Spirited News, Observations & Thoughts IV

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1023

Provocateur, Rancanteur, Plaisanter, du Jour
Despite using a fictional narrative and conjecture, I am going to continue on with "Trudy" and her family's vacation week in Orlando. I will try to keep this short of Homer, but it will still look like my 2 previous "wall of text" posts. In this installment we will fast forward to day 2 of the stay and look at the 2nd layer of "enhanced guest" features. If you are new to this thread or skimmed past my previous posts, the are on pages 207 and 208 or post #4133 and post #4150.

If we recall, "Trudy" scheduled her vacation several months ago. She indicated what days they would visit what park or other Disney venue. She scheduled all her FPPs. So, today was supposed to be Blizzard Beach and the family woke up to severe thunderstorms though out the day. No water park today.

Luckily for "Trudy's" family, they have a car. They also have an open day and a little girl that loves Harry Potter. So the family piles into the car whisks down the I-4 to UO. Disney "sees" the family leave their resort and before NGE would have no idea where they went. With NGE, Disney knows they left property because they left the "net" area. Redundancy systems, (such as a data point MAC ID from "Trudy's" phone) confirm this. There is no entry at Blizzard Beach. We lost a guest (or guests looking at this from large groups of data perspective). This is layer 2 "guest retention".

Thunderstorms on a water park day seem predictable on my vacations. In this way I can relate to "Trudy's" family looking for an alternative. NGE can be applied proactively here, Disney can send an automated message to the hundreds of families like "Trudy's" that planned a Water Park today. "Oh boy, it sure looks like it is going to be a blustery day but.... we have good news for you. To help rise above the gloom, here are 3 unrestricted FPPs for you to collect instantly at EPCOT."

Unfortunately, "Trudy's" phone was on vibrate so she missed this important message. NGE, which is linked into everything in the resorts and parks identifies those families that are redirected to EPCOT. It also identifies the families that it lost for the day. Whole groups of families. However, when "Trudy" returns to her resort after a fun filled day at UO, a friendly, unobtrusive survey person is waiting at the front entrance. The survey CM approaches and asks, "Would you like to take a quick survey today?". "Trudy", being an amiable person, (like me) says sure. The CM hands the "Frankensteined" iPad to her.

The survey asks if they spent their day on the resort property.(Of course, they already know this answer.) "Trudy" answers honestly (data point) that they did not. The survey asks did they visit other area attractions. "Yes". The survey then asks the competition question," Of the Orlando area attractions listed here please select all that apply.". "Trudy" selects only UO. The survey concludes by asking if they would be willing to answer additional survey questions at a later date."Yes". "Thank you for participating in our survey. As a courtesy for giving us your time, here are special viewing area tickets for tomorrow night's performance of Illuminations."

So far we have identified why "Trudy's" family and a few hundred more, left resort property. We further refined where they went. This competition question is important. NGE will help all the current surveys be more relevant and identify groups more likely to give honest answers.They already apply survey results they collect now. NGE will make it better and more targeted. For guest retention, how can we keep them from leaving the resort?

Later that evening, "Trudy" is checking her e-mail. She sees a message from invitation@disneysurveys.com and opens it. There is a link to a brief survey about their UO experience. She may or may not feel a sense of obligation to do it based on the freebie she received earlier or just likes participating. After loading the first survey page she answers yes or no to attractions her family "tried". The next page is of those "tried", what attractions would you try again and what was the favorite. On the third page, there are selections for what about <blank> made it their favorite.

Market surveys are done all the time. They include questions only relevant to the company conducting, the competitions' offerings, or a mix of both. Disney has been doing it for a very long time. As I mentioned before, NGE will make it more reliable.

This second layer of "guest retention" will work to keep guests on property. If there is rain, offer an alternative on property. If there are rides at UO that are pulling traffic, trump that type of experience with something better. If SeaWorld pulls your sea lovers to something, re-purpose area around "The Seas" (there is some room back there). Every competitor can be trumped on Disney property. Plus this will give all of us here something to cheer about, NEW ATTRACTIONS.

Clearly, Disney isn't adverse to spending money. The "guest retention" layer will help them choose what attractions to build, enhance, or replace.( I hear booing again.) All of these layers work together and I have more. Since "Trudy's" family went off their script, there are a lot of things that happened.

Additionally, I didn't mark all the (data points) in this post or many on the last one. There are dozens everyday that I would be interested in if I ran Disney Parks. If fact, from a business point of view, the more information I have that is boiled down for different divisional or departmental use, the better.

*1023*

P.S. I intentionally tried to write in broader group themes here using "Trudy" as a 1 of hundreds in a group. I hope that makes some of the readers more comfortable.
 
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Goofyernmost

Well-Known Member

muteki

Well-Known Member
Apologies again for the interruption. Enjoy....
Sweet, so one side looks like a normal train car, the other side is extended a bit for where the projection work will go. Cool!

I was wondering if this was all going to be in a tunnel or how they were going to do it.
 

Todd H

Well-Known Member
Apologies again for the interruption. Enjoy.View attachment 29903View attachment 29904

Oh yeah? Well take this!

Disney-MagicBand.jpg
 

RunnerEd

Well-Known Member
You are so correct - next year still planning DVC stay but parks off the list, Too much other stuff to do in Central Florida without feeling like a felon on house arrest with every move tracked and mapped

Us too. Planning a nice Universal Orlando vacation after Potter 2 opens with home base at Disney's Animal Kingdom Villas at Kidani Village (savannah view 1 BR). Just to tweak them a little, when the reservation agent at DVC asked me if I needed park tickets, I enthusiastically asked her if I could buy Uni tickets through DVC! She asked me why I didn't want to go to the Disney Parks and I simply explained that my family and I had seen everything several times except for 1 new roller coaster and that it didn't look that amazing in the first place. I think my phone call may have gotten played back for a manager or two (at least I hope it did).
 

rael ramone

Well-Known Member
I'm of the camp that I think it should be the customers that demand companies to provide that kind of transparency -- not the government. This isn't a monopoly forced upon us, or a business relationship we can not avoid. If Disney wants to be coy or lack transparency when legitimate customer concerns are brought to them... then it's Disney that stands to lose. I believe in educated, freely mobile customers -- not over regulation. If customers are legitimately concerned, and Disney decides to ignore their customers, then Disney is the one that should lose. That isn't to say I look negative upon all regulation - just that I believe customers should speak with their wallets far more than their whines.

If MM+ was only about 'attraction access' and the attempt to monetize it to the detriment of the guests, that is one thing.

COPPA was put into law to prevent companies from collecting data on minor children. Due to a loophole that may or may not exist, they are tracking data on those same minors that the law was intended to protect. And Disney's tracking may be much, much, more harmful on, say, General Mills tracking them.

General Mills can't find out if little Johnny likes Count Chokula without a parents permission. But Disney might be able to find if little Johnny was left in his room in CBR while Mom and Dad went to V&A's. And if they can, so can anyone that accesses the system, whether a person is given more access than he should, or via breaking into it.

Does DIsneys data protection record (esp. in the MM+ testing phase) suggest that implementing it as they apparantly intend to should be solely determined by the free market?

If this MM+ manages to go through with all the kiddie tracking stuff as part of it, I wonder if all those 'politically correct' index funds will unload $DIS shares, and replace them with, say.... Phillip Morris, BP, Monsanto, or Smith & Wesson :eek:
 

MattM

Well-Known Member
If MM+ was only about 'attraction access' and the attempt to monetize it to the detriment of the guests, that is one thing.

COPPA was put into law to prevent companies from collecting data on minor children. Due to a loophole that may or may not exist, they are tracking data on those same minors that the law was intended to protect. And Disney's tracking may be much, much, more harmful on, say, General Mills tracking them.

General Mills can't find out if little Johnny likes Count Chokula without a parents permission. But Disney might be able to find if little Johnny was left in his room in CBR while Mom and Dad went to V&A's. And if they can, so can anyone that accesses the system, whether a person is given more access than he should, or via breaking into it.

Does DIsneys data protection record (esp. in the MM+ testing phase) suggest that implementing it as they apparantly intend to should be solely determined by the free market?

If this MM+ manages to go through with all the kiddie tracking stuff as part of it, I wonder if all those 'politically correct' index funds will unload $DIS shares, and replace them with, say.... Phillip Morris, BP, Monsanto, or Smith & Wesson :eek:
Are you for or against the tracking devices that children sometimes have to wear on DCL while in the nursery?

Also: Any real evidence of all this "kiddie tracking" stuff.

Also II: I think you meant "Socially Responsible Investing" or "Ethical Investing." If you try to be politically correct in all investing, you will find you will not be able to invest.
 
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Funmeister

Well-Known Member
Wow. Wont be heading back to Florida in 2014 but i will be looking forward to this in 2015. Looks amazing! And real...not jut a couple boxes at the D23 show.[/quote

Yeah but one of them had a hole in it to look like R2-D2 burned his way out of it.

Can anyone please explain the paint "spilled" on the Star Wars crates? I don't get it. Was it to show that they are "working" on it or something? What did I miss?
 

rael ramone

Well-Known Member
Ok, on their apparant desire to kill 'park hopping'....

I was watching Disney Channel (does my liking Phineas & Ferb kill my credibility?) and they had this commercial of a 'Disney Channel' star and her family (mom, dad, 1 brother, several sisters) with a guide of some sort (plain clothes if I remember right).

You first see them at the castle. The 'guide' asks where to you want to go now.

The New Test Track! (you then see them ride it).

What do you want to do next?

Lets see the New Fantasyland! (you see them walk around it, then they obviously come out of BOG).

(After that they split up - the guide & the sisters go shopping at DD, dad & brother go bowling, mom gets a spa treatment).

And they meet up at some restaurant that I didn't recognize after.

What do you want to do tomorrow?

(I wonder how they managed to do all that stuff in one day without multiple 'hopping'? Unless it's only for the One Percenters now - and that's now their primary target audience)

Could a 'regular' person start in front of the castle in the morning, then go to Test Track, then backtrack to BOG for lunch, with the MM+ system in place?

(Come to think of it, they enjoyed the food they ate in the MK, so maybe they didn't eat at BOG after all :)).
 

PhotoDave219

Well-Known Member
Us too. Planning a nice Universal Orlando vacation after Potter 2 opens with home base at Disney's Animal Kingdom Villas at Kidani Village (savannah view 1 BR). Just to tweak them a little, when the reservation agent at DVC asked me if I needed park tickets, I enthusiastically asked her if I could buy Uni tickets through DVC! She asked me why I didn't want to go to the Disney Parks and I simply explained that my family and I had seen everything several times except for 1 new roller coaster and that it didn't look that amazing in the first place. I think my phone call may have gotten played back for a manager or two (at least I hope it did).


Nicely played!
 

willtravel

Well-Known Member
Us too. Planning a nice Universal Orlando vacation after Potter 2 opens with home base at Disney's Animal Kingdom Villas at Kidani Village (savannah view 1 BR). Just to tweak them a little, when the reservation agent at DVC asked me if I needed park tickets, I enthusiastically asked her if I could buy Uni tickets through DVC! She asked me why I didn't want to go to the Disney Parks and I simply explained that my family and I had seen everything several times except for 1 new roller coaster and that it didn't look that amazing in the first place. I think my phone call may have gotten played back for a manager or two (at least I hope it did).
How many times have you been to UNI?
 

rael ramone

Well-Known Member
Are you for or against the tracking devices that children sometimes have to wear on DCL while in the nursery?

Also: Any real evidence of all this "kiddie tracking" stuff.

Also II: I think you meant "Socially Responsible Investing" or "Ethical Investing." If you try to be politically correct in all investing, you will find you will not be able to invest.

Can't comment on the nursery stuff, but:

'kiddie tracking' stuff - it is a question that needs to be answered - and should be asked by someone with supeona power...

'politically correct investing' - i forgot the name of what they actually call those index funds that leave out what some refer to as the 'evil' companies.
 

WDW1974

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Spirited Weekend Note: I am enjoying some of the discussion here quite a bit, but don't have the endless supply of time that some folks have to bicker back and forth (or get an alert when I post so they can drop a shot in with no substance but makes them feel better about themselves).

I'd like to think that I can drop information here and not have to walk people through it. Again, this isn't my job and while I drive plenty of traffic here, I am not making one penny off it.

I'd also suggest that those folks who think this is all much todo about nothing, that they could always start their own threads on why we should all give Disney (and any corporation) the benefit of the doubt or simply not do business with them, but we shouldn't expect or demand they operate in any transparent or socially-conscious fashion. I'm sure that thread will get a quarter of a million hits in two weeks and include all sorts of interesting people. Sarcasm like that needs no smilies.

My weekend has begun and it's going to feature food, family and pre-Emmys binge watching of Arrested Development and Breaking Bad, amongst others. I will be here in spurts, but I just refuse to spend hours and hours going back and forth on basic points. I don't trust Disney. They blew that trust a very long time ago. But, no, that doesn't mean I am going to stop visiting their parks or resorts. I have an issue with management and management always gets replaced. Just a matter of time.

MM+ has been an unmitigated disaster whether you care about Disney's nebulous and concerning relationships with the government and its contractors or not. It is failing spectacularly. No, it won't prevent them from going through with it, though. The brakes should have been applied in 2009-10, but they weren't. When Disney was working with predictive modeling that showed over 95% of guests would have smartphones by the time the system went live in 2012, at least one person in the room should have stood up and explained that number was made up, just like the increased revenues they were counting on. But they did not. Instead, they used their made up numbers and manipulated research and technology ta-tas to push this through. Like a runaway train, it ain't stopping.

BTW, has anyone EVER heard of a project at WDW that has a budget that seemingly is never-ending? That keeps growing and growing and growing, instead of being cut? Anyone remember bird on a stick? I guess that bird AA was going to cost a few billion dollars give or take, right?

Anyway, I'm off to take my father out to lunch. The same father that hooked me on the MAGIC of WDW back on Christmas Day 1974. The same father that bought me my first AP as soon as Disney began selling them. Even the same father who seriously considered moving to Celebration because Disney was developing it and 'they do everything right' ...oh, the same father who I can barely get into the parks for free over the last dozen or so years because he sees what they've done to their product. The Walmarting ...the gouging ...the in your face not valuing the most loyal customers. I guess Pixie Dust just runs stronger with me ....
 

wdisney9000

Truindenashendubapreser
Premium Member
Also: Any real evidence of all this "kiddie tracking" stuff.
.

Yup, http://www.geek.com/news/disney-to-setup-advertising-research-center-574867/

That is just a fluff story about the facility. Henry Giroux and Grace Pollock wrote an interesting book named "The Mouse that Roared." They unearthed much more. They researched and spoke with psychologists and sociologists who explained that Disney was paying families to allow them to let researchers come into their homes and study their childrens habits and even examine their room and closets to get a better idea of the childs behavioral pattern. Then the children were tested at the facility in their makeshift "living rooms" and play areas and ran extensive psychological testing and cameras monitored everything from heart rate to eye movement. Many top psychologists turned Disney down when they were approached to be part of the team because they felt it was a serious ethics violation on the children. They even criticized the researchers who did accept the job from Disney. The book gets extremely in depth on Disneys marketing techniques and how far they are willing to go and how much money is spent on this type of research. It is staggering.

Now, is this all doom and gloom? Not at all. The authors are not bashing Disney in the book. They agree that Disney provides many levels of entertainment for children and adults alike. They do question the misuse of the information they garner from innocent children. While this is not "tracking" of children via a wrsitband, you would have to be a fool to think that if they spent millions on a research facility specifically to study children that they wont be doing the same through the wristbands on a very extensive level. They will probly be more interested in the kids info they get from the bands more than mom and dads because as the book explains, Disney focuses more on what the children want and its easier to target the children and then let them harass mom and dad to buy them what they want weather it be a new dvd or a plush toy or even a magical trip to WDW. Its a great book. I highly recommend it.
 
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