News Digital Key coming soon to Walt Disney World Resort hotels

[ABQ]

We're still getting other people's photos on our Photopass account. I can't wait to see how many wrong doors get opened by someone else's phone...

Considering that you have to be within a certain, short, distance of the door to open it, I'm going to guess zero wrong doors will be opened. As for the number of correct doors that fail to unlock, that will be greater than zero.

 

[rhino4evr]

I love this forum.

New feature of the MDE app announced. Immediate assumption is that Magic Bands are going away/no longer free and people start to get pre-mad/annoyed/worried over something that's not even the slightest bit inferred from the announcement.

Can you blame us? How many people said Disney would never charge hotel parking fees? Or Extra Payment for Additional Fast Passes?

I bet these magic bands become an additional "fee" based product sometime in the future. Adding room entry to your cell phone, is just giving Disney less of an incentive to make Magic Bands pretty much mandatory. It would be just as easy to add tickets and fast pass scanners to their mobile app.

After that happens....then who wants to pay for the "convenience" of not using your cell phones precious battery, and keeping that "magic" feeling of having a Mickey branded band? That's will be $14.99 a person please, plus shipping.

 

[larryz]

Can you blame us? How many people said Disney would never charge hotel parking fees? Or Extra Payment for Additional Fast Passes?

I bet these magic bands become an additional "fee" based product sometime in the future. Adding room entry to your cell phone, is just giving Disney less of an incentive to make Magic Bands pretty much mandatory. It would be just as easy to add tickets and fast pass scanners to their mobile app.

After that happens....then who wants to pay for the "convenience" of not using your cell phones precious battery, and keeping that "magic" feeling of having a Mickey branded band? That's will be $14.99 a person please, plus shipping.

Like resort parking for guests... used to be a convenience, now it's a commodity. I won't be surprised when it happens.

 

[Tom P.]

I don't have concerns that Disney is going to phase out or start charging for Magic Bands. I do, however, have some security concerns about this and see the opportunity for this technology to be hacked more easily than Magic Bands.

 

[jakeman]

Can you blame us? How many people said Disney would never charge hotel parking fees? Or Extra Payment for Additional Fast Passes?

I bet these magic bands become an additional "fee" based product sometime in the future. Adding room entry to your cell phone, is just giving Disney less of an incentive to make Magic Bands pretty much mandatory. It would be just as easy to add tickets and fast pass scanners to their mobile app.

After that happens....then who wants to pay for the "convenience" of not using your cell phones precious battery, and keeping that "magic" feeling of having a Mickey branded band? That's will be $14.99 a person please, plus shipping.

And then after that happens, Disney will start charging you to use their wifi.

Then Disney will only support Apple devices.

Then Disney will require you to buy their Apple device.

Then that Apple device will require batteries.

Then you'll have to buy the components of the batteries and be required to take a class to assemble them.

Disney will charge you for the class to assemble the batteries.

WHERE DOES THE MADNESS END!? WHY IS DISNEY MAKING ME LEARN HOW TO ASSEMBLE BATTERIES TO GO ON IT'S A SMALL WORLD!?

^ This thread in a hyperbolic nutshell.

 

[GhostHost1000]

I don't have concerns that Disney is going to phase out or start charging for Magic Bands. I do, however, have some security concerns about this and see the opportunity for this technology to be hacked more easily than Magic Bands.

I've seen several folks mention this but wouldn't you first have to hack into the phone and then be able to hack into the app in order to do this? Many use fingerprint/touch to open both as well

maybe they'll implement where you have to enter your 4 digit pin or something in order to unlock the door I don't know

 

[JediMasterMatt]

I heard that in the near future that Deluxe Resort guests will be able to book 10 door unlocks in advance compared to the 7 for Moderate and 4 for Value.

 

[Andrew C]

We're still getting other people's photos on our Photopass account. I can't wait to see how many wrong doors get opened by someone else's phone...

That is not going to be a problem with this type of tech.

 

[Andrew C]

I don't have concerns that Disney is going to phase out or start charging for Magic Bands. I do, however, have some security concerns about this and see the opportunity for this technology to be hacked more easily than Magic Bands.

The digital key on the phone is really more secure than a magic band or key card.

 

[Delgado]

Can you blame us? How many people said Disney would never charge hotel parking fees? Or Extra Payment for Additional Fast Passes?

I bet these magic bands become an additional "fee" based product sometime in the future. Adding room entry to your cell phone, is just giving Disney less of an incentive to make Magic Bands pretty much mandatory. It would be just as easy to add tickets and fast pass scanners to their mobile app.

After that happens....then who wants to pay for the "convenience" of not using your cell phones precious battery, and keeping that "magic" feeling of having a Mickey branded band? That's will be $14.99 a person please, plus shipping.

I don’t understand how anyone’s mind doesn’t go there. Disney loses so much money on magic bands... I have atleast 40 and no I will never use them again at Disney because I get a **free one everytime I stay at the resort.
I loved the little bottles with Mickey ears in the shower, then they got rid of the mickey ears and it was just bottles. FYI same bottles were sold on the gift shop just bigger for you to take home. But why would you buy the big ones when you get a free souvenirs (thanks Pinterest) when you take home cute little bottles. Oh wait you have to buy them now...a little birdie told me they have dispensers now.

And MDE is fantastic but it created the upcharge for battery packs in the park. They suck the life out of your phone and don’t have free charging. It is a necessity to use MDE. The kiosks lines are way too long when there are available fast passes. You might as well go standby on space mountain instead. I have my own battery pack. But until your seasoned at doing Disney you find yoursef up a creek without a paddle at about 6p WITH a decently new iPhone.

Upcharge events even give you less. They used to give you some type of stein, light up toy, etc but the ones we’ve been to in the past 9 months haven’t given anything.

Anyways I digress...yes without a doubt they will start charging for magic bands..I’d be totally okay with luggage tags and those have to be much cheaper.

 

[mikejs78]

Can you blame us? How many people said Disney would never charge hotel parking fees? Or Extra Payment for Additional Fast Passes?

I bet these magic bands become an additional "fee" based product sometime in the future. Adding room entry to your cell phone, is just giving Disney less of an incentive to make Magic Bands pretty much mandatory. It would be just as easy to add tickets and fast pass scanners to their mobile app.

After that happens....then who wants to pay for the "convenience" of not using your cell phones precious battery, and keeping that "magic" feeling of having a Mickey branded band? That's will be $14.99 a person please, plus shipping.

I will be surprised because the magic bands give them extremely valuable data. If they charge for it, not everyone will use it and the data will be less valuable to Disney.

 

[Ripken10]

Here is betting they will have a large increase in people at the resort concierge asking for help because they got locked out of their room...due to their phone battery being dead. I don't use my cell phone on Disney trips so I have no plans on using it there either. Actually know more people that get rid of their phones on trips than most would expect. Certainly not a majority.

 

[Delgado]

I will be surprised because the magic bands give them extremely valuable data. If they charge for it, not everyone will use it and the data will be less valuable to Disney.

They can probably get the same data from cell phones when you use their app

 

[UncleMike101]

They can probably get the same data from cell phones when you use their app

People would be wise to carefully check the permissions that the app requires. Disney may well have access to a lot more than our park and resort data.
Not that a big time player like Disney would steal data from guests........

 

[mikejs78]

They can probably get the same data from cell phones when you use their app

But not everyone has a phone. Like my 7 year old and 10 month old.

 

[note2001]

The digital key on the phone is really more secure than a magic band or key card.

This is most likely true. The magicbands come hardwired with their own digital key, one that anyone along the way from fabrication through to distribution can scan and copy. The digital key on the phone will be (presumably) assigned by computer when requested. No one else will have access to that exact key. Keep in mind though that any magic bands you have active on your account will still be "keys" to your room door as well as being links to tickets and charging capabilities if you have them enabled. Smart move to disable those old magicbands if you're not using them.

 

[note2001]

People would be wise to carefully check the permissions that the app requires. Disney may well have access to a lot more than our park and resort data.
Not that a big time player like Disney would steal data from guests........

And you're only talking about Disney's designed intentions. Add to that the rogue programmer who thinks they are doing the company (or themselves) a favor by pulling in extra information.

 

[Delgado]

But not everyone has a phone. Like my 7 year old and 10 month old.

No but chances are they are linked to your cell phone in the app so info on them can still be had as you go through the park, use your fast passes and what not

 

[Delgado]

This is most likely true. The magicbands come hardwired with their own digital key, one that anyone along the way from fabrication through to distribution can scan and copy. The digital key on the phone will be (presumably) assigned by computer when requested. No one else will have access to that exact key. Keep in mind though that any magic bands you have active on your account will still be "keys" to your room door as well as being links to tickets and charging capabilities if you have them enabled. Smart move to disable those old magicbands if you're not using them.

All of our 40+ are disabled. If you do go to the park with a ton of bands linked to your account it can also cause an issue and no one wants to spend good park time at customer relations.

 

[mikejs78]

No but chances are they are linked to your cell phone in the app so info on them can still be had as you go through the park, use your fast passes and what not

So how would that work at the FastPass entry? I have to take out my phone, unlock it, select who is using the FastPass, then tap it? Also ripe for abuse. The cast member will have to look at a screen to see how many FastPasses I'm using with my phone and if it matches the # of people in my party. That seems a lot more friction than simply tapping a magic band for each person and having the light turn green....