BeastlyKingdomme
Member
A detailed look at a great new system being implemented at DHS.
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Disney's Hollywood Studios testing mobile app pre-ordering at restaurants and during Fantasmic!
- Thread starter wdwmagic
- Start date
A detailed look at a great new system being implemented at DHS.
CAPTAIN HOOK
Well-Known Member
There are issues which were highlighted in the video -
1) You need to be sat near the order point or it doesn't pick up the signal.
2) The wait staff couldn't find the correct location to serve the meal to
My thoughts -
1) It was tested when the Backlot Express was pretty empty - how will they find your table in the middle of summer when the place is packed ?
2) Will extra staff be employed to serve the meals, or will existing staff have to double up to wait as well ?
3) What impact will this have on the other guests either standing in line for food, or for those sat down also waiting for delivery ?
Needs fine tuning, but should work ok.
englanddg
One Little Spark...
1) The order point thing can be easily resolved.
2) Wait staff training is going to be a huge issue. I've run restaurants that do quick service (in the larger Restaurant world, Quick Service generally means, order at counter, food is delivered to table, vs Fast Service, which is order at counter, pick up at counter...a line that Disney has blurred through the years).
Anyhow, finding red tents on tables was a mess sometimes...so this will be as well...and, without much an operator can do about it. With table tent delivery systems you can at least train your cashiers to emphasize where the tents should go on the table to the guest. With this system it's really up to the guest to jump through a lot more hoops.
3) That's why they are testing, but if they add more LE recievers to the infrastructure, triagulation ability will improve dramatically.
4) I believe that bussing and eventually (if it catches on) cashier staff will be reallocated to table deliver and quasi table service (note, btw, the guy ordered a sprite, but the bus boy (I suspect) who delivered it merely brought him an empty cup and then offered to fill it up after a manager got wind of what they were doing (who was directing him to the right table)...why? Backlot has a beverage bar...
5) Lines will be shorter for those in line if people adopt this method (good for large families, so I see this catching on quickly). For those with table service...well...they need to iron out the kinks.
In all, I'm impressed with the system. I want to know about Dining Plan integration, and eventually I think it needs to be rolled into the larger MDE app.
btw - It's a third party service Disney is paying for, not like MDE where it was largely in house custom dev.
englanddg
One Little Spark...
Thank you for repeating me. <wink>It uses Bluetooth LE with triangulation.
Jon81uk
Well-Known Member
Does just make me think, why bother with bluetooth when they already have an RFID system that works at Be Our Guest. Link a MagicBand to the app, order from the app and get a location with the Band.
englanddg
One Little Spark...
Same tech. Cel phones have had them for years.
The Magicband uses 2 "RFID" chips (as they are commonly called, they are actually quite different). One is Bluetooth LE. The other is unpowered low range RFID.
I'd suspect the difference lay in the fact that BoG was designed with enough LE receivers to get it down to a few feet. This system being tested obviously hasn't had that level of infrastructure investment.
GPS alone off a phone has about a 15 - 30 foot variance, so that's not nearly accurate enough. So, when I first read it, and people said it was using GPS from your phone...well, I thought, that doesn't accomplish much except that I, as a server, get in your general area, and then start calling out your "order number" or something hoping you either wave your hand or are paying attention.
I've heard it first hand from a CM friend who works at Fantasmic that is pretty much exactly how their test is going at that venue. Not a surprise for me, but it will get better if Disney sees the opportunity. I don't think it brings much to a stadium venue that other solutions couldn't do better, but for QS, it intrigues me.
For this to work, it needs to be seamless service. But, as it uses Bluetooth, it's far more likely.
That said, all these features they are adding is gonna drain the heck out of cel phone batteries. I hope they are planning for charging stations at tables (which, would be a rather nice addition, frankly).
Jon81uk
Well-Known Member
Okay, I was led to believe that the long-range powered RFID was a different standard to Bluetooth. But yes, I did already know that Be Our Guest and the On-Ride Photo systems relied on the powered RFID.
I assume the phone is only for the test and if they roll this out it will be MagicBand linked,.
Charging stations at restaurant tables is a great idea though, just a couple of USB ports in each table is all that is needed (and of course lots of cable to the tables!).
englanddg
One Little Spark...
Nah. No new "tech" with Magicbands. Just old tech with a new application and a spit shined public image (as most tech is). People confuse the tech with the application far too often, and the application with the concept to be frank (tablets were not "new" when the iPad came out, touchscreen phones were not "new" when the iPhone came out, smartphones were not "new" when the iPhone came out...all of this is consumer memory, not technical advancement...it was new to the masses, so it is "new".
For example, I had a phone running PalmOS in 2003 that could surf the web, had a touchscreen interface, and could do pretty much everything that a 1st gen iPhone could do, and could do a heck of a lot more than the Blackberries of the time (when they really started to catch on) could...it could store and play music, it could play video...it even had a color screen (though the first model lacked it). Point is..."new" to the consumer market generally isn't "new" in the technology world.
As far as putting in chargers...the real issue is digging up the concrete (what is under all the carpets at Disney), or sawing it (more likely) to run the power lines for the outlets, as well as circuit upgrades.
Not undoable, but it's not as simple as running extension cords.
It wouldn't take long (a week per venue would be generous...I've been around a lot of that style of work, and it can be done rather quickly), but it would involve restaurant closures and or construction drapes, and since they seem to avoid that at Disney (as they should), I'd suspect they'll just do closures.
The receivers, on the other hand, are easily installed and easily hidden.
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englanddg
One Little Spark...
Bluetooth LE is NOT RFID in the classic sense. It's like the term "cloud" has come to mean "web hosted service"...it's just a term people who are non-technical use to describe technical things because they think it's the right phrase. Technically every web site you visit is "in the cloud"...so how is this new?
It's this same ignorance that people who marketed "apps" for phones which were not much more than phone formatted websites vs real apps written for the platform (MDE is the latter) made a LOT of money the past 5 years or so... I'm not saying that's not a valid angle to take, but it's not an "app"...it's a website, running in a shell. I just get in a tizzy when some marketing guy calls it an "app"...when really he's harmless, he's not talking technically, he's talking consumer.
To correlate it to something, it's like calling a torx driver and a philips head driver the same thing. They sortof are, in that they put a screw in a hole, but they interface completely differently, and are not compatible.
The Band DOES use what is classically considered RFID for the touch aspects (room doors, purchases, etc...)
It's this same ignorance that people who marketed "apps" for phones which were not much more than phone formatted websites vs real apps written for the platform (MDE is the latter) made a LOT of money the past 5 years or so... I'm not saying that's not a valid angle to take, but it's not an "app"...it's a website, running in a shell. I just get in a tizzy when some marketing guy calls it an "app"...when really he's harmless, he's not talking technically, he's talking consumer.
To correlate it to something, it's like calling a torx driver and a philips head driver the same thing. They sortof are, in that they put a screw in a hole, but they interface completely differently, and are not compatible.
The Band DOES use what is classically considered RFID for the touch aspects (room doors, purchases, etc...)
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WondersOfLife
Blink, blink. Breathe, breathe. Day in, day out.
So when is Disney going to change "magic bands" to "magic apple bands" and use the apple watch concept?
englanddg
One Little Spark...
Eventually. Apple watches, and glass tops in general, won't take the beating that a band can. It will be a while (at least a few years) before you see this, I suspect.
Bands, for example, are perfect for water parks. Apple Watches, are not.
But, it will eventually happen, pushing the expense of hardware onto the consumer and they see it as a benefit. Software has huge margins after the development cycle.
And then there is consumer adoption. Most of the retailers in my area accept touch pay (not apple pay, touch RFID pay), but I rarely see anyone in line use it, same with Apple pay.
MinnieWaffles
Well-Known Member
I can see this being good for families- no need to take the whole clan over to order or send some to find a table and some go to order. Just order from the comfort of your table and the food comes to you.
However, what will happen in busy times when they require you to have food in hand before seating? Unless proof of an ordered to table meal is enough for the CM.
However, what will happen in busy times when they require you to have food in hand before seating? Unless proof of an ordered to table meal is enough for the CM.
englanddg
One Little Spark...
Seating is cheap if this takes off.
MinnieWaffles
Well-Known Member
True.
I love the idea of possibly ordering my lunch in line for Star Tours and having it ready and waiting for me when I'm finished. Maybe they need to use a GPS system with better range so it covers the whole of the park not just a small area of a QS.
englanddg
One Little Spark...
GPS on a phone is not terribly accurate. It has a variance of about 15-25 feet at best. The number of towers in an area helps (rather, your position/distance between three of them). But, its not that great. That is fine when you are getting driving directions, but not for pinpointing a table.
Bluetooth makes a lot more sense.
That said, supposedly a lot of the LE infrastructure was installed to support the long range capabilities of the bands, so they could, I believe, piggyback this on that infrastructure if they chose.
The question really is how much of that infrastructure truly exists. Wifi and improved cellular does, but those are different. It is hard to tell from the outside how complete their bluetooth mesh is.