with a 2 week time window, as explained below.
I apologize ahead of time for the long winded explanation of how it is we will be traveling to Galaxy's Edge, but here it is!
Some back story to this unexpected trip, (and to explain the pixie dust part). We were at Disney in December of 18, and did not think we would make it back this year as my daughter will be getting married this October. But, we are annual passholders and I heard there would be an AP preview for GE, reportedly for people who have activated AP's. (This is where the pixie dust will come into play).
I started following the blogs much more closely. Why the blogs? Because we rarely to never get any communication from AP or DVC and no matter how many times I've chatted with their IT department has it been resolved.
And, sure enough the day the registration opened I didn't get an email from Disney, but got a notice from one of the blogs I follow.
So I jump on the link and there were all kinds of spots available, and I got my husband and I a slot to see GE and make a lightsaber! So exciting!
Now is where it starts to get more complicated. My 19 year old son who previously wasn't sure he wanted to go, now said he would love to go once he realized we were going.
So I start reading comments from several people who had been able to get a reservation, that they were able to buy an AP that morning and use it (unactivated) to register for the GE preview. (It wouldn't have mattered one way or the other, but I thought my sons AP was renewable but it had expired).
I go onto the website to try to buy a pass. But the pass would not stay in my cart. I call Disney and some how end up with a pleasant reservation lady who says it's true, you can buy a pass and link it for the preview. (She actually put me on hold and checked and said reservations were still available for GE, let's do this)!
So, she takes my credit card info for $950 (we're DVC), and then neither of us can link it to my account and I end being transferred to the AP IT people. They finally get it linked and, you guessed it, the reservations were now closed because at that point I had been on the phone 2 separate times, once for 1 hour 15 min, and the second 1 hour and 48 min (no joke). So at that point I figure we're not going if we can't all go and I (naively) ask them to refund the cost of the AP and cancel it. (They misinterpreted what I said and thought I asked for their first born). So, apparently this isn't done and I get told because we're DVC I have to talk to them. That lady at DVC thought I asked for 2 of her children and said I needed to talk to guest services. She in turn thought I was speaking a foreign language because she said if I wasn't currently on property she couldn't help me. So guess who she transfers me to, yep, back to the AP people.
But, this is where the magic starts, I'm talking to the AP lady and she says "honey I can't find you in our system at all", of course you can't, almost came out of my mouth. But then, she realized I paid full price and she is the lady you pay payments to for your AP. She asks if I can wait on hold she thinks she can throw some magic my way, and I thought are you serious?! I am now an hour into my 3rd phone call of the day, I am not going anywhere if you can help me! She connects me to guess who, yep, the AP IT people! Aggggghh. But things started to look brighter, because THIS lady told me she couldn't return my money, but could "escalate" our situation to the escalation team, but she couldn't guarantee the outcome.
And now I will apologize again for the incredibly long wind up to the resolution, but we waited for over a week and when I finally had given up that anything positive was going to come of this, I got an email from Hope. That was the name on the email, no lie, and their solution was to add my son to our reservation, and so we are headed to Batuu with less than 2 weeks to plan/schedule etc!
Now, who will be coming along. My son S who started all of the drama.
And my husband G and me! Missing this trip is my daughter and her fiance.
We will be there Aug 18-21, with our GE preview day on Monday morning. With such late notice, the only place I could find to use our DVC points was at Saratoga Springs. The Tree Houses no less! I have never stayed there before but from the sounds of it we will have plenty of room to spread out!
We are ridiculously excited to have this impromptu trip and can't wait to get there!
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