I just returned from a trip on Friday (1/17/14).
We had a split onsite stay - 1st 5 days at AoA, last 5 days at OKW with our DVC points.
I didn't not experience the FP+ wait at the kiosk because we had pre-booked FPs.
However, I will say that I was underwhelmed with the Magic Band/FP+/
MDE app interaction. It did not go smoothly.
Our group did all the right things. Got MDE on our smart phones. Linked ourselves up, put in our ticket so we could do the online FP pre-booking. Apparently because my DH Terry and BIL Peter and I (Patty) had linked ourselves together through MDE as travelling together, the MB thought that my BIL and DH were supposed to have key access to my room. Now, my BIL and his wife had checked in earlier the 1st day than we had, so he somehow had MB key access both THEIR room and OUR room. I had key access nowehere. Thankfully we had a rental car minivan so, in a pinch, I had a place to sleep.
It took the young lady helping us at AoA about 30 minutes, including a call to an IT person, to rectify that. After that there were no more problems with those magic bands from AoA.
Then came the move to OKW, where Terry & I, Peter & Eileen and a single friend Joan were moving from 3 separate room in AoA to one grand villa in OKW. Terry & I (the DVC owners) arrived at OKW first and checked in. I believe that the CM who was helping might have started the cascade of events which ultimately resulted in 5 hours of back and forth with regard to the MBs and a $175 dining credit.
Our original reservation was for Patty, Terry, Peter, Eileen, Joan, Dave and Liz to stay in the GV. At the last minute Dave and Liz couldn't come. But Joan's parents Jim and Charlotte who live down there were going to come and stay a night or two. So we had the CM remove Dave and Liz and add Jim and Charlotte. Seems simple enough...take 2 names off, and add 2 names.
He told us that Jim and Charlotte could use the MBs originally intended for Dave and Liz. I thought that was funky and said so, but the CM said it was fine. Jim and Charlotte only needed key access, since they weren't doing park passes and didn't need charging priveleges. That's why I fiugred it would be OK, since it was just key access. We took the MBs for Patty, Terry, Jim (which had Dave's name on it) and Charlotte (which had Liz's name on it) but left Peter's, Eileen's and Joan's at the desk for them to pick up when they arrived at the hotel.
We then went to DHS for a while then to Publix to pick up snacks for the room. While at Publix we get a call from Peter who was trying to check in but they don't have his correct name on the reservation. At this point on the reservation they had Patty, Terry, Dave, Joan, Eileen, Jim, Charlotte and Peter but they had Peter with Jim and Charlotte's last name, not his own last name. So we kind of joked that Eileen (married to Peter) would actually be sleeping with Dave (who wasn't even there) and Jim (the father of 4 daughters, no sons) now had the son he always wanted.
So they had to redo the reservation completely to get the right people on it and to get the magic bands working. So they did this, assured us that everything was fine. Off we go to the rooms where the doors open, the next day we go to the parks where the admission works, then we go to do our FPs and Peter's FP access doesn't work. We had the FPs on our MDE so we showed them the phone and the CMs waved him through.
So now we go back to the front desk at OKW to tell them that the doors and park admission works but Peter's FP doesn't. They redo the reservation again, and everything works. Keep in mind that each redoing of the reservation takes from 30-45 minutes because the CMs are slower with the new system. Each CM, however, was quite lovely and very apologetic. And with each redo of the reservation, each person has to go back down and reattach their credit card to their MB for charging privelges should they so desire. They also offered the $175 dining credit at this point, which was nice of them. I did not request it, they offered.
So now the door works, the next day we go to a park and the admission works, we do our scheduled FPs and they work!!! Success!!!!!!!!
But wait, Eileen now decides that she wants to get on MDE and connect to Peter, Terry and I so she can see all the dinner reservations and FPs etc. So she does so during some downtime at the park.
We get back to the room and my (Patty) key won't open the door. Neither will Terry's. Now Terry and Patty are the DVC owners, so this is quite amusing.
Eileen, Peter, Joan, Jim and Charlotte are able to unlock the door.
So back we go to the front desk where at this point I think the CMs are cringing when they see me walk in. Another lovely CM redoes the reservation (for the 3rd time now), checks everything, assures us that everything will work, assures us that all dining reservations are intact, all park admissions are intact and all FPs are intact. I thanked and did tell her that she needed to tell a manager at OKW that if I had anymore difficulty with the MDE/MB connection that he/ she would be the next person I would be talking to because as lovely and trying-to-be-helpful as the regular front desk people were being, at the point of having to spend any more time on this issue I would want a "suit" to hear my complaint to take it to whomever. Their last instruction to us was don't have anyone else "connect" to us all in the MDE app because they think that Eileen connecting to it is what caused the 3rd problem.
Thankfully the 3rd time was a charm and everything worked for the remainder of the trip and the front desk people called several times to make sure everything was working. They also told us that the IT people were looking at our situation as a "case study"...probbaly true since we were not a straight "check into one hotel check out of same hotel and go home" sort of a group but more of a "check into one hotel with 3 separate reservations, check out of that hotel check into another hotel under one reservation with multiple people in the same room" kind of a thing.
Another family we know was down there at the same time with their 3 children and had difficulty with the FP on the MB for their youngest son. On the MDE app, it showed all 5 of them on the FP but when he waved his MB at the kiosk thing, it wouldn't turn green. He said most CMs just said "go ahead" but apparently one guy was like "if it doesn't turn green he can't go in". Our friend looked at the guy and said "Why in the world would I make a FP reservation for me, my wife and 2 of my 3 children?". The CM gave him enough of an argument where our friend finally said "Bring me someone above you to talk to". At that point the CM let them through.
My point being, I work in IT. I understand Go Live. I undertsand the kinks on the system which will only be found once it's live in the "real world" and not the test world. But I also think that Disney's instructions to their CMs should be "if a guest is reasonable and can show you something which verifies that what they are saying is true, then do it. Don't argue." Or in Ferd's case, obviously if she got an all inclusive FP card it was because of a problem so don't give her more of a problem when she tries to use it.
Just do it.
THAT'S where they're dropping the ball. People would understand "glitches in the system" a lot better if the CM said "we're having a glitch in the system, go ahead through". When they have a system live that they KNOW is not perfect, it is not the time to play policeman and assume people are trying to beat the system. Take down some kind of information if you need to (room #, MB#, pass #) so your IT people can look in the background and see what happened, but don't break it off on the guest.
And yes, in addition to everyone at the hotel knowing my issues, I also sent an email to them when I got home outlining what had happened.
