Ages in MDE, or Disney's wacky math

[AngiTN]

DGD was born in March 2008. She is 7. She's been 7 ever since March 2015. In all types of math, even that new stuff they teach today, she's 7. Except Disney seems to have a hard time deciding if she's 6 or if she's 7. Her age changes in MDE all the time. Yes, her birth date is entered in MDE correctly. It shows correctly, month, day and year.
The problem that arises is when MDE thinks she's 6 it won't let me book her a single FP or change just her FP times/selections.
Is there anything that I can do to fix their math?
Anyone have any insight on why or how her ages changes?
Can IT help? I hate to waste my time if it's outside their control

 

[jtowntoflorida]

I have the same issue with my son. He's 5, and has been since last December. His birthdate is listed correctly in MDE, but their math displays him as 4, not 5. I wondered if it would be an issue when he turns 7, and from your experience it sounds like it is.

I have never called Disney IT, but in your case I would. They're the only ones who can do anything about the birthdates on there.

When you get a resolution, let me know. I've put off doing anything on ours since it isn't an issue, but maybe if it's easy to resolve I'll call after our trip and have them fix it.

 

[ciera321]

I'd definately call IT. Doesn't sound like you'll get it fixed without them...

 

[jtowntoflorida]

Oh, and there is a workaround for booking an under-7 year old for a single FP+. At least this used to work.

Book the FP+s. Take whatever is offered. Then, one by one, move each individual into their own time slot (this is easiest to do on the app) but move the under-7 year old (or in your case, the faux under-7 year old) LAST. They'll let you move all of the "of age" people away from the under-7 year old, and then after that move the under-7 year old around independently. It's a lot of work, but I've done this in the past for 7DMT and A&E.

 

[AngiTN]

The strangest part is some days it does have her as 7. I was able to make her individual FP for our trip last week because she was showing as 7. Now she's back to showing as 6 and I can't book her separate. I guess I'll call and see what they say

 

[Lucius Best]

I never hesitated to call Disney IT when I encountered problems with the app (but not this particular issue). Your time is already being wasted because you're not able to modify her FPs when you should be able to. Might as well call Disney and make them spend time resolving your issue. I'm assuming it's not possible to change her birth year so that she shows up as 8|7 instead of 7|6?

 

[jtowntoflorida]

I never hesitated to call Disney IT when I encountered problems with the app (but not this particular issue). Your time is already being wasted because you're not able to modify her FPs when you should be able to. Might as well call Disney and make them spend time resolving your issue. I'm assuming it's not possible to change her birth year so that she shows up as 8|7 instead of 7|6?

MDE doesn't let you change the birthdate once you've entered it. There is a notice that says you have to call them to make any changes to that field.

 

[AngiTN]

I did call. Their explanation was her birthday wasn't changing in all the places it needs to be changed. She deleted her birthday and re-entered it and it does show her as 7 now.
Time will tell if this fixed it or if it goes back to 6 at some point.
She couldn't really tell me why some days it read right and others wrong. Or how it could ever read a birthday in March 2008 as 6 instead of 7. I'm betting that somewhere along the way their data has a bad formula and it's reading year only, not month.

 

[bjakmom]

Well, good luck. Last year before my trip with DGrD who was 10 turning 11 on the trip, MDE suddenly changed her age from 10 to 9. I didn't want confusion about her using 'adult' tickets and dining - I was being pre-charged for specialty ADRs at the child rate and she looks like she is 14- I did not want to arrive at something like HDDR and be questioned about her age when it was Disneys error and not me trying to pass her off as a 'child'.
I spent lots of time on the phone with IT and they finally got it fixed and updated her age and the charges for my ADRs.
Fast forward to my upcoming trip in October and I notice that she has again lost a year in the MDE system. She is still listed as 10 and is turning 12 next week. At this point I don't care to mess with IT since she is at least in the adult category again.
She has been in the Disney system since she was 5 mos old and there was never an error for any of the kids ages until MDE came into the picture. Very frustrating dealing with this glitchy system.

 

[AngiTN]

Nuts I tell, just nuts. If they had 1 data base with the birth dates in it and all their systems referenced that one data base it shouldn't ever change. Clearly they have a formula wrong somewhere along the way. They need to find and fix all their birthday formulas, or copy one that is right to all other instances that use the formula.

I guess it only comes to in being an issue when it's a Disney milestone birthday, 2 to 3, 6 to 7 and 9 to 10. As long as she shows as 7, until she's 10, I won't worry about calling back. Who knows what we'll be dealing with in 3 years.