Official WDW Facebook page opens the floodgates to MyMagic+ comments

[englanddg]

I really wish Disney did a tiered system with FP+ where the guest can use One - Three FP+ ahead of time and based on how many they chose ahead of time effects how FP works for them that day. If you got one FP+ you could get a new one every hour, if you did 2FP+ then every 2/3 hours and FP+ you can get a new FP everytime you use one. If that makes sense.

And, we may see something like that happen now that traditional FP is being removed from the parks.

The chaos of having both systems running at the same time could have been one of the reasons they instituted the 3 limit in the first place.

I wouldn't be surprised to see it raised to 5, initially as "bonus passes" given out to random guests (at least that's how I'd do it to test the load this causes on wait times), and park hopping introduced. But, that's just my suspicion.

 

[wdisney9000]

You are not allowed to change your fastpass times? They all have to be one after the other?

Since we were park hopping we arrived at MK after 5pm and they closed at 10pm. The time window options for fp+ didnt allow for much changing of the times since the park was only open 5 more hours. I agree with your first post i responded to. I was just using the example of park hopping and your options become more limited as far as time options s for fp+ and you don't save much time versus legacy fp. With legacy fp you could use the fp system all day in different parks.

With magic bands you are limited to one park and if you choose to make your fp+ selections for later in the day (after 5 pm in this example) and the park closes at 10 pm, you have a small time window and you either use all FP+ in one area to.enjoy the entire area or choose to use fp+ for attractions in different areas and you have to move from one area to the next without enjoying everything in the area you are in. Does that make sense? I know it sounds hard to understand and I promise im not trying to be difficult. I'm just using the example of someone park hopping and it limits your time frame for using fp+. Does anyone understand what I'm saying or am I not putting it in proper terms? And p-p-p-please understand I'm not bashing magic bands here. We have had very few issues with the band itself. I like some of the features it offers. I'm
simply just making a point about using the bands and park hopping with fp+.

 

[wdisney9000]

Yeah I wasn't in the keynote tho (I was poor and that cost a lot more ... Plus they weren't hyped as much back then) but it was great to be at amacworld. We hung out with all my irc warez friends

I catch flack for still using irc from friends that are hard core about using bit torrent or other warez progs

 

[RSoxNo1]

Flynn,

You are aware of the Premier Passport, it's ticket media which allows unlimited entry to both DL and WDW, It's $960 bucks NO DISCOUNT, Disney is in most cases unable to link MDE to this ticket. Last year went twice was selected for MB 'test' BOTH times,

Because of the issues in linking I was unable to use FP+ system, I could have 'cheated' and double dipped but I did not out of respect to the test team. I spent literally 2 hours each DAY of vacation trying to get this to work and as of NOW it STILL is not linked.

My personal favorite was 'just buy magic my way tickets in addition to your PP' fortunately I was on the phone or I would have throttled that CM. Their system and the only solution for a problem THEY caused was have me buy ANOTHER set of tickets at FULL PRICE so I could 'USE' the MB system.

If they said we will give them to you for a dollar because system will not allow us to comp them that would have been ok.

But your proposition is correct this speaks more of the direction of TWDC than MM+ itself, After TWO experiences like this as part of their test - I'm just not inclined to give them a break on anything.

To top it off Disney did NOTHING to compensate me for the loss of MY vacation time not even a nice form letter. I did not expect to get anything fungible out of Disney but a heartfelt SORRY would have gone a long way in changing my mindset about Today's Disney.

First off, it's horse**** that they told you to buy new tickets. We have heard of dummy transactions/tickets appearing on people's accounts to "make it work". As for the Premier Pass, I was able to link it to a MDE account, but I didn't stay on property so the only time it was really used was when our tickets were scanned at DAK for FP+. The items showed up on our reservations but because we weren't staying on property they weren't showing up on the Fastpass+ page.

 

[RSoxNo1]

I'm aware of that situation - but like I said - do you believe that is the intention for the final state of Premier Passports? Or is this the 'overflowing toilet' that is a temporary problem? I believe it's the latter... a temporary thing that will be resolved going forward. So I don't gauge the grand scheme of MM+ based on that temporary thing.
But 'temporary' also overlapped with your vacations - so you were impacted. That is the role of customer service then to make the situation right. Obviously Disney has failed to do so. So like the temporary toilet.. who failed in the guest recovery?? The service aspect of the company. And this is an area I see them getting worse and worse in.

Twice myself I've been let down by the company in the last month. Each time the company seems more and more incompetent.. let alone addressing my issue.

I'm not giving them any breaks either... I just like to focus my anger were they could have actually made a difference.

Bringing it full circle.. Disney may not have been able to prevent the toilet scenario.. but they could have made up for it. And in your passport issue... Disney may not have done their homework... but they could have made up for it. The fact they miss these things now is what makes me believe the culture of this company is so far gone it's well past it's peak and will never recover it's vaulted position.

I think this is correct. I think that these "glitches" will work themselves out, but until they do it's an unsatisfactory consumer facing component. I suspect that when "tickets" are purchased in the future direct from Disney that many will be linked to an account upon purchase. Anything booked as part of a package should be done this way. As for annual passes, I suspect that they too will also require a MDE account upon purchase. As for the Premier Pass, even before MDE this was an issue between the two resorts. You essentially pay for a piece of ticket media that has to be changed depending on what coast you're on.

 

[ford91exploder]

First off, it's horse**** that they told you to buy new tickets. We have heard of dummy transactions/tickets appearing on people's accounts to "make it work". As for the Premier Pass, I was able to link it to a MDE account, but I didn't stay on property so the only time it was really used was when our tickets were scanned at DAK for FP+. The items showed up on our reservations but because we weren't staying on property they weren't showing up on the Fastpass+ page.

Really were YOU there, I'm DVC as well I STILL cannot link Premier Pass to MDE I'm just going to let it expire in August.

Disney has achieved the impossible after a couple of miserable experiences I never want to go back.

 

[RSoxNo1]

Really were YOU there, I'm DVC as well I STILL cannot link Premier Pass to MDE I'm just going to let it expire in August.

Disney has achieved the impossible after a couple of miserable experiences I never want to go back.

I think you definitely misunderstood what I wrote. Re-read what I wrote as my sympathizing with you and not calling you a liar.

 

[englanddg]

I think you definitely misunderstood what I wrote. Re-read what I wrote as my sympathizing with you and not calling you a liar.

It's that opening phrase. It can be read in two different tones. I took the "sympathize" tone when I read it, but I can see how it might be confused.

Text doesn't always convey tone well.

 

[ford91exploder]

I think you definitely misunderstood what I wrote. Re-read what I wrote as my sympathizing with you and not calling you a liar.

Sorry about that - I think about that incident and blood begins to boil.

 

[wdisney9000]

I see that now, but still I wouldn't save my fp+ options if I was going to park hop that late in the day. I park hopped and used them in my second park but got there around 1pm. If I was going to park hop that late in the day I would go ahead and use my fp options in the first park. But that is just me.

I see what u mean but in our particular case we just happened to get to MK later than 1pm. Some families will get there earlier, some later. I was just giving example of getting there later in the day.

IF there are more time options available. That's a big if. Well, unless you really want to fastpass the teacups or Carousel of Progress.

In addition, his point was with relation to doing an evening at MK after park hopping from somewhere earlier. If you assume (and from this point forward, it's conjecture on my part) that his family eats at 5p, is done by 6p, takes 30 - 45 minutes to get to MK for the first FP at 7 and the park closes at 10, there really isn't a huge window for FP plus to be moved around there.

This. Thanks for putting it in better terms than I could. (Had a few adult beverages today while park hopping)

 

[wdisney9000]

Sorry about that - I think about that incident and blood begins to boil.

It sucks that certain incidents can elicit those type of feelings with this new system. For some, MM+ has been flawless, which is great. For others, a small issue can cause hours of headaches. My wife's magic band didn't work to unlock the room door after day 1. We just use mine to avoid the headache. Who knows how long it would have taken to fix it. I really don't care. It's issues like these that never happened before though. Some people think it is the best thing to ever happen to WDW. I would pay good money to be there when they have an issue that causes them to spend a few hours trying to fix a problem with their band such as you, @englanddg, or many others have had to. I think some people just want to defend Disney, some just want to troll, some are just foolish to think that the day won't come when they have an issue with it, because it will.

 

[flynnibus]

I catch flack for still using irc from friends that are hard core about using bit torrent or other warez progs

Well it was a different scene 20 years ago back when the inefficiencies of Efnet were half the fun ...

 

[englanddg]

Well it was a different scene 20 years ago back when the inefficiencies of Efnet were half the fun ...

Another efnet op.

Interesting.

 

[ford91exploder]

Another efnet op.

Interesting.

Does anyone remember the IMP's

 

[ford91exploder]

Slightly off topic but it fits in with @flynnibus points about how Disney's customer service skills are at DMV level these days.

http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/not-the-trip-we-wanted.879464/#post-5902802

 

[wdisney9000]

Another efnet op.

Interesting.

I had an fserve on dalnet. Lol.

 

[flynnibus]

But now with the constant fumbles and DMV style customer service, Now what do we do as Disney fans?

Does one just dump DVC points and write it off. I agree I think the company is developing an arrogant culture that assumes the 'hard-core' fans will always be back.

With the last 5-8 years of behaviors, it certainly seems like the company is pushing, pushing, and pushing.. incrementally seeing how far they can push the boundary before things snap. Things not going well? Just roll out some discounts so people feel like they are getting a bargin... the metrics stay in the band.. and keep pushing the line and repeat.

What are we to do? IMO - the answer is don't pay their numbers and make no secret about it in your network of acquaintances.

The 'we go anyway..' lock-in of DVC is why I could never give it serious thought. Each family is different.. but for us Disney is not even an annual thing. Even if local, I don't think I would dedicate my vacation weeks to it several times a year. Day dodges? Weekends? Probably... but my VACATION? I would bore of it. Over my lifetime we average trips every 2-4 years. I even went a 10+ year period where I didn't go at all (94-2005 I think it was). I have no 'I must goto Disney' in me. I go because I made the choice for that trip to pick Disney over something else. So when Disney doesn't rise up above other alternatives.. I don't go.

Our last 'Disney' dips were with DCL instead of WDW. I've been for a day or two at times.. my wife has done RunDisney stuff.. but no week stays. We did cruises in '11,'13', and will do another this fall. DCL is showing me something my family wants to do.. so we spend our money there. I show no loyalty to a product that doesn't earn it.

Ironically.. I do have vacations we do every year even without 'new stuff'. I've been to Ocean City, MD every summer of my life. I've vacationed there, I've lived there, I've worked there. We still go every year.. and not because 'zOMG look at what they've built this year!' but because they offer a vacation experience we are interested in and there is enough variety on the side to give us choices when we want them. Doesn't hurt my parents are property owners for the last 28 years.. but that is just about reducing the barrier of entry. We still opt to go there to spend time with family and to enjoy the beach town.

I guess with all my rambling.. what I'm trying to say is... even tho I have all this interest in Disney, the product, its history, and their activities... I have no blind obligation to feel like I HAVE to go or I'm missing something. I don't feel like there is something 'missing' if I haven't been in awhile. I think the feeling solidified when I went back for the first time after the big 10+ year gap. The magic and the 'Disney was so different...' feeling was gone. Everyone else had caught up to Disney.. what Disney was offering was not so unique compared to say.. Staying in a Vegas resort... theme parks had been using Disney's tricks.. it was good, but it was no longer leaps and bounds ahead. The only time I felt like 'Disney was still worlds ahead..' was in the water parks.

I've taken my kids several times since then.. they enjoy it. But do I feel like the reward is worth the investment? Not really.. so we've drifted to doing other things. When Disney does something that will make me interested, we'll make a point of trying to make a trip happen. But I lack this built-in obligation many fans seem to have.

On our upcoming cruise we like to spend one day at the tail end in FL. Last trip, we did KSC instead of heading to WDW... the one before that we did a few days at UNI. This trip we are eyeballing doing a day at USF due to the new HP 2.0 additions.

WDW just isn't offering anything that makes me feel like I need to go back... and it's not just 'UNI is building attractions and WDW is doing MB...'. I think the problems are far deeper than that.

 

[flynnibus]

I catch flack for still using irc from friends that are hard core about using bit torrent or other warez progs

I don't know why anyone (as a leech) would use anything besides newsgroups these days.. unless you put in the effort to stay on the private sites for 'early access' or something. Good speed, anonymous, the tools make all the encoding overhead trivial, the chunking tools actually make for BETTER reliability than the single zip downloads, etc. The newsgroups+irc request channels seem to be the best hybrid.

 

[ford91exploder]

Flynn

Reason I bought DVC is I AM a workaholic always have been and the 'use it or lose it' aspect forces me to take a vacation and the point system allowed me to work around projects. PRE DVC I probably cancelled 3 out of 4 vacations not great for family life.

With DVC I have not and the couple of times I could not go at least family got to go anyway. So at least for my family DVC has been in the past a 'good deal'.

Now that Disney is busily devaluing the experience and even my parents who are avid pixie dusters are noticing. and that's what makes me so angry about what's happening.

 

[flynnibus]

Another efnet op.

Interesting.

Yeah, pretty much made myself into a night zombie with IRC during university.. IRC replaced the BBS network for me. I skipped the whole AOL warez scene inbetween that sucked in a lot of people and stuck with the networked BBSs... FIDOnet, RIMEnet, etc for my discussion aspects. I was even a point node on FIDOnet to pull my Mac topics into the area. Warez was always about the goods and less about the community until I discovered IRC during college. I had friends I made and hung out with for many years from Mac topics on IRC in the early nineties.

I've been online since the days of our Coleco Adam. But for work my father always had Macs at home.. so that quickly became my 'base of operations' as I dove head long into the Apple world of the 80s and into the 90s. We never had a commodore.. or apple II... TRS-80... I just played on other people's while I had the hacked atari 2600 with every ROM available.. and then the colecovision.. and then the adam.. and then onto Macs.

Too bad the Mac BBS software blew... Hermes.. bleh! I borrowed my friend's 286 to learn how to run the BBS software on it