Thanks, but I haven't left yet. I'll be around for the next week.
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The Spirit Takes the Fifth ...
- Thread starter WDW1974
- Start date
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Thanks, but I haven't left yet. I'll be around for the next week.
PhotoDave219
Well-Known Member
Well... it used to be a hard ticket at Pleasure Island...
Lee
Adventurer
Hah! Not a chance. Unless there's a family coup of some sort, it'll have to be pried out of his Charlton Heston-esque cold, dead hands.
flynnibus
Premium Member
Sped2424
Well-Known Member
No its not going to die, no there isn't any lack of funding and lastly its Hayo Miyazaki!
You're assuming they stay on property.
Each year I do rough, quick guides for a few dozen friends and friends of friends for their visits. Not one of them stays onsite. It costs enough for them to stay on 192 or I Drive. This has a potential to be so damaging for the average foreign visitor.
First timers have no idea they can't do the MK in one day in August. Let alone they need to micromanage a schedule down to the hour, months in advance.
Yes - even if the foreign visitor choses to stay on property. I really can't see Disney mailing flash drives and magic bands overseas for years and years to come. They already stopped mailing the Magical Express luggage tags. Add to that the language barrier of the website etc (not relevant for the Brits, but for South American visitors and other Euopean countries).
lazyboy97o
Well-Known Member
Is there not also a history of the international Walt Disney World websites being even less reliable and out of date in regards to information?
ParentsOf4
Well-Known Member
What surprised me the most during my recent WDW visit was going bandless had 0 effect on my vacation.
As I recall, there is one meet-and-greet that is MagicBand-only. That's it. My family is long past the age of caring about meet-and-greets.
Otherwise, I'm hard pressed to think of any reason to wear the things at this time.
Just watching people use them, it was obvious they often had to go through all sorts of contortions to get them to line up. Call me old fashioned but it felt much more natural reaching into my (RFID blocking
) wallet and pulling out my family's 6 cards, just like I've done for years.It also was obvious that many didn't work; something about them not "keyed in". CMs in Guest Relations seemed to be able to solve the issue at their terminals so it wasn't a physical problem with the bands. What's going on? Disney shipped these things to people's homes. What's wrong with Disney's process that they can't get these entered into the database correctly?
At FP+ entrances, there sometimes seemed to be problems with one or two in a group. So, it wasn't as if the party was in the wrong place at the wrong time because it would work (for example) for 3 out of 4 family members.
Other times, someone tried it once and it didn't work. And then try it a second or even third time and it worked fine. A network or database glitch fetching data perhaps?
It's rather sad when old paper FP technology is more efficient than the latest wiz-bang.
I realize some might enjoy wearing MagicBands but I frequently observed guests taking them off, rubbing their wrists, kids playing with them (can anyone say "lost band"
), and an occasional band go flying as someone would catch it just right on something. Others didn't wear them at all and would go rifling through their pockets or bags to find them when they needed them.Some individuals might like MagicBands but IMHO that's a personal preference. They help Disney track individuals but, inherently, MagicBands do nothing to enhance the guest experience. For guests, MagicBands are a marketing gimmick.
Those that weren't using MagicBands seemed to have at least as good of an experience as those with MagicBands.
If they don't fix the problems soon and end this eternal testing phase, MagicBands are going to leave a bad taste in a lot of people's mouths.
WDW has additional MagicBand-only enhancements planned but between the technical challenges they pose and the apparent mixed reaction the public has had towards them, it's becoming increasingly difficult to imagine how MagicBands ever financially justify their investment.
It's too early for corporate to throw in the towel but at some point MagicBands will become good money chasing after bad.
P.S. I've heard that a new MagicBand design is in the works. Looks like feedback on MagicBand version 1.0 isn't the greatest.
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Darth Sidious
Authentically Disney Distinctly Chinese
Random comment this morning: Disney, as a company, always worked best as a team of fiscal and creative minds at #1 & #2 in the company. Walt and Roy, Frank and Michael.
ford91exploder
Resident Curmudgeon
Sorry @WDW1974, I was just extrapolating along the course of TWDC which seems to be evolving into a IP holding and content delivery company rather than a creative company.
alphac2005
Well-Known Member
I have to disagree here. My wife has read The Walking Dead graphic novels since they began and they've actually slowed the killing and extended storylines extensively from the comic form. Kirkman and company have a fine line to walk here. If they deviate too far from the print incarnation, they've then alienated the rather large audience that its had there for a long time. They are killing at much slower rate and/or changing whom and the timing of such. As for character development, there have been several that have been expanded greatly from the print form and take Tyreese for example. This past week, he should have been dead, instead, they're keeping him going and expanding on his character.
You have to realize that The Walking Dead boils down to Rick Grimes, period. It is all about Rick, everyone and everything else is essentially the happenstance around Rick. I personally think that they've done a good job of walking that line.
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71jason
Well-Known Member
I mean, if it included a FastPass to the bar, maybe. (Although, seriously, I would use a FP to High Octane Christmas weeks).
71jason
Well-Known Member
Eh, not that hard a ticket. I'll never forget the final night, Karl Anthony came out to thank the line of fans outside Adventurers Club before starting work, talked about how they were the greatest fans in the world and no other venue could ever match them ... and then just silently looked over at the empty CW storefront. Biggest laugh of the night.
PhotoDave219
Well-Known Member
That's because Karl is one hell of a comedian.
I only used the room card for entry to my room, where the band had the most alignment issues. I simply wanted to give the bands a chance (though I HATED wearing it. It was never comfortable for me).
Convenience. At best it did save a few seconds of time.
But seriously, they really aren't any better than carrying the cards. While there were times it scanned pretty quickly, the time savings is so miniscule, you have to be the laziest person on earth to think this is such a time saver.
That was the biggest issue I had. And I knew the band needed to be lined up! Using the card would have been easier (as I said above, I only used the card for my room door).Just watching people use them, it was obvious they often had to go through all sorts of contortions to get them to line up. Call me old fashioned but it felt much more natural reaching into my (RFID blocking
I was lucky in that I never had any problems with it "not" working. I didn't notice anyone else having any problems, but I also went at a time where the parks were pretty slow, so I didn't pay too much attention.
That was pretty frustrating...though I don't think it affected the actual overall wait time. But the line to get into the FP+ queue was often longer than the actual FP+ queue.
That was me. Having the band was pretty annoying. It wasn't comfortable, and my wrist was sweating (and that was with it being loose enough to slide off my wrist!)I realize some might enjoy wearing MagicBands but I frequently observed guests taking them off, rubbing their wrists, kids playing with them (can anyone say "lost band"
This is why I don't understand much of the praise from those in the fan community. They don't do anything for the guests that the card doesn't do. It diesn't seem to save any more time using the band than digging through a pocket or bag to get the card. The bands are purely for tracking purposes...and benefit Disney and not the guests.
GoofGoof
Premium Member
What surprised me the most during my recent WDW visit was going bandless had 0 effect on my vacation.
As I recall, there is one meet-and-greet that is MagicBand-only. That's it. My family is long past the age of caring about meet-and-greets.
Otherwise, I'm hard pressed to think of any reason to wear the things at this time.
Just watching people use them, it was obvious they often had to go through all sorts of contortions to get them to line up. Call me old fashioned but it felt much more natural reaching into my (RFID blocking
It also was obvious that many didn't work; something about them not "keyed in". CMs in Guest Relations seemed to be able to solve the issue at their terminals so it wasn't a physical problem with the bands. What's going on? Disney shipped these things to people's homes. What's wrong with Disney's process that they can't get these entered into the database correctly?
At FP+ entrances, there sometimes seemed to be problems with one or two in a group. So, it wasn't as if the party was in the wrong place at the wrong time because it would work (for example) for 3 out of 4 family members.
Other times, someone tried it once and it didn't work. And then try it a second or even third time and it worked fine. A network or database glitch fetching data perhaps?
It's rather sad when old paper FP technology is more efficient than the latest wiz-bang.
I realize some might enjoy wearing MagicBands but I frequently observed guests taking them off, rubbing their wrists, kids playing with them (can anyone say "lost band"
Some individuals might like MagicBands but IMHO that's a personal preference. They help Disney track individuals but, inherently, MagicBands do nothing to enhance the guest experience. For guests, MagicBands are a marketing gimmick.
Those that weren't using MagicBands seemed to have at least as good of an experience as those with MagicBands.
If they don't fix the problems soon and end this eternal testing phase, MagicBands are going to leave a bad taste in a lot of people's mouths.
WDW has additional MagicBand-only enhancements planned but between the technical challenges they pose and the apparent mixed reaction the public has had towards them, it's becoming increasingly difficult to imagine how MagicBands ever financially justify their investment.
It's too early for corporate to throw in the towel but at some point MagicBands will become good money chasing after bad.
P.S. I've heard that a new MagicBand design is in the works. Looks like feedback on MagicBand version 1.0 isn't the greatest.
In 8 days with 8 people I had 2 issues with bands not working. 1 was lunch day 1 where the pin didn't work and one at the entrance to EPCOT where 2 of 8 bands didn't work. The rest of the time they worked as advertised. My 3 year old didn't want to wear his so it spent the week in my wife's bag. The 6 year old loved it. Wanted to sleep with it on. Definitely not going to be popular with everyone. I hope any redesign doesn't make things worse.
One point I definitely agree with is the bands didn't do much to make my vacation any better or worse than if I didn't have a band. Most of the time I forgot I had it on. It was probably more convenient than pulling out my wallet to pay or taking out a key card for fast pass or room entry, but the benefit was negligible compared to the price tag. In other words my vacation would have been a lot more positively impacted with a billion dollar DCA style refurb of DHS. I have no issues with using the bands it's the opportunity cost that still gets to me. That and FP+ which has to be considered when looking at the whole project.
GLaDOS
Well-Known Member
Universal supplementing Potter with something else?
Cesar R M
Well-Known Member
yes, I wondered about that. He seemed genuine in the "closing down" thing.
What surprised me the most during my recent WDW visit was going bandless had 0 effect on my vacation.
As I recall, there is one meet-and-greet that is MagicBand-only. That's it. My family is long past the age of caring about meet-and-greets.
Otherwise, I'm hard pressed to think of any reason to wear the things at this time.
Just watching people use them, it was obvious they often had to go through all sorts of contortions to get them to line up. Call me old fashioned but it felt much more natural reaching into my (RFID blocking
It also was obvious that many didn't work; something about them not "keyed in". CMs in Guest Relations seemed to be able to solve the issue at their terminals so it wasn't a physical problem with the bands. What's going on? Disney shipped these things to people's homes. What's wrong with Disney's process that they can't get these entered into the database correctly?
At FP+ entrances, there sometimes seemed to be problems with one or two in a group. So, it wasn't as if the party was in the wrong place at the wrong time because it would work (for example) for 3 out of 4 family members.
Other times, someone tried it once and it didn't work. And then try it a second or even third time and it worked fine. A network or database glitch fetching data perhaps?
It's rather sad when old paper FP technology is more efficient than the latest wiz-bang.
I realize some might enjoy wearing MagicBands but I frequently observed guests taking them off, rubbing their wrists, kids playing with them (can anyone say "lost band"
Some individuals might like MagicBands but IMHO that's a personal preference. They help Disney track individuals but, inherently, MagicBands do nothing to enhance the guest experience. For guests, MagicBands are a marketing gimmick.
Those that weren't using MagicBands seemed to have at least as good of an experience as those with MagicBands.
If they don't fix the problems soon and end this eternal testing phase, MagicBands are going to leave a bad taste in a lot of people's mouths.
WDW has additional MagicBand-only enhancements planned but between the technical challenges they pose and the apparent mixed reaction the public has had towards them, it's becoming increasingly difficult to imagine how MagicBands ever financially justify their investment.
It's too early for corporate to throw in the towel but at some point MagicBands will become good money chasing after bad.
P.S. I've heard that a new MagicBand design is in the works. Looks like feedback on MagicBand version 1.0 isn't the greatest.
well, the magicbands definitively feel clunky, big and the plastic of the wrist.. is way too hard.
*cough*
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