News My Disney Experience and website to become the only way to make dining reservations

[tirian]

This is going to come across as brutal. I can't really word this any other way but hope you'll understand that I'm not trying to be an ***.

This is your problem. The world has moved on, and the majority of people use computers, mobiles etc and 'get it'. It's no longer a vendors problem if a select few either refuse to learn, or can't learn how to use technology that is not new anymore, or hard to use, or hard to access, or expensive.

At some point they must move on.

Obviously the immediate thing we all assume is that this is cost cutting. It means they can give all those reservation CMs different jobs and reduce numbers a bit. This is most likely the reason, which is an inevitable part of business.

This all being said, you get ample time before your trip to sort this sort of thing out. Even if you do for some reason leave it till you get there, or do a last minute trip, all you need to do is go to guest services at your resort, or at a park and ask for help.

Put another way; the loss in bookings from those who can't/won't use MDE will be non-existant, as the restaurants are virtually always at the capacity they want them to be, plus there's almost always space for walk-ins. Unless you decide to rock up on the busiest few weeks of the year you rarely need a reservation at most anyway if you don't mind waiting 10-20 minutes.

The sky's not falling at all here I'm afraid.

I can't agree with you, because it's Disney that is behind the times. Disney apps and websites are hard to use, buggy. laggy, and unreliable. I'm a software developer and it shouldn't take me all day to make reservations. When I'm at Disney, time is money, and I'd rather not spend it trying to enter credit card info on my cell phone because Disney's app has a hard time with LastPass.

If I'm standing right in front of the restaurant and they can't make me a reservation, I'm probably not going to pull out a phone and try to do it over a mobile website or app. There are plenty of places to eat.

Precisely. I use apps as much as possible; I hate waiting for coffee, food, or anything else when I can just tap and go.

But Disney’s park and store apps are buggy, unreliable, clunky, and unintuitive.

 

[RSoxNo1]

Precisely. I use apps as much as possible; I hate waiting for coffee, food, or anything else when I can just tap and go.

But Disney’s park and store apps are buggy, unreliable, clunky, and unintuitive.

I wonder if the My Disney Experience mobile app is the highest priced app from a development standpoint of any app in the world.

 

[phillip9698]

Frankly, I was wondering that myself. When I was young, a lot of magical wonderful things happened at the park, and I didn't realize it was part of Disney. I couldn't believe how strange and kind these people were.
Now with blogs, vlogs, tips, and cheatsheets, there seems to be this mathematical formula for magical moments, and I'm pretty sure the CM's are over it, by now. What was once a spontaneous allowance given to the CM's at their discretion now comes across as an entitled demand from the patrons. "I said this, so now you must do this." That's not magical, that's just ordering demands from a list.

My wife and I went to WDW as part of an anniversary vacation. I mentioned it in passing when booking the room, not expecting anything. I just told the CM because they asked. Never mentioned it when booking the restaurants. We were there for 6 days and received the Mickey confetti and free dessert at California Grill, a dessert at Turf Club, and a note on our bed.

Again, we were there for 6 days and received two free desserts and confetti and my wife thought it was the most awesome thing ever. That means if I was counting how much free stuff I got there were 8 meals in which we received nothing. Seems like some families look at that situation as 8 instances where Disney didn't live up to "expectations" instead of 2 instances of having a little extra added to their trip.

 

[MrPromey]

I wonder if the My Disney Experience mobile app is the highest priced app from a development standpoint of any app in the world.

I highly doubt it. There is nothing happening in that app that's terribly amazing. It's simply accessing a series of databases - same as a website like Travelocity or Hotels.com does and unlike those, the variables for Disney's databases are all controlled by a single entity.

If Disney is dumping a ton of money into it along with the back-end servers (which are more likely the culprits), then I'd say whoever is managing this needs to be part of the next round of layoffs.

That's probably not what's happening, though.

More than likely, they're dealing with different and outdated individual systems being patched into new ones that they're attempting to string together through a common interface and hand off to consumers with the "rigging" being a sizable part of the issues.

I know this kind of thing sounds insane from a consumer perspective - especially for an organization the size of Disney - but you'd be surprised the number of times when cost, time, and budget are looked at in conversations around upgrading and replacing antiquated systems with modern ones, that the band-aid decision is chosen.

The larger the original system(s) and/or organization using it/them, the more likely they are to chose the cheaper route and kick that can down the road making the problem bigger for what will hopefully, in the minds of the people responsible, be a different team managing it when that time comes.

It's also an easy and short-sided choice to make when you're dealing with this quater's budget (or this two week "sprint") and fixing any potential problems that arise down the road can be added to a future kanban board and framed as new development or an improvement rather than as fixing a problem that was clearly avoidable in the first place.

 

[RSoxNo1]

I highly doubt it. There is nothing happening in that app that's terribly amazing. It's simply accessing a series of databases - same as a website like Travelocity or Hotels.com does and unlike those, the variables for Disney's databases are all controlled by a single entity.

If Disney is dumping a ton of money into it along with the back-end servers (which are more likely the culprits), then I'd say whoever is managing this needs to be part of the next round of layoffs.

That's probably not what's happening, though.

More than likely, they're dealing with different and outdated individual systems being patched into new ones that they're attempting to string together through a common interface and hand off to consumers with the "rigging" being a sizable part of the issues.

I know this kind of thing sounds insane from a consumer perspective - especially for an organization the size of Disney - but you'd be surprised the number of times when cost and budget are looked at in conversations around upgrading and replacing antiquated systems with modern ones, that the band-aid decision is chosen.

The larger the original system(s) or organization using it/them, the more likely they are to chose the cheaper route and kick that can down the road making the problem bigger for what will hopefully, in the minds of the people responsible, be a different team managing it when that time comes.

It's an easy and short-sided choice to make when you're dealing with this quater's budget (or this two week "sprint") and fixing any potential problems that arise down the road can be added to a future kanban board and framed as new development or an improvement rather than as fixing a problem that was clearly avoidable in the first place.

Directly or indirectly, the Next Gen project carried a price tag of at least $2 billion, and Disney has put out publicly that the website updates cost at least $80 million. Several people involved with the project were fired: Tom Staggs, Bruce Vaughn, Nick Franklin.

 

[MrPromey]

Directly or indirectly, the Next Gen project carried a price tag of at least $2 billion, and Disney has put out publicly that the website updates cost at least $80 million. Several people involved with the project were fired: Tom Staggs, Bruce Vaughn, Nick Franklin.

Yeah but a lot of that expense had nothing to do with the app which is what you specifically mentioned.

The development of the Magic Bands and the infrastructure to manufacture and distribute them along with the deployment of scanners and connectivity for them across property at all scanning points including attractions (including modifications requiring construction to add fastpass lines to attractions that didn't previously have them), every hotel room door, and payment terminals (that are still incapable of determining things like DVC or AP discounts - you gotta have and present your card for that) were not part of the app.

All of that alleged $2 billion in development happened long before the app we have today. In fact, when the next-gen system was first previewed I recall having to make changes at kiosks because the app didn't exist and the website of the time didn't work on mobile.

Most of what we have in the app has been added piecemeal over time rather than part of the original launch, too.

If you want to say the app was probably the biggest waste of money (for the design and reliability of the deliverable provided) rather than the most expensive, I imagine that's a lot closer to the reality of the situation.

In talking about development costs for actual apps, I'm pretty sure Google and Apple probably have Disney beat, there.

 

[ninjaprincesst]

I just out of curiosity called and asked , I was assured that dining cast members will still be available for large groups (8 or more), fixing issues including running late due to transportation issues, I made a mistake issues, or the system is not working or whatever. They are just no longer the "first option", she assured me the cast members will be there for you when needed. Also as it has been mentioned you are still more than welcome to call and have a "celebration" added to your reservation.

 

[flynnibus]

Directly or indirectly, the Next Gen project carried a price tag of at least $2 billion, and Disney has put out publicly that the website updates cost at least $80 million. Several people involved with the project were fired: Tom Staggs, Bruce Vaughn, Nick Franklin.

None of which means anything when trying to attribute a cost to the app...

 

[RSoxNo1]

None of which means anything when trying to attribute a cost to the app...

It means something, hence the original question.

 

[Vacationeer]

More than likely, they're dealing with different and outdated individual systems being patched into new ones that they're attempting to string together through a common interface and hand off to consumers with the "rigging" being a sizable part of the issues.

I know this kind of thing sounds insane from a consumer perspective - especially for an organization the size of Disney - but you'd be surprised the number of times when cost and budget are looked at in conversations around upgrading and replacing antiquated systems with modern ones, that the band-aid decision is chosen.

I can imagine the nightmare coding after all the years, updates, compatibility, patches, etc. Fixing one area breaks other areas. What a mess for huge companies that were first to build these big systems and have been building on those same old ones ever since. Verizon had this type of issue for years but their system has been working much better for me recently (Finally!).

 

[note2001]

I just out of curiosity called and asked , I was assured that dining cast members will still be available for large groups (8 or more), fixing issues including running late due to transportation issues, I made a mistake issues, or the system is not working or whatever. They are just no longer the "first option", she assured me the cast members will be there for you when needed. Also as it has been mentioned you are still more than welcome to call and have a "celebration" added to your reservation.

THANK YOU!
Only useful post on this thread after the initial announcement.

 

[Jedi Stitch]

So I have a stupid question. Can you do the Dining Package (Fantasmic, RoL, etc) online? I’ve never been successful with it on the app and just did all my regular ADRs then called for the packages.

It worked for me, but if you are trying for a specific time, and they don't have anymore available, you just have to choose a different time or day.

 

[Vacationeer]

The dining packages for shows are often wonky and don't display properly. For weeks I'd check a certain day when the package was scheduled and no time slots would be available. Then at some point, almost the whole day suddenly shows availability. Happened 3 times over 18 months for me. At first I thought they were sold out but something else is going on. Strange.

 

[LetsTalkWDW]

Does calling really get you different options from what you see online? I always thought they were just different ways of getting to the same booking system.

Short answer is Yes. I was talking to a CL concierge about a non-dining issue and I mentioned that I was trying to move a reservation to a later time and having no luck online. She said she would call the restaurant directly (Yak & Yeti) and see if she could get me a later reservation. She called while I was on hold and bingo, got the reservation time I wanted. Not sure if this is just a CL thing or if the WDW-DINE could do it too. The reservation number I got was a 5 digit code, very different from the long code you usually get online.

 

[LittleBuford]

Short answer is Yes. I was talking to a CL concierge about a non-dining issue and I mentioned that I was trying to move a reservation to a later time and having no luck online. She said she would call the restaurant directly (Yak & Yeti) and see if she could get me a later reservation. She called while I was on hold and bingo, got the reservation time I wanted. Not sure if this is just a CL thing or if the WDW-DINE could do it too. The reservation number I got was a 5 digit code, very different from the long code you usually get online.

But what you had the concierge do is the equivalent of going up to the podium yourself, which can indeed get a different result. For what it's worth, I called the dining-reservation number the other day based on what was being said in this thread, and they had exactly the same times as I was finding online. That's not to say that others haven't had better luck, but for me at least, calling yielded nothing new or different.

 

[DisneyJoe]

Short answer is Yes. I was talking to a CL concierge about a non-dining issue and I mentioned that I was trying to move a reservation to a later time and having no luck online. She said she would call the restaurant directly (Yak & Yeti) and see if she could get me a later reservation. She called while I was on hold and bingo, got the reservation time I wanted. Not sure if this is just a CL thing or if the WDW-DINE could do it too. The reservation number I got was a 5 digit code, very different from the long code you usually get online.

Many locations are on OpenTable or take reservations outside of the Disney system ie Rainforest Cafe, T-Rex etc

 

[LetsTalkWDW]

But what you had the concierge do is the equivalent of going up to the podium yourself, which can indeed get a different result. For what it's worth, I called the dining-reservation number the other day based on what was being said in this thread, and they had exactly the same times as I was finding online. That's not to say that others haven't had better luck, but for me at least, calling yielded nothing new or different.

I agree you can do that at the restaurant podium, but this was done over the phone for a reservation that was months away, (at the time)

 

[LittleBuford]

I agree you can do that at the restaurant podium, but this was done over the phone for a reservation that was months away, (at the time)

What I mean is that the service you received from the CL concierge doesn't seem to be the same as what the dining-reservation line offers. The person you spoke with was able to access the restaurant directly, which is as good as asking at the podium yourself (though I understand this happened months in advance of your visit). The agent I spoke with, however, was simply looking at a computer screen and seeing the same options I was. It makes sense that the CL concierge would offer a higher level of service. Perhaps it's possible to have the regular dining-reservation agents call a restaurant on one's behalf, but the person I spoke with didn't offer to do so, which leads me to think that what you experienced was a CL perk not available to the rest of us. Again, others may have had better luck than I did!

 

[Dr.GrantSeeker]

This could be old news, but it is new to me. Maybe this has something to do with making the MyDisneyExperience the primary way to book and modify dining reservations. I just logged onto Disney's website to view an upcoming reservation and noticed that under our guest names there is a celebrations option. Has this been an option for a while and I'm just noticing it? I don't recall seeing it the last time I logged in which was only a week or so ago. After clicking on "Add" it took me to the following page. So I guess in theory any dining reservations linked to your reservation the celebrations would link to the dining?

 

[ImperfectPixie]

This could be old news, but it is new to me. Maybe this has something to do with making the MyDisneyExperience the primary way to book and modify dining reservations. I just logged onto Disney's website to view an upcoming reservation and noticed that under our guest names there is a celebrations option. Has this been an option for a while and I'm just noticing it? I don't recall seeing it the last time I logged in which was only a week or so ago. After clicking on "Add" it took me to the following page. So I guess in theory any dining reservations linked to your reservation the celebrations would link to the dining? View attachment 418806View attachment 418807

INTERESTING!!! Mind if I share your screenshots?