"Disney, what has to happen for you to decide that MDE does not work?"

[RandomITPerson]

While the frustrations being expressed in these threads are completely valid, the assumption that "they don't care" could not be further from the truth.

Hats off to the many call center, chat, and help desk CMs that are doing an incredible job making magic happen in the midst of a very challenging couple of weeks.

 

[SnowWhitee]

I have been following this thread and also have issues. We booked a trip for October and had to move it to November. Even though I cancelled my original resort and ADRs via the website, they all reappeared again. My new resort reservation and ADRs are also there. I called customer service last week and was able to confirm that my original resort and ADRs are cancelled on Disney's side. One of the three people I spoke with said the reservations would simply fall off my profile once the dates in October came and went.

I had not linked tickets before the 'magical enhancements'. Monday will be my FP booking day. I have tickets but need to link them. Has anyone had luck linking tickets and getting them to work since the upgrade fiasco? I know people have had lots of issues with tickets that were already there.

 

[Monorail_Man_NJ]

Mine is all screwed up.

But I hear the reason is outsourcing?!!?

I hope Disney doesnt go the route COMCAST took. Im like an hour from Comcast HQ yet when I call I get New Delhi, or the Phillipines with a guy named "Gary". I can GUARANTEE noone in the Phillipines is named Gary. Lol

 

[33Elias33]

While the frustrations being expressed in these threads are completely valid, the assumption that "they don't care" could not be further from the truth.

Hats off to the many call center, chat, and help desk CMs that are doing an incredible job making magic happen in the midst of a very challenging couple of weeks.

Agreed

 

[crewmatt]

working for a large tech company as an engineer - i would be quite interested in building a new MDE that doesn’t have the problems specified. like there shouldn’t realistically be a limit on the number of magic bands a person has. solutions to that problem are trivial. or should be trivial. but who knows what framework they’re using. or how they’ve painted themselves into a corner with a poorly designed data structure or underlying architecture.

obviously disney as a whole has so many amazing and interesting computer science problems from optimizing buses to shifting crowds of people to predicting ride capacity and maybe even predicting maintenance and downtime’s. but all of that stuff requires a well designed and thoughtful underlying architecture.

it’s funny that sometimes when i’m there i’ll see something and be like hmm. if i knew the head of disney it i would email them and offer to fix this for them because it would simply make my life easier.

the other problem is for the most part no one in the industry really trusts disney IT with the number of times they’ve laid off or outsourced.

 

[Mambo Junkie]

I have been following this thread and also have issues. We booked a trip for October and had to move it to November. Even though I cancelled my original resort and ADRs via the website, they all reappeared again. My new resort reservation and ADRs are also there. I called customer service last week and was able to confirm that my original resort and ADRs are cancelled on Disney's side. One of the three people I spoke with said the reservations would simply fall off my profile once the dates in October came and went.

I had not linked tickets before the 'magical enhancements'. Monday will be my FP booking day. I have tickets but need to link them. Has anyone had luck linking tickets and getting them to work since the upgrade fiasco? I know people have had lots of issues with tickets that were already there.

I don't know the answer to this but I would assume the problems were with the tickets linked before the enhancements. People who had previously linked tickets and they disappeared. When they tried to relink them, there were the issues because it said they were already linked, though they could not be seen. Same as my phantom canceled dining reservations; I can see them but they aren't really there. Best you can do is link them and see, but I would not wait until the last minute.
On the note of the CMs, all that I have talked to have been pleasant, trying to help; they're doing the best they can with the circumstances they find themselves in. I'm sure their job has not been an easy one these past 2 weeks.

 

[Madame]

While the frustrations being expressed in these threads are completely valid, the assumption that "they don't care" could not be further from the truth.

Hats off to the many call center, chat, and help desk CMs that are doing an incredible job making magic happen in the midst of a very challenging couple of weeks.

I don’t think people are talking about the front line CMs.... The decision makers at the top, however, seem to have lost sight of the level of customer care which made Disney what it is, all in the scramble for the highest returns for shareholders & the biggest bonus...

 

[chris benton]

While the frustrations being expressed in these threads are completely valid, the assumption that "they don't care" could not be further from the truth.

Hats off to the many call center, chat, and help desk CMs that are doing an incredible job making magic happen in the midst of a very challenging couple of weeks.

I'm pretty sure most people would sing the praises of the folks on the front lines. I have here many times, and still do. If any cm's are reading, definitely, my hat's off to you. It usually is.

Not sure I'm gonna partake of the kool aid about the higher ups "caring," however. Seems that the level of crappiness being experienced by so many users would have been caught in testing. You know, that thing that serious, well trained, company aware, programmers do, utilizing the resources they are accustomed to, after working with different departments for years? Oh Well, again, hard to pay attention when you're shopping for a new yacht for your kids' high school graduation gift.

 

[lambdabeta]

I don’t think people are talking about the front line CMs.... The decision makers at the top, however, seem to have lost sight of the level of customer care which made Disney what it is, all in the scramble for the highest returns for shareholders & the biggest bonus...

Exactly. I haven't seen anyone on this thread say a bad thing about the front end CM's due to this computer issue. I have seen the opposite. It is top management that doesn't care about the guest or the front end staff. If they cared they would have fixed the problem a long time ago. It is the front end CM's that have to actually deal with the backlash not the higher ups. They just care about their bonuses and profits. That has been obvious.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Not sure I'm gonna partake of the kool aid about the higher ups "caring," however. Seems that the level of crappiness being experienced by so many users would have been caught in testing. You know, that thing that serious, well trained, company aware, programmers do, utilizing the resources they are accustomed to, after working with different departments for years? Oh Well, again, hard to pay attention when you're shopping for a new yacht for your kids' high school graduation gift.

That's an issue at many many many companies. Disney is just a drop in the bucket as far as that's concerned.

 

[snappy]

Disney’s upper echelon more focused on outbidding Comcast for Sky news auction tomorrow than MDE instability.

 

[wcw57]

aaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnnnnnd, we are steering way way way away from the topic at hand. I like the discussion, but jus' sayin'

 

[IrishNYC]

But it's just that...a theory. My theory is they absolutely do care, and probably pour a ton of financial and human resources into it...daily. I also completely disagree their IT is $%$% show. Neither of us work there, so we can't say for sure and your opinion isn't any more valid than mine. But I think their IT is actually pretty impressive. When you really think about the system, what it offers and how it must all work, personally I find it pretty incredible that we can make FP+ minute by minute and change them.

I’m a TA specializing in Disney, so I’m on the phone and in their system daily. It’s a $@&! show on all ends. Even the TA phone line CMs just sigh and tell us it’s down/broken/not working.

 

[IrishNYC]

Mine are not showing uo either. All I can see are the "old" ones. I have not yet called to see if this can be fixed, but we are nearing our FP date. I am not thrilled.

Do your FPs, print out what you got as proof, then worry about your magic bands. From my extensive experience fixing the MB problem had been creating other problems.

 

[IrishNYC]

Okay, let's say we can't book fast passes because we've missed out on our 60th day window. Can they get us those fast passes that we really need for rides like Slinky Dog and Avatar flights of passage? That's what I want to know.

No. They will not. They can’t give you what is gone, unfortunately.

 

[kat_lh]

I hope this helps.

This is extremely helpful - thank you!

 

[hayesdvc]

For my ADR's which I previously cancelled that are now showing on MDE stating "reservation cannot be canceled", do I need to call CS or just assume they are cancelled and I won't be charge a no show fee?

 

[Robo]

For my ADR's which I previously cancelled that are now showing on MDE stating "reservation cannot be canceled", do I need to call CS or just assume they are cancelled and I won't be charge a no show fee?

Unless these ADRs are within the next few days, just give it some time.

 

[Ponderer]

There are only two things I’d add to this, if I may. The concept of Disney’s tech executives not caring about this is, to me, ludicrous. MDE and the associated plans, like triggered in-park experiences, are too crucial to their long-term plans for them to not be sweating bullets every day this continues.

The fact is that the scope of what they’re doing, particularly the scope of the customer intergration, is staggering. There’s almost nothing in the parks that doesn’t interface with this system now. When something starts going wrong on the database level, it can be a cascading nightmare - and there’s not one major tech company that hasn’t faced this kind of data corruption issue somewhere along the line.

The other thing is that this is not just an in-house enterprise. HP is their technology partner, and it’s very likely much of the failure resides in the enterprise infrastructure they developed for Disney. And that adds just another layer of difficulty for tracing and resolving the root of this issue.

 

[SaintsManiac]

MDE is finally all correct for me, but I was not able to book a room only reservation online today. I tried 4 times. Not wasting time calling. It’s absurd that I can’t do what I need to on their website.