It's a Test. You have to expect issues.

[Viva Las Disney]

It's MY VACATION. One I am shelling out a LOT of money for. I expect it to be a vacation. No hassles.

I have to thank all of the brave folks who have volunteered to be Disney's unpaid guinea pigs in all this, cause I would never have agreed to their "invitation" to test. I can only hope that there is some semblance of order come next September when I go.

If someone doesn't think they will enjoy it due to the testing they should absolutely wait a year or two for the bugs to be worked out, even die hard Disney fans have Disneyland as a great alternative.

Vacation is supposed to be fun, if someone doesn't think they'll have fun they are just wasting their money and time.

 

[g-dad66]

Are there any hard statistics or polls about this? It would be nice if those having problems are few in number.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3173486

 

[sharadoc]

I think the addition of parades and shows will actually help to spread people out during testing. Mostly because they have paper FPs too. Once we go to full roll-out, will people use their 3 for headliners instead? I also think 3 FP+ and only one park is testing only.

My theory for full rollout-registered ph tickets will have multiple park FP choices and using the MDE app while in a park will allow you to schedule additional "day of" FP. I do believe that onsite guests will get some sort of advantage like the 180+10 perk for ADRs.

Crossing my fingers!

 

[Minniekins]

The so called 'double dipping' is being allowed because they are testing and they need people to help them test. Not sure how it's double the amt of fp's, as guests not testing get unlimited access to fp. And I can't imagine many people would agree to test disney's product, and have less access to rides than other guests, or feel ever so lucky to be 'invited' to be a guinea pig if they were told "Hey, lucky vacationer, help us test, and you will get less FP's than others, less than others even though you spent as much as any other guests who will still get unlimited access to fp rides, even those staying offsite. You are special and get the limited edition 3 FP+ and you will be limited to only use them in one park. So, even though you have spent extra money for PH's, you are lucky you won't have to worry about going to the bother of getting FP's in both parks as that won't be allowed anyway. And, because its a test, thing may work great or things may possibly glitch or not even work at all, it's a toss up, but remember to just be happy you are lucky to be a chosen tester so no complaining!"

 

[fitzperry]

People have rights and choices. They can decide to go or not go, pretty simple if you ask me. Although, I thought I remembered hearing that you don't have to participate if you don't want to. It's not Disney's fault if someone makes that decision and it doesn't work out for them.

Opting out of FP+ is no longer a meaningful choice. It seems pretty clear the new system is affecting the availability of regular fast passes, and that's even before the roll out to all the resorts in a couple of weeks. The guys from the Unofficial Guide reported that last Wednesday FP's for Soarin', Toy Story, etc. were gone earlier than they were on New Year's Eve. That shouldn't be the case mid-week in mid-October, despite fall-breakers.

And while it's true that people have choices, we made the choice to book our upcoming trip before all this craziness started. Had I known 6 months ago what I know now, we might have decided to spend our hard-earned vacation dollars elsewhere this year. People are accustomed to touring Disney in a particular way. It's expensive, but we can usually be confident we'll get what we consider a good value there. Not so right now--it's up in the air. It's not really an option for us because we are traveling with a group, but I can see why people would hold off on a trip at the moment.

The MDE website and app are appalling--slow, glitchy, and unnecessarily time-consuming to navigate. And even putting aside the fact that I have no desire to schedule a ride 60 days in advance, I couldn't even get decent times when I tried to do that. It's absurd that you can't choose each FP+ individually but must book all 3 in a block according to what the stupid app decides to give you (I guess you could just choose one attraction at a time and then go back through the whole stupid system for the other two, but who has time for that?)

Seriously, I've stayed out of most of the FP+ whining here, but I can't believe Disney is letting this piece of junk go live (trying so hard to resist the obvious comparison here ).

 

[ktlm]

Most people haven't experienced any spotty service, just heard about it from people on the Internet.

Having spent 9 days with a magic band on my wrist a week ago and spending time on buses and in lines talking to other resort guests about it, I can attest that "spotty" is generous. The wifi in the parks was horrible and the 4g wasn't much better. It was clearly a test and the system could not handle the expanded amount of resorts they added this month.. You could access MDE and change FPs okay from the resort, but when you were in the parks it was near impossible. You were lucky if you could even access MDE to see your reservations. They definitely have some tweaking and fixing to do before they can roll it out for all park guests. I think if you look at the posts, you will see most of the ones reporting how good it worked were Sept. guests. Oct. seems to be a different story. I will say IF you make no attempt to change anything and if your band works, you probably won't have any issues other than maybe not being able to see your reservations on MDE.

In general we liked the magic bands, but we are not FP+ fans. Having the one we make a run for first thing in the morning was nice as was having them for parades and illuminations, but other than that they are more trouble than they are worth. Having to plan your day in advance stinks, especially with the inability to change your plans, which based on our experience I don't see changing because even when the system was working at the resort, what times were available for the headliners for the next day were extremely limited.

 

[EMom]

I feel like the boards are being overrun with MB and FP+ complaints. I get that everyone has an opinion, but let's try to remember that this is all still TESTING. All the screw ups and issues are, unfortunately, a part of the testing process. That's how they find the problems and get them corrected before its official. I don't expect things to go perfectly. I hope they do, but I doubt they will. It takes time for the wrinkles to get fixed. They will though. The bugs will get worked out. FPs will get tweaked to avoid problems. It'll be okay. Unfortunately, there's no good time to do this that won't affect somebody's enjoyment. Right now, for this test, it happens to be ours.

I'm Going to have fun anyway.

There was not a blessed thing wrong with the regular fastpass system. Nothing. Disney may try to convince me MB/FP+ is for MY BENEFIT, but it is not. It is for Disney's benefit. It is so they can track the bejeezus out of us and more importantly, our spending habits. Period.

The only thing good I am getting out of it is that I can use a bracelet instead of a KTTW card to get in my room and the park. Big whoop. That is not worth all the negative things we will have to put up with, most notably having to schedule the crap out of our vacation well before we depart. It will lessen the amount of FP we can pull in a day and that makes our vacation less fun.

To summarize: MB/FP+ is for Disney's benefit and not mine. Yet I am paying for my trip and paying the price of glitches. Thanks for nothing.

 

[luvthemouse71]

Those of you who are Disney nerds like me know that when Disneyland first opened, it was a s**tshow. Toilets didn't work, rides broke down, the crowd control was abysmal, there was garbage all over the place because they hadn't worked out a proper system yet.

One of the things I love about WDW is the fact that things change all the time. My 11th trip is coming in December, and no two vacations have been exactly the same. But, in order to be innovative and not have to shut down the parks completely, this means that sometimes we guests are guinea pigs or early adopters.

I'm sure some here would love if things stayed exactly the same all the time. But, I think that is a boring way to look at it. Disney has never been about staying stagnant. They innovate even when it is scary to do so.

 

[awalker1015]

Just returned and was a part of the MB testing at POR. Had a very positive experience. Only had 3 park days so the FP+ were awesome. In general crowds seemed high but we didn't spend a lot of time in line. It was nice to be able to see most everything we wanted to in three days. Loved the MB. Made everything easier to us. I'm sorry to hear people are cancelling their vacations because of this. We had a fabulous time and liked the new changes. But everyone is different.

 

[Angel Ariel]

Disney has never been about staying stagnant. They innovate even when it is scary to do so.

I'm totally fine with them innovating. If they're serious about it, though, then they need to up their game with their IT dept. Their website has been crap for years and years. It's still painfully slow to load (compared to most other sites I visit), and it's just clumsy all around. Using the photopass site (even the new one) compared to using shutterfly is like night and day in terms of navigating/speed.

They're creating a whole new operating system for so many parts of the parks that (from a guest's viewpoint) centers on the functionality of their website and MDE app. I get that there are going to be hiccups with the new technology (the RFID itself)..but websites have been around long enough that it shouldn't be too much to ask for a major company like Disney to have a streamlined, easy-to-access, fast website - especially when they're creating a large demand to *use* that interface.

 

[luvthemouse71]

That is a good point with the IT department. Disney's website has always been a little hit or miss, that's true.

Maybe with some of the difficulties, it will encourage them to up the game in the IT area.

 

[Mickeynutty]

It was testing back in July and August. Now every single reservation is enabled for MB and FP+ through November and December. That's not testing and it's not really voluntary now that legacy FP has been reduced.

And the new system forces everyone to buy tickets in advance and plan one park per day and the UI stinks and it still doesn't work right.

I think there are plenty of reasons to complain.

You are so right! And after being on the phone with Disney for 2+ hours today without my MDE problem being fixed, I am tired of reading posts that say Disney is doing great and we are a bunch of complainers!

 

[Sammie]

My point being people are threatening to cancel trips because of it.

Someone else will take their place and be glad to be there, testing, or not.

The thing with MDE is it is very hard to know where the fault lies. Is it Disney or the user, I mean if everyone was having problems, which they are not, it would be very easy to put all the blame on Disney.

We personally have not had problems, it was quick easy and accurate. We love the bands, and Fastpass+ worked great for us. I guess if they have enough people satisfied, then it is a success.

 

[Planogirl]

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3173486

That looks pretty good. Of course, those are knowledgeable people but I would hope that the general public is also having this much success. I would also love to know how people feel once FP+ is the only FP available.

Someone else will take their place and be glad to be there, testing, or not.

The thing with MDE is it is very hard to know where the fault lies. Is it Disney or the user, I mean if everyone was having problems, which they are not, it would be very easy to put all the blame on Disney.

We personally have not had problems, it was quick easy and accurate. We love the bands, and Fastpass+ worked great for us. I guess if they have enough people satisfied, then it is a success.

I don't think that it's fair to blame the users since Disney clearly has such a error-prone website. I've had my issues from time to time over the years and I don't think that I did anything wrong.

 

[nansmama]

I'm totally fine with them innovating. If they're serious about it, though, then they need to up their game with their IT dept. Their website has been crap for years and years. It's still painfully slow to load (compared to most other sites I visit), and it's just clumsy all around. Using the photopass site (even the new one) compared to using shutterfly is like night and day in terms of navigating/speed.

They're creating a whole new operating system for so many parts of the parks that (from a guest's viewpoint) centers on the functionality of their website and MDE app. I get that there are going to be hiccups with the new technology (the RFID itself)..but websites have been around long enough that it shouldn't be too much to ask for a major company like Disney to have a streamlined, easy-to-access, fast website - especially when they're creating a large demand to *use* that interface.

Now this I agree with. Maybe they need to kidnap some Google engineers or something because they need some serious help with the website.

 

[dansamy]

The technology has great potential. The backend systems need to be able to handle the increased loads. The GUI needs to be smoother and more intuitive.

 

[ems_mom]

This is a true/actual report of our MB experience:

Just wanted to relate a couple of our experiences using MBs and FP+. At MK Splash was down when we showed up for our FP+. The CM's weren't sure what would happen; suggested we come back when it was up and running. Well, I tried to change the time on my MDE account while there, and to my surprise, it had automatically issued new FP+'s to me and my husband! Me for the speedway and DH for something else!

I went right back to the CM's at splash and showed them my phone. They were as confused as we were. They told us where to find the FP+ kiosk in Adventureland to straighten things out. (We tried to change these selections on our phones, but the app said we had used all our FP+ for the day!) Then they quietly gave us a rider swap pass so we could come back and ride later that day. They had no confidence in the system "letting" us use our FP+ later.

So after a bit of wandering, we found the FP+ station and the CM there scanned our bands and showed us that the system knew splash was down so we could basically ride any other FP+ ride in the park. He told us to take a picture of the computer screen so we would know our choices. We ended up using them at Voyage of the Little Mermaid (a waste, I know). But we were stopped at the FP entrance when our bands turned blue, not green and had to explain the whole saga to the CM and offer to show her the screenshot. They overrode the computer and let us in line.

The other glitch was at Epcot. I had changed one of our FP+ times earlier in the morning because I knew we would be arriving later. It never showed up in the "home" FP+ screen. But when I tried to change it, it showed up in the "do you really want to change this" screen. It was for TT and I had to show all the screens to the CMs who said the system was glitchy and eventually did let us in line. The FP line was so long we should have done single rider!

Just letting you all know its not entirely smooth sailing.

 

[nansmama]

The technology has great potential. The backend systems need to be able to handle the increased loads. The GUI needs to be smoother and more intuitive.

Yup. The technology itself seems quite good, it's the interface that needs work. And they need to beef up their servers or something because yikes.

 

[dansamy]

It's not going to be smooth sailing for a long while yet.

 

[freediverdude]

Am I to understand that people who are staying offsite are getting very limited Fastpass times, because they can only get the paper fastpasses? If this is true, they better get the day tickets included in this soon or there will be a big fuss made by all the non-Disney hotels who will lose business over this. Once that gets out that it's hard to get a Fastpass unless you're staying onsite the crap will hit the fan, lol.