MDE App Update & Recent “Refresh” Changes Discussion (we’re not doomed!)

[anomamatt]

What seems slightly odd is that this only seems to happen (at least in my tries) with SDMT, FOP and SDD. At some point today, I’ve gotten all of these, some multiple times, but not able to confirm any. I realize these are the 3 toughest tickets, but still, even with rides where only 1 time has been available ( Navi, Aliens, Everest etc), I can always get the confirmation page. I’m not talking about rides that show multiple available times. And I have yet to get the screen that offers me an alternative time to what I chose. It’s either available or it isn’t.

What this tells me, if anything, I have no clue.

Its possible more is going on, but I think it’s because when anyone sees those, they grab them immediately. No one passes 7DMT for a Pooh. Even if you were originally looking to take a Pooh (FP).

 

[SaintsManiac]

This is the key point. Most changes that we’ve all complained about were “well - this sucks but I understand why they’re doing it because it benefits so and so”, or it closes an exploit, etc, or it makes the overall experience more fair for everyone etc. This benefits no one. It harms you whether you refresh or not. The only possible justification, would be to completely destroy the 4th+ fast pass market. I don’t buy the argument that they’re intentionally causing pain, in order to create a justification for paid fast pass. That just doesn’t make sense.

I don’t think they’re intentionally doing it to justify paid FP. I think they are changing the system and it could lead there. Whenever they do anything to the app it winds up terribly busted for at least a day. Their IT is just bad.

 

[anomamatt]

How do I tell if I have the new updated app? I have the + sign at the bottom but don’t see bus wait times or Minnie van anything.

Minnie vans are via Lyft app. You cannot see bus times until you check in.

 

[RachaelA]

Actually, the best way I have ever found to voice a complaint is the send George K a message on LinkedIn, he often personally replies to those messages and having met him in person when he was president at Disneyland, I can say he truly does care about what guests think about things.

Great idea! I’m going to have my husband send one tonight! I don’t have a LinkedIn and have no idea how to use it or I would do it myself.

 

[cmwade77]

That being said, the fine print has always said that the FP reservation wasnt guaranteed until you reach the confirmation page, so my thought is that this is simply making the system work as it was always intended to work, truly making it first come, first served.

 

[SaintsManiac]

Minnie vans are via Lyft app. You cannot see bus times until you check in.

Yeah but you can see an "ad" for Minnie Vans in the new home screen on the updated app.

 

[Tiggerlover91]

I was curious as to how this looks on the website and my desktop, so I booked a pretend FP for my son and I on Pirates for I believe it was 7:30 tonight. Then I kept hitting the 7pm time and a BTMRR showed up after about the 3rd time. I clicked it.....gone.....

 

[anomamatt]

Yeah but you can see an "ad" for Minnie Vans in the new home screen on the updated app.

The ads are awful.

 

[Searc]

How do I tell if I have the new updated app? I have the + sign at the bottom but don’t see bus wait times or Minnie van anything.

Minnie Vans are through the Lyft app. Wait times can only be seen from check in to check out day.

 

[M SH]

Ok, so here are my findings so far with regards to searching for FP's (and I have already emailed Disney with my feedback).

Personally I have found the app super fast which is awesome!! Previously I would get about 25-30 refreshes per minute and with the update I have easily been over 40/minute.

1) Huge problem is that when you search for a FP and it shows up you have a very high chance of still not getting it (if we're looking for FP's without great availability). When you refresh and see a ride/time that you want previously you would click on it and be all good. Now it runs what appears to be a second search/refresh once you select it and you may still lose the FP. I have been hitting the time in under a second from the FP showing up and missing far more than I get for hard to get rides even in that 1 second time. If you have to scroll at all it becomes even harder because that takes another second or two.

2) If you are modifying and two times show up, you click on the time you want, and it goes to the confirmation screen...watch that screen CAREFULLY!! Let's say a 2:00PM and a 10:00PM time show up and you choose the 2:00. If that FP is now no longer available it will automatically choose the 10PM FP for you and go to the confirmation screen with the 10PM FP selected. There will be a notice at the top that they have chosen a different time for you but if you are going quickly or only half paying attention that can easily be missed.

3) When modifying, when you select a new time the confirmation screen just keeps spinning and never confirms the new choice. Do not panic. Just click on My Plans and you will see the new FP has replaced the old one even though you never got it to show the confirmation.

These are just a few quick things I have found while testing out the new app. Expect a lot of frustration if they do not make any changes.

I can confirm this for both iOS and Android. Refresh is doomed... kind of..

 

[JETSDAD]

I can confirm this for both iOS and Android. Refresh is doomed...

I wouldn't say doomed (well, I guess I kind of did when I suggested a new name for this discussion), just different, more frustrating, annoying, etc. It still works but like I've said before, it requires being fast and having patience.

 

[Randomsoulshine]

The ads are awful.

I must not have new update because I don’t see any ads. I checked and no update was available.

 

[DavidNYC]

I don’t think they’re intentionally doing it to justify paid FP. I think they are changing the system and it could lead there. Whenever they do anything to the app it winds up terribly busted for at least a day. Their IT is just bad.

Normally I’d agree. This however was a very specific back end change not limited to the app. Disney reallynowes an explanation but of course none will be forthcoming. Just a whole lot of frustrated guests who had the rug pulled out from under them and treated as guinea pigs for a broken system.

 

[M SH]

I wouldn't say doomed (well, I guess I kind of did when I suggested a new name for this discussion), just different, more frustrating, annoying, etc. It still works but like I've said before, it requires being fast and having patience.

Sure. I did notice on my s10 that refreshing is very fast now. But for top tier attractions i had way more misses than hits. And I am very fast with clicks and reflexes

I wish they held back on this change before my trip a month from now. Now both me and my wife will be refreshing to increase our chances vs only 1 of us having to do it at a time.

This is definitely intentional by Disney, otherwise they wouldn’t have implemented the next screen of no times available or here is a different time to grab.. I really hope they revert this change.

For people who think this is for the better, IMO you are mistaken. This will just cause more frustration especially for casual refreshers and people with slower phones and networks. This isn’t going to kill refresh but just make it more frustrating and increase standby times..

 

[pixiedust2u]

Is this issue mostly with the misted popular rides ie, 7DMT, FoP, SDD etc? Or is this also happening with the other rides?

I’m new here. My last DW trip was 10 years ago, and this is my first trip with kids (ages 4 & almost 2). I’ve done my hw, planned ahead, researched, made touring plans. We are spending an exuberant amount of money and thus I’ve done everything possible to ensure we make the most of our time. I’ve truly appreciated this site for all the info and appreciate the planning and research that goes into making the most of a WDW vacation.

I’m obviously not a “power user”, AP holder, DVCer...I’m your average mom of two littles VERY excited to share the excitement of DW with my kids for the first time. It was stressful enough to calculate their nap times, bedtimes, meal times etc 6 months in advance for ADRs, and then for FPs 2 months out. It’s an understatement to say how disappointment and downright LIVID I will be if you’re saying when we complete our first three FPS by noon at our first day at MK that MDE is only going to offer me a FP for Buzz Lightyear or Dumbo for 8:30pm and tell me nothing else is available. Or not let me adjust my FP for a little later in the afternoon to accommodate my 4 year old who might need a break, or who fell asleep. Likewise if u have to spend 30+ minutes staring at my phone getting aggravated to secure a ride time instead of being in the moment of enjoying the park with my kids I’ll be very unhappy.

The amount of planning, amount of money, the nickel and diming of SO much that has seemed to have changed was already stealing some of the “magic” away from our experience before we even got going..... this new update I agree is very ummagical. I’m seriously hoping that there’s some sort of fix, or work around all you pros can come up with before our date of departure in 4 weeks, or it may be our first and last WDW trip.

 

[Mome Rath]

I've not settled in my mind the proper metaphor to use here.... The perennial favorite "Up high, Down low, you're too slow!" or Lucy holding the football for Charlie Brown...

 

[JETSDAD]

Is this issue mostly with the misted popular rides ie, 7DMT, FoP, SDD etc? Or is this also happening with the other rides?

I’m new here. My last DW trip was 10 years ago, and this is my first trip with kids (ages 4 & almost 2). I’ve done my hw, planned ahead, researched, made touring plans. We are spending an exuberant amount of money and thus I’ve done everything possible to ensure we make the most of our time. I’ve truly appreciated this site for all the info and appreciate the planning and research that goes into making the most of a WDW vacation.

I’m obviously not a “power user”, AP holder, DVCer...I’m your average mom of two littles VERY excited to share the excitement of DW with my kids for the first time. It was stressful enough to calculate their nap times, bedtimes, meal times etc 6 months in advance for ADRs, and then for FPs 2 months out. It’s an understatement to say how disappointment and downright LIVID I will be if you’re saying when we complete our first three FPS by noon at our first day at MK that MDE is only going to offer me a FP for Buzz Lightyear or Dumbo for 8:30pm and tell me nothing else is available. Or not let me adjust my FP for a little later in the afternoon to accommodate my 4 year old who might need a break, or who fell asleep. Likewise if u have to spend 30+ minutes staring at my phone getting aggravated to secure a ride time instead of being in the moment of enjoying the park with my kids I’ll be very unhappy.

The amount of planning, amount of money, the nickel and diming of SO much that has seemed to have changed was already stealing some of the “magic” away from our experience before we even got going..... this new update I agree is very ummagical. I’m seriously hoping that there’s some sort of fix, or work around all you pros can come up with before our date of departure in 4 weeks, or it may be our first and last WDW trip.

The system is the same for all rides however the top tier rides are more noticeable because they lack availability and are high demand for people searching day of. Lower tier rides can still have it happen but there is much more readily available options so you should be fine.

 

[MouseMamaToMany]

Oh man. Just played with refresh. This sucks- and I’m usually pretty positive about changes. Not fun.

 

[JETSDAD]

I've not settled in my mind the proper metaphor to use here.... The perennial favorite "Up high, Down low, you're too slow!" or Lucy holding the football for Charlie Brown...

Haha, that's the perfect example of this. Charlie Brown FP's. Love it

 

[fractalpotato]

This is definitely intentional by Disney, otherwise they wouldn’t have implemented the next screen of no times available or here is a different time to grab.. I really hope they revert this change..

As I explained a short while earlier, it's very unlikely this is intentional, and those screens already existed. A typical workflow for something like this (it's actually very similar to some database operations my firm deals with) is that when the search returns a list of candidates, it puts a unique tag on that saying user XYZ has a short term hold on these. Once you complete your selection, the tag is converted to a firm booking, and the other items are untagged and released back in to the wild. However, if the user never makes a confirmation, or the app crashes, or their phone slips out of their hands because they're using it on Rock'n'roller coaster you don't want those times to be forever lost. So, after a short window of time, the tag becomes inactive and the times become selectable again. Due to this, there is a real possibility that the user might need to be shown the "Sorry this time is no longer available." screen, which is why it exists.

Example scenario from a prior trip:

1. I open the app and start searching for a fourth FP.
2. I find one for Test Track in half an hour, I click it, the confirmation comes up.
3. I mention it to my party, who is debating food, they say maybe.
4. I get a text message, and switch over to it while they're debating.
5. We decide on food while I'm in the message, I finish replying, lock my phone and we walk off.
6. A few minutes later I switch back to MDE and the pending confirmation and go "oops!"
7. I click the button, but by now the hold has timed out and someone else got the FP. I get the screen.

This makes far more sense then them intentionally making their app show times and then not allow them, that would be a horrifically bad UX design. Not that MDE is the best user experience known to man, but it's not that bad and Disney knows better than to pull a stunt like that. Making your product visibly work poorly is not the right avenue to solicit additional spending.

Matt