Magic Band Nightmare

[GoofGoof]

They told us that since we chose to use the bands this was the risk we ran. Only, we were not given a choice; we were told this was just the new system.

Did you order the bands at home and have them delivered or did you just get the generic grey bands when you checked in? If you ordered the bands at home and had them delivered then you did choose to participate in the testing. If you were given grey bands at check-in with no choice to opt out and just use the cards that is just wrong. Either way it sucks that your vacation was ruined. You should make an additional complaint to customer service.

 

[stevehousse]

Will be usin them in 10 days. Reviews seemed mixed. Either they work great or don't work at all! I always take reviews online anywhere not to seriously because i will always find more negative than positive reviews on anything. People are more likely to complain than to compliment. I am holding out to see how it works for our trip! Hopefully no issues, but the moment I start to have major issues. I will ask to just switch to a KTTW card.

If I do switch to a card, I will still have access to fp+ selections I made correct?

 

[awoogala]

I am wondering the same thing myself. I have "group" tickets, issued by Disney, and we have them registered on mde. I am assuming they will work for everything if the bands fail, and I am hoping they do!

 

[Cesar R M]

We are about to test the bands in a few weeks and stories like this make me a little nervous. I am almost preparing myself for problems, but as long as it's a simple fix I don't think I would complain about it here or anywhere. Now if I have to spend hours of my vacation that keeps us from something we had planned you better believe y'all will be the second to know. Disney will be the first. When you spend thousands of dollars on a vacation you certainly do not want a technical issue to delay you in anyway.

just keep printed proof? better be safe than sorry!.

 

[Gabe1]

We are about to test the bands in a few weeks and stories like this make me a little nervous. I am almost preparing myself for problems, but as long as it's a simple fix I don't think I would complain about it here or anywhere. Now if I have to spend hours of my vacation that keeps us from something we had planned you better believe y'all will be the second to know. Disney will be the first. When you spend thousands of dollars on a vacation you certainly do not want a technical issue to delay you in anyway.

My DS and group last week 3 out 4 bands worked. 1 never did to enter park. CM with iPad at every park and they hopped, looked up reservation, saw she did indeed had a resort room/hopper tickets and off they went. Yep it got old but there was a back up plan. Oddly her FP+ worked. DS opted not to link a credit card during the testing phase for obvious reasons.

 

[stevehousse]

just keep printed proof? better be safe than sorry!.

I actually screened capped everything on my phone in case somethin happens and the app is down or too slow while we r there!

 

[CaptainShortty]

The next phase of testing has guests getting only the Magic Band. I don't have the exact dates when this will happen, but I think it has currently entered this phase ofrit is right around the corner.

The MB only is currently in a beta test with cast member reservations only. We got word this morning that the guest test of this has been pushed back. Unsure of the exact reason or when the test has been pushed back too.

 

[Cesar R M]

The MB only is currently in a beta test with cast member reservations only. We got word this morning that the guest test of this has been pushed back. Unsure of the exact reason or when the test has been pushed back too.

for a IT standpoint, it is a good idea to delay adding another system into the fray... considering the bugs and awful errors that were mentioned here and some other forums.. id say they need to fix the main thing first.

If not, you can imagine an spectacular system wide crash as big as their nighttime spectaculars!

 

[stevehousse]

Well that's relieving! I was worried about not having the back up! The system I too iffy right now to go no card with guests. I'm glad they've testing this on caste members and not me when I am there in 10 days!!!

 

[ford91exploder]

They did function testing some of which I'm sure happened before anything was added to the parks and the rest of it was when they tested with a small number of Disney resort quests (this was back when you had three different categories and choose one ride from each which has sense been changed to just three attraction's from the entire FP+ list) The current test they are doing is a stress test. The only way to stress test it is to have large amounts of vacationers using the system. I'm sure if there were major issues we would see the launch pushed back because of it. Think of the total number of people currently testing the magic bands and then get a rough estimate of the total number of actual major issues. I bet the major issues make up less then 2% of total testing. There will always be minor issues that can be fixed quickly but the same can be said for the KTTW system or any other system that has ever been used anywhere. Keep in mind magic bands are still in beta test and hopefully with the feedback Disney is getting they will be able to make it so that even the minor issues are very few and far between.

The way you stress test a is to run a client simulator and run the system at least 5-10x expected maximum load, Both Ixia and Spirent make these tools and a test setup would be around 500K-1M to adequately stress test the application. There is also free software like JMeter which can be used for similar test scenarios.

When you develop mission critical applications you create test suites at the same time to verify performance.

This is bush league at BEST.

 

[wdwmomof3]

My DS and group last week 3 out 4 bands worked. 1 never did to enter park. CM with iPad at every park and they hopped, looked up reservation, saw she did indeed had a resort room/hopper tickets and off they went. Yep it got old but there was a back up plan. Oddly her FP+ worked. DS opted not to link a credit card during the testing phase for obvious reasons.

I'm not linking my credit card either mainly because we have the dining plan and I don't want a problem when I get home with having a dinner charged to my credit card instead of the plan. You just never know.

 

[Cesar R M]

The way you stress test a is to run a client simulator and run the system at least 5-10x expected maximum load, Both Ixia and Spirent make these tools and a test setup would be around 500K-1M to adequately stress test the application. There is also free software like JMeter which can be used for similar test scenarios.

When you develop mission critical applications you create test suites at the same time to verify performance.

This is bush league at BEST.

while its understandable smaller companies not using these professional and expensive testing tools..
ITS DISNEY FOR GODS SAKE.. its a monster company!

 

[GeekDad]

The way you stress test a is to run a client simulator and run the system at least 5-10x expected maximum load, Both Ixia and Spirent make these tools and a test setup would be around 500K-1M to adequately stress test the application. There is also free software like JMeter which can be used for similar test scenarios.

When you develop mission critical applications you create test suites at the same time to verify performance.

This is bush league at BEST.

Tests like those are not 100% full proof. Every IT department I've worked for has done stress tests on new applications but even when those tests produce no issues there are still at least some minor issues when it goes into production. Also most of the issues don't seem like they are from system load anyways.

People are more likely to say something if they've had a bad experience and I feel like we are currently hearing about as many good experiences as bad ones right now which boads well for the overall product. If 1 out of 10k people are having issues then thats pretty good when still in testing(I have no idea about the actual numbers just using an example here). Also this is the only post I've read where someone's vacation was ruined by it and I still stand by my initial thought that this is not a true story from the op. Where is the op to defend their story? Their first and only post is coming on here to trash talk the system. I'll wait to believe this story till I either hear more bad stories like this or if my vacation in December goes poorly due to the magic bands.

 

[Master Yoda]

The MB only is currently in a beta test with cast member reservations only. We got word this morning that the guest test of this has been pushed back. Unsure of the exact reason or when the test has been pushed back too.

Thanks for the heads up!

 

[ford91exploder]

Tests like those are not 100% full proof. Every IT department I've worked for has done stress tests on new applications but even when those tests produce no issues there are still at least some minor issues when it goes into production. Also most of the issues don't seem like they are from system load anyways.

People are more likely to say something if they've had a bad experience and I feel like we are currently hearing about as many good experiences as bad ones right now which boads well for the overall product. If 1 out of 10k people are having issues then thats pretty good when still in testing(I have no idea about the actual numbers just using an example here). Also this is the only post I've read where someone's vacation was ruined by it and I still stand by my initial thought that this is not a true story from the op. Where is the op to defend their story? Their first and only post is coming on here to trash talk the system. I'll wait to believe this story till I either hear more bad stories like this or if my vacation in December goes poorly due to the magic bands.

All I can say is I was there in August and DW and I have premier passports which Disney STILL cannot figure out how to link to MDE, and we had a miserable experience with MDE, It was bad enough that we cut our planned Christmas holiday from 10 days to 4 and that was only so DW's parents could see Osbourne lights. Did I mention we are DVC as well.

Disney has a significant amount of unhandled corner cases and I suspect that nearly all the bad experiences are centered around the corner cases and the only path which works reliably are new first time package bookings which don't touch legacy data.

 

[ninjaprincesst]

Tests like those are not 100% full proof. Every IT department I've worked for has done stress tests on new applications but even when those tests produce no issues there are still at least some minor issues when it goes into production. Also most of the issues don't seem like they are from system load anyways.

People are more likely to say something if they've had a bad experience and I feel like we are currently hearing about as many good experiences as bad ones right now which boads well for the overall product. If 1 out of 10k people are having issues then thats pretty good when still in testing(I have no idea about the actual numbers just using an example here). Also this is the only post I've read where someone's vacation was ruined by it and I still stand by my initial thought that this is not a true story from the op. Where is the op to defend their story? Their first and only post is coming on here to trash talk the system. I'll wait to believe this story till I either hear more bad stories like this or if my vacation in December goes poorly due to the magic bands.

I tend to agree that it is either not true or greatly exaggerated. I have a friend who is a cast member, she says this story just does not add up. There are backups in place, they may not have been able to fix the issues with the band, but they would have been offered alternatives and not just told tuff.

 

[Weather_Lady]

Tests like those are not 100% full proof.

*foolproof*

*bodes*

 

[awoogala]

The website has not worked correctly for fp+ and dining selections since Saturday. We have called, and been told "they know" and are "working on it" and to "try in a few days". I posted about this in another thread. Quite a few people responded they had the same issues. It is dropping fp+, sometimes from only half of your group. One day, I have 6 fp chosen, because it has not dropped the changed ones. I don't think people are over reacting. When you spend thousands of dollars, it would be nice to have a website work properly.
I get that it's in testing, but with a glitch website that will not work- perhaps the testing should have been rolled back a touch?
Seems they are rushing ahead before fixing what is wrong now.

 

[GeekDad]

All I can say is I was there in August and DW and I have premier passports which Disney STILL cannot figure out how to link to MDE, and we had a miserable experience with MDE, It was bad enough that we cut our planned Christmas holiday from 10 days to 4 and that was only so DW's parents could see Osbourne lights. Did I mention we are DVC as well.

Disney has a significant amount of unhandled corner cases and I suspect that nearly all the bad experiences are centered around the corner cases and the only path which works reliably are new first time package bookings which don't touch legacy data.

I may be misunderstanding the current state if magic bands but I thought the testing was only being done with new bookings and not including anything like annual passes or premier passports. Either way sorry to hear your experience was a bad one. I understand that there are some issues.

The website has not worked correctly for fp+ and dining selections since Saturday. We have called, and been told "they know" and are "working on it" and to "try in a few days". I posted about this in another thread. Quite a few people responded they had the same issues. It is dropping fp+, sometimes from only half of your group. One day, I have 6 fp chosen, because it has not dropped the changed ones. I don't think people are over reacting. When you spend thousands of dollars, it would be nice to have a website work properly.
I get that it's in testing, but with a glitch website that will not work- perhaps the testing should have been rolled back a touch?
Seems they are rushing ahead before fixing what is wrong now.

The website has been working fine for me all week and I just booked FP+ on Tuesday or Wednesday. So the issue they know about is not affecting everyone. They may be pushing it out too quick but part of that is our society today. Most people expect the next great thing as soon as possible. Thats why video games/systems, smart phones, software, etc all come out containing plenty if bugs. If a company waits too long to finish developing something then some else has already released something before them that even though it may have bugs it was out first and caught everyone's attention.

 

[Cesar R M]

I tend to agree that it is either not true or greatly exaggerated. I have a friend who is a cast member, she says this story just does not add up. There are backups in place, they may not have been able to fix the issues with the band, but they would have been offered alternatives and not just told tuff.

I think the backup plan was to ask the IT to fix the account?, which in OP's case... were not available at the moment (like the OP said).

Also, I think the best backup is still sticking to paper for last resort alternative.
You dont know when digital stuff might go bonkers!.

I may be misunderstanding the current state if magic bands but I thought the testing was only being done with new bookings and not including anything like annual passes or premier passports. Either way sorry to hear your experience was a bad one. I understand that there are some issues.


The website has been working fine for me all week and I just booked FP+ on Tuesday or Wednesday. So the issue they know about is not affecting everyone. They may be pushing it out too quick but part of that is our society today. Most people expect the next great thing as soon as possible. Thats why video games/systems, smart phones, software, etc all come out containing plenty if bugs. If a company waits too long to finish developing something then some else has already released something before them that even though it may have bugs it was out first and caught everyone's attention.

fully agree on the bug thing. A fine example was the Xbox 360. They let it go out in the wild with obvious and glaring design faults. But they wanted to steal Sony's thunder at all costs.