Disney Technology: The Fails and the Fantastic

As I think back over our mid June Disney trip: there was some frustration caused by technology I was excited about, when it didn't work as I expected.

The Fails?

Breakfast Reservations

    We had made reservations for breakfast at Be Our Guest in the Magic Kingdom. Which, by the way I highly recommend. Breakfast reservations at any park restaurant gets you in early and there's nothing quite like being in the park with so few people.

I had even ordered the food in advance so that we didn't have to wait in that long line to order at the kiosks.

 

When we arrived we were told there was no food order associated with our reservation. It had been lost. I let myself get frustrated over this. Looking back, Disney Cast Members were great. Seeing my frustration and watching me try to open the, My Disney Experience, website they allowed us to skip the line and walk right up to the reservation check in where they asked if we remembered what we ordered and ordered it for us.





Mobil Order

   Several times we attempted to use mobile order at quick service dining locations. At least twice when we arrived and I clicked the pickup option the app just spun and never submitted the order. Again the cast members were great in these situations. Upon showing them the app and explaining the situation they found the order in the system and pushed it through. I think I just let my expectations over-ride the reality of the situation and get frustrated with these things. Calling tech support was surprisingly a good experience too. They suggested that I re-install the MyDisneyExperience App, in order to get the newest version and gave the family free fast passes to use anywhere in the park to apologize for the problems. The reinstall of the app did seem to fix the problems

The Fantastic!

   With the frustration of the times technology didn't work, I had a tendency to forget all the great things it did for us.

Early Check in: 

We drove from St Louis to Disney and we knew that we would be there early. I did two things on the My Disney Experience Website.

1. I opted for online check-in. Answered some questions, gave my credit card info, put in any special requests, a month in advance. This promised I would not have to stop by the front desk and we would get a text when the room was ready. 
2. I clicked on the checkbox for  "early check-in if available." This didn't promise early check in and most of what I had read said that you probably wouldn't get it, but if there was an early room available you might get it. 

We pulled onto the Disney property at around 12:30pm. We expected to have to wait for a room and planned to stop by the front desk and ask if we could change into swimsuits and hang by the pool, or walk around the resort until the room was ready. As we were pulling into a parking space my phone buzzed. The text was from Disney Resorts and said our room was ready. It gave us the the building and the room number and wished us a magical day. 

We all looked at one another in disbelief, I pulled up a map of the resort to find our building and We left the car parked in the check-in lot while we walked to our building to see if this was true. Sure enough we put our Magic Band on the door lock, it turned green and we were in. No stopping by the desk, 2 and a half hours early and with absolutely no hassle we had a room. 

Fast Passes: 

We love the fast pass system at Disney.  It can be a challenge to work with and there is some planning involved but it allowed us to get on every ride we wanted to see and always worked just the way it was supposed to. My only caution when booking rides is not to overbook or over extend yourself. We make the mistake once or twice of having those fastpass reservations be a long way apart. Remember that you have an hour to make it, you don't have to be there right at the beginning of your time and there is usually a 5-10 minute grace period allowed. 

Even with some of the glitches the Disney Tech worked well, made the trip easier and when it didn't work, Disney Cast Members were great. 

Let's talk about our Disney Trip and Expectations

It has been a while since I have posted anything on this Blog about Vacations and Disney. I actually needed some time to decompress because after our latest trip to Disney World I felt like it was kind of a failure. With the time of a few months though, I think I can speak to some of the great things that happened on the trip and some of the places I made mistakes that allowed me to feel like it wasn't good.

First of all let's talk about expectations. We need to be careful with expectations. I spent so much time planning the trip and learning how things worked that when it didn't go the way I had planned I let that part bother me rather than enjoying all the great parts of what Disney did.

I figure I'll do a few posts talking about the disappointments and the way I should not have let it bother me so much.

First off: Rain!

A lot, and I mean a lot of rain again this trip. I watched a morning newscast on Thursday and the meteorologists said that there had been more rain in Orlando in the past 5 days than they had gotten the rest of the entire month. We were wet a lot, but thinking back now what did it affect?
Except for our planned Epcot World Showcase day the rain mainly happened from noon or 1 till around 4 or 5. A lot longer than you normally expect for those Florida afternoon showers but it was during the time we had slotted for rest. The disappointing part was that because it usually was accompanied with a thunderstorm we could not spend time by the pool. Most afternoons the family slept and rested. Some days I hung out down in the quick service restaurant and read.
The rain actually caused one really good evening. On Monday we had planned to claim a seat in front of the Castle early and wait for the fireworks. With the rain coming in, Mallory decided it wasn't worth sitting and waiting and we should try doing some indoor rides, skipping the fireworks. We went and rode The Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean, then put our ponchos on and hiked over to Tommorowland. In Tomorrowland, with the rain coming down we rode Buzz Lightyear,s Space Ranger Spin, then Space Mountain. After Space Mountain with a bit of drizzle falling (the downpour had stopped) We were trying to decide what to do next when we heard an announcement that Happily Ever After, the nighttime Castle and Fireworks show, would start in 15 minutes. We looked around and realized the park was practically empty, the rain had chased most people away. We walked to the Castle and found it very thinly crowded and ended up watching the fireworks, with our ponchos on, in a light drizzle, closer that we could ever imagine we would see them.  It really was great.

Honestly the rain presented different issues throughout the week but this moment was one we should remember, and with the right mindset could make up for them all.