MDE/FP+ fiasco

[Missyrose]

Obviously the system doesn't like changes, but in our case it wasn't a change that started the spiral but rather the manner in which we booked our hotel.
We had booked using airline miles, which made it a starwood preferred guest ressie on points. Our res number was valid, MDE accepted it but we could only get 1 guest to show. Then the changes came in. Everytime someone tried to add a 2nd guest, or tried to add dh's name it got more bizarre. At one point we had "multiple reservations" all with the same res. number but showing a total of 6 guests with no names but mine(there are only 2 of us) and no one could correct it . Until the last cm stepped in it was " call the other guy" and " pass the buck" .
This is why I said what I said earlier. It seems that the training focused on "the usual" and ignored the potential pitfalls. Either that or the system just wasnt created in a manner that would meet the needs of Disney and their customers. (for their sake I hope it is the former and not the latter since the former is fixable...the latter not so much )

I won't often defend Disney when it comes to IT, but in the case of MDE they did have to combine several different databases into one and hope everything is being read correctly. Now, having said that, I don't believe hope and prayer should be the continued method of dealing with these database issues. And Disney clearly needs a more uniform way to run things up the flagpole when the front-line CMs are faced with a complex problem.

 

[Luckybee]

I won't often defend Disney when it comes to IT, but in the case of MDE they did have to combine several different databases into one and hope everything is being read correctly. Now, having said that, I don't believe hope and prayer should be the continued method of dealing with these database issues. And Disney clearly needs a more uniform way to run things up the flagpole when the front-line CMs are faced with a complex problem.

My concern is this though. The vast number of problems we hear about here with MDE are not complex problems(system crashes being the exception). Our issue was not a complex one. It was simply a minor contingency that should have been accounted for. When I say that I do so in terms of the system itself.
These minor issues become more complex or more significant only because of what I said before. Either the CM's are not able to handle them or their programs and system need major work.

 

[mickeysgirl17]

I'm sorry you have to deal with this garbage trying to plan your vacation.

It's completely unacceptable that this is still happening. Even one person dealing with this is too much. Nobody should be trying to untangle the mess made by IT for a Disney vacation, it's nuts. It doesn't matter what someone's opinion is about FP+, this stuff isn't okay and is a huge issue with the switch from FP- to FP+ and MDE.

Completely agree! They shouldn't have rolled out this system until it was 100%without glitches. People are spending thousands on a vacation of a lifetime and are now having to stress over it.

For whatever reason, it does not seem to like changes. And of course they are being reactive to the fact that some people will say something happened when it didn't.

Yeah, the system definitely doesn't like changes. I think Disney was too fast in rolling out MDE and fp+. I don't think they were ready, but for some reason felt they had to rush it. I really don't get it because Disney has always had technical problems even with their website. To think they would be able to just roll out fp+ and the whole new MDE system and everything would go smoothly is just crazy. They should of taken their time to make sure there weren't going to be technical problems before they rolled it out to the public.

 

[d-r]

Sorry you are dealing with this. It sounds incredibly frustrating!

Have you tried copying your friend’s FP+ reservations to you and your husband on your own? I know at this point you don’t want to make things worse, but wondered if it would work?

Hopefully the person who calls you back will be able to fix it and give you some extra pixie dust as well.

That would be fine except for Anna and Elsa.

They still haven't gotten it fixed, but they will.

 

[Turtlesoup820]

I'm so sorry that happened! While we enjoyed the MDE when we visited in April it wasn't without its issues. It's kind of difficult for large groups and even the Disney reps we spent HOURS on the phone with prior to the trip didn't know how to handle somethings. We had 15 family members, sharing 2 villas. Trying to coordinate everything for that many people through the app was awful. We eventually just lumped everyone into my sister in laws account (which took hours on the phone) and we all just logged into that one account to change things.

We still had trouble once we got there. When one of the reps had tried to fix things prior to the trip they accidentally made 2 accounts for my son. Then deleted one of them, the one with all his tickets, adr and fast passes linked to it. Luckily we figured it out the night before as we were having the hotel clerk print out our schedule for the next day. It took them an hour+, with us standing there, to fix it.

After that we had no trouble, other than the app being slow in the parks and draining our batteries like crazy! But it was nice to not carry around a bunch of tickets and credit cards etc. We are going again next year, just our family if 5. Hopefully it will be easier in the planning stages with fewer people.

 

[MelissathePooh]

Update - DR was on the phone for a LONG time and several calls yesterday with DVC. They were supposed to call back by the end of the day today, but before the end of the day our new Magic Bands came in the mail. Not our bands though really - our friends bands came and then 4 blank grey bands came in slots with out names. Knowing we had selected specific colors prior to all this mess, DR went ahead and called.

He was talking with someone for a while the first time and was told someone would call back by the end of the day tomorrow. I don't know what happened or if pixie dust intervened, but the manager on duty called back around 7 tonight. Basically they said they are more concerned with making sure our trip is magical than having IT figure out what cause the issue and try to recover the initial information. Since no real Anna & Else passes are left they are giving us an open pass that we can use whenever. The rest we basically could have done on our own.

So this is great and we appreciate it, but it really doesn't do anything to fix the actual problem of the system reliability. And DR just went to check our MDE account - it still shows nothing on our end so we will just have to wait and see. Again I am grateful to all the folks who helped work this through, but I really hope they will get to fixing the real problem.

We had initially wanted to call and add the dining plan on our second week, but I'm too scared to do anything at this point. I don't really have much faith that anything will work when we get down there anyway. We shall see...

 

[cvjw]

OP, I had a very similar situation happen last month. We invited some family to join us in a 2 bedroom at GFV, and we had 2 MDE accounts and had an awful time trying to link everyone together under the 1 resort reservation number. Multiple calls to DVC ended up with my Mother just vanishing from our account - everything was gone, tickets, FP+, gone into the Disney black hole. DVC had to transfer my case to a special Disney IT group to try and figure everything out.

The good news is that they were able to recover everything after a few days, and she was back in MDE. I was like you - very nervous that once we got to Disney, everything would be a disaster. I can report that once everything was fixed, it worked like a charm. We had to spend ZERO vacation time dealing with this.

I will give you a heads up that when the special Disney IT group gave my mother back her FP+ reservations, they weren't real reservations, they were ghost reservations. You can tell the difference by going into your MDE account and trying to change the time on the reservations. If they can be modified, they are real. If they can't, they are ghost reservations. Once I figured this out, I was able to remake my Mother's FP+ reservations, and get them to coincide with everyone else's.

We also had the dining plan for our stay, and had ZERO problems.

OP, so sorry that you are going thru this. I know exactly how you feel. Hope you get everything worked out

 

[cvjw]

Oh, I can also tell you what happened with the grey magic bands. If there is ANY change to your MDE account (done by you, or by Disney) after your magic bands are customized, they can revert back to the grey color.

Before our trip last month, I noticed TWICE on my MDE account that our 7 magic bands had gone back to grey. I fixed them both times back to the original customized colors.

Moral of the story, check your magic bands before they ship to make sure that your colors are still in MDE. Just another dose of Disney magic

 

[Donut23]

Love the new system. Worked 100% perfect for us.

Wow! Do you think you could have been any more insensitive to our OP?

Personally I wish I was FP+ saavy enough to find a solution..no matter what my experience.

This should not be happening at this point in the rollout of the program. Rather, the IT department should have solutions for this problem for guests.

I'm sending a few truckloads of Pixie Dust with wishes all problems are resolved.

 

[MelissathePooh]

Wow! Do you think you could have been any more insensitive to our OP?

Personally I wish I was FP+ saavy enough to find a solution..no matter what my experience.

This should not be happening at this point in the rollout of the program. Rather, the IT department should have solutions for this problem for guests.

I'm sending a few truckloads of Pixie Dust with wishes all problems are resolved.

Thanks all - we'll see how it goes in a couple of weeks

It is impossible to separate out personal experience for some people. I'm glad that person had a good run with fp+. I suspect if they ever get bitten by it they may have more empathy with the folks that are having to spend hours of time dealing with the mishaps. Fortunately for us we found out ahead of time and haven't had to waste any vacation time dealing with it At least not yet... We've got 2 resort bookings, 9 people, 3 different types of tickets and a boatload fp+ reservations - what could possibly go wrong

 

[d-r]

They replaced Anna and Elsa, and I went through and copied everything else for the two weeks. So knock on wood! Everything is basically back to the way it was!

 

[d-r]

Nope still one glitch. The day that we have Anna and Elsa we had a litle mermaid and a story time with Belle. Those two are still gone for our family of four and now on that day it says fast pass + limit reached for the four of us. Another call I guess.

 

[preemiemama]

Nope still one glitch. The day that we have Anna and Elsa we had a litle mermaid and a story time with Belle. Those two are still gone for our family of four and now on that day it says fast pass + limit reached for the four of us. Another call I guess.

Hopefully they will see what you copied and it will be easier to fix. There is probably a ghost reservation in there somehow that us just not showing... I am checking my account daily just waiting for something to be mixed up! Glad you were able to get A&E back!

 

[sethschroeder]

This is why they call it a test and they took away FP-. You have no choice but to work through it and in the end Disney will have a bug report they can to get a system fix in place....

Sucks but all you can do is hope your not one of the small percentage that lose everything or push your vacation back.

 

[luvthemouse71]

Wow! Do you think you could have been any more insensitive to our OP? Personally I wish I was FP+ saavy enough to find a solution..no matter what my experience. This should not be happening at this point in the rollout of the program. Rather, the IT department should have solutions for this problem for guests. I'm sending a few truckloads of Pixie Dust with wishes all problems are resolved.

This is not an insensitive post. They are merely stating their experience. I also have had 100% success with FP+. Not one problem as far as losing FPs . I was able to change times and experiences with no issues.

We are all adults here. Really getting tired of the complaints of insensitivity or bullying when a differing opinion is offered.

 

[luvthemouse71]

Love the new system. Worked 100% perfect for us.

. I wonder if the people having issues have split stays or are continually changing things such as resorts. That could cause issues I'm sure.

 

[d-r]

This is why they call it a test and they took away FP-. You have no choice but to work through it and in the end Disney will have a bug report they can to get a system fix in place....

Sucks but all you can do is hope your not one of the small percentage that lose everything or push your vacation back.

Yes you are right of course.

They are still working on it. An hour and 10 minutes on the phone today.

The glitch is. annual passholders can have 7 days of fast passes every 30 days. So we have 7 in May and 7 in June, but our reservation stay is over 14 days, but it is DVC and split between two places and one week is in a two bedroom with others.

The good news is they will get it fixed. We won't be the only people who stay two weeks with an anual pass, honestly I think that's what most people probably do. We were just one of the first ones to catch that glitch. They'll figure it out with us as a test case and it will work more smoothly for the next folks.

It was like that over MLK weekend, too, because that was when they first turned off paper fast pass and we were one of the first people with annual passes and a resort stay. So we had bracelets when most annual pass folks didn't, and with the roll out of that phasae it glitched that weekend. But they fixed it and that let them figure it out for the next.

So it is people like us that let folks come on be glib and condescening about how blessed they are, and that's OK, they'll get it fixed.

 

[MelissathePooh]

Yes - it is always nice to hear someone say we basically caused our our problems by expecting a system to work the way it is supposed to. Personally I'm getting tired of being a test case for Disney... We really aren't that complicated of a regular guest.