Why does Disneyland make it such a pain to use their app?

[DizMe]

Well, maybe it's just me. I never remember whether to hit the + or the 3 bars for my pass, to order food, find the tip board, etc. I mean, I can find it and will EVENTUALLY remember, but by the next trip it's gone from my brain again.

I also hate using the virtual room key. Physical keys are SO MUCH FASTER AND EASIER. I didn't ask for one at check in this trip and regretted it, so I broke down and asked for one on the second day. Wow, what a relief.

I also dislike always checking to make sure my battery still has juice and/or having to carry a backup power source, but that's been an issue for years. It just seems a lot more important these days to make sure your phone is functional since almost everything is done through the app.

Don't get me wrong, there are wonderful things about it. I'm not really complaining about having an app, just that the design of this one isn't intuitive for me and I get frustrated sometimes.

Old lady rant over.

 

[crystal1313]

Sometimes I feel like certain things should be a bit easier. But then I went to a different theme park and their app was all sorts of terrible, and I was thankful the Disney apps are much easier to use! Lol.

 

[starlite_]

It's not the most user friendly of apps. Thr homepage is terrible.

It's super heavy too.

 

[mom2rtk]

It's truly awful. Plus it doesn't work half the time.

 

[gelatoni fan]

My annoyance is that Disney has removed the option to do things outside the app. Glitches are a thing and when that happens, you're stuck with a subpar experience.

 

[Kit Jackson]

It's not the most user friendly of apps. Thr homepage is terrible.

It's super heavy too.

Avoiding the temptation to make a Back to the Future reference and just going right to the question. What does it mean if an app is "heavy?" I have never heard the term used to describe apps.

 

[soniam]

Avoiding the temptation to make a Back to the Future reference and just going right to the question. What does it mean if an app is "heavy?" I have never heard the term used to describe apps.

Takes up a lot of static memory/size and/or takes up a lot of in use memory/bandwidth.

 

[gmi3804]

It'd be nice if the MB+ worked for the door and for room charging.

 

[starlite_]

Avoiding the temptation to make a Back to the Future reference and just going right to the question. What does it mean if an app is "heavy?" I have never heard the term used to describe apps.

Soniam answered perfectly haha. It's the same as a computer, if you are streaming on it and running a game and have 20 internet tabs open. You can tell that the computer is slowing down and certain things might stop working correctly, a phone does the same thing and the DLR app is the equivalent of running Elder Rings (or any of the new games that require a gaming computer).

I believe it's partly the reason the app won't download on older phones, they just don't have the RAM for it.

 

[BrianL]

Soniam answered perfectly haha. It's the same as a computer, if you are streaming on it and running a game and have 20 internet tabs open. You can tell that the computer is slowing down and certain things might stop working correctly, a phone does the same thing and the DLR app is the equivalent of running Elder Rings (or any of the new games that require a gaming computer).

I believe it's partly the reason the app won't download on older phones, they just don't have the RAM for it.

And, to add, there is no reason it should NEED to run that heavy and use so much RAM. If it were better optimized it would run better on all phones. Needint to use the Disney app (WDW or DLR) has been the primary reason for me to upgrade my phone the last couple of times.

 

[Robbie Cottam]

It'd be nice if the MB+ worked for the door and for room charging.

Maybe I don't understand, what you are referring to as a MB+ but I think I have one and it worked fine for the door and room charging...

 

[gmi3804]

Maybe I don't understand, what you are referring to as a MB+ but I think I have one and it worked fine for the door and room charging...

At DLR? Someone said upthread the Magic Band+ only works for park admission and G+/LL/ILL.

 

[Robbie Cottam]

I found my biggest problem with the MDE app was remembering how to use it....

It is very slow, but other than that, it effectively did what I needed it to do.

 

[BrianL]

Maybe I don't understand, what you are referring to as a MB+ but I think I have one and it worked fine for the door and room charging...

It only works for that at WDW, not at DLR. At DLR, it can only be used to link ticket media for entry/lightning lanes, etc. and the in-park light effects and games.

 

[Robbie Cottam]

At DLR? Someone said upthread the Magic Band+ only works for park admission and G+/ILL.

AHHH, the east coast west coast thing, I guess the parks are truly not equal

The fancy magic bands works just find in Florida

 

[gmi3804]

AHHH, the east coast west coast thing, I guess the parks are truly not equal

The fancy magic bands works just find in Florida

I know; I've used them there too, and they're pretty convenient.

 

[Robbie Cottam]

I know; I've used them there too, and they're pretty convenient.

Why would Disney have a functional product at one resort but no the other?
How dumb is that?

 

[BrianL]

Why would Disney have a functional product at one resort but no the other?
How dumb is that?

Because originally DLR didn't use MB's at all. All of the infrastructure was installed at WDW, mostly in tandem with FastPass+, wich DLR never used. With the ghanve to Genie+ across the board, they included the MB tech in DL's upgrade, but have not enabled that for guestroom doors or charging. Remember that at DLR the vast majority of guests are offsite, whereas at WDW it's about 50% onsite, so it liekly wasn't deemed a priority. Honestly, I was there last month and very few Disneylanders even use them. I like it way better than my phone though!

 

[gmi3804]

Because originally DLR didn't use MB's at all. All of the infrastructure was installed at WDW, mostly in tandem with FastPass+, wich DLR never used. With the ghanve to Genie+ across the board, they included the MB tech in DL's upgrade, but have not enabled that for guestroom doors or charging. Remember that at DLR the vast majority of guests are offsite, whereas at WDW it's about 50% onsite, so it liekly wasn't deemed a priority. Honestly, I was there last month and very few Disneylanders even use them. I like it way better than my phone though!

Right. I won't even need a MB+ there if all it does it get me into the park. Why bother? My room key will do everything.

 

[DizMe]

It'd be nice if the MB+ worked for the door and for room charging.

Amen!