Disney Reservation System Plans Outage

[prberk]

Found this on The DIS the other day. Haven't seen it here:

http://www.wdwinfo.com/news/General_Disney_News/Disney_reservation_systems_plans_outage.htm

Update: Disney reservation systems plans outage
by Leah Zanolla
Oct 1, 2010

Disney has announced that their reservation systems will be down for maintenance next week. The enhancement will be taking place from October 12 at 4 pm EST through the morning of October 14.

Room-only and vacation-package reservations will not be able to be processed for the Walt Disney World Resort, Disneyland Resort, Aulani, the newest Disney Vacation Club resort, Disney's Vero Beach Resort, and Disney's Hilton Head Island Resort by phone or online. This will affect making new reservations, making modifications to existing reservations, checking confirmations and taking payments.

Also affected will be the ability to use online check-in and to make reservations for dining, dinner shows, tours, recreation Cirque du Soleil and children's activity centers.

If you need to make a payment or a modification to an existing reservation, please attempt to do so before October 12, otherwise you will have to wait until after October 14.

Update: Another planned outage will take place at 6 pm, October 19 through the early afternoon of October 20. This will affect the same reservation systems as the outage on October 12.

Can you imagine working the desk of a hotel one of those days (or even a restaurant)?

Paul

 

[trr1]

I know what you mean some times when i do a search nothing shows up


http://forums.wdwmagic.com/showthread.php?t=638732

 

[joel_maxwell]

I have a friend that would know a bit about this system. It is extremely important this goes through... unless you want their system to still run on a basic DOS or worse, it needs serious upgrades. I cant wait to see the melt downs around these boards. :lol:

I would hate to be the engineer that has to implement the upgrade. I know they have a back up of a backup... but still. One wrong move. Yikes.

 

[wdwmagic]

Found this on The DIS the other day. Haven't seen it here:

Right on the homepage of WDWMAGIC since this morning!
http://www.wdwmagic.com/Resorts/Wal...h-to-Wednesday-evening---what-is-affected.htm

just kidding

 

[prberk]

Right on the homepage of WDWMAGIC since this morning!
http://www.wdwmagic.com/Resorts/Wal...h-to-Wednesday-evening---what-is-affected.htm

just kidding

LOL. Sorry. I really did look, but I only looked about five days back.

I knew I could rely on you, Steve!

Still would be a crazy time for the hotels and restaurants. (Shoot, the restaurants might like it -- going back to first come, first serve: what a novel idea!)

 

[prberk]

I have a friend that would know a bit about this system. It is extremely important this goes through... unless you want their system to still run on a basic DOS or worse, it needs serious upgrades. I cant wait to see the melt downs around these boards. :lol:

I would hate to be the engineer that has to implement the upgrade. I know they have a back up of a backup... but still. One wrong move. Yikes.

Yeah, I feel for them. Especially these days with everything posted in real time on the internet... not to mention the "immediate gratification" desires so many people have these days.

 

[askmike1]

I would hate to be the engineer that has to implement the upgrade. I know they have a back up of a backup... but still. One wrong move. Yikes.

Trust me, this is not one engineer implementing this upgrade, it practically the entire IT (okay... BT) department. This is just huge.

 

[LudwigVonDrake]

I have to make a change to my reservation. I shall wait...

 

[GymLeaderPhil]

The online reservations system is being hit pretty hard prior to the outage - we've been trying to book a last minute dinner for tomorrow. I can only imagine what the wait on the phone would be now.

Also, if you want to make reservations after Thursday I would go ahead and do them now. Not only is there a chance that the outage may stretch for a few more days, but the resulting new system may experience some issues. This update will result in a much smoother reservation experience though!

 

[disneydata]

This is only the first of many outages to happen over the next 2 months.

The absolute final result is a new property management system for resorts to handle reservations, rooms, inventory, and accounts. The problem is that this system talks to the master system that holds all information. To upgrade, EVERY location and system that has access must be taken offline. This includes the dining, reservation, itinerary planning, accounting, and hotel systems.

Since there aren't enough resources to turn over ALL of WDW, Vero Beach, Hilton Head, and DVC, it is being done in groups. This also helps to iron out details with each roll out. Each time a location gets the upgrade, everyone has to go down.

There are many amazing benefits to the new system, but to get the benefits, everyone has to deal with a few headaches. There are massive contingency plans in place which should lessen the impact, so it shouldn't be too bad.

 

[askmike1]

No doubt about that, but luckily the additional rollouts across the rest of the year should not be nearly as big or as painful as this week's. This is the true test... the rest is just putting the other pieces in place... shouldn't be any different than any other software release (fingers crossed, mind you).

 

[jhastings74]

This is only the first of many outages to happen over the next 2 months.

The absolute final result is a new property management system for resorts to handle reservations, rooms, inventory, and accounts. The problem is that this system talks to the master system that holds all information. To upgrade, EVERY location and system that has access must be taken offline. This includes the dining, reservation, itinerary planning, accounting, and hotel systems.

Since there aren't enough resources to turn over ALL of WDW, Vero Beach, Hilton Head, and DVC, it is being done in groups. This also helps to iron out details with each roll out. Each time a location gets the upgrade, everyone has to go down.

There are many amazing benefits to the new system, but to get the benefits, everyone has to deal with a few headaches. There are massive contingency plans in place which should lessen the impact, so it shouldn't be too bad.

Hmm...reminds me of something my economics professor was trying to drill into our heads one day in college. Something about 'opportunity cost'...

For me, I'd say it's worth it. A few days or even weeks of an inconvenience for much smoother/seamless service down the road. I'll pop on that. :wave:

 

[Kobe!!]

I can't wait to hear/see all the complaining that will be done. We all know Disney will comp all these people for the "inconvenience." :hammer:

 

[askmike1]

This actually sounds like GOOD news - is WDW finally upgrading the backend DB?

No, this involves not an upgrade, but a complete replacement for the backend and frontend software. Data loss should not be a problem (though I wouldn't advise against following your advice).

 

[GymLeaderPhil]

We heard at the Boardwalk this evening that the option to charge to your room key crashed at some point after 4pm today. My thoughts and deepest condolences go out to every single cast member who is now being accosted.

 

[askmike1]

We heard at the Boardwalk this evening that the option to charge to your room key crashed at some point after 4pm today. My thoughts and deepest condolences go out to every single cast member who is now being accosted.

Disney gave advanced warning to all resort guests that they should have an alternate form of payment with them should card-paying be temporarily disabled. Dining plans aren't affected. Ample warning was also given about making reservations and picking up tickets early.

 

[fyn]

Hot Damn That dead beat backend DB is to be put six feet under? VERY good. Tell me that Larry is about to make more money, and WDW isn't going to try to run on MySQL

*Shameless plug* SQL Server 2008 R2!

 

[Kobe!!]

Let the comps begin!

 

[Crush Dude!]

:wave:What time does the reservation system come back on line??

I live in ireland and am 5 hours ahead of florida time so florida time will do :wave:

 

[DisneyJoe]

I think its back now