Spirited News and Observations and Opinions ...

[WDW1974]

Oh - we could go in a very deep debate about the legal philosophy of rights there - does it mean that you don't have a certain right, just because it isn't officially recognized by the country you live in?

I would hope people understand the meaning of this ... and why it is so very, very important.

We have a history in the USA of having to fight for basic rights that still continues to this day with things like gay marriage, affordable healthcare for the poor etc. But let's look at your statement just from the perspective of what Disney is attempting to do with NEXT GEN.

 

[Expo_Seeker40]

@WDW1974, Are you kidding me? I'm going be too busy exploring the ship to even care about you force feeding me pies!

 

[WDW1974]

I appreciate that - but normally your words come across with more credence and credibility given the context and surrounding info. That just didn't ring true in the excerpt provided.

Well, I take it by now that you did read Tom Staggs statement on TDPB, yes?

 

[Expo_Seeker40]

@WDW1974 I may make you have a separate room so you can speaker phone chat with @Lee and sing "little orange bird" with him while I go exploring.

 

[WDW1974]

Won't some of the guest "benefits" of FP+ also spill over onto employees?

Yes, it has and will further.

This should prove to be popular; this is in some ways the Disney fan community's own fault. The websites, forums, blogs and books dedicated to uber tour planning and "gaming" Disney's system have finally awoken the giant. TWDC has seen this trend and thinks that all of us want to plan out the minutia of our vacations months in advance. I respect those of you that enjoy this type of vacationing but it's like being locked in a closet for me.

Let's all grab the pitchforks and torches and head for anyone associated with TouringPlans.com's homes!
But, it really is partly a natural outgrowth of these sites and bloggers. I don't get it because I don't really plan any of my trips except for a few musts (and even they are never absolute). I go to get away from it all and have a good time. I need to plan my life, my work, my everything ... why would I ever want to plan my fun time.

This all feels like WDW really wants to be UPS. We are all just packages to be sorted in some kind of logical fashion. They will tag us all just like packages and find ways to "encourage" us to be spread evenly an efficiently across their vast Kingdom.

That's a very good analogy, except packages are a bit more predictable than people.

On a personal note I doubt that I will be able to return to WDW in a post FP+ world. I personally have no issues with the tracking aspects of this system (I would prefer it not exist) but my significant other...if she finds out the details of this system before she books our next trip then there will be NO next trip to WDW. She takes personal privacy and data collection very seriously and this would be an absolute no go for her.

And I wonder how many others are like your other half. ... How many aren't so intoxicated by Pixie Dust that they'll allow a company to watch over them like a sex offender in a schoolyard just to ride attractions that are ancient and falling apart.

 

[Lee]

So...if there is no extra cost to "opt-in"...will I get a discount if I "opt-out?"
I mean, if I'm foregoing all these great enhancements that others are getting for $90, shouldn't I be able to get an old-school ticket and experience for, say...$75?

And how complicated is this going to make things at the ticket window? I'd hate to have to explain all this to someone who has no clue about what's what. Gonna need a chart of some sort. And a slide rule.

Just thinkin' out loud...

 

[Expo_Seeker40]

They'll need a WorldKey 2.0 Information Kiosk to help guests out with their questions.

 

[Soarin' Over Pgh]

So...if there is no extra cost to "opt-in"...will I get a discount if I "opt-out?"
I mean, if I'm foregoing all these great enhancements that others are getting for $90, shouldn't I be able to get an old-school ticket and experience for, say...$75?

And how complicated is this going to make things at the ticket window? I'd hate to have to explain all this to someone who has no clue about what's what. Gonna need a chart of some sort. And a slide rule.

Just thinkin' out loud...

A bottle of aspirin might be handy, too.

They'll need a WorldKey 2.0 Information Kiosk to help guests out with their questions.

Probably already in development.


The more I read, the more of a nightmare this is.

 

[Lee]

@WDW1974 I may make you have a separate room so you can speaker phone chat with @Lee and sing "little orange bird" with him while I go exploring.

Is that a thing?
I'll be needing EpcotExplorer to teach it to me.

 

[WDW1974]

Not exactly. Folks working in the Presidio and E-Ville are much safer than their counterparts in Burbank, because they're non-union. You will definitely see layoffs happen first in the SoCal unionized shops than up here in the Bay Area.

Good point, but it will affect them.

Actually, I won't feel sympathy for any exec walking into this mess because it'll probably be an insider like Staggs.

Staggs fully well knows what's going on and tacitly accepts the Disney Perfunctory Path to Profits™ just by being the head of P&R, so why feel sorry for the guy? He's part of the problem!

Won't be Staggs taking over. That's corporate PR. He wants the job. Iger likes him. But the BoD is going outside of the company much like when Alan Horn was brought in. ... Staggs will likely exit the company as soon as The Weatherman opts to leave.

As for a miracle to bring the company back to its former glory? Forget it. That kind of Disney Dark Magic™ doesn't really exist.

Hey, I'm an optimist (did you just drop dead from reading that? ), I do think things can be better. Former glory, probably not. Better than status quo, absolutely.

Hmm. Makes me wonder what kind of Disney Demolition Derby™ awaits Imagineering. If the old "innovate to captivate" mantra is out regarding future lands and attractions... then why keep those high profile, extremely well-paid senior WDI execs around? Forced early retirements = big savings right there! The old school Imagineers just became that much more "high maintenance" and far more distasteful, as a result.

I have said for years the goal is to get WDI down to a core of about 30-50 creatives and outsource/contract the rest. I think I first said it around 2007. I do think we are getting closer and closer to that day. ... BUT ... that may (sadly) actually be a good move.

 

[Californian Elitist]

Yes, but understand that the second place slated for the NEXT GEN experiment... oops, I mean experience is DL ...

Screw NextGen and get rid of Innoventions already!

 

[WDW1974]

Trouble is if this is going to be such a paradigm shift in Theme Park Experience then why is launching as basically a ride/dining reservation system? If WDW, as you propose, is looking at this as ushering a whole new experience then where is this new experience? There are no references to NEW attractions or NEW experiences just NEW ways to do the same old stuff.

Oh, so I'm not the only one that noticed.

 

[WDW1974]

"Hey Billy, Happy Birthday. Why don't come with me for a special Birthday treat? You like Mickey Ice Cream Bars don't you?"

What could possibly go wrong.

I love that post.

Absolutely love that post.

 

[Mouse Detective]

And how complicated is this going to make things at the ticket window? I'd hate to have to explain all this to someone who has no clue about what's what. Gonna need a chart of some sort.

It's likely not going to get explained at all, unless a guest questions it. "Here's your credit card receipt and your wristbands; let me help you put them on."

 

[Expo_Seeker40]

Won't kids wonder how Cinderella knows their name if they've never met her? I mean, sex offenders used to know kids names based on the labels etched into their backpacks, but this is beyond that, Cindy will even whisper into the child's ear that's there's a sale on Churros at 4pm over in Frontierland after you get your picture taken with her...

 

[WDW1974]

I guess they should have kept those Birthday buttons away from anyone under 13 all those years too...

Or forbid parents from spending that extra money on embroidering those mickey ears for their kids...

You damn well know we are talking about two different things here.

If we stick with you defending corporate talking points, then I'm never going to get back to that Bash the Bloggers thread, let alone read your DLR trip report.

And on something this important, you aren't getting the last word!

 

[Expo_Seeker40]

Is that a thing?
I'll be needing EpcotExplorer to teach it to me.

Yes it's a thing...you should hear @EPCOTExplorer sing it when he walks around the Poly.

 

[WDW1974]

Interesting point - I wonder if they'll put RFID trackers in employee cards (they may be there already for all I know) so they will be able to see where their employees are all the time?

Already done.

Costuming got it years ago now. Very first tangible part of NEXT GEN.

 

[WDW1974]

As I understand it [read it somewhere, but can't remember where], the handheld the CMs have register that you've used a valid admission ticket/pass and/or displays what errors may come up, invalid pass, finger scan doesn't match [or in my case - finger scan not required], etc... Similar to the read-out currently displayed facing the CMs at turnstiles.

I believe you might be right (there's the only time in 2013), but I do wonder what else will be able to be read on that device as well.

 

[dhall]

Does anyone know if the technical/data management side of this is all being managed in-house or has Disney contracted someone to design the back end? I've been unable to find an answer and I'm really curious because I've been involved in some projects like this in the past. I have to think that a large portion of that $2 billion figure has to be the cost paid to outside developers since I just don't see Disney hiring the talent required to make this thing work.

This is not something that Disney could pull of by themselves -- my understanding is that they've bungled their IT systems over the years with the same kind of low ball, low budget thinking that has infested their other operations. They've outsourced this, but this kind of technology involves multiple vendors at different layers of the technology stack. There's probably very little technically unique in what they're doing, and all the various pieces (databases, analytics, CRM (customer relationship management), data quality management, etc) are off-the-shelf with customizations that they're all designed to support to begin with. A lot of the work is just getting all the pieces to talk to each other with the right kind of scale and latency. The parts that are unique to Disney would be of little value to anyone else.

They probably are (or at least should be) ramping up hiring of statisticians & information scientists that eat this type of data and produce actionable information.

What I'm afraid of with this is that it is just going to end up putting more information in the hands of the same people that have been mismanaging the data they're already collecting: instead of (or in addition to) creating poorly designed surveys to validate what they already believe about what the market wants, now they'll be producing bogus statistical correlations to back up their preconceptions. It's $2B in shiny new tools in the same old hands.

(There's precedent, I think -- didn't Al Lutz do a couple of articles around 8-10 years ago about how badly Disney bungled a SAP rollout?)