I was able to creat an account for both earlier this year without problem. I booked my room through it without problem. But when I called to make changes to our reservation, I encountered problems with the automated service that
@doombuggy used, so they told me to just cancel and rebook on the website. Worked perfectly.
I assume your name does not include any unusual letters? I am from Germany, so we have Ö and Ü and Ä and I know that I never can use those if I sign up for anything outside of Germany (and Austria and Switzerland). But I guess if you were, you would know that.
Do you get the same message from both the app and the website? Maybe just try again a different time or try to use a different browser for the website? You have to get an account for both, the website account does not translate to the app (or at least it did not for me) and hotels cannot be booked on the app, but it is useful to have for waittimes once in the parks.
For international calls you can also use Skype. If you upload a small amount of money onto it, you can make calls to landlines very cheaply, a few cents per minute. We also used Skype from abroad to make phone calls back home to our parents' phones directly without having to set up times when they would be at the computer.
@doombuggy How did you get a discount for your room? I never heard of any discounts being available at SDL!