Computer Crashes for 30 Minutes, Chaos Ensues at Disneyland Main Entrance?

[Vegas Disney Fan]

Thank you for getting it!

I was starting to think I was typing in Swedish or something and no one could understand.

There’s no perfect solution but they should have been faster to react, something as simple as sending out a few employees with cases of Mickey ice cream bars to hand out probably would have been enough to keep everyone happy… and would have been a very cheap way to resolve the issue. We frequently do this with bottled water if lines are delayed, it costs us 10 cents a person to buy a little goodwill, I’d be shocked if Disney pays more than 50 cents for a Mickey bar, it would have been cheap goodwill.

Fast passes would have been the ideal solution but they may not have that capability anymore with everything being app based.

 

[Disney Irish]

Scenario 1: let everyone with a ticket in and risk letting in a handful of people with a fake ticket. Outcome, a few people get a free day at DL and Disney loses a few dollars in hypothetical sale.

Scenario 2: Deny everyone entry despite the fact 99% paid for a valid ticket. Outcome, everyone is angry and you shortchanged 99% of your paying guests roughly $10 of the value they paid for the ticket.

This was Disneys issue, if anyone should have lost a few dollars over it it should have been them, not their guests.

It’s possible they offered something for the inconvenience, like a Fastpass or a food voucher, which would be the ideal way to handle the situation, but no one’s mentioned that that happening so I assume it didn’t.

But what guest lost out here? Have there been any reports of any guest not being let in eventually because of the issue? They were inconvenienced for a bit, that is it. It happens. Could they have giving out something for the inconvenience, yes. But should they just have blindly let everyone in without verification, no.

This reminds me of the 24 hour events they used to have. Thousands of guests were locked out of the Parks for hours and hours even though there were paying guests. Heck I was in the crowd one of the times. But I'm still saying the same thing, this idea of just letting everyone in without any verification is not a good solution/workaround for this issue.

 

[PiratesMansion]

Scenario 1: let everyone with a ticket in and risk letting in a handful of people with a fake ticket. Outcome, a few people get a free day at DL and Disney loses a few dollars in hypothetical sales.

Scenario 2: Deny everyone entry despite the fact 99% paid for a valid ticket. Outcome, everyone is angry and you shortchanged 99% of your paying guests roughly $10 of the value they paid for the ticket.

This was a no brainer from an customer service perspective and it sounds like they chose the wrong scenario. This was Disneys issue, if anyone should have lost a few dollars over it it should have been them, not their guests.

It’s possible they offered something for the inconvenience, like a Fastpass or a food voucher, which would be the ideal way to handle the situation, but no one’s mentioned that that happening so I assume it didn’t.

Except this scenario only lasted for 30 minutes. No one lost their day at Disneyland. They lost 30 minutes to an hour tops.

I'm not saying some sort of voucher wouldn't have been nice, but in the grand scheme of things it was a relatively minor scuffle.

I guess I'm just not sure where the idea that Disney would be ok potentially missing out on the full profit from a ticket price given the way they've been operating for some time has hardly been a secret.

And if you DON'T scan park tickets, then Genie doesn't work. So that becomes ANOTHER hassle they have to deal with.

Just let the pre-paid customers into the park. That's all.

HOW can you prove that without a working computer system, seeing as a working computer system has been required for guests to get in for minimum a decade? You can't. Hence they didn't.

Show me something, anything, that says you have a ticket that day and you get in until the system comes back online. Show me any of the Disneyland App info you are required to have on your phone. Show me a credit card receipt. Show me a picture of you on your phone in Cars Land you took 40 minutes ago. You're in! Here's your paper slip to act as a park ticket and help all other Resort CM's today recover your experience you paid for at Lightning Lane rides, or meal reservations, or theater seating, or Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boutique appointments, or whatever else is impacted by the turnstile computer not working.

You remove all responsibility to fix the problem from the customer (who is faultless and has already paid for the product), and you put all responsibility for the problem onto the employees and management to fix quickly and graciously. Problem solved! Have fun today, gang!

Because then Karen next to you is upset because SHE doesn't have that, and THEN you increase the risk of ACTUALLY creating the bedlam scenario you're implying this was.

What you don't do is hide behind IT departments and TDA red tape and bad training and weak management and lowered standards and say...

"Computer says no. You don't have to stay here, you can go home."

Again, welcome to the 21st century. That's how it works EVERYWHERE.

Yes, I fully understand that Disneyland's standards have fallen dramatically in the past 10 years. Yes, I fully understand that many of today's CM's were never trained to that higher standard and have weak on-site management who doesn't know how to see expectations through to delivery. Yes, I fully understand (and have been railing about this for several years!) that TDA's executive leadership quite obviously never uses their own products as their customers are forced to do.

But there are plenty of businesses in 2023 that do have high standards and don't punish the customer for their mistakes and messes.
Great customer service still happens daily in this country. Great customer service is still possible. I see it quite regularly, and then reward those companies with my continuing business.

"Punishing their customers" because of a 30 minute computer error...I'd hate to see you experience any actual problem in the world.

You keep complaining about things being the way we know they've been forever, and yet you are mysteriously unable to actually demonstrate any example of Disney actually doing what you said they would. But then, you apparently didn't even realize that paper tickets were being scanned into a computer system for well over a decade, something pretty much anyone who's been to the park at all in the last decade plus could have told you, so...

It's a real shame Disneyland is now on par with WalMart. With plenty of excuses to offer anyone who is disappointed in that.

DUDE. This is not what I'm saying, or what anyone is saying. Anyone who's spent ANY time working in the service industry could have told you that that's just the way things are everywhere now. Disney's no exception. It'd be the same at Universal or Knott's or Six Flags or wherever. Do you really think Nordstrom would let you just walk out with whatever you intended to buy if their computers went down? No. They wouldn't. It doesn't matter how "premium" a company is at this point-they ALL rely on computer systems to be functional, and they're not going to just let people do whatever they want until the computers are running again. They might give a voucher, which would have been a nice gesture on Disney's park, but nothing beyond that. NOTHING.

And clearly you KNOW that Disney isn't what it used to be, because you bring it up often, but then are shocked, SHOCKED when things don't meet your standards? Come on.

 

[Disney Irish]

There’s no perfect solution but they should have been faster to react, something as simple as sending out a few employees with cases of Mickey ice cream bars to hand out probably would have been enough to keep everyone happy… and would have been a very cheap way to resolve the issue. We frequently do this with bottled water if lines are delayed, it costs us 10 cents a person to buy a little goodwill, I’d be shocked if Disney pays more than 50 cents for a Mickey bar, it would have been cheap goodwill.

Fast passes would have been the ideal solution but they may not have that capability anymore with everything being app based.

I'd be onboard with all those suggestions.

 

[TP2000]

Again, welcome to the 21st century. That's how it works EVERYWHERE.

No it's not. That's how it works at WalMart, or McDonald's, or Greyhound. And now apparently at Disneyland.

But that's NOT how it works at Nordstrom, or Ritz-Carlton, or many premium airlines (not Spirit, think SWISS or Singapore Airlines), or even a family-owned local steakhouse or similar upscale business that charges a premium for their product.

HINT: Disneyland charges a premium for their product!

At Nordstrom, employees are still empowered to do what is right and best for the customer standing in front of them at that time. And for more complicated stuff like system crashes, a Nordstrom floor manager can do practically anything for you but fly you to the Moon with Elon Musk.

Disneyland's main entrance management has known for years that everything is App-based now and that guests must reserve and pay in advance to get into the park that day. They need to be ready for the day when their bing-bong computer system crashes for 30 minutes, or 90 minutes, or 4 hours. They need to have a system in place ready to go that allows turnstile CM's to keep admitting guests with proof of purchase into the fully operating park even if their screens aren't making the bing-bong noise.

I'd give IT ten minutes to solve the problem. But at the 10 minute mark, if the App or computer system that makes the bing-bong sound is still not working, it's time for the Dockers-clad manager to make the call and go to the planned backup system and manually let people into the park with a little paper pass with a date code on it.

Problem solved! And just like that, you are actually offering World Class Guest Service! Welcome to 2023, Disneyland!

 

[Disney Irish]

No it's not. That's how it works at WalMart, or McDonald's, or Greyhound. And now apparently at Disneyland.

But that's NOT how it works at Nordstrom, or Ritz-Carlton, or many premium airlines (not Spirit, think SWISS or Singapore Airlines), or even a family-owned local steakhouse or similar upscale business that charges a premium for their product.

HINT: Disneyland charges a premium for their product!

At Nordstrom, employees are still empowered to do what is right and best for the customer standing in front of them at that time. And for more complicated stuff like system crashes, a Nordstrom floor manager can do practically anything for you but fly you to the Moon with Elon Musk.

Disneyland's main entrance management has known for years that everything is App-based now and that guests must reserve and pay in advance to get into the park that day. They need to be ready for the day when their bing-bong computer system crashes for 30 minutes, or 90 minutes, or 4 hours. They need to have a system in place ready to go that allows turnstile CM's to keep admitting guests with proof of purchase into the fully operating park even if their screens aren't making the bing-bong noise.

I'd give IT ten minutes to solve the problem. But at the 10 minute mark, if the App or computer system that makes the bing-bong sound is still not working, it's time for the Dockers-clad manager to make the call and go to the planned backup system and manually let people into the park with a little paper pass with a date code on it.

Problem solved! And just like that, you are actually offering World Class Guest Service! Welcome to 2023, Disneyland!

If your only solution to this issue is to just let people enter en masse without verification I'm glad you aren't in charge. There are many reasons including security, ie photo verification, on why you wouldn't just want to let people into the Park en masse without verification.

Also lets look realistically at some examples that you keep giving and some that are on-par with Disneyland on how they would actually deal with this situation in the real world -

Retail, even upscale ones like Saks, Nordstrom, etc, aren't going to let you walk out the door with product trusting you'll come back and pay later if their POS system goes down, ie computer says no. The floor manager at most will say there isn't anything they can do but they'll hold the product for you and contact you when the POS system is back up.

Hotels, even upscale ones like the Ritz, aren't going to just give you a room if the registration system goes down. The hotel manager will at most offer you a discount or some complimentary beverage at the bar and ask you to wait. Again something Disneyland probably would have done if it lasted longer than 30 minutes. But they aren't just going to trust you have a reservation and give you a room without verification.

Sporting events and concert venues, both charge a premium price, both now do ticketing through apps, and both won't just let the masses in the gates if the ticketing system went down. They'll tell you to wait until it comes back up, same as Disneyland. And if you miss the event because of the issue they'll offer you a refund, which is likely what Disneyland would have done if it went on too long.

And so what do all of these have in common, they don't give you access to the product until the verification system is up and running. As getting passed the gate entrance at Disneyland is access to the product. Which is why this idea of just letting people en masse to the Park without verification will never happen.

 

[SuddenStorm]

I don't think the implication was to let anyone and everyone in, just to have the CM check their app, verify that there's a ticket on the app for that person that's valid on that day, and then let them in. They could even tally or write down the barcode or something to verify after and keep an accurate headcount of the park attendance, just to get people in the gates even if slowly.

 

[Phroobar]

How likely would it have been to have people try to get in with a fake ticket? That kind of thing would need to be setup in advance. I don't think there are people standing outside of Disneyland with a fake ticket waiting for a random chance for the computers to break down. It is outside the realm of possibility.

 

[Consumer]

Disneyland doesn’t have any maintenance issues challenge (impossible)

 

[Parteecia]

There’s no perfect solution but they should have been faster to react, something as simple as sending out a few employees with cases of Mickey ice cream bars to hand out probably would have been enough to keep everyone happy… and would have been a very cheap way to resolve the issue. We frequently do this with bottled water if lines are delayed, it costs us 10 cents a person to buy a little goodwill, I’d be shocked if Disney pays more than 50 cents for a Mickey bar, it would have been cheap goodwill.

Fast passes would have been the ideal solution but they may not have that capability anymore with everything being app based.

I would fear for the poor CMs' safety, handing out freebies. They would have to send out a lot of them.

Here's an example of a company stepping up even when they weren't at fault.

Many many moons ago my boyfriend and I were on Oahu waiting for our flight to Rarotonga when it was canceled due to a hurricane between us and our destination. Aloha Airlines rescheduled it for the next day (the route was normally flown only a couple of times a week), then brought snacks and nonalcoholic drinks to the gate and issued everyone hotel and meal vouchers.

They are out of business now though so make of it what you will.

It was disgusting to see how many passengers abused the employees. Over a weather delay. When the airline had no obligation to do anything.

We waited until the end to thank them for their patience and apologize for the idiots.

 

[DrAlice]

Just a question: Was the app still working? I mean, would @TP2000 's idea even work in this scenario or was everything down? Could guests even show their ticket if they hadn't printed them out?

This is why I'm that crazy nut that prints out (on paper!) all of my hotel, car rental, etc. reservations when I travel. You can't trust those new-fangled machines! *shakes fist*

 

[Parteecia]

Just a question: Was the app still working? I mean, would @TP2000 's idea even work in this scenario or was everything down? Could guests even show their ticket if they hadn't printed them out?

This is why I'm that crazy nut that prints out (on paper!) all of my hotel, car rental, etc. reservations when I travel. You can't trust those new-fangled machines! *shakes fist*

That and screenshots. I like to be multi-redundant. If an app won't let me take a screenshot I've been known to take a picture of the screen with another device.

ETA And all documents will also be pdfs on my phone and up on my Google Drive besides printed out. And most likely saved in an email.

 

[drizgirl]

Just a question: Was the app still working? I mean, would @TP2000 's idea even work in this scenario or was everything down? Could guests even show their ticket if they hadn't printed them out?

This is why I'm that crazy nut that prints out (on paper!) all of my hotel, car rental, etc. reservations when I travel. You can't trust those new-fangled machines! *shakes fist*

It's still a barcode though, right? Don't they still have to scan the paper?

 

[DrAlice]

That and screenshots. I like to be multi-redundant. If an app won't let me take a screenshot I've been known to take a picture of the screen with another device.

ETA And all documents will also be pdfs on my phone and up on my Google Drive besides printed out. And most likely saved in an email.

It's like you can see my soul.

 

[Disney Irish]

Just a question: Was the app still working? I mean, would @TP2000 's idea even work in this scenario or was everything down? Could guests even show their ticket if they hadn't printed them out?

This is why I'm that crazy nut that prints out (on paper!) all of my hotel, car rental, etc. reservations when I travel. You can't trust those new-fangled machines! *shakes fist*

If it was like other outages from past years the barcode wouldn't have been able to be brought up in the App as the barcode comes from the same system I believe. I don't know if that was the case here, or if the App was able to display the barcode like normal. But I know that anything that requires a barcode wasn't able to be scanned, this includes entrance, discounts, LL, Genie/Genie+, Mobile Order, everything. Not even MagicBands were working, which is something no one here has brought up before.

So even if the App didn't exist this outage would have affected even the old paper passes, APs, FP, everything.

Also its rare and these outages are usually short lived, just like this one was.

It's still a barcode though, right? Don't they still have to scan the paper?

Yep, its was scanning of ANY barcode that was the issue here.

 

[TP2000]

Just a question: Was the app still working? I mean, would @TP2000 's idea even work in this scenario or was everything down? Could guests even show their ticket if they hadn't printed them out?

This is why I'm that crazy nut that prints out (on paper!) all of my hotel, car rental, etc. reservations when I travel. You can't trust those new-fangled machines! *shakes fist*

I do exactly the same thing! We aren't nuts, we're smart.

For any travel that goes more than a state away, I always print out and retain all flight, hotel, car rental information, etc. and tuck them in my carryon to present at counters and desks. I even bought a nice little leather folio to keep them in, placed in chronological order of use.

Interestingly, in Japan they love paper proof of purchase for hotel check-ins and such. They are still a very cash-based society, and they always provide paper receipts and paper confirmation. I almost shed a tear whenever I check in to a fancy hotel in downtown Tokyo and pull out my little folio with freshly printed confirmation papers, and the desk clerk ALWAYS bows at me before they gingerly take the paper with both hands, treating it as if I am handing them an original copy of the Magna Carta. Then the paper is returned to me with both hands with another bow after it has been referenced. It's hysterically funny and yet fabulously respectful!

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

Just a question: Was the app still working? I mean, would @TP2000 's idea even work in this scenario or was everything down? Could guests even show their ticket if they hadn't printed them out?

This is why I'm that crazy nut that prints out (on paper!) all of my hotel, car rental, etc. reservations when I travel. You can't trust those new-fangled machines! *shakes fist*

I do the same, I never travel without a printed copy of all the reservations.

 

[Phroobar]

It's like you can see my soul.

You are a very smart person.
Always print everything out and drag it with you. Just try to get through Homeland Security at the airport when your phone craps out.

 

[Parteecia]

Oh, and an extra printed copy in my luggage.

And saved in the phone internal memory and memory card. I wish I was joking.

 

[DrAlice]

For any travel that goes more than a state away, I always print out and retain all flight, hotel, car rental information, etc. and tuck them in my carryon to present at counters and desks. I even bought a nice little leather folio to keep them in, placed in chronological order of use.

I do the same, except I use a paper folio that I get for free from work.

If I have multiple trips planned, each one gets it's own colored paper folio. *insert cheapskate emoji here*