Monthly Archives: May 2017

May 22nd, 2017 — Volume 27.2 — PANDORA & VOLCANO BAY WEEK

WALT DISNEY WORLD

Pandora at Animal Kingdom

Disney goes into PEAK SEASON on May 26th. Pandora, the world of Avatar, opens on the 27th! Hope you got a chance to RSVP for the hospitality event (if you missed it, you are not able to attend). Remember the event starts at 7 but you can park as early as 6. No guests can attend just yourself. Bring the print out sheet and have fun! I will be taking lots of photos at the event for those who did not get to attend and will feature them in next week’s gazette!

Remember Pandora has 2 attractions; Na’vi River Journey and Flight of Passage. Some guests may not be able to experience Flight of Passage due to weight or height.

UNIVERSAL STUDIOS

The park is opening, Thursday, May 25th.  It will be EXTREMELY CROWDED the first few months so it will be CRITICAL that you tell your guests that they must get there BEFORE park opening or they will risk not getting in due to capacity issues.  MAKE SURE THEY UNDERSTAND THAT THE VOLCANO BAY PORTION OF ANY MULTI-DAY TICKET IS NON-REFUNDABLE, and if they cannot get in, we cannot refund it. Parking for Volcano Bay is posted and is in the overflow garage at Universal.  Your guests will pay the $20 to park and then board a shuttle to get to the park entrance.  They do not allow coolers or outside food.  They will only allow small 6 pack type coolers for guests needing to take medicine or formula for babies.
Once they reach they entrance, they will be given the Tapu Tapu wearable band to use to enter the various rides at the park.  They will only be able to do ONE ride at a time.  If they decide they don’t want to wait for a particular ride and use their Tapu Tapu at another ride, the first ride will be removed from their band.  They will also be able to link their credit card to their Tapu Tapu to pay for food/drinks/souvenirs so they do not have to carry a wallet around the park.  At the end of the day, they must turn in their Tapu Tapu at the exit and all credit card information will be erased from the band.
TICKETS
– WE WILL NOT BE SELLING ONE DAY PASSES.  If a guest wants a ONE DAY PASS to Volcano Bay, they must be purchased online for $67 + tax ($71.36).
– If a guest wants to buy a ticket from us that includes Volcano Bay, they MUST buy a 3 Park ticket.  2 Park Tickets CANNOT be used for Volcano Bay.
– The smallest number of day ticket that will include Volcano Bay will be the 3 Park – 2 Day Park-to-Park ticket.  Otherwise, the next step up will be either the 3 Park – 3 Day Base or the 3 Park – 3 Day Park-to-Park ticket.  ENCOURAGE YOUR GUESTS TO GET THE PARK-TO-PARK TICKET SO IF VOLCANO BAY IS AT CAPACITY, THEY CAN GO OVER TO IOA OR USF.
– We will only be activating a limited number of tickets – 2, 3, and 4 Day tickets.  If your guests wants a 5 Day, please call a manager and we will activate it for you.
– PLEASE BE VERY CAREFUL WHEN PRINTING TICKETS OUT OF INSTANT TICKET WIZARD!  Be sure you are printing BASE tickets if they ask for BASE or Park-to-Park if they ask for Park-to-Park.  As always, BE SURE TO READ EACH TICKET OUT LOUD TO THE GUEST AS YOU PASS THEM OUT.  We will try to group the tickets in ITW by Base and PTP tickets, starting with 1 Park and going up to 3 Park.
– For upgrade purposes, the fee is $60 + tax to add Volcano Bay to a 2 Day Base ticket, and $40 + tax to add to a 2 Day Park-to-Park ticket.  So it is a much better deal to sell the 3 Park tickets that include Volcano Bay than have them buy the tickets for $67 + tax.

UPCOMING EVENTS

House of Blues May 25th Avett Brothers, May 26th Mayday Parade. Hard Rock Live May 26th Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.

EMPLOYEE NOTES:

The next gazette will be posted June 2nd.

La Nouba is on vacation from 5/14 – 5/29, and will resume shows on 5/30.

We have a fun new training that all teams must sign up for. Have you heard of speed dating? We are doing speed training! At Sleuths we will have 10 vendors where you will go table to table to gain information and updates. Please RSVP asap for either May 23rd at 12:30 or June 1st at 3:30. RSVP to sales@allguest.com or by calling the office. See you there!

A reminder that all benefits are only available for Full-time employees.  This includes Health Benefits, paid vacations and 401K.  You must average 30 hours or more to be eligible for benefits.

All locations should now have working EMV/Chip Readers.  If you do not have a one, or you have one that is not working, please contact your manager asap. 

Employee Referral Program.  Our current Employee Referral Program continues through 6/15.  Remember, if you refer someone that gets hired and they stay for 6 months or longer, you will receive a $250 Visa Gift Card.  You must still be employed with us on the 60th day of the new hire in order to receive the card.  If you leave for any reason before they hit their 6oth day, you will forfeit your bonus.

Happy Birthday to Elizabeth D. 5/21, Diana R. 5/21, Alix R. 5/26, and Patricia G. 5/26!

Happy Anniversary to Nicole M. 1 YEAR (5/25) and Luis T. 3 YEARS (5/26)!

May 12th, 2017 — Volume 27.1 — GETTING READY FOR VOLCANO BAY

UNIVERSAL STUDIOS

Volcano Bay is getting ready to open on May 25th. We will be giving more information with next week’s gazette on ticket pricing, but just know that right now Volcano Bay can only be sold with the 3 Park ticket. Guests are guaranteed to ask lots of questions so let’s brush up your knowledge on Orlando’s newest water theme park!

  • 18 unique attractions
  • Tickets will be sold in the form of a brand-new, 3-Park Explorer ticket
  • Will have resort-like amenities, such as concierge locations and lockers
  • Highly-themed restaurants and bars located throughout the park, offering signature food and beverage options
  • No waiting in line with Tapu-Tapu! Virtually hold your place in line with your Tapu-Tapu wristband and continue to enjoy what the park has to offer
  • It is divided into four different areas:  the Volcano (Krakatau), Wave Village, River Village, and Rain forest Village. Just as at a traditional theme park, each section has its own individual characteristic or unique attractions.
  • One giant, all-encompassing lazy river, Kopiko Wai Winding River, seems to connect all the various water slides one to the other, so that guests won’t have to walk on hot concrete from one ride to the next.
  • The volcano will change as day turns to night: during the day, it will feature streaming waterfalls; at night, Krakatau will burst lava into the night sky. Krakatau will have three slides – Ko’okiri Body Plunge (70 degree slide through a drop door, 125ft drop, the world’s first slide to travel through a pool filled with other swimmers), Kala and Ta Nui, the sea and sky (pair of trap-door water slides), and a “state-of-the-art marquee attraction found only at Volcano Bay” will be announced at a later date. It’s expected to be the aforementioned water slide with dark ride elements that will call the Krakatau home.

SEAWORLD & DISCOVERY COVE

May 13 Zion y Lennox and May 14 Grupo Niche. The Seafood festival ends this weekend! Some exciting news to add to our All Day Dining Program at SeaWorld! When guests now purchase SeaWorld’s All Day Dining, they will receive a 30% discount on ALL snacks and beverages in the park (including alcoholic beverages). This is a great value to your guests and even more of a reason to add on our All Day Dining Deal to any SeaWorld ticket.

A new incentive started on April 24 for Discovery Cove! They have changed it so it is much easier to win! Sell $1,500 in revenue and you receive a day pass for you and a guest. Sell $3,000 in total revenue you receive a dolphin swim package for you and a guest. This incentive is only running until May 25 (1 month so let’s kick it into gear)!

LEGOLAND

May 13-14, Legoland will be hosting Star Wars Days. The event includes a special meet and greets with Lego Star Wars characters including Darth Vader, scavenger hunts, photo spots and more. Also, a reminder that our vouchers ARE NOT ACCEPTED at Legoland or the I-Drive 360 attractions. You MUST go into the Legoland Ticket Store and print the actual tickets. Please make sure you print the ACTUAL TICKETS in the Legoland Store.

We still have people incorrectly selling the BOGOS. First of all, you should never sell the bogo tickets unless you are at a gifting location, or the guest mentions that they have a “Kid’s Free” coupon, or they’ve seen the special offer for “Kid’s Free”. You make less commission when you sell these tickets. If you enter them in the POS as “Bogo”, you must print them out of the Touring/Gifting store and you must print and EQUAL number of Adults and Kids out of THIS STORE. When you log in the the Gifting Store, your username will always end in “gift”. If you have an odd number of either Adults or Kids, you charge for the REGULAR Legoland tickets and print those tickets out of the REGULAR Legoland Ticket Store. For example, if there’s 2 Adults and 3 Kids, you would print 2 Adults and 2 Kids Free out of the “Gifting Store” and 1 Kid out of the “Regular” store. Please call your lead or a manager if you have further questions.

UPCOMING EVENTS

House of Blues May 12 The Damned 40th Anniversary Tour, May 13 Phoenix, May 19 San Luis. Hard Rock Live May 12 KC & the Sunshine Band, May 13 Sebastian Maniscalco. Amway Center May 13 Jimmy Buffett, May 14 Carlos Vives.

The next Orlando City game is on 5/13 at 7:30 against Sporting Kansas City. We still have tickets available, especially the AGS seats in section 1 for $61 each.  When selling Orlando City tickets please advise guests that the new Stadium has a “Clear Bag Policy”.

EMPLOYEE NOTES:

We are in REGULAR season with Disney, NOT VALUE.  We continue to have people printing VALUE One Day Disney tickets and the guests are getting stopped at the gate and made to pay to upgrade. La Nouba is on vacation from 5/14 – 5/29, and will resume shows on 5/30.

FREE ENTRY (you plus a guest) ALL THIS MONTH TO GATORLAND. Check your email’s for the flyer you need to show.

Everyone now has their own Blue Man Group logins to book themselves (just like you should be doing with Cirque).  Please get with your Team Manager if you do not have your Username and Password to book your own Blue Man Group tickets.

Read tickets OUTLOUD to guests as you pass them over, particularly non-integrated tickets like Universal and Legoland/Merlin.  This is your last check to make sure you have given them the correct tickets.

Today, May 12, BB Kings Tradeshow from 10-5. This event provides free food, give aways, and drinks. These are great events to get marketing materials, coupons and information from our vendors as well as networking!

Happy Birthday to Jon G. 5/13 and Luis T. 5/18!

Happy Anniversary to Ana Maria S. 15 YEARS (5/15) and Maikel B. 1 YEAR (5/19)!