POLL: Disney World Theme Parks Now Require Children to have a Biometric Fingerprint Scan

[RSoxNo1]

I'm exposing my germaphobic ways ... but the first thing that came to my mind was that I would have to hand sanitize my daughters hands each time she entered the park. Other than that, I saw no negatives.

Purell leads to no tolerance for bacteria and sicker people. Once a year I lick both the honey walls at Winnie the Pooh and the marble door at Rock 'n' Roller Coaster. I now have tolerances for every known cumminicable disease.

 

[RandomPrincess]

I'm pretty sure my then 4 year old did the finger scanner on the last trip. My 2 year old kept trying to do it too.

 

[draybook]

Disney is worried about lost revenue from ticket swapping yet it's cool to have 38 security officers standing around at each park entrance, doing nothing except picking a "random person" to walk through the detectors every 2 minutes. Seems legit.

 

[MissMarmalade]

They say it isn't but how do you know? I know I didn't like when they started with the finger scanning thing. I don't need my finger prints or worse yet DNA in any data base. Why do you believe what they tell you? Your cell phone is monitored 24/7/365 by the government but of course they are just looking for basic info? No they aren't, much bigger then that but they aren't going to say they are. Will it effect you? Probably not but what happens if you are that guy?

As a park greeter myself I can 100% tell you it is NOT a fingerprint scan. It is a biometric scan that measures the outline of your finger. If you press too hard it will not read correctly and will light up blue. It has to be the exact pressure and angle every time. If you were to put sun lotion on and used the bio scan it will not read correctly. If it were a fingerprint scan like you say, there would still be no problem with collecting the fingerprint with sun lotion on it. Think what you think that Disney is sending all of our 'fingerprint to the FBI' but we are not its just a way of proving that ticket is yours and not the whole family is sharing one child ticket

 

[Bocabear]

it does not seem unreasonable to do this...I don't know why there is so much pushback...aside from making entry a little slower...
New technology... and moving on....

 

[Ol' Br'er Fox]

I don't see what the issue is. If you have to do it, your kid should do it too.

 

[Seanual757]

Used it for the 1st time yesterday over at Animal Kingdom it took a next few minutes with the kids getting them setup. The only downside I can see if kids forgetting what finger they used. We will see if our kids remember on Friday when he head to the MK for the Halloween party and the kids go to scan the finger and it’s the wrong one and try another, and another.


Other than that it does not bother me it is what it is.

 

[BrerJon]

Purell leads to no tolerance for bacteria and sicker people. Once a year I lick both the honey walls at Winnie the Pooh and the marble door at Rock 'n' Roller Coaster. I now have tolerances for every known cumminicable disease.

This is true. The main reason kids today have lots of allergies, when they didn't 50 years ago, is because instead of being exposed to every type of germ in day-to-day play, they're very often kept indoors and everything is sanitised, so when they do encounter real bacteria their bodies aren't equiped to cope and go into allergy mode. Kids who play outside in the mud and grass a lot tend to have far fewer allergies as a result.

The pharma industry has made billions convincing people to buy into the lie that *all* germs are somehow bad and everything should be sanitised but as long as you wash your hands after the bathroom, most other day to day germs you encounter are harmless and if anything help the immune system, so having to touch a scanner won't do a child any harm at all.

 

[xdan0920]

When you are motivated to shutdown the resale market... You gotta go after their tricks

What's the trick though? Adults buying child tickets? For the 5% discount? Is that really a huge issue? Who's doing this?

 

[jakeman]

What's the trick though? Adults buying child tickets? For the 5% discount? Is that really a huge issue? Who's doing this?

I think that is the issue. Adults buying a child's ticket then I guess bluffing their way through.

As for who is doing it, either enough or the perception of enough. There are whole websites out there dedicated to "pulling one over" on the mouse, so that doesn't surprise me.

 

[LuvtheGoof]

What's the trick though? Adults buying child tickets? For the 5% discount? Is that really a huge issue? Who's doing this?

Cheap people that want to get one over on Disney. No other reason, since the cost isn't that different.

Y'all know that what will happen is that Disney will make all tickets the same price regardless of age, just like they did with APs. It's the cheaters that cause us to not have nice things.

 

[xdan0920]

I think that is the issue. Adults buying a child's ticket then I guess bluffing their way through.

As for who is doing it, either enough or the perception of enough. There are whole websites out there dedicated to "pulling one over" on the mouse, so that doesn't surprise me.

Cheap people that want to get one over on Disney. No other reason, since the cost isn't that different.

Y'all know that what will happen is that Disney will make all tickets the same price regardless of age, just like they did with APs. It's the cheaters that cause us to not have nice things.

It does seem like that's the issue. Hard to fathom that people are scamming the system like this, in large enough numbers, that it's impacting WDW's bottom line. You're talking about saving a few bucks. Not even enough to grab a QSR meal.

 

[LuvtheGoof]

It does seem like that's the issue. Hard to fathom that people are scamming the system like this, in large enough numbers, that it's impacting WDW's bottom line. You're talking about saving a few bucks. Not even enough to grab a QSR meal.

And yet they installed sensors on cups to prevent theft of a few cents of coke. It had to be noticeable, or else why spend the money to do it?

 

[NormC]

And people wonder why childrens immune systems are not developed properly and end up needing antibiotics for illness that people never used to bother about.

Exactly. When we were kids we played outside in the dirt building roads for our toy cars and trucks. If we came upon a cat turd we tossed it on the lawn and just kept digging.

 

[ford91exploder]

As a park greeter myself I can 100% tell you it is NOT a fingerprint scan. It is a biometric scan that measures the outline of your finger. If you press too hard it will not read correctly and will light up blue. It has to be the exact pressure and angle every time. If you were to put sun lotion on and used the bio scan it will not read correctly. If it were a fingerprint scan like you say, there would still be no problem with collecting the fingerprint with sun lotion on it. Think what you think that Disney is sending all of our 'fingerprint to the FBI' but we are not its just a way of proving that ticket is yours and not the whole family is sharing one child ticket

And yet AFIS just uses 'points' to match a fingerprint it does not use the actual image, It's semantics no the actual fingerprint IMAGE is not captured at Disney but it would not surprise me if Disney collected enough 'points' for a AFIS match. Remember the Feds pay well for information.

It would be almost more amazing if Disney does not share this information as it's a high profile target and if a 'Person of Interest' has a preliminary match based on a single fingerprint resources can be allocated to ensure that that match is really a 'bad actor'

 

[rael ramone]

Hi @rael ramone! LOL. You are just too funny. And, thanks so much for your comment and vote. Leaving the kids at home is totally unfair. Like, if my parents ever did that to me... oh wait, never mind.

I know someone who did just that. Left the kids at home.

 

[Siren]

Honestly, I can't think of any reason besides backed up lines that would make me oppose the fingerprint scans.
@Siren, since you were the original poster, what are your thoughts on Disney's decision?

Hi @wgransone! Awww. Thanks for thinking about me and my thoughts, lol. I'm totally fine with it -- I was just a little alarmed by the toddler thing. But, I understand Disney needs to close the loophole for fraud.

This is why I totally believe that Disney's Next Gen has already paid for itself -- magic bands and the new tech has made it very difficult for people to scam -- and as a result, Disney is saving billions of dollars in fraud.

And, people are already suggesting that Disney should consider using eye retina scan technology instead of fingerprints.

What's the big deal? They're only scanning the size and shape of your finger. Nothing else

Hi @WondersOfLife! Great point. I keep forgetting it's not actual fingerprints, just the shape.

Disney has already said, if parents are uncomfortable about the child's finger scan, the parents scan can be used.......end of story.

AKK

Hi @Tonka's Skipper! It's so great to see on you here again.

Exactly. When we were kids we played outside in the dirt building roads for our toy cars and trucks. If we came upon a cat turd we tossed it on the lawn and just kept digging.

LOL. That's so gross! But, seriously all of our local parks have adopted a play in the dirt initiative and every park has at least one or two huge dirt mounds and it looks like the kids love it, because whenever I go to or walk by a park the dirt hills are more popular than the play structures. It's great but I imagine it's also every parents nightmare because those kids are totally covered in dirt. LOL.

I know someone who did just that. Left the kids at home.

I'm sure some kids would love to be left home but some kids will forgive but never forget. LOL.