This "system upgrade" is starting to tick me off

[JimboJones123]

We have purchased the DDP, but the system upgrade this week isn't registering the DDP on our reservation.

We have been paying out of pocket for meals the past two days.

Finally, tonight, we were allowed to put charges on our room key, but still have gotten no reimbursment on our two days of meals.

They say keep saving the receipts, but this is not how a vacation is supposed to go.

I will log my 3rd full hour at the registration desk within 10 minutes of waiting after breakfast and hope the $200+ will get credited sooner rather than later.


DO NOT UPGRADE YOUR SYSTEM WITHOUT A CONTENGENCY PLAN, M'KAY!

 

[disneydata]

There is a contingency plan. Save your receipts. There's not much else that can be done when the main server that charges things is offline.

Everything will get credited. Just chill out and enjoy your vacation.

 

[AEfx]

There is a contingency plan. Save your receipts. There's not much else that can be done when the main server that charges things is offline.

Everything will get credited. Just chill out and enjoy your vacation.

That's very good advice, but I do understand the OP's being upset.

I opened this thread thinking it was going to be about the Internet downtime, but if I am understanding this correctly, the entire DDP system is down and resort guests who paid for DDP can't use it?

If that is what is happening, that's kind of crazy and should not take two days to address. There are a myriad of work-arounds that wouldn't include guests paying cash up front instead.

I'd be kinda miffed to, as one of the pros of the DDP to me isn't the "savings" but the "I don't have to think about buying food" part.

 

[JimboJones123]

There is a contingency plan. Save your receipts. There's not much else that can be done when the main server that charges things is offline.

Everything will get credited. Just chill out and enjoy your vacation.

We just happen to be lucky enough to afford to go out of pocket for meals.

Other trips we wouldn't be able to shell out $500 for meals out of pocket.

The frustration comes from the "let me check on that" attitude where the CM disappears from the check in desk for 30 minutes. That is a LONG TIME -- 3x.

So, just telling me to chill out and enjoy my vacation is difficult when I am locked out of my room at 9pm and have to tell the kids to color for an hour while I wait to get keys into the room. But thanks for the absolute lack of empathy for the situation and the "shut up and suck ot up" response.

 

[MysticOrient]

That's very good advice, but I do understand the OP's being upset.

I opened this thread thinking it was going to be about the Internet downtime, but if I am understanding this correctly, the entire DDP system is down and resort guests who paid for DDP can't use it?

If that is what is happening, that's kind of crazy and should not take two days to address. There are a myriad of work-arounds that wouldn't include guests paying cash up front instead.

I'd be kinda miffed to, as one of the pros of the DDP to me isn't the "savings" but the "I don't have to think about buying food" part.

I totally agree. At my work, when we have new releases to our products and system (every 3 weeks), if something doesn't go right on the morning after the release, we roll back to the previous (read: WORKING) release. We do not let shoddy products and crappy user experiences go for more than a few hours (and for us, even a few hours is too long).

The fact that Disney is telling the OP to just save the receipts and (basically) "go away" is inexcusable. If that were me, I'd be speaking SO loudly and making such a stink that they'd do anything just to get rid of me from the front desk area!! HAHAHA!! :lol:

To the OP, however, hopefully this can get resolved ASAP and that they give you some sort of additional "compensation" for your inconvenience.

Judy

 

[JimboJones123]

I totally agree. At my work, when we have new releases to our products and system (every 3 weeks), if something doesn't go right on the morning after the release, we roll back to the previous (read: WORKING) release. We do not let shoddy products and crappy user experiences go for more than a few hours (and for us, even a few hours is too long).

The fact that Disney is telling the OP to just save the receipts and (basically) "go away" is inexcusable. If that were me, I'd be speaking SO loudly and making such a stink that they'd do anything just to get rid of me from the front desk area!! HAHAHA!! :lol:

To the OP, however, hopefully this can get resolved ASAP and that they give you some sort of additional "compensation" for your inconvenience.

Judy

Lucky for us it is just inconvenience, but for guests that come on a strict budget and had 3-4 TS in 2-3 days, YIKES!

 

[Monty]

Why go OOP for any meals? Room charging lets them reimburse you without ever actually having the meals billed to you. :shrug:

While I sympathise, it doesn't strike me as as big a deal as you're making it out to be.

 

[GymLeaderPhil]

Why go OOP for any meals? Room charging lets them reimburse you without ever actually having the meals billed to you. :shrug:

While I sympathise, it doesn't strike me as as big a deal as you're making it out to be.

The ability to charge to your room can and may also be down during the update.

I feel as though there should have been some manual way to accept DDP/room charges just as if they were unable to process credit cards. That or did not offer the ability to utilize DDP or room charges during these planned updates.

 

[askmike1]

There is a contingency plan. Save your receipts. There's not much else that can be done when the main server that charges things is offline.

Everything will get credited. Just chill out and enjoy your vacation.

Woah, woah, woah..... that's way too reasonable a response. :lookaroun

If you're in the most magical place on earth, chill out. Disney is the company that will go head over heals to give free stuff away to complaining guests. Relax and enjoy the vacation. Perhaps if one goes on vacation knowing that a major system upgrade is going to take place (who's effects have been felt in the past), maybe they should have a contingency plan. Hakuna Matata.

 

[Brian Noble]

I totally understand where the OP is coming from. It's extremely annoying to have this happen over days---and have the "sorry we can't do anything yet" answer take 30 minutes.

Will it all eventually work out? Yes. That doesn't change the fact that the inability to use the package the way it was purchased will be a constant intrusion to the "vacation flow."

I have hope for you today though---I was able to look at the dining reservation tool online this morning, so hopefully that means "things work".

 

[MaryJaneP]

Maybe Disney could have DDP guests use guest's own credit card, Disney could hold off on submitting charges until system upgrade is completed, and allow guests to present receipts to cancel charges as they are applied to plan allocations. Any non-cancelled charges could then be submitted.

 

[disneydata]

We just happen to be lucky enough to afford to go out of pocket for meals.

Other trips we wouldn't be able to shell out $500 for meals out of pocket.

The frustration comes from the "let me check on that" attitude where the CM disappears from the check in desk for 30 minutes. That is a LONG TIME -- 3x.

So, just telling me to chill out and enjoy my vacation is difficult when I am locked out of my room at 9pm and have to tell the kids to color for an hour while I wait to get keys into the room. But thanks for the absolute lack of empathy for the situation and the "shut up and suck ot up" response.

Apparently, there is more to the story than you stated in your original post. From what I've heard, charging to the Dining Plans was not interrupted during the downtime. Charging to the room account may have, but everyone I talked to had no problems.

You said you have been paying out of pocket for two days. Assuming the day you posted (yesterday) as one day, you checked in on the 16th. Whatever issues you were having with your DDP from that day may not be related to the downtime. Anyone who was scheduled to check in on that day would have been pre-processed (similar to online check in). It may have been an issue with your reservation itself.

Did you book directly through Disney or through an outside company? If it was an outside company, it takes more time to solve an issue because it has to go directly through the wholesaler. It also would depend on which resort you are at. A few resorts were transitioning and had a longer downtime than expected.

I do agree 30 minutes and even an hour to wait is a long time. That person could have done things differently so you didn't have to wait quite as long. Unfortunately, that's something that can't be changed.

This process is a headache for everyone. Guest Relations, Central Reservations, Travel Agents, Front Desk, Concierge, Housekeeping, Wholesalers, Ticketing, and many more have to deal with these issues. I am certainty not telling you to shut up and suck it up. Trust me, know what you are dealing with. You shouldn't let this hinder your vacation, but you are letting it. Voice your concerns as necessary to a Front Desk manager and they should be able to help out with compensation. You will get reimbursed. It will get taken care of.

 

[disneydata]

I totally agree. At my work, when we have new releases to our products and system (every 3 weeks), if something doesn't go right on the morning after the release, we roll back to the previous (read: WORKING) release. We do not let shoddy products and crappy user experiences go for more than a few hours (and for us, even a few hours is too long).

The fact that Disney is telling the OP to just save the receipts and (basically) "go away" is inexcusable. If that were me, I'd be speaking SO loudly and making such a stink that they'd do anything just to get rid of me from the front desk area!! HAHAHA!! :lol:

To the OP, however, hopefully this can get resolved ASAP and that they give you some sort of additional "compensation" for your inconvenience.

Judy

Not to sound like a jerk, but unless your job handles 20+ resorts, 20,000+ rooms, multiple departments, and millions of transactions a day, you can't compare them. This new system was completely built by Disney so any technology that was existing had to be completely removed from the servers before it could be implemented. There is no going back. There are many reasons for this new system and it has to happen. Disney doesn't have a choice anymore.

There is no other contingency for charging to dining plans. The POS systems at the restaurants have to charge something. I'd like to hear any ideas if you have any.

FYI ... yelling doesn't always solve the problem.

 

[MaryJaneP]

Disneydata:

I believe there is a place that already claims to be, and I can confirm it is, the one and only Happy Valley.

 

[Phonedave]

Not to sound like a jerk, but unless your job handles 20+ resorts, 20,000+ rooms, multiple departments, and millions of transactions a day, you can't compare them. This new system was completely built by Disney so any technology that was existing had to be completely removed from the servers before it could be implemented. There is no going back. There are many reasons for this new system and it has to happen. Disney doesn't have a choice anymore.

There is no other contingency for charging to dining plans. The POS systems at the restaurants have to charge something. I'd like to hear any ideas if you have any.

FYI ... yelling doesn't always solve the problem.

My job does - in fact it handles much more than that

When we do a system upgrade, not only is there an upgrade plan filed but there is an EXTENSIVE back out plan filed as well.

Upgrades are also run on test servers and subjected to UAT before being scheduled for release.

The vast majority of our systems are developed in house as well.

Upgrades don't allways go smoothly. Sure we have the occassional glitch that pops up, but we do a lot of extensive planning ahead of time to minimize those glitches.

-dave

 

[ToTBellHop]

I understand where the OP is coming from and don't understand the "just deal with it" attitude. If you get the DDP, you are pre-paying for all of your meals, so it is unreasonable to then need to shell out cash to cover your meals for two days. Let's say you have two days and have decided to have two signature meals between those days. For a family of four, that would likely cost $500 or so for two days--and it should all be covered by the DDP. It is unreasonable to expect a guest to shell out hundreds of dollars they didn't expect to spend, even if they are going to reimburse you...and it's a foolish practice for Disney. If I have to pay out of pocket for dining, I am certainly not spending more money in giftshops.

Here's an easy contingency plan--hand each party vouchers for their DDP meals when they check in and allow them to "cash in" their vouchers every time they eat.

 

[disneydata]

When we do a system upgrade, not only is there an upgrade plan filed but there is an EXTENSIVE back out plan filed as well.

There is no option for a back out in this case.

Upgrades are also run on test servers and subjected to UAT before being scheduled for release.

This system has been in development for 10 years and has been running in a test environment for at least 5. User acceptance has already happened and happens again with each roll out.

Upgrades don't allways go smoothly. Sure we have the occassional glitch that pops up, but we do a lot of extensive planning ahead of time to minimize those glitches.

Of course they don't. A lot of time has been put into this system, but as you said, things come up.

 

[Mammymouse]

Not Disney related but I have a program conversion story. My bank decided to revamp their entire system. Their online bill-pay was from a third party so I though YES this is great. All information would transfer and passwords would be the same. Well 3 months before it happened and up until about a week or so before we kept getting the "Coming this Fall our new improved online banking!!" online. Then the week before they said - Friday October 29th at 12:00 through 8 AM Monday November 1st the system will be down for conversion. My first thought was that the first of the month is the WORST time to be down for bill paying, etc. Well I tried to log on Nov. 1st in the afternoon and my password didn't work. I called 3 times and couldn't get through (busy and disconnect). I thought maybe the system wasn't up yet so I waited til the next day. Same thing happened the next day and because I put my password in 3 times I got locked out. I called five times but couldn't even get an answer, it would disconnect. I couldn't call until later that day because I had to go out. So when I went on the website later to get the phone number a generic notice popped up and it said that a notification had been sent recently by mail and there was a pin number that had to be used instead of the password to log on the first time. Sure enough I looked through my mail and a few days before I got a 2 page letter with the info about a Great New System advertising propaganda that I had seen on the website for months, so I didn't read it through. But buried at the end of the letter was a pin number. So I still had to call to get "unlocked" and there is another whole story about because my hubby's name is first on the account he had to get do the "unlock" - even though he doesn't even know where the computer on/off switch is. Won't bore you with that. By the way the new system is worse than the old one. :hammer:Oh well. Even though I was ticked by this I would be even more ticked if it interrupted my vacation. We get so used to depending on the electronic world that when it doesn't work it gets us nuts.

Hope you can get your stuff straightened out and get your focus back on having fun.

 

[JimboJones123]

Why go OOP for any meals? Room charging lets them reimburse you without ever actually having the meals billed to you. :shrug:

While I sympathise, it doesn't strike me as as big a deal as you're making it out to be.

Charging to room was down too.

 

[JimboJones123]

Woah, woah, woah..... that's way too reasonable a response. :lookaroun

If you're in the most magical place on earth, chill out. Disney is the company that will go head over heals to give free stuff away to complaining guests. Relax and enjoy the vacation. Perhaps if one goes on vacation knowing that a major system upgrade is going to take place (who's effects have been felt in the past), maybe they should have a contingency plan. Hakuna Matata.

smarty pants- keeping financial papers in the land of water rides and me having exactly 5 items on my person -- 4 tix and car keys -- this is not a cut and dry solution. Key word being dry on Kali river rapids.

This is a post in fun, don't take it a an attack.