MyMagic+ Rollout to be accelerated.

[mickclub1955]

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MyMagic+ rollout to accelerate in early 2014 with reworked 'My Disney Experience' and expansion of off-site FastPass+ use

Jan 02, 2014 | 7:38am EST


Now that the busy holiday period is over, the Disney NextGen team will turn their attention to the final rollout of MyMagic+ in this first quarter of 2014.

Although recent reports and reviews from guests using MyMagic+ are becoming increasingly positive, Disney recognizes that there are still some issues with the system. During the next couple of months a reworked version of the 'My Disney Experience' web site and mobile apps will be launched, aiming to resolve one of the most frequently reported problems with MyMagic+, the slow access and response of the online platforms.

Continuing from the test that began in late December 2013 at Disney's Animal Kingdom, the use of FastPass+ by offsite guests will be expanded to the remaining parks, paving the way for elimination of legacy FASTPASS and to have all guests using FastPass+ by the Spring of 2014.

Assuming the test and adjust period is successful, the entire MyMagic+ project with all its components will be fully deployed and in use by all Walt Disney World guests by Spring 2014.

[rjmdds]

I really hope they change the FP+ tiers and park limitations. That to me is the biggest issue.

[AndrewJackson]

I guess the delay announce back in November wasn't much of a delay afte all.

[Ms. Mode]

We used the FP+ and Magic Bands the week before Christmas and found that it has many advantages. Hopefully once EVERYONE is playing by the same rules we will see much shorter standby times at all the attractions. In any case, it sure was nice not having to go digging for the tickets all the time.

[JMTStone]

I'll let you know what I think.

I have all my FP+ arranged. I had to do two days at EPCOT as you can't do two parks in one day and I can't imagine Soarin without also doing Test Track.

Then I also got FP+ for Wishes Rose Garden Viewing. That should be neat. We'll see how that goes.

I'm hopeful. But then again, I'm escaping sub-zero temps to my first runICOT/runDisney event so I'm easy to please.

See you at Jellyrolls!

[dnickels]

Yeah I'm not a big fan of FP+ in general, but they really need to get everyone on the same playing field so in that sense I'm glad they're going to make it happen.

They current system where some people are able to double dip with the FP+ and their KTTW cards while other guests are limited to only FP+ is the biggest source of problems right now.

[Jillirose]

Is there a timeline/schedule being posted for the dates of regular FP elimination in the parks (MK DHS EPCOT)? It seems like our FEB stay will be in the midst of the changeover.

[Gator]

Looks like those unused FP tickets that I've kept from over the years are really going to become a collector's item.

And speaking of the death of FP tickets, how are people who don't have smart phones going to remember all their FP+ times? Bring their own pen and postcard note with them? Someone above said they were glad they didn't have to fish for their tickets anymore. Now they'll have to fish for that elusive Star Trader's receipt where you wrote down your times. Yet another thing I don't like about FP+.

[Aurora]

I'm pretty reasonable and have been in lots of posts about FP+, My Magic, etc. In general, I'm not happy with the new FP restrictions and the planning it involves, but I can understand why some people might like it. However, this post got me boiling mad. Why?

Because everything that can go wrong, has gone wrong with my brother's January trip planning using My Disney Experience. Including changes he made TODAY. And he's leaving in less than three weeks.

I wrote before about the glitch in his reservation that I had to call about to get fixed -- we needed to add middle initials to two guest names who have the same first and last names. Without making this change, both names, even though they were on the room reservation, didn't show up in My Disney Experience. It took 20 minutes on hold and another 20 minutes for two initials to be added. That was the first time-sucker. Since then, it's gotten worse.

My brother made FP+ ressies weeks ago. He recently made FP changes and had the same attraction come up with two different times on the same day, and other attractions not appear at all. He's cancelled restaurant reservations and had the reservations continue to appear (without knowing whether he would be considered a "no show" and be charged for them).

Yesterday, while making all his changes, the first time he hit the submit button, he got a message that said, Sorry, we're updating our data system at this time, please try again later. He had to go in and make all the changes again. In all, it took him three hours.

And after spending all this time trying to use the system, he finally had to resort to making another phone call to make sure everything is the way it needs to be.

Now, we're talking about someone who's visited many times since childhood, the most recent being January 2012. He's also a computer engineer. To say he's beyond frustrated is putting it mildly.

And here I read that they're going to accelerate the rollout and concentrate on the "slow access and response of the online platforms"? Man, I sure hope they fix all these glitches in the process. My brother's biggest advantage right now is that he's going in the supposed slow season, because unless things go smoothly during his and his family's vacation, he won't be back for a long time.

[AndrewJackson]

From another website:

The MyMagic+ 'MagicBand-only' testing is set to expand from the Pop Century and All Star Resorts test to include all Walt Disney World Resort hotels by the end of January 2014.

With 'MagicBand-only', guests will be given a MagicBand in place of the Key to the World Card for all MyMagic+ functions, including park admission, touch-to-pay, touch-to-enter, and FastPass+.

Key to the World cards can still be requested, but are not available for regular FASTPASS use. This means that by the end of January 2014, all Walt Disney World Resort Guests will be using FastPass+, and will not have access to the legacy FASTPASS system.

The rollout for 'MagicBand-only' is as follows.

Jan. 6 – Disney’s Art of Animation Resort
Jan. 7 – Disney’s Port Orleans Resort
Jan. 8 – Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort and Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort
Jan. 9 – Disney’s Old Key West Resort and Disney’s Saratoga Spring Resort & Spa
Jan. 10 – Disney’s Wilderness Lodge
Jan. 13 – Disney’s Yacht & Beach Club Resorts
Jan. 14 – Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge
Jan. 15 – Disney’s BoardWalk Inn
Jan. 16 – Disney’s Contemporary Resort
Jan. 17 – Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa and Disney’s Polynesian Resort
Jan. 20 – Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground

[Tekneek]

So much for Disney listening to all the complaints, I suppose. Hard for me to believe that most of the complaints were about the website and app being slow. The biggest issues are the design limitations in FP+. With a few exceptions, the performance of the app was about what I had expected once on site. It would seem that what I see as design flaws in FP+ must be intentional and is "working as designed."

[JerseyDad]

So much for Disney listening to all the complaints, I suppose. Hard for me to believe that most of the complaints were about the website and app being slow. The biggest issues are the design limitations in FP+. With a few exceptions, the performance of the app was about what I had expected once on site. It would seem that what I see as design flaws in FP+ must be intentional and is "working as designed."

...well ...let's get out the old scale and weigh the impacts here:

On one side of the scale = guest complaints and concerns

vs.

...the other side of the scale = Disney $2 Billion expenditure.


.....which do you think will tip the scale more dramatically?

[WiltonJohn]

On one side of the scale = SOME guest complaints and concerns

The complainers being loudest and most visible in certain locations does not necessarily mean that they are in the majority.

Time will tell.

best,

.................john

[Aurora]

Update on my DB's planning:

-- The two guests with the same first and last names and different middle initials are no longer both showing up on the My Disney Experience app -- only one, even though this error was already fixed once. The names do both show up on the My Disney Experience website accessed on my bro's desktop.

-- Bro continues to get "unexplained error" messages.

-- Bro got one error message on the app that said "you cannot use this app; you must make changes on the website." Same reservation and sign-in as he's been using the whole time.

All the poor guy is trying to do is make reservations for his vacation. It's just glitch after glitch.

[AndrewJackson]

On one side of the scale = SOME guest complaints and concerns

The complainers being loudest and most visible in certain locations does not necessarily mean that they are in the majority.

Time will tell.

best,

.................john

I've been reading reviews on other websites from folks who used the Magic Band and FP+ recently! and they are mostly positive. I would venture about 90% positive experiences. The biggest pro, for what I've read, is the ability to a FP late in the day without having to be at the park.

I agree that planning to ride an attraction 60 days out is difficult, but it appears most folks are able to make changes the day of. We will see if this holds up once all guests are using FP+.

[AgentC]

I've been reading reviews on other websites from folks who used the Magic Band and FP+ recently! and they are mostly positive. I would venture about 90% positive experiences. The biggest pro, for what I've read, is the ability to a FP late in the day without having to be at the park.

I agree that planning to ride an attraction 60 days out is difficult, but it appears most folks are able to make changes the day of. We will see if this holds up once all guests are using FP+.

I think it totally depends on the type of park visitor you are. I was at a wedding last week and saw a friend I hadn't seen in some time. Her first question to me was "Have you used the magic bands yet and aren't they great?"
Her family are annual pass holders and she goes over almost every weekend. They booked a stay on site last year just so they could the bands. She loves them. She does use them for FP+ but not very far in advance. I do wonder how many people there out there like her.


On both of my last visits I was at resorts not testing, so I have not used it yet myself. I will be using it for the first time next week and I've only reserved FP+ one day at DHS so my kids can ride TSMM. I am very interested to see how my stay is going to go.

[goofy for pluto]

She loves them. She does use them for FP+ but not very far in advance. I do wonder how many people there out there like her.

I wonder if she was in the group who were able to double dip. I read a lot of people were very favorable during that time, seeing as how not as many people had the bands yet and they were also using traditional fast pass as well.

[JerseyDad]

I wonder if she was in the group who were able to double dip. I read a lot of people were very favorable during that time, seeing as how not as many people had the bands yet and they were also using traditional fast pass as well.

....kinda' think that if the ability to "double dip" was available ...then there would be few complaints ...because you could do one park with FP+ and, multiple added FP's with the KTTW card. And ...you could still park hop with the ability to get FP's in 2 parks (FP+ at one ...Legacy FP at the other)


....but, when the "touring style" of some are now forcibly revised due to no more KTTW card ...there may be some altered opinions due to the 'tiered' FP+ options ...limited availability to access all featured attractions, and the loss of the attractiveness to do park hopping (without the ability to get those Legacy FP's at the second park)

....I think it'll all come down to guests deciding if they are getting or have gotten the most bang for their buck.

...and, it'll likely be a while before the "jury" is in on this ...with the jurors being guests that have experienced the new system.

[CanadianWDWFan]

We went down to WDW for a pre-Christmas trip and I was wary of the whole negative aspect of the bands and FP+ that I was hearing about here on INTERCOT. I was also worried about not having roaming data on my phone so I could access the My Disney Experience app. Once I got down there I was able to hook up with the Disney Guest Wi-Fi with no issues, speed was pretty good as well. Sure the app was a bit slow, like everyone was talking about, but there was an update available for it and it did increase the speed a bit. One thing that confused me about the app was that it really didn't know where I was. I wanted to see there here and now in the parks but it kept telling me that I was not in the parks, even though I was using Disney Wi-Fi and had the location on my phone turned on. Minor issues really in the big scheme of things. Even being there around Christmas time wasn’t bad even with the FP selections I was able to get. We were able to experience things like we always have had in the past and really didn’t consider our trip negatively impacted by the Magic Bands and FP+ issues.

What we saw were a lot of CM with Ipads and stations set up around the parks to help folks out with their FP selections or Magic Bands. They are trying to help people out. But really what it came down to was that I really liked the bands and how simple they are to use. We were able to utilize the no bag entrances at the parks since we didn’t need any bag/purses to carry all of our stuff.

Using the bands for purchase/charging was really simple, you would choose a pin at check-in and use it for all purchases and dining charges. We asked at the front desk periodically for charges on our room and were given a printout of them, we then paid for them in cash so our credit cards wouldn’t be charged. We did this multiple times over the course of the week so we would have a BIG surprise at the end of our stay.

For us I think the bands and FP+ will make it an easier trip in the future.

[AgentC]

I wonder if she was in the group who were able to double dip. I read a lot of people were very favorable during that time, seeing as how not as many people had the bands yet and they were also using traditional fast pass as well.

I don't think she was double dipping. She said they generally didn't use more than 3 Fast Passes in a day so the restriction didn't bother them.

I don't think she does much park hopping on her day trips either, so that was not a factor for her. I know for myself we are much more likely to park hop when we are staying versus visiting for the day.