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NEWS: Disney reveals details on Walt Disney World MyMagic+


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Exactly. Any system can fail or have issues. Just because it's at a Disney property doesn't make it immune to this. And they handled it well. And have likely learned a lot about their system, including how to avoid this issue in the future.

 

The ones complaining are likely the malcontents that don't like this system because they can't "game" it like the old one, or feel that it allows guests to do stuff that they should have to pay "Disney experts" to learn how to do so they can best visit the parks and stuff. These people are dumb. And many are likely wearing marathon medals as we speak.

 

dt

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Well anyone who already hates the system willl jump on something like this in an attempt to demonstrate how correct they are. It's more an ego-stroke than an attempt to provide factual and correct information about FP+.

 

It's great to see they have these fall back measures already in place, and obviously brought them out without too much delay or mixup. I'd like to see some other park/resort show this level of preparedness while still being in the testing/rollout phase.

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How many times do they have to tell people "please be patience, we are still working through testing the system."

Thing is it's no longer in the testing phase, it's been rolled out to everyone. This outage isn't the only issue with MyMagic+ and while it's good that they had a backup system in place, it still causes unnecessary complications for cast members and park goers.

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So I figured I would weigh in on my opinions now that I have used the system at a Resort Hotel and two different parks.

 

I'll keep it to bullet pointed statements to keep it easy for the TL;DR crowd, but first, an intro.

 

-Party consists of my wife and I who are both ex-CMs. We currently live in Las Vegas but are out here for the wife to run the races this weekend. We are staying at a Resort Hotel but are NOT going to the parks while staying at the hotels. We had two days in the park prior to checking in where we stayed at my parents place. So the system would NOT let us pre-pick our Fastpass+ attractions. No worries. I know I can do it once inside the park.

 

-First Day was at Epcot. When to Fastpass+ kiosk in the breezeway heading towards The Land because Main FP+ kiosk line in between Innoventions was spilling out of queue. I wanted to reserve Test Track mainly, and whatever else we got was a bonus. We arrived in the park around 10am and were able to reserve Test Track for 630pm, Living with the Land in about 10 minutes and Nemo at about 4:00pm. I believe this was Option B supplied to us and worked best as we had reservations at Rose and Crown for 430pm.

 

-Used it at the Land where we bypassed a 10 min wait. Whoopee. Saw the standby line for Soarin' at 80mins. This was ok as I we had no desire to ride it.

 

-Farted around World Showcase. Grabbed a quick bite at American Adventure. Continued farting about.

 

-Waited standby at Spaceship Earth. 10 min wait posted, actual wait was about 4 mins. Noticed that FP+ people take too long to scan wrists/cards causing FP+ line to back up. At that point, Standby people were let in to keep people flowing into attraction. This upsets FP+ people. We laugh at them for wasting a FP+ reservation at Spaceship Earth. Other FP+ voice their displeasure of only bypassing a 5 min line to CM at the merge point.

 

-Rode Nemo at 4pm where we bypassed a 10 min line. Whoopee.

 

-Had an AMAZING dinner at Rose and Crown.

 

-Rode Test Track at 6:30pm where we bypassed a 50 min line. That was good. Too bad the vehicle tracking system through out the ride doesn't work so we have no idea how our car stacked up against others until the post show. New Tron Track is very fun.

 

That was it for Epcot. I think that the system worked well at Epcot. People have to get used to scanning their cards/bands to facilitate getting into the queue quicker. That's where, I think, it is a problem. Taking a FP ticket from someone, or from a group of people, is a LOT quicker than two people attempting to scan their cards/bands.

 

Next day was at the Studios. Arrival time: 11:30am

 

-Go to FP+ peeps behind Keystone Clothiers. All FP+ for Coaster, Tower and Midway Mania are GONE for the day by 11:30am.... I understand having SOME stuff sold out, but when I worked at the Studios, Coaster and Tower would NEVER have run out of regular fastpasses by 1130 in the morning on a day that the park was open until 8. Now, here is where I think the problem is. They have tiered Coaster and Tower separately.... WHY? So basically, I think I can safely assume, that most people reserve Coaster/Midway Mania as their Tier 1 and then pick Tower for Tier 2 WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY would they do it that way? Those are the three most popular attractions and they let you pick two of the three??!?!? Stupid. Stupid and Dumb. This is a HUGE oversight. I'm sorry, but Tower needs to be on the Tier 1 level of attractions. You get to pick ONE of those.

 

So that's where it needs some work. Onto the hotel.

 

-We try to check in today but we were early. No worries, we knew we would be. So we give then our cell phone and they tell us it will text us with our room when its' ready. Fast forward to 330pm and we've heard nothing. So I go to the front desk, they apologize for the long wait, but say that the housekeeper is in there cleaning and at the most it would be another 30 mins. 4pm... nothing. 415pm, finally get the text message.... but the text message tells us to go BACK to the front desk to get our room! Why not just tell me the room number like Disneyland does so I can just go straight there? So back to the front desk. Get our room number, go to the room and guess what! MY wifes' "Magic" band has no "Magic" left in it to open the door. Mine works, so I drop her off at the the room, and I Magically walk my but back to the magical frontdesk+ kiosk and get our magical magic bands magically corrected. So after 4 trips to the front desk, I can open a door now.

 

So while we had some bumps along the way, it was an OK experience for us. Getting into the park was a little quicker. Getting FP+ was hit and miss... If they can get all the kinks worked out, it might be a pretty cool system. I'm going to reserve final judgement until they finalize things a bit more. They DEFINITELY need to look at how the attractions are tiered at the studios, if they are going to keep with the tiered system. Also, if I don't want 3 FP+ reservations, it shouldn't force it on you. What if someone DIDN'T want Tower FP+ and it forced one onto someone... That's a FP+ slot that maybe *I* could have had. I don't understand that AT ALL. Seems stupid that if you are trying to limit how many FP+ you are giving out, then why would you force people to pick three? The ONLY thing that I can see why is that if they force a FP+ onto you for later in the day, you MIGHT be more obligated to wait it out and stay longer in the park... but guess what, it didn't work for us because what I really wanted to ride, I couldn't unless I stood in 60min+ standby lines. That makes me upset and I want to leave. Giving me a free FP+ for Beauty and the Beast at 6pm ISN'T going to make me stay in the park longer.... Giving me a FP+ for a ride that I WANTED to ride, even if it were for 8 hours later in the day, WILL. So we left the park after about 5 hours because everything was super packed. B&B is NOT a Tier 1 attraction. Sorry. Lesson learned?

 

-=CoasterBP

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-Go to FP+ peeps behind Keystone Clothiers. All FP+ for Coaster, Tower and Midway Mania are GONE for the day by 11:30am.... I understand having SOME stuff sold out, but when I worked at the Studios, Coaster and Tower would NEVER have run out of regular fastpasses by 1130 in the morning on a day that the park was open until 8.

It's a race week AND a holiday week... Of course, the parks are PACKED. If you're really an ex WDW CM, I feel you should have known that FastPasses absolutely COULD be sold out by that part of the day with the tens of thousands of extra people, most of them who are very park savvy, hitting the resort this week.

 

You waited until 11:30am to get to the park, Studios of all places, on a week book ended by Presidents Day and a WDW race, and you're shocked fast passes were gone. Sorry, but I think this is a case of "user error."

Edited by robbalvey
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How many times do they have to tell people "please be patience, we are still working through testing the system."

Thing is it's no longer in the testing phase, it's been rolled out to everyone. This outage isn't the only issue with MyMagic+ and while it's good that they had a backup system in place, it still causes unnecessary complications for cast members and park goers.

It hasn't been rolled out to everyone. MagicBands are only available to resort guests. Day guests or non-resort length of stay tickets cannot make advance FastPass reservations yet, it's only slowly being rolled out to AP's, Cast Members do not have access to the app yet, and there are many features that have been implemented but have not yet been released to the public.

 

Like Elissa said, it's absolutely still in test.

 

Even with the paper fast pass system, that network used to go down, too.

Edited by robbalvey
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Coaster and Tower would NEVER have run out of regular fastpasses by 1130 in the morning on a day that the park was open until 8.

 

That cannot be true. Visiting last year on a regular saturday this time of year at 1100 they were way into the afternoon for RRC and ToTH - and taking the boat over to Epcot all fastpasses for Soarin were gone by 1230.

 

And why do many show up so late? 1130 is not morning - its nearly lunch! I have noticed that even on weekends the parks are quite deserted from 0900 to 1000 were I could at Studios do 4x RRC and 2x ToTH before major crowds started flooding the park between 1030 and 1100 at a Saturday. Same for MK - did Space Mountain, BTMR and Pirates as walk-ons on a Sunday before 1000!

 

The first and the last hour of operation at any theme park are just the best to catch - do not miss them!

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And why do many show up so late? 1130 is not morning - its nearly lunch!

My thoughts exactly. Anyone that shows up to Studios at 11:30am on a peak day and is expecting FastPasses for Mania or Coaster to still be available knows absolutely nothing about that park.

Edited by robbalvey
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-First off, I knew the park was going to be busy. I never said I was going to walk on to everything. I knew it was was race weekend. I'm not an idiot. Please don't try to make me out to be the bad guy. I never said the system was completely stupid. There are benefits to it. Just SOME things need to be worked out and yes I KNOW its still a test.

 

-Being an ex CM, I knew that some fastpasses were probably going to be out, like Midway Mania. But when I WORKED AT COASTER AND TOWER and I never remember a day when BOTH were out of FP by that early in the morning. Sorry. I just don't. Maybe July 4th... or NYE.... and if the parks KNEW it was going to be as busy as those types of weekends, the park hours SHOULD have reflected that. Again, not a fault of FP+, but of Disney planners.

 

-Call it user error if you want, fine. Maybe we should have gotten there earlier in the morning. But we did have other things to do that morning that didnt allow us to get into the park that early. Like I said, I knew some things might have been sold out already.

 

-Like I said in my post, even if my FP was for 8 hours later in the day, that would have been fine. But to have all three major attractions out by that early... seems a bit rough. And again, like I said in my post, I think that putting Tower into the tier 1 attraction list would help alleviate SOME of that issue. Maybe not all of it, but some.

 

Have a great day. Enjoy your bands!

 

-=CoasterBP

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And why do many show up so late? 1130 is not morning - its nearly lunch!

My thoughts exactly. Anyone that shows up to Studios at 11:30am on a peak day and is expecting FastPasses for Mania or Coaster to still be available knows absolutely nothing about that park.

 

Yup, You're right. I don't know anything about that park. I only spent most of my Disney career working there. Many busy days. Many race weekends. While I appreciate and respect your information, Robb, that might be a little uncalled for? Can't we just discuss things like adults? I would find it strange that someone with your knowledge would disagree that all three of those attractions should be classified as Tier 1 attractions, correct? Maybe they are not using the same ratio of FP to Standby like I remember them using now that they are using this different system. And if that's true, then I place the blame solely on myself for not getting to the parks early enough. But if the ratios ARE the same as they were with paper FP, then the Tiering of attractions probably should be looked at.

 

Again, I said I KNEW some stuff would be sold out, but having worked there for quite a while, I never remember a day that both Tower and Coaster were sold COMPLETELY out that early.

 

Enjoy,

 

-=CoasterBP

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-Being an ex CM, I knew that some fastpasses were probably going to be out, like Midway Mania. But when I WORKED AT COASTER AND TOWER at.
I only spent most of my Disney career working there.
Robb, that might be a little uncalled for?

Not uncalled for at all. Like I said, it's shocking that someone who spent most of their career working at tower and Coaster would be surprised by those rides not having availability at 11:30 on a day that is sandwiched in between a holiday weekend, a WDW race, and the Daytona 500 just an hour away.

 

I've walked into the park plenty of times and seen this same situation. Yes, it may be a perfect storm of crowds (Holiday week, WDW race, Daytona 500 crowd), but it absolutely can happen and it's not unheard of. And if me as a guest knows this, then you as an ex-Tower & Coaster cast member ABSOLUTELTY should know this. Hell, you just had a guy from Germany that doesn't even frequent the parks tell you he experienced a similar situation, too!

 

We all know that just because someone "worked at the park" they don't always know everything. We've all known park employees that think they are experts, but tell you the dumbest things that we lol over. No offense, but I simply cannot believe you were actually expecting FastPasses, especially for Mania and Coaster, to be available at 11:30. Sounds to me like you're just trying to blame the park for your own fault of not being able to get there until lunch time on a very busy day.

 

Can't we just discuss things like adults?

Yes, I was. YOU were the one that started yelling and being condescending.

 

Yup, You're right. I don't know anything about that park.

Apparently! I stand by what I originally said. Sorry, but working at the parks doesn't always make you an "expert" and your posting totally proves this.

 

Have a great day. Enjoy your bands!

Thanks. We will! Enjoy your race medal!

 

--Robb "Maybe you should just stick to going to Disneyland" Alvey

Edited by robbalvey
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In all of my visits to the Studios, Tower has never had an equivalent wait to Rock n Roller Coaster or Toy Story Mania. Sure some parts of the day, the wait time got up there but it has always been the one ride of the three that I knew I would be able to get on with a shorter wait. So, when all three of those rides are sold out by 11:30, that just tells me that the park is SUPER crowded. Not that Disney is screwing the pooch on the new system.

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^ Exactly. So tower FP was sold out. Big deal. Be a man, suck it up, and wait in the standby line if you want to ride that badly. Test Track FastPasses were sold out yesterday. Guess what I did instead of bitching about it? We waited in the Standby. Turns out, it only took about 25 minutes.

 

It probably would have been a shorter wait in the Tower line than it would have taken to write all those posts complaining about it.

Edited by robbalvey
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On my visit the Single Rider Line for TestTrack always had a 5-10 minute wait while regular standby had about 60 minutes all day. At times Single Rider had even shorter lines than FastPass.

 

Sometimes one needs luck: Space Mountain broke down and came back to service 5 minutes before my FastPass window expired - so a walk-on for me while the standby line already went around the Tomorrowland Speedway...

 

Generally its better to not mumble about long lines and/or run-out FastPasses. I also do not do lines over 30 minutes - but I then go and look what else to do. Admitted as comming from overseas I stay multiple days and can catch quite few good rides over these days and do not have pressure of having to do all in one day.

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^ Test Track's single rider line is probably the best on property. We were with people last night from out of town who had not done the new Test Track before and they wanted to see the complete experience. Otherwise we would have just done single rider as we normally do when we come in the park for lunch or whatever as locals.

 

On another note, the new system has absolutely made standby lines much shorter overall. Seems to be a much better balance than it was before.

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^ And on top of that, all it takes is about 30 seconds to look online and get estimates of how busy the parks would be:[attachment=0]wdw_crowds.jpg[/attachment]This week is all RED. What do you think is going to happen when you show up at lunch time???

Pardon my ignorance, but what site is that?

 

Not sure which one Robb quoted, but there are several WDW calenders on the net.

Googling 'wdw crowd calender' or something similar usually takes me to a useful site right away.

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^ And on top of that, all it takes is about 30 seconds to look online and get estimates of how busy the parks would be:[attachment=0]wdw_crowds.jpg[/attachment]This week is all RED. What do you think is going to happen when you show up at lunch time???

Pardon my ignorance, but what site is that?

http://www.undercovertourist.com/planning/when-to-visit.html

 

There are many others, too.

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  • 2 weeks later...

With this new system, why doesn't Disney reintroduce the attraction lettering system? Like you can have unlimited A-ticket fastpasses but then for E-ticket it is the current limit. It would be a great way to encourage people to go on lesser attractions like Hall of Presidents.

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