MAJOR My Disney Experience Issues this morning

[SMJ0724]

So this morning, at 6 a.m., I woke up to try and make reservations for Be Our Guest lunch, since today was the day that these reservations were to become available on the My Disney Experience website & app. After logging in, I was able to get all the way to the select your dining party screen, and then I get the dreaded red error message. I tried on my phone using the app, and had the same issues!

It seems like some people were able to get through, because every time it would kick me out, the available times would become less and less.

When their dining reservation line opened at 7 a.m., I tried to call them, only to receive a fast busy signal! Called again at 7:30 and still got a fast busy. I continued to call back every fifteen minutes or so, and I wasn't able to get connected to their auto-attendant system until after 9 a.m.!

At that point, I didn't have time to wait on hold, as I was at work and getting ready for a meeting, so I gave up with the expectation that I would write Disney a very strongly worded letter about how they royally messed up this one.

As I was going on the website to send the email, I looked in my reservations list, and lo and behold, there was a reservation for Be Our Guest in there! It was the first one that I attempted to book that wouldn't get me past the last screen! Apparently it had gone through, however I never received a confirmation email or anything like that.

I understand that there was a very large volume of site visitors and callers flooding their systems, but wouldn't you think Walt Disney World, one of the largest tourist destinations in the world, would build a system that is capable of handling large volumes of website visitors and calls?

Don't get me wrong - I am NOT a My Disney Experience hater whatsoever. I love the program as a whole, and the technology behind it, but when it comes to dining reservations, they seem to be lacking. When the reservation window for our trip in May first opened up, I was online again t 6 a.m., but was only able to make a few reservations before the system began producing error messages. I was able to call (and get through) to their dining reservation office at 7 a.m., but still missed out on one reservation that we really wanted (Be Our Guest for dinner).

I find the dining reservation systems in place disappointing at best. Did anyone else share in my frustrations this morning?

 

[Weather_Lady]

I can't testify to this morning, but I certainly feel your pain. When I got online to make our 180-day ADRs for our trip LAST May, I ran into nothing but technical issue after technical issue (specifically, even though the system correctly showed that we were staying on-site, I couldn't make ADRs for 180+10 -- meanwhile, I could see every time I refreshed that the desirable reservation times at popular restaurants where we wanted to eat were disappearing by the second!), only to be told when I was finally able to connect with someone on the phone that "this happens all the time." I'm sure she meant those words to comfort me, but it only made me more nervous that other aspects of our reservations might get screwed up.

 

[SMJ0724]

I can't testify to this morning, but I certainly feel your pain. When I got online to make our 180-day ADRs for our trip LAST May, I ran into nothing but technical issue after technical issue (specifically, even though the system correctly showed that we were staying on-site, I couldn't make ADRs for 180+10 -- meanwhile, I could see every time I refreshed that the desirable reservation times at popular restaurants where we wanted to eat were disappearing by the second!), only to be told when I was finally able to connect with someone on the phone that "this happens all the time." I'm sure she meant those words to comfort me, but it only made me more nervous that other aspects of our reservations might get screwed up.

For what it's worth, I have NEVER had a problem with a reservation that is in my account not working, either for Dining or FastPass+. It seems to me that their system just can't handle the rush of traffic that comes in at 6 a.m. every day, when a new batch of people hit the 180 day mark.

 

[Tom]

You are definitely correct in your assessment of their extremely inadequate IT facilities. Just as you said, as the largest tourist destination, their systems should be capable of handling the most taxing loads.

 

[Bob]

You are definitely correct in your assessment of their extremely inadequate IT facilities. Just as you said, as the largest tourist destination, their systems should be capable of handling the most taxing loads.

I think that Trotsky hacked your account.

 

[SMJ0724]

Turns out that we now have two. One that my husband made (just now - so they must have released more since this morning), and the one that I had from this morning. I still have yet to receive a confirmation email about this morning's reservation I apparently made using the app.

 

[SMJ0724]

I honestly think I'm more shocked that their phone system went down for HOURS. That's unbelievable to me. Something I would expect from our local amusement park (Hersheypark) NOT from Walt Disney World!

 

[Victor Kelly]

Disney has always had technical issues and will continue to until they actually spend the money to beef up the system. The entire property wide system aka: internet, cellular, wifi, everything needs to be made more robust. When in the parks, the net kept crashing leading to no longer being able to login to MM+. And since everything runs through that, you are dead in the water.

 

[SMJ0724]

Disney has always had technical issues and will continue to until they actually spend the money to beef up the system. The entire property wide system aka: internet, cellular, wifi, everything needs to be made more robust. When in the parks, the net kept crashing leading to no longer being able to login to MM+. And since everything runs through that, you are dead in the water.

It really is a shame. There is SO MUCH potential, with just a (relatively) small investment in infrastructure. Working in IT, however, I know that this is often overlooked by many CEO's and even some CTO's.

 

[Ember]

We had major issues this morning as well and ended up with three ressies that didn't show up in MDE until this evening. Glad we got them though as there are no more available on our dates.

 

[gooftroop5]

I tried this morning around 6:30 CT and it kept telling me NOTHING was available, no matter what day I picked. I tried again around 10:30am CT and there were some openings for our July trip. I just checked again and there are now even more openings. Totally crazy if you ask me. There has to be a better way......

 

[Victor Kelly]

And this is the reason many people hate ADRs.

 

[sjhym333]

I agree that Disney needs to beef up their system since they obviously have issues when all you crazy kids get online at the same time trying to make reservations for a quick service lunch.

 

[stevehousse]

We had s whole discussion on this yesterday in one of the other BOG threads. Apparently yesterday their system went down about 20 minutes after opening so no one was able to call and make adrs till the late morning early afternoon. Along with that snafu was the whole BOG thing. A glitch in the system was giving people 6,7,8,9 different adrs for BoG lunch, thus making it appear that all the adrs were gone! After fighting with the system all morning and afternoon, I finally got an ADR for our May trip.

The website is horrible and for a multi billion dollar corporation, their website should be flawless and fast. I would expect that level of mistakes and outages from a local mom and pop place with a small website, not Disney.

 

[jlthomas81]

I am going to ask a question that may or may not have been asked somewhere before, but why doesn't Disney allow you to see the availability of ADR's for the length of your trip? For instance, instead of having to look day by day, why can't you choose a group of days, and go from there? See the availability of a place for your whole trip at one time and make the best decision based on your touring plans. Sounds kind of like a no brainer to me.