News PhotoPass at some character locations being replaced by automated cameras

[mikejs78]

If they can't get dining and fast pass reservations systems to work without DAILY crashes..
Then... I don't have much hope for this.

Well...yeah. Hopefully this is a different team and a completely different system...

 

[kylewr86]

I love Disney but with the current direction of cutting everything that is an expense for them is really getting old. I will not buy photopass if this is what it will be. The interaction is sometimes the best thing, people can respond to situations unlike computers. I for the first time and starting to lose the magic, just sad.

 

[Acidsplat]

The interaction is sometimes the best thing, people can respond to situations unlike computers. I for the first time and starting to lose the magic, just sad.

It's the same feeling I get with Apple post-Steve Jobs, and I say this as I'm posting with an iMac Pro and an iPhone on my desk.
Based on a post I read earlier, as bad as Michael Eisner miscalculated many times in his tenure, there were times he cared about sight lines in the park. It's a little detail but ends up having a huge impact on the guest experience.

I understand companies and corporations are there to make money. It's hard to accept what the companies have become when, in the not too distant past, the experience for customers did a 180. Time hasn't passed so much that we forget what our experiences were like.

The prices keep rising, the experience degrades with cuts, and you're left with a company that only cares about being beholden to stockholders. I'm pretty much just ranting at this point, but in my opinion this automated camera project is just adding to a pile of degraded experiences with no positive trade in return.

Disney is not a small company on the brink of collapse that they can't make money and also provide a quality experience like in the past.

 

[Cmdr_Crimson]

Anybody know why they didn't just cut the handler instead? Arguably, the photographer could have done both jobs.

They are 2 different Departments in general...

 

[WDWTank]

I’m tired of this automated crap

 

[WDWTank]

Eliminating jobs, raising admission, adding ticketed events that used to be free, raising food and merch prices, raising hotel prices. All this price raising while their monorails are falling apart, attractions are in disrepair, theming is being thrown out the window...what is going on with this company? Every day it's something new that they are taking away.

It’s probably because of the $4 billion Magicband investment.

 

[WDWTank]

So, things are going well.View attachment 326368

Goes to show that computers are not the answer.

 

[WDWTank]

I know I've made the call once, but this is truly it. If any of you are going to Destination D this weekend, THIS IS YOUR CHANCE TO PROTEST! It's time to stand up, be heard, make our voices (not our wallets) clear - we've had enough!
https://www.facebook.com/events/249758865693068/

The link says content not found

 

[WDWTank]

Fire all humans! No straws! Don’t open the Park during normal operating hours. Just charge for anyplace you might logically take your car and park.

Sounds like Disney is turning into China...

 

[WDWTank]

Disney and Universal should learn from Terminator. A very relevant movie yet Disney cuts jobs for robots and Universal closes T2-3D.

 

[Tom Morrow]

I said they would find many ways to offset having to raise wages.. but no one wanted to hear it..

A thing like this would have had to have been in the works long before the new contract was negotiated.

It also doesn't replace jobs, it simply moves them around. They need more and more photo moderators doing work backstage to keep up with the constant rise in automated photos being taken.

 

[deeevo]

Eliminating jobs, raising admission, adding ticketed events that used to be free, raising food and merch prices, raising hotel prices. All this price raising while their monorails are falling apart, attractions are in disrepair, theming is being thrown out the window...what is going on with this company? Every day it's something new that they are taking away.

And yet people still show up in droves. Until people stop going to WDW because of all of these issues they will continue make all the changes you stated. It's like your favorite sports team's owner being cheap and not spending money of free agents to improve the product on the field and then wonders why his stadium is not sold out. Fan's will stop going to games because they feel that the owner is not making the investment so why should they? I agree with everything you said but I or my family is not at that point where we will just not renew our passes and stop going. I keep wondering what change would set me over the edge.

 

[Portable Hole]

Here's a former Photopass photographer with some interesting background information and commentary on his Youtube channel:

 

[GhostHost1000]

If they can't get dining and fast pass reservations systems to work without DAILY crashes..
Then... I don't have much hope for this.

Different system.

Pretty sure all the websites run on a Commodore 64 in someone’s basement closet

 

[Disone]

Photopass Cast Members are not union as I stated in a previous post. The contractual change would not affect them as they have no collective bargaining agreement. Base rate will go up across the board for all roles but that doesn't mean this was the reason

Photopass Cast Members are not union as I stated in a previous post. The contractual change would not affect them as they have no collective bargaining agreement. Base rate will go up across the board for all roles but that doesn't mean this was the reason they're making the cuts in photopass.

I didn't mean to imply that you were Union. I was just speaking to the $8 an hour that was mentioned and the now fairly immediate Largest increase in hourly pay rates in the history of the Walt Disney World Resort.

However PhotoPass cast members are what Disney considers office and Technical. They are already at a higher pay grade.

 

[jpeden]

Here’s the response I got from Disney. They sure had this canned one ready to go:

Luke Hartsfield (Disney)
Nov 15, 4:22 PM EST
Dear (redacted),

Thank you for your email to George Kalogridis regarding the Walt Disney World Resort. Your correspondence was forwarded to me so that I may personally respond to you on behalf of our Executive Leadership.

Thank you for your feedback regarding Disney PhotoPass at the Walt Disney World Resort. Please know, the Walt Disney World Resort will continue to have more than 100 locations where Disney PhotoPass Photographers will be available to capture personalized and customized photos for our Guests. We know our Guests enjoy their interactions with our Photographers and Characters, so rest assured that we will continue to create those magical, one-of-a-kind memories. We will be installing automated cameras at nine locations that will capture moments of the experience from start to finish to allow our Guests to receive a wider variety of photos from which to choose. Please note, no one is losing his or her job as a result of this. All Photographers will continue to support other Disney PhotoPass locations across our Theme Parks so that they can use their creativity to capture personalized photos for our Guests.

Thank you again for writing to us. We look forward to future opportunities to entertain you and your family.

Warmest regards,

Luke Hartsfield
Executive Correspondence Specialist
Walt Disney World Resort

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

Photopass Cast Members are not union as I stated in a previous post. The contractual change would not affect them as they have no collective bargaining agreement. Base rate will go up across the board for all roles but that doesn't mean this was the reason they're making the cuts in photopass.

Whether they are subject to the collective bargaining agreement isn't really the point, though. Disney can offset the cost of increased labor in whatever places they'd like -- no reason they would limit the impact to ONLY those directly subject to those contracts. We certainly can't know if there's a direct cause and effect here, but there could be. And if not here, rest assured it will be / is happening somewhere. Comments some make like "Disney can afford it" are just not relevant. Companies generally don't just eat this sort of thing -- they offset at least partially.

 

[mikejs78]

Here’s the response I got from Disney. They sure had this canned one ready to go:

Luke Hartsfield (Disney)
Nov 15, 4:22 PM EST
Dear (redacted),

Thank you for your email to George Kalogridis regarding the Walt Disney World Resort. Your correspondence was forwarded to me so that I may personally respond to you on behalf of our Executive Leadership.

Thank you for your feedback regarding Disney PhotoPass at the Walt Disney World Resort. Please know, the Walt Disney World Resort will continue to have more than 100 locations where Disney PhotoPass Photographers will be available to capture personalized and customized photos for our Guests. We know our Guests enjoy their interactions with our Photographers and Characters, so rest assured that we will continue to create those magical, one-of-a-kind memories. We will be installing automated cameras at nine locations that will capture moments of the experience from start to finish to allow our Guests to receive a wider variety of photos from which to choose. Please note, no one is losing his or her job as a result of this. All Photographers will continue to support other Disney PhotoPass locations across our Theme Parks so that they can use their creativity to capture personalized photos for our Guests.

Thank you again for writing to us. We look forward to future opportunities to entertain you and your family.

Warmest regards,

Luke Hartsfield
Executive Correspondence Specialist
Walt Disney World Resort

So if no one is losing their job, what's the motivation behind this? Add more Photopass spots without increasing staff? Or do they really believe this can be a better experience?

If Disney were smart (big if) and they thought that they could create good photos with ML, they would do the automated photos while still having the manual Photopass photographers - at least for a while....

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

So if no one is losing their job, what's the motivation behind this? Add more Photopass spots without increasing staff? Or do they really believe this can be a better experience?

If Disney were smart (big if) and they thought that they could create good photos with ML, they would do the automated photos while still having the manual Photopass photographers - at least for a while....

That may be true, or they left off the "right now" -- no one is losing their job "right now". Who knows?

If they want to experiment with whether this might actually be better in some respect, I'm surprised they're starting with 9 locations and not one or two just to see.

Look -- I hope I can eat my words and that this is fantastic, IF they're moving to it regardless! Machines still can't replicate people in every role... at least not yet...

 

[erasure fan1]

There's definitely work being done on "mood recognition" through resort cameras. The idea is that you detect who's in a group, and the mood of the people in that group. If they appear grumpy, frustrated, etc., an alert goes off somewhere, and someone magically appears with a snack, a set of Fastpasses, something like that. Will be combined with long-range RFID.

Now this I could get behind. I'd be more than happy to walk around with stink face and get free stuff. Sadly, with how expensive things have become and all the cuts and nonsense, stink face isn't all that hard to have.