ToTBellHop
Well-Known Member
They always want to promote resort stays.
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News Disney Park Pass System announced for Walt Disney World theme park reservations
- Thread starter wdwmagic
- Start date
Kingoglow
Well-Known Member
Yes, that's what we were talking about, reducing the count of APs. Sorry if I wasn't clear; my napkin math was for locals (coming on nonconsecutive days).
Disney Glimpses
Well-Known Member
It's not that. It's more that they are caught between a rock and a hard place and are unwilling/unable to make the technological changes to address this.
Disney Parks is not a tech company like Disney Streaming. Some historical context here: Disney Parks software historically fell under the marketing umbrella. Until recently, it is very much an ad hoc development environment consisting of mostly patches and bug fixes. Much of the major stuff is outsourced to other companies and then maintained by Disney Parks.
My point is, historically, a tech company like Disney Streaming or Meta would iterate quickly and efficiently as needed. Companies like this consist of smaller teams, focused on one thing and only one thing making sure it is perfect. That is not Disney Parks, yet. They are working towards it and Gail Evans is making the right changes in that area. I cannot stress enough how subpar the software development at Disney Parks is. A lot of that is because Disney is unwilling to pay software engineers the 300-600k many make at other companies nor are they willing to hire outside of Florida, which is where MDX is developed.
If they had, we'd have a unified Park Pass scheduler in the app that worked for groups of any size, any affiliation with clear details on eligibility. Heck, Park Pass isn't even a new app! They literally just made each of the 4 gates an "attraction" in FastPass+ and made the return time "Open to Close" while removing all the other attractions from FastPass+ inventory.
There are 8-12 reservation systems at WDW alone that have no interaction with each other or context into each other whatsoever.
Jrb1979
Well-Known Member
Nothing surprises me anymore with Disney. They were once the industry leader. Since Covid it feels like they focused on D+ and recouping all the losses as quickly as possible.
bcoachable
Well-Known Member
lol, you stole my line!
- but you are not wrong....
Disney Glimpses
Well-Known Member
It's not done intentionally. They have good people working on this stuff, it's just out of their league. Previously you could get by without being a full blown tech company. But expectations are so high now, Disney Parks needs a team like Disney Streaming.
We were there over the prime spring break week in march. I know of people shut out personally and just went elsewhere (go often but not recent enough to know covid rules). Our server at WCC told a story of a family staying at WL who couldn't get into a park and all through breakfast kept refreshing to try to get in somewhere. Really sad.
Disney totally wiffed, IMO, on this part. On site, you're good. Offsite, here's your pass. Good luck fighting the AP holders too
I agree. Staying on-site but not having a park reservation guaranteed is ridiculous. However, what's Disney's incentive to change? Sadly, they have none because PEOPLE KEEP BOOKING AND PAYING.
Negative behavior will continue until there are negative consequences. Or a recession hits and people stop going. Hopefully, someday, people will wise up and see what Disney's attitude/behavior towards them has been since $lappie took the P&R reigns - Abusive.
Kingoglow
Well-Known Member
If this happened to an influencer and they were brave enough to post about it. Word would spread more quickly and parents would hesitate on buying a WDW vacation. But that would never happen because Disney influencers already know the system, it would never happen to them, and they would never dare make a video like that.
Probably the best post I'll read today.
Many have known for years how dysfunctional their technology has been based simply on how poorly it's performed. Hopefully that will change, as you mentioned. The number of reservation systems that have no interaction with each other is honestly no surprise, knowing all the problems we've had over the years getting things to "flow" properly. As an IT person myself, I sincerely hope they get things turned around.
The shell game continues.
mightynine
Well-Known Member
I'd love to know what the oldest/most patched/held together by a prayer system is still in use at Disney Parks.
Jrb1979
Well-Known Member
I didn't say it was done intentionally. Lately they seem slow to react or implement things. There is huge disconnect from the top to the people running the parks.
I have always felt that Disney is great at media and creating new rides and attractions. They do a great job with hotels and resorts. Where they lack is in how run parks day to day. I know some will disagree but I think they need to visit some of the better regional parks to see how good day to day operations can be.
mikejs78
Premium Member
I can confirm this - I have a couple of points of direct knowledge of this in the last decade.
Fido Chuckwagon
Well-Known Member
Space Mountain.
Peter Pans Flight is older…
Jeff4272
Well-Known Member
This is coming WAY sooner than later..........
But, arguably certainly, SM is more in need of a new track. Same with SSE.
The recession or the realization? I've hoped for the latter for a decade and the problem (people continuing to support Disney's abuse of them by continuing to hand over their credit cards) has only gotten worse.