Disney to increase the number of FastPass+ entitlements per day and include park hopping

[Disneyfamily4]

My original post was a reply to someones comment mentioning that the Magic Band readers were going to be put in place on the busses.

As for the RFID, Disney is already tracking everything. Disney is finding out who stays in the resort and who leaves. We went to universal for two days. I put our bands in the back pack to take with us. I figured, let them track us to their competition and maybe next year we get a pin for a bigger discount.



And off the topic, it was my first time in Universal in a couple years. Ride for Ride, Disney is no longer ahead of the game. Universal has Disney beat in two parks, all the rides Disney has in four.

 

[WDWDad13]

It would make it 10 x's longer. I was upset recently while staying at Riverside. It was long enough to have to wait four stops plus the French Quarter to get to the parks, adding readers would make it much longer.

If there were readers, I would dread the ride home. As you know, when the bus stops to let people off, other people get on to go to the park. If you are trying to get back to your room, that whole process would take so much longer.

Like I said though, I was told there was no point of it, because Disney knows how many people are staying in their resorts and they base the busses on each and everyone going to the park each day. Not to mention park hopping. People may leave a resort and get their bands read that they are going to Epcot, but then they will monorail over to MK. The readers would never be able to get an accurate account of where busses are needed the most.

I think you're misunderstanding... they don't need readers on a stand and no one in a bus queue needs to scan their band... they have sensors that can easily detect people from longer distances or from above (think exit of the magic kingdom when they were first testing this with the cage and sensors above). They could then gather a - number of people waiting and b - where some might be going based on their fp+ selections or plans entered into the mydisneyexperience app or website (if any) for the day

 

[raymusiccity]

My original post was a reply to someones comment mentioning that the Magic Band readers were going to be put in place on the busses.

As for the RFID, Disney is already tracking everything. Disney is finding out who stays in the resort and who leaves. We went to universal for two days. I put our bands in the back pack to take with us. I figured, let them track us to their competition and maybe next year we get a pin for a bigger discount.



And off the topic, it was my first time in Universal in a couple years. Ride for Ride, Disney is no longer ahead of the game. Universal has Disney beat in two parks, all the rides Disney has in four.

I don't think that Disney is trying to 'beat' anyone with their rides. It's the overall experience that counts. Sort of like, 'it's the journey, not the destination' kind of approach. As you walk away from the good night messages from the castle or walk down Main Street, it's much more of a magical feeling than leaving Uni. The Magic Kingdom had far fewer 'rides' when it first opened, but the overall experience was just as much fun! Time will tell, but, this constant comparison between Uni and Disney is really apples to oranges. Competition is good and I think Disney has gotten the message.

 

[WDWDad13]

My original post was a reply to someones comment mentioning that the Magic Band readers were going to be put in place on the busses.

As for the RFID, Disney is already tracking everything. Disney is finding out who stays in the resort and who leaves. We went to universal for two days. I put our bands in the back pack to take with us. I figured, let them track us to their competition and maybe next year we get a pin for a bigger discount.



And off the topic, it was my first time in Universal in a couple years. Ride for Ride, Disney is no longer ahead of the game. Universal has Disney beat in two parks, all the rides Disney has in four.

*sigh* - it's not all about "rides" to everyone...the atmosphere alone in and around the entire Disney Resort will never be matched at Uni...Uni is good at what it does... but it will never have the same feel

as for Disney tracking you staying off property... they only know things from inside their resort. You don't actually think they put magic band readers at Uni do you? That's what Uni will be doing for themselves down the road after they discover how much Disney can learn, optimize, and build upon based on this new foundational project

 

[Disneyfamily4]

*sigh* - it's not all about "rides" to everyone...the atmosphere alone in and around the entire Disney Resort will never be matched at Uni...Uni is good at what it does... but it will never have the same feel

as for Disney tracking you staying off property... they only know things from inside their resort. You don't actually think they put magic band readers at Uni do you? That's what Uni will be doing for themselves down the road after they discover how much Disney can learn, optimize, and build upon based on this new foundational project

I love Disney as much as everyone else, but it is about the rides to some. Over all experience, Disney has Universal beat hands down, but for a family with kids getting older, rides do become important.

It is funny, my son is 11-years old. He says to me "Dad, your favorite ride is Star Tours, but Universal has 3 rides just like it and better. His favorite ride was soaring, until he went on the Simpson's version of it. As much as I love Disney, The Disney experience, cast members are all better, but I am not afraid to admit the rides at Uni are way better.

 

[WDWDad13]

I love Disney as much as everyone else, but it is about the rides to some. Over all experience, Disney has Universal beat hands down, but for a family with kids getting older, rides do become important.

It is funny, my son is 11-years old. He says to me "Dad, your favorite ride is Star Tours, but Universal has 3 rides just like it and better. His favorite ride was soaring, until he went on the Simpson's version of it. As much as I love Disney, The Disney experience, cast members are all better, but I am not afraid to admit the rides at Uni are way better.

well that is an opinion... I guess it depends on what you and your family like the most and ages and even the genders can make a difference

I agree that for your son's age through college age...(especially for boys) Uni is likely the more preferred place due to thrill rides. You can easily see that from the marketing of things like Mardi Gras and Halloween Horror Nights vs Night of Joy and Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween party

 

[Disneyfamily4]

well that is an opinion... I guess it depends on what you and your family like the most and ages and even the genders can make a difference

I agree that for your son's age through college age...(especially for boys) Uni is likely the more preferred place due to thrill rides. You can easily see that from the marketing of things like Mardi Gras and Halloween Horror Nights vs Night of Joy and Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween party

That is true, my daughter is 8 and most of all the rides at Universal scared the crap out of her and she couldn't wait to go back to Disney. She loves Thunder Mountain and Test Trek. At Uni, she went on the Mummy, even though it was an incredible ride for us, she walked out of it looking like she saw a ghost.

The only ride she praised was the Men In black ride. Comparing it to buzz and Toy Story Mania, she felt MIB was a lot better.

 

[morningstar]

My original post was a reply to someones comment mentioning that the Magic Band readers were going to be put in place on the busses.

As for the RFID, Disney is already tracking everything. Disney is finding out who stays in the resort and who leaves. We went to universal for two days. I put our bands in the back pack to take with us. I figured, let them track us to their competition and maybe next year we get a pin for a bigger discount.

How will they know you went to Universal? They can track at a distance of a meter or two, but I don't think they can pinpoint your location by satellite. They know you aren't in a Disney theme park, but they knew that in the days of KttW cards. They might even know you drove out of the main gate.

I've never gotten the comments that MM+ will "keep you on property". It doesn't add days to your ticket. If you have advance FP+ reservations for a day, you'll probably go to the park that day, but it just means you plan ahead which days you'll spend at Universal and which at Disney World, instead of impromptu. Still same number of days at each.

 

[flynnibus]

I've never gotten the comments that MM+ will "keep you on property". It doesn't add days to your ticket. If you have advance FP+ reservations for a day, you'll probably go to the park that day, but it just means you plan ahead which days you'll spend at Universal and which at Disney World, instead of impromptu. Still same number of days at each.

It's all about gentle nudging. By encouraging planning, you add extra biases to stick to that plan.. including staying at Disney vs wandering freely and maybe wandering outside the bubble.

 

[Disneyfamily4]

How will they know you went to Universal? They can track at a distance of a meter or two, but I don't think they can pinpoint your location by satellite. They know you aren't in a Disney theme park, but they knew that in the days of KttW cards. They might even know you drove out of the main gate.

I've never gotten the comments that MM+ will "keep you on property". It doesn't add days to your ticket. If you have advance FP+ reservations for a day, you'll probably go to the park that day, but it just means you plan ahead which days you'll spend at Universal and which at Disney World, instead of impromptu. Still same number of days at each.

I don't know really know for sure about electronics and all that stuff of what goes in it. But I do know that the Magic Bands with the RFID is way more expensive to produce than the cards with RFID. From what I was told, the difference is the magic bands have a longer range. How long of a range who knows.
A friend of mine had her stroller taken last month. After getting a free rental and making out a report, the security guard said we will check around the other stroller areas and will find you before you leave to let you know if anything turns up. Her huge diaper bag was also in the stroller. She was in the designated smoking area several hours later when a security guard approached her and said we have not found it yet and gave her the number to the lost and found to call in a day or so incase it turns up. Now that is impressive. Especially being she said she was at the smoking area behind the Barnstormer heading to Tomorrow Land. Did he happen to look for her and found her amongst all those people? Or did the bands point the direction.

 

[Rob562]

I don't know really know for sure about electronics and all that stuff of what goes in it. But I do know that the Magic Bands with the RFID is way more expensive to produce than the cards with RFID. From what I was told, the difference is the magic bands have a longer range. How long of a range who knows.

The Bands' powered "longer range" system is 30-40 feet. (Think Bluetooth range) It's not 10 miles.

-Rob

 

[Rob562]

I don't think WDWDad13 is talking about using MB readers at bus stops or to get on the bus. He is saying that Disney can use the longer range RFID to "count" the number of people waiting at a bus stop (resort, park, whatever) and then use that information to manage their bus routes "on the fly".

For example, if they know that 2 busloads of people are waiting in the "Carribean Beach Resort" line at MK waiting for a bus, then they know that sending just one bus there won't accomodate everyone -- so they can pre-emptively plan to send two buses to that station. You don't need people to scan the bands individually to have Disney read the total number of people waiting in the area.

To integrate it even further: At a resort, they can count the number of people and cross reference them to see where they have ADRs or FP+ scheduled. That way they can estimate how many people are waiting for a MK bus versus an Epcot bus versus DAK, etc. and dispatch buses appropriately. Obviously that is not going to be a 100% accurate count (some might be going to a water park or DTD or going to a different park first before hoping to a later one where they have FP+ booked) but it would give a pretty good idea in general as to what is needed.

Taking it farther, at places where there aren't dedicated queues for each park (most of the Moderates' bus stops, for example), the system could potentially be able to do a "process of elimination". If a Band were to be read as being at a stop while an Epcot bus, a Studios bus and a Downtown Disney bus came and left, it would know that the Band is almost definitely heading to either AK or MK.

-Rob

 

[RSoxNo1]

There isn't a big incentive to show FP+s right now, no. I admit to that. But If someone is in the mood to see Festival of the Lion King or Finding Nemo and doesn't feel like waiting a long, winding line (with no shade), then I don't see why using a FP in that situation is bad for that person. FP+ is more about making your vacation what you want it to be than saving time. And yes, the system as a whole does save you time. The app on it's own is a time saver. No more running from Space Mountain to BTMRR to check the time, only then to find out that Big Thunder is closed. You can see it right on the app. So arguments that MM+ doesn't save time are largely off-base imo. It doesn't save you time in the same way legacy FASTPASS did, but it does in other areas.

I absolutely love the digitization aspect of it. No arguments there.

 

[rael ramone]

Without reading all 24 pages, here are my thoughts (which are similar to others that i've glanced over):

Is the increase of FP's after you've used your first 3 an improvement? Over the current in place system - yes, but still far inferior to the legacy system.

What I've seen is some mentioning that 'what would be left' after you use your three. What I don't recall seeing (though someone may have mentioned it and I didn't see it) is what will they 'let' you see? Will you be offered any Tier 1 attractions? And for the possibility of getting to that '4th' FP, you have to use *all* three of what you have, including the Tier 2 things that you wouldn't have had to wait for anyway but had to backtrack across the park to do them according to the schedule. Why should I be made to backtrack to Figment after I ate a heavy meal at Marrakesh at 1:45 when I can just do it instead at 10:45 as a walkon?

And although this wouldn't affect me, but how valuable is the 4th FP to a family that has as one of their selections the parks nighttime fireworks show?

It seems that this 'improvement' may only be felt at the MK...

 

[awilliams4]

the atmosphere alone in and around the entire Disney Resort will never be matched at Uni...Uni is good at what it does... but it will never have the same feel

This.

If Uni is doing things so much better, the attendance and dollars would or need to start showing that reality soon....if they don't, then Uni must not be doing things better.

 

[dstrawn9889]

now lets be honest, the drivers that i had from allstar to the parks last week... the busses fill up fast in the morning, and as they reach cap, the driver will call in and ind another dispatch from the pool to be sent to X. the best i had seen she actually sat at AS-Sports and counted the other queues there and ind thatthere were two full loads to EPcot in line and the one that is in route was not enough for one hotel, let alone the three serviced by DAk Ep and DHS(only MK gets single all-star to hotel route). and dispatch on the radio thanked and noted incoming... most of the drivers i rode with helped keep the people flowing, not necessary to use the bluetooth(some kind of proprietary LR connection, marked as a frequency, meaning a radio, not just a transmission burst RF device) connection in the band to count heads...

 

[sporadic]

Dad, your favorite ride is Star Tours, but Universal has 3 rides just like it and better.

This where Uni has to grow IMO. I went a few years ago and just never felt pulled into the experience. Seemed very cookie cutter. Not that difficult to clone a canned ride platform and stick a new video on it.

 

[MrPromey]

Really? I guess I just assumed the extended interactive queue was available kind of like Winnie the Pooh queue...more because of fun and creativity than FP related.

With Pooh it made sense. That ride can have really long lines and which, while fun for all ages, probably gets a higher number of young guests who don't do well in lines (like Dumbo that ended up getting the tent) and the interactive queue can help with that. Adding it wasn't that big of a project and they had pre-existing assets to reuse (the tree). The haunted mansion was a much bigger change though. It required land moving and featured what to me anyway, seemed like more detailed and involved pieces - all for something at the end of a line to a ride that hasn't traditionally been known to have terribly long waits most of the time. It would be cool to think they just decided to "plus" the outside of this attraction a little for no other reason than to make people happier but... I could totally buy that for the moving tombstone that went in quite a while back but this one, especially when it opened as entirely optional at the end of a line just seemed really odd - nice, but odd.

Maybe it really was just a coincidence but now they sure do have a nice little way to handle more people in standby while also having a clean direct runway to the Mansion front doors with the setup they put in... If not in preparation for MM+, it sure seems like they were at least giving thought to adding some kind of FP back to this attraction when they added that and given that it hadn't previously been needed, just makes me wonder.

 

[flynnibus]

Maybe it really was just a coincidence but now they sure do have a nice little way to handle more people in standby while also having a clean direct runway to the Mansion front doors with the setup they put in... If not in preparation for MM+, it sure seems like they were at least giving thought to adding some kind of FP back to this attraction when they added that and given that it hadn't previously been needed, just makes me wonder.

The interactive queues were part of the larger 'Next Gen' R&D initiative that also included FP+ and the whole MDE concepts. NextGen was a push to find ways to apply the new technology out there in the world to the theme park experience.

 

[LAKid53]

I don't think WDWDad13 is talking about using MB readers at bus stops or to get on the bus. He is saying that Disney can use the longer range RFID to "count" the number of people waiting at a bus stop (resort, park, whatever) and then use that information to manage their bus routes "on the fly".

For example, if they know that 2 busloads of people are waiting in the "Carribean Beach Resort" line at MK waiting for a bus, then they know that sending just one bus there won't accomodate everyone -- so they can pre-emptively plan to send two buses to that station. You don't need people to scan the bands individually to have Disney read the total number of people waiting in the area.

To integrate it even further: At a resort, they can count the number of people and cross reference them to see where they have ADRs or FP+ scheduled. That way they can estimate how many people are waiting for a MK bus versus an Epcot bus versus DAK, etc. and dispatch buses appropriately. Obviously that is not going to be a 100% accurate count (some might be going to a water park or DTD or going to a different park first before hoping to a later one where they have FP+ booked) but it would give a pretty good idea in general as to what is needed.

And what prevents the bus driver notifying Transportation that he/she left 20 people behind in the resort? They have radio communication on the buses.....

Disney data mines like crazy. They know that DTD is the place to do for dinner. So why not add, especially with the construction, more buses going to DTD starting at 5:00PM through 11:00PM? Frustrating to sit at the stop at our resort - when we've allowed sufficient time - and see 2-3 buses for EACH park and not one for DTD.

Not everyone is now using the RFID card. And people change their FP+ selections, so that isn't a reliable method.