MagicBands WILL become a thing...

[Zac Skellington]

...All in all, the trips have been getting hotter, and more crowded for years now so I guess having to stand in longer lines is going to be a reality sooner or later anyway.

Wow... You really think it's OK to just accept whatever Disney lays out for us? You have no thoughts that maybe instead of longer lines and more Fastpass distribution, Disney should actually give us more ATTRACTIONS?

 

[tl77]

They don't have to. Your personal info isn't going on these. Only an identifier code. That's it. That same thief would have to hack Disney's system to be able to try and match it up with your info. So what happens you ask if a thief "clones" you band? So what? You will still have to enter a PIN code at the point of sale. Does the thief have that? No. And I don't think Disney will let you put any more than $500 on there so in case some thief went through the elaborate work of cloning your band, then following you until you made a purchase so they can see your pin, then Disney would only have to reimburse up to $500. You'll be fine.

I'm not talking about identity theft but the old fashioned kind...

If the wrist band is also your room key then the cloned info would allow people to break into your room, the identifier code doesn't reveal the room's location. So potential thieves could have to clone your wrist band, then follow you back to you room

 

[Todd L]

Any scanning station has to be staffed in some way. Have you seen how many issues there are with people using the bio scanners? It's constant. And on top of that, it'll have to be someone they trust (read: pay enough) to man those locations because they'll be able to override a negative indicator.

Is it true That they are Taking Pictures at The Turnstiles In Disneyland and checking the photos to see if they match when you enter??

 

[PhishinDisney]

Will I be able to get one when I head down in May?

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

I know that I griped a bit about the new FP+ system but I have a couple of thoughts on this:

1) We cannot change the path of this out of control snowball no matter how much we would like. So we need to just accept that what will be, will be.
2) We never really used the heck out of the FP system anyway because of the lower crowd levels in September and October. Only having access to 3 FP's will not irritate me as much as I assumed it might.
3) I'll set up my 3 FP+ experiences and make sure that the one ride that does always seem to have a longer than 20 minute line is one of the FP's I get. For example, in MK it is always Splash Mountain that has a 20 to 30 minute wait after 1pm. In AK it is, of course, Everest. In DHS it is TSMM. And in EPCOT it is Soarin'. As long as I can get a FP for those rides on park days 1, 2, 3, and 4 then I am good. Park days 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 are "wing it" days anyway so I have no idea where we'll be until that day so I am not goign to commit us to something until that day.

The only problem I see with this is if you don't plan your days, but most of the other visitors to WDW have, by the time that day rolls around, all the good FPs will be taken and you'll be left with tier 3 IASW, Pirates, HM FPs. This is why I DO NOT like this. If they give a booking window of say 60 days outfor booking FPs, the casual local visitor cannot show up on a whim one random Friday, pick up a couple FPs and enjoy a day at MK. All the good FPs will be taken. This hurts the local passholders more than anything. Them and people (like you) who don't want to plan out every single day and want to play it by ear. They say this is giving everyone a fair advantage but I disagree. It's giving those who plan out every day an advantage, that's all.

 

[fractal]

I think I'll attach it to my belt loop.

Unless the Disney police have a problem with that.

 

[Californian Elitist]

Is it true That they are Taking Pictures at The Turnstiles In Disneyland and checking the photos to see if they match when you enter??

Yes, if you have multiple day tickets. There have been a bunch of scams lately. People have been selling days on multiple day tickets, so people would buy the tickets, then return them so the seller could sell the rest of the days to other customers.

 

[HauntedPirate]

Disney did not make the MagicBand for the purpose of tracking guests in the park. In reality, they could care less what you are doing. It is more of just a popularity estimate for all the rides and areas. Disney wants to increase guest satisfaction. And in many cases, it will. If Disney really wanted to track a person's every movements, their is a much simpler way of doing that. This same argument could be used when Disney Resorts switched from real keys to the former room cards. "Oh, Disney is doing this so that they can see how much time we spend in our room."
The truth is, they don't care.

I completely disagree - Disney does want to know where you are, what you are riding, what you are buying, where & what you are eating, et al. In fact, they want to know where every guest is, what they are riding, what they are buying, where & what they are eating, et al. There's no other good (and arguably valid) reason for Disney to invest $1.5+ billion to switch over to an RFID system like this. If lots of guests are eating at A, E, and G, but not at B, C, D, and F, Disney wants to figure out why, because they already know the what (sales numbers are lower at B, C, D, and F than at A, E, and G). Did you eat at E because you just spent 3 hours in [insertname]land? Where did you eat during your stay? What type of food did you order? Did you ride on P and then buy a bunch of related over-priced crap at Q? What other merchandise did you buy? Where did you buy said merchandise? It's data-mining to the n-th degree. What Disney will do with the data, in aggregate, remains to be seen.

 

[UofMGuy423]

I know my kids will love them and I won't miss having to collect all their KTTW cards and putting them in my wallet shortly after the turnstiles. I'll probably wear it too as it will be convenient. The one thing that might be annoying is taking everyone up to the Fastpass terminals...I normally take all of our cards and then go and do it myself. That could be annoying having tons of families crammed around the fastpass kiosks.

 

[WDWBryan]

I know my kids will love them and I won't miss having to collect all their KTTW cards and putting them in my wallet shortly after the turnstiles. I'll probably wear it too as it will be convenient. The one thing that might be annoying is taking everyone up to the Fastpass terminals...I normally take all of our cards and then go and do it myself. That could be annoying having tons of families crammed around the fastpass kiosks.

The bands wont use the fastpass machines. And with fastpass+ one person can schedule the reservations for the entire group

 

[Buried20KLeague]

Is it true That they are Taking Pictures at The Turnstiles In Disneyland and checking the photos to see if they match when you enter??

I know using my AP at DL, they would check my picture when I went through the turnstiles. No biometrics out there, if I recall. Been a year since I've been out there.

I mentioned in another thread that my RFID key I just used my whole trip at WDW never worked for park entry for me... Well, when the supervisor would come over and use their iPhone-swipe thing, they would have had no way at all of knowing if that was really my key or not. No picture came up on their iPhone, no one ever asked me for ID... They simply grabbed my card, swiped it, and said "Have a Magical Day!" and off I would go.

 

[xdan0920]

I think I'll attach it to my belt loop.

Unless the Disney police have a problem with that.

Ah...

But what if reader is at shoulder level? How's your vertical?

 

[Buried20KLeague]

Will I be able to get one when I head down in May?

I doubt it. I ran into an IT guy wearing one at BoG two weeks ago at an ordering station. He waved me over from the line, and said he wanted to "watch me order". I asked about the band. His response was that "it was at least a couple months away".

 

[Buried20KLeague]

I know my kids will love them and I won't miss having to collect all their KTTW cards and putting them in my wallet shortly after the turnstiles. I'll probably wear it too as it will be convenient. The one thing that might be annoying is taking everyone up to the Fastpass terminals...I normally take all of our cards and then go and do it myself. That could be annoying having tons of families crammed around the fastpass kiosks.

Uh...

FP machines will be going away.

See, THIS is what I'm talking about. People aren't educated on the system or changes, but are certain they're going to love it.

 

[Buried20KLeague]

I think I'll attach it to my belt loop.

Unless the Disney police have a problem with that.

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong here, but I'm fairly certain the bands are not closed loops. They have a break in them... Which wouldn't allow you to put them on a belt.

 

[danlb_2000]

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong here, but I'm fairly certain the bands are not closed loops. They have a break in them... Which wouldn't allow you to put them on a belt.

Going back to this picture is looks like they have an adjustable band like a watch would. You can see a couple holes at the bottom of the picture.

 

[pumpkin7]

Ok so I haven't read the full 23 pages, but the fact that this new MagicBand Fastpass Plus system needs 23 pages should get everyone scared. If it needs that much explaining and has that many questions, surely it's way too much hassle for a vacation? Holidays are about relaxing. This sounds like a nightmare. I just don't see how making people wait in lines is making Disney anymore money. People can't spend money when they're waiting in a queue!
Whatever man. As long as they aren't mandatory by June, I'll be happy.

 

[ThemeParks4Life]

Ok so I haven't read the full 23 pages, but the fact that this new MagicBand Fastpass Plus system needs 23 pages should get everyone scared. If it needs that much explaining and has that many questions, surely it's way too much hassle for a vacation? Holidays are about relaxing. This sounds like a nightmare. I just don't see how making people wait in lines is making Disney anymore money. People can't spend money when they're waiting in a queue!
Whatever man. As long as they aren't mandatory by June, I'll be happy.

Whenever a Magicband thread gets started here it's bound to have 20+ pages.

 

[pumpkin7]

Whenever a Magicband thread gets started here it's bound to have 20+ pages.

Exactly. Perhaps it's because it's new, who knows. It just sounds like a lot of work for a holiday.

 

[HauntedPirate]

I hope I'm 100% wrong too... But the problem is... I know I'm right.

You know how?

The new ques they're building. They're building ques meant to entertain like never before. The new graveyard. The new pirates que. The Mermaid que. Big Thunder's que. There's no way they would be spending that kind of money on the graveyard at the HM (for example) if they didn't know exactly what it was going to do to the standby lines when FP is added and felt it was necessary.

Bingo!! For years Disney has been conditioning people with, "Disney's FastPass allows you to bypass most of the stand-by line...". It was designed to get guests out of queues and into shops and restaurants, where they can spend their money. Disney has been spending a significant amount of money lately in order to entertain guests... in the queues... that they aren't supposed to spend a lot of time in because of FastPass? The clues where there, and Disney knew FP+ was coming along with the (alleged) limit of 3 FP's per day that will put a lot more people into the stand-by queues.