8/17/08 Captain Jack's Repossession Repo Cruise to PC thru TPC #8

[justmestace]

Okay LG....here she is....
at a few hours old

And at a year and a half, when her hair became the same color as mine

Sorry if these come out large, I couldn't get my "edit" to work.

 

[allshookup]

I TRIED to tell people here that they ABSOLUTELY HAD TO hit "submit" if they really, really wanted something!! Too bad they didn't follow the thread!!

Yes thank you for that Stace! I double & triple checked the bottom of each page to make sure there weren't anymore submit buttons to click. Swimming Mickey after every page. Wow what a process that was!

 

[justmestace]

When I was going through the pictures, I couldn't believe how young I looked! Holy cow, age does have a way of creeping up on a gal.
I looked like a kid myself, but I was 24.

 

[danfromca]

Very interesting...

To add, on new technologies cant you 'compress' applcations so run more on far less servers than before.

They could pay and outside company for back up servers, or just use space on the Disney.Com. or close down bits for a short time.

Or
Stagger the opening dates more, as posted before.

• CAT 1/2/3 105 DAYS
• REAS 100 DAYS
• CC CLUB PALO 95 DAYS
• CC CLUB TRIPS 90 DAYS
• REST PALO 80 DAYS
• REST TRIPS 75 DAYS.

Ensure Wonder/Magic never clash.

Faster machines definitely help - and I expect things are getting better though it's hard for us to see from our limited perspective.

Of these ideas, splitting the CC Palo, Excursions and Spa would help somewhat - in that you'd reduce the total number of reservations that people are attempting to book on a given evening. Still, most people want at least one of each, so what you'd get is almost the same number of peak visits at 12:01 on each of the nights. It's just the duration of the slow down would be less, as people would get their reservations or give up sooner. In other words - we'd all be going nuts (same thing) at 12:01, but the system would speed up much sooner than it did last night.
From a marketing perspective, my guess is that having three very frustrating nights is worse than one very frustrating night.

Having additional backup servers might help - if that's the main bottleneck. But I think the real bottleneck is talking to their database system (I think that's what is happening while Micky is swimming). And that's much harder to split across multiple machines. To see why, let's say they have 20 spots for Palo Brunch. If you have one database on one machine, it's pretty easy to keep track of those reservations. If you have two machines, and each one has a copy of the database (which is what you need to improve performance), how do you coordinate the two machines to prevent them from issuing 40 spots? Well, they have to communicate with each other to stay synchronized, and in doing so you lose much of the benefit of running the databse on two machines! Ouch!

It's a tough problem.

 

[Esteri]

I am leaving shortly for a diocesan seminar out of town. I will not be back until Thursday.

IF there is no internet where I will be staying, there is no way in God's green earth that I will be able to keep up with this thread the way that we are writing!

So, in case I am not able to connect until Thursday night, see you.

However, while I am driving there, I'm going to be praying for internet access. You folks will help me "decompress" from our sessions!

Slow down? This crowd? I head off for a week and a half of vacation and miss almost the entire thread #7. Oh well, if it was important someone will clue me in.

Megan's worried it will rain on her wedding. I told her that she should stress over something she has control of. If it does, we adapt.
Although I do understand a bride not wanting a rainy wedding day.

I understand that rain is considered lucky in Japan.

Actually, in this case I couldn't even reach the DCL home page. So my guess is that I was actually blocked by the DCL router. Many routers nowadays have internal software to detect and prevent denial of service attacks. And let's face it - all of us trying to login at once is exactly what a DOS attack looks like. What a router will do in that case is temporarily block the IP addresses that look like attackers. It wouldn't surprise me if others who were bounced ran into this. It also wouldn't surprise me if the DCL IT folk weren't aware or hadn't considered this possibility.

You know, I thought about that last night. The rush to book was going to look exactly like a DOS attack. I was kind of curious about what was going to happen. Guess we all found out.
.

 

[pdarrah]

Faster machines definitely help - and I expect things are getting better though it's hard for us to see from our limited perspective.
....
It's a tough problem.

I can certainly see the problem (I have a master's in CS, so understand the theory even if I haven't worked on large systems) but it seems odd that other cruiselines with MANY more ships than DCL don't seem to have this problem - are their customers less involved and less likely to book right when the window opens. Even with that, a line that has a couple dozen ships still must get quite a load even if a smaller percentage is booking immediately - they would be bound to have mulitple ships booking the same day all the time.

Pamela

 

[Esteri]

They have both been upgraded to the Cat 1 lifeboat class staterooms, which are located to 'the left, of, back in the port' Poor boys.

I have been given some inside entertainment information, that Disney is bringing back the 'Walk the plank' game show, and Captain Hook i s in charge. The plank Will Be located to the Aft of topsiders over a shark infested Pacific and its for anyone who complains.

I would just like to thank DCL for my wonderful experience this morning, I really enjoyed the two hours of the new Mickey mouse film 'Scuba Mickey'

.

 

[Grandma x3]

THANK YOU MONICA!!!!


I could not log in last night - but Monica came to my rescue and booked everything.


BTW - in case it got lost during the turmoil last night - the new Indiana Joines movie was Great!! Someone asked if was suitable for small children - depends on how small. I think it would be okay for my 7yr old grandson - a few scenes probably might scare him. My older grandkids - 13 & 14 - will definately enjoy it.

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

Faster machines definitely help - and I expect things are getting better though it's hard for us to see from our limited perspective.

Of these ideas, splitting the CC Palo, Excursions and Spa would help somewhat - in that you'd reduce the total number of reservations that people are attempting to book on a given evening. Still, most people want at least one of each, so what you'd get is almost the same number of peak visits at 12:01 on each of the nights. It's just the duration of the slow down would be less, as people would get their reservations or give up sooner. In other words - we'd all be going nuts (same thing) at 12:01, but the system would speed up much sooner than it did last night.
From a marketing perspective, my guess is that having three very frustrating nights is worse than one very frustrating night.

Having additional backup servers might help - if that's the main bottleneck. But I think the real bottleneck is talking to their database system (I think that's what is happening while Micky is swimming). And that's much harder to split across multiple machines. To see why, let's say they have 20 spots for Palo Brunch. If you have one database on one machine, it's pretty easy to keep track of those reservations. If you have two machines, and each one has a copy of the database (which is what you need to improve performance), how do you coordinate the two machines to prevent them from issuing 40 spots? Well, they have to communicate with each other to stay synchronized, and in doing so you lose much of the benefit of running the databse on two machines! Ouch!

It's a tough problem.

Good points I did split up REAS/SUITE to cut down the 'hits' also a lot of people do want one or other of Palo or Shore so it would cut down, Palo is getting more expensive, I bet $20pp by 2009, and that puts some off as food is free elsewhere. But there would be double hits yes. But the cheapest option to fix now.

I wonder if an alternative 'WISH LIST' would be anthoer answer, people logging on and requesting in advance of the 'windoWs' what they want and DCL computers run a programme and allocate, basis on who is a repeat cruiser how often or when they PIF, in a lottery based application.

 

[jship210]

Anyone know if we can book the zip line tours In PV or CSL independently of DCL? We live in caveman times and only have dial-up at home (cable does not come out that far) so we kinda lost out on booking at Midnight, by the time we got through only a couple of the things we wanted worked out.

 

[sk8ingmom]

Slow down? This crowd? I head off for a week and a half of vacation and miss almost the entire thread #7. Oh well, if it was important someone will clue me in.

Just a lot of fluff and possums.

You know, I thought about that last night. The rush to book was going to look exactly like a DOS attack. I was kind of curious about what was going to happen. Guess we all found out.
.

Not only that - you had the privilege of listening to me get locked out.

 

[captaincrash]

I've never been upgraded.
And I still don't have my pre-cruise planning guide.



Well we all know Tom isn't getting an upgrade.

Or Roger.

Oh c'mon now. I hear Disney is hiring new swabbies for swabbing the decks and peelin' potatoes.... I think we can expect them to be upgraded from thier current "coal firing" duties, eh?

 

[tiggrbaby]

Anyone know if we can book the zip line tours In PV or CSL independently of DCL? We live in caveman times and only have dial-up at home (cable does not come out that far) so we kinda lost out on booking at Midnight, by the time we got through only a couple of the things we wanted worked out.

try this one:
http://www.canopytours-vallarta.com/

 

[captaincrash]

THANK YOU MONICA!!!!


I could not log in last night - but Monica came to my rescue and booked everything.


BTW - in case it got lost during the turmoil last night - the new Indiana Joines movie was Great!! Someone asked if was suitable for small children - depends on how small. I think it would be okay for my 7yr old grandson - a few scenes probably might scare him. My older grandkids - 13 & 14 - will definately enjoy it.

So now we haven't seen Indianna Jones OR the new narnia movie yet... so maybe I should pick up my older daughter to take her to a movie this afternoon? I'll have to check showtimes now.​

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

So now we haven't seen Indianna Jones OR the new narnia movie yet... so maybe I should pick up my older daughter to take her to a movie this afternoon? I'll have to check showtimes now.​

65 years old, 19 Years since the last release, still looking very good, ( but stiff) amazing what they can do in pictures nowadays.

 

[arlenesp]

HI

I know it is not a big deal .. but it is raining here in Central Florida.........

Not here And we need it. This is a picture I took this am to show DS how they cleaned out the palms outside (and took away my privacy )and you can see how burnt the grass is. This is the Ladies 11th tee on the golf course. Pretty bad. Off to work in a few

[/IMG]

 

[arlenesp]

Never mind Liz. The rain just started banging on the skylight. And I have to get out to the car in a few.

 

[jship210]

try this one:
http://www.canopytours-vallarta.com/

Thanks tiggrbaby, we'll look into this!

 

[Grandma x3]

So now we haven't seen Indianna Jones OR the new narnia movie yet... so maybe I should pick up my older daughter to take her to a movie this afternoon? I'll have to check showtimes now.​

Tom,
I saw Indiana Jones at Paramount Studio press preview yesterday. It won't be in theaters until the 22nd.

 

[Pluto 2]

Aarrggh! Last night went well for me, but I'm making up for it right now I checked our return flights on Air Tran and discovered they changed our 1:46pm non-stop flight on Sept 1st to a 10:10am flight with 1 stop!

I've been on hold on the stupid phone for over 20 minutes with truly obnoxious, very loud hold music (the same "song" continuously) and every 30 seconds they say "Please hold and one of our representatives will be with you shortly" (Their definition of "shortly" and mine sure don't match!)

---
Finally talked to someone and they changed us to a 5PM non-stop (I'm not thrilled since that is a long time to spend waiting around the airport). After I hung up, I got the confirmation and it doesn't show seat assignments anymore! Since when I booked in January I paid EXTRA to get seat assignments, I'm now really mad about all this! I am BACK on hold with the horrid "music"! This was our first time to fly Air Tran in about 12 years or more and right now it is looking like it will be our last.

---
OK - only on hold about 7 minutes that time! They have fixed it. THis is NOT giving me confidence in this airline. I guess I'll have to start checking the reservation regularly.

Pamela

i have been reading where a lot of people are having trouble with air trans changing their flight times