Disney has launched a large update for the My Disney Experience app, bringing guests a way to opt into the “Service Your Way” program through the app itself. As part of this service, guests can decline room service in exchange for a Disney Gift Card, with amounts varying depending on length of stay. This gift card will be delivered electronically in exchange for forfeiting regular daily room service. Previously, guests had to visit the front desk in order to opt in to this program.
Guests can also opt into the “Direct-To-Room” program, which allows guests to bypass the Front Desk and go right to their room after checking in online. While that service has been available on the app for years now, additional features and a different interface have been introduced. Also, the app saw an update to the landing page for each resort hotel, bringing even more information about the hotel you are staying at, right to your fingertips.
A walkthrough video for the “Direct-To-Room” Service program has been added to the app to allow guests to better understand how it works:
What do you think of the new updates added to the My Disney Experience app?
Who comes up with these ideas….
Short sighted.
Assume someone evaluated that there is a strain on staffing to service each room each day; so this program can ease the staff load by NOT doing rooms that opt for no service…
Guests can see this as an option to SAVE money, and the Company can see it as a way to better manage AND even make a profit if the cost paid to Guests is less then total cost for staffing…
HOWEVER, down the road, the Guest Experience is diminished…
Instead of the Guest returning to a fresh room after a long day at the Parks, they can return to a used room left the same mess as it was that morning…
The MEMORY made will be that of returning to a mess, and that IMPRESSION will be carried home with them…
Soon, the IMAGE will become that of a sloppy no frills vacation, and then the Guest will balance that cost of on property room rate, with that sloppy no service memory…
The payback received by the Guest will be forgotten quickly, and soon enough the room rates will increase so that the payback received will be nothing at all…
At some point the payback will be eliminated, and the regular room rate will simply NOT INCLUDE room servicing, which will become an ADDED CHARGE as an EXTRA SERVICE.
It seems that decesions are made by planners who have NO CLUE what makes a satisfied customer beyond today…
If you want to destroy the future, this kind of planning will do the job.
Tomorrow’s memories are made TODAY.
If you want to see the future, you only need to look at today, and have eyes and understanding.
Buuuuuuuuuuut daily security checks still?
Where do you find the service your way on the app?
I’ve been wondering this since my last stay, but if you opt out of housekeeping, can the gift card be used on your next hotel stay?
Haven’t seen a way to actually add Service Your Way to check in yet. Also, this makes changing FPs more cumbersome — you can’t see additional times for your current FP AND see alternative rides at the same time. It is either / or.
It also makes it much more difficult to change/modify fast pass reservations.
I will still always prefer to check-in at the desk and not on the app. I like to see on the hotel map where my room is located. If it’s really far from the hotel center we ask and can usually get moved to a better located room. You can’t do that with the app. The app also doesn’t offer upgrades and several times we’ve been upgraded to club level for free. It pays to wait a few minutes in the check-in line
Doesn’t the app let you make requests like a room close to the bus stop or food court or something like that, if you do early check-in?
Not that I’ve seen but even if it does an app can’t move you the same way an actual person can while you’re there in person showing them exactly where you want to be