I Hate My Disney Experience!

[Pixie Dust for Me!]

I'm on my 5th phone call to get this mess straightened out. First my password (and yes, I knew it was right) wouldn't work. Some odd glitch in the system. Then I couldn't get my niece's newly renewed AP to link (it was a certificate since we live so far away). Then I couldn't get my DH or DS's APs to link. Then I couldn't get a friend's MYW ticket to link and lastly, all the FP+ that I put in disappeared!

I'm a DVC member, and AP holder and I swear if I have to keep using this system, I'm going to go ballistic! I'm thinking I want just 5 minutes in a room alone with the idiot that designed this thing.....(and no, I'm not normally a violent individual)....but I swear, I really want to kick that guy in the shins and make him plan EVERYONE's vacation who is having problems with this system. I think he'll pull his own hair out!

Beyond the techies issues, I also don't like how they "throttle" the access to FPs for rides. Really, I have to pick Soarin OR TestTrack? Dear God, why!

The old system was just fine. If we couldn't use a FP, we handed it off to others and spread a bit of Magic. I'm thinking I'd be wiser to spend my vacation dollars elsewhere...somewhere that consumers are valued as opposed to a blasted system like this!

Karen

 

[francie57]

I know exactly how you feel. We linked two reservations together and there began the problems. We tried to link 4 APs and they got completely screwed up (we were actually told by a CM at City Hall that you couldn't link APs yet!) My name ended up on DD's boyfriend's AP that expired on our trip. He had a printed email with his renewal but the CM kept insisting it was my pass. Thankfully I took all of my receipts for my AP and DH's and DD's since we had purchased them in Aug. The CM assured us, after almost an hour, that everything was corrected and DD's boyfriend got his new AP and they actually gave me a new AP also to replace the problem one (still with Aug. expiration date - hopefully). Things worked okay for the remainder of our trip. The problems began again when the second reservation started. The computer still showed the boyfriend's AP with my name attached. DD/boyfriend spent another hour at guest services at MGM and nothing was accomplished. The CM said it must be a computer glitch and our reservation in Aug. should be okay. I am not a fan of the magic bands and everything connected with them. Hopefully things will be worked out in Aug. since 3 of us have to renew APs while there.

 

[Pixie Dust for Me!]

Well, I'm now on my 10th call now trying to fix issues related to a June trip. Now here's the beauty, my son, DH, BIL and nephew hate wearing watches. There's no way they're gonna wear a bracelet. As my BIL put it, I'm not a criminal and they can't make me wear one of those things. Yes, we all love Disney, but not the magic Bands and all that comes with them!

 

[larryz]

Well, I'm now on my 10th call now trying to fix issues related to a June trip. Now here's the beauty, my son, DH, BIL and nephew hate wearing watches. There's no way they're gonna wear a bracelet. As my BIL put it, I'm not a criminal and they can't make me wear one of those things. Yes, we all love Disney, but not the magic Bands and all that comes with them!

Other options include strapping the MB to a lanyard, or just carrying them in their pockets and holding them to the sensors.

 

[skilesare]

The old system was just fine. If we couldn't use a FP, we handed it off to others and spread a bit of Magic. n

You do realize that this is what Disney does for you now when you cancel a fast pass? Maybe you should just think of canceling fast passes spreading Magic.

 

[siskaren]

Well, I'm now on my 10th call now trying to fix issues related to a June trip. Now here's the beauty, my son, DH, BIL and nephew hate wearing watches. There's no way they're gonna wear a bracelet. As my BIL put it, I'm not a criminal and they can't make me wear one of those things. Yes, we all love Disney, but not the magic Bands and all that comes with them!

In this post from easyWDW, Josh says that guests may be able to request KTTW cards, but they won't be offered by default:

http://www.easywdw.com/news/all-disney-world-resorts-going-magicband-only-by-end-of-january/

 

[surferdave]

Other options include strapping the MB to a lanyard, or just carrying them in their pockets and holding them to the sensors.

Can't you still request a card that performs the same function as the band? If I were going to Disney soon I would request it and use it, I didn't like wearing the band either.

 

[Tinks]

You have my sympathies.

I'm having troubles trying to book a trip. I have my family under me in the friends and family section, but it won't let me add them as "traveling with me". It also shows that we have active cards. We don't. Our annual passes expired last July but they are showing up and I cannot delete them.

I have an email in to Disney. I'm hoping they can help, but I'm already frustrated and I haven't even booked a flipping trip yet. IF I can get this trip booked, it will likely be the last for a good long while. We are only doing it this year because my oldest is off to college in the fall. After that, we'll travel elsewhere.

If the website can't even sort out something this simple, do you really think it will be easy to do FP+ for my group?!?!?

I can tell you this: we will be at Universal prior to this reservation and if the trouble continues, we won't bother with Disney this year either.

I HATE THIS NEW SYSTEM TOO!

 

[MrsSilvaStrat]

I have spent all day trying to book our FP+, on 3 reservations, for a group of 9. I'm ready to punch someone in the face.

 

[wen8jr]

OP, I totally understand where you are coming from.

I guess you can say I lost faith after my experiences with the MDE site, booking FP+ issues and the CMs. First impressions mean a lot. Since they can't get this to work, I don't expect them to provide a good experience for me with the MB or FP+ either. They have a bit more to prove to me before they get my faith back.

Also, all this work should not be on the vacationer. I don't get how they think that is okay that we have to spend hours of our time dealing with their underdeveloped site. Ridiculous.

 

[KaLyn]

I have spent all day trying to book our FP+, on 3 reservations, for a group of 9. I'm ready to punch someone in the face.

Are you using the app or the website? Sometimes, at least for me, the app version has problems when the website works just fine. I now just go right to the computer when I need to access MDE.

Sent from my iPad using the DISBoards app.

 

[MrsSilvaStrat]

Are you using the app or the website? Sometimes, at least for me, the app version has problems when the website works just fine. I now just go right to the computer when I need to access MDE.

Sent from my iPad using the DISBoards app.

I am using the website. The app crashed on me 3 times so I gave up there. I haven't hit one error message. It is just the time it takes to get to the next page, or to make changes. I am hating the schedules it spits out, and have to book, then change, change, change. They have to give us more options in those screens to make that go faster.

 

[julesingeorgia]

Well now we know why it's not called My MAGICAL Disney Experience! My trip is not until April so I have not been able to link fastpasses yet but if it's anything like the other problems I've had, I'm not looking forward to it. I linked my room reservation back in October I think and everything was fine until I went back in to link some of my tickets and nothing was there including my dining reservations. On calling the help desk or whatever you want to call it, they said my reservations were definitely linked and even though I could not see them they could. I said "if it's not recognizing my reservations how will i link my fastpass+ as an on site guest"? She said "oh you can just do it when you get there". LOL! Um NO. I very politely refused to take that as an answer. I also am positive i had the correct password for my account, I mean it did let me log in after all? After refusing to hang up she put me on hold several times and 30 minutes later changed my password and my room and dining reservations all showed up. Thinking that was the end of my problems I was ok with this small glitch....until on another date I tried to add some old tickets. I am purchasing new tix this time but had old ones with Water Park Fun on them that we might use. So I linked them, got the confirmation screen, got the confirmation email, went to view, got message in red saying i had linked tix but where were they? Apparently when you link just a water park fun and more ticket to your account it will not show up but it is there on your magic band? really? who feels comfortable going to the waterpark with "invisible" passes on your magic band? That was another 30 minute call before she actually figured out why they weren't showing up. Those are my only 2 experiences which now I guess I'm lucky after reading the OP's experience. 10 phone calls...really? Not acceptable. I'm waiting for my trip to experience Fastpass+ to comment on that. And as far as magic bands go, after "My Disney Experience" I honestly to not feel confident about using the bands without glitches. I will have anxiety getting in line to think I might be the person who holds up the entrance line because my band isn't working correctly. And spending ANY amount of time at guest services during ones vacation really takes the fun out of things. I'm crossing my fingers things go smoothly for the rest of my "experience". I'm so sorry OP you have to go through this, I can't imagine what my attitude would be after going through what you have.

And in closing......If someone were to use My Disney Experience and apply for Obamacare online on the same day it might very well be the nail in their coffin or at least their guaranteed trip to the funny farm!

 

[DisMN]

I'm sorry this is happening to you all. We too are DVC and AP holders
Unfortunately for us we didn't discover how UNmagical the whole MDE is until we arrived.
For the first 4 days immediately after we got here I spent 6+ hours at guest services, with occasional hours using the time of TWO cast members at the same time trying to get my account up and linked with hubby and our tickets. What a mess!!!

We never did get ours straightened out and we missed the first 4 days not riding much of anything because I depend so much on fastpasses to help me get through long lines that I normally can't tolerate. (Standing in on place for long periods of time brings on some lovely vertigo...a ride in itself !)

At the end of the 4th day I closed the app on my phone and never looked back. The guest services CMs have been more than helpful in making our fastpass and dining reservations for us so we will just stick to that for the remainder of our trip.

But GOSH!!! What IS the issue with that fastpass+ stuff??

I hope you all get your issues ironed out BEFORE you go. Good luck!

 

[MrsSilvaStrat]

lol jules - That is very true!

 

[DisMN]

I need to add...when you folks make your trips to Disneyworld DO bring extra batteries or charger equip for your phones. The My Disney Experience app is a massive battery sucker. Other park info apps are much kinder in the energy usage department than the MDE app so I'm using those instead.

 

[WillAustin]

You do realize that this is what Disney does for you now when you cancel a fast pass? Maybe you should just think of canceling fast passes spreading Magic.

Only being allowed to have 3, there won't be many people cancelling them now.

 

[Pixie Dust for Me!]

I also HATE the fact that I can book Toy Story Mania OR Fantasmic OR Rock n Roll Roller Coaster on a fast pass, but not all 3 on the same day.

Yeah, maybe next year we'll use our DVC points at Vero or Hilton Head and NOT renew our APs and NOT go back to WDW for a while. I'm not liking this system ONE BIT!!!!!

Sorry, rant/vent over.

Karen

 

[ougrad86]

Only being allowed to have 3, there won't be many people cancelling them now.

Can't even do that unless you are rescheduling, you have to have 3 even if you don't want/need them.