New NextGen RFID main entrance turnstiles to go live this week

[G00fyDad]

I don't understand how these will save time when you still have to lay your finger down? Easier for wheelchairs and strollers, no doubt, but I'm not sure how they save time. There's not really room for an entire family to crowd around one (which will happen).

Edit: just read further back and someone pointed out what makes this faster is the loss of user error, having to re-enter the card, etc. makes sense.

New System:

Guest: "Where's the card hole?"
CM: "There is no card hole any longer."
Guest: "So how do I scan my card?"
CM: "Touch the Mickey head and it will light up, then scan your finger."
Guest: (touches Mickey head with finger) "It ain't workin!"
CM: "No sir. You have to touch the Mickey head with your card then it will light up, then scan your finger."
Guest: "Its not lit up, its just blinking green!"
CM: "That's all it will do sir."
Guest: (walks on in)
CM: "No sir, you need to go back and scan your finger."
Guest: (scans wrong finger and now 20 people behind him are showing him another finger.)
CM: "Sir, please use your forefinger."
Guest: (finally gets it and everyone can now enter and go have dinner instead of lunch.)
CM: (mulls over the idea of quitting)

Keep in mind, I am all for this new system, but only because I like new technology. Not because it will be a time saver.

 

[Master Yoda]

New System:

Guest: "Where's the card hole?"
CM: "There is no card hole any longer."
Guest: "So how do I scan my card?"
CM: "Touch the Mickey head and it will light up, then scan your finger."
Guest: (touches Mickey head with finger) "It ain't workin!"
CM: "No sir. You have to touch the Mickey head with your card then it will light up, then scan your finger."
Guest: "Its not lit up, its just blinking green!"
CM: "That's all it will do sir."
Guest: (walks on in)
CM: "No sir, you need to go back and scan your finger."
Guest: (scans wrong finger and now 20 people behind him are showing him another finger.)
CM: "Sir, please use your forefinger."
Guest: (finally gets it and everyone can now enter and go have dinner instead of lunch.)
CM: (mulls over the idea of quitting)

Keep in mind, I am all for this new system, but only because I like new technology. Not because it will be a time saver.

In all fairness I see the same thing at the current set up. I have seen guests arguing with each other about which direction to put their ticket into the slot. I have even seen a guy try and stick his ticket in sideways. Then there is of course those who think that finger scan will not work unless they apply enough pressure to drive the entire turnstile 4' into the ground.

About the only way Disney could completely remove the chance of a guest screwing something up would be to just offer free admission and remove the check in process entirely.

 

[COProgressFan]

I don't understand why they don't actually have the turnstiles themselves though. The RFID readers will be cleaner and quicker but I would think they'd want something in place to stop people from going in without scanning.

I agree...not sure how to prevent people from getting through. We have all been there at park opening when there are hundreds (if not more) of folks trying to get into the park. What is to prevent people from slipping through the entrance while a family is fiddling with the rfid bracelets, and the CM is distracted trying to help them?

 

[ParentsOf4]

About the only way Disney could completely remove the chance of a guest screwing something up would be to just offer free admission and remove the check in process entirely.

The way to speed up admission would be to eliminate finger scans completely. If WDW really wanted to improve guests' experiences, just let them wave their RFID and walk through. If guests later want to reenter or park hop, have them scan their RFID as they leave.

Of course, the reason they don't do this is because they are afraid of partially used tickets being sold on the secondary market and how this might impact revenue. TWDC can't have anything, including guest satisfaction, interfere with revenue.

 

[G00fyDad]

In all fairness I see the same thing at the current set up. I have seen guests arguing with each other about which direction to put their ticket into the slot. I have even seen a guy try and stick his ticket in sideways. Then there is of course those who think that finger scan will not work unless they apply enough pressure to drive the entire turnstile 4' into the ground.

About the only way Disney could completely remove the chance of a guest screwing something up would be to just offer free admission and remove the check in process entirely.

Oh I truly get that. I understand that we have the exact same problem right now with the current system the way it is. I'm only pointing out that the new RFID system is not going to change anything in the way of speed. Just remember you can't fix stupid.

 

[Master Yoda]

Oh I truly get that. I understand that we have the exact same problem right now with the current system the way it is. I'm only pointing out that the new RFID system is not going to change anything in the way of speed. Just remember you can't fix stupid.

Right now I see 2 places where the new set up can, the key word being "can", speed up the entry progress. The first is obvious, no physical barrier. I can not tell you how any times I have seen people wedge themselves into a turnstile by catching a bag, backpack etc. and it will make access for strollers and wheel chairs much easier. Lastly, as near as I can tell, RFID cards scan much easier than magnetic stripes. Hopefully this will avoid the, "scan, re-scan, try it once more, then just have a CM scan the bar code" senario that seems to happen with at least one of our AP's on every park entry.

 

[G00fyDad]

Right now I see 2 places where the new set up can, the key word being "can", speed up the entry progress. The first is obvious, no physical barrier. I can not tell you how any times I have seen people wedge themselves into a turnstile by catching a bag, backpack etc. and it will make access for strollers and wheel chairs much easier. Lastly, as near as I can tell, RFID cards scan much easier than magnetic stripes. Hopefully this will avoid the, "scan, re-scan, try it once more, then just have a CM scan the bar code" senario that seems to happen with at least one of our AP's on every park entry.

Fair point. I cannot count the number of times on our past trips we have had to wait while somebody scans, rescans, and then scans again and then has the CM scan it for them. It's happened to me personally more time than I like to count.

 

[Tom]

Right now I see 2 places where the new set up can, the key word being "can", speed up the entry progress. The first is obvious, no physical barrier. I can not tell you how any times I have seen people wedge themselves into a turnstile by catching a bag, backpack etc. and it will make access for strollers and wheel chairs much easier. Lastly, as near as I can tell, RFID cards scan much easier than magnetic stripes. Hopefully this will avoid the, "scan, re-scan, try it once more, then just have a CM scan the bar code" senario that seems to happen with at least one of our AP's on every park entry.

Exactly. There's going to be another 10 year learning curve, but the entry system WILL get faster. For most folks, almost immediately. For those that are not so bright, they may take all 10 years.

The nice thing about the Mickey Head readers is that they read pretty quickly. Heck, if they're anything like our Bay Lake Tower door, I can just hold my wallet up to the thing and it will scan it. That was quite handy when coming back to our room at night.

And yes, it will get rid of the multiple attempts of feeding a damaged or "erased" card through the machine. Unless these guests manage to scramble an RFID chip, there's no more "demagnetized" argument. Plus, I never understood the whole "feeding the card through a different direction" philosophy. Those turnstiles have four mag-stripe readers, meaning you can put the card in any direction and it will read it....as long as all the 1's and 0's are still arranged properly.

 

[Master Yoda]

Exactly. There's going to be another 10 year learning curve, but the entry system WILL get faster. For most folks, almost immediately. For those that are not so bright, they may take all 10 years.

The nice thing about the Mickey Head readers is that they read pretty quickly. Heck, if they're anything like our Bay Lake Tower door, I can just hold my wallet up to the thing and it will scan it. That was quite handy when coming back to our room at night.

And yes, it will get rid of the multiple attempts of feeding a damaged or "erased" card through the machine. Unless these guests manage to scramble an RFID chip, there's no more "demagnetized" argument. Plus, I never understood the whole "feeding the card through a different direction" philosophy. Those turnstiles have four mag-stripe readers, meaning you can put the card in any direction and it will read it....as long as all the 1's and 0's are still arranged properly.

Most people do not know or understand this. The majority of us do because we are at the parks all the time, but the average guest is use to your typical magnetic stripe reader that has one and only one correct way to scan a CC.

 

[Tom]

Most people do not know or understand this. The majority of us do because we are at the parks all the time, but the average guest is use to your typical magnetic stripe reader that has one and only one correct way to scan a CC.

I know, but I was referring to the CMs who waste every guests' time by re-inserting the card for the guest with the "bad" card, in every single way. Then wiping it off with their shirt and trying again. If it doesn't work the first time, just scan the damn barcode! It's the same thing and the guest will be in and the line will keep moving.

 

[Master Yoda]

I know, but I was referring to the CMs who waste every guests' time by re-inserting the card for the guest with the "bad" card, in every single way. Then wiping it off with their shirt and trying again. If it doesn't work the first time, just scan the damn barcode! It's the same thing and the guest will be in and the line will keep moving.

That I wholeheartedly agree with.

 

[danlb_2000]

I know, but I was referring to the CMs who waste every guests' time by re-inserting the card for the guest with the "bad" card, in every single way. Then wiping it off with their shirt and trying again. If it doesn't work the first time, just scan the damn barcode! It's the same thing and the guest will be in and the line will keep moving.

Since the tickets already had barcodes I don't know why at some point in the past they didn't set things up with a barcode scanner that the guests could use instead of the mag reader. A good quality barcode scanner can give you responsiveness that is almost as good as RFID.

Of course they may not want to do that because the barcode is to easy to copy, handing it to the CM at least lets them check that it's a real ticket and not a copy.

 

[tworkman08]

I know, but I was referring to the CMs who waste every guests' time by re-inserting the card for the guest with the "bad" card, in every single way. Then wiping it off with their shirt and trying again. If it doesn't work the first time, just scan the damn barcode! It's the same thing and the guest will be in and the line will keep moving.

I can speak to the fast pass machines, their are 4 different readers so that you can swipe your card any way you choose and sometime one or more of those readers are bad or weaker than the others. Scanning the card a different direction solves non reading issues 85% of the time. Knowing that the card is de magnetized(vs the reader not working) lets us direct the Guest to guest services for reprinting vs. overriding the machine right away and hoping the guest doesn't continue have issues.

 

[Rob562]

I can speak to the fast pass machines, their are 4 different readers so that you can swipe your card any way you choose and sometime one or more of those readers are bad or weaker than the others. Scanning the card a different direction solves non reading issues 85% of the time. Knowing that the card is de magnetized(vs the reader not working) lets us direct the Guest to guest services for reprinting vs. overriding the machine right away and hoping the guest doesn't continue have issues.

The front gate readers are the same thing. The CMs there should be told that a mis-read should get one re-try in a different orientation and then scan the barcode, and not to keep trying it multiple times in every possible direction.

-Rob

 

[G00fyDad]

The front gate readers are the same thing. The CMs there should be told that a mis-read should get one re-try in a different orientation and then scan the barcode, and not to keep trying it multiple times in every possible direction.

-Rob

Its maddening. The same thing drives me nuts at the grocery store. Watching the cashier scan, scan, scan, scan, scan, scan, scan, scan, scan, scan, scan, scan, scan, scan, scan, scan, scan, scan, scan, scan, scan, scan, scan, scan, and scan my item before I flip out and demand that they hand key the 9 digit barcode in. How hard is that?!?

 

[Rob562]

OK, I think the nightmare scenario for the CMs working new setup just popped into my mind:
A Brazilian tour group of 80 people rushing the gate and only 9 passes get scanned while everyone else enters the park en-masse while the few CMs posted there try and figure out what to do...

-Rob

 

[G00fyDad]

OK, I think the nightmare scenario for the CMs working new setup just popped into my mind:
A Brazilian tour group of 80 people rushing the gate and only 9 passes get scanned while everyone else enters the park en-masse while the few CMs posted there try and figure out what to do...

-Rob

Water bottles.

"Bad tour group!! Bad!!"

 

[COProgressFan]

OK, I think the nightmare scenario for the CMs working new setup just popped into my mind:
A Brazilian tour group of 80 people rushing the gate and only 9 passes get scanned while everyone else enters the park en-masse while the few CMs posted there try and figure out what to do...

-Rob

I think this is a very possible scenario. And it doesn't have to be a tour group. I can see a situation where a family or four with a toddler, and grandpa and grandpa in tow get mixed up and somehow someone's card/bracelet/whatever doesn't get scanned when they enter. You might think that's not a problem until they try to enter their magical 10:15am Fastpass+ window and the system doesn't recognize them as having entered the park. I'm sure the Ops people are going to love this...

 

[Amanda Allen]

Pardon my ignorance, but the latest news post says it will work for resort key cards but not for passholders. What about Magic Your Way tickets without a resort card (staying offsite)? If my understanding is correct, eventually they will be converting Magic Your Way paper tickets to RFID wristbands, but not yet... right?

 

[wdwmagic]

PHOTOS - A look at the new NextGen RFID turnstiles at all four parks