It’s possible I am misunderstanding your post - just as a disclaimer. But if I am understanding correctly, then the exact opposite happened to me when booking 60+10. I could choose dates past 60 only when looking at a specific restaurant.
ETA: but only in MDE and on one browser. The other browser was problem-free.
I am gung ho Android, and my wife loves iPhone. It has created a great rift in our marriage… 
Truth is, I used to prefer iPhone, but converted to Android years ago and have never looked back. I no longer like iOS at all. Of course , there are things each does better than the other, so it really is a personal preference. I have tried to convince my wife to switch to Android, but she won’t have it. 
So it might look that way on paper, but there is no way that Disney is not hearing their guests SCREAMING about the terrible state of things.
Yeah I think that’s the opposite of what I’m experiencing when logged into MDE.
If I select a restaurant and then check availability I can book up to April 20.
If I go to the Dining page I can search availability up to April 30 (and then select a restaurant)
The most frustrating thing to me is not that things don’t work. It’s when the malfunctions are inconsistent. I can deal with something not working as it should with only minor irritation as long as I’ve developed a strategy to combat it. My dining room window sticks and is hard to open/close but I’ve figured out that if I drink a little rum and then jiggle the window just right, I will not lose my freaking mind over it. But with Disney, each day is a surprise and I am always watching closely to see what BS comes up with the sun. Will a baseball come flying through the window? Will it be nailed shut? Will I have to book an LL to schedule a time to open it? They’ve got me where they want me though: Watching closely in anticipation. I think about Disney every day.
Meanwhile, Disney can’t even post reliable park hours for the next month.
Clearly they need to hire some liners, people who actually plan things
Complaints might not be part of the contracts. The contract is what matters. I wish I could put into words how bad some of the contracts I’ve seen were. The metrics were twisted in such a way that numbers that actually MEANT something to the business didn’t truly get covered, but the verbiage made it look like it did. But who cares? The execs saved money, and got better jobs elsewhere.
My wife’s company tried outsourcing a few of their IT positions. I laughed and told her what would happen, and it happened like clockwork. Their company had a ton of money, and was growing like gangbusters. They signed the contract, and broke the contract and paid the hefty penalty to break it. They knew right away it was a mistake for a lot of reasons.
I get that
And it’s exactly my point.
AND that there’s no way The People In Charge don’t know the guest experience is in the toilet with their technology anymore.
But as you’ve said it’s not the guest that matters
You’re assuming that this is an outsourcing situation, which, based on what I know, is not the case here.
I’ve seen good and bad examples of outsourcing. Typically if a company hands the keys to an outsourcing firm, it ends up being as you describe. But I’ve also seen where a company had a solid core of IT professionals and used outsourcing to help augment their staff. That can be successful.
The general problem with outsourcing is that these companies often don’t have a vested interest in the success of your company, like FTEs do. It’s not even really a matter of them being incompetent - it’s rather that they often are trying to spread their resources across many companies to maximize their revenue.
Disney’s problem is different, I think. They rushed their Next gen project a decade ago, took a lot of shortcuts, and are still paying the price for that. They take a lot of shortcuts.
The park reservations system? It’s the old FP+ code repurposed, which is why Genie+ needed to be built from scratch. It’s how they build stuff.
I have proudly succeeded with DH! Mostly because he isn’t the most tech savvy. I am the informal IT for the household. And I really don’t understand much of iOS. I have to google it. So every time he needed to know something regarding his iphone, I kept saying google it, i just don’t know. His current phone is a Galaxy 8, I believe. He seems to figure everything out for himself and now refers to a few of our friends as “damn iphone people”. 
Honestly I couldn’t switch at this point. I started with Android with the Verizon Droids a decade ago and haven’t ever felt the need to change. I’ve gotten my whole extended family either on Pixels or Galaxies. They just work for us.
Except for MDE. 
Totally correct that I was assuming. I fully concede to your knowledge if you know. Complete assumption on my part, based on the performance of their apps and complaints. It truly has characteristics of people that are not familiar with the core needs of the business, performing functions that are directly and indirectly related to the core needs, but since they are not familiar with the way the systems need to perform happily with other moving parts, these random issue occur over and over.
Yes!!! This all of it Can I borrow this for my letter?
There are multiple terms for this. Crazymaking is one. Gas lighting is another. Neither of which should be associated with a theme park OR IT.
That’s just DisIT being DisIT unfortunately. That really sucks.
Android is so intuitive. Ios makes no sense to me. My dad was issued and iPhone for work and none of us know how to do much with it. Team android for life!
You both are correct. If you follow the article referenced in this post by @JJT FastCompany Article (The Messy Business of Reinventing Happiness) you will find a cavalcade of contractors AND a series of project management gaffs on Disney’s part.
The debate of IOS vs Android is moot, as the real issues are more likely to reside in the back-end. How else can you explain it taking 5 hours to get your magic band to open a hotel room that you have spent hundreds of dollars a night on. By all accounts that I have read, the back-end looks like a patchwork quilt.
This ! If you going to rely on a sub component then as the developer you are responsible for its behavior.
For another take on this, look here: MyMagic Minus: The Post-Pandemic Fall of Disney’s Billion Dollar Pre-Planning Empire
Edit: add link to JJT post
Their description of the backend matches the limited look I got into it about 8 years ago. It is indeed a mess.
I do think the article may have been off the mark on Magic Bands. The fact that they’re coming out with a new model and expanding it to Disneyland is interesting, and I do wonder what their future plans for Magic band are.
Just adding to the IT vent - I’m trying to book a park reservation. I log in, go to park reservations, click “make a reservation”, it briefly takes me to a “choose your party” screen, and then blips back to the login page. In an infinite loop.
Incognito