BIG change to FP+ today

[ccjmjzh]

After reading the beginning of this thread, I should have just left well enough alone with our Epcot FP+s for November 18th. Alas, I did not.
I decided to switch Mission Space for Turtle Talk, and figured it wouldn't be a big deal, since neither was in the top tier of attractions. Wrong. Though the app confirmed the change for all 12 people in my party, it in fact wonked everything up. 11 of the 12 of us lost all of our FP+ selections for that day. We also lost the ability to rebook, so we're currently stuck with none. The system apparently canceled Soarin' and Test Track along with Turtle Talk/Mission Space.

Weirdest of all, some pages still show we have the FPs, others don't. So depending on whether you look on the app or the website, and which page (itinerary, reservations, change FP time, copy FP, etc.), you may or may not see them.

I called tech support, and the CM was super helpful but very baffled, and not able to fit it without an escalation that will take several days.

Moral of the story: DO. NOT. TOUCH. EPCOT. The CM confirmed this; at this point, do not mess with existing Epcot FP+s.

 

[Sheilby]

If there isn't enough availability at a given time, the time choices won't copy over. They'll either give some people different times or even different attractions. It happened with me a couple of times last week. The one I remember specifically is ETWB, but happened with a couple other attractions as well. We ended up with overlapping spots, but the window for me was 10:25-11:25 and the window for everyone else was 10:00-11:00. When I tried to copy over (both ways...mine to my husband's, my husband's to mine), I got a message that there wasn't enough space at the requested time. So I finally just left it alone since we had an overlapping window.

Good to know, I hadn't experienced that yet.

 

[millweather]

After reading the beginning of this thread, I should have just left well enough alone with our Epcot FP+s for November 18th. Alas, I did not.
I decided to switch Mission Space for Turtle Talk, and figured it wouldn't be a big deal, since neither was in the top tier of attractions. Wrong. Though the app confirmed the change for all 12 people in my party, it in fact wonked everything up. 11 of the 12 of us lost all of our FP+ selections for that day. We also lost the ability to rebook, so we're currently stuck with none. The system apparently canceled Soarin' and Test Track along with Turtle Talk/Mission Space.

Weirdest of all, some pages still show we have the FPs, others don't. So depending on whether you look on the app or the website, and which page (itinerary, reservations, change FP time, copy FP, etc.), you may or may not see them.

I called tech support, and the CM was super helpful but very baffled, and not able to fit it without an escalation that will take several days.

Moral of the story: DO. NOT. TOUCH. EPCOT. The CM confirmed this; at this point, do not mess with existing Epcot FP+s.

Ugh-sorry that happened to your selections. I might call again...

Did you ask about the set up being different today?

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

 

[BadgerGirl84]

Wow--I'm late to this party...26 pages!

I'm on the outside looking in to all this...we are staying off-site next week (at a beautiful Embassy Suites with a full made-to-order breakfast and a two room suite....woohoo!) so FP+ is not being made available to us.

Just wanted to share that from my perspective, there were a lot of responses to people complaining about the system or complaining about not being included that basically said, "oh, this is a TEST....don't worry about not being included" or "this is a TEST, of course things will go wrong every now and then, but that's to be expected." But now that the "rules" have changed, some of the FP+ supporters are now crying that this isn't fair. Just an observation.

We are expecting that FP+ will have a negative affect on our touring next week compared to past trips...we are expecting standby lines to be longer in some cases, FP availability to be limited, and return times to be later than expected. We plan on leaving the parks by 3-4pm so a TSM FP- with a return time of 6:30 is useless to us. We will be traveling as parents for the first time, so we are not making any assumptions on getting there by RD, despite the fact that is our goal to be there at that time.

 

[Sheilby]

After reading the beginning of this thread, I should have just left well enough alone with our Epcot FP+s for November 18th. Alas, I did not.
I decided to switch Mission Space for Turtle Talk, and figured it wouldn't be a big deal, since neither was in the top tier of attractions. Wrong. Though the app confirmed the change for all 12 people in my party, it in fact wonked everything up. 11 of the 12 of us lost all of our FP+ selections for that day. We also lost the ability to rebook, so we're currently stuck with none. The system apparently canceled Soarin' and Test Track along with Turtle Talk/Mission Space.

Weirdest of all, some pages still show we have the FPs, others don't. So depending on whether you look on the app or the website, and which page (itinerary, reservations, change FP time, copy FP, etc.), you may or may not see them.

I called tech support, and the CM was super helpful but very baffled, and not able to fit it without an escalation that will take several days.

Moral of the story: DO. NOT. TOUCH. EPCOT. The CM confirmed this; at this point, do not mess with existing Epcot FP+s.

Yep, same thing happened to my friend. Now she has FP's to TT and Soarin but her husband and kids do not. If I try to copy her info to theirs it looks like they have it on that page, but the main page says that they only have FPs for 1. I asked which one was right and they said whatever the main page says is right. IT says there is nothing they can do and my friends should just enjoy themselves anyway. If only I could have reached through the phone and smacked her for that comment.

 

[clsteve]

DH is a software engineer with just over 20 years in the field and a master's degree in the same. He has also said there is no way Disney is doing this in house - he says India - and that that is a major part of the problem. If you are not experienced in what you are coding for, you are going to have problems getting it right. In order to create banking systems, he had to become a teller; in order to set up a distribution app, he had to go on deliveries, etc. He had to learn what the actual users needed and did in their day-to-day.

We don't mind testing new software or new hardware because you can erase/reset the software and many times return the hardware - you cannot redo a very expensive vacation.

Believe me, it was not an easy decision to change the vacation, but he as well as I have been through this before and, unfortunately, have an experience-based gut feel for where this is heading for the next couple of months- especially with the holidays coming up.

I retired to get away from this type of systems implementation pain and am not willing to now pay to be a part of it.

 

[mommykds]

Long time Disney-lover here. My family pretty much drinks the Disney kool-aid all day long however I do not like how this is going with regard to FP+.

We tested the MB's at Pop in August when only a few resorts were testing. We had quite a few issues with the band (family members being de-activated, charges not going through, not being able to get into our room etc). Yes it was a "test" which we volunteered to take & didn't let some of the slow downs at Guest Relations ruin our trip at all.

That being said, we did not think 3 FP+s were enough in the Magic Kingdom & just the thought of them using a tiered system at the MK is not acceptable for the price we pay to play at the park. So with the new system we could ride Splash & not Space or BTM with the FP+ on the same day? Really Disney, really??? There is no way we would wait for any rides for longer than 20-30 minutes so during buy times I guess we are not going to ride anything standby.....maybe Stitch..

I have always enjoyed planning our trips but now Disney is really pushing this die hard Disney family to the point of taking days away from Disney & heading to the dark side - Universal (which I never thought we'd do).

I hope the tiered thing does not stay but if it does I will send an email (as anyone of us should) to let Disney know these changes are not an upgrade at all. The old system worked fine, why they are spending all this money to screw it up is beyond me.

Not happy a Disney fan.

 

[BadgerGirl84]

DH is a software engineer with just over 20 years in the field and a master's degree in the same. He has also said there is no way Disney is doing this in house - he says India - and that that is a major part of the problem. If you are not experienced in what you are coding for, you are going to have problems getting it right. In order to create banking systems, he had to become a teller; in order to set up a distribution app, he had to go on deliveries, etc. He had to learn what the actual users needed and did in their day-to-day.

We don't mind testing new software or new hardware because you can erase/reset the software and many times return the hardware - you cannot redo a very expensive vacation.

I agree with your husband on this...I just can't imagine this many screw-ups if development was being done in-house. I work in healthcare IT doing implementations of electronic medical record software and the level of "testing" being done in PROD is unreal to me. I understand that it's impossible to create a copycat-type environment for testing all of FP+, but I do think they should have limited the scope of testing to fewer people before opening up the floodgates on this one.

Good point about many people not being able to have a re-do.

 

[mesaboy2]

Long time Disney-lover here. My family pretty much drinks the Disney kool-aid all day long however I do not like how this is going with regard to FP+. We tested the MB's at Pop in August when only a few resorts were testing.

We had quite a few issues with the band (family members being de-activated, charges not going through, not being able to get into our room etc). Yes it was a "test" which we volunteered to take & didn't let some of the slow downs at Guest Relations ruin our trip at all.

That being said, we did not think 3 FP+s were enough in the Magic Kingdom & just the thought of them using a tiered system at the MK is not acceptable for the price we pay to play at the park. So with the new system we could ride Splash & not Space or BTM with the FP+ on the same day? Really Disney, really??? There is no way we would wait for any rides for longer than 20-30 minutes so during buy times I guess we are not going to ride anything standby.....maybe Stitch..

I have always enjoyed planning our trips but now Disney is really pushing this die hard Disney family to the point of taking days away from Disney & heading to the dark side - Universal (which I never thought we'd do).

I hope the tiered thing does not stay but if it does I will send an email (as anyone of us should) to let Disney know these changes are not an upgrade at all. The old system worked fine, why they are spending all this money to screw it up is beyond me.

Not happy a Disney fan.

You and I think very much alike.

Universal is a nice park too, just different.

 

[maggiew]

Yep, same thing happened to my friend. Now she has FP's to TT and Soarin but her husband and kids do not. If I try to copy her info to theirs it looks like they have it on that page, but the main page says that they only have FPs for 1. I asked which one was right and they said whatever the main page says is right. IT says there is nothing they can do and my friends should just enjoy themselves anyway. If only I could have reached through the phone and smacked her for that comment.

I switched up my EPCOT FP+ the other day (prior to all this, thank goodness) and I found that on "My Itinerary" it shows all the old and new FP+ times. However, if I go into the "Change my FP+", it lists out the correct times (and only those times). You don't have to actually change them, however! Just look on that page and see what comes up.

Maggie

 

[Sheilby]

I switched up my EPCOT FP+ the other day (prior to all this, thank goodness) and I found that on "My Itinerary" it shows all the old and new FP+ times. However, if I go into the "Change my FP+", it lists out the correct times (and only those times). You don't have to actually change them, however! Just look on that page and see what comes up.

Maggie

Those are the times I am going by (the ones listed in the change page), but IT says that is not the case. She said that the ones she can see are correct. In some cases she was seeing ones that were from 3 changes of so ago (my friend changed her mind a lot). In the change page her whole family has FPs for Soarin, on the main page only she does and that is what IT was seeing. Only time will tell which is right I guess. I hope it is what you and I think.

 

[diskev]

DH is a software engineer with just over 20 years in the field and a master's degree in the same. He has also said there is no way Disney is doing this in house - he says India - and that that is a major part of the problem. If you are not experienced in what you are coding for, you are going to have problems getting it right. In order to create banking systems, he had to become a teller; in order to set up a distribution app, he had to go on deliveries, etc. He had to learn what the actual users needed and did in their day-to-day.

We don't mind testing new software or new hardware because you can erase/reset the software and many times return the hardware - you cannot redo a very expensive vacation.

Unless you have specific facts suggesting that development of the MDE systems is done in India you shouldn't suggest this is the case. If you do have specific facts, please share them.

As somebody who has multiple Disney companies as clients, I can assure you that the scope and size of what everybody casually refers to as "Disney IT" is far greater than you think. While I respect your husband's credentials and opinions, they are just that ... opinions.

 

[rebbyparker]

After reading the beginning of this thread, I should have just left well enough alone with our Epcot FP+s for November 18th. Alas, I did not.
I decided to switch Mission Space for Turtle Talk, and figured it wouldn't be a big deal, since neither was in the top tier of attractions. Wrong. Though the app confirmed the change for all 12 people in my party, it in fact wonked everything up. 11 of the 12 of us lost all of our FP+ selections for that day. We also lost the ability to rebook, so we're currently stuck with none. The system apparently canceled Soarin' and Test Track along with Turtle Talk/Mission Space.

Weirdest of all, some pages still show we have the FPs, others don't. So depending on whether you look on the app or the website, and which page (itinerary, reservations, change FP time, copy FP, etc.), you may or may not see them.

I called tech support, and the CM was super helpful but very baffled, and not able to fit it without an escalation that will take several days.

Moral of the story: DO. NOT. TOUCH. EPCOT. The CM confirmed this; at this point, do not mess with existing Epcot FP+s.

After my daughter and granddaughter both disappearing from MDE, IT fixing that, and then all FP+ for all of us disappearing from MDE and IT fixing THAT for us, I wouldn't change ANY FP+ for ANY park at this point. Even if a fabulous, once in a lifetime ride comes out. I'm sticking.

 

[cmwade77]

I think this is a prime example of how the system doesn't work well.

 

[hhill]

I think I am glad my next trip to Disney (Summer 2014) is only to the Waterparks and one day at Seaworld (free for military). My next big one that I am planning is in early 2016. I think Disney during this testing phase is going to be a little painful.

How is it for free for military? We are going in June and I don't see that deal any where. Thanks.

 

[robpa]

That was my point. It is no more elitist than what Universal is doing, and there are plenty of people here who are saying that FP+ is going to cause them to cancel their Disney vacations and spend a week at Universal instead because they can get FOTL passes there.

At Universal you can get an advantage over everyone else either by staying in one of their hotels or by shelling out extra money (and during busy periods that extra money is sizeable).

But you will still have more access to ride at universal. Disney I don't believe will give unlimited Fastpass+ to those staying in Deluxe due to the fact that there are more of those @ Disney than at Universal. Universal only has to accomodate for 3 resorts. Plus Universal still has slow times. I have gone 3 times in October and never had a need for FOTL access. Wait times were always low. Disney seems to be mobbed all the time now

 

[diskev]

I agree with your husband on this...I just can't imagine this many screw-ups if development was being done in-house. I work in healthcare IT doing implementations of electronic medical record software and the level of "testing" being done in PROD is unreal to me. I understand that it's impossible to create a copycat-type environment for testing all of FP+, but I do think they should have limited the scope of testing to fewer people before opening up the floodgates on this one.

Good point about many people not being able to have a re-do.

But they DID limit the scope of testing to fewer people. The limited test you speak of has already occurred over the last several months.

 

[hhill]

How bad are the stand by lines in mid may? Does anyone know ? Do we really need a FP Or FP+? And how far in advance can you get these ?

 

[babydoll65]

After my daughter and granddaughter both disappearing from MDE, IT fixing that, and then all FP+ for all of us disappearing from MDE and IT fixing THAT for us, I wouldn't change ANY FP+ for ANY park at this point. Even if a fabulous, once in a lifetime ride comes out. I'm sticking.

Was the app not working for you? If I go under mde on my computer and login, everything and everyone is still there. But if I go on mde app, my mother is missing, I have one, six day parkhopper missing.

 

[ckelly14]

I wonder if the Swan/dolphin ability to access FP+ is suggesting that offsite guests may only have same day access to FP+ ?