We had the worst time with MDE...

[mustinjourney]

aren't convention tickets only good after a certain time? (like in the afternoons?)

 

[DisneyWishes14]

aren't convention tickets only good after a certain time? (like in the afternoons?)

WDW offers groups and conventions after 2 pm tickets, after 4 pm tickets and also full-day tickets. In OP's case, they had purchased full-day, convention rate tickets.

 

[JKalai]

Interesting! What if you had brought with you a printed itinerary with the ticket numbers? I'm planning on bringing a printout of everything with me, but I'm wondering if that would even matter if this scenario happens again?

I'm not sure. The CM could clearly see the tickets on one system. They didn't ask me for a confirmation email the entire time we were there, so I doubt that would have solved the problem.

What a nightmare!

On a related note, how did Apple Pay work? Do they have a way to scan your phone?

You tell the CM that you want to use Apple Pay, then you tap your phone against the area where you tap your magicband once authorized on your phone.

Wow, what an awful experience. It sounded like you handled it more gracefully than I would have! I don't know if it was a ticket batch issue or not, but I can tell you that I have a ticket that was purchased in February from a reputable third-party seller that has disappeared from my account. So, who knows what happened with that system update and why some tickets were affected and others weren't. In my case, I purchased two tickets from UT in Feb., linked them, never used them, and one has disappeared. I've called IT three times about it, gave them all the documentation for the ticket, and my ticket still hasn't appeared. What's odd in your situation is that the tickets didn't link properly, but your FP+ were still intact which means the system recognized you had valid tickets. In any case, I'm so sorry that happened. I know you handled it while you were there, but I would consider e-mailing Disney guest services regarding your experience. I know IT is getting swamped with calls, but I think guest services needs to know that the current IT debacle is really beyond the pale.

The weird thing is that we never had a single problem with either the website or app until we arrived. Our tickets never disappeared and our fastpasses stayed in tact for 4+ months. The only weird thing that happened with MDE was that our cancelled ADR's showed back up the day we arrived, but the concierge assured they were cancelled and we weren't going to be charged for them.

 

[sheila14]

Just came back from WDW and me and the GF had one of the most frustrating experiences with MDE and our stay. We booked through a major travel agency that booked us convention tickets as normal tickets with our room. We booked with the same TA in 2017 and had no problems with our stay.

- Showed up to Epcot on rope drop the first day, MB not working. CM directed us to the ticket booths, in which a manager got involved because either of the ticket booth agents could find our tickets on one system and not the other. Manager called IT, which took another 30 minutes so she comped us 1-day park hoppers for the day just to not waste any more of our time. Advised us to see guest relations later in the day. Saw guest relations and the CM seemed to know what exactly what was going on. She said we needed to go back to Pop because the hotel system and theme park system weren't communicating with each other because of a recent update. Supervisor at Pop couldn't find out what was going on with our tickets, but said they would comp us another 1 day park hopper and water park tickets to solve the problem. Both comp tickets showed up on MDE later that night.

- Showed up to Blizzard Beach the second day, MB is still not working. GR CM at the gate walked us over to the booth and took nearly 45 minutes with us on the phone with IT to try to solve the problem with our tickets. CM can see the park hopper and comp tickets, but neither is working. CM said that IT "reset" our accounts and it eventually worked. Headed back to the hotel after BB and both of our MB's would not work to get into our room . Headed back to the concierge at Pop, they gave us new MB's and we asked about the additional comp 1 day hopper for the next day. CM says they can see it on my account and everything is all set.

- Arrived at Magic Kingdom on the last day and guess what... MB's don't work. CM advised us to see guest relations, but the line was nearly 150 people long so we decided to head to Animal Kingdom instead. After another 45 minutes or so at GR, the CM fixed it for us again. Told us they have been having problems all week with the systems and it has been absolute hell for the CM's. We thought "great, today is the last day and we won't have any more problems since we are leaving tomorrow." Lunch time came and we headed to Satuli Canteen and guess what... MB won't let us charge anything to our room. THANK GOODNESS we had Apple Pay authorized on our phones because we usually leave our wallets in the safe to pack light for the day. CM at the restaurant also mentioned other guests having problems with charging MB's and the problems this week.

It sucked because the CM's were so nice about everything and they really tried to fix it, but it's so out of their control. It seemed like it was specifically the convention tickets that was giving our accounts so many issues and if I knew we were going to have so many problems, I would have bought them from Disney direct instead. At every ticket booth we had to go to, there was another guest who had the same exact problem we were having with not being able to access tickets!

Disney really needs to fix MDE as we spent a lot of our vacation either waiting at a ticket booth or hotel desk for them to fix whatever was wrong with our accounts!

I was in Disney this past August and MDE did not work. I could not see bus times and I could not see my credits for the DDP.

 

[P'colaBeachBum]

What a mess. In the future, note to yourself, request they give you plastic ticket media.

YES! We have been using MB since 2013 and without fail we have had a problem with them. When we go to GS to add our Armed Forces vouchers we always ask for a hard ticket too just in case.

 

[Kristin0713]

The weird thing is that we never had a single problem with either the website or app until we arrived. Our tickets never disappeared and our fastpasses stayed in tact for 4+ months.

The big crash happened last week on Tuesday. The night before, I successfully purchased and linked tickets. The next morning, all my stuff disappeared and when I checked here, I wasn't the only one.

 

[jnkrim]

I'm so sorry that you were there during the MDE crash/glitch/fiasco. I really feel badly for those affected because all my info only disappeared momentarily, the day before my 60 day FP window opened. For those who were already on their vacation or those who couldn't get in all week to book their FP's, it absolutely stinks.

I have wondered too if it was a specific group of tickets, packages or a time frame in which they were purchased that was affected. I bought my park tickets just the night before the crash, and separately from booking the hotel. I only had my info disappear for a short time that first morning. Most others had a much harder time and it seemed to be people with packages or those who booked much farther in advance.

We were there the last 2 weeks and MDE was horrible. The worst day, only 3 out of our 7 had tickets according to the app and could not make FPs that day. CS could not help us. These tickets were APs bought and activated last year.

 

[JKalai]

We were there the last 2 weeks and MDE was horrible. The worst day, only 3 out of our 7 had tickets according to the app and could not make FPs that day. CS could not help us. These tickets were APs bought and activated last year.

Wow. So you guys didn't enter the park those days? Did guest relations do anything for you at all?

 

[AngiTN]

We were there the last 2 weeks and MDE was horrible. The worst day, only 3 out of our 7 had tickets according to the app and could not make FPs that day. CS could not help us. These tickets were APs bought and activated last year.

Wow, brings up lots of questions since there had to have been someone to help along the way. Some of y'all are being more patient than I would be and normally I have the patience of Job
Curious if you went to GS in person or called CS on the phone?
Did the AP work to enter the park?
Did you try the plastic AP itself or your MB?
Had you made FP in advance at all or just trying to make them day of?

 

[DCLPrincess]

Just back from a week at the parks and luckily didn't have any problems with the app but heard many people complaining about issues. I was able to book/change fastpasses but I know others couldn't. I have 2 tips if you're going and the app decides to be "magical":

1. Write down your fastpass and ADR times incase the app doesn't work, yup I went old school low tech pen and paper.

2. If the app doesn't work go to a kiosk. I saw so many people who just assumed their fastpasses were gone because they couldn't view them. People gave up fastpasses unnecessarily.

 

[AngiTN]

Just back from a week at the parks and luckily didn't have any problems with the app but heard many people complaining about issues. I was able to book/change fastpasses but I know others couldn't. I have 2 tips if you're going and the app decides to be "magical":

1. Write down your fastpass and ADR times incase the app doesn't work, yup I went old school low tech pen and paper.

2. If the app doesn't work go to a kiosk. I saw so many people who just assumed their fastpasses were gone because they couldn't view them. People gave up fastpasses unnecessarily.

This can't be stressed enough. I wish there was some way to spread this word far and wide. Not visible is completely different than vanished, no longer available. They're available, they're just not visible. Doesn't help much if you can't remember them.

I wonder what or where the common thread is as to the issues.
Is it all packages booked at the same time?
Tickets bought at the same time?
Packages booked from the same TA?
MDE accounts created at the same time?
Do different MDE account get housed in different server banks? Is there one bank failing?
So many different possibilities.
But there has to be some commonality between the ones having problems and the ones that don't.
Not that it's any consolation if you are in the having problems sector. But it just makes no sense for 1 group to go along to have no problems with their tickets, their FP, their resort reservations, etc. And others to have problems with it all. If it was all of the FP system then wouldn't it be a problem for EVERYONE?

 

[Marionnette]

Just back from a week at the parks and luckily didn't have any problems with the app but heard many people complaining about issues. I was able to book/change fastpasses but I know others couldn't. I have 2 tips if you're going and the app decides to be "magical":

1. Write down your fastpass and ADR times incase the app doesn't work, yup I went old school low tech pen and paper.

2. If the app doesn't work go to a kiosk. I saw so many people who just assumed their fastpasses were gone because they couldn't view them. People gave up fastpasses unnecessarily.

I create a Word document with my FP+. ADRs and anything else on my itinerary. Then I save it to the cloud so that I can pull it up on my phone. Sort of a high tech version of the pen and paper. Assuming that I don't lose my phone, we're good even when the app and website fail.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

I'm not sure. The CM could clearly see the tickets on one system. They didn't ask me for a confirmation email the entire time we were there, so I doubt that would have solved the problem.



You tell the CM that you want to use Apple Pay, then you tap your phone against the area where you tap your magicband once authorized on your phone.



The weird thing is that we never had a single problem with either the website or app until we arrived. Our tickets never disappeared and our fastpasses stayed in tact for 4+ months. The only weird thing that happened with MDE was that our cancelled ADR's showed back up the day we arrived, but the concierge assured they were cancelled and we weren't going to be charged for them.

This is being reported a lot recently. Unfortunately, for some, when the cancelled ADR comes back in MDE, it is impairing guests' ability to make other ADR's in that canceled ADR's time slot - it's a freaking mess!

We were there the last 2 weeks and MDE was horrible. The worst day, only 3 out of our 7 had tickets according to the app and could not make FPs that day. CS could not help us. These tickets were APs bought and activated last year.

omg. Were you then not able to enter the park?!

Just back from a week at the parks and luckily didn't have any problems with the app but heard many people complaining about issues. I was able to book/change fastpasses but I know others couldn't. I have 2 tips if you're going and the app decides to be "magical":

1. Write down your fastpass and ADR times incase the app doesn't work, yup I went old school low tech pen and paper.

2. If the app doesn't work go to a kiosk. I saw so many people who just assumed their fastpasses were gone because they couldn't view them. People gave up fastpasses unnecessarily.

Yes, this! When we were there in August, we had the same issues. Fp+ not showing up or, when they did pop up, only 1 guest listed. It turned out, when we scanned at the rides, it was fine, but good thing I still print out all of our plans and had my document in my bag, otherwise I wouldn't have remembered where we were supposed to be! I also had to keep closing the app to get it to work, modify FP+, etc. I was glad I'm on these boards all the time and have learned so many MDE tips and tricks, but, boy, I was feeling really bad for those who weren't as familiar with the parks and MDE. It must have been incredibly frustrating to navigate.