Magic Kingdom to test mobile phone charging lockers for guest use

[mm121]

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.

instead of a chip the ones tested at MK used a persons credit card as the security locking mechanism, as 99.9% of adults carry at least one piece of plastic

and the phone itself is pretty good collateral to be sure people dont leave their phones too long.

especially with all the new MM+ and FP+ stuff your park experience would be impacted if you left it too long

but i'm sure if they charged $1 to $2 per hour people that needed this service would totally pay it

and nothing at disney is "free" really so why would we expect these to be free.

 

[PhotoDave219]

I really liked these.

The problem is scale. How many would you need? Average attendance is 50k at MK.... So how many guests bring mobile devices that need recharging? So how many cell phone barging lockers would you need? 10,000? 20k?

They did a test with 24. They were constantly packed. I never got to use them as there was constantly a line.

It's a fantastic idea but.... The scale alone is insane.

 

[mm121]

I really liked these.

The problem is scale. How many would you need? Average attendance is 50k at MK.... So how many guests bring mobile devices that need recharging? So how many cell phone barging lockers would you need? 10,000? 20k?

They did a test with 24. They were constantly packed. I never got to use them as there was constantly a line.

It's a fantastic idea but.... The scale alone is insane.

thats where proper placement really plays a key, so people only leave them in the locker for the minimum amount of time to get a decent charge

like that free standing one I posted putting one max 2 of those in each land would provide 80 spaces and the idea would be that people would reclaim their phones before moving to the next land

and the wall ones if they placed those at the restaurants, that would be 24 spaces then most guest would use them while they are physically at the restaurant eating,

I dont think its disneys responsibility to literally put thousands of these in the parks, as its our responsiblity to charge our phones before we come, but with the way they are pushing everything to our phones, its possible the hong kong park will use phones instead of magic bands.

while its a nice idea that they are free i dont think thats really practical, as without some kind of charge there isn't motivation to run back and pick it up right away.

 

[MissM]

On any given day, you will find people clustered around any visible outlet in the park, be it an "official" one (like Tangled bathroom or the ones in Storybook Circus) or just an outlet along the wall of a building! So there's clearly a need/want for access to phone charging within the parks and Disney would be foolish not to expand their offerings in some capacity. Yes, scale is always going to be a problem due to the high volume of day guests, but...as it stands now, people are willing to sit around on the ground near a wall outlet for lack of other options. Anything would seemingly be better than nothing.

 

[mm121]

On any given day, you will find people clustered around any visible outlet in the park, be it an "official" one (like Tangled bathroom or the ones in Storybook Circus) or just an outlet along the wall of a building! So there's clearly a need/want for access to phone charging within the parks and Disney would be foolish not to expand their offerings in some capacity. Yes, scale is always going to be a problem due to the high volume of day guests, but...as it stands now, people are willing to sit around on the ground near a wall outlet for lack of other options. Anything would seemingly be better than nothing.

i've been one of those guests,

found an outlet in the corner of the tommorrowland terrace i believe its called

and there were more people that came by while i was there wanting to use it but both plugs were taken

it seems disney really went cheap on electrical outlets when it was built, its really hard to find one at times.

 

[Master Yoda]

i've been one of those guests,

found an outlet in the corner of the tommorrowland terrace i believe its called

and there were more people that came by while i was there wanting to use it but both plugs were taken

it seems disney really went cheap on electrical outlets when it was built, its really hard to find one at times.

Not exactly. First and foremost, the need for public access to power outlets is a relatively new thing. Prior to everyone having a minicomputer in their pockets not only where they not needed, they were a huge liability as well.

 

[mm121]

Not exactly. First and foremost, the need for public access to power outlets is a relatively new thing. Prior to everyone having a minicomputer in their pockets not only where they not needed, they were a huge liability as well.

oh i know, i said it half sarcastically.

at other businesses being built brand new theres still a lack of them.

example if you go to any mcdonalds and other places that offer free wifi, they worked over time to ensure that people couldn't plug in so as to limit the amount of time someone can stay so people can't just camp out all day.

 

[Master Yoda]

oh i know, i said it half sarcastically.

at other businesses being built brand new theres still a lack of them.

example if you go to any mcdonalds and other places that offer free wifi, they worked over time to ensure that people couldn't plug in so as to limit the amount of time someone can stay so people can't just camp out all day.

I think that is more of a welcomed side effect.

Electrical outlets have always been sparse in the public spaces of commercial buildings. You know the scenario...uncovered outlet in a McDonald's, kid jams his mom's keys into it, kid gets a zillion dollars.

@Tom might know if there are any building codes or common practices that cover this.

 

[sporadic]

I shouldn't even need my phone at the parks. What they need are more kiosks! Dumbed down tap-n-go versions designed for high traffic scattered throughout the park. No interaction, just a big display with lots of touch points and a layout to correlate your touchpoint to a section of the display. Displays reservations / fastpass times and any alerts or notifications for a few seconds and that's it. Kinda like a department store price checker on steroids. If you need to modify anything, go to one of the full blown kiosk areas (which they need more of as well).

 

[roj2323]

I shouldn't even need my phone at the parks. What they need are more kiosks! Dumbed down tap-n-go versions designed for high traffic scattered throughout the park. No interaction, just a big display with lots of touch points and a layout to correlate your touchpoint to a section of the display. Displays reservations / fastpass times and any alerts or notifications for a few seconds and that's it. Kinda like a department store price checker on steroids. If you need to modify anything, go to one of the full blown kiosk areas (which they need more of as well).

THIS!!! seriously. let me walk up to a screen and have it display my fastpass times. I don't want to be playing with a cell phone all day and I hate that disney is actively encouraging it. Watching Wishes is like watching an Apple products commercial as it is.

 

[dvitali]

Wonder if Disney can find a way to charge your phone faster. Travel from Connecticut to NYC on Amtrack my phone recharge slower pace in the two hours time. But if I travel on Metro North the same route I get full charge under a hour and 45 minutes. It be in Disney best interest to get more customers to use the charging stations if it charge the phone faster.

 

[Master Yoda]

Wonder if Disney can find a way to charge your phone faster. Travel from Connecticut to NYC on Amtrack my phone recharge slower pace in the two hours time. But if I travel on Metro North the same route I get full charge under a hour and 45 minutes. It be in Disney best interest to get more customers to use the charging stations if it charge the phone faster.

There is a wide variance in the output of chargers. Some produce as little as 500mA, others go to and above 3000mA. The readers Digest version is the more mA, the faster the charge, but there is a risk of damaging older devices at higher amperage.

A lot of the older USB chargers you will find come in at the 500mA range. That is starting to change and should go away with the next USB format, but for now we are kind of stuck with it.

 

[sporadic]

Charging current is limited by the charging circuit in the phone. You can use a 500mA or 3A and it won't make a difference if your phone is designed to only charge at 500mA.

 

[Master Yoda]

Charging current is limited by the charging circuit in the phone. You can use a 500mA or 3A and it won't make a difference if your phone is designed to only charge at 500mA.

Correct, but most newer models are supporting much higher charging rates than 500mA. The iPhone 6 supports 2.1A charging and many of the newer Andriods use 1.5A charging or above.

 

[sporadic]

Correct, but most newer models are supporting much higher charging rates than 500mA. The iPhone 6 supports 2.1A charging and many of the newer Andriods use 1.5A charging or above.

Yes, but there seemed to be some confusion above in regards to how phone chargers work. Higher current chargers won't damage a phone designed for lower current chargers as current is only sourced as needed. Hence there's no risk to older devices by providing higher current chargers.

 

[Master Yoda]

Yes, but there seemed to be some confusion above in regards to how phone chargers work. Higher current chargers won't damage a phone designed for lower current chargers as current is only sourced as needed. Hence there's no risk to older devices by providing higher current chargers.

The risk was more for older chargers and older devices....like pre 2007 old before the USB Implementers Forum released the Battery Charging Specification. So maybe 1% of the population has a .01% chance of a problem, but the engineer in me forces me to mention it.

 

[flynnibus]

The risk was more for older chargers and older devices....like pre 2007 old before the USB Implementers Forum released the Battery Charging Specification. So maybe 1% of the population has a .01% chance of a problem, but the engineer in me forces me to mention it.

USB voltage hasn't changed... it's the voltage, and minimum current needed that matters. A device DRAWS current, through it's load.. the charger being able to supply more current than asked for doesn't matter. There is more 'negotiation' in more modern stuff, but as long as the USB voltage was the same.. no harm.