Spirited News, Observations & Thoughts IV

[lazyboy97o]

Interesting you bring up New Coke and Coke Classic.

Short version of a very, very long story...

Many years ago I worked for one of the major food companies, in a laboratory. One of our technical services people told me how that entire process happened...and it was planned, from beginning to end. The entire New Coke failure wasn't expected, but the 'rollback' was indeed planned. Essentially, New Coke was never expected to work.

Wonder if MagicBands are Disney's New Coke?

New Coke was extensively tested to ensure that it would end the Pepsi Challenge. The company lost too much money and good will for it to be planned. The then CEO even had to go through the grueling process of convincing old man Woodruff to give his blessing; a man who did not like expanding into other drinks or diet variants, much less messing with the one and only Coca-Cola. The stubbornness in admitting the mistake remained visible until just recently when Coca-Cola Classic finally returned to being just Coca-Cola. The lesson of New Coke is not to place too much confidence in out of context testing.

 

[tirian]

New Coke was extensively tested to ensure that it would end the Pepsi Challenge. The company lost too much money and good will for it to be planned. The then CEO even had to go through the grueling process of convincing old man Woodruff to give his blessing; a man who did not like expanding into other drinks or diet variants, much less messing with the one and only Coca-Cola. The stubbornness in admitting the mistake remained visible until just recently when Coca-Cola Classic finally returned to being just Coca-Cola. The lesson of New Coke is not to place too much confidence in out of context testing.

I prefer ice cold Mexican Coke. The sugar cane sucrose beats corn syrup any day.

Just saying.

 

[ParentsOf4]

So do I have this right? This thing is such a mess that a bunch of programmers were recently fired, but its rolling out in 5 days to 35,000 hotel room?

Yeah, okay. Sounds credible to me.

But wait! According to Iger, there's not rush. Disney wants to get it right:

"We're purposely not announcing when it will be rolled out. In effect, a lot of the features of this product will actually be rolled out over a long period of time. We want to make sure that we get this right before we go too fast with it. But so far, we're very, very excited about it." - February 5 2013

"It's at various levels of beta testing right now. We want to very careful that it is working absolutely right before we roll it out to the general public. There's no reason for us to rush it to market." - May 7, 2013

"It's really not having an impact from a revenue perspective really at all because we're still rolling it out in what I'll call a test phase. The reason for that is that this is a very significant undertaking from a technological perspective, and we really want to make sure that we walk before we run because we don't really want to overload our technological backbone." - August 6, 2013

So, at 3 straight financial calls, Iger has said it won't roll out until "it is working absolutely right".

I guess if it will be fully rolled out by October and a number of software engineers were fired, then they must have been let go because all the problems have been solved, right?

 

[lazyboy97o]

I prefer ice cold Mexican Coke. The sugar cane sucrose beats corn syrup any day.

Just saying.

Very true. We can blame Asa Candler's hubris over a century ago for the use of high fructose corn syrup. There is another semi-related lesson there, that just because you don't see value in a product/idea does not mean others will not.

 

[Clever Name]

I guess if it will be fully rolled out by October and a number of software engineers were fired, then they must have been let go because all the problems have been solved, right?

That could indeed be the answer for all we know at this point.

 

[GoofGoof]

But wait! According to Iger, there's not rush. Disney wants to get it right:

"We're purposely not announcing when it will be rolled out. In effect, a lot of the features of this product will actually be rolled out over a long period of time. We want to make sure that we get this right before we go too fast with it. But so far, we're very, very excited about it." - February 5 2013

"It's at various levels of beta testing right now. We want to very careful that it is working absolutely right before we roll it out to the general public. There's no reason for us to rush it to market." - May 7, 2013

"It's really not having an impact from a revenue perspective really at all because we're still rolling it out in what I'll call a test phase. The reason for that is that this is a very significant undertaking from a technological perspective, and we really want to make sure that we walk before we run because we don't really want to overload our technological backbone." - August 6, 2013

So, at 3 straight financial calls, Iger has said it won't roll out until "it is working absolutely right".

I guess if it will be fully rolled out by October and a number of software engineers were fired, then they must have been let go because all the problems have been solved, right?

Seems to me like they want to be able to say its fully rolled out on their year end earnings call, probably the first week in November. If they brought in a new team to clean things up I would assume they gave them a hard deadline to get this thing fully rolled out. I guess the revenue boost should show up in the Q1 numbers which covers the lucrative holiday season. That will be an interesting earnings call.

 

[luv]

Interesting you bring up New Coke and Coke Classic.

Short version of a very, very long story...

Many years ago I worked for one of the major food companies, in a laboratory. One of our technical services people told me how that entire process happened...and it was planned, from beginning to end. The entire New Coke failure wasn't expected, but the 'rollback' was indeed planned. Essentially, New Coke was never expected to work.

Wonder if MagicBands are Disney's New Coke?

I don't remember the Edsel, but I remember listening to people who did, lol.

I do remember New Coke. I believe you were told that it was purposeful! But New Coke was not part of some big, "We did it on purpose!" master plan. It was just a very bad product.

 

[steve2wdw]

What resort are you staying in during your October trip? I'm booked for October as well and cannot seem to get any FP+ access at all.. in fact, I log onto MDE and get a message that my party is not eligible for FP+ since the dates of my trip do not fall into a certain time frame... Meanwhile, I am within 55 days, already did online check in and linked my tickets as well... No option for Magic Bands or FP+....

Three of us are checking into Beach Club Villas for 4 nights on October 17th (on our DVC points), then I'm moving to Villas at Wilderness Lodge for 6 nights. All 10+ days are available for FP+.

 

[SirOinksALot]

This is the group that orders burgers without cheese so they can save 30 cents or takes cups of water because they are too cheap to pop for a Coke.

You know who else is too cheap to pop for a Coke? People who steal soda.

Thanks for the two month old info today Spirit.

 

[dis13]

Long time lurker. Trying to keep up with the main theme of this thread. Thought this might be of interest. From msnbc:

"Facebook is considering incorporating most of its 1 billion-plus members' profile photos into its growing facial recognition database, expanding the scope of the social network's controversial technology."

Thoughts? I sure don't like the fact that my/my kids' faces will be in a database..... - accessible to who....?

 

[Lee]

You know who else is too cheap to pop for a Coke? People who steal soda.

Unless, like Spirit, they are "stealing" soda (by using "lifetime" mugs) as a statement, not because they are thirsty.

 

[PhotoDave219]

So do I have this right? This thing is such a mess that a bunch of programmers were recently fired, but its rolling out in 5 days to 35,000 hotel room?

Yeah, okay. Sounds credible to me.

This project is akin to a rocket launch. Its happening whether you're ready for it or not, so you better hang on because its going to go no matter what.

In a project that has spent over $1B dollars with many, many behind the scenes components that haven't been fully realized, integrated or explained whatsoever.

 

[nytimez]

Unless, like Spirit, they are "stealing" soda (by using "lifetime" mugs) as a statement, not because they are thirsty.

You mean people crazy enough to believe the word "lifetime" actually means lifetime?

 

[luv]

This project is akin to a rocket launch. Its happening whether you're ready for it or not, so you better hang on because its going to go no matter what.

You know, if you re-read this, from the perspective of a PhotoDave fan who is expecting a typical PhotoDave response...you wonder where PhotoDave is going with this, lol.

Then you finish and it makes you laugh at yourself, since Dave was serious.

"fan" may have been stretching it. You KWIM.

 

[PhotoDave219]

You know, if you re-read this, from the perspective of a PhotoDave fan who is expecting a typical PhotoDave response...you wonder where PhotoDave is going with this, lol.

Then you finish and it makes you laugh at yourself, since Dave was serious.

"fan" may have been stretching it. You KWIM.

No no no... nothing dirty. Think Mercury program. Theyre gonna light that candle and its gonna go up, no matter what.

 

[StarWarsGirl]

I wish we had photos versus the biometric scanners, because if the bio fails it's up to a photo ID which nobody seems to carry on them.

^^This. Especially since the adult tickets are issues to 10 year olds, and what 10 year old carries a photo ID? I didn't have one until high school

 

[the.dreamfinder]

http://www.marketplace.org/topics/wealth-poverty/what-did-tech-ceo-say-worker-he-wanted-automate
Interesting story on automation in the economy. One of NGE's goals is to increase automation resortwide to reduce costs so I thought it was germane.

 

[stevehousse]

I am guessing by that very bleak roll out comment, that all resorts will be tied in by oct 31?

 

[WDWDad13]

Spoke with some locals who have AP's....they just spent a couple days at Pop, no package and everything seems to have worked fine. Their AP's were on their MagicBands, their doors at the hotel opened fine, entry to the parks went without a hitch, they were able to charge food and merchandise with no problems and all their FP+ choices worked fine. Hopefully things are starting to get sorted out. The only group I haven't read any reports from are the DVC-ers, of which I'm one. I have a 4 day solo trip at Pop starting in three weeks and I'm not worried about that one, but my wife, daughter and I are using our points for a trip in October. So far I've linked our passes (and my daughters DVC Premium AP voucher-couldn't believe it recognized that), and made FP+ choices, etc....Keeping my fingers crossed that the system has the bugs out by then. That October trip will be the test (for us), as we don't like pre-planning our days. Years ago when the DDP was new, we bought in for our 10 days on property, and hated the fact that our days were dictated by our restaurant reservations. Anyway, I made FP+ choices with the intent of changing things on the fly. It's my expectation that while the FP+ system may work fine, the choices of attractions will be the least desirable. While this wouldn't ruin our trip (we're going mainly for Food and Wine-not attractions), it'll be a great gauge of what a WDW vacation will look like from here on in.

But what about local AP holders or those staying off property

 

[Longhairbear]

From the various places I read about NGE, there are more than a few people saying, or being led to believe the full roll out is happening very soon. Most of it are people testing the system, but others not invited to test are getting the Magic Bands. I know that the invitation sometimes comes after a guest has gotten their bands, and already chosen their FP+, and the invitation follows. That has caused some confusion. I'm confused...LOL.
I can't site any specific website, or post, as it is all over the various forums, and websites, comment sections etc. that I run across. And I don't spend all that much time on Disney sites, at least not to the extent that I am looking for NGE related posts. They just pop up. It almost seems as if NGE is being rolled out without any announcement at all. It's just there all of a sudden, or will be. Perhaps I am totally wrong, and it is the perspective I am getting from what I am reading online, and misunderstanding it all.