ckb_nc
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 26, 2001
- Messages
- 751
Background: My parents are in their mid-70s. My Dad's health is not the best and walking is as struggle. My mom is better but no spring chicken, with multiple joint replacements. My Mom and Dad went a tour with a group called Road Scholars in San Antonio and my Mom loved it. She fond one in WDW and invited me her 48 year old son along. It was four days of backstage tours, with the main focus on AK, Epcot and MK. It was a great tour but I was the only one without grand kids so it was a retired group. My Mom paid for the flight and the tour, so I extended the trip with my DVC points for a night at Bay Lake Towers and a day at MK. I bought tickets and made FP about 45 days out for us. The tour was quite good. I rented a car so that Mom and I could get around and eat at various resorts.
Story: as part of the tour, we were given an after 2pm pass on Wednesday. My Mom and I had originally planned to do Epcot. The day before we had toured at Epcot and were able to stay in the park. My Mom was feeling like she had done Epcot and told me Tuesday she wanted to go to MK on Wednesday. I was able to snag BOG reservations Wednesday evening somehow.
On Wednesday I was handed a pass on the bus, and using the QR code scanned the pass and my mom's pass into my Disney account using the iPhone app. From there, I was able to snag three fast passes (Haunted Mansion, Splash and the Frozen princesses - pretty nice passes 24 hour out). We drove to the parking lot and were in MK by 3. I expressly had us use the physical media we were given for park entry and with the fast passes. We were able to hit the parks , and enjoy an epic day. My mom was blown away by Be Our Guest. Managed to hit some of her favorite attractions with minimal to no waits. We finished up as the fireworks were going off and went back to our off property hotel.
Friday: the tour finished Thursday at Mk were we saw the parade. Friday was departure day with Mom and I transferring to Bay Lake. I got up early to hit rope drop for Early Morning Magic. I drove to Bay Lake and made it to MK at 7:25 am. Went to enter the park with my Magic Band - nothing. Tried again. Blue Mickey. Headed to Guest Relations. Found out that in fact on Wednesday we both used our one day MK passes and not out after 2 pm passes. Apparently there is a priory queue on passes in MyMagic. Had to fill out a form and was handed a pass to enter the park. Note that for later. I was really mad. I work in IT for a major bank in the US and after spending 4 days talking customer experience with the Disney folks, this was a horrible experience. I did get 2 fast passes good anytime for my troubles. I ended up about 100 deep in line at Space Mountain and managed 5 attractions in under 2 hours.
Went to get my Mom and headed to Bay Lake and MK. Sure enough, my Mom could not get in the park. And we repeated the same process with her that was a solid 20 minute wait, but no compensation this time. Guest Relations admitted only they could manage the pass priority queue - it was not customer facing and frankly it was not even a known thing to the customer. Managed to enjoy our fast passes before we headed to Bay Lake for a break in the late afternoon.
After we checked in and I got my Mom settled and off her feet, I went to the front desk. I ended up talking to the manager at Bay Lake - she was sympathetic and had heard of this problem. My tack is I wanted to help Disney fix this - either provide some warning to me when I add the pass or alert a CM somehow? I gave her my contact and she gave me 3 more fast passes. My mom and I had made a 4th as well so when we walked back into the park around 7:45 we had 5 fast passes to use. We waited for nothing all night and enjoyed the park.
As a systems person, I found it curious I was able to keep a fast pass at 1:45pm when I did not have valid park credentials until 2pm on their system. Also, they should give me some process to manage the passes and priority. If they did, it certainly is not a feature that I feel like I had the ability to manage on their app. The fact that Guest Relations told me that only they could manage pass priority it is troubling
The fact that I used the physical media of the after 2pm pass made me feel like I was intentionally using that pass - the fact that it was not was completely misleading. When I am using the pass as my entry media and FP media, as a customer I rightly assume that this is fact that pass. The fact that by adding it to my account, it was no longer that pass systematically and was transformed is totally strange behavior.
This is probably my biggest issue with the experience. I used the issued media and the pass in a manner that was consistent with its expected physical form and in fact it was not in fact the after 2pm pass in reality that remains baffling. In fact, the pass was transformed systematically by Disney into my one day MK pass.
I assume had we gone to any park but MK this would not have occurred but it its only an assumption.
Story: as part of the tour, we were given an after 2pm pass on Wednesday. My Mom and I had originally planned to do Epcot. The day before we had toured at Epcot and were able to stay in the park. My Mom was feeling like she had done Epcot and told me Tuesday she wanted to go to MK on Wednesday. I was able to snag BOG reservations Wednesday evening somehow.
On Wednesday I was handed a pass on the bus, and using the QR code scanned the pass and my mom's pass into my Disney account using the iPhone app. From there, I was able to snag three fast passes (Haunted Mansion, Splash and the Frozen princesses - pretty nice passes 24 hour out). We drove to the parking lot and were in MK by 3. I expressly had us use the physical media we were given for park entry and with the fast passes. We were able to hit the parks , and enjoy an epic day. My mom was blown away by Be Our Guest. Managed to hit some of her favorite attractions with minimal to no waits. We finished up as the fireworks were going off and went back to our off property hotel.
Friday: the tour finished Thursday at Mk were we saw the parade. Friday was departure day with Mom and I transferring to Bay Lake. I got up early to hit rope drop for Early Morning Magic. I drove to Bay Lake and made it to MK at 7:25 am. Went to enter the park with my Magic Band - nothing. Tried again. Blue Mickey. Headed to Guest Relations. Found out that in fact on Wednesday we both used our one day MK passes and not out after 2 pm passes. Apparently there is a priory queue on passes in MyMagic. Had to fill out a form and was handed a pass to enter the park. Note that for later. I was really mad. I work in IT for a major bank in the US and after spending 4 days talking customer experience with the Disney folks, this was a horrible experience. I did get 2 fast passes good anytime for my troubles. I ended up about 100 deep in line at Space Mountain and managed 5 attractions in under 2 hours.
Went to get my Mom and headed to Bay Lake and MK. Sure enough, my Mom could not get in the park. And we repeated the same process with her that was a solid 20 minute wait, but no compensation this time. Guest Relations admitted only they could manage the pass priority queue - it was not customer facing and frankly it was not even a known thing to the customer. Managed to enjoy our fast passes before we headed to Bay Lake for a break in the late afternoon.
After we checked in and I got my Mom settled and off her feet, I went to the front desk. I ended up talking to the manager at Bay Lake - she was sympathetic and had heard of this problem. My tack is I wanted to help Disney fix this - either provide some warning to me when I add the pass or alert a CM somehow? I gave her my contact and she gave me 3 more fast passes. My mom and I had made a 4th as well so when we walked back into the park around 7:45 we had 5 fast passes to use. We waited for nothing all night and enjoyed the park.
As a systems person, I found it curious I was able to keep a fast pass at 1:45pm when I did not have valid park credentials until 2pm on their system. Also, they should give me some process to manage the passes and priority. If they did, it certainly is not a feature that I feel like I had the ability to manage on their app. The fact that Guest Relations told me that only they could manage pass priority it is troubling
The fact that I used the physical media of the after 2pm pass made me feel like I was intentionally using that pass - the fact that it was not was completely misleading. When I am using the pass as my entry media and FP media, as a customer I rightly assume that this is fact that pass. The fact that by adding it to my account, it was no longer that pass systematically and was transformed is totally strange behavior.
This is probably my biggest issue with the experience. I used the issued media and the pass in a manner that was consistent with its expected physical form and in fact it was not in fact the after 2pm pass in reality that remains baffling. In fact, the pass was transformed systematically by Disney into my one day MK pass.
I assume had we gone to any park but MK this would not have occurred but it its only an assumption.
