From: David Lynch <dnl1960 at yahoo.com>
To: george.kalogridis at disney.com <george.kalogridis at disney.com>
Sent: Monday, May 28, 2018, 11:17:46 AM EDT
Subject: Magical Update 5-15-2018 Nightmare
George,
We my have crossed paths when I stayed at the contemporary in 1971. I was eleven at the time, my parents had just divorced, and my mother was trying to do something special for her children. The Contemporary made a lasting impression on me. Last year, I spent a week at the Contemporary with two of my grand children ages 13 and 12.
While growing up, my father would point to hard working individuals, and he would say, "Someone willing to work like that may end up running the entire company one day." Congratulations of your accomplishments. A tilt of my hat to you.
What precipitates this email is a situation that arose from a data corruption problem with the fast pass+ reservation system on May 15th 2018. When I first called the internet support line, I was informed that there was a Magical Update performed earlier that morning.
Even the internet support representative was having difficulties accessing the fast pass system. So I know that there were thousands of people having the same problems that I was enduring. The fast passes for Flight of Passage and Slinky Dog Dash disappeared, and the internet support representative was unable to make the reservations for me. What a horrible way for me to spend the day before my birthday.
I asked for a supervisor, and I was connected to Linda in customer relations, and she diligently tried her best to resolve my fast pass+ reservation problems. Linda advised me that my request for Flight of Passage and Slinky Dog Dash passes would have to be decided by Disney management, and that process could take a few days. After a couple days, Linda called to say she was still waiting, and she compensated my memory maker.
What I ask of you is to look at the repercussions that the Magical Upgrade has radiated through your company landing flat on your personnel. Linda was apologetic for the system failure, and she complimented me on my politeness. Evidently she has been dealing with a large number of very unhappy belligerent customers.
When I worked at IBM developing software, after each release, good or bad, we did a postmortem. I would suggest that Disney seriously consider making a software release rule, that Magical Updates are to be implemented only on low demand days like the middle of the week. This may not have eliminated my situation, but it may provide Disney a better chance to catch glaring bugs before large numbers of customers and your Disney employees take the heat.
In the below email to Jim MacPhee, I describe my nightmare in more detail, and I petition Jim for my family to be granted dining plans as compensation. I explain to him how this trip to Disney is to be a celebration of my mother's life. She crossed last July while I was at the California Grill with my grand children. The compensation ball is in Jim's court.
Thank you,
David Lynch
From: David Lynch <dnl1960 at yahoo.com>
To: james.d.macphee at disney.com <james.d.macphee at disney.com>
Sent: Saturday, May 26, 2018, 3:33:22 AM EDT
Subject: Magical Update 5-15-2018 Nightmare
Jim,
My nightmare began at 7:00 am on May 15th when the window opened to make our family trip's fast pass+ reservations. My daughter, two of my son's, and myself were poised to make our fast pass+ requests.
Within minutes of the window opening, my heart began to sink. The fast pass+ system was not showing us all of our family members, so I called the internet support line to report the problem. Almost immediately, I was informed that the IT department had done what the support representative called, "A Magical Upgrade".
Being a Disney veteran, I knew that each minute that passed, the Flight of Passage, and the Slinky Dog Dash fast passes would be gone. My mind raced with thoughts that the fast pass system was having problems due to the increased demand of the added Disney Springs guests. The frustrations started to build.
I knew that this was not normal for the fast pass+ system. In May of 2017, I used the fast pass+ system to successfully make all my reservations within about 30 minutes. Those fast pass+ selections were based on a schedule built using the wonderful tool on touringplans.com. We had a great time.
This July's trip was also planned using touringplans.com. I spent hundreds of hours talking with family members as to what attractions they want to see, and I built wonderful touring plans for each day of our visit. I also made a spreadsheet to help us divide up the reservations to ensure we acquired the fast passes that would keep us from crisscrossing the parks. We were set and ready to make our fast passes, but your system failed us.
As I watched the Flight of Passage, and Slinky Dog Dash passes disappear, my eyes popped when poof they were all gone. I asked the support representative to escalate my case to someone that could get us Flight of Passage and Slinky Dog Dash passes. The supervisor advised me that she would have to escalate my request for Flight of Passage and Slinky Dog Dash passes up to management, and that could take a few days. My blood boiled.
I spent 12 hours that day trying to get our fast passes reserved. By the end of the day, my touring plans schedule had been totally fragmented. As the day turned into a week, I kept struggling with a broken fast pass+ system to try and defragment our trip. My daughter has two special needs children, and crisscrossing the parks would be an unduly stress on them. Still to this day, at times the fast pass+ system will show only my name as the only person that I can make reservations.
Four days into my nightmare, I was still trying to adjust the fast passes that I did get to match my original tour plans. Many times to make changes to my passes, I had to call the internet support line, since I could not see all the family members. Then just by chance, I saw Slinky Dog Dash pop up as one of the suggested alternatives. I made changes as quick as I could, and I finally secured Flight of Passage and Sliky Dog Dash passes.
My point of contact has been a very nice lady named Linda at your guest services. She has tried to compensate me for the frustrations with the fast pass+ system's failure. She placed a multiple experiences fast pass for each guest for each day of our trip, and a $500.00 gift card.
Before the gift card was granted, I advised Linda that the system's failure resulted in a loss of $4856.84, that is 23.49% of my vacation's cost lost to your Magical Upgrade. I derived the loss by comparing my original touring plans to the plans that I adjusted to match the fast passes that I was able to reserve. Each plan shows total time, in line, busy, free, and walking. I multiplied the plans time differences by the cost per hour of the resort rooms and park tickets. The hourly rate was found by dividing the total cost of the resort reservations and park tickets by the number of hours the parks are open.
I have spent about 100 hours the past 9 days to try and optimize my fast passes. I have gotten the loss down to $3687.27. In my emails to Linda, I have requested that Disney management should compensate my family with free dining plans. We will be walking more, in line more, and on attractions less. If your fast pass+ system would have been functioning properly, I am sure that my daughter, my two son's, and I would have been able to reserve most if not all the fast passes on my original touring plans.
On May 23rd, Linda advised me that Disney management denied my request for dining packages, and that is when she offered the $500.00 gift card.
When I booked each of my children's resort reservations, 13744713 David Lynch, 14847871 James Dicks, 14804051 Steven Dailey, 14790825 Daniel S Dailey, and 14305575 William Staton II, I was asked if there was a special occasion for the visit. I would say yes, "We are having a remembrance of my mother." This year's trip is for a very special person.
On July 13th 2017, I was having desert at the California Grill when my brother called me to inform me of my mother's passing. One year to the day, I had reserved a table at the California Grill for us to celebrate my mother's life. Out of extreme frustrations with the lack of compassion that Disney management has shown me in response to their fast pass+ system's failure, and with a heavy heart, I have canceled the reservation, #480141102711.
I appeal to you in hopes that my family's remembrance of my mother's life will be a joyful one, and that you will agree that my eleven days of difficulties with your corrupt fast pass+ system combined with the loss of $3687.27 is worthy of dining packages for my family.
Regards,
David Lynch |