Part 1: You've Been Invited.... MYMagic+

Well it happened. Yesterday my nerd dreams came true and we were invited to test MyMagic+ during our December mini-trip to Walt Disney World. We will only be there one day before we head out on the cruise so it's not much of a test. But it doesn't matter, because see below and how could we say no?

So, set up. I know more about database management than I care to and my husband is a web usability guru. Between the two of us, we were bound to have loads of opinions. While the cool part are the bands you wear during the trip, the meat of this program is what we in the biz call "Identity Management". Basically, how does Disney identity check you and make sure you are who you say you are without sacrificing ease of use.

Quick answer, they can't. Well, not easily. There is a reason they are beta testing this with a smaller population to start and I began my experience with a 45 minute phone call with a VERY apologetic internet rep from Disney.

I have no clue how their data is organized. But I would venture a guess, there are loads of systems (DVC, Annual Passholders, Regular Disney, Cruise Line, etc) and they don't always play nice with each other. In my MyMagic+ profile, my son Grayson was shown twice. The version going on this trip was not the version with the park ticket associated. Left this way, fake Grayson would have received the band leaving real Grayson behind. Fake Grayson would not be able to make any FastPass+ reservations and would likely have been the only one using real Grayson's hard ticket. In other words, blech.

But the interweb folks at Disney were lovely and figured out a bandaid. But not without leaving fake Grayson as a semi-permanent part of the family....

NOTGraysonNOT is NOT my son

I now have two Grayson's because I assume Disney makes it very difficult to delete any records. They like their data and are known for their data but sometimes it's bad data. Hence NOTGraysonNOT was born.

Bugs like this are not unusual for a project of this size and scope. It's a personalized experience that is bound to be bumpy. But can I see your average web user navigating these potential complications? Depends on how cool the perks are, and that remains to be seen.

Next time -- Part 2: Signing Up for FastPass+

~Davina