Notes & Observations 1/8/14

I am in the world now and will be until late next week. I noticed a few things I wanted to relay back to the forum on our first day yesterday so I thought I'd start a thread I could add to.

Crowds are moderate, but we managed to not wait more than 25 minutes for anything in the MK yesterday.

I managed to peek over the construction walls in front of Casey's and see they are doing work with concrete blocks, it looked like some modifications to the curbing around the raised flower beds.

The main animatronic in the first scene of CoP was quite frightening. I couldn't tell if it was his skin in need of a coat of paint, or just some bad lighting, but he had quite a cadaverous pallor. He looked like a gray old corpse up there.

The floating docks being built adjacent to the water pageant canal appear to be almost complete. They are most definitely new ferry loading docks for somewhere around the lagoon. There are also a few segments of straight aluminum bridging on the shore that I assume are accessories to the floating pieces.

I'll preface the next statement by saying that I think the entire NextGen project is an abomination and one of the worst projects they've ever taken on. That said, I have mixed feelings on FP+. The availability of same and next day fast passes is good enough to make the system work for people who want to plan last minute has been tolerable. We'll just see how that holds up upon full rollout of the system. We have had one issue. We have 6 people in our party but I can only schedule FP+ for 3 members of our party and somebody else in our party can only make FP+ for the other 3. It's a pain because we each have to make them, then we have to try and coordinate times.

That's it so far, but I'll be here until next Thursday if anybody needs me to report on anything. We're going to Uni on Sunday. Looking forward to that.

 

[JimboJones123]

I'm just a lurker, but I'd like to add a cautionary statement about Disney Experience accounts:

The accounts should be set up by 'household'. A primary account holder is chosen for the 'house', then can add family members in their account that they manage. They can Invite friends to share with. These friends should have their own 'household' account. You can set the permission levels for your friends in the Friends & Family list.

I made the mistake of making my account, and adding my best friend and her daughter as my 'family' -I am usually the one who makes our plans, etc. But my friend also goes alone, so I just 'invited' her and we set up her account. BUT, there is no way to move her daughter from my account to hers. Her daughter is a minor (thus shouldn't have her own account) and had an AP attached. Even tech support could not move her. We have to wait until her pass expires and then make her again in my friends account.

Do what I suggest in paragraph 1 and you'll be all set.

She can go to guest services and have her AP refunded and then reissued. I had to do just that, only it took a half hour to convince guest services that there was a problem. They would not believe me because they were still set up on the standard ticketing database and not the MyDisneyExperience database. Apparently they both operate desperate and cause Guest Relations to not be able to access the problems.

 

[sean4066]

I just got back and got to experience the new magic bands. There were 2 families of 4 I linked all of us together under my Disney experience account and was not able to make fastpass selections for my only my family. we tried several times to do it finally, after talking to the concierge at pop century they informed me that its a problem with the app. they said that they are working on a fix. That being said my overall experience was ok with the whole thing. We had used fastpass+ in every park and space mountain for example had a standby wait time of 90 min and went through fastpass in 10min. every ride was the same. So, for now its beneficial to use it but, if they expand it to everyone it will be a waste of time.

 

[disney4life2008]

The main animatronic in the first scene of CoP was quite frightening. I couldn't tell if it was his skin in need of a coat of paint, or just some bad lighting, but he had quite a cadaverous pallor. He looked like a gray old corpse up there.

LOL Have you seen Death Becomes Her

 

[disney4life2008]

Everyone has to have an account but you can manage multiple accounts under one account. I had this problem when booking mine, it's an easy fix and only required the other members of my party to take 20 seconds out of their day and make a quick account and verify the email request you send them to request them as a Family member. After that you can pick and chose everything for them, not really a flaw imo.

This truly is a pain in the behind. I can not get certain members of my family or friends to check important email about our trips and confirm less long logging on to disney. This will be a mess in 2015.

 

[Next Big Thing]

I am in the world now and will be until late next week. I noticed a few things I wanted to relay back to the forum on our first day yesterday so I thought I'd start a thread I could add to.

Crowds are moderate, but we managed to not wait more than 25 minutes for anything in the MK yesterday.

I managed to peek over the construction walls in front of Casey's and see they are doing work with concrete blocks, it looked like some modifications to the curbing around the raised flower beds.

The main animatronic in the first scene of CoP was quite frightening. I couldn't tell if it was his skin in need of a coat of paint, or just some bad lighting, but he had quite a cadaverous pallor. He looked like a gray old corpse up there.

The floating docks being built adjacent to the water pageant canal appear to be almost complete. They are most definitely new ferry loading docks for somewhere around the lagoon. There are also a few segments of straight aluminum bridging on the shore that I assume are accessories to the floating pieces.

I'll preface the next statement by saying that I think the entire NextGen project is an abomination and one of the worst projects they've ever taken on. That said, I have mixed feelings on FP+. The availability of same and next day fast passes is good enough to make the system work for people who want to plan last minute has been tolerable. We'll just see how that holds up upon full rollout of the system. We have had one issue. We have 6 people in our party but I can only schedule FP+ for 3 members of our party and somebody else in our party can only make FP+ for the other 3. It's a pain because we each have to make them, then we have to try and coordinate times.

That's it so far, but I'll be here until next Thursday if anybody needs me to report on anything. We're going to Uni on Sunday. Looking forward to that.

You should be able to make FP+ reservations for 6 under one user. When we were there last week we were able to.

 

[RSoxNo1]

Simply put - having to sync all passes to an online account in order to gain a touring advantage is intrusive. It's one of many major hindrances but ultimately if people are classified as a "Group" and you can make your reservations accordingly that has a benefit. The primary objection I have is that the rules themselves for Fastpass distribution have changed.

 

[John]

OK, I have read all the responses and as usual there are very mixed opinions of FP+ which is to be expected. But for me just the thought of having to deal with all of this is just a pain in the butt. I just want to go....show up....show a ticket and enjoy my day. All of this "connecting with friends" crap is just a headache I rather not have to deal with while on vacation. It is a mildly complicated system at best. Yes I am well aware that some of you have no problems and your visit went very smoothly but there are those folks who cant operate a cell phone with out a owners manual, how in the world do they navigate this?

Bugs, bugs and more bugs. I suspect with a system this large and the number of users it will have to accommodate it will always have some type of issues. When it comes to very large groups I cant imagine what problems could occur ie guest not showing up on MDE etc. The person is is in charge will spend most of their visit trying to remedy these problems as they occur day after day. Each day presenting new problems.....good luck with that.

What about that "once in a lifetime" visitor? They have no idea what needs FP+ and what doesn't. They have no idea how to take advantage of EMH or being there at rope drop. To all of us we know the nuances of the parks and the ticket systems....at least as much as can be. But they have no clue. Sure it was always like this to a degree but now they have added another layer to the confusion. No matter how well the system operates in the future this added layer to that experience will always be there. How many of those first timers leave with a sour taste? Never to return?


I understand the reasoning behind it but I just don't see the monetary benefits to Disney. I am sure they are way smarter then me and know exactly how this will make them a boat load of money but I just don't see how it is such a positive experience that will result in a huge windfall. Again, there are winners and losers with the system. The magic question is will the guest experience impact spending more from the winners then the loss of the negative effect that it has on the losers and will it end with a profit worth the investment? To that question......we will never know.

 

[WDWDad13]

Everyone has to have an account but you can manage multiple accounts under one account. I had this problem when booking mine, it's an easy fix and only required the other members of my party to take 20 seconds out of their day and make a quick account and verify the email request you send them to request them as a Family member. After that you can pick and chose everything for them, not really a flaw imo.

Actually that's not true. I was able to schedule everything for my wife and child and they don't have an account. Strange

 

[John]

Actually that's not true. I was able to schedule everything for my wife and child and they don't have an account. Strange

Probably not so strange, I imagine your wife and child are on your reservation to begin with. Where as in the cases reported there were two separate reservations wanting to combine them is wherein lies the problem.

 

[JimboJones123]

Probably not so strange, I imagine your wife and child are on your reservation to begin with. Where as in the cases reported there were two separate reservations wanting to combine them is wherein lies the problem.

Which can be a real problem if you are a family of five or more, which Disney World totally hates, and have to get two reservations for seperate rooms.

 

[WDWDad13]

ok I see the confusion now... interesting

 

[GeneralKnowledge]

Probably not so strange, I imagine your wife and child are on your reservation to begin with. Where as in the cases reported there were two separate reservations wanting to combine them is wherein lies the problem.

In our case we're all on the same reservation. At this point I'm chalking it up to just being a bug in the system which I hope will be gone by next time. Other than this minor glitch, I'm actually liking FP+. As long as same or next day passes remain a possibility once the system rolls out. If it becomes like ADR's or DVC booking where you really have to book it as soon as the opportunity becomes available, we're going to have a problem.

 

[John]

In our case we're all on the same reservation. At this point I'm chalking it up to just being a bug in the system which I hope will be gone by next time. Other than this minor glitch, I'm actually liking FP+. As long as same or next day passes remain a possibility once the system rolls out. If it becomes like ADR's or DVC booking where you really have to book it as soon as the opportunity becomes available, we're going to have a problem.

I think it comes down to your perspective. Will you be able to make a FP for day of? yes, but once this thing gets rolled out and available to everybody I think in time it will absolutely become much like ADR's. IMO that is exactly what they want. They want the ability to knowingly distribute crowds. To have the ability to know where to schedule the work force and resources. To know where you will be when you will be there. This is the purpose of the program to begin with.

 

[John]

Which can be a real problem if you are a family of five or more, which Disney World totally hates, and have to get two reservations for seperate rooms.

What erks me about this and I am sure WDWdad will attest to this but they always m,ake it a separate reservation....no matter what. In my experience you even get two separate invoices. I know why they do it...especially when DDP is involved.

 

[GeneralKnowledge]

I think it comes down to your perspective. Will you be able to make a FP for day of? yes, but once this thing gets rolled out and available to everybody I think in time it will absolutely become much like ADR's. IMO that is exactly what they want. They want the ability to knowingly distribute crowds. To have the ability to know where to schedule the work force and resources. To know where you will be when you will be there. This is the purpose of the program to begin with.

I realize the purpose of the program. They've created this massive program in an effort to make more money while they lie to guests and mask it as a huge investment in the guests interest, while the average guest (or any guest with their own, functioning brain) would have benefitted more from $2 billion dollars worth of new quality attractions. Instead we get something that marginally improves the stale existing attraction line up that continues to decay while MyMagic+ swallows the entire budget.

The sad thing is today's park offerings in every park but MK are stale and there are no plans to add anything of substance in the near future. The next addition is at AK and it's still half a decade away. Imagine how stale WDW will be by then.

 

[ozzel1]

She can go to guest services and have her AP refunded and then reissued. I had to do just that, only it took a half hour to convince guest services that there was a problem. They would not believe me because they were still set up on the standard ticketing database and not the MyDisneyExperience database. Apparently they both operate desperate and cause Guest Relations to not be able to access the problems.

Oh, I did that- and three trips to three different Guest Relations later we got it fixed. They all saw the problem and said it was fixed. Thing is, in the process of trying to 'fix' her daughters AP, her own was messed up. Debbie at MK finally stopped trying to 'fix' the problem and just canceled/reissued the passes. All is well now. I think the worst part is that the people who should be able to fix problems ("yes, I see there is a problem and you are not trying to get one over") cannot fix them. How hard do you have to pinch a penny before you start spending more than you save?

 

[imagination30]

yeah we just got back on tues from the world and the worst days where sunday and Monday with all the tour groups . and some of them are so rude! .. and misuse fast pass. bc we where in line a couple times for rides and they would walk right up and cut in front of you.. and the people standing in line would motion for their friends to come get in line with them! ...