Downtown Disney Chaos

I have used Virgin's Downtown Disney check in facility in Orlando many times and it is usually reasonably quick and efficient. On 21 November I used the facility to check in for VS76 MCO/MAN in Premium Economy and it was DREADFUL!!.. staff not knowing which line to put passengers in - then randomly selecting passengers from each line to weigh their bags then join another queue to actually check in. One of the Virgin staff was extremely rude when he asked me if he'd checked my documents. When I told him one of his colleages had done so he responded 'That was not the question - I asked you if 'I' had checked your documents'... it appears he was in charge of collecting the $10 check in fee not checking documents!.. As Silver members travelling in PR it took us almost 30 minutes to complete this arduous and insulting process for which we paid $20 for the privledge and WE WERE LUCKY!!.. friends of ours were in Economy and they stood in line almost 2 HOURS! So much for the convenience of an off airport check in.... I may be wrong but it seemed that a very large contingent of VS Holidays passengers had either been dropped off or coincidentally arrived together. This was a Friday so a total of 4 flights - 2 MAN and 2 LGW were being funneled through. Maybe VS should stagger the check in times for the different flight time bands?... I always thought that it was worth the $10pp fee to avoid the inept check in set up at MCO but now I'll think twice.[n]

Oh dear. Hopefully this was a 'one off', but still shouldn't happen.

We have used this many many times and have never had a problem. The services do start to get a bit stretched when there are 4 full 747 flights. Wonder what it will be like when the 5th one is added next year.

David

[Neil]

I don't really understand the draw of DTD check in, especially if you have to pay for it. When we checked in at MCO in April for our VS76 flight home, all check in was pretty empty, with t'other halfs family flying in Y only abt 5mins longer than us using UC check in.

Neil

Welcome to VF howardrd.

Sorry to hear about the problems with Downtown Disney Check in.

I would echo Neil's comments.

Considering that you are Ag maybe next time it will be much easier to just stand in the W line at MCO. I have never seen the W line more than 3 deep and the flight times are seperate enough to stop a massive queue.

I always find the MCO check in experience fine if you can check in at one of the premium desks or have checked in online.

And besides any advantage of having got rid of your bags at Downtown is surely lost by the fact that you have to arrive early to drop off hire cars etc.

Howardrd, your experience of DTD check-in was the complete opposite of what I experienced in November. I waited a minute or two maximum before being ushered forward, bypassing the bag scales, to the check-in desk. I have to agree about the seemingly random selection of bags to be weighed. My bags were not checked as I was in UC, but for PE / Y pax they seemed to look at the bag and if they thought it may be overweight, it got weighed. Small suitcases were generally waved through, large ones got weighed.

Admittedly, DTD check-in was quiet when we were there - probably about 15 people in the Y queue and just me in the PE/UC queue. I can well imagine that if a few Virgin Holidays coaches all do drop-offs very close together things will get way too busy in no time.

I too have never found check-in at MCO to be too much of a problem (used DTD for the first time this year). Even when travelling in Y and there have been large groups of special needs travellers checking in with extra bags / wheelchairs to be tagged, the wait has generally been minimal. The MCO team generally do a good job given the large number of pax they have to deal with on a daily basis.

quote:Originally posted by Neil
I don't really understand the draw of DTD check in, especially if you have to pay for it. When we checked in at MCO in April for our VS76 flight home, all check in was pretty empty, with t'other halfs family flying in Y only abt 5mins longer than us using UC check in.

Neil


It all depends on when you go and LUCK! I've been to MCO and seen check in absolutely rammed (infact I've never seen it any other way) and god knows how long they would have to wait for. Makes me count my blessings that I travel in UC.

Used it for the '76 a couple of days ago 9:30am.
No problem - no line at all for priority.
Only 2 families waiting for Y.
It seemed very quick & efficient - everyone most pleasant & helpful.
There were only 3 outgoing flights rather than 4 but that should not make so much difference....

It does seem very much a matter of luck - and perhaps timing.

I was checking in for the VS16 on that day. You are right - it was chaos but there was a reason (ie it was not usual).
A plane had gone tech in London so they had draughted in a LHR plane (tinkerbelle). As a result they were 100 seats short and were trying to 'persuade' people to fly home via New York instead. Unfortunately if a customer agreed there was only one person available to do the new booking which is why there were such big queues. All other flights were being dealt with by 3 agents (regardless of class) and the very far queue was for the 16. We had 2 agents, however they had to wait until new tickets were booked before they could deal with next group. We were also flying PE and were given UC seats on the top deck, but with a PE service (food, drinks etc). I believe most PE travellers were offered this, with original UC travellers being given the setas near the nose for a full service.
Although it was very slow we got sorted and I wouldn't hesitate to use downtown disney check in again.

Thanks for the responses... Now I'm aware that there was a specific reason for the chaos that day it makes sense as, like eveyone else, I had only had good experiences of DTD until that day. As with most situations they are always worse when there is no communicationat the time. Hopefully next time it will be back to normal.

[Nottingham Nick]

It is always good to read first hand accounts of incidents, rather than anecdotal rumours. many thanks to both new posters, and welcome to the site. [y]

Unfortunately it isn't the first post with the theme of problems not being handled as well as they should be, by staff at VS outstations. [:w]


Nick