New Virtual Waiting Rooms On ShopDisney.com?
I was on shopDisney.com today, minding my own business, when I stumbled upon a page I’ve never seen before. After clicking on a product that I wanted to have a closer look at, I arrived in what shopDisney is calling a Virtual Waiting Room.
According to the page in question:
“In an effort to make our Guests’ experiences a positive one, shopDisney.com has created an online waiting room.
When it’s your turn, the page will automatically load, and then you’ll have 10 minutes to shop and add items to your bag.”
The page also includes a welcome message and informes guests not to refresh or click back.
Credit: shopDisney.com
It took me about 15 minutes of being in the Virtual Waiting Room before the page loaded allowing me to begin shopping.
This is my first experience with the Virtual Waiting Room at shopDisney.com and I have to be honest. . . . I’m not a fan. I don’t know about you, but online shopping is one of those things that I do when I’ve got a few spare minutes to make a purchase. Having to spend 15 minutes waiting to simply access the website, which I’d imagine will be longer at different times of the year or during special releases, makes it much more difficult to do so.
There’s also the matter of an allotted time during which you are allowed to shop. To be fair, despite being informed by Virtual Waiting Room page that I would have 10 minutes to shop, I was not kicked from the site at the end of that 10 minutes. I also had no trouble reentering the site, even after closing out completely.
So what exactly does this mean?
It’s a good question, but not one that I’m prepared to answer with any sort of authority. My best guess is that this was a test of a system that they’re hoping to put in place at some point in the future. Improvements to the website and how it handles heavy traffic is something that both of us here at 2 Foolish Mortals anticipated would be the case after learning about the Disney Store closures around the country. With more traffic being pushed towards the website there are lots of problems shopDisney.com is going to have to work out and we anticipate that this may be one of them.
For now, we’ll just have to keep an eye out on the website and see if this was a fluke or something that we can expect to see more regularly. Until then, have you experienced the Virtual Waiting Room at shopDisney.com yet? Let us know your thoughts be leaving a comment below!