Magic bands for admittance, dining, and shopping, but NOT rides...would you buy?

[Jonathan Dalecki]

Inspired by a thread in the Dining Forum regarding whether you need park admission to dine at a park restaurant (you do, obviously), I got to thinking. What if Disney had a special Magic Band that would grant admission to the park and allow you to shop & dine (and enjoy the ambiance) but would not allow you onto any ride or into any show. Would people be willing to buy them? Disney could price them differently than regular park tickets, obviously. The older I get the more I wish there was such a thing. I'd have just as much fun relaxing with a funnel cake by the World Showacase Lagoon as I would riding Mission: Space.

 

[DisneyJoe]

This would cause an extra step of verification at all attractions of checking the band for validation as well as enforcement - as many would try to sneak in or on attractions. CMs have difficulty enforcing rules now so I don't see this working. Interesting idea though.

 

[Jonathan Dalecki]

This would cause an extra step of verification at all attractions of checking the band for validation as well as enforcement - as many would try to sneak in or on attractions. CMs have difficulty enforcing rules now so I don't see this working. Interesting idea though.

I was thinking maybe the band could have a different design, either shape or color, that would make it obvious at a glance that it was different from the traditional band? Because yeah, obviously you don't want CMs having to check every band as some people may sadly be inclined to beat the system, getting the cheaper band but still trying to ride.

 

[Nunu]

Inspired by a thread in the Dining Forum regarding whether you need park admission to dine at a park restaurant (you do, obviously), I got to thinking. What if Disney had a special Magic Band that would grant admission to the park and allow you to shop & dine (and enjoy the ambiance) but would not allow you onto any ride or into any show. Would people be willing to buy them? Disney could price them differently than regular park tickets, obviously. The older I get the more I wish there was such a thing. I'd have just as much fun relaxing with a funnel cake by the World Showacase Lagoon as I would riding Mission: Space.

But how would Disney prevent people from queuing at the standby line of rides and shows?

Its an interesting thought, sometimes I go to the parks and not ride a thing, I just go to enjoy the ambiance and dine.

 

[disneyfireman]

no.

 

[Heppenheimer]

The logistics non-withstanding, it probably would come down to a dollars and cents issue. Let's say that there's X number of people who were considering a Disney vacation anyway who decide to go for this cheaper option. That would represent a drop in revenue. In order for this to pay off for Disney, they would need to entice an equal number X more full-price guests who want to take advantage of the perceived (but probably not actual) shorter lines, plus an additional large number of who originally were not considering a Disney vacation but now are because of the reduced cost ticket. Then figure that even if all of these people buying the cheaper tickets don't go on rides, Disney still may need more staff to deal with the increase in numbers.

Doesn't seem like a large enough money generator, so probably not ever going to happen.

 

[beertiki]

They have one, it's called an AP. Sometimes you just go and enjoy the park....

 

[Nunu]

They have one, it's called an AP. Sometimes you just go and enjoy the park....

That's right

 

[JusticeDisney]

Inspired by a thread in the Dining Forum regarding whether you need park admission to dine at a park restaurant (you do, obviously), I got to thinking. What if Disney had a special Magic Band that would grant admission to the park and allow you to shop & dine (and enjoy the ambiance) but would not allow you onto any ride or into any show. Would people be willing to buy them? Disney could price them differently than regular park tickets, obviously. The older I get the more I wish there was such a thing. I'd have just as much fun relaxing with a funnel cake by the World Showacase Lagoon as I would riding Mission: Space.

Never even thought of something like this, but now that you’ve raised it, I think it’s a great idea. I am like you, just being in and relaxing in certain parts of the parks is all I need sometimes.

 

[JusticeDisney]

But how would Disney prevent people from queuing at the standby line of rides and shows?

Its an interesting thought, sometimes I go to the parks and not ride a thing, I just go to enjoy the ambiance and dine.

Just have readers at the standby entrances like they do at the FP+ entrances.

 

["El Gran Magnifico"]

I don't think this will ever become reality. And I wouldn't want it to. Let's set aside the pricing issue for a moment. Disney has a big enough problem with crowd size today. Crowd size impacts more than just ride wait times. It impacts ADR's, viewing areas for parades and fireworks, QS spots, and in general just overall congestion.

ADR's would become harder to obtain, the parks would be more crowded, and overall guest satisfaction would diminish.

 

[Paper straw fan]

no.

Well look we agree on something!

Busch Gardens used to have this, it was called a ‘shoppers pass’ where you put down a deposit (cost of admission) and were let in for an hour or so to shop and maybe eat. You then returned to the ticket office to have the amount refunded, or if you bailed and stayed in the park you weren’t refunded and just paid admission cost. Of course this was when getting your hand stamped was still a thing so it was open to abuse (I got people to do it) and if you were really quick, you could have ran on a ride and back to the entrance.

Just too much to make CM’s account for. They could ride standby all the wanted unless extra people were deployed to stop them.

 

[Nunu]

I'm wondering who would be interested in this type of pass?

Locals and frequent visitors most likely have Annual Passes.

Tourists and vacationers would want to enjoy everything the parks have to offer, specially rides and shows.

 

[jruddell]

Lets's expend on that idea. What if they sold passes to the rides and perhaps charged more for some rides than others. You could enter the park for a cheaper price then ride only the rides you wanted to and paid for each ride. Maybe they could label the passes with letters to differentiate the prices. I'm thinking no more than five so let's say A to E with E reserved for the best most expensive rides.

 

[Nunu]

Lets's expend on that idea. What if they sold passes to the rides and perhaps charged more for some rides than others. You could enter the park for a cheaper price then ride only the rides you wanted to and paid for each ride. Maybe they could label the passes with letters to differentiate the prices. I'm thinking no more than five so let's say A to E with E reserved for the best most expensive rides.

Jajaja! Nice try!

 

[dreamfinder912]

Didn't they used to have this? Like a shopping pass? You got in for like an hour for free?

 

[mm121]

It could never be a removable band like the current magic bands.

It would also mean making all current magic bands a one time use fixed on design.

Otherwise people could buy say 2 cheaper bands and 2 regular bands and just swap them between members of the family.

While an option like this would be great for my mom who's never been a big rider of rides, unfortunately it's too easy for something like this to be abused.

Hence why they had to change the handicap rides system entirely.

The only other option would be to go back entirely to a paid entry fee then pay for each ride separately like when the park first opened, but that will never happen nor would I want it to.

 

[Paper straw fan]

Didn't they used to have this? Like a shopping pass? You got in for like an hour for free?

As I posted, Busch Gardens used to, I have no idea w WDW.

I mean hey, I like people throwing out ideas like this on here. There are ways it would make sense, but I think for something like Epcot, for someone to go in free/reduced price and still be able to enjoy the park (minus rides) while others paid full price to do the same, doesn’t seem like it would fly. Luckily for people who want to dine at WDW without an AP/ticket there are plenty of options at the resorts and DS. I’m not sure I’d want to pay for parking at a park just to dine there (I know high end restaurants use valet, but that’s still a bit more value than theme park parking)

 

[Mickey5150]

A realistic option would be a nighttime ticket to Epcot which required an ADR. All guests on the ADR could get into Epcot after 4pm for $25 each with the ability to go on rides but without the ability to use Fastpass. If you enter the park but do not use the ADR you get charged for a full day ticket. Then to keep people from gaming the system either have prix fixe menu or require a minimum price spent per person.

 

[epcotisbest]

Didn't they used to have this? Like a shopping pass? You got in for like an hour for free?

They did and I have used it. Don't know if they still do or not. What guest services did for me was I asked to enter MK to purchase a particular model bus for a nephew who had been collecting them for years. It was the bus with the date on it. It was sold out just about everywhere but a place at MK had it.
What they did was allow me in for one hour to go buy that particular item. They sold me a one day ticket with the stipulation I had to be back in one hour or less and they would refund the ticket. More than an hour, no refund. Worked fine for my needs, my nephew got his yearly souvenir that I forgot to buy the day before and my ticket price was refunded.
I don't know if this was standard policy, or a goodwill gesture.
And this was many years ago.
Something like this: