Well, this is it folks! Starting this weekend and for the next 2 weeks is the BUSIEST time of the year! Please be prepared. Get in to your locations early! Set yourself up for success by giving yourself enough time to get settled in the morning. Make sure you count your hard ticket inventory and bank. You WILL have lines! Be sure to acknowledge everyone waiting and GREET them with a smile and a pleasant “Good morning folks! I’ll be right with your”. Then hand them a FunPak and some dinner show brochures to look over while they’re waiting. Let them know they may have to wait a few minutes with you, but the lines will be much shorter than the lines to buy tickets at the parks!

SUPPLIES

Every year we have locations run out of Disney shells during this time. To avoid this, I want EVERY location to have a MINIMUM of 4 packs of ADULT MYW shells! Please double check this and make sure you have these! Also, be sure you have at least 2 rolls each of POS paper and credit card paper, and 1 full pack of printer paper.

MINIMIZE MISTAKES

We always have a lot of mistakes made during the busy time. Let’s do our best to minimize them this year. Be sure when printing Disney tickets that you go ALL the way through until you get a “Congratulations” page, and then READ EACH TICKET OUT LOUD TO THE GUEST! If you don’t go to the “Congratulations” page, the tickets are NOT active. If you see you’ve made a mistake, pull an End of Day report and make sure the tickets are on there. Turn in the wrong ticket to the office to be voided and print new ones. Also, go over the ENTITLEMENTS on each ticket. Make sure you review WHAT PARKS are included (and give maps CIRCLING the parks) and let them know how long they have to use the tickets.

SECURITY

With the busy season, you need to be EXTRA careful with security procedures. Be sure to use the counterfeit pen on all bills $20 and higher. Be ESPECIALLY careful with older $100 bills from anyone in South America. Make sure you are following the credit card procedures we have in place. You must check ID’s for EVERY sale and for parties of more than 4, all members of the party must be in front of you and you MUST do an address verification. The procedures for an address verification are on the WTW Bulletin Board.

PARK CLOSURES – BY 10 AM!

Probably starting Monday, 12/22, many of the Disney Parks – particularly the Magic Kingdom – will be closed to capacity by 11 am. Make sure you tell your guests to get to the parks by no later than 10 am to make sure they can get in!

EXTENDED HOURS

We will be extending the hours at many of the locations, so please look closely at your schedules. Never turn away a customer. If you still have people in the lobby, you can stay as long as you need to take care of the guests.

NO DISCOUNTING FROM 12/19-12/31

Due to the amount of volume we will get and the long lines at the gates, NO DISCOUNTING will be allowed from 12/19 – 12/31, with the exception of the normal already included discounts on our tickets ($20 off Multi-day Universal tickets, $10 of Any day Sea World and Busch Gardens tickets, and $10 off Dinner Shows and Blue Man Group). You need to stress to your guests how long the lines will be at the ticket booths at the parks and how the convenience from buying the tickets from us is worth it!

SEA WORLD OPTIONS

Remember, the last day to use the weekday tickets is 12/19. Also, the last day for Kid’s Free tickets is 12/31. We are getting a lot of questions about the combos, which give one admission only to each park – NOT unlimited. These tickets are good for 1 year from print date, so if a guest gets a SW/BG combo, they would have 1 year to visit both parks ONE time.

2 DAY BASE UNIVERSAL – 3 DAY

Until the 3rd Day Free tickets are re-activated, we will now AUTOMATICALLY give a 3 Day BASE for any 2 Day Base Universal ticket sale.

CIRQUE / BMG HOLIDAY PRICING

Cirque Pricing will increase from 12/20-1/3. Use CATEGORY A34 IN THE POS. Blue Man Group will increase from 12/22-1/4. Use CATEGORY A26 IN THE POS AND LOOK FOR THE BUTTONS THAT HAVE “HLDY” in the abbreviation. Any questions, please call a lead.

BATCH OUT CREDIT CARD MACHINES

Please make sure you batch out your credit card machines at the end of your shift. Run a “detail” report and then do a settlement. Your final slip should read “Settlement Successful”.

UNIVERSAL INCENTIVE

From 11/24 – 1/4, we are running an incentive with Universal for ALL ticket products. AGS must sell 17, 236 tickets. Katwyn will be sending out regular updates on this incentive. Keep selling!

IMPORTANT DATES TO REMEMBER

12/18 – 1/2/15 – Block Out Dates for 4 Park Timeshare Owner’s Ticket                                      12/26 – 1/3/15 – Block Out Dates for Universal 3rd Day Free Tickets                                          12/19 – Last Day for Sea World and Busch Gardens Weekday tickets                                                  12/31 – Last Day for Sea World “Kid’s Free” tickets

MOD FOR SATURDAY – KYMRY

Saturday 12/20, the MOD is Kymry. Rolando will be available to take your calls and Rick S. and Katwyn will be helping in the field.

Employee Notes: Happy Birthday to Jon F. on 12/21! Congrats to Brian for 3 years on 12/19! Welcome Max DeCarvalho to AGS! Don’t forget the Sea World incentive!  We want to wish ALL of you a very Merry Christmas – Feliz Navidad – and thanks to all of you for being such loyal and dedicated employees!  A great big – THANKS – to those of you working Christmas Day and/or Christmas Eve!  All managers will also be working that day to show that we appreciate your efforts!