SLIG 2021 Registration Experience

Has anyone been on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride at Disneyland? Does it even still exist? If so, I'm sure it has changed since I last experienced it! 

Still, the title alone helps one envision Mr. Toad's vehicle dashing this way and that, doing a sharp U-turn, swerving to the right or left, and going the wrong direction in spite of the "Do Not Enter" signs. I think it ended in a train wreck before launching you back out into the pleasant light of day. It was supposed to be a kiddy ride, but it was a scary one! Nothing like the calm cool ride in the photo below!

The opening of SLIG 2021 registration was intended to be a smooth ride . . . select courses for both weeks on the same form, get a dual-course discount, waitlist as needed, select a print syllabus - or not, and coast home. After all, we are in our third year with this system, and each year the ride has just gotten better.

But no. This year's SLIG registration was a little more like Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, with surprises every minute - from the early sell-out of most courses to the "train wreck" closure for repairs. 

So, what were the issues, the curious may ask?

It wasn't system overload. The programmer tells me we only used about 8.9% of its set load capacity to manage the 363 seats sold in the first three minutes and record the 29 people who tried to claim the last seat in course 2 between 10:01:01 and 10:01:59, among others. We could have handled several thousand - heaven forbid! Nope. Not load. 

Sadly, that part of the system that manages automatic waitlisting when a course fills mid-registration wasn't working well in our new "take up to two courses" environment. It was capturing the data, but not placing folks directly into the waitlist, or notifying them of the change that occurred between selection on page one and saved order after page four. The resulting confusion, which was exacerbated by the high demand, and our inability to quickly repair it, is what led to the shut-down of the system and postponement of the Academy registration. After all, we can live with an occasional non-applied discount; those are fixable by hand. But waitlists are sacred turf!

Completely my fault. I own it. That part of the system has worked so smoothly in the past that I apparently failed to prioritize it properly in the testing queue. 

Well, we all paid for that, didn't we? Sorry to say!

Fortunately, just like Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, after the train wreck, SLIG is emerging safely into the light of day. The system recorded every action – every person who got "kicked out" of a course – by the customer and course ID. Audits were conducted, hundreds of emails and phone calls reviewed, the two cross-referenced, more seats added to most courses, and we are now on day three of making people happy again.

It has been a busy week, to say the least. We are very sorry if you had a bad experience as a result of the situation. And we apologize right up front if you are one of those who aren't high enough on the waitlists to obtain a seat in your course of choice!

We appreciate your patience and understanding!

And now, to open the Academy 2021 registration . . . another post to come.

Peg Ivanyo, director