Metrics are not a bad thing. They drop in NFL, and attendance goes up at Magic Kingdom...but how many people actually WENT to NFL. How much time did they spend there. When did they walk near a ride but skip it and do something else? Why did they do that? What length was the line at that time? Was that a factor, or was it something else?
All of these questions can be fairly accurately measured using metrics from the Bands (and other features of MM+). This hopefully gives Park Operations a better idea of where people are going and what they are doing...and is far more accurate than relying on data collected from CMs or inconsistent Parks Research people.
Is Animal Kingdom a full day or a half day park? They already know when people enter and leave, but what they DON'T know is where they go after that.
As a side note...I wonder if they will add the tracking to hotels...that would be interesting.
Anyhow...
I don't see it as a big deal. I'm on property, and if I don't want them to track me, fine...I'll just get the RFID card (which doesn't have the longrange bluetooth that the band does which is required for detailed positioning).
Additionally...and this is something I can't recall...doesn't the MDE App access your phone's location services? Hrm...that would ALSO give Disney your location on and off property. Good way to find out how much "leak" they have to Uni/SW/Legoland...no band required.
Just a thought.
Two things occured to me while reading your post.
If they really want to find out who is "leaving property" and "coming back"...outside of having the app access Location Services...There are two other things they could add that would give them some really neat metrics to play with.
They could install license plate scanners at all the access points. They could even go crazy with that and put them all over property...but, if you had them at the main "disney gates" (not the park gates) they could see who left and came back...or vice versa. This would give:
a) A good idea of how many people are staying off property
b) A good idea of how many people are on property, but leaving to go do something off property
And yes, it would sound VERY big brother...but...there's no reason why it's illegal or immoral. They don't have to run your tags...just collect the tag info direction and time. Then you can build reports based off of the duration, and make pretty solid assumptions from that.
So, if someone leaves at 8a and doesn't come back until midnight, there's a pretty strong chance that guest went to one of the offsite parks...for example.
The second thing that occured to me would be if they added features (like Disneyland has) to encourage people to use the MDE as their complete trip planning tool...INCLUDING offsite offerings. So, while I doubt they'd go as far as Disneyland and actually offer tickets or promote offsite stuff at WDW...they could at least allow you to plug in an "offsite Park" and then choose which one as one of your "Park Days"...
Then they would also have a pretty good idea of what people are planning to do offsite and when in their trip they do it. Also, unlike Bands alone, it would let them know exactly WHERE people plan to go to spend their time offsite, at least at some reasonable level.
For example...this family didn't add Disney to their stay on Thursday. Currently, they can add a note that says "Universal" in MDE...but probably won't. However, if Disney put it on the App as a choice, they are much more likely to do so.
Of course this would mean that Disney would be loosely "marketing" other area options...so, the question is...is that risk worth the information gathered? I would say yes. Then they can target surveys to those people to attempt to find out why they went offsite.
Though, I suspect the common answer is...because they have stuff I want to see that Disney doesn't.
