Motley Fool reports lots and lots spent on My Magic+ in 2013

[Disneyhead'71]

Apparently it's also hyperbole inducing...

How is that hyperbole. Day guests (locals) get access to the system the morning we arrive at the park. You guys have been hogging all the FP+ for 60 days before I get a shot at FP+s. Oh sure, I could have booked a hotel room 12 miles from my house at an exorbitant rate 61 days before I plan on visiting so that I can get 3 FP+s and plan out one day at an amusement park. You do realize that that is insane, right?

Logical locals only go to Epcot, and that is to drink. We go to Universal to actually ride rides. Oh, and we drink in the new lovely Disney Springs, too.

And I'm pretty sure TDO is absolutely on board with this, considering their current capacity issues. Self inflicted, of course.

 

[NearTheEars]

I still have never put on a Magic Band or used FP+.
No plans for that to change.

I've used both extensively since launch.
No plans for that to change.

The band, I don't really care about either way. The card was fine too. What I've really enjoyed is FP+ and being able to book them ahead of time, often just the night before.

I don't agree, however, with some of the attractions added to FP, like all omnimovers and POTC.

But we've adapted. We head to the parks early and enjoy the low wait times, do our FPs and often leave just after lunch. Or we just go for the afternoon, do our FPs, see some shows and head home.

For a local, it's made our trips extremely efficient. Actually gives us more time to to hit other OTown shopping and food.

 

[danlb_2000]

How is that hyperbole. Day guests (locals) get access to the system the morning we arrive at the park. You guys have been hogging all the FP+ for 60 days before I get a shot at FP+s. Oh sure. I could have booked a hotel room 12 miles from my house at an exorbitant rate to gain access to better ride times. You do realize that that is insane. Logical locals just go to Epcot to drink and Universal to actually ride rides. Oh, and we drink in the new lovely Disney Springs, too.

You can't make reservations 30 days ahead?

 

[peter11435]

How is that hyperbole. Day guests (locals) get access to the system the morning we arrive at the park. You guys have been hogging all the FP+ for 60 days before I get a shot at FP+s. Oh sure. I could have booked a hotel room 12 miles from my house at an exorbitant rate to gain access to better ride times. You do realize that that is insane. Logical locals just go to Epcot to drink and Universal to actually ride rides. Oh, and we drink in the new lovely Disney Springs, too.

The only way day guests have to wait until the morning they arrive to book FP+ is if they were dumb enough to wait until they arrived to purchase their tickets. As long as you have your tickets you can book fastpasses 30 days in advance.

 

[zakattack99]

I like the magicbands. It was very convenient for my wife and I in Nov. We had our meals, hotel, credit card, fast pass, theme park admission, and photo pass all on one band. You don't have to dig in your wallet or bag to find all the stuff you need... fastpass+ however I am not as much of a fan of. I liked the old system, I likeep the convenience of not having the paper fasspasses but I do not like making my plans for rides days in advance.

That being said I feel like this was a Capitol project that was pushed out when it could have been gradually rolled out. POS would have to be updated anyway to accommodate chip cards, why not wait and do it when that time came? Same with WiFi, roll it out as you being the app in to service? Door keys could have been added as resorts are renovated? Seems like they just did not do it wisely.

 

[Disneyhead'71]

You can't make reservations 30 days ahead?

I believe AP holders can. I'm not one. I usually either get walked in or get comp passes through work. Either way, I usually have between 3-24hours notice that I am going. I pick up the tickets at the gate day of. The 3 times I have been since FP+ was rolled out, I have found the system to be functionally useless for me.

 

[peter11435]

I believe AP holders can. I'm not one. I usually either get walked in or get comp passes through work. Either way, I usually have between 3-24hours notice that I am going. I pick up the tickets at the gate day of. The 3 times I have been since FP+ was rolled out, I have found the system to be functionally useless for me.

All ticket holders can book 30 days out.

So you're upset that you don't get the same privileges as paying guests when you visit the parks for free?

For the record I just checked and I can still get fastpasses for a party of 4 for all but two attractions tomorrow.

 

["El Gran Magnifico"]

Those cost savings have now been replaced by maintaining a large, forward facing technology infrastructure. An infrastructure that was neglected and pry of the "need" for NextGen project.

Won't dispute that....but the technology costs will be (I won't say easily) offset.

 

[twebber55]

i like the new system im just not sure i see the investment being really worth it. it does allow flexibility in setting FPs

 

[danlb_2000]

I believe AP holders can. I'm not one. I usually either get walked in or get comp passes through work. Either way, I usually have between 3-24hours notice that I am going. I pick up the tickets at the gate day of. The 3 times I have been since FP+ was rolled out, I have found the system to be functionally useless for me.

Ok, so you don't like the system because it is discriminatory against the very small number of people who visit the parks on the spur of the moment.

 

["El Gran Magnifico"]

I believe AP holders can. I'm not one. I usually either get walked in or get comp passes through work. Either way, I usually have between 3-24hours notice that I am going. I pick up the tickets at the gate day of. The 3 times I have been since FP+ was rolled out, I have found the system to be functionally useless for me.

I've made FP choices (or changed existing ones) walking through the gate. Some rides free up at the last minute. You may not understand the system correctly.

 

[PorterRedkey]

Motley Fool reports on Disney a lot for click bait. I am not sure they are a great source. The 2.8 million also include other expenses including Shanghai, Disneyland, DLP and ESPN. It is not like 2.8 was spent on MM+. Still a big waste of money, just not 2.8 billion big.

 

[Baltar]

You know what else lowers wait times? More attractions that could have been built for the price of this lol

 

[WhatJaneSays]

I loathe the system. They paid $3.2 billion to make sure that I never give them money again.

Good job Brainiacs.

As a local, the new system is not only non functional. It is discriminatory against us. Why would I be a fan?

Your 1.5x10^−6% loss in revenue will be sorely missed in the face of Disney successfully adding another disconnect layer between spending and the money itself.

As a local, the new system is extremely functional, far above it's usefulness to tourists. I can be walking out of work and see what FP are available, decide what park I want to go to, and book my spot before I even get to my car. I could to ride a ride I love every day on my commute home if I wanted to. (Well, almost everyday, you couldn't pay me enough money to go in a park the week of Christmas.)

 

[lazyboy97o]

I don't know about profitable, but it will definitely save money. It may take years, and it is able to infinitely evolve overtime. The MM+ is not something that can easily become obsolete.

It is something that very, very easily will become obsolete. The technology will require continued reinvestment, an area where Disney has a poor track record and this is doubly true since there is no direct revenue stream.

Won't dispute that....but the technology costs will be (I won't say easily) offset.

How will they be offset? The promised jumps in even have not materialized and Disney now tries to ignore that they ever had such crazy thoughts.

Ok, so you don't like the system because it is discriminatory against the very small number of people who visit the parks on the spur of the moment.

Do you know exactly what you are doing in one month wherever you live?

 

[tractor tipper]

My take on all this is, we still have no idea of how much MM+ cost, some people hate it, some love it, some don't care, and a bunch can't comprehend what they read.

 

[Magenta Panther]

You know what else lowers wait times? More attractions that could have been built for the price of this lol

 

["El Gran Magnifico"]

How will they be offset? The promised jumps in even have not materialized and Disney now tries to ignore that they ever had such crazy thoughts.

So...Revenue is up....Attendance is down...are we really going to go into this.....Okay then...

Edited to say: ............................................................

Edited Again:......Let's pick up this conversation the evening of August 9th.

 

[bhg469]

At the time Disney first announced their plans I was managing an access control system and the maintenance/expansion of the system ... I couldn't even IMAGINE the cost of just the hardware on the door side. Just as a guess, if they could keep the total cost per door unit from placing the order order to guest usable to $100 that's 3 million dollars with zero wiggle room for errors.

(as a total aside: I remember fighting over a few budget items with co-workers. They all wanted a "better" version of one particular item we used and they couldn't understand why I wouldn't spring and spend the extra $5 to get the "pretty" one. I was like ... sure guys, find me $3000 extra in the budget and I'll do it. They had no idea how many we went through in a year.)

Access control you say? Do we deal in similar business?

Getting people into places they pay to be in?

 

[djkidkaz]

Im a local and attend the parks almost once a week. I never have any problem getting a fastpass for any attraction with a little effort. I logged on this morning and made fastpasses for the night safari, Everest and Kali for today with no problem at all, and it's in the middle of summer. I had family visit last week and we were able to get passes for Frozen. I just refreshed the app for like 5 minutes, it came up, I took it regardless of the time and then built our day around the time of that pass. We also went to Hollywood Studios and got a pass the morning of for Aerosmith, tower and star tours. Then we got a 4th pass for GMR and only had to wait in line for 30 min for TSMM due to the increased capacity. Took only 3 hours to do all 5 rides in the park.

In regards to increased waits, yeah some attractions have longer waits than they did before like pirates or mansion but I guess it doesn't bother me as much being a local. If I walk past pirates and it's too long a wait I just hit it up next time, no big deal. But on the other end, I've noticed waits go down for some of the bigger attractions like space mountain, splash and BTMRR since the advent of FP+.