HOURS at Guest Relastions..Magic Bands= Fast pass and Dining problems!

[MOM POPPINS]

We have been to Walt Disney World 33 times since 2000. If I did not have all those trips magical....I would not be going back. We love Disney, however our last trip was very frustrating. We spent hours and hours at guest relations from problems with our bands and renewing our annual passes.

Something about them having to repurchase the annual voucher which was done online through DVC really messed everything up and there are 9 of us so it took time to fix. While doing this they lost some of our fast passes, everything had to be rebooked and of course the mine train was not available. I had planned this trip for months and got mine train fast passes when they released them for 5 of our 10 day trip. They did give us a yellow voucher everyday to ride which they could see we had the ride booked, however we had to go by guest relations everyday to get the yellow voucher.

The other problem was we were not all linked at the kiosk and they never could fix it, so when we tried to book our 4th fast pass only 5 of the 9 of us would show up.. we would have to book all the other 4 separately and by the time we would get to do that the times would not match up since the inventory changes on the spot. It was very frustrating, also had to have these 4 bracelets everytime we went to kiosk along with the one that would pull the 5. We are all family and linked that way at MDE but for some reason it just didn't work.

If that wasn't enough half way through our trip we lost a lot of our dining credits. Somehow someone's account crossed over with ours. We literally had 0 snacks left and lost 24 of all quick services all on one day. Which meant when we went to use it, it didn't work. We thankfully had our debit card and paid for our meal and went to concierge to fix it. We tried to fix it by phone but they insisted we come in... more time at the desk... the next morning the snacks were there but not the meals... back to concierge....more time at the concierge desk. Yes Disney was kind enough and fixed it but time is valuable at Disney. We changed our pin and never had another problem.

We spent 4 hours at Hollywood Studios on our first day. Another hour at Epcot Guest Relations the next morning, when we realized and were not told at this point we needed a voucher that the fast passes they were NOT auto loaded as told at Hollywood the day before... So a walk to Soarin and then back to Guest Relations.... not an easy hike.

We spent at least 30 minutes on the 5 days at Magic Kingdom Guest relations to get the yellow voucher needed for mine train.

The yellow vouchers had to be dated on the day of, they could and would not give us them early for the entire trip.

All and all we didn't let it ruin our trip but this was a tough one for us. We are still will be going back but if this were our first trip, I am not so sure. We love love love Disney and still managed to have a good time!

 

[Mikie]

I'm so sorry you had such trouble and am glad you were able to keep a decent attitude! I really don't know what I'd want as reparation for their goofs. . . For me, a "day" at Disney is 8 hours and to spend 4 of it waiting for them to fix their problem is unacceptable! I'd be bummed if it were my own fault or uncontrollable like the weather, but this is 100% controllable & their problem. A free one day, no expiring ticket might do the trick. . .

 

[savannie]

They may have offered you a better incentive if you had said "Just forget the annual passes, and we'll go to Universal since you can't get it straight."

Disney is normally great about small problems, but when it comes to big ones they really drop the ball. Losing hours of time each day because of their mistake is unacceptable, and I would tell them so.

 

[Disneylover99]

What a pain.....so sorry you had to experience all those problems. Hope next trip is much more smooth.

 

[MOM POPPINS]

Yes we got extra fast passes 2 for our 4 hours at Guest relations, however if I could have rope dropped as planned I would not have needed them. When we had a problem at the kiosk hours later, they offered yet another yellow pass at guest relations.... my husband I don't need the yellow passes I need the problem fixed. I know they are doing what they can but like you said when you have a big problem they really don't know how to handle it and what to compensate besides a yellow fast pass.

 

[snayak]

Just curious - are all of these problems related to the magic bands themselves or something else?

We're staying at the Swan so we'd have to purchase MBs, which I was sort of considering, and I'd keep my RFID tickets on me anyway...is that a valid backup?

Or is the problem that MDE/MM+ screws up so it doesn't matter if you use your RFID ticket or your MB you're hosed either way?

 

[jco_direwolf]

Mostly the problems seem (from what I can tell from the outside, and how the system seems to be designed) to be on the database end.

The RFID readers and IDs are solid and COTS and used in applications all over the world.

The code that takes the RFID information and relates it to a person and entitlements seems to be the issue.

They maybe also having capacity issues not enough server farm for their needs.

 

[saskdw]

Just curious - are all of these problems related to the magic bands themselves or something else?

We're staying at the Swan so we'd have to purchase MBs, which I was sort of considering, and I'd keep my RFID tickets on me anyway...is that a valid backup?

Or is the problem that MDE/MM+ screws up so it doesn't matter if you use your RFID ticket or your MB you're hosed either way?

It has nothing to do with the Magic Bands. It's in the reservation system. The MB just stores your ID number to access everything.

 

[snayak]

Mostly the problems seem (from what I can tell from the outside, and how the system seems to be designed) to be on the database end.

The RFID readers and IDs are solid and COTS and used in applications all over the world.

The code that takes the RFID information and relates it to a person and entitlements seems to be the issue.

They maybe also having capacity issues not enough server farm for their needs.

Oh - so everybody would have an issue with FP+ and entering the parks, whether they had a magic band OR a physical RFID ticket?...which would mean that nobody could get into the parks if the tapstiles are down? Crazy.