MyMagic+ article from Fast Company magazine

sshindel

The Epcot Manifesto
On our recent trip a few weeks ago, we received a survey for MK, one for EPCOT, and one for our resort - Grand Flo. All 3 had options to say that we were completely dissatisfied with an area, and several questions added an additional block for free form comments after a particular answer. There were areas that I was not so nice, and others that I praised for all 3.
Any chance I can get your Epcot one to send in??? :cautious:
 

RSoxNo1

Well-Known Member
To name a few
FP+
MemoryMaker (on-ride photos and videos without any intervention from the customer)
Be Our Guest's pre-ordering system
Daily itinerary tracking in my smartphone
(and behind the scenes, untold amounts of operational efficiencies potentially handled via data analytics)

Seeing my face on a wanted poster or having Buzz Lightyear say my name in a queue in no way interests me more than the amount of stress that has been alleviated from my park-going experience via MM+.
FP+ is a scheduling system that has been met with a significant amount of criticism. Yes it's a technological advancement, but not necessarily a positive one.
Memory Maker did exist in some form, although the RFID component is an enhancement.
Be Our Guest's pre-ordering system - many restaurants allow this, they just didn't tie it to an $80 million website.
Daily itinerary tracking on your smartphone was done years earlier (and better) by @lentesta's company.

For $80 million, Disney has created a website that is just a nicer look version of TouringPlans.com and AllEars.net.
 

RSoxNo1

Well-Known Member
All of that just sounds....awful to me.

Maybe it's just me...someone who never minded gathering up FP, never buys onride photos, doesn't want to pre-order a meal or even think about having an itinerary to be tracked on a phone.

For me, the negatives, or non-gains, simply outweigh the positives.
Being able to get day of Fastpasses on your phone or at centralized locations would have been a great improvement. That's not what they did.
 

gmajew

Well-Known Member
Ahh, you had the audacity to question the wisdom of our lords and masters, Anna and Elsa. I'm surprised they didn't have you trespassed!

On the other hand, I've looked around all over Epcot just begging for someone to give me a survey to fill out. Has not happened! Next time instead of making a Kitchen Kabaret T-shirt, I think I'll make one that says:
"Please ask me about my opinion of Epcot" and walk around Spaceship Earth all day.

I got an Epcot survey over Spring break this year. I was positive about my interactions with cast members but wrote extremely long reviews and concern about the quality of the pavilions what needed work bad repair issues etc. I held nothing back.
 

sshindel

The Epcot Manifesto
I got an Epcot survey over Spring break this year. I was positive about my interactions with cast members but wrote extremely long reviews and concern about the quality of the pavilions what needed work bad repair issues etc. I held nothing back.
I fear I'd run out of room in their text box, and I don't know if I'm able to trim down my opinions to anything less than 20,000 words.
 

sshindel

The Epcot Manifesto
I need to bow out of this thread for a while.
I've watched the new Star Wars teaser trailer, and my brain has decided to take a quick holiday into joyful childlike excitement. I doubt I'll be able to form full sentences when I watch it for the 5th time in a minute here.
It's been fun y'all.
 

Jeffxz

Well-Known Member
It already shows it has the ability to be upgraded, Apple pay (Apple's watch and iPhone 6) are compatible with the system and it took no hardware to do that... The infrastructure is there and set, something other parks do not have including other Disney Parks and has he stated in the interview at the end of the article something they are looking at at all the parks because it is the future... Generally speaking once a company goes through this painful of a tech upgrade they never want to do it again so they staggered upgrades to avoid it... So we will most likely always be seeing them upgrade and replace WiFi Access points, adding fiber, replacing computers and server functionality. If they plan it correctly now they will not need to do massive upgrades again, they just always need to keep the current infrastructure upgraded and current so the projects stay manageable.

That is just my experience in I.T. I know Disney is much smarter than me with large project planning and budgeting, my only experiences is with companies up to 500 employees but that is how it SHOULD be handled lol...

You keep referring to WDWs Apple Pay implementation as something that was a strength of the system, I disagree and think this shows the weaknesses and the problems with the system that was deployed. I'll try to explain.

It took WDW over 3 months to deploy Apple Pay from the time of announcement to roll out, this timeline assumes that the WDW team did not know about this before the announcement which they most likely were aware of it before Disney committed to supporting it. It was also only deployed to physical registers and not the wireless scanners used in most restaurants probably to meet the promised "before Christmas" date. NGE was a project in development for years that didn't take into account an NFC payment system that has been around for over a decade, with Google Wallet existing since 2011 and everyone knowing an apple wallet was coming sooner or later. How was a feature like this missed in the initial development of the payment terminals? The answer is that just like all the other promised features of MM+ it probably wasn't missed, just pushed out due to budget and/or deadline reasons. If it took over 3 months to simply read data from an NFC device, I don't see a lot of hope that this system is flexible enough to make future improvements at a reasonable cost.

As someone who also has experience with projects like this ( but nowhere near this scale). My prediction is that what we have today from MM+ is mostly what we will have 5 years from now. From an outsider it appears to me that the entire MDX system is being held together by a thread. Any real changes will be much too expensive to implement because they will risk breaking systems that were quickly cobbled together by too many different groups at the end to meet the IBFW deadline that management claims didn't exist.

Disclaimer since it seems everyone here must declare their love or hate for MM+: I'm indifferent towards it. I use it to my advantage and am ok with it, but I could be just as happy going back to the old kttw system.
 

hokielutz

Well-Known Member
see for me the thought of running around and gathering up FP's just ruined my day. As AP holders our family rarely plans out a trip to WDW more than a week before and we pretty much decide on which park the night before, and generally we get most of the fp's we want in a condensed window, leaving to us to do whatever we want for the rest of the day.


Some years ago... I didn't mind being a runner for my group or extended family.... (whoever happened to be vacationing with us in WDW at the time) I saw being at the parks before rope drop a necessary duty to ensure everyone had a great time. I would juke and dodge through the throngs of people in order to get the first/next FP's for our group and willingly sacrificed my body for the family's enjoyment. (if they happened to be riding IASW to kill time while I ran to SM/BTMR, then i pitied them)

I've been to WDW twice since the MM+ implementation... and the first time didn't count because I was traveling alone and attempted my own personal ultimate touring plan. What I miss and many will agree is the ability to get tickets for the same attraction more than once a day. What I won't miss is the huffing and puffing to get from one side of the park to the other for FP tickets. Now I can stay with my family the entire time and we enjoy the journey together... except when we are all stuck in the last scene of IASW.
 

LuvtheGoof

Grill Master
Premium Member
You keep referring to WDWs Apple Pay implementation as something that was a strength of the system, I disagree and think this shows the weaknesses and the problems with the system that was deployed. I'll try to explain.

It took WDW over 3 months to deploy Apple Pay from the time of announcement to roll out, this timeline assumes that the WDW team did not know about this before the announcement which they most likely were aware of it before Disney committed to supporting it. It was also only deployed to physical registers and not the wireless scanners used in most restaurants probably to meet the promised "before Christmas" date. NGE was a project in development for years that didn't take into account an NFC payment system that has been around for over a decade, with Google Wallet existing since 2011 and everyone knowing an apple wallet was coming sooner or later. How was a feature like this missed in the initial development of the payment terminals? The answer is that just like all the other promised features of MM+ it probably wasn't missed, just pushed out due to budget and/or deadline reasons. If it took over 3 months to simply read data from an NFC device, I don't see a lot of hope that this system is flexible enough to make future improvements at a reasonable cost.
Well, unfortunately, you missed a key point. Just having an NFC terminal does NOT make it compatible with Apple Pay. The software they are using has to accept the token that is generated, instead of the actual CC information. As another example, OfficeMax had the terminals last year, and I tried in February to use it. It looked like it worked, but didn't go through. I talked with their corporate office, and they stated they had to upgrade their software as well, and it would work in March. I went back, and it worked flawlessly. It is very possible that Disney had to go through this same exercise, and got it done in 3 months.
 

LuvtheGoof

Grill Master
Premium Member
Some years ago... I didn't mind being a runner for my group or extended family.... (whoever happened to be vacationing with us in WDW at the time) I saw being at the parks before rope drop a necessary duty to ensure everyone had a great time. I would juke and dodge through the throngs of people in order to get the first/next FP's for our group and willingly sacrificed my body for the family's enjoyment. (if they happened to be riding IASW to kill time while I ran to SM/BTMR, then i pitied them)

I've been to WDW twice since the MM+ implementation... and the first time didn't count because I was traveling alone and attempted my own personal ultimate touring plan. What I miss and many will agree is the ability to get tickets for the same attraction more than once a day. What I won't miss is the huffing and puffing to get from one side of the park to the other for FP tickets. Now I can stay with my family the entire time and we enjoy the journey together... except when we are all stuck in the last scene of IASW.
Except you CAN get on more than once. Get there at rope drop, hit the biggies, but have your FP+ scheduled for later in the morning or afternoon, or even evening. You get to ride again. Of course, before, you could get a FP over and over and ride Space Mountain 5 times in one day, but my question is, why would you want to ride ANY ride that many times in one day???
 

alphac2005

Well-Known Member
I just want to say that for some of us, it's just completely unappealing scheduling all of these components of a vacation. I want to stroll around, enjoy things, and not in a position to be beholden to some sort of structured time schedule as I have to do that all year round with my company and family. It appears that I'm in the minority today and not of any concern to the TWC as it pertains to the Florida property.

I found @AustinC 's piece to be quite a good read and didn't have the stench of PR spin, rather, hit some highs and lows of the MM+ developmental track. Always keep in mind that no matter the sources, people are always spinning and there are pieces of the puzzle that are omitted or slanted in ways from any article. Mr. Carr knows this as a journalist and I felt that he really presented a good understanding of his subject matter. Very good balance and as a former journalist, it's always terrific to see a well crafted piece with interesting behind the scenes details!
 

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