The Spirit Takes the Fifth ...

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stevehousse

stevehousse

Well-Known Member
Did any of you notice rides with photos on them will automatically show up on your profile's photopass even if you didn't use your band to do FP+ for that ride!?!
 
Blueliner

Blueliner

Well-Known Member
ParentsOf4 said:
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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I almost completely agree. We were at WDW from Tuesday, November 26 through Saturday, November 30. We used the Magic Bands and My Disney Experience. The primary benefit I found was the ability to obtain Fastpasses for some of the high-demand, low-capacity rides without running around the parks at rope drop. In particular, I was happy to have Fastpasses for Soarin' and Toy Story Midway Mania before we left for the parks. The secondary benefit (although possibly temporary) was that we could double-dip on Fastpasses, using our annual passes to obtain traditional fastpasses. For that matter, we also had redundant Keys To The World with magnetic strips, so we actually were able to "triple-dip" on Fastpasses. This was sort of a belssing and a curse, as we ended up planning our days away via Fastpass and Fastpass+.

Other than that pre-trip benefit related to a few high-demand attractions, MagicBands and Fastpass+ did not really enhance or detract from our trip. It did not change our spending patterns at all. It caused some minor delays at Fastpass returns. It forced us to avoid some rides during peak hours due to what I would call "standby inflation" on what normally would be walk-ons or very short waits, such as Pirates and Haunted Mansion.

I think the system also underscores the lack of capacity at Epcot. I went to the Fastpass distribution for Test Track essentially at rope-drop on Friday. Not only was there a 45 minute standby wait at rope drop, but the return time for our Fastpasses shifted 40 minutes just during the roughly 45 seconds it took me to pull fastpasses for our party.

All in all, I'm pretty neutral on the new system, but based on personal experience, I see no potential windfall for Disney as a result of the new technology.
 
Travel Junkie

Travel Junkie

Well-Known Member
Soarin' Over Pgh said:
Ohh. Please give us something to chew on. PLEASE.

All of this Magic Band talk is DEPRESSING. It's never taken me this long to read through the forum. (ie, all day vs. an hour)
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Word in the Twitterverse is a JP family coaster could open fall of 2014. Nothing special but would add capacity to the park and a family friendly one at that. I have no idea if that is what marni and wdw1974 are referring to.
 
danlb_2000

danlb_2000

Premium Member
stevehousse said:
Did any of you notice rides with photos on them will automatically show up on your profile's photopass even if you didn't use your band to do FP+ for that ride!?!
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That makes sense since there would be no way to connect a scan of FP+ at the gate with when you actually pass the camera. They must have readers on the ride near the camera to do the association.
 
Soarin' Over Pgh

Soarin' Over Pgh

Well-Known Member
So realistically speaking, @marni1971 , @WDW1974 , @GLaDOS and @Lee (and of course, any of you lovely folks who would like to chime in) what do you think we can expect, going forward, from WDW at this point?

If the 'average' wait time for a guest during say, the second quarter peak season, is/was currently at 20 minutes per ride (give or take) without the use of FP, what should we REALLY expect with FP+? Double that to 40 minutes, again, give/take a few minutes? How will this affect the overall "tour time" of the parks?

If people who currently factor in a 5 day vacation (figure one park per day plus an extra 'magic' day at, ehhh, Magic Kingdom. Why not.) tour time for the parks, should they expect to plan out for 8-10 days for the same amount of experiences on rides/meet n greets/etc?

Also, when are the next price increases, because this is also a factor in planning out a trip and touring schedule. Any projections as to how much tickets/room rates will raise come 2014?

Also, are EMH being cut entirely, or just twindled down to nothing until they're gone?


Edit to ask: Is there any true "off peak" season at Disneyland because, in all seriousness, I'd rather go 'back home' to that park than WDW at this point.
 
The Visionary Soul

The Visionary Soul

Well-Known Member
Anyone who is in the know at Universal can easily tell you that there is a plan to re-build a large portion of Citywalk, change a lot of Wet N Wild, and to build more hotels. That's your "nugget" of info to chew on, but I really don't know how much more I should say yet, since it's not all set in stone.
 
M

mahnamahna101

Well-Known Member
Virtual Insanity said:
Word in the Twitterverse is a JP family coaster could open fall of 2014. Nothing special but would add capacity to the park and a family friendly one at that. I have no idea if that is what marni and wdw1974 are referring to.
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In all honesty, that's the only large-scale project they could be referring to... since Kong/Lorax/the KidZone revamp all seem too elaborate to be done and open in less than a year
 
Soarin' Over Pgh

Soarin' Over Pgh

Well-Known Member
TheVisionarySoul said:
Anyone who is in the know at Universal can easily tell you that there is a plan to re-build a large portion of Citywalk, change a lot of Wet N Wild, and to build more hotels. That's your "nugget" of info to chew on, but I really don't know how much more I should say yet, since it's not all set in stone.
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...Ok, I can accept that.

...I wonder if they're gonna have a monorail linking any/all new resorts to their other properties.
 
flynnibus

flynnibus

Premium Member
Soarin' Over Pgh said:
Edit to ask: Is there any true "off peak" season at Disneyland because, in all seriousness, I'd rather go 'back home' to that park than WDW at this point.
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Yes - and crowds even differ significantly between days of the week due to AP blackout patterns. But Disneyland still does have significant downtimes... but they are usually heavy hit with refurbs. Disneyland is still driven mainly by holidays and vacation calendars and lacks the 'event' traffic that dominates what used to be offperiods in WDW.

I think you are a bit optimistic with your wait time 'average' IMO if you are talking the 75% percentile of crowded times.
 
JenniferS

JenniferS

Time To Be Movin’ Along
Premium Member
the.dreamfinder said:
Thoughts on Frozen:
I liked Frozen. I think it's a nice change of pace for a Disney fairy tale having the story center around two sisters instead of the hackneyed hero/villain structure. The use of the paid tag line "Best Disney musical since "The Lion King" was a clear mistake because while I'd say the music is better than Rapunzel the marketing should be able to sell the film on its own merits. Now those merits are strong enough, to a degree. Let It Go is the highlight of the film song wise. It's a great ballad that takes advantage of Idina Menzel's talents and is probably the best Disney song crafted for a specific singer since the Eartha Kitt's cut "Sniff Out The Light" from Kingdom of the Sun/Emperor's New Groove. Other than that the songs work to progress story and introduce characters like Olaf, a character that was derisively called "Snow Mater" at one point who really works well despite clear reservations of some who were quick to judge, but they weren't particularly memorable. That fact alone makes it unlike Lion King where almost every song is memorable.
Having said that, I enjoyed Frozen and I went in with no expectations on purpose so I came away pleased. I look forward to seeing what Jennifer Lee directs/writes next and hope we see more from the Lopez's. Frozen was put together very, very quickly and I would like to think they will really, really get into Lion King/Aladdin/Beauty and the Beast territory the next time Walt Disney Animation does a musical from what they learned working on Frozen.

For some added context, my top films of the year (so far) in alphabetical order
12 Years A Slave
Before Midnight
Blue is the Warmest Color (Not for the kiddies, but try to see this if it is playing near you)
Frances Ha (On Netflix)
Gravity
Iron Man 3
Short Term 12
Wadjda

and maybe...

Frozen
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Hubby and I just got back from a 3-day cross-border Christmas shopping getaway - sans kids.
As usual, we took in a matinee. Last trip in July, we saw Despicable Me 2 and Reds 2. We enjoyed both, with the edge going to DM2.

This trip, we saw Frozen. I liked it. Quite a bit. Nowhere near as much as DM2 (which was my fave film this year), but certainly moreso than Monsters University. Hubby, however, hated it.

Our kids are older (17 1/2 and almost 19), so he's well out of the Disney musical groove. Every time the music started to herald another song, he mimed a gun to his forehead, mouth, or under his chin.
I, on the other hand didn't mind the songs. Liked "For the First Time in Forever" quite a bit, and loved "Let it Go", which may be my new all-time favourite Disney song.
I will be taking my niece and nephew next Tuesday (cheap night). Hubby has opted out; although I don't recall inviting him after yesterday's antics.

Hopefully no spoilers were revealed @Soarin' Over Pgh. I didn't even mention the snowman.
 
Darth Sidious

Darth Sidious

Authentically Disney Distinctly Chinese
Got off work at the end of the year, where am I going to go? I'm going to Disney World! New ad campaign... Lol but seriously I'm going.
 
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