This is something that I wanted to discuss once I got my Florida trip report underway, but Screamscape have just linked to a fantastic article about Disney's new(ish) Magic Band system, which operates across the whole Florida Disney resort, across all the parks and hotels.
It's much too long to copy and paste in here, but I really recommend taking ten minutes or so to read through it.
http://www.wired.com/2015/03/disney-magicband/
For anyone unfamiliar, the Magic Band is basically a bracelet with a chip and transmitter that is used in multiple ways acorss the parks and hotels, for example:
- As a key to your hotel room
- As a "ticket" to enter the parks
- As a way to pay for goods in shops, restaurants and food stalls (linked to your credit card so that you don't need cash)
- As a a fastpass for pre-selected rides
The bands are linked to a website and phone app, meaning that you can plan and customise your day weeks in advance of actually visiting. You can select your fastpasses for the day (only three per day) and make reservations for restaurants etc.
Here are my thoughts on the whole system:
The level of convenience is great; you can just stick the band on and then not have to think about park tickets, hotel key cards, money, credit cards etc. You could literally leave everything in the hotel.
It's great that pretty much every attraction is now on the fastpass system, as opposed to a more limited number of key attractions previously. However, I also felt that some people were inadvertently "wasting" fastpasses by selecting attractions which had no need of them. For example, I saw people using them for Muppet Vision or Captain EO, where regardless of whether you have a fastpass or not, you just pile into the same preshow area. As a park enthusiast, I like to think that I've got the "art" of using the traditional paper fastpass system down quite well, but I can see the appeal to a more casual visitor of being able to preselect.
Preplanned fastpasses are limited to three (though more can be chosen if they're all used) and are arranged in groups of attractions. This sometimes means that you may not be able to make the best possible choices as your preferred attractions may be grouped together and you can only choose one from that group. However, by using the phone app, you can change your fastpasses over the course of the day. I found this to be very useful when I found that certain attractions had lower waiting times than I expected, so I could change the fastpass to another attraction instead. For example, I'd selected Kali River Rapids at Animal Kingdom, expecting long lines, but found it to be a walk-on for most of the day. Instead of being stuck with a pointless fastpass, I could change it for something with longer lines.
I didn't use the band to pay for anything in the parks, preferring to just pay cash as I went - I'd put all hotels and park tickets on my card already, so preferred to keep track of daily spending through using cash. However, I can see the convenience of this system.
Personally, I didn't really like the idea of completely micromanaging my day before I'd even arrived in the country. The idea behind the bands is partly to allow for more freedom during the day as you've already nailed down your "must-do" list, potentially alleviating the stress of getting those things done as you don't need to worry about waiting times or rushing to do them before they get busy.
However, I thought the opposite was often true, with people rushing to make sure they met their fastpass deadlines (realistically there's a bit of leeway - up to 15 minutes from what I heard from staff) or to get to their restaurant reservations on time, taking away a lot of the spontaneity.
Also, being quite cynical, I also see the whole thing as a way for Disney to almost be in control of your day and keeping tabs on their guests. The bands are constantly transmitting, so there's the potential for the park/resort to know where their guests are at all times. I'm not saying this as some conspiracy-theory bollocks, because I don't buy into that, but it could be an extremely valuable marketing and data collection tool for the company. In addition, the cashless system undoubtedly creates more revenue from merchandise, food and drinks as people are't paying as much attention to what they're spending.
Anyway, I've written far more than I was planning to. I basically wanted to share the article (read it; it's worth the effort) and get your thoughts.
If you've used this system, what do you think of it? Did it make your visit easier/more convenient, or did you find the level of preplanning took away the spontaneity of the day?
If you haven't used it, what do you think of the idea in theory? Do you find the idea of planning your day weeks in advance appealing? As enthusiasts, I know that plenty of us already do that to a large extent anyway.
Would you like to see the system rolled out across the other Disney parks? It's likely happening in California pretty soon. What about other parks outside the Disney chain? Disney will have a very strong hold on the rights of the technology, and the whole system was ludicrously expensive, so I personally can't see it appearing anywhere else for a very long time.
Ok. Discuss.
It's much too long to copy and paste in here, but I really recommend taking ten minutes or so to read through it.
http://www.wired.com/2015/03/disney-magicband/
For anyone unfamiliar, the Magic Band is basically a bracelet with a chip and transmitter that is used in multiple ways acorss the parks and hotels, for example:
- As a key to your hotel room
- As a "ticket" to enter the parks
- As a way to pay for goods in shops, restaurants and food stalls (linked to your credit card so that you don't need cash)
- As a a fastpass for pre-selected rides
The bands are linked to a website and phone app, meaning that you can plan and customise your day weeks in advance of actually visiting. You can select your fastpasses for the day (only three per day) and make reservations for restaurants etc.
Here are my thoughts on the whole system:
The level of convenience is great; you can just stick the band on and then not have to think about park tickets, hotel key cards, money, credit cards etc. You could literally leave everything in the hotel.
It's great that pretty much every attraction is now on the fastpass system, as opposed to a more limited number of key attractions previously. However, I also felt that some people were inadvertently "wasting" fastpasses by selecting attractions which had no need of them. For example, I saw people using them for Muppet Vision or Captain EO, where regardless of whether you have a fastpass or not, you just pile into the same preshow area. As a park enthusiast, I like to think that I've got the "art" of using the traditional paper fastpass system down quite well, but I can see the appeal to a more casual visitor of being able to preselect.
Preplanned fastpasses are limited to three (though more can be chosen if they're all used) and are arranged in groups of attractions. This sometimes means that you may not be able to make the best possible choices as your preferred attractions may be grouped together and you can only choose one from that group. However, by using the phone app, you can change your fastpasses over the course of the day. I found this to be very useful when I found that certain attractions had lower waiting times than I expected, so I could change the fastpass to another attraction instead. For example, I'd selected Kali River Rapids at Animal Kingdom, expecting long lines, but found it to be a walk-on for most of the day. Instead of being stuck with a pointless fastpass, I could change it for something with longer lines.
I didn't use the band to pay for anything in the parks, preferring to just pay cash as I went - I'd put all hotels and park tickets on my card already, so preferred to keep track of daily spending through using cash. However, I can see the convenience of this system.
Personally, I didn't really like the idea of completely micromanaging my day before I'd even arrived in the country. The idea behind the bands is partly to allow for more freedom during the day as you've already nailed down your "must-do" list, potentially alleviating the stress of getting those things done as you don't need to worry about waiting times or rushing to do them before they get busy.
However, I thought the opposite was often true, with people rushing to make sure they met their fastpass deadlines (realistically there's a bit of leeway - up to 15 minutes from what I heard from staff) or to get to their restaurant reservations on time, taking away a lot of the spontaneity.
Also, being quite cynical, I also see the whole thing as a way for Disney to almost be in control of your day and keeping tabs on their guests. The bands are constantly transmitting, so there's the potential for the park/resort to know where their guests are at all times. I'm not saying this as some conspiracy-theory bollocks, because I don't buy into that, but it could be an extremely valuable marketing and data collection tool for the company. In addition, the cashless system undoubtedly creates more revenue from merchandise, food and drinks as people are't paying as much attention to what they're spending.
Anyway, I've written far more than I was planning to. I basically wanted to share the article (read it; it's worth the effort) and get your thoughts.
If you've used this system, what do you think of it? Did it make your visit easier/more convenient, or did you find the level of preplanning took away the spontaneity of the day?
If you haven't used it, what do you think of the idea in theory? Do you find the idea of planning your day weeks in advance appealing? As enthusiasts, I know that plenty of us already do that to a large extent anyway.
Would you like to see the system rolled out across the other Disney parks? It's likely happening in California pretty soon. What about other parks outside the Disney chain? Disney will have a very strong hold on the rights of the technology, and the whole system was ludicrously expensive, so I personally can't see it appearing anywhere else for a very long time.
Ok. Discuss.
). 
