We know that you all are really working hard to make a positive impression on each guest that you work with and we are seeing the results! If you are going “above and beyond for every guest” and they want to recognize your great efforts, please encourage them to make a positive comment on Trip Advisor for the hotel you are working at. They can also leave a positive comment on the AGS facebook page. Great job to Antonio who had a very nice comment on our Facebook page and to Christina who received the Employee of the Hour award at Oasis!
 

DISNEY PRICE INCREASES
As expected, Disney increased their prices on Sunday, 2/22. All new prices have been loaded into the POS. If you notice any discrepancies or mistakes, please call Rick S. or Armando. The main thing to keep in mind is that the Magic Kingdom price has had a $6 increase. Additionally, the NO EXPIRATION option has been eliminated. We will be able to sell this option and it will still be able to be activated through 3/2. Starting 3/2, you will no longer be able to sell any tickets with the NO EXPIRATION option.
UNIVERSAL PRICE INCREASES
We knew it was coming. Effective Thursday, 2/26, Universal increased their Gate Prices on all tickets. The new prices have been loaded into the POS. If you don’t see them, you will need to do a “Force Update” and also exit out of the POS and log back in. You will have the rest of this week to make additional commissions by selling tickets at the new prices. Costs will be changing 3/2.

DISNEY CONVENTION TICKETS
The Disney Convention Tickets have also had a price increase. These new prices are reflected in the POS. We have moved them from “Promo” to “Hard Ticket Inventory. We are making new pricing signs and will have them delivered ASAP.

ORLANDO CITY TICKETS
We have signed an agreement that makes us the EXCLUSIVE Guest Services seller for Orlando City tickets. We have 7 Mid Field seats to sell on a per game basis that are not available to the general public (although they are already sold for the first game). For the first game – March 8th, the only tickets we have available to sell are Upper Level in the Citrus Bowl. Seating charts are being delivered to every location along with booking procedures. For any sales for the FIRST GAME ONLY on March 8th, please call Marc Tipton so we can make sure all of the correct procedures are in place.  407-506-7692

DRESS CODE
We know some of you are tired of hearing this but we have people looking at all of you daily, and if you are not dressed properly, we hear it. Please make sure you are wearing the proper uniform – ironed – and you have closed toe shoes. You must wear your nametag at all times and you CANNOT wear hoodies, sweaters, sweatshirts, or casual jackets at work. If you are cold, you must wear an undershirt and a professional looking dark color blazer ONLY.

SEA WORLD HOSPITALITY PERKS
Guys, everyone should have logged in and taken the assessment test. Remember, YOU CANNOT LOG IN USING LAST YEAR’S INFORMATION – IT IS A NEW REGISTRATION EVERY YEAR. So when you go to www.hospitalityperks.com, you will click on “2015 Assessment Now Open – Click Here”. You DO NOT enter your e-mail and password from last year here, but you click on “Need An Account”. Then you enter your e-mail TWICE on this page.

LEGOLAND IN POS
First of all, you guys should NOT be mentioning the Kid’s Free! ONLY sell these if the guest mentions it! We make a lot LESS money when you sell BOGO’s. If you do sell them and you have an odd number of tickets, you must LOG OUT of the gifting store and print any odd tickets in the Guest Services store.  So if you have 2 Adults and 3 Kids, you will do 2 Adults and 2 Kids Free tickets in the GIFTING store, LOG OUT, and go into the GUEST SERVICES store and print 1 more Kid’s ticket.  If you don’t do this, we lose money and you will be charged the difference. If you are unsure, call a lead or Rick and he will explain.

WATER PARK TICKET CHANGES
There are a LOT of confusing changes on the Disney Water Park tickets. Let me be clear – the changes are ONLY on the actual Water Park tickets and do not affect the Water Park Fun & More option or the Water Park option on the Touch of Magic tickets. Basically there will be 2 different prices on the tickets – Seasonal and regular. The seasonal price is the same as the current price that we have on the tickets. The peak pricing will be $5 more. Peak season will be from May 23 – August 30. The important thing to remember is that any NEW tickets (which we do NOT have yet) allow the guest to visit BOTH Water Parks in the same day. So if you are selling our current tickets, you need to make sure the guest knows that they are valid for ONLY 1 Water Park admission. We are getting clarification from Disney on what will happen if one of our guests wants to visit the other Water Park on the same day. As soon as we get more information, we will let you know.  Again, any ticket that has the Water Park Fun & More option or the Touch of Magic ONLY ALLOWS ONE WATER PARK VISIT per day and does not allow the guest to visit another one on the same day.

PERSONAL ITEMS AT LOCATIONS
We’re getting reports that some personal items have come up missing at some of the locations. Please have respect for one another and leave anyone’s personal items alone. It’s disappointing to hear that someone is stealing or taking others stuff.

GIFTING & DUAL PEOPLE NEEDED
We still need people to move over to both the Gifting and Dual teams. If any of you are interested, please call Katwyn for Gifting or Kymry for the Dual locations.

ARMANDO IS OFF SUNDAY 3/1
Katwyn will be on duty.

MOD FOR SATURDAY – KYMRY
Kymry will be the MOD on Saturday and Rolando will be available to help as well.

Employee Notes: Congrats to Dawn for 2 years on 3/1! Happy Birthday to Andrea on 3/5!

Let’s keep working on giving great guest service! SMILE when guests are around your desk and give a pleasant greeting! Make sure you give all your guests’ accurate information about the tickets – how long they have to use them, what parks are included – and be SURE to read the tickets OUTLOUD to your guests! Just today, we had a guest that was supposed to get 4- 4 Day tickets and they got 4 – 1 Day Tickets. And of course they were used. PLEASE guys, be sure to read EACH ticket to the guest.

DISNEY PRICE INCREASES
We are expecting the Disney prices to go up on 2/22. We know that the Magic Kingdom is going up $6 to $105 and Non-Magic Kingdom $5 to $99. As soon as we get confirmation we will let you know. This is a good time to encourage your guests to buy their tickets in advance before the price increase. If you get any phone calls about buying tickets, try to do an “APS” sale. If you are unsure of how to do this, call a lead or a manager to review the procedures.

RENTAL CARS – DOLLAR/THRIFTY
With the Daytona 500 next week, all rental car companies are usually sold out. If they aren’t, their rates are sky high. We want all of you to continue calling Dollar/Thrifty/Hertz first. But if they are out of cars or the rates are too high, you may use Action or Enterprise as a backup. Remember, any commissions from rental cars must come through the office. We calculate rental car commissions as part of the rents that we pay. Anyone not following proper procedures for booking rental cars – or taking any money under the table – will be terminated. You must put all rental car bookings in the POS under “Referrals” – Category 23. You should enter the guest’s name and the reservation number so the payment can be tracked. Send the voucher to the office with your deposit so we can pay you accurately.

CREDIT CARD BATCHES
We are having a lot of problems with people not batching out the credit card machines. Let’s review: Put all credit card slips in ASCENDING order. Run a “Detail” report. Run a “Totals” report. Then CLOSE or SETTLE your machine. If you are using one of the older machines, you may be prompted to enter the TOTAL amount of your credit card sales into the machine. Then you should get a “Settlement Successful” report. The machine MUST read “Settlement Successful” or “Batch Closed”. Staple the “Settlement Successful” slip to the very top of all your slips, with the Totals report under it and the detail report under that. If you are unsure if it closed, try again and it should read “No Open Batch”.

COUNTERFEIT $100’S
We seeing a few counterfeit $100’s coming in to the office. Please make sure you are using the counterfeit pens on all bills $20 and up. If you get a $100, look for the embedded US100 on the left side of the bill and the watermark of Ben Franklin on the right side. Also, in the green serial number, there should be a number and underneath that number there should be a letter to match the position in the alphabet. For example if the serial number starts with a “C”, there should be a “3” underneath is. If it’s starts with an ”A”, there should be a “1” underneath. Be especially careful if your guests are from S. America. It seems that this is where most of the counterfeits are coming from.

DISNEY TRAINING
Mark your calendars now! There will be 2 hour training sessions on March 4 & 5 from 9-11, 1-3, and 3-5 on each day. Please do NOT ask for the day off. If you are working an AM shift on those days, you can go at 3. If you work a PM shift, you can go at 9. It will be held at Coronado Springs. As soon as we get the link to RSVP, we will forward it to you.

TARDINESS
Guys, we give each of you a 7 minute grace period to check in at your locations. Be sure to call the office line at 407-367-1910 to check in from the HOTEL PHONE as soon as you get to the location. There are a handful of you that are late on a regular basis. We are fully staffed now and we will have no choice but to terminate habitual offenders.

WATER PARK CLOSURES
Please keep an eye on the weather forecast and let your guests know that if the temperature drops below 70, the water parks are subject to close.

“READY TO ASSIST”
We want each of you to take the “Ready to Assist” attitude with every guest. What does this mean? Be attentive and alert to all guests in the lobby. Greet everyone with a smile and a pleasant greeting when they get within 10 feet of the desk. STAND up when a guest is approaching your desk. Stay off your cell phones and keep your face out of the computer.

SEA WORLD HOSPITALITY PERKS
The e-mail addresses should be loaded either Friday or Monday for you to begin the Perks program enrollment and the assessment test. Remember, YOU CANNOT LOG IN USING LAST YEAR’S INFORMATION – IT IS A NEW REGISTRATION EVERY YEAR. So when you go to www.hospitalityperks.com, you will click on “2015 Assessment Now Open – Click Here”. You DO NOT enter your e-mail and password from last year here, but you click on “Need An Account”. Then you enter your e-mail TWICE on this page.

MANAGER VACATIONS
Katwyn – 2/13 – 2/16                                                                                                                                 Rick S. – 2/14 – 2/22 Rick will be on a cruise – no cell service.

MOD FOR SATURDAY – KYMRY
Kymry will be the MOD on Saturday and Rolando will be available to help as well.

Employee Notes: Congrats to Marc for 2 years back on 2/18! Happy Birthday to Ann Norris on 2/19, Tonya on 2/20, Miriam on 2/22, Barbara on 2/24, & Alan on 2/27!  Please welcome Clarissa Cardona and Michelle Victoria to the AGS team!

We want to make sure out guests have a GREAT customer experience with us from start to finish. Give a nice greeting to anyone within 10 feet of our desk! A SMILE goes a long way!  Let’s be thorough with the information we’re giving about the parks and hours. Be sure to point out the times for special events, like fireworks and parades. Make sure when you read the tickets OUTLOUD to the guests, that they know which parks are included and how long they have to use the tickets. And lastly, THANK the guest for the sale, tell them to have a great time, and ask them if they need directions!

NO CELL PHONES TO BE USED
We are reiterating our policy on cell phone usage. There is to be NO USE OF CELL PHONES while working – TEXTING or otherwise – unless it is an emergency or you have to for work purposes. We are getting far too many complaints about our employees being on their phones on personal calls, texting, and not paying attention to guests from our hotel managers. This will NOT be tolerated and will lead to reprimand and/or termination.

ATTENTIVENESS TO LOBBY / GUESTS
Along with cell phone usage, many of you are using the computer to play games and again, are not paying attention to guests in the lobby. Please keep your heads UP, out of the computers, and pay attention to ANYONE in the lobby. We had a manager at a location last week that stood in front of an employee for 2 minutes without them realizing they were there because they were playing games on the computer. Again, this is unacceptable. We will be going into your computers and monitoring what you do. If we see people not doing work related activities, you will be reprimanded. If you are bored, get out from behind the desk and MINGLE in the lobby! Open the door for guests, greet them, pass out stickers to the kids, and make “Lobby Magic”!

UNIFORMS – MANDATORY
The AGS uniforms are NOT optional. An AGS uniform must be worn Monday – Saturday, with Sunday as the ONLY day you can wear an attraction polo. If you do not have the right size AGS shirt, please come to the office and get one of the new ones. Nametags must be worn at all times. For those of you on the VIP team, call Marcc with any questions.

DISNEY TICKETS – WRITE NAMES
If you have a family that purchases 2 or more different types of Disney tickets, two things need to happen: 1) Print the same tickets types on separate confirmation pages; and 2) Have the guests WRITE their names on the tickets. We have had a couple situations where a family has mixed up their tickets and it’s caused all kinds of problems.

TREE TREK ADVENTURE
We are now selling Tree Trek located off Old Lake Wilson Road in Kissimmee. This is a series of 6 obstacle courses that increase in difficulty and 2 Zip line courses. Although they have been loaded in the POS in Category 20, Orlando Adventure Collection, there are some quirks with Kid’s ages and tickets. We will be passing out an information sheet soon with details.

LOOKING FOR MORE GIFTING TEAM
We are looking for volunteers to move over to the Gifting team. These team members must be motivated, organized, good at upgrading and willing to work a lot of hours. If you are interested, please let Katwyn or Armando know.

DISNEY TRAINING
Mark your calendars now! There will be 2 hour training sessions on March 4 & 5 from 9-11, 1-3, and 3-5 on each day. Please do NOT ask for the day off. If you are working an AM shift on those days, you can go at 3. If you work a PM shift, you can go at 9. It will be held at Coronado Springs. More info to come.

SEA WORLD HOSPITALITY PERKS
You will be able to enroll and take the assessment test starting MONDAY. Remember, YOU CANNOT LOG IN USING LAST YEAR’S INFORMATION – IT IS A NEW REGISTRATION EVERY YEAR. So when you go to www.hospitalityperks.com, you will click on “2015 Assessment Now Open – Click Here”. You DO NOT enter your e-mail and password from last year here, but you click on “Need An Account”. Then you enter your e-mail TWICE on this page and you are ready to take the assessment test.

STAND WHEN GUESTS ARE PRESENT
Unless you are at a hotel that has a desk with guest chairs at your same level, you MUST stand when guests are present. It looks very unprofessional if you are sitting and a guest is standing looking down on you. You should be at THEIR level.

SELL HARD TICKETS FIRST
If there are any remaining hard tickets out there, particularly at the gifting locations, please make sure you sell them FIRST, even if you have to split a party and print some. We have to get rid of this inventory. Thank you!

SEA WORLD PRICE INCREASES
Any Sea World or Busch Gardens ticket has increased. On most products it’s a $5 increase. There are 2 new changes – all 2 park combos are $99. This is for either Sea World/Aquatica or Sea World/Busch Gardens. Also, Sea World is charging a $5 convenience fee on all online sales. We are matching this charge.

ORLANDO MAGIC SALES
Call Rick or Kymry for a party of 2, or Katwyn or Armando for tickets in the Diamond Suite.  If you have guests needing anything different, please call the Magic directly at 407-916-2969.

MANAGER VACATIONS
Armando – 2/6 – 2/14                                                                                                                        Katwyn – 2/13 – 2/16                                                                                                                                  Rick S. – 2/14 – 2/22   Rick will be on a cruise with no cell service.

MOD FOR SATURDAY – KYMRY
Kymry will be the MOD on Saturday and Rolando will be available to help as well.

Employee Notes: Congrats to Dimary for 3 years on 2/13 and Daniel for 5 years on 2/11! Happy Birthday to Eric H. on 2/12!