MDE app and website are both down, when will they be fixed???

[ford91exploder]

And you'd be wrong. I do this stuff for a living and you are certainly minimizing the complexity. Your examples are not really equivalent. And BTW, WDW is basically it's own county. This is very different than a hotel chain - there isn't any private Enterprise that is the scope and size of WDW...

Now one could argue that they didn't need all this, they could have done it better, etc... But the price tag is in line with what I would expect based on the requirements. (RFID may be cheap but don't forget the labor, equipment cost, etc...)

Oh puhleeze, don't embarass yourself with your lack of knowledge about enterprise IT, And why reliability is important a restaurant chain cant comp meals when the system is down, there are multiple levels of redundancy in your average chain restaurant or coffee shop.

 

[Thelazer]

And BTW, WDW is basically it's own county. This is very different than a hotel chain - there isn't any private Enterprise that is the scope and size of WDW...

Uh.... Uh.. there isn't any private Enterprise that is the scope and size of WDW?

Yea......

 

[networkpro]

Easily there are many companies that are of the same scale or larger. Just count the number of POS terminals and Mickey verification heads they have... It's not that large of a number. The company I work for has more hitting multiple databases concurrently with much larger transactions. Fastpass+ shouldn't be much of a complex data structure, you only have to find the admission media number, check it for validity, and then check for available ride slots that have been allocated based on hourly ride capacity. The new addition is a record entry to check if it was used for entry.

 

[RSoxNo1]

at least with paper FP, I had a chance to get on the top attractions without booking 60 days in advance

The issue isn't paper vs. digital. The issue is the 60 day window. The system Disneyland is currently using for MaxPass is the way the system should be. I haven't found an exploit on it and it seems VERY equitable to all guests.

 

[mikejs78]

I agree. It’s an absurd statement. The folks who sold the higher ups on MDE were fired for a reason. Its lack of integration into the other Disney properties is for a reason.

You're right, because it was the wrong solution, the execution was bad, bad decisions were made, and the thing doesn't work like it's supposed to. And it probably (like many IT projects) went over budget. But even just the project of putting usable wifi in the parks for the number of people that visit the parks every day is a project that could easily be in 7 figures. I suspect that if MDE had turned out rock solid and had given them the return they had expected, the 2B price tag would not have become as much of an issue. I'm not saying it was a wise $2B, but that it is in the range of where projects like this can land. And had it been done correctly, it probably could have been done for far less. But given what they actually *did* (as opposed to what they should have done), the price tag does fit within the range of plausibility.

 

[mikejs78]

Oh puhleeze, don't embarass yourself with your lack of knowledge about enterprise IT, And why reliability is important a restaurant chain cant comp meals when the system is down, there are multiple levels of redundancy in your average chain restaurant or coffee shop.

Sure, whatever you want to believe about me, I can't convince you. I know what my experience is and what I've seen across many different companies, both large and small and you'd be surprised that in most cases it's somewhat of a house of cards.

Reliability is absolutely important and they totally botched it there, if you look at my previous posts you'd see that I said that.

And frankly you'd be surprised how much redundancy there isn't out there. Too many companies decide to go cheap - numerous single points of failure that would cause havok, but they are the type of things with generally low failure rates. Even the companies that do take redundancy seriously often neglect some key areas and still end up with SPoF scenarios.

With MDE, the lack of redundancy coupled with the brittleness of the solution was a huge problem which is why it fails more often than most. I'm not defending MDE here.

 

[mikejs78]

Easily there are many companies that are of the same scale or larger. Just count the number of POS terminals and Mickey verification heads they have... It's not that large of a number. The company I work for has more hitting multiple databases concurrently with much larger transactions. Fastpass+ shouldn't be much of a complex data structure, you only have to find the admission media number, check it for validity, and then check for available ride slots that have been allocated based on hourly ride capacity. The new addition is a record entry to check if it was used for entry.

It shouldn't be but it was because of the way they chose to implement it. That's been my point all along. Geeze...

 

[ford91exploder]

Sure, whatever you want to believe about me, I can't convince you. I know what my experience is and what I've seen across many different companies, both large and small and you'd be surprised that in most cases it's somewhat of a house of cards.

Reliability is absolutely important and they totally botched it there, if you look at my previous posts you'd see that I said that.

And frankly you'd be surprised how much redundancy there isn't out there. Too many companies decide to go cheap - numerous single points of failure that would cause havok, but they are the type of things with generally low failure rates. Even the companies that do take redundancy seriously often neglect some key areas and still end up with SPoF scenarios.

With MDE, the lack of redundancy coupled with the brittleness of the solution was a huge problem which is why it fails more often than most. I'm not defending MDE here.

No I would not because what I do IRL is go in after a multiday outage of a key system analyze the failure and recommend how to fix it. Usually with a six or seven figure pricetag attached.

The poor design decisions i see on a daily basis along with poor operational discipline probably contributes to my grumpy persona,

Most multiday outages ive seen are a collection of small failures left uncorrected and many of the systems were fully redundant but the uncorrected failures broke the redundancy and due to poor operational discipline cuz its 'redundant' leads to things not being replaced, that backbone link with 2 members in a LAG you need to replace that optic or blade NOW not next week sometime. But at many shops it NEVER got replaced because no one thought to stock spares 'cuz itz redundant', and the only tech with access to the colo where the link connects left for Greener Pa$ture$
I cant tell you how many shops dont have spare optics or fiber patch cables so i always carry some in my go kit

I could go on. But its unnecessary

 

[mikejs78]

No I would not because what I do IRL is go in after a multiday outage of a key system analyze the failure and recommend how to fix it. Usually with a six or seven figure pricetag attached.

The poor design decisions i see on a daily basis along with poor operational discipline probably contributes to my grumpy persona,

Most multiday outages ive seen are a collection of small failures left uncorrected and many of the systems were fully redundant but the uncorrected failures broke the redundancy and due to poor operational discipline cuz its 'redundant' leads to things not being replaced, that backbone link with 2 members in a LAG you need to replace that optic or blade NOW not next week sometime. But at many shops it NEVER got replaced because no one thought to stock spares 'cuz itz redundant', and the only tech with access to the colo where the link connects left for Greener Pa$ture$
I cant tell you how many shops dont have spare optics or fiber patch cables so i always carry some in my go kit

I could go on. But its unnecessary

I don't think we are actually that far apart, it was probably more my failure to articulate clearly what I was thinking.... I see a lot of the same stuff you describe.

 

[Kman101]

The issue isn't paper vs. digital. The issue is the 60 day window. The system Disneyland is currently using for MaxPass is the way the system should be. I haven't found an exploit on it and it seems VERY equitable to all guests.

This

And to the poster he was replying to, let's not kid ourselves, most FP's ARE available day of (granted, times of year may vary, size of party may vary availability ...). You might even be able to snag Frozen or Flight of Passage if you actually keep checking. Let's not pretend only a handful of new attractions have limited availability, you can get a FP for almost anything day of (but I know many want to argue otherwise, but we don't need to go there again). Who's to say they wouldn't be gone day of if that were how the system works, so you're still out of luck .... not that I like the 60 day booking window. It needs to be DAY OF only.

 

[ford91exploder]

The issue isn't paper vs. digital. The issue is the 60 day window. The system Disneyland is currently using for MaxPass is the way the system should be. I haven't found an exploit on it and it seems VERY equitable to all guests.

When I first heard about the magic band my first thought was 'digital fastpass' go up to a kiosk put the band in proximity and get a return time and maybe a paper reminder if desired.

Because lets face it the magstripe based systems were expensive to maintain (even I dont begrudge Disney an opportunity for a cost savings which benefits Disney and Guest) and unreliable at best.

Instead we got the abomination known as FP+

I was unfortunately part of the first batch of BLT/Contemporary guests who were forced to use FP+ only, But because I had a premier pass at the time my Disney account got hosed and Disney was unable to fix, because I was DVC they could not delete and start over. So from then on I was standby only at WDW until something got fixed in early 2015 by which time to say i was not interested in visiting the parks anymore was an understatement. Because It was SO MUCH FUN sitting on the ground waiting for the rest of the family to ride on their FP's

So yeah at least for me FP+ took a lot away from the WDW experience, If one's only option is Standby or Single rider line. Ones view of the WDW experience is quite different. I recommend you try it sometime. Its an eye opener.

 

[ford91exploder]

I don't think we are actually that far apart, it was probably more my failure to articulate clearly what I was thinking.... I see a lot of the same stuff you describe.

I agree the trouble with text based communication is context is lost

 

[ford91exploder]

This

And to the poster he was replying to, let's not kid ourselves, most FP's ARE available day of (granted, times of year may vary, size of party may vary availability ...). You might even be able to snag Frozen or Flight of Passage if you actually keep checking. Let's not pretend only a handful of new attractions have limited availability, you can get a FP for almost anything day of (but I know many want to argue otherwise, but we don't need to go there again). Who's to say they wouldn't be gone day of if that were how the system works, so you're still out of luck .... not that I like the 60 day booking window. It needs to be DAY OF only.

Day of booking would be fairest but if you want to give a perk to onsite guests allow them to reserve attractions for the next day from 6 pm onward.

While you are at it dump the 6 month ADR and make them duration of stay -14 days for onsite, -7 days all other ADR's. Maybe -10 for AP holders Lets face it one needs to have some onsite perks and toss a small bone to AP holders.

 

[Kman101]

Day of booking would be fairest but if you want to give a perk to onsite guests allow them to reserve attractions for the next day from 6 pm onward.

While you are at it dump the 6 month ADR and make them duration of stay -14 days for onsite, -7 days all other ADR's. Maybe -10 for AP holders Lets face it one needs to have some onsite perks and toss a small bone to AP holders.

Agreed with this. The booking of ADRs so far out has to go too.

 

[RSoxNo1]

Day of booking would be fairest but if you want to give a perk to onsite guests allow them to reserve attractions for the next day from 6 pm onward.

While you are at it dump the 6 month ADR and make them duration of stay -14 days for onsite, -7 days all other ADR's. Maybe -10 for AP holders Lets face it one needs to have some onsite perks and toss a small bone to AP holders.

My suggestion was everybody gets two Fastpass slots per day. When you use a Fastpass you can book a new one. If you're staying on property, you can book one of those Fastpasses in advance.

This is simple. It gives a genuine perk for on site guests. It eliminates tiers. It also partially eliminates the issue with being locked into a night time show.

 

[JoeCamel]

My suggestion was everybody gets two Fastpass slots per day. When you use a Fastpass you can book a new one. If you're staying on property, you can book one of those Fastpasses in advance.

This is simple. It gives a genuine perk for on site guests. It eliminates tiers. It also partially eliminates the issue with being locked into a night time show.

It also increases the perceived value of the FP...... And that leads to the wheels turning in certain heads looking for their next idea to earn a bonus.

 

[PorterRedkey]

Well, off the top of my head...

Software

• A database of hundreds of millions of users
  
• An interface for Android, IOS, and Web that's continually upgraded (though, the move away from Android "material design" to its unique interface was a step backwards)
  
• A database of tens of thousands of hotel rooms that can be accessed by all users to schedule their own hotel reservations
• An online store for the purchasing of tickets, resorts, and whatever else costs money: tours, special events, etc...
  
• A database of tens of thousands of slots for restaurant reservations that can be accessed by all users to schedule their own reservations
• A database of millions of FastPass slots that can be accessed by all users constantly updated on the fly in real time
• A database of the schedule of all the parks and all the various opening and closing times for months ahead of time (though, accuracy here isn't too good)
• A real-time map with directions
• A display of wait times constantly updated
• Ordering system for quick service restaurants
• A database of a ginormous amount of bytes for photopass

Hardware

• All the servers for all that data and accessing it by a large number of users simultaneously
• Tapstiles for all the park entrances and just about every attraction, some having two sets of tapstiles to catch FP jumpers, and many have computer displays attached
  
• All the hard wiring and Wi-Fi connections for all those tapstiles and to provide 'free' wireless coverage for all guests with large numbers hitting their routers at the same time
• Tap locks for tens of thousands resort rooms
• Tap payment units at cash registers
• Portable tap units for photopass photographers
• Some sort of device at Quick Serve restaurants (maybe just computers) to show orders and to communicate with customers that their order is ready
• Displays for StoryMaker (still not fully implemented, though)
• MagicBands. Millions and millions of MagicBands that are continually being upgraded and improved since first implementation in the tech and design.

Plus, the continuing cost of labor to design, implement, maintain, and improve it.

They should have called me. I would have done all that for 1.5 billion dollars. It would have been a bargain to Disney.

 

[AEfx]

They should have called me. I would have done all that for 1.5 billion dollars. It would have been a bargain to Disney.

As @ford91exploder said above, the "official" tally is $2.5B, and insiders say it was even more.

Even if you account for all the POS being replaced, etc. - which had to happen to make them chip-compliant regardless of this, and RFID is standard on those models anyway - it's very difficult to figure out what they did with all that money besides burn it.

 

[wdisney9000]

Anybody else still having issues? I can occasionally get the main Disney website to pull up but when I try and check for resort availability it freezes or crashes. A few times I got the Stitch image

 

[Herdman]

I just went in to see what was available to try and prioritize my ADR's for my upcoming 180 day+ mark, and the site was very slow loading and then after the first try the remaining restaurants and times I tried to check didn't work at all. The app seemed to be a little better though.