Fastpass+, a solution to "overwhelmingly negative" responses from families

[PhotoDave219]

Sure, I never dismissed your opinions, but, some people thinks it just as easy as adding another router. Personally, I haven't had too many issues with it, they haven't been promoting the free wi-fi for very long, I obviously haven't been on a Phase 3 day, there I could see there would be a lot of issues, especially when the overwhelming majority of devices being used are iphones / smartphones, so they are reconnecting between every WAP they pass.

No, its nowhere near this simple. But we're talking about Disney betting the house on this project and if people cannot connect and have issues at this part of the game, they're going to lose big.

 

[fillerup]

okay this is a first for me at least. now at Epcot. Very good wifi signal for the last two hours

 

[tissandtully]

I'm not even sure they're advertised the wifi at ALL... Which is even MORE scary that it doesn't currently work.

A company like Disney with the massive resources (both mindshare and monetary) should massively over-engineer something like this, not only to meet today's needs, but to compensate for future potential requirements as well... And it should all have redundancy. For the idea of NextGen to be embraced (which I hope it does NOT), their wifi needs to be massive, fast, and NEVER FAIL.

If users have to fight bad connections, lack of service, and overloaded networks, this whole thing will come crashing down around them.

Which I would find hilarious.

And that doesn't even touch on their app, which I find is lacking a few key elements, and really isn't that easy to use, IMO. But I haven't said hardly anything about that, because it's in beta, so I'm giving them time to test and adjust, as they should.

Then again... Seeing how miserable their website has been for so long, I have no idea why I think they might actually make a top notch app.

Hasn't it been advertised in the new park maps?

 

[DisneyJoe]

Network problems at WDW have been going on for months suggesting Disney is in over its head. The problems will be resolved but it does make you wonder if Disney knows what it's doing.

Don't they outsource it?

 

[ParentsOf4]

Don't they outsource it?

It doesn't matter who is physically doing the work. A successful company needs to know how to pick the right supplier.

 

[Buried20KLeague]

Hasn't it been advertised in the new park maps?

I'm not sure. I didn't get a map during our last trip.

 

[PhotoDave219]

Don't they outsource it?

Yes they do. But Disney designs the specs

 

[Buried20KLeague]

okay this is a first for me at least. now at Epcot. Very good wifi signal for the last two hours

I didn't find as big an issue at Epcot and DHS as I did in the MK... But by then I had given up on their wifi and was using my cell signal in those parks (which seems to be MUCH stronger in those two parks).

 

[tissandtully]

I didn't find as big an issue at Epcot and DHS as I did in the MK... But by then I had given up on their wifi and was using my cell signal in those parks (which seems to be MUCH stronger in those two parks).

Honestly, since the release of widespread LTE, I'm finding public WiFi anywhere to be unbearable. Hell, AT&T LTE here in Florida is faster than my 40 megabit cable connection. Now if only there was better tower coverage at WDW.

 

[DisneyJoe]

Yes they do. But Disney designs the specs

On a wifi network layout of that size? Sorry, I don't trust ANY Disney IT people.

 

[Musicmanbrain]

.... And when (not if!) the Wi-Fi doesn't work and we HAVE to use the cell signal - those of us from abroad will be absolutely smacked for roaming charges at an eye-watering rate.

 

[PhotoDave219]

On a wifi network layout of that size? Sorry, I don't trust ANY Disney IT people.

Which is why I say they've woefuly underestimated the system load.

 

[Prince-1]

Anytime the park exceeds about 20 to 35,000 people, I have ridiculous difficulties.

You have to remember, I'm in these Parks generally once a week on average. I'm sorry but when your experiences only a handful of times a year, and I'm there hundred times or more per year. I kind I have to discount your observations because you just aren't there.

When I am there and I post my experiences on these forums, that's exactly what they are. My experiences. Yours may be different. But by and large, what I see happening is with my own eyes and my own first-hand experiences. So when I say that the Wi-Fi and cell phone data networks are horribly overloaded during peak season and you don't come during peak season, your argument has already been shot in the foot.

Now I have to go home and get my taxes so I can go play on Monday or Tuesday when everybody goes the hell home.

Reminds me of Carl from UP!! Grumpy old man.

 

[Buried20KLeague]

.... And when (not if!) the Wi-Fi doesn't work and we HAVE to use the cell signal - those of us from abroad will be absolutely smacked for roaming charges at an eye-watering rate.

B-B-B-But... KIOSKS!!!!

 

[PhotoDave219]

Reminds me of Carl from UP!! Grumpy old man.

Ya know what? I can go to Disney RIGHT NOW if I wanted.

So this old man is telling you to kiss his behind.

 

[Prince-1]

Ya know what? I can go to Disney RIGHT NOW if I wanted.

So this old man is telling you to kiss his behind.

Wow impressive. You live near Disney. You still sound like Carl. Old and grumpy. Look squirrel.

 

[PhotoDave219]

Wow impressive. You live near Disney. You still sound like Carl. Old and grumpy. Look squirrel.

I'll take that as a compliment. Ed Asner is boss like a (Samuel L. Jackson)

 

[Gabe1]

What's particularly irritating is that Disney is driving its guests to go wireless with MyMagic+. No one is better at collecting information about its guests than WDW. If Disney cannot design its network to handle traffic before MagicBand and FastPass+ are brought on line, what's going to happen after they become operational?

Scalability always is a challenge. What works for a handful of test engineers might collapse when put to real use. Network problems at WDW have been going on for months suggesting Disney is in over its head. The problems will be resolved but it does make you wonder if Disney knows what it's doing.

Disney has never been good with any tech for guests. They fell so far behind the times sticking with their no WiFi stance for so long at the resorts so it is no wonder they are stumbling. Their websites have always been clunky, their search engines were sucidoodles, special event sign ups their systems crash, remember AP holders sign up for FLE preview? So no big surprise they are this inept. Disney is the Grandmother of worldwide corporations when it comes to tech.

 

[luv]

I don't know anything about Internet-tech stuff. But I know Disney needs to do a better job because it is slow a lot and basically unusable sometimes, like today.

When Brody told Quint, "You're gonna need a bigger boat," he had far less knowledge about sharking...but he knew they needed a bigger boat.

Disney needs a bigger router (or whatever.)

 

[englanddg]

I don't know anything about Internet-tech stuff. But I know Disney needs to do a better job because it is slow a lot and basically unusable sometimes, like today.

When Brody told Quint, "You're gonna need a bigger boat," he had far less knowledge about sharking...but he knew they needed a bigger boat.

Disney needs a bigger router (or whatever.)

It's not their router. In fact, the traffic shaping on the routers and QoS management is part of the problem.

I've found the Wifi drops many times, not because of signal, but due to DHCP lease expiration. This means that they have QoS (Quality of Service) set so low that unless you are constantly using network signal, then you lose your connection and must reconnect.

They are doing this for a variety of reasons, but I suspect the primary one is a bottleneck at what networking geeks would call "the edge"...in other words, they are attempting to manage the amount of traffic passing between their various ISP peering relationship.

I could ramble on about this for a while, but having done some network analysis (not what I do full time, but I know enough to poke around) while I was at Pop because the Wifi frustrated me so much, that's what it appears to me.

Of course, no netadmin at Disney in their right mind would even discuss who their peering partners are, etc...but, I strongly suspect that Disney acts as their own ISP internally. So, it's all left to where they hand off to the outside world. Like I said, a simple tracert to an offsite location (like google.com or something) and then watching the IPs which report back tells you a lot.

I found a simple ipconfig /release then ipconfig /renew generally bounced my service fine, but since you can't do that easily on the iPhone / iPad, I'd have to disconnect from the wireless and reconnect...even though according to the phone, I was connected to the Wifi just fine with plenty of signal.

So...as I said, it's not their LAN (or CAN / WAN) infrastructure that is the issue, I think. It's the bottleneck they have getting to the outside world.

Now, why they don't just host mirrors of the My Disney Experience app servers inside the WAN, and then use DNS to keep you from hitting the public servers when you are on their network... <shrug>

In addition, Wifi invites for far more network traffic than traditional copper. In the sense that, while you uploading videos at night to youtube, or photos to flickr from your laptop is a common practice...imagine how many more people are doing it now, all day long, from their phones. Posting to facebook, sticking pictures on facebook / flickr, etc....list goes on.

I'm sure it will get better...but lord knows when. They were beta testing it at CBR in 2010 when I went there, and it was horrid. I was so happy to see copper back in 2011...only to have it gone again, even as an option, in 2012.