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

[gigi1313]

Does anyone know if this will effect check-outs on Tuesday? and if so, how?

 

[WedgieSock]

I'm going to go watch Wishes from my balcony and hope I can reach a resolution in the morning. If not, life goes on anyway.

Which you are extremely blessed to be able to do.

Its a tiny bump, not a major catastrophe. Chillax.

 

[danny1649]

Here is the internal notice:

For the good information and the other posters for sharing good ideas. Danny

 

[Tonka's Skipper]

Right, their system is for the guest to pay and then they reimburse me.

I love Disney and love coming here, but I'm feeling decidedly un-magical at the moment. It doesn't matter if it "has to be done" or if I could be at work instead of on vacation. I come on vacation to relax and this particular road bump has been anything but relaxing. I know that no vacation is perfect, but IMHO, a better system could be devised to minimize inconvenience to guests even if it results in more work for CM's.

I guess I'm just being unusually pessimistic - for the first time, I'm irritated by how much money I've paid for vacation vs. the satisfaction I'm getting from it. Tomorrow is another day though.

I mainly just wanted to spread the word to those who might be checking in early next week - I truly feel bad for the CM's who will be working because I guarantee it will not be pleasant. And Waltgirl, I believe it will primarily affect packages (tickets and dining), however you likely will NOT be able to charge to your room, at least until after the systems are back up, so that could potentially affect all resort guests.

I'm going to go watch Wishes from my balcony and hope I can reach a resolution in the morning. If not, life goes on anyway.

I agree this is a problem, but if I am reading you right, your answer to the problem is to the take it out on the desk/up front CM's,??? abuse them???.

Pretty childish of you and poor manners to boot!


AKK

 

[drinkme]

I agree this is a problem, but if I am reading you right, your answer to the problem is to the take it out on the desk/up front CM's,??? abuse them???.

Pretty childish of you and poor manners to boot!


AKK

The OP never said anything like that!!! When I read the post I read it to mean that the CMs were going to get alot of people complaining. The OP never said that the CMs deserve to be abused, nor should anyone else abuse them.

 

[SaraJayne]

I agree this is a problem, but if I am reading you right, your answer to the problem is to the take it out on the desk/up front CM's,??? abuse them???.

Pretty childish of you and poor manners to boot!


AKK

That is not what the poster said.

There are certainly going to be a lot of unhappy people (understandably so), and the CM's will be dealing with them.

I'd be pretty darn irritated, too.

Disney's IT (whether internal or outsourced) is awful.

 

[PRINCESS VIJA]

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)

 

[kaytieeldr]

But, again, based on the internal notice on the disruption that Cheshire Figment posted, while it appears no changes will be possible during the changeover, it also appears the "no tickets/no entitlements" the OP is being told is a misinterpretation by Cast Members.

 

[kneedeep]

Having to pay OOP and be reimbursed when you have already paid for a dining plan is at the least an inconvenience, and in some cases with very tight budgets could be a hardship. If this happens (and since there is some question of interpretation of the issue, hopefully it won't), then I think the best action would be to politely request that in good faith, Disney do something to help make things right. Based on our past experience, this could turn out to be a room credit, fast pass voucher, or some special gift being sent to your room. When we have been polite and given CMs the opportunity to restore our good opinion, we have never been disappointed with the outcome. We tell people that Disney isn't always perfect, but when there is a problem, they do what they can to make it right. That is why we keep going back.

 

[mom2rtk]

We had a lot of trouble after the big resort system upgrade in 2010. Our tickets were supposed to be on our KTTW cards. We checked in Saturday night then headed to DHS the next morning where we were very first in line to hit TSMM. Then the time came to open the gates and......... our tickets wouldn't work. We had to go wait in line at guest relations to have it all sorted out while hundreds of people poured into the park ahead of us. They then gave us fastpasses to make up for our lost time......... to any ride EXCEPT TSMM. Nice, huh?

Anyway, we had to go back to the front desk that night to have our tickets reissued. That is where they really took care of us. They reset our dining credits, even though we had alread used 2 credits each. They also gave us 2 taxi vouchers to use during our week to make up for lost time, and 2 "any attraction" fastpasses.

I think they really went above and beyond. So I say approach them politely and let them know if you had trouble. I bet they'll take good care of you.

If you have to be reimbursed for any dining, I bet they'll reimburse you AND reset your credits to the original amount, so maybe have an extra TS ADR or 2 later in your trip just in case. We had planned to pay for 2 of our CRT OOP, so ended up getting it free. I just don't know that they have the ability to load your card with anything less than the original amount of credits. At least that's what they told us at the time.

Disney is second to none in guest recovery. Just politely give them a chance.

 

[gigi1313]

I wonder if you could use a Disney gift card for food and such if your KTTW card won't work or if you can't check in and get your dining credits. If so, they may be able to reload your card after the outage.

The only problem with that (at least for me) is that you would end up w/a lot of "Disney specific" money... what they should do is something "old school" like give you a paper voucher or punch card or something for your dining credits, at least for a day or two to keep people from being ridiculously inconvenienced.

My gripe is that when someone was booking a 10/8 check in, there should have been some sort of pop up on the website (or TA site, or CM site) to alert the guest that there may be a glitch... there was ZERO communication prior to arrival on this issue.

And why they are telling current guests that checking in in three days may be problematic makes no sense to me... with minimal exceptions (like the OP who is starting out on property but re-checking in to a package in a few days) that is pretty useless information!

 

[Tonka's Skipper]

The OP never said anything like that!!! When I read the post I read it to mean that the CMs were going to get alot of people complaining. The OP never said that the CMs deserve to be abused, nor should anyone else abuse them.

Not the way I read it.please look at the red highlight!

 

[Tonka's Skipper]

That is not what the poster said.

There are certainly going to be a lot of unhappy people (understandably so), and the CM's will be dealing with them.

I'd be pretty darn irritated, too.

Disney's IT (whether internal or outsourced) is awful.

Not the way I read it.please look at the red highlight.

I do agree there will be unhappy people, but the OP wassaying she was going after the CM's on the front desk!

I hope she striaghtens this ou!

ps..............yes the Disney IT dept. needs some help!


AKK

 

[mastermind307]

When we checked in at POFQ last Nov. the computers were down and we weren't able to get our tickets or use the DDP. They gave us comp tickets to get into EPCOT, but we had to pay for our CS meal at the food court and dinner at Garden Grill and then got riembursed. Luckily I had checked in online and because I did, our room was ready. It was a little inconvenient, but didn't ruin our vacation.

 

[bwang123]

What you perceive as an "IT Issue" is not always the case. Disney IT does not stink because their wireless is bad (its a technology defect with wireless in general, see other non-disney hotels and conventions). All systems need an upgrade at some point and outages are required. IT is directed to take the outage and upgrade it as required to fix bugs,add features, etc. By the internal memos posted here it sounds like management is working around this as they see fit. Yes it may be an inconvienece but it happens at corporations all the time.

 

[TheRustyScupper]

. . . This downtime will impact reservation systems, including a la carte. . .

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.)

 

[SaraJayne]

What you perceive as an "IT Issue" is not always the case. Disney IT does not stink because their wireless is bad (its a technology defect with wireless in general, see other non-disney hotels and conventions). All systems need an upgrade at some point and outages are required. IT is directed to take the outage and upgrade it as required to fix bugs,add features, etc. By the internal memos posted here it sounds like management is working around this as they see fit. Yes it may be an inconvienece but it happens at corporations all the time.

Wireless isn't even on my radar when it comes to judging Disney's IT.

 

[mdsoccermom]

Not the way I read it.please look at the red highlight.

I do agree there will be unhappy people, but the OP wassaying she was going after the CM's on the front desk!

I hope she striaghtens this ou!

ps..............yes the Disney IT dept. needs some help!


AKK

Did you read the entire thing? She said "I mainly just wanted to spread the word to those who might be checking in early next week - I truly feel bad for the CM's who will be working because I guarantee it will not be pleasant."

NOWHERE did she say she was going after CMs. I hope you didn't hurt yourself with that leap.

She was giving a head's up to people who will be checking in. It will be very unpleasant for the CMs. They'll be dealing with a lot of people who had no idea this was happening, people who will be irritated and cranky.

 

[HayGan]

Did you read the entire thing? She said "I mainly just wanted to spread the word to those who might be checking in early next week - I truly feel bad for the CM's who will be working because I guarantee it will not be pleasant."

NOWHERE did she say she was going after CMs. I hope you didn't hurt yourself with that leap.

She was giving a head's up to people who will be checking in. It will be very unpleasant for the CMs. They'll be dealing with a lot of people who had no idea this was happening, people who will be irritated and cranky.

Back during the incident with us in 2009, I was VERY kind to those at the front desk who were trying to help. There was another gentlement there at the same time who wasn't nearly as nice. In fact, he was downright rude & obnoxious to the poor CM. I When I was finallly done getting some resolution, I said to my CM that I hope their night went better and that the problems were fixed soon so that they didn't have to deal with more unreasonable guests. It wasn't their fault! I did receive a dirty look from the other guest but that was his problem - not mine! The CM did say that they appreciated my understanding.

 

[SaraJayne]

Not the way I read it.please look at the red highlight.

I do agree there will be unhappy people, but the OP wassaying she was going after the CM's on the front desk!

I hope she striaghtens this ou!

ps..............yes the Disney IT dept. needs some help!


AKK

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.