Little Known Perks

[jedi jen]

I think pin trading with the CMs is a nice perk. My DS(9) and DD(5) enjoy it very much. They look forward to seeing and meeting the CMs, and the CMs are very nice and they learn interesting things about WDW from them. Also, the pin trading seems to enhance the whoe magical experience for them. Oh yeah, and me too. This year I have my own pins for trading.

[TheMartellFamily]

If you go to the first aid station they have some free services if needed for ailments occured while on vacations like upset tummy, and headache just go in and talk to one of the nurses and they can help you feel better.
Another one we have used so much in the past is the kidswitch program. Now are boys are so much older we are useing it less and less to the point I feel next time we may not need it at all.
I love the the Child care centers to. It is a nice to get away for a few minutes to have down time for the kids. It is great that they have great kid potties, changing tables, and feeding area that is quiet and not over stimulating the kids when they have sometimes have had to much.
There are so many great perks that if you find one it is great to know and pass it on.

[Mendelson]

On Thursdays in September, if you wear a green shirt (any kind...doesn't matter, so long as it is predominantly green) AND Mickey Ears and approach any blonde castmember (male or female, doesn't matter, but must be a natural blonde) and say, "I was born to speak all mirth and no matter," you will get a fast pass to both Space Mountain and Everest.

Remember, only on Thursdays in September.

[snifflesmcg]

On Thursdays in September, if you wear a green shirt (any kind...doesn't matter, so long as it is predominantly green) AND Mickey Ears and approach any blonde castmember (male or female, doesn't matter, but must be a natural blonde) and say, "I was born to speak all mirth and no matter," you will get a fast pass to both Space Mountain and Everest.

Remember, only on Thursdays in September.

That's so cool. How did you find this out?

[disneyfan369]

On Thursdays in September, if you wear a green shirt (any kind...doesn't matter, so long as it is predominantly green) AND Mickey Ears and approach any blonde castmember (male or female, doesn't matter, but must be a natural blonde) and say, "I was born to speak all mirth and no matter," you will get a fast pass to both Space Mountain and Everest.

Remember, only on Thursdays in September.

Is that some kind of joke?

[CleveRocks]

That's so cool. How did you find this out?

Is that some kind of joke?

I don't think it's that important where he found it out or whether it's a joke or not. My guess is it's much ado about nothing.

[Lizzie]

On Thursdays in September, if you wear a green shirt (any kind...doesn't matter, so long as it is predominantly green) AND Mickey Ears and approach any blonde castmember (male or female, doesn't matter, but must be a natural blonde) and say, "I was born to speak all mirth and no matter," you will get a fast pass to both Space Mountain and Everest.

Remember, only on Thursdays in September.

Okay this has to be a joke. Has anyone done this?

[jedi jen]

On Thursdays in September, if you wear a green shirt (any kind...doesn't matter, so long as it is predominantly green) AND Mickey Ears and approach any blonde castmember (male or female, doesn't matter, but must be a natural blonde) and say, "I was born to speak all mirth and no matter," you will get a fast pass to both Space Mountain and Everest.

Remember, only on Thursdays in September.

I'm skeptical.

[PAYROLL PRINCESS]

And you would be able to tell they are a natural blonde, how? Only my hairdresser & my sisters know for sure.

[Mendelson]

I don't think it's that important where he found it out or whether it's a joke or not. My guess is it's much ado about nothing.

Of course it's a joke! Sorry, I thought you'd all spot the silliness a mile away.

Bonus points to CleveRocks, spotting the "BS" (pun intended) and even knowing the play!

So yes, I'm playing, but remember, "the play's the thing."

[DisneyDudet]

I'm sure you all know about Disney's Magical Express. But one little known perk of DME has to do with room availability.

At the airport, you check in at the Disney Welcome Center. When you do that, a message is sent to your resort that you've arrived at MCO and will soon be at the resort. At that point, you will be pre-assigned a room if one is available that matches the criteria in your reservation. You can always change it when you check in at the resort, but the point is that a room is set aside for you, if one is currently available. I can best explain this with a concrete example.

Let's say you have a reservation for a king-size bed room at CBR. You arrive at the airport's Disney Welcome Center at 10:00 a.m. Let's say that there is exactly one room that matches your reservation that is clean and available right now, one and only one (remember, this is hours before official check in time). That one room will be set aside for you. You'll arrive at CBR probably around 10:45 a.m. Let's say at 10:15 a.m. someone else with the same reservation as you arrives at CBR and goes to the front desk. They will be told their room isn't ready yet. Even though there is a perfectly good king-size bed room sitting there clean and empty and ready, that other person won't get that room because it's been set aside for you. Even though they got there first, the room is yours. So you cruise in at 10:45 a.m., a half-hour after the other guy, and YOU get the room and he's still waiting.

Nice perk.

By the way, you aren't locked into the room you're pre-assigned to. It's just held for you. You can refuse it in favor of waiting for another room that is more to your liking. This is something done totally at the resort ... the DME desk has nothing to do with room assignment. In other words, it won't do any good to tell the DME CM what type of room request you have. They don't actually talk to the resort ... the computer just sends a simple message that you've arrived, and nothing more.

Many who have worked in reservations say rooms are assigned days in advanced, so I don't know how this play, or what is true. Something to really look into.

Little perks... Birthday buttons at Guest Relations are always fun!

At DL, they do have a few "disconnected" FPs, meaning you can hold one for Space Mountain and run to get one for one the disconnected rides, like Roger Rabbit.

Also, some people don't know, but you can ship breakable or large packages bought directly from the parks home. You pay shipping based on total purchase price, and don't pay taxes. They send it from the parks to your home. The best part, if something is missing or broken, contact Disney and they will replace it for free, as they are the ones who pack and ship. We use this in addition to sending packages to the resort (easier than to the front of the park... its a zoo getting it at the end of the day!). The best part is that those not staying on site can ship their packages home and save space in backpacks!

[Lizzie]

If you are not staying on site you used to be able to buy packeges and have them sent to the front of the park and you can pick them up as you leave.

[CleveRocks]

Of course it's a joke! Sorry, I thought you'd all spot the silliness a mile away.

Bonus points to CleveRocks, spotting the "BS" (pun intended) and even knowing the play!

So yes, I'm playing, but remember, "the play's the thing."

I'm just showing off the benefits of a large urban public school system education.

We learned Shakespeare and had enough time left over to develop a sense of humor, too!

[CleveRocks]

Many who have worked in reservations say rooms are assigned days in advanced, so I don't know how this play, or what is true. Something to really look into.

I got this information a while back from two separate CMs, one of whom works with DME and one of whom is in resorts.

The strange thing is that every WDW resort runs as its own separate little entity, so the methods and procedures can differ slightly from one place to another.

Generally speaking, the rooms that are assigned days in advance are those that have any sort of special paid-in-advance upgrades, important special needs or strong requests attached (e.g., non-smoking [although this no longer applies], first floor, etc.). At most resorts, run of the house reservations aren't pre-assigned ... the front desk CM pulls from the appropriate pool of currently clean and available rooms in the computer (for example, at a Moderate resort, there would be a pool of water view rooms, a pool of king-size bed rooms, and at CBR a pool of preferred location rooms). In other words, if they will have 300 rooms checking in at CBR on Saturday that have no special needs, they will not bother taking the man-hours to assign all of those rooms in advance, unless of course the room assigner on the graveyard shift is just that bored or that gung-ho.

Here's how it was explained to me on another message board by one of the CMs I was referring to:

The Back office Cast has this information sent to them... Room assignment (at resorts that still have that position) and Operation Support Cast have a screen in DPMS/HRGAS (the computer system that is used at the resorts) that they are supposed to have open at all times. Once the guest checks in at the DME counter at the airport, it automatically sends the information to the resort notifying them that the guest has arrived and checked in. Once this information is on the "table," as it is called, it has to be cleared out by the Back office team. The only way to clear it off the table is to assign a room and remove the reservation from the table. The Operations Team will get the notification that the guest has arrived and look for a clean and vacant room that they can assign right away.

As soon as a room is assigned to a reservation it downloads to the DME Assistants' Palm Pilots as completed. When the bags arrive they will deliver the luggage to the room that the Palm tells them. The front desk CM is supposed to let the Back office team know when a DME res was moved (if the guest chooses a room other than the one pre-assigned) so that they can notify the DME Assistant.

Specific enough???

[tealady]

We LOVE the pin trading too!

I think I am the most enthuastic "kid" when it comes to that excitement!

[psychotekkie]

Cool info, CleveRocks! I love knowing exactly how things work at Disney. They do all this work behind the scenes, and to us it just comes out looking like magic!

[DisneyDreams09]

I love the pin trading, there were so many the CM's had that we just loved, but we stuck with trying to find the most rare ones, and we got several from the mid-90's in 2006 when we went, isn't likely that you'll find too many of those.