IMPORTANT:COULD HAPPEN TO YOU:Wait List came through-Impact on MDE and Early Check-In

[WilsonFlyer]

I feel like I know the answer but I'm going to ask because I feel like others will have this concern too.

I had a waitlist pending for AKL for a reservation I made about 7 months ago. At the time, SSR was all that was available. Somewhere around the 60 day mark, I did my early check-in and MDE and MBs and everything else was available to me, so I did all that stuff too.

About a week or so ago, I just happened to notice one morning that my waitlist had come through because my reservation had changed from SSR to AKL, unbeknownst to me, BTW. Great! I hardly ever have WL Come through so this is good news to me.

Anyway, I log into MDE and check everything and it seems nothing's changed. I went to do my early check-in over again and again; it's like nothing has changed. It appears that my early check-in is essentially already done.

I am assuming this is the case and that this is because my reservation number appears to have gone unchanged in this transition, which may explain why I never got an email telling me my waitlist had come through either.

Is this true? Am I good to go? I don't think I have but a couple of days before my MBs mail out so I just wanted to ask the experts and make sure I'm good.

Thanks!

 

[WilsonFlyer]

Wow. Was it that stupid of a question?

 

[bobbiwoz]

I would call MS to be sure whatever was posted here would be true!

 

[cseca]

Wow. Was it that stupid of a question?

It's not stupid
I just don't think anyone know the answer yet.
Actually I've wondered that myself and haven't figured out the answer either.
When you do would you mind posting back?

 

[WilsonFlyer]

Good deal. I'll call MS tomorrow and report back.

Thanks everybody!

 

[CarolMN]

It's not stupid
I just don't think anyone know the answer yet.
Actually I've wondered that myself and haven't figured out the answer either.
When you do would you mind posting back?

What she said - we don't know and didn't want to guess!

 

[lodge]

Yes, we're waiting for those who know to reply! Actually, a very GOOD question....you seemed to have stumped us. Please report back your results!

 

[WilsonFlyer]

Well, well, well...

W-E-L-L...

Guess what? Not what I thought at all. I'm going to give the short version and I promise to give grand details sometime tomorrow when I have more time.

Bottom Line: I lost EVERYTHING

Short Version for now: Apparently, EVERYTHING keys on the reservation number and it DID change (Granted, I did not check/realize this. I assumed the reservation number carried over to the waitlist. It does NOT.). Lost FP+s, lost MBs (Still not sure I got those in in time to get them but I tried again), lost dining reservations' LINK to MDE (Did finally get that straightened out.). Lost early check-in. Overall, just a really BAD experience. I did get a GREAT MS rep that helped me get it fixed. It took 2 hours on the phone. Yes, 2 full hours.

Grander picture: I will NOT be the last person this happens to. Check the scenario below. If you have a waitlist, this will happen to you (at least for now) should you fall into the parameters of the scenario.

What to watch out for/scenario: You do MDE and check-in at the 60 day window and have a waitlist that has yet to come through. Waitlist keeps running and comes through between 60 and 30 days out. You WILL lose EVERYTHING you did. PERIOD. NOTHING will be retained. NOTHING

Edited to add: You will NOT know you lost anything unless you start digging in MDE. On the surface/first page, most of it will look fine. You have to dig down to realize you lost everything.

 

[disneynutz]

MDE and DVC doesn't always sync. You can have some names on a reservation with MDE and different names listed on the reservation with DVC, (other data too of course).

There is also a know issue with different log ins. According to Disney, if you are a DVC member, you should only use your DVC login info for MDE for the accounts to properly link.

We did use our DVC info but last night I noticed that somehow our next vacation and all of our MDE info is under an old login from a few years ago.

I will wait until after our vacation to try and fix it.

Bill

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

So a couple of your comments make it seem like the main problem causer was doing the online check in on the existing reservation?

 

[WilsonFlyer]

So a couple of your comments make it seem like the main problem causer was doing the online check in on the existing reservation?

That is correct. It seems that everything was "tied" to the 60 day online check-in at SSR. Once DVC essentially cancelled that reservation and made my new reservation at AKL at about 40 days out, all was lost.

I had no more MB customizations.
I had no more FP+s.
I had no dining reservations tied to my MB/reservation. (Sort of understand this one.)
No CC tied to my advanced check-in (Understand this one.)

To be honest, the two biggest PITAs were the fact that I lost my MB color choices and they may have already mailed out as gray. No big deal, unless you're a 8 YO little girl who wants pink. LOL The other was obviously the loss of all the FP+s.

Admittedly, by far and away the worst impact was the loss of all of our FP+. Most of them were done right at the 60 day mark (I hadn't even technically been "invited" yet but it was available to me so I seized the opportunity to move forward.), so I had quite a few that weren't even available anymore when I went back to put them all back in again. All of the big-ticket stuff was gone. No more. MS And IT couldn't find them anywhere. It was all gone.

I had a great MS CM who worked it all out for me and went through the Hub and did some things that I obviously couldn't do, but it was a real PITA. I also felt really bad because I felt like I was wasting her time (and hence, our money) but she insisted on making it right and she did, after over 2 hours.

I was never belligerent, mad, "ugly" or anything of the sort. I can get that way and even though my wife was, I learned a long time ago that you catch more flies with honey, and besides, it wasn't Ava's fault, nor DVC's for that matter. She was just trying to help.

The other piece here is that somewhere several months ago, apparently IT merged my old Disney login with my DVC login. I had made a reservation at BOG at exactly the 6 month mark under my "old" Disney login. In DVC's defense, apparently dining reservations are a completely separate and totally stand-alone system. She never did find that one and I had no "proof" because I never received an email for that one (Not that unusual.). This was not a hit with my daughter, nor with us for that matter. We never got this one back and won't, and we're already inside 6 months for our next trip so nothing's available then either.

That's really about it. I mostly ended up explaining it last night after all.

EditAdd: Point of clarity. MDE also showed our KKTW cards from our last trip. Don't reallly understand why because our KKTW cards were room and charge keys only. We have never put our tickets on our KTTW cards. We just use the tyvek (now plastic) tickets. I was able to add my APs to the bands and this seemed to "hold" through all of this. Time will tell if this was/is really true. I think I kind of understand why, but it does seem somewhat odd that this was the only thing that seemingly "held" through all of this.

Be wary if you have a waitlist pending after you do your online check-in and everything associated with it. That's all I'm warning everybody about.

 

[CarolMN]

I'm really sorry this happened to you. Thanks so much for sharing your experience.

I was feeling sad that I cancelled my VGF waitlist instead of letting it go until the bitter end. Now I am feeling relieved!

Sounds like the best course going forward (until the new system is fully rolled out and stabilized for DVC) is to cancel any pending waitlists before doing online check-in.

So DVC members will all have to decide if picking FP+ as soon as the window opens is more important than the hope of staying elsewhere. Not ideal, but at least we know how it works (for now). Not the first time software designed for "regular" reservations doesn't work smoothly for DVC reservations.

Thanks again for the warning!

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

Heck I lost the fast passes by checking in. I lost an AP by using the Tragic Band to enter my room which caused a second loss of fast passes.

You can lose everything by doing nothing LOL

 

[Kidanifan08]

Until this is remedied, there should be a pop-up box or message on the first online check-in page that warns people of this issue before those with a DVC reservation start online check-in. Our dues should not have to pay for MS to spend hours recovering dining reservations, FP+, etc. for DVC members when this is clearly a WDW IT problem. Having DVC MS spend all that time fixing a WDW-IT problem just makes other members wait longer to do the things that MS is really there to do. They should be able to send it to the WDW IT department who can fix it so MS can get on with the next member's needs.

Thanks for posting this information. Sorry you had to go through this mess. Fortunately, we rarely do WL's and when they come through, it is usually long before the 60 day mark. Think of the DVC members who are not on the DIS who will be affected by this glitch without knowing that this happens.

 

[keishashadow]

/\ yes, you would think they would advise

unfortunately, the issue is one of many that will likely crop up with the system roll out

 

[cseca]

Oh jeepers!
This just sucks and you sure are positive after all this.
I hope the rest of your trip are better!

 

[luv2sleep]

MDE and DVC doesn't always sync. You can have some names on a reservation with MDE and different names listed on the reservation with DVC, (other data too of course). There is also a know issue with different log ins. According to Disney, if you are a DVC member, you should only use your DVC login info for MDE for the accounts to properly link. We did use our DVC info but last night I noticed that somehow our next vacation and all of our MDE info is under an old login from a few years ago. I will wait until after our vacation to try and fix it. Bill

So right now I have different log ins for DVC and MDE. So I should create a new MDE account so that the log ins are the same or will MDE allow me to change my log in online? Or do I call MS for this?

 

[disneynutz]

So right now I have different log ins for DVC and MDE. So I should create a new MDE account so that the log ins are the same or will MDE allow me to change my log in online? Or do I call MS for this?

I don't know if Disney has decided what to do. You can check with MS but they are not IT people and in the past they have really messed up our accounts.

I have decided to wait until next year to fix our account, by then maybe they will have a better handle on how the accounts link and how to fix the DVC/MDE issue.

Bill

 

[rlduvall]

Thanks for posting this. I have an 8 night vacation coming up with the first night in a different room. I did the online check in for the first night only to get the magic band fun rolling, but I have changed that one night reservation a couple of times. Since MDE showed everything just fine, I thought there wasn't any issues; better verify now. Hopefully, it will just be the first day's Fastpass+ I lose - which is no biggie.

 

[luv2sleep]

I don't know if Disney has decided what to do. You can check with MS but they are not IT people and in the past they have really messed up our accounts. I have decided to wait until next year to fix our account, by then maybe they will have a better handle on how the accounts link and how to fix the DVC/MDE issue. Bill

Good plan.