Here are some of the phone calls from irate guests that we’ve gotten this week, just to let you know what we have to deal with: Guests got Magic Kingdom tickets instead of Epcot; Guest paid for park hopping but got base tickets; Guests got BLANK SHELLS and got to the gate with a confirmation page that says “ERROR” on it. ALL OF THESE COULD HAVE BEEN AVOIDED IF EACH OF THE TICKETS ON THE CONFIRMATION PAGE WERE READ OUT LOUD TO THE GUEST AS THEY WERE HANDED OUT. You guys have no idea how often we get yelled at for mistakes and the amount of money we have to refund because of this. PLEASE, take 10 seconds to READ EACH TICKET out loud to the guests.

NEW SEA WORLD TICKETING
Effective January 1st, Sea World is going to a new pricing structure called “Choose Your Adventure”. There will be 1 visit for either Sea World or Busch Gardens, and Aquatica separately. There will also be 2 or 3 Visits for any of the 3 parks. The Unlimited Visits will offer unlimited visits for all 3 parks for 14 days with FREE PARKING for all parks. All of these will be in the POS starting tomorrow. The Weekday Tickets will be discontinued.

TYPHOON LAGOON CLOSING 1/4
Please be advised that Typhoon Lagoon will be closing January 4th, and Blizzard Beach will be re-opening. However, due to forecasted low temperatures, all Water Parks are expected to be closed from January 2nd – January 4th.

ORLANDO EYE CLOSED 1/4 – 1/13
Don’t forget that the Orlando Eye will be closed for scheduled maintenance from 1/4 – 1/13. Madame Toussads and the SeaLife Aquarium will be open as normal.

OUTTA CONTROL MAGIC SHOW AT WONDERWORKS CLOSED 1/11-1/18
They are closed to refinish their floors and will re-open for shows starting 1/19.

NEW YEAR’S EVE OPTIONS
When guests ask for things to do on New Year’s Eve, you should always think in terms of what we could sell them. That means, you should NOT suggest the specially ticketed event at CityWalk or bars downtown. The BEST THING TO OFFER IS THE DINNER SHOWS. Both Medieval Times and Pirate’s are offering an “UPGRADE” for our tickets. For Medieval Times, all tickets should be sold AT FULL PRICE – NO DISCOUNTS – AND THEN THEY UPGRADE FOR AN ADDITIONAL $15 for the 9:30 pm New Year’s Eve show. As soon as we get information on the rest of the options, we will let you know.

UNIVERSAL EPA CHANGES
Starting January 4th – March 20th, the EPA portion of any Gifting Tickets will be for Universal Studios only. Guests with EPA tickets will be able to enter the park 1 hour prior to park opening and will have access to Despicable Me and Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts. The Hogwarts Express will begin operating ½ hour prior to normal park opening.

4 DAY BASE – 5TH DAY FREE
Because our cost on a 5 Day Base is the same as a 4 Day Base, if someone wants a 4 Day Disney Base ticket, you should ALWAYS print the 5 Day Disney Base ticket. This is especially true for the Starwood VIP list, since IT’S ON THE LIST AND THEY EXPECT TO GET THE 5TH DAY FREE. Twice in the last week we’ve had to refund money to guests who were printed a 4 Day Disney Base ticket instead of the 5 Day. Please be careful!

BLUE MAN GROUP HOLIDAY PRICING
The last day for Holiday pricing is SUNDAY, 1/3. Prices will return to normal for shows starting Sunday 1/4. If you have guests getting a VIP price, the price MUST BE ADJUSTED UP BY $10 DURING THIS TIME. Explain to the guest that this is not our policy, but Blue Man Groups and we have no choice.

REFUNDS ON LOG SHEET
If there are any refunds made to a guest, you must write a DETAILED explanation on your Log Sheet, including the manager that approved the refund. Too many times Laura has to send notes out to try to figure out what they are for.

MATCH UP EOD REPORTS
Please make sure you are running EOD reports for EVERY attraction and that you match up your printed tickets with your POS report. When it’s this busy, if you don’t do this, it really causes a hardship on Laura to verify everything and it puts in doubt her ability to process payroll on time. If your Universal or Sea World tickets don’t balance, you must run a “detail” report and return the FIRST set of any duplicate tickets. If you have Disney tickets that need to be voided, please highlight the ones on your Disney EOD report, write “void” next to them, and send the shells to the office to be voided.

UPCOMING EVENTS IN ORLANDO
Here is a link through TickPick for upcoming events that we can sell in Orlando: http://blog.tickpick.com/upcoming-events-in-orlando/. Here are some of the highlights: Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus, 1/14 – 1/18; Paul Anka, 1/14; Macklemore &Ryan Lewis, 1/20; WWE Royal Rumber, 1/24. Please call a lead to book any of these events for you.

INCENTIVES
Orlando Magic Monthly – Sell 15 – Get 2 Terrace Level Game tickets; Sell 30 – Get 4 Chase Club Level Game tickets.                                                                                                                                   Fun Spot – From 11/1 – 12/31, AGS as a team must sell a minimum of 300 tickets. If we sell 650, we will all get a team party!

Employee Notes: Happy Birthday to Valerie on 1/2! We wish each and every one of you a Prosperous New Year!