CAUTION: If you are checking in Tuesday, October 9th

[crashbb]

I did look at the red highlighted portion. No, she was not saying she was going to "go after" the cm's at the front desk. She was saying there is going to be a lot of unhappy people complaining to the CM's.

I stand by my answer above.

I read it the same way you did (which seems to be the same way almost everyone but Tonka read it).

Thanks OP for the head's up.

 

[damo]

I read it the same way you did (which seems to be the same way almost everyone but Tonka read it).

Thanks OP for the head's up.

I didn't read any malice in her post either.

 

[donaldlovesdaisy]

I feel for the people that won't have the cash available. some people go on VERY tight budgets. We have been there on a tight budget, scrimped and saved, were able to pay ahead, but had very little extra money. Just the way it is. For some this could be a hardship and that is WRONG if you pay in advance.

(I don't want this to turn into a debate about people "should have money available", not everyone can)

I don't know I am thinking if my budget were that tight and I did not have money set aside for an emergency I would skip over priced WDW vacations until I did. I can't imagine dealing with the stress of the what if's that could happen on vacation and not having the back up funds to deal with it.

 

[Tonka's Skipper]

OK.......I have to eat a little crow here...I went back and reread the whole post and I was WRONG.....my pardon to the OP and everyone here.......part of getting old.

AKK

 

[GreenCntryGirl]

1) The "a la carte" system controls all dining.
2) This is how
. . . you make ADR ressies
. . . the ressie is called up at the podium
. . . the seat assignment in the restaurant is made
. . . the seater communicates OOP or DDP and number of guests to server
. . . this includes printing dinner show tickets
. . . the server takes confirms guests and makes bill
3) This can is why guests "may" have to pay OOP for their meals.
4) BUT, the length of downtime is still speculative.
. . . it could be shorter
. . . it could be longer
. . . it could be sweet or very ugly

NOTE: One thing to know about the Disney IT system - it is based upon
the 1963 Las Vegas hotel/casino software. That is why upgrades and
updates can be a problem. That system is not known that well by new IT
and new computer people. It is an old system and requires "old" system
language knowledge. Disney can update the user interface (what you see
on the screen), but it is too difficult and too expensive to update the core
system. That is why upgrades can be easy or bad. (EXAMPLE: When they
did the user interface change in 2006 to go from a "green screen" to a "GUI",
all they did was the screen, and none of the core information-base.)

My exFIL is proficient in the "old school" language and worked at Disney (through a private contractor) some years ago to work on their system. He found it very hard to find work because those systems were being phased out in so many places.

This would be a plus for me to NOT use DDP because I would not budget for those meals prior to arriving...My goal is to take as little cash as possible for OOP expenses. It is good to know that this is a possibility that could potentially (even if very unlikely) cause a blip in vacation plans.

 

[crashbb]

I don't know I am thinking if my budget were that tight and I did not have money set aside for an emergency I would skip over priced WDW vacations until I did. I can't imagine dealing with the stress of the what if's that could happen on vacation and not having the back up funds to deal with it.

While I totally agree with you, but I've read enough posts on here to know that not everyone travels that way.

 

[SaraJayne]

OK.......I have to eat a little crow here...I went back and reread the whole post and I was WRONG.....my pardon to the OP and everyone here.......part of getting old.

AKK

No problem. I know I've read things wrong before.

 

[donaldlovesdaisy]

While I totally agree with you, but I've read enough posts on here to know that not everyone travels that way.

I don't know about you but I would be a nervous wreck vacationing like that and certainly would not have a good time if I had to have my money budgeted down to the very last dole whip. Don't get me wrong we don't go on a spending frenzy there is a budget I work with in but not having access to emergency funds for life’s little disasters would suck the fun out of my trip.

 

[ajh88]

Just for a quick update (we are in the room taking a break and watching some playoff baseball )...

I emailed guest services last night to express my displeasure with how the situation was being handled (in general). I then called this morning because I read that if you are on-site, they like you to call if you have issues. I expressly stated that the CM's I spoke with were courteous and patient, but ultimately powerless to address my concerns. I spoke with 2 different CM's in Guest Relations who were both exceptionally kind, as well as a front desk manager at the resort. We ultimately reached a workable compromise and I'm just going to keep my fingers crossed that things go smoothly with the system upgrades. (No, there was no additional compensation requested, offered, or received).

Message boards crack me up - I would *NEVER* "go after" the front desk CM's. I've had the opportunity to say my piece to them and express my disappointment and frustration - but also to let them know I completely understand it is NOT their fault! They are going to have to deal with a whole bunch of very unhappy people on Tuesday morning - many of whom are going to be coming into the situation completely blind. I feel bad for them, I really do, but not because of anything I have done to them or plan to do to them (I have no plans to address this issue again with the front desk - no reason to at this point).

And as an aside, I cannot recommend enough contacting guest services by phone if you have an issue while you are on-site! I emailed yesterday afternoon (after they were closed) and called this morning - my email was already assigned to a CM and he called me back within 30 minutes. Within 30 minutes after that, the front desk manager had called me. Incredibly efficient and courteous service - made me feel better about the situation, even if they couldn't completely "fix" it!

I'm feeling decidedly MORE magical today (had a fantastic day at the Studios) so I will be optimistic that the process will go more smoothly than anticipated and will ultimately work out fine. Now, off to EPCOT to devour some food offerings from F&W...

ETA: I know I just needed a little time and perspective. We had a series of small but cumulative molehills yesterday that combined to form a mountain and when the new day dawned over MK, I can see that all is well, or eventually will be. This isn't life or death, just money and aggravation. So yes, I recognize that I'm here, with my family, staring at the castle, enjoying life, and I am not in need.

 

[Tonka's Skipper]

Just for a quick update (we are in the room taking a break and watching some playoff baseball )...

I emailed guest services last night to express my displeasure with how the situation was being handled (in general). I then called this morning because I read that if you are on-site, they like you to call if you have issues. I expressly stated that the CM's I spoke with were courteous and patient, but ultimately powerless to address my concerns. I spoke with 2 different CM's in Guest Relations who were both exceptionally kind, as well as a front desk manager at the resort. We ultimately reached a workable compromise and I'm just going to keep my fingers crossed that things go smoothly with the system upgrades. (No, there was no additional compensation requested, offered, or received).

Message boards crack me up - I would *NEVER* "go after" the front desk CM's. I've had the opportunity to say my piece to them and express my disappointment and frustration - but also to let them know I completely understand it is NOT their fault! They are going to have to deal with a whole bunch of very unhappy people on Tuesday morning - many of whom are going to be coming into the situation completely blind. I feel bad for them, I really do, but not because of anything I have done to them or plan to do to them (I have no plans to address this issue again with the front desk - no reason to at this point).

And as an aside, I cannot recommend enough contacting guest services by phone if you have an issue while you are on-site! I emailed yesterday afternoon (after they were closed) and called this morning - my email was already assigned to a CM and he called me back within 30 minutes. Within 30 minutes after that, the front desk manager had called me. Incredibly efficient and courteous service - made me feel better about the situation, even if they couldn't completely "fix" it!

I'm feeling decidedly MORE magical today (had a fantastic day at the Studios) so I will be optimistic that the process will go more smoothly than anticipated and will ultimately work out fine. Now, off to EPCOT to devour some food offerings from F&W...

OP.......I misread your post.....my error and I am sorry ...........I hope you end up having a wonderful WDW trip!

AKK

 

[donaldlovesdaisy]

Just for a quick update (we are in the room taking a break and watching some playoff baseball )...

I emailed guest services last night to express my displeasure with how the situation was being handled (in general). I then called this morning because I read that if you are on-site, they like you to call if you have issues. I expressly stated that the CM's I spoke with were courteous and patient, but ultimately powerless to address my concerns. I spoke with 2 different CM's in Guest Relations who were both exceptionally kind, as well as a front desk manager at the resort. We ultimately reached a workable compromise and I'm just going to keep my fingers crossed that things go smoothly with the system upgrades. (No, there was no additional compensation requested, offered, or received).

Message boards crack me up - I would *NEVER* "go after" the front desk CM's. I've had the opportunity to say my piece to them and express my disappointment and frustration - but also to let them know I completely understand it is NOT their fault! They are going to have to deal with a whole bunch of very unhappy people on Tuesday morning - many of whom are going to be coming into the situation completely blind. I feel bad for them, I really do, but not because of anything I have done to them or plan to do to them (I have no plans to address this issue again with the front desk - no reason to at this point).

And as an aside, I cannot recommend enough contacting guest services by phone if you have an issue while you are on-site! I emailed yesterday afternoon (after they were closed) and called this morning - my email was already assigned to a CM and he called me back within 30 minutes. Within 30 minutes after that, the front desk manager had called me. Incredibly efficient and courteous service - made me feel better about the situation, even if they couldn't completely "fix" it!

I'm feeling decidedly MORE magical today (had a fantastic day at the Studios) so I will be optimistic that the process will go more smoothly than anticipated and will ultimately work out fine. Now, off to EPCOT to devour some food offerings from F&W...

Wow you are spending a lot of time freaking out over this issue while on vacation. I don't get why you had to call them for a different solution just for you. They offered a fair way to deal with the problem and that should have be that. I will never get why so many have such unrealistic expectations when it comes to WDW.

 

[ajh88]

Wow you are spending a lot of time freaking out over this issue while on vacation. I don't get why you had to call them for a different solution just for you. They offered a fair way to deal with the problem and that should have be that. I will never get why so many have such unrealistic expectations when it comes to WDW.

I guess I will just humbly disagree. I don't feel as though I'm "freaking out" - this issue *is* my vacation and I do have concerns about the situation, but I'm relatively sure it will all work out eventually. I also don't feel as though my expectations are unrealistic - Disney has had my money for nearly 2 months now and I sort of just want what I paid for. I didn't request (nor did I receive) a super special solution just for me.

 

[donaldlovesdaisy]

I guess I will just humbly disagree. I don't feel as though I'm "freaking out" - this issue *is* my vacation and I do have concerns about the situation, but I'm relatively sure it will all work out eventually. I also don't feel as though my expectations are unrealistic - Disney has had my money for nearly 2 months now and I sort of just want what I paid for. I didn't request (nor did I receive) a super special solution just for me.[/QUOTE]

. We ultimately reached a workable compromise

So yeah you did! I am really just trying to understand why the original solution of being reimbursed ( which many would feel is very fair) was not a good enough solution.

 

[kaytieeldr]

So yeah you did! I am really just trying to understand why the original solution of being reimbursed ( which many would feel is very fair) was not a good enough solution.

You/we also don't know or need to know what the workable compromise is.

The OP seems like a nice, reasonable person who was just trying to alert arriving guests of a possible glitch. Perhaps the OP is one of those parties with no access to emergency funds - and thus, unable to eat all day.

That's not our business!

 

[erincon23]

DSand I are checking in tomorrow, most likely after 6, and before I had even seen this, I decided to call today and pay my balance. Now, I'm really glad I did! We shouldn't be affected, I hope -- I've done online checkin, we have our tickets already, and we're not doing a dining plan. Should we be ok?

 

[donaldlovesdaisy]

You/we also don't know or need to know what the workable compromise is.

The OP seems like a nice, reasonable person who was just trying to alert arriving guests of a possible glitch. Perhaps the OP is one of those parties with no access to emergency funds - and thus, unable to eat all day.

That's not our business!

What a cliché comment on a message board after people post their personal information for all to read. If informing was all she was doing she should have left her particular situation out the post. Also I was not attacking her personally I am sure she is a super nice person just curious why the original solution Disney was offering was not good enough for her that she had to seek out a different solution. Again IMOP it goes back to unrealistic expectations that many place on the WDW Company. I am pretty sure any other company would have told her we have a solution in place take it or leave it.

 

[3Leafs]

OP thanks for the heads up. We are checking in on Tuesday!

 

[jekjones1558]

Thanks, OP. I just did online checkin to avoid any potential problem.

 

[dawnball]

Unless their systems are non reduntant with single points of failure all over the place, there is no way they should be down for 24 hours. If it is, they seriously need a new IT department.

The system that's being discussed has (by definition) a single, non-redundant point of failure. You have a database that is transactional and relational. It doesn't matter how many copies of that database you have, or how you're syncing updates. A schema change means no writes. A new interface (that does writes) means no writes.

My educated guess here is that the actual outage will be around midnight for a relatively short period of time and the release to do the work is being over cautious by stating the lengthly window. I can't think of any upgrade I've been involved with (and there have been many), where a customer impacting system would be off line for that long. So, hopefully, the pain felt will be minimal.

I agree that they're probably stating a longer window than they expect. Industry standard is the greater of double or implement+QA+rollback. I disagree that the outage is likely to start at midnight. I'd anticipate that there's a brief grace period where staff is told to finish their transactions, and then it goes read-only.

My "when will they be back?" hunch is that they're expecting to be out of QA and ready for customers ~7am on the 6th, if all goes well. Then the rest of the window would be insurance in case of a roll-back.

And to the OP, I'd be annoyed as hell too if that was happening to me.

Yup! Unfortunately, it wouldn't help much. I suspect that they chose their window to impact as few people as possible, but that doesn't make it any easier to be one of them, and there will be a lot more if the window goes badly.

 

[seashoreCM]

What, pray, do you do if you went to a sit down restaurant in the park, and after your meal you found that your room key doesn't work and you took out your only credit card and that does not work either because it was maxed out?

Would they let you write out a note payable (an IOU) using ordinary pen and paper and send it to your resort to resolve later, in the evening, after the systems are back up?