We are really emphasizing “Great Guest Service with a Smile” and “Going Above and Beyond” for every guest during our 25th Anniversary year of 2015. Everyone should be READY TO ASSIST – meaning you should be attentive to any guests in the lobby, standing, SMILING and greeting any guests within 10 feet of the desk. Nice job to Anne, Roxie, Antonio, Keysha and Rafael who got great guest comments this week!

PLEASE READ MESSAGES!

Guys, with all of you working alone, we need EACH of you to take the responsibility to READ all of your e-mails, the Gazette, and When to Work messages. This is the ONLY way we can communicate things to you immediately. There’s nothing more annoying than to have something in the Gazette for 3 weeks in a row and send out messages and then get a call from someone asking the very thing that was addressed in all of these messages – like “I can’t find the 2 Day Base ticket in Universal’s Instant Ticket Wizard”. We would rather get a call than have you make a mistake, but PLEASE READ YOUR WHEN TO WORK MESSAGES AND THE GAZETTE!

DO MORE THOROUGH CLOSINGS

When handing over the tickets and reading EACH ONE to the guest as you hand them over, please be more thorough with your closing. Again, make sure the guests know which parks are included with the tickets, how long they have to use them (most of the time it’s 14 days), and ask if they need DIRECTIONS. Most of the time the guest can use the GPS directions on the back of the FunPak. But if the attraction you are selling is not there, please be sure you give accurate directions. If you are not sure, use Google or MapQuest to print directions for them.

OUR BODY: THE UNIVERSE WITHIN

This attraction is now permanently closed. Please do not sell it or the CSI combo.

LATENESS

We need everyone to BE ON TIME. When you’re late, it makes YOU look bad, the HOTEL look bad and AGS look bad. You lose sales and commissions. We are kind enough to give you a 7 minute grace period, but anything after that is considered late. Continued tardiness will lead to reprimands and termination.

RESERVATIONS FOR CERTAIN SALES

Remember, there are certain attractions that require reservations. Here are a few: all dinner shows, including Wonderworks Outta Control Magic Show; Kennedy Space Center Admissions that include “Lunch with an Astronaut”; any excursions with Grayline or Florida Dolphin Tours; Revolution Off Road; Forever Florida; and Boggy Creek 1 Hour Airboat Rides (not necessary for ½ hour). Excursions with Grayline and Florida Dolphin Tours DO NOT pick up directly at the hotels unless the guest pays extra for it. Please make sure the guest is aware of this!

NEW SHIRTS

For any of you that do not have the correct size for your shirts, we have new ones in the office. Please bring your old ones in to have them traded out for the correct size.

RED COACH ONLY FOR FLORIDA

Just a reminder that the ONLY company to be used for bus service anywhere in Florida is Red Coach (with Grayline as a backup). If you are approached by someone else to do shuttles or transfers, they cannot be used because we have to have insurance certificates on file for any transportation companies that we use.

SEA WORLD INCENTIVE – COMBOS

From January 19 – February 1, sell the most combo tickets and you receive TWO – 3 Day/3 Park tickets!

NO USING UNAPPROVED TAXIS

There is to be absolutely NO USING any unapproved Taxi or Limo companies. All taxis must be either the CONTRACTED company by the hotel or depending on your hotels situation, handled by the bellman or Front Desk staff. Anyone using an unapproved taxi or limo company will be terminated.

DISNEY CONVENTION TICKETS

Please check your inventory for Convention tickets. If you have any dated prior to 7/1/2014 or with a reservation number lower than 12878701, they are expired. Please let Rick S. know. Thanks

DISNEY FLORIDA RESIDENT TICKETS

Don’t forget, if you have a Florida Resident asking for the Discover Disney 3 or 4 Day pass, you can book them for this on our homepage. Remember, you DO NOT collect money but put the credit card info in the system. Print 2 copies of the confirmation page. Give the guest one, write your name on the other and turn it in.

SUGGEST HIGH PROFIT TICKETS

We know that it’s been slow out there, but Spring Break is right around the corner! Keep a positive attitude and hang in there. Let’s really push our high profit tickets! Make sure you suggest Blue Man Group with EVERY Universal ticket sold. Dinner shows should be suggested to every guest. Don’t forget Legoland! This is our highest profit daytime attraction. But don’t forget it’s CLOSED Tuesdays & Wednesdays!

MANAGER VACATIONS

1/28 – 2/3 – Ana Maria                                                                                                                               2/6 – 2/14 – Armando                                                                                                                               2/14 – 2/22 – Rick

SEA WORLD INCENTIVE – COMBOS

From January 19 – February 1, sell the most combo tickets and you receive TWO – 3 Day/3 Park tickets!

MOD FOR SATURDAY – KYMRY

Saturday 1/31, the MOD is Kymry. Rolando will be in the field helping.

Employee Notes: Happy Birthday to Susan on 2/3 and Florence on 2/5! Don’t forget the Harry Potter Weekend at Universal Studios from 1/30 – 2/1!  All activities and events are included with regular park admission!  This is a great way to sell the 2 Day Park-to-Park/3rd Day Free tickets!

We are really emphasizing “Great Guest Service with a Smile” and “Going Above and Beyond” for every guest during our 25th Anniversary year of 2015. Everyone should be READY TO ASSIST – meaning you should be attentive to any guests in the lobby, standing, SMILING and greeting any guests within 10 feet of the desk.

SHOPPERS ARE STILL OUT

We still have shoppers out on a regular basis. We have them registered as guests at each of our properties and they will be visiting your desk just like a regular tourist. They are checking for appearance, sales ability, courtesy and honesty. They will be making purchases and we will be checking to make sure that all purchases are recorded correctly in the POS. Additionally, Dollar is sending shoppers around to check on all of you using proper procedures for booking rental cars. We will continue to terminate any employee who is dishonest or does not follow the correct procedures.

UNIVERSAL REPORTS – MATCH UP

When you run your “Universal Summary Sales Report”, you must match up the total sales with what’s in your POS. If they do not match, you must run a “Detail Report” and return the FIRST SET of any duplicate tickets. Every week, Laura has a huge stack of tickets that have to be returned. Please return them yourself.

MOD / LEAD SCHEDULE ON AGS HOME PAGE

We are now posting the MOD / PM Lead schedule on the left side of the AGS homepage. Please use this as a reference. If it’s office hours ( 9am – 5 pm), feel free to call the office. Otherwise refer to the posted schedule.

DISNEY CONVENTION TICKETS

Please check your inventory for Convention tickets. If you have any dated prior to 7/1/2014 or with a reservation number lower than 12878701, they are expired. Please let Rick S. know. Thanks.

LEGOLAND

As of Tuesday, 1/20, Legoland is FINALLY back up! Just a few things to keep in mind: Buy An Adult at FULL Price, Get a Child Free should ONLY be used if the guest asks. We make much less profit on these tickets so it’s better to sell the regular $10 off tickets and you make more commission. If there are an odd number of tickets e.g. 3 Adults and 2 Children, be sure to do 2 Adults and 2 Children in the Gifting store and the additional adult in the Guest Service store. If you do BOGO’s, the adult ticket MUST be at FULL PRICE – absolutely NO discounts. Also, don’t forget the park continues to be CLOSED Tuesdays and Wednesdays through February 11th. The following week, they WILL be opened on the 17th and 18th, and then CLOSED on Tuesdays and Wednesdays AGAIN until March 10th, at which time they will be open 7 days a week through the summer.

4 PARK TIMESHARE OWNER’S TICKET

Katwyn will keep you updated on where they tickets are located as we consolidate the remaining inventory. Please make sure you read these messages. January 28th will be the LAST day we will sell these tickets for the guest to get 4 Days of use. Remember, these tickets are ONLY GOOD FOR ONE ADMISSION INTO EACH OF THE 4 MAJOR PARKS – no repeating any park, no hopping and no upgrades or changes whatsoever.

SELL HARD TICKET INVENTORY

If you are at a location that has any HARD TICKET INVENTORY (odds and ends), please try to sell these tickets FIRST. This includes any Universal tickets, 7 Day PTP Gifting tickets, miscellaneous Disney tickets (especially TOMS or Hopper TOMS. We really need to get rid of this inventory, even if it means splitting a family and printing some tickets and giving the rest of the family hard tickets. Thanks!

SEA WORLD WEEKDAY TICKETS

Please make sure you are reading all “details” when selling these tickets. If you are doing any advance purchases, remember this ticket is BLOCKED OUT from 3/14 – 4/12 and from 6/20 – 8/9. Also, for those of you doing the GIFTING tickets, they are still working on the Free Parking issue. The tickets are still NOT scanning for FREE parking at the parking plaza. If a guest is made to pay for parking, be sure to tell them to keep the receipt and bring it back to the desk for a refund. Sea World will reimburse us.

DISNEY FLORIDA RESIDENT TICKETS

Don’t forget, if you have a Florida Resident asking for the Discover Disney 3 or 4 Day pass, you can book them for this on our homepage. Remember, you DO NOT collect money but put the credit card info in the system. Print 2 copies of the confirmation page.  Give the guest one, write your name on the other and turn it in with your deposit.

W-2’S MUST BE PICKED UP IN OFFICE

Guys, we still have a lot of you that haven’t come in to pick up your W-2’s. Remember, you MUST come in to the office to pick up your W-2 and SIGN for it. You can also pick up any referral money you have.

ORLANDO TREE TREK ADVENTURE PARK

Everyone is invited to visit the newest Orlando attraction – Tree Trek Adventure Park.  Go to www.orlandotreetrek.com, click on “Book Now” and choose the time on your choice of days:  Now through Wednesday, 1/28.  Use your name and this VIP Complimentary Discount code: G100 for a maximum of 4 people.  Be sure to wear closed toe shoes.  Take advantage of this FREE offer!

BREAK POLICY – MUST BE SIGNED

Although this is not new, we are finding that a handful of you are disregarding the policies we have in place and leaving property on a regular basis. So this will clarify it for everyone.

SEA WORLD INCENTIVE – COMBOS

From January 19 – February 1, sell the most combo tickets and you receive TWO – 3 Day/3 Park tickets!

MICHEL RUNNING THURS – SUN

Michel is now running Thursday – Sunday. If you need him, call (321) 527-1527.

MOD FOR SATURDAY – KYMRY

Saturday 1/24, the MOD is Kymry. Rolando will be in the field helping.

Employee Notes: Congrats to Darren for 1 year on 1/27! Happy Birthday to Karen on 1/28 and Liliana on 1/30! Please welcome Mayra Romero to AGS!

We are really emphasizing “Great Guest Service with a Smile” and “Going Above and Beyond” for every guest during our 25th Anniversary year of 2015. Great job to Jose P., Barbara and Anne Narzynski who received great guest comments! We will be working on an incentive for great Comment Cards and Trip Advisor comments to coincide with this focus.

SEA WORLD UPDATES

The Length of Stay tickets are back! When selling any Sea World Multi-Day Products, you MUST ask your guest if they prefer going to EACH PARK ONE TIME or if they want UNLIMITED ACCESS for 14 days. If they only want ONE admission to each park, sell them COMBO tickets. If they want 14 days UNLIMITED, sell them the Length of Stay tickets. Be very careful when choosing the tickets in E-Z Ticket! If you charge for Combos and print LOS by mistake, you will be charged the difference.

FLEXTICKETS

With the return of Length of Stay tickets, we will now go back to selling the 5 and 6 Park FlexTickets as before. For the 5 Park Flex, you will print the 3 Park Unlimited Universal ticket along with the SW/AQ Length of Stay ticket. For the 6 Park Flex, you will print the 3 Park Unlimited Universal ticket along with the SW/AQ/BG Length of Stay ticket. The 4 Park Bundle will remain the same. You will print a 3 Day Base Universal ticket along with the SW/AQ COMBO ticket – NOT Length of Stay.

WET ‘N WILD LENGTH OF STAY

Wet ‘n Wild no longer sells Length of Stay tickets at the gate or online. However, OUR tickets give 14 consecutive days of UNLIMITED use! Use this as a selling tool for Wet ‘n Wild sales. Also, after we deplete our current inventory, we will only be carrying ONE TICKET for both Adults and Children. We will let you know when this happens. Remind your guests that the park closes if the temperature is below 70.

LEGOLAND

We are sorry that Legoland has been down this week, but it was out of our control. There were several accounts that had the same problem as us. When it comes back up, we will let you know, and once this happens, PLEASE CONTINUE to push these tickets! They are some of our highest profit tickets and you make the most commission!

CIRQUE “PROMO” STARTING 1/20

Don’t forget that for all shows starting 1/20, if you are booking tickets through CONNECT, you must once again use the “PROMO” category when entering the number of Adults and Children. Cirque is offering special pricing and in order to get this rate, you must use “Promo”. If you don’t, you will be charged the difference for the loss.

4 PARK TIMESHARE OWNER’S TICKET

All tickets have now been distributed. If you are low on tickets for do not have enough tickets to finish a sale, please call Katwyn or the MOD. We will need to move them around in order to deplete the inventory. January 28th will be the LAST day we will sell these tickets for the guest to get 4 Days of use. Remember, these tickets are ONLY GOOD FOR ONE ADMISSION INTO EACH OF THE 4 MAJOR PARKS – no repeating any park, no hopping and no upgrades or changes whatsoever.

READ WTW MESSAGES – GAZETTE
Guys, obviously because most of you are on your own, it’s VERY IMPORTANT that you read any messages that we send out. We can see when you read the WTW messages and many of you are NOT. Also, please read the Gazette. We put a lot of important information in here and we get very disappointed when mistakes are made that could have been avoided.

W-2’S MUST BE PICKED UP IN OFFICE
Every year, we have W-2’s that go to the wrong address or are lost, so in order to avoid that, you MUST come in to the office to pick up your W-2 and SIGN for it. You can also use this as a time to pick up any referral money that you have.

BREAK POLICY – MUST BE SIGNED
When you come to pick up your W-2, we are also having each of you sign a break policy. Although this is not new, we are finding that a handful of you are disregarding the policies we have in place and leaving property on a regular basis. So this will clarify it for everyone.

SLOWER TIME – MAXIMIZE SALES!
Obviously it’s gotten slower and we have moved into Convention Season. Don’t get down – stay positive! Many times people here on conventions have their evenings free, so it’s a great chance to sell the higher profit night-time attractions. Treasure Tavern and Sleuth’s are GREAT for couples and conventioneers. Blue Man Group and Cirque are also good! Don’t forget the Disney Convention tickets too! If you’re at a hotel that doesn’t have these tickets and you need them, call a manager or the runner to have them transferred to you.

SEA WORLD INCENTIVE – COMBOS
From January 19 – February 1, sell the most combo tickets and you receive TWO – 3 Day/3 Park tickets!

PIRATE’S FAM 1/16 & 1/24
Please take advantage of this FAM! Especially if you are new or if you haven’t seen the show in a while! There’s no better way to sell something than to see it for yourself!

MICHEL RUNNING THURS – SUN
Michel is now running Thursday – Sunday. If you need him, call (321) 527-1527.

MOD FOR SATURDAY – KYMRY
Saturday 1/17, the MOD is Kymry. Rolando will be in the field helping.

Employee Notes: Congrats to Rafael for 3 years on 1/17! Happy Birthday to Bryan Campos on 1/23! Please welcome Maribel Ramirez to the AGS Team!

We are really emphasizing “Great Guest Service with a Smile” and “Going Above and Beyond” for every guest during our 25th Anniversary year of 2015. We will be working on an incentive for great Comment Cards and Trip Advisor comments to coincide with this focus. Stay tuned!

SEA WORLD UPDATES

Please make sure you are opening the “PDF” file to print tickets. We are finding that if you use “html”, sometimes the Bar Codes are not printing. So be sure to click on “View” from the PDF version and then print those tickets.
Weekday Tickets – Be sure to ask your guests what day they are visiting the park. If they are not sure, or think it may be on the weekend, sell the “Any day” tickets. The Monday – Friday tickets are good for both Adults and Children through 6/19, with a Blackout period of 3/14 – 4/12. Gifting Tickets – Free parking IS included with the Gifting tickets. If the ticket does not say it yet, you can be assured that it IS included. They are trying to get the verbiage fixed on the actual tickets so there will be no confusion.  that they are only good for ONE visit to each park on the ticket.  Discovery Cove – Discovery Cove bookings continue to give 14 Days of Unlimited use of both Sea World and Aquatica. If the guest wants Busch Gardens as well, you will book the “Ultimate”. Remember, children must be AT LEAST 6 YEARS OLD to be able to swim with the dolphins. Also, the park will be CLOSED Tuesdays – Thursdays through February 12th. Also, we are having an incentive from January 5th to January 18th and the person that books the most Discovery Cove admissions will receive admission for 2! If you have someone doing Sea World and Aquatica, it’s only $80 more to add Discovery Cove!

LEGOLAND

We are having a lot of problems with some of you selling Legoland tickets and not letting the guest know that the park is CLOSED Tuesdays and Wednesdays through February 11th! The Water Park continues to be closed until March 21. Please ALWAYS check the calendar before selling tickets. Also, when selling the tickets, be sure to ask your guests if they want to take the FREE shuttle. The shuttle must be booked at the time of the sale because it fills up. When booking the shuttle, not only do you have to fill out the names, but there is a reservation form with the name and address for each person before you can print the tickets. Don’t worry about selecting the number of people at the bottom, and you can put in any name and address. Once you complete for all people and hit continue, it will allow you to print the shuttle tickets.

UNIVERSAL’S 3RD DAY FREE

The 3rd Day Free on the 2 Day Park-to-Park tickets is BACK and now able to be sold through June 7th. As always, we will automatically give a Free Day on the 2 Day Base ticket and you will print the 3 Day Base ticket in Instant Ticket Wizard.

MULTI-DAY PTP W/ WET ‘N WILD

Don’t forget that when a guest wants ANY 2 Day or Higher Park-to-Park ticket WITH Wet ‘n Wild, we ALWAYS print them a 3 Park Unlimited ticket in Instant Ticket Wizard. This instead of only giving them 2 admissions, this ticket gives UNLIMITED admissions to USF, IOA, and WW for 14 consecutive days. This is the same ticket we print for the BUNDLES.

CIRQUE CLOSED – “PROMO” 1/20

Cirque sales will be done at the regular pricing for shows through 1/10. They will be DARK from 1/11-1/19. When they return on 1/20, if you are booking tickets through Connect, you must use the “PROMO” category. This shows up when you choose the number of adults and children on the BOTTOM TWO sets of tickets.

4 PARK TIMESHARE OWNER’S TICKET

The 4 Park Timeshare Owner’s ticket has now been taken out of Connect. You must sell the HARD tickets out of your inventory. Please be sure the guest understands the restrictions on these tickets (no changes, no upgrades, ONE VISIT to each of the major parks, no more than ONE park in a day). Please be sure to order more through your Supplies Request Form if you run low.

HARD TICKETS ARE ACTIVE

When there are hard Disney tickets in inventory, these tickets ARE ACTIVE and DO NOT need to be swiped. This includes the 4 Park ticket, Convention Tickets, Water Parks and DisneyQuest. Please make sure you count them at the beginning and end of your shift, and minus out any tickets sold from your inventory.

SHOPPERS CONTINUE

We will continue to terminate any employees who are dishonest and not recording sales correctly, or who are not following correct rental car procedures. We will NOT tolerate dishonest or theft in this company WHATSOEVER.

UNIVERSAL INCENTIVE

Unfortunately we fell short of our goal for Universal sales by more than 3,000 tickets. We will have more incentives coming!

MOD FOR SATURDAY – KYMRY

Saturday 1/10, the MOD is Kymry. Rolando will be in the field helping and to take your calls.

Employee Notes: Congrats to Jon F. for 6 years on 1/12, Rolando for 7 years on 1/10, and Chris for 4 years back on 1/10! Happy Birthday to Diane on 1/12, Carlos on 1/15 and Rick S. on 1/14! Let’s make this year the BEST in the history of AGS! Set goals, sell high profit tickets, SMILE and give GREAT guest service!