MDE Down all morning 4/12/17

[Chef Mickey]

Right, that's why I specifically said that downtime may be acceptable, what I meant by that is that Disney management made a decision that the risk does not outweigh the cost. That doesn't make it OK to consumers, but it does make it OK that some consumer impact is acceptable. The fact that they're a $175b company just makes it worse that it happens at all. From a consumer perspective it means they aren't investing in the right areas.



They should at a minimum promise 3 9's.

Disney might be right. They already way overspent and probably don't want to sink anymore money into what I think they're realizing was overall a mistake. At minimum, it was way too expensive.

 

[RustySpork]

Disney might be right. They already way overspent and probably don't want to sink anymore money into what I think they're realizing was overall a mistake. At minimum, it was way too expensive.

Good for them, bad for everyone else.

 

[DisneyJoe]

The reason it's not the same is because Disney doesn't' lose millions each minute like airlines. Their whole business is contingent upon booking systems and flight plans working flawlessly. Disney might tick off a few guests and it shouldn't happen, but they'll probably just go back to doing something else in the parks.

From a reservations perspective and from my experience, Disney believes that if a guest (or agent) can call into the reservation center and handle their booking needs (create a new booking and make any modifications or make payments), that is acceptable, even if the wait time is hours.

 

[Chef Mickey]

Good for them, bad for everyone else.

Not really bad for us. It's a decent system with its merits and has improved FP. I think it's worse for Disney and shareholders because they wasted a lot of money on it. There was also a huge opportunity cost.

I am about as anti Iger as anyone on this board. I blame him for this.

 

[Chef Mickey]

From a reservations perspective - from my experience as a travel agency owner and IMHO, Disney believes that if a guest (or agent) can call into the reservation center and handle their booking needs (create a new booking and make any modifications or make payments), that is acceptable, even if the wait time is hours.

I've never experienced a wait time of hours for anything Disney related (maybe a couple rides). I just think you're overstating the problems. I've been to Disney 60+ times and never really had a complaint about reservation process to be honest. I really don't see a need to call them for anything because I do everything online (without issue).

Disney knows where their bread is buttered. They clearly have the ability to make reservations and do so with some regularity and customer satisfaction. It's not the best in the world, but what single destination processes more reservations than Disney? I've actually had more issues with Expedia booking impossible itineraries, system glitches that caused me to lose a reservation, and general call center incompetence than I ever have with Disney. And Expedia's entire business is travel.

 

[drizgirl]

It's a decent system with its merits and has improved FP.

That really is a matter of opinion.

 

[RustySpork]

I've never experienced a wait time of hours for anything Disney related (maybe a couple rides). I just think you're overstating the problems. I've been to Disney 60+ times and never really had a complaint about reservation process to be honest. I really don't see a need to call them for anything because I do everything online (without issue).

Disney knows where their bread is buttered. They clearly have the ability to make reservations and do so with some regularity and customer satisfaction. It's not the best in the world, but what single destination processes more reservations than Disney? I've actually had more issues with Expedia booking impossible itineraries, system glitches that caused me to lose a reservation, and general call center incompetence than I ever have with Disney. And Expedia's entire business is travel.

I've been on the phone with WDW for more than 30 minutes waiting for a CM to free up more than once. Most recently when I tried to change a reservation and couldn't through MDE because it would reset back to the default screen. Fortunately I had brought some wireless buds with me.

 

[Chef Mickey]

That really is a matter of opinion.

I would have been fine with paper fast passes (like Disneyland decided) but as I said, it wasn't worth $2b.

These guys are making it sound like you can't go to Disney World without MDE working perfectly 100% of the time and that's just drama and untrue. It's not a free pass to Disney. I told them to complain later, but making it sound like it's some major deal is just a lot to do about nothing.

 

[GhostHost1000]

Its all part of a mindset which devalues IT I would wager Iger does not even do email his assistant does it for him.

This leads to situations where IT is procured and managed along the same lines as Janitorial service, i.e. Cheapest vendor wins because IT is all the same some just overcharge... and having US based workers is too expensive so lets have a daylight savings time outage because where systems are managed there is no DST...

that is the problem with some corporations... they look at IT as an expense rather than an asset that could help them actually improve the bottom line. Especially in this day and age with cloud functionality ... Disney just needs to be innovative and push the envelope rather than penny pinch and have a bad reputation for web site availability

 

[DisneyJoe]

I've never experienced a wait time of hours for anything Disney related (maybe a couple rides). I just think you're overstating the problems. I've been to Disney 60+ times and never really had a complaint about reservation process to be honest. I really don't see a need to call them for anything because I do everything online (without issue).

I am speaking about the WDW reservation systems only and how we sometimes need to wait on the phone for hours in a queue to speak to a reservation CM because the Disney Travel Agents online system isn't working properly. The volume of business that a Disney-focused travel agency does reveals many issues that should never occur in a properly tested online system.

 

[ford91exploder]

Does Disney lose money when their websites crash? They certainly don't act like it affects them.

Disneys public facing IT systems reflect the attitude and corporate hubris that 'the guests will always come' no matter what we do. Since the guests will always clamor to give disney money why should disney invest in IT systems. Till the day when Disney becomes a 'overnight corporate failure' in the business press. And only people like me will remember disney sowing the seeds of thier own destruction

 

[21stamps]

Question- if this happens while you're at a park- can you go up to any FP CM and ask them to check your magic band?

The Magic bands weren't down, correct? Only the ability to add FPs or dining reservations.. through the app or website.

 

[RustySpork]

Question- if this happens while you're at a park- can you go up to any FP CM and ask them to check your magic band?

The Magic bands weren't down, correct? Only the ability to add FPs or dining reservations.. through the app or website.

Yes, but the lines for that were very long if you remember back a few pages. If you can't schedule FP+ or view your schedule, it's down.

 

[DisneyJoe]

Disneys public facing IT systems reflect the attitude and corporate hubris that 'the guests will always come' no matter what we do. Since the guests will always clamor to give disney money why should disney invest in IT systems. Till the day when Disney becomes a 'overnight corporate failure' in the business press. And only people like me will remember disney sowing the seeds of thier own destruction

Speaking of hubris - do you know of any other company that schedules downtime or maintenance on their reservation systems during business hours?

 

[21stamps]

Yes, but the lines for that were very long if you remember back a few pages. If you can't schedule FP+ or view your schedule, it's down.

But I know people here have been referring to "thousands" of stuck and lost people.. but how many were all ready in line for something and could have checked there? Or didn't have a FP scheduled during that time? Or knew what their plans were?

Again, the situation stinks but I think the 'thousands of poor lost souls' bit is a little exaggerated. This is the first time that I've heard of such an occurrence in the past year.. so it can't be that common. I think humans are more capable than people here seem to make them out to be.

 

[drizgirl]

I would have been fine with paper fast passes (like Disneyland decided) but as I said, it wasn't worth $2b.

These guys are making it sound like you can't go to Disney World without MDE working perfectly 100% of the time and that's just drama and untrue. It's not a free pass to Disney. I told them to complain later, but making it sound like it's some major deal is just a lot to do about nothing.

Having FP unavailable for multiple hours does impact my day. When we go, we sometimes get only one day in the parks. I can't just do tomorrow what I happened to miss today. And yes FP is an important part of that day for me. It's a HUGE piece of the day for me if I'm there during spring break.

I think some people go so often they don't remember what it's like to have a limited amount of time in the parks to get done all the things you were looking forward to.

 

[RustySpork]

But I know people here have been referring to "thousands" of stuck and lost people.. but how many were all ready in line for something and could have checked there? Or didn't have a FP scheduled during that time? Or knew what their plans were?

Again, the situation stinks but I think the 'thousands of poor lost souls' bit is a little exaggerated. This is the first time that I've heard of such an occurrence in the past year.. so it can't be that common.

Just because it's the first you've heard of it, that doesn't mean it's the first one. Something similar happened not too long ago.

 

[xdan0920]

Yes, but the lines for that were very long if you remember back a few pages. If you can't schedule FP+ or view your schedule, it's down.

You could only check your FP at a FP kiosk. Or maybe GS, I never got to GS in person in park.

The attraction CMs couldn't check.

 

[RustySpork]

You could only check your FP at a FP kiosk. Or maybe GS, I never got to GS in person in park.

The attraction CMs couldn't check.

In my opinion, it was "down". Not hard down, but in a degraded state.

 

[Chef Mickey]

Having FP unavailable for multiple hours does impact my day. When we go, we sometimes get only one day in the parks. I can't just do tomorrow what I happened to miss today. And yes FP is an important part of that day for me. It's a HUGE piece of the day for me if I'm there during spring break.

I think some people go so often they don't remember what it's like to have a limited amount of time in the parks to get done all the things you were looking forward to.

What's the process in place for FP service being down? Do they only have standby lines going?