Online booking!!!!!!!!!!!!

[jlewisinsyr]

That might have been a possibility, except for all those out there who use TAs or are DVC members, and are now having an impossible time bringing up their reservations or making new ones. This, in addition to the new system incorporating recreation and other reservable activities that an outsourced entity might not have been able to wrap their talent around. Considering how unnecessarily convoluted Disney's entire reservation system is, Opentable.com would have taken one look at the mess and slapped themselves in the forehead while shouting, "Oy!"

I don't see how moving to OpenTable would have generated problems with "TAs or DVC members" having problems with existing reservations. The solution would be to leave existing reservations in the current system and then import all open availability to the new system requiring all new reservations to be entered into that system. It wouldn't be a true migration, rather a cut-over of systems, which would have eliminated a lot of the "migration issues". Sure it would have added some confusion to users, but the problem would go away within 90 days (possibly 100 if you count the +10). Short term pain would be far less then this long term painful migration of systems and tools that perpetuate the problems.

Until Disney makes a move to do something like this, we're going to continue to have the problems we do with their sites, features, etc. There is also no reason to have the scheduling of events in the same tool as dining reservations. Rule one of a database, each database should be for a single purpose. This can always be interpretted different ways depending on the "level" you want to look at, but in this case, seperate databases and tools for dining, entertainment, etc would be much better then the current system.

 

[Condorman]

I don't see how moving to OpenTable would have generated problems with "TAs or DVC members" having problems with existing reservations. The solution would be to leave existing reservations in the current system and then import all open availability to the new system requiring all new reservations to be entered into that system. It wouldn't be a true migration, rather a cut-over of systems, which would have eliminated a lot of the "migration issues". Sure it would have added some confusion to users, but the problem would go away within 90 days (possibly 100 if you count the +10). Short term pain would be far less then this long term painful migration of systems and tools that perpetuate the problems.

Until Disney makes a move to do something like this, we're going to continue to have the problems we do with their sites, features, etc. There is also no reason to have the scheduling of events in the same tool as dining reservations. Rule one of a database, each database should be for a single purpose. This can always be interpretted different ways depending on the "level" you want to look at, but in this case, seperate databases and tools for dining, entertainment, etc would be much better then the current system.

The truth is, I agree with you completely. But I want you to visit the Restaurant Board and the top sticky with regards to the new online ADR system. Read the last 4-5 pages of comments. I'm on there as well, but never-mind that now. The sheer unwillingness of people to try and understand the system in all its simplicity is absolutely mind-boggling. The TA/DVC issue is a very hot topic, and I could care less since I don't use either. My point is Disney and its customers make the whole reservation mechanism much more difficult than it needs to be. I was preaching the way of Opentable.com last December when I first heard about Disney doing online ADRs. But as with all things on the WDW website, Macromedia/audio/Flash, etc. seems to be the priority over functionality.

 

[rodkenrich]

,