Phasing out paper tickets

A

aaronml

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
As part of a push to drive MB+ sales (officially “to reduce paper waste”), Disneyland is phasing out paper tickets for most guests.

Previously, you would purchase an “eTicket” online that would be replaced with a printed paper ticket at the first turnstile scan.

For all “eTickets” bought online as of this week, a replacement paper ticket will no longer be issued at the turnstile. This is just like how the Magic Key passes are handled (digital only).

If a guest wants a hard copy of their ticket, they can still obtain one at a ticket booth upon request, or purchase a MB+ instead.
 
PiratesMansion

PiratesMansion

Well-Known Member
I guess it's not just Disney doing this (I never got a paper Universal ticket when I bought tickets from Undercover Tourist in 2021), and it's perhaps not as essential now that it's not being inserted into a FP machine, but still.

If I'm paying over $100 I feel like the least you could do is give me a physical ticket. They were fun little keepsakes too.
 
A

aaronml

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
PiratesMansion said:
I guess it's not just Disney doing this (I never got a paper Universal ticket when I bought tickets from Undercover Tourist in 2021), and it's perhaps not as essential now that it's not being inserted into a FP machine, but still.

If I'm paying over $100 I feel like the least you could do is give me a physical ticket. They were fun little keepsakes too.
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I agree, they were fun souvenirs! I just found a bunch from trips over the past decade or so.
 
mickEblu

mickEblu

Well-Known Member
aaronml said:
As part of a push to drive MB+ sales (officially “to reduce paper waste”), Disneyland is phasing out paper tickets for most guests.

Previously, you would purchase an “eTicket” online that would be replaced with a printed paper ticket at the first turnstile scan.

For all “eTickets” bought online as of this week, a replacement paper ticket will no longer be issued at the turnstile. This is just like how the Magic Key passes are handled (digital only).

If a guest wants a hard copy of their ticket, they can still obtain one at a ticket booth upon request, or purchase a MB+ instead.
Click to expand...

So now day ticket holders have to hold onto to their printed paper ticket from home or download the app and link your ticket. Or they can just get the barcode on the confirmation email scanned? Guess it makes sense as they want to drive everyone to app so you can do everything on mobile. That way everyone is just a couple clicks away from spending more money on food, genie + etc
 
R

Ryan120420

Well-Known Member
Good!

It should speed up entry into the park, and the most important aspect in the eyes of Disney, they no longer have to stock and maintain all those BOCA printers at the turnstiles.


Since FastPass machines are no longer a thing, paper tickets really have no reason to exist outside the rare case of a person not using a smartphone. If someone really wants to use a physical ticket, it's not hard to print it out at home.
 
PiratesMansion

PiratesMansion

Well-Known Member
Ryan120420 said:
Good!

It should speed up entry into the park, and the most important aspect in the eyes of Disney, they no longer have to stock and maintain all those BOCA printers at the turnstiles.


Since FastPass machines are no longer a thing, paper tickets really have no reason to exist outside the rare case of a person not using a smartphone. If someone really wants to use a physical ticket, it's not hard to print it out at home.
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Speeding up entry to the park is unlikely to pan out.

You would think that since people live their lives on their phone they'd maybe good at things like this but most people are really not.

People will do exactly what they do now (ex. talk with their group and/or stare at their phone) only to get to the turnstiles and not have their stuff ready.

Except now, instead of handing over a paper ticket, which should be the easiest way to get into anywhere (not saying it is in practice, because many people are stupid and/or have forgotten how to public) they're going to be rummaging for their phone, forgetting their email passwords, discovering they can't find the email, have to play the "find the correct level of brightness game," etc.

Ok, you may say, but it'll be faster if it's on the app.

Except you'll run into people who haven't downloaded the app yet, or haven't added their ticket that they can't find to the app yet, and then Disney will inevitably make it less-than-straightforward to bring up tickets, because their current app mostly just proves they have no idea how to design an intuitive app.

Remember when they first changed FP so that you needed a park ticket and it no longer gave you a FP ticket? And how that one simple change clogged park midways for two years? It'll be that but worse because now it's to get into the entire park.

People already don't understand "give the CM your ticket so it can scan." Anything more complicated WILL make the entry process slower and worse.
 
Last edited:
A

aaronml

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
mickEblu said:
So now day ticket holders have to hold onto to their printed paper ticket from home or download the app and link your ticket. Or they can just get the barcode on the confirmation email scanned? Guess it makes sense as they want to drive everyone to app so you can do everything on mobile. That way everyone is just a couple clicks away from spending more money on food, genie + etc
Click to expand...
Correct, your options are:
- Scan barcode from the Disneyland app
- Scan printed eTicket / barcode from home
- Scan barcode from confirmation email
- Go to a ticket booth and have them print a paper ticket for you, and use that
- Buy a MB+ and use that
 
A

aaronml

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
PiratesMansion said:
Speeding up entry to the park is unlikely to pan out.

You would think that since people live their lives on their phone they'd maybe good at things like this but most people are really not.

People will do exactly what they do now (ex. talk with their group and/or stare at their phone) only to get to the turnstiles and not have their stuff ready.

Except now, instead of handing over a paper ticket, which should be the easiest way to get into anywhere (not saying it is in practice, because many people are stupid and/or have forgotten how to public) they're going to be rummaging foe their phone, forgetting their email passwords, discovering they can't find the email, have to play the "find the correct level of brightness game," etc.

Ok, you may say, but it'll be faster if it's on the app.

Except you'll run into people who haven't downloaded the app yet, or haven't added their ticket that they can't find to the app yet, and then Disney will inevitably make it less-than-straightforward to bring up tickets, because their current app mostly just proves they have no idea how to design an intuitive app.

Remember when they first changed FP so that you needed a park ticket and it no longer gave you a FP ticket? And how that one simple change clogged park midway for two years? It'll be that but worse because now it's to get into the entire park.

People already don't understand "give the CM your ticket so it can scan." Anything more complicated WILL make the entry process slower and worse.
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I’m inclined to agree with this. It’s one thing to do it with APs since they go to the parks often enough to be familiar with the app, etc. Day Ticket guests tend to be much less familiar with things, and will likely take more time than before. Especially considering how buggy their app is….
 
networkpro

networkpro

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
Yes
PiratesMansion said:
Speeding up entry to the park is unlikely to pan out.

Remember when they first changed FP so that you needed a park ticket and it no longer gave you a FP ticket? And how that one simple change clogged park midways for two years? It'll be that but worse because now it's to get into the entire park.

People already don't understand "give the CM your ticket so it can scan." Anything more complicated WILL make the entry process slower and worse.
Click to expand...

I can say that it will be much slower, especially with families that use I-phones. At WDW you'll find them clogging up the touch styles as they have to go between saved items they thoughtfully stored in their Apple Wallets each time for each ticket.
 
Disney Irish

Disney Irish

Premium Member
PiratesMansion said:
Speeding up entry to the park is unlikely to pan out.

You would think that since people live their lives on their phone they'd maybe good at things like this but most people are really not.

People will do exactly what they do now (ex. talk with their group and/or stare at their phone) only to get to the turnstiles and not have their stuff ready.

Except now, instead of handing over a paper ticket, which should be the easiest way to get into anywhere (not saying it is in practice, because many people are stupid and/or have forgotten how to public) they're going to be rummaging for their phone, forgetting their email passwords, discovering they can't find the email, have to play the "find the correct level of brightness game," etc.

Ok, you may say, but it'll be faster if it's on the app.

Except you'll run into people who haven't downloaded the app yet, or haven't added their ticket that they can't find to the app yet, and then Disney will inevitably make it less-than-straightforward to bring up tickets, because their current app mostly just proves they have no idea how to design an intuitive app.

Remember when they first changed FP so that you needed a park ticket and it no longer gave you a FP ticket? And how that one simple change clogged park midways for two years? It'll be that but worse because now it's to get into the entire park.

People already don't understand "give the CM your ticket so it can scan." Anything more complicated WILL make the entry process slower and worse.
Click to expand...

Well the NFL has been using digital tickets exclusively now for a couple seasons. And while I can't speak for every teams/stadium entry experience I can say that for the most part entry is a lot quicker than when paper tickets were used. And you're talking about fans that on average are a little tipsy having to fumble through their phones, its still quicker. And again I can't speak to every team, but most team apps aren't designed any better than the Disney app. So its a comparable experience to Disney switching.

So I would say lets wait and see. There might be an initial learning curve especially on the CM side. But overall I wouldn't be surprised, especially once MB+ usage is included, that it does indeed speed up Park entry.
 
M

MoonRakerSCM

Well-Known Member
Using phones for everything has slowed down lines all over the park. I watched it at multiple attractions last night, people holding up lightning lane lines because they're going through their phone, scanning, scrolling to each one. I figured it was just one group that was confused, but I watched every single group go through have issues. Some of them approaching the CM and not even having their phones out... being asked for their phone, getting it out, opening the app... etc. etc.

Park entry is just as bad.

Didn't have these problem with pieces of paper.
 
Disney Irish

Disney Irish

Premium Member
PiratesMansion said:
Maybe I've been unlucky, but in my experience MBs have done nothing to speed up entry at WDW.

Perhaps it will be faster for the keyholders at DL keyholders eventually, but color me skeptical for the present.
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Its possible it does nothing to speed things up, but I wouldn't just quickly dismiss it as automatically having no impact.

For example you mention Key usage of MB+, that is one large section of guests where I would imagine it would speed things up after the initial learning curve. So subtract those from the regular single day guests and you still have an improvement on the speed of entry overall.

So yeah while its ok to be skeptical, its also not hard to imagine that it'll help overall. :)
 
R

Ryan120420

Well-Known Member
PiratesMansion said:
Speeding up entry to the park is unlikely to pan out.

You would think that since people live their lives on their phone they'd maybe good at things like this but most people are really not.

People will do exactly what they do now (ex. talk with their group and/or stare at their phone) only to get to the turnstiles and not have their stuff ready.

Except now, instead of handing over a paper ticket, which should be the easiest way to get into anywhere (not saying it is in practice, because many people are stupid and/or have forgotten how to public) they're going to be rummaging for their phone, forgetting their email passwords, discovering they can't find the email, have to play the "find the correct level of brightness game," etc.

Ok, you may say, but it'll be faster if it's on the app.

Except you'll run into people who haven't downloaded the app yet, or haven't added their ticket that they can't find to the app yet, and then Disney will inevitably make it less-than-straightforward to bring up tickets, because their current app mostly just proves they have no idea how to design an intuitive app.

Remember when they first changed FP so that you needed a park ticket and it no longer gave you a FP ticket? And how that one simple change clogged park midways for two years? It'll be that but worse because now it's to get into the entire park.

People already don't understand "give the CM your ticket so it can scan." Anything more complicated WILL make the entry process slower and worse.
Click to expand...


Based on my observations, especially in the morning, it's going to speed things up. Most people I see scanning their tickets in the morning are already using the app. It's only in the afternoon do I see more paper tickets being used.

Eliminating the printing process at the turnstile eliminates the following:

-Printers jamming

- Having a CM scanning a ticket, waiting the 5-10 seconds it takes to print the ticket, handing it back to the guest and explaining how to use the ticket.

- The above situation, but this time with a slow CM.

- CM's that insist that they must hold the ticket they are scanning for entry.
 
Consumer

Consumer

Well-Known Member
I went to a Pittsburgh Pirates game back in April and the paper ticket I receive came with a coupon for a free cactus blossom appetizer at Texas Roadhouse, which I just cashed in last week. I don't get that when I buy digital tickets. The point? Disney should print coupons for free Texas Roadhouse appetizers on the back of their park tickets.
 

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