Big news on Fastpass+ from Disney

[clsteve]

That part can be read two ways.

And thanks for the laugh, SOA. Good stuff.

Touché !
Disclaimer: POS = Point of Sale. The double entendre was totally coincidental......

 

[ArwenMarie]

What!? lol, i missed that one

Here you go!

http://thedisneyblog.com/2014/01/28/mymagic-commercial-gets-bad-photoshop-award/

 

[Angel Ariel]

I find it pretty easy to use personally and have had no technical issues so far. Of course that could change.

In all seriousness, I am happy you have not had technical issues with it. That said, your positive experience doesn't diminish the many who HAVE had many technical problems on their trips.

As for easy to use...nothing about Disney's web/IT has ever been intuitive/great to use. The photopass site, for example, has always been *monumentally* slow. No other picture service site I've ever worked on is anywhere near as slow as that site - including the new version that came out in October - is.

How many times has it been read here that people couldn't change their FP+ to a different attraction and couldn't, and then someone else comes in and says "you have to change your time on the attraction you hold first to the time you want the new FP+ to be, THEN you can go in and see if there's FP+ availability for the attraction/time you want to switch to". People who are tech savvy will figure it out. Those who aren't will just assume that the attraction they want or time they want is just unavailable. That is NOT an intutive, easy to use system.

These systems are complex. I have managed a lot of I.T. projects and they are difficult. Mine are much smaller then NextGen and we still have a lot of tweaking to do months and even years after roll-out. I look at this entire project from a project manager's prospective and from that perspectives it is still in an early phase of deployment. That is true even if it is deployed for 100% of park-goers.

Who said they weren't complex? Don't think I ever did. It's not the customer's job to be understanding about the complexity. It's the company's job to get the glitches fixed. And considering we're over a year into this testing, and many of the same glitches that were happening last year are still happening with a lot of frequency (for instance, MBs not opening rooms on a pretty regular basis for many guests), it doesn't exactly give the consumer a lot of faith that the company is listening to the issues.

The time to judge this entire project is 5 or 10 years down the road, not now or even this time next year.

I'm not judging the entire project. I'm judging what Disney has released so far, insofar as how it affects many consumers experiences.

 

[ArwenMarie]

The commercial I keep seeing says "the best part of a Disney vacation just may be staying at a Disney resort"

Is that double speak for "you better enjoy your resort because you will be riding less rides and find longer lines this year"?

Heck, I thought the best part of a Disney vacation were the PARKS. Silly me!!!

They might be telling the truth on that one!

 

[lugnut33]

Here you go!

http://thedisneyblog.com/2014/01/28/mymagic-commercial-gets-bad-photoshop-award/

Great, according to the commercial you'll need a FP+ to enter Main Street USA.

 

[Angel Ariel]

Here you go!

http://thedisneyblog.com/2014/01/28/mymagic-commercial-gets-bad-photoshop-award/

That is awesome

 

[AliceandAriel]

Just got this email from Disney. Now, I was going to just post exactly what the email said, but since it's full of pixie crap, I thought I would edit it a bit (in red) to give a more accurate description:

MyMagic+ Passholder Update
Welcome to our new MyMagic+ Passholder Newsflash series. As you may already know, we are currently in the midst of testing MyMagic+, an exciting, new way to take your Walt Disney World visits to a new level. As we continue working to make this the best possible experience for you, we want to keep you up to date. So we've created this series to provide helpful tips, highlight important updates and provide answers to your top questions about what's to come.

Check out our new kiosks.
Right now, we're excited to share the news of our new Disney FastPass+ kiosks that allow access to all of the Disney FastPass+ experiences available in all four Theme Parks (just look for the FastPass+ kiosk signs pictured below). Now you have more than double the experiences to choose from. You get access to FastPass+ experiences such as parade and fireworks viewing areas and more attractions than ever before.

Plus, for the first time ever, you can make all your selections at one time and still have flexibility to make changes throughout your day. And that means more relaxation on your visit because you no longer have to go from attraction to attraction across the Park to pick up individual FASTPASS® tickets.

The kiosks are located in several locations throughout all four Theme Parks. Simply access the kiosk with a touch of your Pass. Then use the touch screen to reserve access to attractions and experiences throughout the Park for that day. You can make three selections per day (in one Park per day) all from one convenient location. And you have the flexibility to change and adjust your selections at other Park kiosks as the day goes on.

Be sure to check it out on your next visit. Got questions? Disney Cast Members are stationed at each kiosk to help you out.

And watch these updates for more information about how and when you'll be able to select Disney FastPass+ experiences in advance of your visit, right from your home or mobile device.

Edited it for you a bit there. Reads much nicer now.

 

[shalom]

sonofanarchy,

I confess I didn't read it all, but you still got a chuckle out of me.

Is that double speak for "you better enjoy your resort because you will be riding less rides and find longer lines this year"?

When I first started reading the Disney Resorts subforum here, it quickly became clear that, for some people, the resorts ARE the best part of their vacation. And to be honest, we hit the parks hard enough last time I missed doing the resorts, and initially planned a non-park trip next year (still thinking I want to keep park days to a minimum). Maybe that commercial was aimed at me.

I haven't actually seen that commercial, but it does sound like Disney's trying to position itself to compete against places like Big Cedar and other "destination resorts."

 

[Mad Hattered]

Here you go!

http://thedisneyblog.com/2014/01/28/mymagic-commercial-gets-bad-photoshop-award/

How in the hell does that get past anyone who knows anything about MK? Who is running the show on these new commercials? Between the one you linked and that Locked In one, it's almost embarrassing.

 

[ucfknight]

I saw they moved the castle down to the other side of Main Street in one of the promos.

Maybe they're planning to move Cinderella Castle down to Town Square so they can build Anna's ice palace as the new centerpiece of the park.

 

[JanaDee]

Here you go!

http://thedisneyblog.com/2014/01/28/mymagic-commercial-gets-bad-photoshop-award/

Oh my...how embarrassing.

 

[sonofanarchy]

Edited it for you a bit there. Reads much nicer now.

Not quite sure why you'd do that. On the very 1st post of the thread, I explained that it was the exact email I got from Disney. The edits were all in red.

Do some people really such a small sense of humor? It was a joke, all meant in good fun, just to try and make people laugh. Don't take everything so serious.

 

[ocalla]

Thanks for the laugh!!!

And Messaboy: thanks for the memories .

 

[delmar411]

Which is all the more reason that it's a bit ridiculous that it's such a difficult system for customers to use. It's a very small portion of the overall project, but it's the most important part *to get right*. All of these vactioners who have spent hours trying to get tech issues resolved? That's hardly good word of mouth for Disney.

Heck, even in Disney's own promo (the new one on Food Network last week), the family was going through a FP+ line and talking about how it "worked perfectly" for them - and the close up they showed of the mickey head was blue, not green! They didn't even put the effort forth into their own marketing/promo to make sure it at least showed the tech working right.

They show the same error for the paper FP promos. The family gets a 'not a valid FP ' ticket at big thunder and happily goes on their way with it. For some reason Disney refuses to use valid media in their commercials/promos.

 

[Sparkly]

Why do people not going to Disney ever again bother coming here? Yes, we get it, you don't like FP+ and Universal is better. But paying for a hotel room for a fastpass is SO much better..

 

[Angel Ariel]

Why do people not going to Disney ever again bother coming here? Yes, we get it, you don't like FP+ and Universal is better. But paying for a hotel room for a fastpass is SO much better..

Where in the thread did anyone say they weren't going to Disney again? I'm not going back to check, but I don't recall anyone here saying that

 

[Angel Ariel]

They show the same error for the paper FP promos. The family gets a 'not a valid FP ' ticket at big thunder and happily goes on their way with it. For some reason Disney refuses to use valid media in their commercials/promos.

I can't say I ever saw those promos. I just think it's poor judgment to highlight the family saying how well it's working when it is, in fact, showing an error code. Showing the error code, fine,...but don't go out of the way to say how it works so flawlessly, then (if the family had just scanned and walked through, I doubt anyone would have noticed)

 

[sonofanarchy]

Why do people not going to Disney ever again bother coming here? Yes, we get it, you don't like FP+ and Universal is better. But paying for a hotel room for a fastpass is SO much better..

Who said that?

If you think Universal Express for on-site guests is the same as Fastpass, you've either never used it or you've been drinking too much Pixie Dust Kool-Aid. That's not an opinion based type of discussion, like "Which park is better?" There's no discussion about it - Universal Express is better than Fastpass, in any form.

 

[sonofanarchy]

They show the same error for the paper FP promos. The family gets a 'not a valid FP ' ticket at big thunder and happily goes on their way with it. For some reason Disney refuses to use valid media in their commercials/promos.

It's pretty much like that across the board for Disney. I won't blame them for the AAA brochure, as I'm not certain if it's Disney or AAA that makes those, but they are for the most part, useless. Same can be said for the resort section of the Planning DVD. There at least used to be about a 60 second clip about each one. Now, they just handle each category as one, and barely give any information.

Another funny thing I came across was in the Official Guide to WDW. It still states in the 2014 edition that you should "enjoy the magic" and let everyone else do the same by turning off your cell phones. Heck, with FP+, you won't even be able to go to WDW without having your cell phone on constantly. I suspect the cell phone lights ruining attractions threads will begin soon, and rightfully so.

 

[tlady]

Ok, sorry, but this is hilarious. And as the old saying goes "Many a truth is spoken in jest." LOL. You should send a copy of this to Disney guest services. Seriously.