Magic Bands

[Griff]

Thought this was interesting:

I heard that Disney was investing a ton of money into these new high tech bracelets for guests. Basically, the bracelet is your ticket at the gate and also keeps track for you fast passes. Eventually they want characters to be able to access your info through the bracelets so they can greet kids by name, and know if it's your birthday.

Sounds like a great idea to me, but it might scare off some more old fashioned and privacy sensitive guests

 

[Franco]

The bracelets are a neat idea, but the problem with them is how much they've invested in this program. This seems to have been a disaster from the word go, and millions have been dumped into something that, at this time, doesn't seem worth it.

I was a much bigger fan of this until I learned that the dizzying costs had caused the cancellation of multiple expansions all throughout the Disney parks. I just hope they figure this out soon.

 

[msnanners]

I have been to WDW over 20 times. The last 4 times have been in the past 18 months. I absolutely love it. I do extensive research about how to maximize our time while we are there. This was our first time using the Magic Bands (what's being referred to as bracelets in this thread). While we really like the concept of the Magic Bands (room key, tickets, able to charge with, dining reservations, etc), we despise that Fast Pass+ can only be used in 1 park per/day, and we can only have 3 Fast Pass/day. Many times, we'd go to Hollywood Studios to ride Toy Story. Then, we'd travel to Epcot in time to still be able to get Fast Passes for Soarin' or Test Track. The way Fast Pass+ is set up makes Park Hopping useless, and we really like the ability to Park Hop. Also, Fast Pass+ also takes away our ability to choose whether or not a return time is good for us or not. We ended up wasting an hour in Future World when we really wanted to be in line for Ana and Elsa in Norway because we didn't want to miss our Mission Space Fast Pass time. I know we could have rescheduled, but we'd have still been half way across World Showcase when we needed to come back for Fast Pass+. We are extremely disappointed in Fast Past+ aspect of the Magic Bands. As many times as we have been to WDW (and Disneyland, too), I have never left feeling shortchanged like I did this past trip. I do not want to go back anytime soon which is saying a whole lot for me. We spend A LOT of our hard-earned money at WDW, and we do not feel like we are getting our money's worth with Fast Pass+ the way it is set up now.

Just letting you know about our experience a couple of weeks ago.

 

[Crackel]

It's called a Magic Band. I was at Disney from January 2-7 of this month and it worked great. Not a single problem and it was nice having everything on one and not having to carry around multiple cards. These bands were rolled out with my magic + and the new my Disney exiperence. The only problem I had was with my Disney exiperence app which is expected with it being new and not the bands themselves. As the poster above stated the only downfall is with the fast passes. I spent $67 per person on park hopper and only used it the last day. As far as only getting 3 though as of this week that is how it is for everyone. The legacy fast pass is gone and now everyone (on site and offsite guests) has to use the pre selected fast passes. On site guests can select them up to 60 days out and offsite guests can select them day of with kiosks throughout the park. For more popular attractions though the fastpasses are usually gone within an hour of park opening. So that can really be a disadvantage for offsite guests who can't select them ahead of time. I expect that to change in the coming months. In Epcot and Hollywood Studios certian attractions are grouped together and you can pick 1 from one group and 2 from another group which I also don't like. But if you use the Extra Magic Hours then you can still do everything with little to no wait even if you don't have a fast pass. We rode Test Track 4 times while we were there and only had a fast pass for it once. Same with soarin. Ill be there march 7-11 staying offsite and I hope by then I can select them ahead of time. But overall besides the fastpass downfalls these bands are well worth the money.

 

[Franco]

I know a good deal about the Magic Bands, and I easily anticipated the FP+ being a huge disadvantage to this current system. Sure, it's better for the people who come not knowing anything about FP and missing out on a FP for every E-ticket, but for the guests who actually know what we're doing, we're getting gypped by FP+. I've been able to use FPs at 3 parks in one day, or even able to get seven or eight in a row for my favorite ride. None of this is possible with FP+. I hope that part of the Magic Band system for sure. Magic Bands also give a huge time and convenience advantage to resort guests when entering the park, which I'm not fond of, either.

 

[Parkgoer]

FP+ MM+ is all a large waste of funds for a useless data-mining process. The goal was to increase guest spending by 11% by providing more convenience to buying. The tests and rollouts have not yielded any increase in guest spending. It has actually fallen off. The initial cost of providing guests with the CrapBands has also been higher than expected. Look for that to reflect in the 2014 price increases. WHo wants to book a ride 60 days out? That's stupid and a method to try and keep guests on their property.... because they know people are going to see The Boy Who Lived just up I4 where the new and fresh offerings are.

The tracking element of it is creepy and real. Mainstream Media is currently looking into that and DIS has hidden it. PR will be a disaster as more stories are beginning to roll out.

Very very very good read.

http://gigaom.com/2014/01/18/you-dont-want-your-privacy-disney-and-the-meat-space-data-race/

 

[Parkgoer]

I have used Magic Bands on 4 different trips in the last four months. Each yielded nothing but issues from FP+ not showing, reservations disappearing, tickets randomly disappearing midtrip, room key not working, and charging not working. The back end of the system is highly problematic and luck on if it actually works when you are there is a pure shot in the dark. It is entirely clear CM morale is down in a large fashion as everyone is burnt out on handling something that was not needed.

 

[Parkgoer]

http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/official-wdw-facebook-page-opens-the-floodgates-to-mymagic-comments.879383/

This highlights some of what is going on and general thoughts. The Facespace post in question is overly getting more negative comments than are posted on boards!