Magic Kingdom to test mobile phone charging lockers for guest use

Rob562

Rob562

Well-Known Member
note2001 said:
It's possible Disney has decided against them too. Which would be a shame as I used the one in Space Mountain twice over our summer trip. It was nice being able to walk away and leave the phone to charge securely (although I'll admit, I did not go far as I saw a number of folk yanking on the doors and I just wanted to be near if the unit my phone was in opened)
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It's also possible that the lockers passed the test and now Disney (or the manufacturer) are in the process of altering them to work with the MagicBands and RFID tickets...

And themeing, too. The base model lockers worked fine in Tomorrowland, but they'd have to be worked on a bit for other places in the parks.

-Rob
 
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NormC

NormC

Well-Known Member
How about solar Mickey ears?

If my iPhone 5c is fully charged it will last at least a day unless I am playing games or using some battery eating apps. When I was in WDW in February using the MDE app I was still able to make it back to the hotel to plug it in at night. Some people need to get off of their phones and enjoy the parks. Get a camera for photos.
 
note2001

note2001

Well-Known Member
PhotoDave219 said:
Well thats a shame.... The demand and popularity was overwhelming. They could have put a thousand lockers in and made a boatload of $.
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They could also loose money on them given the purchase or lease cost, cost to modify the systems to fit Disney's needs, insurance on the items to make sure if a person's phone is damaged or stolen they aren't liable. Also costs of maintaining them & whatever electric & communications costs are involved.

Even with charging $2 per charge, which I'd gladly pay verses sitting at an outlet, the break even point is way up there.
 
PhotoDave219

PhotoDave219

Well-Known Member
note2001 said:
They could also loose money on them given the purchase or lease cost, cost to modify the systems to fit Disney's needs, insurance on the items to make sure if a person's phone is damaged or stolen they aren't liable. Also costs of maintaining them & whatever electric & communications costs are involved.

Even with charging $2 per charge, which I'd gladly pay verses sitting at an outlet, the break even point is way up there.
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So you're telling me the world's largest entertainment company can not afford them?
 
raven

raven

Well-Known Member
arko said:
its a test, the lockers can indeed be set to charge you a small fee, which is how they are normally marketed to bars, restaurants etc.
So nothing says they can't come back and add a fee later.
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"Small Fee" in Disney terms is around $5-$10.

Am I the only one that isn't seeing this as a "service" but rather another money-making opportunity for them? Experiencing years of Mouse-politics has made this conclusion for me.
 
Zac Skellington

Zac Skellington

Well-Known Member
NormC said:
I have. Did not have it in Feb though. Have you seen an increase in your battery use with 8.1?
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I haven't been to Disney with iOS8 but I used to easily go 2 days with my 5s. Now it doesn't make it one day. I was using the app from this site, and the thing got hot to the touch in 15 minutes.
 
Abbie01

Abbie01

New Member
I stumbled upon this thread whilst doing my own research for charging lockers as we have just recently added our own
What I don't get is why Disney would implement something like this when technology is constantly changing. Perhaps if they scaled it back and simply had a plug socket as opposed to actually trying to offer all the different chargers out there, it would be better and more efficient.

Additionally, I'm not sure if this has been mentioned but could they follow suit of supermarkets and instead have something similar to a coin return. Instead of having pay for it, you're only depositing the money which you will get back when your phone is removed.

If Disney or other theme parks were to proper;y introduce this, I think it would do really well. A lot of people might not even want to charge their phone, they might just want to keep it safe out of harms way. I know from personal experience that simply having my phone somewhere safe provides me with great relief. Unless you lose someone in the park, you won't be needing your phone. They could have the locker key attached to a bracelet so it doesn't get lost. Thoughts???
 
mm121

mm121

Well-Known Member
Abbie01 said:
I stumbled upon this thread whilst doing my own research for charging lockers as we have just recently added our own
What I don't get is why Disney would implement something like this when technology is constantly changing. Perhaps if they scaled it back and simply had a plug socket as opposed to actually trying to offer all the different chargers out there, it would be better and more efficient.

Additionally, I'm not sure if this has been mentioned but could they follow suit of supermarkets and instead have something similar to a coin return. Instead of having pay for it, you're only depositing the money which you will get back when your phone is removed.

If Disney or other theme parks were to proper;y introduce this, I think it would do really well. A lot of people might not even want to charge their phone, they might just want to keep it safe out of harms way. I know from personal experience that simply having my phone somewhere safe provides me with great relief. Unless you lose someone in the park, you won't be needing your phone. They could have the locker key attached to a bracelet so it doesn't get lost. Thoughts???
Click to expand...

having plugs would mean you'd have to carry your charger with you which kinda defeats the whole purpose of these.

having my phone away from me definitely causes more anxiety than it does relief, so i'd only be having it in a charge locker for the minimum amount of time to get a decent charge.

seems they could put one near the entrance/exit of an attraction then you could easily put it in when you get in line then get it out a half hour to an hour later once you've done the attraction.

same theory would work for shows, as unless your using it to take photos you wouldn't be using it during a show anyways

If they ever did do a full rollout of these all over property, would be cool/essential to add magic band connectivity
 
Monorail_Red_77

Monorail_Red_77

Well-Known Member
Abbie01 said:
I stumbled upon this thread whilst doing my own research for charging lockers as we have just recently added our own
What I don't get is why Disney would implement something like this when technology is constantly changing. Perhaps if they scaled it back and simply had a plug socket as opposed to actually trying to offer all the different chargers out there, it would be better and more efficient.

Additionally, I'm not sure if this has been mentioned but could they follow suit of supermarkets and instead have something similar to a coin return. Instead of having pay for it, you're only depositing the money which you will get back when your phone is removed.

If Disney or other theme parks were to proper;y introduce this, I think it would do really well. A lot of people might not even want to charge their phone, they might just want to keep it safe out of harms way. I know from personal experience that simply having my phone somewhere safe provides me with great relief. Unless you lose someone in the park, you won't be needing your phone. They could have the locker key attached to a bracelet so it doesn't get lost. Thoughts???
Click to expand...

I'm not sure where there would be any point to inserting a quarter, or what-ever into the charger. Then you get it back at the completion of the charge/usage point. In that you are getting your money back, so Disney is not making any money on your temp loss of the quarter. They are not paying people monitor the charge stations and people are not leaving the charge station in weird places like the TTC parking lot or SeaWorld. Therefore Disney CM's don't have to run around trying to find lost charge stations. LOL :hilarious:

The reason that supermarkets like Aldi use the quarter to get a cart system is that it reduces the costs of them having to pay someone to go out into the parking lot to retrieve shopping carts. It puts the returning of the carts back on the consumer. So if you do leave the cart in the parking lot, you lose your quarter. Then supermarket then gains $0.25 per shopping cart left out in the parking lot. Otherwise they are all nice and neatly locked up where they want them to be when not in use.
 
mm121

mm121

Well-Known Member
Something like this could maybe be a better option, then the parks wouldn't need as many.

Just like stick one in each land

http://gochargenow.com/charging-products/eagle-solar-powered-charging-station/
Eagle_Feature-Page.jpg
 
TubaGeek

TubaGeek

God bless the "Ignore" button.
Good lord, I hope these become the norm before long. Just, you know, well-themed.
Really, they're a great idea.
 
Abbie01

Abbie01

New Member
Ok ok ok, I can see how carrying a charger around would be annoying, especially when some are bulky. I do realise more and more phone chargers are becoming universal which would of course greatly benefit charging lockers as you wouldn't need to accommodate ALL phone types. I agree on the separation anxiety, I know the sheer panic when you go to reach for your phone in your pocket and its not there only to see it left on the side, even if its for a few seconds.

After taking it in to consideration I see that the coin return idea would actually be pretty useless. Maybe if they did a pay-per-charge. Not excessive amounts, but similar to car parks 1 hour = x 2 hour = x and 4+ = x amount. It would stop people from hogging the chargers if they had to pay. So you put the phone in, deposit the money and get a chip in return, when you return to the locker, you pay the money displayed on the screen and put the chip in and wham! the door opens. Just a thought.

It will be interesting in the next few months or so to see if these roll out across more platforms, I've recently spotted them in a clothing shop within a big shopping centre 30mins from where I live.
 

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