NextGen / FP+ / Magic Band. The official truth starts to appear

[scmit02]

As an AP holder here was our breakdown from today: family of 3, $65.00 in food, $60.00 in merchandise and about $20 in snacks (soda, candy, etc). We were there from 10:30 to 3:30 and went to DHS and DTD. This was a short trip in terms of time and average to below average in $$$. We were only a few of the many fl aps there today, add all those others pass-holders purchases and that is a lot of money WDW won't pass up.

The way I see it is, until wdw is at 95% occupancy and all parks are at stage 3 closings from non APs only they won't get rid of APs or FL APs. Actually, the fact that WDW is offering monthly payment plans for APs tells me they want more, not less. Also, in a politically sensitive state like FL, the backlash and bad press WDW would get wouldn't be worth it. Try getting a huge tax break or public funding for anything if the voters here feel betrayed.

 

[JimboJones123]

Do you have any conception what two billion dollars could buy - even with Disneys bloated overhead?

Yep, a 5th gate.

 

[Captain Chaos]

So, are we still speculating that Disney will be tracking each guests' movement including where you are in our resort? Or will this really be the case? Cause I want them to know when I am in Universal for 4 days and SeaWorld for 2 and WDW theme parks for no days of the week even though I am staying at a WDW resort (my DVC resort)....

 

[Enderikari]

Wow, there is so much negative going on, from the usual suspects of course.
Annual Passes aren't going away. And nobody, who would have any idea, said anything of the sort.
MyMagic+, NextGen, or whatever you want to call it is a great merging of technological innovation with an eye towards the experience of the park visitor, which, besides the addition of Fastpass in the late 90's has been stagnant since... 1971.
And its pretty obvious to me, standing in Enchanted Forest, looking at the cool new stuff; seeing the changes to Test Track, and knowing there is more to come that its not like NextGen took money away that would have been spent elsewhere.
Ok, no more to say. Back into hiding again for another 5 years.

 

[Goof-Man]

Do you have any conception what two billion dollars could buy - even with Disneys bloated overhead?

Of course I know how much 2 billion could buy. We are looking at next gen as something that is only occurring at wdw. It s a company wide initivitve. Something that big would cost 2 billion easily. Consider this, next gen has launched with very little down time and the apps and the servers have worked and not crashed. Even amazon has gone down lately and yet I can still book a dining reservation.

 

[Enderikari]

2 Billion is not even enough to cover the changes to DCA, so posh on that building a whole new 5th gate.

 

[BigThunderMatt]

2 Billion is not even enough to cover the changes to DCA, so posh on that building a whole new 5th gate.

Not at WDI's inflated prices. But any other company in the industry could easily afford an entire park with that much money.

 

[Witchy Chick]

Maybe the social media minions can work on explaining why limited time magic is already falling by the wayside in week 2. The direction of WDW right now is just appalling.

And here I thought a magic bracelet WAS Limited Time Magic week #2 promo. Silly me.

 

[merry68]

Unfortunately you are not the demographic that Disney wants in their park. You are not staying in the hotels, and more than likely you are not eating at the higher priced restaurants because you are not preplanning your stay.

I truly feel the days of the Florida pass and Annual pass are numbered.

Totally agree.


The price of TiW has increased and the PAP merch discount has been downgraded to 10%. Next will be the huge jack up in the price of annual passes and although there will be definite screaming and upset people, I don't think TDO cares...it is becoming more and more clear they want people visiting on their package deals, not passholders who just come into town and visit for a day or two every so often.

I think I will be better off staying on property and reaping the benefits of a package deal vs. what I would've gotten using my now expired annual pass.

 

[dxwwf3]

Hopefully the lowering of the Premium merchandise discount isn't a sign of things to come to screw over the loyal fans that have helped build the resort through word of mouth. I'm a Premier passholder and I'm not furious about the discount reduction at all, but I just hope this isn't the beginning of the end of my frequent WDW trips. Hopefully some of you are right and they won't try to completely kick us AP'ers out for good.

 

[alphac2005]

What happened to just going on a vacation? I'm surrounded by screens in my office all days, iPad, phone, etc. The idea, to me, is to disconnect from all the clutter that we have going on in our lives, if only for a few days. Now I imagine an army of ECVs even more dangerous than ever as they're staring at the "app." On a serious note, in the end, all the technical gimmicks can't mask a rapidly declining product. They don't care, though, because all that TDO is looking for are the overego inflating parents that want to make little Sally and Johnny feel special.

 

[BryceM]

I find this curious, I don't live in Florida, so answer me this, does Universal have a Florida Annual Pass? Because if they do, then I don't think WDW would get rid of it as it has been pointed out to me several times on this site (even though i don't agree) that whatever one park does the other will as well. So by that logic as long as Universal offers an AP for Florida residents, then WDW won't get rid of it.

Yes, and it's an amazing deal. The Preferred Pass is only $224 for Florida Residents, and it includes a year of admission, free parking, discounts on tickets and discounted merchandise. Looking to purchase one very, very soon.

And yeah, WDW getting rid of the Florida Resident Annual Pass option wouldn't happen. Though, they will probably jack up the price sooner or later. My mother and I were looking to get one, but it already seemed pretty expensive, especially for a family of 5. Though they did do that awesome deal for Florida Residents where you got 3 parks for a pretty low price. I really hope they do that again.

 

[TalkingHead]

Though they did do that awesome deal for Florida Residents where you got 3 parks for a pretty low price. I really hope they do that again.

They have a special deal going on for Florida residents right now-- 3 day, non-hopper ticket. $120.

http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/florida-residents/3-day-ticket/

I think the ticket has to be used by May or thereabouts. Anyway, beats the regular price which is about $100 more.

 

[Skyway]

Quick point on AP's (it's not going away):

If anyone remembers WDW right after 9/11, AP's were treated like royalty. Most of the country was too afraid to fly, so Disney had to rely on drive-distance visitors to keep the lights on. AP's had special lounges with free soft drinks in every park, new purchases and renewals got 6 additional months free, and there were a bunch of discounts and promotions.

If anything, it feels like a slap in the face to all of us who supported the company during that national tragedy to now find pass prices skyrocketing and benefits dropping. They no longer need us anymore...until another economic disaster forces WDW to come back crawling on its knees like a cheating spouse.

 

[TinkerBelle8878]

I think the amount of money wasted on this is nuts. That money could've been used to get new Monorail trains which are in dire need of replacement. It could've been used to fix the mess that is Future World. I don't like the whole idea of reserving spots for fireworks and parade viewing because to me, that's one step away from worse viewing spots for Illuminations. As it is some restaurants are now infringing on prime real estate there with plans for more to be built. It should be as its always been, first come first serve. You want a good seat, you get there early. You don't care, show up 5 minutes before it starts.

I wish if this was the case, with certain rewards and most likely tiers as time goes on, it would be similar to what the cruise lines do. I've gone to WDW many times. Up until my last few visits, I've stayed with my parents at Deluxe resorts. I want credit for that. I want all that time and money spent to be reflected in where I get to watch fireworks from. They have a sophisticated computer system of reservations and such going many years back. Use it for good, not evil. So all those people who have bought APs for over, lets say 3 years, they should get choices of special AP rewards. Florida Residents another tier of rewards just for them.

Its also incentive for newer visitors to keep visiting.

Ideally, I wouldn't be upset if this fails and they just have to sweep it under the rug as a major failure like New Coke and Windows Vista. The only way for this to happen is for the guests to complain often to Guest Services. Long lines of guests waiting to complain about how FP+ is causing this problem and that, well that's less people out spending money.

I used to love WDW, but I don't even recognize what its become anymore.

 

[markc]

Consider this, next gen has launched with very little down time and the apps and the servers have worked and not crashed. Even amazon has gone down lately and yet I can still book a dining reservation.

Ummm, not quite. Disney's dining reservations servers went down four different times over the busy holiday season. In fact, reservations could not be made on one of their busiest days, Dec 26th during dinner time (nor could availability be checked) due to the servers going down unexpectedly.

 

[flynnibus]

and amazon hasn't gone down.. just their elastic cloud service.

All these people pointing fingers at amazon for their downtime were guilty of not having multi-site redundancy or load balancers outside of the single point of failure

 

[EpcotServo]

"YOU WILL EACH BE GIVEN AN IDENTITY FASTPASS. EVERYTHING YOU RIDE...OR LEARN...WILL BE IMPRINTED ON THIS PASS. IF YOU LOSE YOUR FASTPASS...OR FAIL TO ARRIVE AT THE DESIGNATED TIME YOU WILL BE SUBJECT TO IMMEDIATE DERESOLUTION...That is all."

 

[ChrisFL]

Walt would be disappointed if TDO did not innovate. He never wanted the parks to become stale.

OMG, this is one of the most over-used notions in the history of Disney, that somehow ANYTHING that changes means "Walt never wanted the parks to become stale".

Guess what? The parks ARE stale and this $2 Billion is doing next to nothing to fix any of it. Sure you get to reserve your time to ride and watch the staleness, meanwhile the people who want new, unique and exciting experiences that aren't falling apart will go to Universal and SeaWorld, or go to Anaheim.

 

[GrumpyFan]

Like many here, I've wrestled with FP+ and NextGen and asked the question "Why?", WHY is this being done, and IS it necessary? I don't know the answer here. But, obviously there are those at Disney who believe in it and are fully behind it. The way I see it though is that this was seen as something they had to do, or at least that's part of how it may have been sold. Anybody who's visited WDW in the last 10 years knows that crowds have continued to climb, even at traditionally slow times of the year. And, with those climbing crowd levels, guests have changed how they do the parks, and expectations have changed, resulting in what I believe is a growing level of dissatisfaction by the average guest. Personally, I know of at least 3 different families who have visited WDW in the last 5 years who returned with a negative impression and had no desire to return any time soon. So, I'm just speculating that part of the pitch for NextGen/FP+ was to try and help guests with planning the "perfect" trip to WDW, whereby they would be guaranteed the ability to get on their favorite attraction.