Now that unfortunate couple will go back to Craigslist to purchase prepaid legal services.

After reading the article I think the worst crime they committed was stealing a stroller from someone at SeaWorld. Those sickos probably ruined some poor kids day and made it really difficult on a couple of parents.

Strange that this should come up. We're going to San Diego next Thursday, and I was just shopping for passes that would get us into multiple attractions. I finally decided to just wait until we got to the hotel and let the concierge help us.

I was one of the people scammed and I provided the tip to The Consumerist. My daughter had the same look on her face as in the picture above when we arrived at the gate and they wouldn't let us in.

Fortunately, we were able to purchase some tickets at the main gate and still have a wonderful time.

@grossmont: Awww poor kid. She'd have been totally heartbroken. Good thing you still got to go in though.

@tbax929:

This sounds expensive, but a good idea. Enjoy!

What a sad looking child :(

@tbax929: just as long as they don't make you sit through one of those timeshare sales pitches. ugh.

@tbax929: Costco has passes that are good for Disneyland, Sea World, and Universal I think. I don't know the terms/prices off the top of my head but I saw them on display at a Costco here in Utah and thought the price was pretty decent.

I'll never go back to a theme park because when I was a kid, I went to one that had farm animals and was bitten on my penis. Thats ok though, they cought the guy that did it. That was the last time I seen my uncle.

Coupon codes are the way to go.
I saved $40 at Canada's Wonderland because I'm "Friends and family" of Rogers according to the corporate purchase section on their website.

this is not new. i used to deal with this all the time at walt disney world guest services. if you do arrive at the park and find this is the case with your passes, try being super nice to the guest service people [at disney anyway, not sure what the other companies' policies are] and giving up all the info you have about the seller of the passes.
used to be if you were willing to fill out a police report and give up the person who scammed you, [and didn't have a screaming fit and use foul language at the front of the park because that gets you thrown out anyway] then we'd get you into the park for the day anyway so you didn't have your whole day ruined

@Rusty-Shackleford: I don't think I like their theme.

Does this mean my tickets to See World are no good?

Thats a picture of me after I left the Theme Prak with the farm animal petting zoo @Oranges w/ Cheese with a BRAND NEW CAR!:

@Rusty-Shackleford: If you want to score hot chicks then hang out at the middle school parking lot like my grandpa.

@catastrophegirl:

Talking to a few of the other people who were scammed (like myself), this was the case for them. Disney security / supervisors would talk to the people and then allow them in or provide them with a discount on tickets to get in the park.

Since most people are going to spend a couple of hundred dollars in the park anyway, this makes good fiscal sense as well as giving them good PR.

@grossmont: exactly, and the last time i did that for someone - the seller had paid by credit card so we were able to pull the mag stripe data, get the transaction number and pull the name off the credit card transaction and send orange county deputies to the seller's home and bust them for scamming someone out of $500 in useless passes.
the scamm-ee lost a couple of hours but ended up getting what he paid for after all, plus the satisfaction of putting away a criminal

Also be leery of buying passes with unused days on them, which is what they used to sell at those discount shacks around Orlando. Disney's multi-day passes are linked to your biometric hand print, so if you use a pass that someone used before, it won't work. Usually the gate person will scan to make sure it's a valid pass and let you through, but if your whole family fails the biometrics, it looks suspicious.

You get what you pay for.

@Oranges w/ Cheese with a BRAND NEW CAR!: He knows it's bad hair day

I have bought these kinds of passes to bring friends to the park with me, and I am always leery that one of these days there will be a snafu with an activation and the park will think my card is no good and/or stolen.

It's why I bring the receipt with me in my wallet.

@catastrophegirl: God, I hated those people. Making an ass of themselves around their own and everyone else's children. If they did get in the park they were "gift seekers". I actually had someone come up to me and demand a no-strings attached. I told them that only management could give them out and pawned them off (on the manager). Before I left it was getting to the point where they weren't giving cast members NSAs anymore. But I never had a problem walking a guest into a store and comping something they needed.

Strangely enough, being what today is, I walked in from my first break after opening DAK and saw the first plane in the WTC. My co-worker from Jersey was mortified (had family working in the towers). We all thought it was a terrible accident. The guests outside were oblivious. Then the second plane, I was listening to Howard Stern and he and Robyn went crazy. As soon as we heard about the Pentagon, we started to evacuate the park. All of DAK evacuated in less than an hour. We took guests out of every backstage exit. The only time in Disney history that's happened and only the second time to shut down the parks.

BTW - many people dislike Howard Stern, but during the events of September 11th, he was awesome.

I'm all teary-eyed now. :-(

@Tankueray: i still have an old school pass that's from the pre biometric days

@Tankueray: i worked second shift at DTD [DQ/Cirque/PI] at the time, and my roommate's dad worked in the pentagon so she woke me up and we watched on tv, then got the call from work not to come in. [He was ok, wasn't in the building at the time]
i didn't know you evacuated people through backstage exits. yikes!
i always wondered - did they make an actual announcement over the loudspeakers? you know, the ones they pretend don't exist?

@theblackdog_RollerCoastersThenFootball: yeah. that happens a lot. receipt is a good idea. also, play nice if you get sent to the window.
we used to let a lot of that stuff pass if it looked like you weren't going to be a jerk and make trouble. if everyone knows you are getting away with something and you keep it low key, it's not worth busting you for.

@Donathius:

Triple A isn't a bad, well-priced source, either.

@catastrophegirl: I'm a season pass holder, so I had better play nice with the staff because they have my picture in the computer already, and it wouldn't be that difficult to have my pass rendered invalid.

@catastrophegirl: I don't remember, they do exist, I remember them being used for lost children at guest services. There was so much radio chatter that I probably didn't hear them. I was working all the pathways around DAK, traffic control and whatnot. I'd heard that they just shut the rides down, turned up the lights and walked people off down the service ramps and exits. I know they shut off Bug's Life in the middle of the show. Thing is, we weren't allowed to tell the guests what was happening. Just that the park was being evac'ed. People thought it was just the one park and were going to go to another, and only found out when they got on the busses that they would only be going to the hotels. Many angry and confused guests, many making asses out of themselves. It would have been soo gratifying to call them out and tell them what happened, but that wasn't the Disney way.

I was off the next two days, when I went back Friday it was like nothing had ever happened (with more (noticeable) security.)

@theblackdog_RollerCoastersThenFootball: We are the Mouse, we know who you are, we know where you live...

@theblackdog_RollerCoastersThenFootball: i'll keep that in mind, i still have people there. muauahahaha! they can do it remotely and all i have to do is call an old friend.....
just kidding. they CAN do it remotely though, with the name on the pass. i had to do that all the time for people whose passes were lost or stolen. they just ask at the window and show ID and we would cut off the previous one and reissue it. instant!

@tbax929: The "Good Neighbor" accredited hotels approved by Sea World should be able to sell the passes.

You can also get them online, I believe, and print them from home. Multi-day passes to the major parks.

Although we didn't so Sea World, I did Disneyland with my kid two weeks ago. We got our 2-day passes online and printed them from the Disney website. It was handy not waiting in line at Disney in the morning.

@MostlyHarmless: Poor thing! Glad you were able to get backups. I bet your face had a similar look though, knowing you lost your money! Those tickets are EXPENSIVE! I did Disneyland with my kid 2 weeks ago and for two of us, for 2-day passes, was over $250.

@Julia789: Anyone have the stones to blame the OP when the OP is actually a Consumerist poster?
Anyone?

@Tankueray: I actually kept No Strings Attached with me at all times when I would work Signal 70C (lost children shift). It was great for keeping the kids less scared and the adults less threatening. But if you started swearing at me? I would try to de-escalate, but I (like most customer service oriented people) have a point where I shut down any niceness.
I once had a guy who had come to me to find his lost daughter (she had been brought to me two hours earlier and we were building a sandcastle) call me a pervert and then deck me! I was technically a lifeguard that day and was wearing the costume. The guy was escorted off property in handcuffs with his entire family (not in handcuffs) and charged with "Interfering with the abilities of an emergency caregiver". Legal told me it was a felony and the guy was "tresspassed" and could never come on Disney property again, never work for a Disney company, and couldn't shop at a Disney owned business.

Watch out if you try to SELL some too.
We sold 4 passes to a certain Cali theme park only to have the buyer claim they refused them and demand their money back.
Until we called the park and they said that they were used a week after we had their delivery confirmation signature.
When this was pointed out to them they slunk away.

@MisterE:
San Diego is only about 5 hours from us, so it's where we go when we have a long weekend and want to get out of town. Thanks for the well wishes.

@Donathius:
I did not know that. I do have a Costco membership. I'll swing over and check it out. Thanks for the tip.

@mrsultana:
I make my own attractions passes at home....

Nope, that doesn't work.

@sir_pantsalot: Yeah I'd much rather they steal my car than my stroller.

@catastrophegirl: That's an awesome story. I suppose you mean Orange County Florida? Disneyland in Anaheim is in Orange County, California.

@Syncop8d1: yep, orange county florida. walt disney world is actually in two counties and the north part is in orange county, the south part in osceola county.

if you are in animal kindgom, ask which county you are in and which tax rate your purchase is subject to before you make a large purchase. the sales tax is different in different parts of the park due to the county line. you could save a little money that way.

@nytmare: We've had 3 strollers stolen from us in the last 7 years. It's the lowest form of crime, for sure.

Why shouldn't you buy gift cards on eBay? I do it all the time! Naturally, make sure the seller feedback is good, but I've gotten gift cards at 20-25% off face value from people who would rather have the cash than shop at that store - particularly helpful after Xmas.

@grossmont: Did the park offer any type of discount? as a kind of good-faith "i'm sorry that happened, here's a discount, please don't hate us!"

@tbax929: i think that was the problem.

@catastrophegirl: Yup, they do that at Cedar Fair parks as well, though it's a $15 fee to reissue a pass. Did the Mouse charge a fee as well?

Speaking of, I had a snafu this weekend with my King's Dominion pass, but I blame the computers for that one (likely an expiration date in the database). The computer at the parking booth said my pass was invalid for free parking, so I paid to park, then took my pass over to guest services to see what happened. Somehow the free parking had been disabled (it was clear that I had the pass level for it) so they re-enabled it, and I handed them my receipt for the parking I paid and they refunded the ticket. It still pays to be nice to them because it was no problem to get things fixed.

@theblackdog_RollerCoastersThenFootball: no, we didn't charge a fee for it. we more than made all that up in food and knick knack revenue