My Disney Experience - FIX IT!!!!!!

[sonofanarchy]

Or a small army of selfish and stupid decision-makers. Surely more than one sycophant...er...executive gave the go-ahead on this?

My DH is a software engineer. He is constantly bemoaning the disconnect between the higher-ups (with their inherent lack of technical knowledge) and developers. So yeah, I know it happens. But Disney has taken executive incompetence to a whole new level with this.

I work for a software company as well. Anyone there that is a WDW fan has been having a laugh at this from the start. It's what we call an "Why on Earth would they do that?" situation.

 

[MamaBear58]

I can't access disneyworld.com from my desk at work. Something about my browser being incapatable. Don't exactly work for a small company, but whatever. Getting around this by using a travel agent and taking a vacation day on day 180 (and possibly day 60).

But today I TOO no longer have a reservation according to the MDX app for my Android. I had one last night!

Are you telling me that if I go to my account on disneyworld.com my reservation is gone also? I guess I'm asking whether people are having trouble with their phone apps or whether the actual software system is bad (regardless of how you access it). I'm afraid that it's the latter, and I again ask where's the backup? Do I literally have to take a print-out from my travel agent and learn to do print screens on good days so I've got paper with me at all times documenting my ADRs, FP+ and other reservations? Seriously????

 

[redrosesix]

We have 2 reservations for a family trip and have been able to check-in online for one room but cant for the other. I have talked with IT and nobody knows why but it can't be fixed but I will not be able to do advance check-in. When I try to check-in online, the other ressie always comes up and I can't get the second one at all. IT could not either but it is a problem caused by MDE.

They told me there is no solution but we can check-in when we arrive. They all praised the quick check-in process and assured me it is not a problem. Yes, I know but it is offered and I wanted to do it!!!

This is a simple problem compared to others but it IS a problem.

Yes, it's a small issue but important to you. However, many people -- me included -- have not had the best luck with online check-in. It actually doesn't save much time at check-in anymore so not really worth it. If anything I would ask them to undo the one that you did check in, and then CALL in your room requests especially if you want those rooms to be close together. Otherwise, you're going to show up and have one room already assigned and the other could be anywhere.

The fact that people spend hours on the phone with IT CMs who can't fix their problem doesn't support the theory that these are self created problems and the system is sound.

This is probably the only thing we need to say when somebody says the system worked fine for them. I wouldn't have much fun at a party if nobody else got anything to eat (or even if the food ran out before the last person got to eat). Ditto for Disney -- I hope everyone has a great vacation.

I love it. I can see the next PR campaign- "come to Walt Disney World. You will probably survive our new Fast Pass Plus system."

And that joke is in no way a comment for or against FP+ and definitely nothing about the poster quoted. I am impressed that with her Disney and non- Disney issues mentioned from her trip, she seems to have a positive attitude. That phrase just made me laugh.

haha thanks -- it's kind of like "give me the courage to accept the things I cannot change"

Everything is gone from MDE. I was in the middle of making FPP selections, tried to edit and all of a sudden nothing. NOTHING! All my reservations are completely gone. There is a 30 min wait when I tried to call Disney and I can't wait. Is there an issue? Will my plans be recovered?

this happened a few times leading up to our vacay too -- and everything eventually showed up again. My advice, if anybody is not leaving tomorrow, is to give it up for the day. Hang out here and forget about MDE for a while.

Apparently, there is a hidden confirmation number JUST for the magic bands that is different than the number you get for your package and you have to use that number to link your lunch FP to your account.

And exactly how does one find this "hidden" number???????????

If you're taking ME you can use the number from your tag.

I almost had a panic attack when I logged on to MDE and none of my reservations were showing up called IT and they said to try again in a few hours that apparently they are doing an update. What's weird is my resort reservations don't show up and all but one of my dining ressies. She assured me everything shows correctly on her end. Sort of freaking out b/c I want to check in online and book my FP+s!!!

If you're that far out you really don't need to worry yet. This could happen a few times between now and the time you check in.

No disrespect, but guests should not have to jump through hoops during their vacation because Disney can't get their act together. Wasting time finding someone with an ipad OR being sent to guest services to stand on a line that could be ridiculously long OR calling tech support and waste how many hours holding and/or trying to get problems fixed, is not part of the cost of one's vacation. Sorry, these problems have existed for quite some time and they are not isolated issues. Disney needs to stop dragging their feet and hire competent people.

None taken -- and I agree but there really isn't anything we can do about it. Except maybe cancel your trip. We ended up using all of those fixes at one time or another.

I'm not ever going to say the system is perfect and worked just fine for us. What I will say is it isn't working properly and this is what worked for us. When I got to our resort, I wasn't the only one who had issues and some people had had much worse.

I read a lot of threads like this before we left for our 17 night trip to wdw -- enough that we cut back our park days by half and spent a week offsite, bought US and SW tickets. So the wdw days weren't able to make or break our vacation. We even drove to Clearwater to see Winter

 

[2Tiggies]

Ao are you telling me that if I go to my account on disneyworld.com my reservation is gone also? I guess I'm asking whether people are having trouble with their phone apps or whether the actual software system is bad (regardless of how you access it). I'm afraid that it's the latter, and I again ask where's the backup? Do I literally have to take a print-out from my travel agent and learn to do print screens on good days so I've got paper with me at all times documenting my ADRs, FP+ and other reservations? Seriously????

It seems like nobody had anything in their account at some point or another during the course of today. Some people had nothing and I could see mine albeit the loading of the page was painfully slow. A few hours ago - nothing. Not on the app either. I still can't see my reservations, tickets or itinerary on the desktop or laptop but it is now showing on my phone as of the last half hour.

 

[MamaBear58]

Yes, it's a small issue but important to you. However, many people -- me included -- have not had the best luck with online check-in. It actually doesn't save much time at check-in anymore so not really worth it. If anything I would ask them to undo the one that you did check in, and then CALL in your room requests especially if you want those rooms to be close together. Otherwise, you're going to show up and have one room already assigned and the other could be anywhere.



This is probably the only thing we need to say when somebody says the system worked fine for them. I wouldn't have much fun at a party if nobody else got anything to eat (or even if the food ran out before the last person got to eat). Ditto for Disney -- I hope everyone has a great vacation.



haha thanks -- it's kind of like "give me the courage to accept the things I cannot change"



this happened a few times leading up to our vacay too -- and everything eventually showed up again. My advice, if anybody is not leaving tomorrow, is to give it up for the day. Hang out here and forget about MDE for a while.



If you're taking ME you can use the number from your tag.


If you're that far out you really don't need to worry yet. This could happen a few times between now and the time you check in.



None taken -- and I agree but there really isn't anything we can do about it. Except maybe cancel your trip. We ended up using all of those fixes at one time or another.

I'm not ever going to say the system is perfect and worked just fine for us. What I will say is it isn't working properly and this is what worked for us. When I got to our resort, I wasn't the only one who had issues and some people had had much worse.

I read a lot of threads like this before we left for our 17 night trip to wdw -- enough that we cut back our park days by half and spent a week offsite, bought US and SW tickets. So the wdw days weren't able to make or break our vacation. We even drove to Clearwater to see Winter

If he/she just made the BOG FP+ ressie I doubt he/she has luggage tags yet, and even if he/she did, who would think that a number from a luggage tag would link a dining reservation to a MB? That does not seem intuitive or user friendly to me at all.

 

[*disgal*]

wow. Can't believe how quickly this thread grew!

I'm trying not to freak about being offsite and not being able to schedule my fp's until I get to the park. After reading this thread, I'm thinking I might be glad I don't have the headache. Fortunately we don't even have an ADR to worry about.

But I've had trips onsite that have had tons of ADR's, etc on them and I would change/check them all the time. I feel badly for all of you. Truly, how frustrating! And the international calling? Ugh! I didn't even think about that. Horrible.

So sorry everyone...I'm sending pixie dust your way. I hope everything works out before you get there.

 

[redrosesix]

It seems like nobody had anything in their account at some point or another during the course of today. Some people had nothing and I could see mine albeit the loading of the page was painfully slow. A few hours ago - nothing. Not on the app either. I still can't see my reservations, tickets or itinerary on the desktop or laptop but it is now showing on my phone as of the last half hour.

This. It also happened to us a couple of times in January. But the website used to go down all the time when they were making the changes for MDE. I can't see how it would be improved now that it has to do so much more. So realistically, the advice will be the same now as it was then -- wait until at least tomorrow. If, when the site is working properly, there are still issues you should call.

And try to remember that it is very difficult to cancel things like ADRs and resort reservations -- you can't do it on your own through MDE. Most likely everything is all still there.

And make a paper back up of everything, and keep your email confirmations. If you assume that they have completely mucked this up it somehow makes it easier to take.

 

[redrosesix]

If he/she just made the BOG FP+ ressie I doubt he/she has luggage tags yet, and even if he/she did, who would think that a number from a luggage tag would link a dining reservation to a MB? That does not seem intuitive or user friendly to me at all.

No, but guests are supposed to wait til they get an email from BOG lunch to make the FP reservation. They're talking about doing it early, which requires a resort reservation number. That is on the luggage tag. And even if they don't have the luggage tag, they can call ME to get their "all numbers" resort reservation number.

And no, it's not. But it works.

 

[LLM]

I checked the app just then. It is showing all park tickets except for my husbands and our Magic Bands seem to have disappeared!

 

[3happydancers]

After all the reports, I had to go and check to see if my reservations, dining, and tickets were available to see. I guess I am lucky for now because everything is there. However, I see some tickets attached for DH, DD and me that I don't think we have anymore.

 

[augusta]

"In all seriousness, if the App is currently down, what are people in the parks doing who are trying to make changes? "
Answer, no changes are being made, either message is given about a blip in the system or there are no times available to change to. By the time this info is received your phone battery is exhausted. Just returned, this was my experience from a week in the parks.

 

[bumbershoot]

But what really ticks me off is, if you can't get the technology to work properly, then don't put it live.

Exactamundo. They should still be working on this on some master site that is NOT live, until they connect everything that should have been connected.

Because I don't want to get there and have to waste time on my vacation with MB's that don't have any tickets (or the wrong tickets) attached to them.

Having old tickets on the account isn't going to delete the live ones.

My guess is, I can go into the lockbox where all our vacation stuff is and find the ticket numbers for the current ones and disable the old ones.

I would either do just that OR I would not worry about it anymore.

LOL - They should start putting all of your dining reservations along with any merchandise you've purchased over the years on there as well. Why the heck not?

Actually I bet there would be people who would like that. For awhile after they started changing the site I saw ADRs from trips a year or two previous. I kinda liked having that up there. Made me feel warm and fuzzy. Having merchandise up there would be cool, too.

My guess would be that if Disney rolled a new program that was a net benefit to those who maximized the FP system in the past and had the same IT issues, that these people would be a lot more forgiving of any IT issues that they experienced.

One has nothing to do with the other. The changes to the site started LONG before anyone even knew that FP+ was coming. People losing all of their ADRs, people thinking they had lost them, weirdness all over their accounts (before My Account was called MDE)...it was a very dark time. And that was well before FP+ made its way into the light.

I have not had any issues and it seems really that most people don't

Glad for you. Please try to see how many people HAVE had bad experiences, though.

The Dis Podcast did an informal poll and 40% of respondents said the new FP+ system has negatively impacted their stays. That's a huge percentage of a very very popular podcast.

And that's also amazing because people listening to a podcast are a specific group (I don't listen to things on my computer if I can possibly avoid it), and people who are going to listen to Disney podcasts are a more specific group. I would say those people are pretty big fans of Disney.

And so if 40% of THAT group is indicating it has been negative, that's a pretty big deal, IMO.

Two phone calls to customer service and I still couldn't get an answer about why my confirmation number GIVEN TO ME BY DISNEY WORLD was not working. I finally found the answer on a message board. Apparently, there is a hidden confirmation number JUST for the magic bands that is different than the number you get for your package and you have to use that number to link your lunch FP to your account.

Pardon me, but WHAT THE H#%?? Why in name of all that's good and right in the world would they make a system so difficult and counter-intuitive?

Well, we are supposed to wait to receive an invitation for the BOG FP. I imagine if you clicked through such an invitation it would be simple. The problems are caused by those without invitations forcing the system.

Apparently, there is a hidden confirmation number JUST for the magic bands that is different than the number you get for your package and you have to use that number to link your lunch FP to your account.

And exactly how does one find this "hidden" number???????????

Hover over a certain link on the MB page and copy the number you see in the URL.

This NEVER worked for me. Not one single number I found in any way given worked for me. I finally gave up. And thank goodness. Because DS and I got so rottenly sick during our trip we made exactly ONE of our scheduled ADRs. One! And that one was before we really *knew* how sick we were about to be.

Sounds like it was offshored to a group who were just given a loose set of requirements and some screen mockups from marketing. QA wasn't even in the equation. Let the guests test it. I did notice around December they started looking for a Performance tester, good move. A year late, but better late than never I guess.

Except I don't think it was. As far as I can tell, Disney IT is up in Seattle. The problem is that they aren't using the amazing talent up here, or at least not the *experienced* talent. From what I can see, they are using barely-paid teenage interns who just want their foot in the door.

Yes, many don't realize Disney IT doesn't build anything of this scale. They do however, help in the requirements gathering. Then, unfortunately, have to support what others have built. Not fun....

I don't think that's happening. I think the problems are BECAUSE they are doing it on their own.

Seems like the whole system is on the fritz. Nothing is showing up for me either.

I agree with you. There's something going on right now. Hey, maybe they are busy fixing the problem? Will be interesting to see if things are better in 24 hours.

Exactly. I mean, that would be the act of an incredibly selfish and stupid decision maker.

No no, magic maker. Ah, now don't you feel better?

My DH is a software engineer. He is constantly bemoaning the disconnect between the higher-ups (with their inherent lack of technical knowledge) and developers. So yeah, I know it happens. But Disney has taken executive incompetence to a whole new level with this.

And if you get a very young intern just getting a foot in the door, there's no chance the people sitting in the cubicles are going to say a word about how ridiculous it is...

Do I literally have to take a print-out from my travel agent and learn to do print screens on good days so I've got paper with me at all times documenting my ADRs, FP+ and other reservations? Seriously????

I have always taken printouts just in case.

But I would just wait 24 hours and see what happens.

If you're taking ME you can use the number from your tag.

Even that number did not work for me. No number ever worked for me for BOG.

 

[bumbershoot]

From this thread I have learned two things.


1. I am eligible for AP MBs. I have just given them the address, customized them, and authorized them to ship (though the info says they will be shipped mid-March). Please don't tell them our APs expired in February.

2. "My Plans Change There's been a change to your FastPass+ selection for The Barnstormer on 01/11/2014. Visit My Plans for details."



#2 is so good to know. I always wondered if my FP+ for Barnstormer had changed on January 11th. Considering I was sick as a dog while running the Half that morning and cancelled all plans including my MK plans for the rest of that day, I didn't get a chance to see. So now I know. There was a change. Helpful info! Oh and it was in bold red, too. In case I might have missed it.

 

[Jennasis]

I just refreshed my MDE page that had my reservation on it...and now its gone. It says "having trouble retrieving your reservation". I've left the page up on my computer for a since Sunday. Now it go bye bye. On eof my guests is missing from the "customize magic bands" page too. Those old tix with no days left on them are STILL there, but they say one of them is assigned to me and the other (which was assigned to DH) can only be reassigned to someone.

Way to go Disney!

 

[Jennasis]

Hold the phone...now it's all back.

 

[sonofanarchy]

Hold the phone...now it's all back.

Give it a minute....

 

[sonofanarchy]

"In all seriousness, if the App is currently down, what are people in the parks doing who are trying to make changes? "
Answer, no changes are being made, either message is given about a blip in the system or there are no times available to change to. By the time this info is received your phone battery is exhausted. Just returned, this was my experience from a week in the parks.

How magical.

 

[HaleyB]

If our airfare were refundable I would can my trip.
I knew FP+ was buggy from trips during testing. We just used legacy FP.

MDE has been down for over a day for me. The one time it let me in a few minutes ago it looked different. Now I'm back to the spinning...

This was a death march to roll out, someone should be fired, but I feel for the programmers. Can you say feature creep?

 

[lugnut33]

If they ever remind you it's in "beta testing", one should respond,

"Well you beta fix it!"

 

[sonofanarchy]

If they ever remind you it's in "beta testing", one should respond,

"Well you beta fix it!"

I am SO stealing that!