MDE Overview Page Format Change

[JohnD]

I just noticed that Disney techs changed the format of the main overview page on MDE. I made an additional ADR last night on my app. When I logged onto the desktop this morning to print the page, it looked very different.

1. Times for ADRs/FP+ are now listed underneath the item instead of to the right.
2. The font is larger
3. "View Park Hours" is on the left rather than the right.
4. There is more space between each day.

On the screen that is all well and good -- until you try to print. The most egregious is trying to print from IE. It's just a mess. The first page has all the info crammed to the right. The second and following pages show each item at the far left of the page with lots of wasted white space.

Safari and Chrome fare much better but where I could get my May 12-18 itinerary on three pages, it now spills to four because of the larger font and putting times underneath each ADR/FP+. Also text at the bottom of one page gets cut in half showing the top half at the bottom of one page and the bottom half at the top of the next. For whatever reason, I've never been able to get Firefox to work with the Disney website.

I called the tech number (found on the MDE app) this morning to provide feedback. I was very friendly but wanted to let them know that people do use MDE to print out info for hard copy files.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

I just noticed that Disney techs changed the format of the main overview page on MDE. I made an additional ADR last night on my app. When I logged onto the desktop this morning to print the page, it looked very different.

1. Times for ADRs/FP+ are now listed underneath the item instead of to the right.
2. The font is larger
3. "View Park Hours" is on the left rather than the right.
4. There is more space between each day.

On the screen that is all well and good -- until you try to print. The most egregious is trying to print from IE. It's just a mess. The first page has all the info crammed to the right. The second and following pages show each item at the far left of the page with lots of wasted white space.

Safari and Chrome fare much better but where I could get my May 12-18 itinerary on three pages, it now spills to four because of the larger font and putting times underneath each ADR/FP+. Also text at the bottom of one page gets cut in half showing the top half at the bottom of one page and the bottom half at the top of the next. For whatever reason, I've never been able to get Firefox to work with the Disney website.

I called the tech number (found on the MDE app) this morning to provide feedback. I was very friendly but wanted to let them know that people do use MDE to print out info for hard copy files.

Internal response: Hard copies are for old people, and very few of them at that. Not saying I agree or disagree, but the world is going paperless. I don't anticipate Disney (or anyone else) to make any changes to current or future platforms to acomodate hard copies. Heck, The Office was making "paper is dead" jokes ten years ago, and that's a looong time in the tech space. Compare a Blackberry 7290 to a Note 4 or iPhone 6+ and you'll see where the business world thinks the future of "hard copies" is headed.

 

[JohnD]

Internal response: Hard copies are for old people, and very few of them at that. Not saying I agree or disagree, but the world is going paperless. I don't anticipate Disney (or anyone else) to make any changes to current or future platforms to acomodate hard copies. Heck, The Office was making "paper is dead" jokes ten years ago, and that's a looong time in the tech space. Compare a Blackberry 7290 to a Note 4 or iPhone 6+ and you'll see where the business world thinks the future of "hard copies" is headed.

Hey, I told them I use the app too. Even here I mentioned that I made my new ADR on the app. But the app is a completely different format from the desktop anyway, so I don't think that argument has much merit. If everyone is going paperless then why bother changing the format of the desktop when you have the app?

But there is something to be said for having handy reference to hard copies. I have my hard copies for the day with me in my backback when at WDW. So much easier to refer to them and have them handy in case something goes wrong with MDE. One change they made for the better is the layout of the menus. Much easier to read and print. Instead of a very long list, now they use a two column format.

But call me crazy, if you bring something up on a desktop, you should have the ability for it print. Up until yesterday, it worked just fine.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Like I said, not saying I agree or disagree. I used to bring paper to the parks pre-MDX and I haven't done a full trip post-MDX so I'll see how I like being smartphone-only when I go down in a few weeks.

I'm not sure if this helps you, but there's a dedicated button for printer-friendly versions on each day's itinerary page. You might end up with more sheets of paper in total but it's much cleaner and you'd only need one sheet per day.

 

[JohnD]

Like I said, not saying I agree or disagree. I used to bring paper to the parks pre-MDX and I haven't done a full trip post-MDX so I'll see how I like being smartphone-only when I go down in a few weeks.

I'm not sure if this helps you, but there's a dedicated button for printer-friendly versions on each day's itinerary page. You might end up with more sheets of paper in total but it's much cleaner and you'd only need one sheet per day.

Well, I understand the itinerary pages are more complete (they show notes, for example). But the overview page was convenient to print.