Disney App: What does not work.

[JTT]

I just got back from a trip to Disney World and was very disappointed when I tried to check bus times at the Boardwalk resort. All I got was a blank screen.

So I went to the concierge and asked. He shrugged and said "It never works". I said it worked two years ago on my last trip. He just shrugged again.

Anyone find anything else that is completely useless on the app?

 

[JTT]

Also, there were a few days when Lightening Lane Purchases were not available for certain rides.

 

[Rob562]

Also, there were a few days when Lightening Lane Purchases were not available for certain rides.

Not available? Or sold out?

-Rob

 

[JTT]

Not available? Or sold out?

-Rob

Not available. From 7 am until the end of the day. There was one day it kept going in and out. I asked a cast member and they said it was an app issue.

 

[DisneyDreamer08]

Not available. From 7 am until the end of the day. There was one day it kept going in and out. I asked a cast member and they said it was an app issue.

I had that issue last Wednesday the 2nd. I was trying to purchase an ILL for FoP. Every time I clicked a time, it would spin and spin and then say your booking has been released. I tried non stop for 33 minutes. Finally at 7:33 my purchase went through. When I talked to guest services in AK (under the blue umbrella) she said it was a system wide issue that day.

 

[Texas84]

I just got back from a trip to Disney World and was very disappointed when I tried to check bus times at the Boardwalk resort. All I got was a blank screen.

So I went to the concierge and asked. He shrugged and said "It never works". I said it worked two years ago on my last trip. He just shrugged again.

Anyone find anything else that is completely useless on the app?

Bus times worked for me in January.

 

[NelleBelle]

Where do you find bus times in the app???

 

[JTT]

Where do you find bus times in the app???

Hit the 3 parallel lines bottom right. Hit resort Hotel. Hit Bus times.

 

[Kingoglow]

The app does not work as a vacation planning tool at all.
The app barely functions as an in-park/day of aid due to far too many (and unnecessary) Disney non-park advertisements that clutter up the home page.

Imagine if the home page of the app had the map function (With wait times or dining) available on the first screen you see. Wouldn't that be more helpful than all those advertisements? Wouldn't that be a better user experience? Or, if you are an on-site guest, what if the home screen showed your plans right there on the first page you see? Wouldn't that be something?

Instead we get a Health Acknowledgment, the a listed of user experiences that have changed (including the stuff in the Health Acknowledgment), A link to Disney social media and a button to buy Photopass,a countdown clock for the 50th that has been at zero days for 4.5 months, Ride ads, videos of stuff inside the park that I should be experiencing in person, videos, more ads for stuff, ads to get to Disney Springs,Ads for shows in Disney Springs, Ads for MMRR, Trivia ads, Links to other people's social media about their Disney vacation, Ads for Disney+ and finally an ad that takes you out of. the app and into the Disney store.

All of that is just garbage user experience. It is an in-park aid. Not a place for 16 different online webpages that are not helping me navigate the parks or vacation.

 

[TheGuyThatMakesSwords]

The app does not work as a vacation planning tool at all.
The app barely functions as an in-park/day of aid due to far too many (and unnecessary) Disney non-park advertisements that clutter up the home page.

Imagine if the home page of the app had the map function (With wait times or dining) available on the first screen you see. Wouldn't that be more helpful than all those advertisements? Wouldn't that be a better user experience? Or, if you are an on-site guest, what if the home screen showed your plans right there on the first page you see? Wouldn't that be something?

Instead we get a Health Acknowledgment, the a listed of user experiences that have changed (including the stuff in the Health Acknowledgment), A link to Disney social media and a button to buy Photopass,a countdown clock for the 50th that has been at zero days for 4.5 months, Ride ads, videos of stuff inside the park that I should be experiencing in person, videos, more ads for stuff, ads to get to Disney Springs,Ads for shows in Disney Springs, Ads for MMRR, Trivia ads, Links to other people's social media about their Disney vacation, Ads for Disney+ and finally an ad that takes you out of. the app and into the Disney store.

All of that is just garbage user experience. It is an in-park aid. Not a place for 16 different online webpages that are not helping me navigate the parks or vacation.

Stop being an incredibly LOGICAL coder, with a great appreciation of common marketing sense . No WDW IT job for YOU .

 

[FettFan]

The app does not work as a vacation planning tool at all.
The app barely functions as an in-park/day of aid due to far too many (and unnecessary) Disney non-park advertisements that clutter up the home page.

Imagine if the home page of the app had the map function (With wait times or dining) available on the first screen you see. Wouldn't that be more helpful than all those advertisements? Wouldn't that be a better user experience? Or, if you are an on-site guest, what if the home screen showed your plans right there on the first page you see? Wouldn't that be something?

Instead we get a Health Acknowledgment, the a listed of user experiences that have changed (including the stuff in the Health Acknowledgment), A link to Disney social media and a button to buy Photopass,a countdown clock for the 50th that has been at zero days for 4.5 months, Ride ads, videos of stuff inside the park that I should be experiencing in person, videos, more ads for stuff, ads to get to Disney Springs,Ads for shows in Disney Springs, Ads for MMRR, Trivia ads, Links to other people's social media about their Disney vacation, Ads for Disney+ and finally an ad that takes you out of. the app and into the Disney store.

All of that is just garbage user experience. It is an in-park aid. Not a place for 16 different online webpages that are not helping me navigate the parks or vacation.

Agreed. The only reason I bothered checking MDE at all was to look at current wait times and placing a couple of mobile food orders.

Booking a dining reservation with the app was insane. Tried to get Rainforest Cafe DS for lunch last sunday at 2:45. There was an opening for my group, so I tried to snatch it on the app. Lo and behold....little loading icon just kept spinning like there was no tomorrow.

 

[vikescaper]

For me, the one issue that I always come across is not being able to book dining reservations on the app for all of my stay. For example, we are staying May 5 through 7 at Shades of Green. The 60 day window opened yesterday so I should have been able to make reservations for each day of my stay. The app would only allow me to book for May 5. I went to the website and had zero issues making reservations for the other days. My hotel reservations were linked to my account so in theory, there shouldn’t have been any issues.

 

[LittleMerman]

The app so cluttered - it really needs to be simplified. People need an easier UX when they're on vacation and trying to make quick decisions / not be on their phone for too long.

 

[Kramerica]

I was intending on starting a new thread for my various grips and/ or annoyances with the Walt Disney World App, but this is probably as good a place do do it. These issues have presented themselves across multiple types of iPhones, including some of the most common types, across multiple different people that I know, using different networks, etc. In other words, these issues are not unique to me

Bugs-

- The app will constantly log me out and force me to log back in. When I do log back in, it sends an email to me telling me that a new device is logging into my app. My inbox is filled with these emails. This is the only app this happens with

- Hitting the "+" button in the app brings up the quick add menu. In my app, the "Check Dining Availability" selection is cut off the top of the screen making it unselectable

- Attempting to make a dining reservation will error out 95% of the time, saying that selection is no longer available, but will then open up a new time slot for immediately afterward, which will do the same, forcing me to bounce back and forth on dining time slots until it for some reason accepts a reservation after multiple attempts

-In the "Map" screen, regardless of where I'm actually physically located, the app will attempt to focus on the Magic Kingdom area. For example, if I'm in Hollywood Studios attempting to look at wait times on the map, it will over and over refocus its center of view on the Magic Kingdom

-Constant crashes / Failure to Loads, etc

Gripes-

- Park Reservations aren't able to be placed from within the app. WHY OH WHY must I be kicked to my browser to log in a second time to place a park reservation. Reservations are irritating as is, they should at least make it convenient to make them. Kicking you to a browser, forcing you to log in again, then make you click through multiple pages of warnings and confirmations is salt in the wound type stuff

-Mobile food orders are a total mess. It wouldn't be so bad, but Disney pushes you to use mobile order so hard. Not only are you forced to choose a time frame for the pickup of your order, but there's no guarantee your order will even be done at that time. Only that you're allowed to show up. Sometimes you're stuck endlessly watching the burger flip animation with no idea how much longer your wait will be, a lot of the time well outside of your already pushed out time window

- Covid Warnings. Yes, I've lived on planet Earth for the past two years. I know what Covid is. I don't need a full page warning from Disney about the dangers of Covid every time I open the app. You could say it's for liability purposes, but Universal doesn't have the same issues, so I don't really see why Disney does.

I'm sure there's much more, but at a glance here are some of the issues with the app that comes to mind. I really hate it, and unfortunately you're forced to use it for almost every aspect of your trip

 

[donsullivan]

I often wonder if there is any correlation between the reliability/stability of the MDE app and the age of the phone or OS version running. I’m running latest iPhone with latest iOS release and I do not experience any of the stability issues I hear so many complaints about. I have a friend I visit with regularly who is an Android user but who is constantly trying to ‘customize’ and ‘optimize’ his Android experience and he has nothing but trouble with MDE, all the time.
While only anecdotal I would be curious if there is any sort of correlation between things like aging batteries causing the phone to be ‘flaky’ which the MDE app is sensitive to. Or have they fixed bugs on newer hardware/software release but the user doesn’t have that so there are limitations?
I’m totally speculating but it just seems the experiences vary so wildly between people who are all supposedly running the same app, I have to wonder whether at least ‘some’ of the issues are the user devices.

 

[NelleBelle]

I often wonder if there is any correlation between the reliability/stability of the MDE app and the age of the phone or OS version running. I’m running latest iPhone with latest iOS release and I do not experience any of the stability issues I hear so many complaints about. I have a friend I visit with regularly who is an Android user but who is constantly trying to ‘customize’ and ‘optimize’ his Android experience and he has nothing but trouble with MDE, all the time.
While only anecdotal I would be curious if there is any sort of correlation between things like aging batteries causing the phone to be ‘flaky’ which the MDE app is sensitive to. Or have they fixed bugs on newer hardware/software release but the user doesn’t have that so there are limitations?
I’m totally speculating but it just seems the experiences vary so wildly between people who are all supposedly running the same app, I have to wonder whether at least ‘some’ of the issues are the user devices.

Agree! I just went through the app and had zero issues (other than needing to sign into my account). I was able to easily pull uptake dining app and view times with no issue. I only get an email notification if I sign in using the desktop MDE. I was easily able to look at my theme park reservations and switch them (if I wanted). I know that the app is frustrating but I've never had an issue with it (other than when I was trying to book a virtual queue for RotR last year and it indicated I didn't have valid admission to HS--easily dealt with when I took a screen shot and talked to guest services). Totally believe that other users could have a different experience but just wanted to share that it's not every single person's experience (although I do agree that Disney IT could absolutely be bette).