Uni Locks Away Patent for Rainy Day

Disneyhead'71

Disneyhead'71

Well-Known Member
Universal's system will include a wait time app, but not a ride reservation system. You will also be able to make dinner reservations. This will be a different system than their room key/charge back system, which they already have in place.
 
Queeniediva

Queeniediva

New Member
wdisney9000 said:
Arent you just complaining about the complainers there? Hating on the haters kinda makes you a...wait for it....hater. Glad YOUR trip went well but just for arguments sake lets pretend you had an issue with your band and had to visit guest relations a few times during your trip. You would be singing a different tune. MM+ has been great for some and awful for others. For the ones who have had no issues its hard to see why people dont like it but just try to put the shoe on the other foot. I dont hate it, but I dont love it either. @ParentsOf4 has said a bazillion times, "its a zero sum gain/loss".

I had no issues with it but saw several who did. One in particular was a gentleman at the AKL front desk and he just had a really stressed out look on his face. He wasnt screaming and yelling. Just waiting on the CM who was typing things on the computer. I will never forget the look on his face. It spoke volumes to me. I was walking around the resort enjoying a beer and soaking up the atmosphere (so fun at AKL) and I thought to myself, That guy just wants to be in the state of mind that I'm in right now, but he cant. It made me think of all the conversations Ive been a part of on this forum regarding MM+ and in that moment it made more sense why some people loathe the system. It just takes that one bad experience to kill it for you. Yes, they will work out some kinks but there will always be the possibility of a catastrophe that could happen to ANYONE with such a complex system.

One last thing and I promise im not trolling. When you say, "It enhanced my last two trips beyond my expectations." I have to ask what were your expectations going into it? Or perhaps how you were touring the parks before? Aside from booking FP online or on your phone to avoid running across the park I dont see any advantage. I pay cash and its just as easy if not faster than scanning my band. Flashing a paper FP was quicker than scanning my band, and entrance to the parks hasnt become lightning fast (at least for me). Again, I am glad you had a good experience and a good trip. Please dont take offense to my post as Im not trying to pick a fight. Just curious. Thanks
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Hating on the haters isn't really hating...HATER lol jk...I always take people yelling about anything, even with food in a restaurant, with a grain of salt....it's not life or death here people, it's Disney...I'm sure he got his money back or whatever...Entrance to the park has gotten faster for me, without having to stand behind and wait 400 years while some dolt can't figure out how to put a paper ticket through a scanner...I can't say that magic band or the new entrance system has done anything more to make my life more efficient. However, it was nice to log into "my Disney experience" on my iphone while on Spaceship earth this past Friday to make a reservation at the France Pavillion on a high attendance day when one would not normally expect to be able to get any reservations by telephone.

The old fast pass system was certainly slowing down and not having to get to EPCOT at 9 am as an annual pass holder to run all the way to Soarin to get a fast pass before it ends up running out or interfering with your 8:30 dinner reservation is a plus as well....it's the little things people...
 
luv

luv

Well-Known Member
sshindel said:
My favorite part of the argument against all of this is that they spent a billion on wristbands and door locks. Not on the underlying internal IT systems that the entire company relies on. Not on any of the data analysis to try and find inefficiencies, not on any of the other thousand things that likely were a part of the project under the covers. $500 million on wristbands, $500 million on door locks. Nothing else.

Technology for technology's sake is silly. Technology to keep the systems viable into the future and to drive the business forward is not.
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Technology doesn't drive business forward.
 
SirLink

SirLink

Well-Known Member
Jimmy Thick said:
Funny how the Uni fanboi's come a runnin' with damage control, or attempt to.

Fact:
Disney is implementing MM+ which in the long run will become an industry standard.

Fact:
Universal will implement the exact same thing more or less because Disney did it and there is absolutely no way Universal cannot do the same things Disney has, they must adhere to Disney's standard which includes MM+.

Fact:
Disney and Universal will both steal your data'z because they in effect will have to. Nothing to do here but accept the mark of the beast or in this case a magic band.

Fact:
There is nothing wrong with any of this, its the future of hospitality.

Fact:
Universal just owned all the people saying how big and bad Disney is by pursuing MM+.

Fact:
Disney still rules the theme park world and everyone else follows their lead.

Fact:
People need to lay off Iger and applaud the man, apparently Comcast execs want to do the same as him.


Hope this clarifies things.

Jimmy Thick- Factually speaking.
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I don't usually see posts like this because of the brilliance of the 'ignore' button, however, you made me laugh-out-loud. Jimmy Thick the comedy jobber of WDWMagic ...
 
wdisney9000

wdisney9000

Truindenashendubapreser
Premium Member
Queeniediva said:
it was nice to log into "my Disney experience" on my iphone while on Spaceship earth this past Friday to make a reservation at the France Pavillion on a high attendance day when one would not normally expect to be able to get any reservations by telephone.
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I Love Chefs de France! (if thats where you ate). But I wanna enjoy Spaceship Earth when I ride it, not make a reservation on my phone. It just seems to be that the whole world is moving in a direction where efficiency and speed is more important than actually experiencing life. Why even ride SSE if your gonna be on your phone? Or instead of enjoying dinner in France pavilion with your family and talking to one another, should everyone just b on the their smart phones booking their next experience and when they arrive for it just start booking the next one and so one... We might as well just stay home and enjoy Disney on our smart phones.
 
S

Sassagoula-Rvr

Well-Known Member
I'm not shocked Uni could be implementing something on the heels of NGE...I have said it before...Disney lead the pack with Fastpass...everyone else caught up...now the same with NGE. It's just the scope of Disney's program is incredible...but we will see. Uni will take advantage of Disney already clearing a bit of the trail for them...and like others said...their numbers are much more manageable regarding the infrastructure to power the system.
 
ABQ

ABQ

Well-Known Member
I know @marni1971 has panned the OP's assertion that this may be Uni's own answer to MM+ and I trust Martin to be reliable in his statement. However, if this is just a defensive patent application, it almost borders on infringement one would think. Though I'm no legal counselor, if you read the detailed description it reads like someone advertisement for the current usage of FP+ reservations. It's nearly a verbatim "how to" document. Further, the flow charts on pages 2-6 have the appearance of what I would almost imagine was sold to the WDW brass when the entire MM+ project was first pitched to them. All the things that MM+ Should do.
The system may enable guests to utilize mobile or
wireless technology to wait in a virtual queue for a particular
attraction or attractions while experiencing other attractions
or relaxing in other areas in or away from the amusement
park. Indeed, present embodiments include a system configured
to connnunicate with one or more attractions related to a
reservation request or au existing reservation to dynamically
adjust and optimize guest waiting experiences in real-time,
and conmmnicate updates to guests (e.g., via mobile or wireless
teclmology). Present embodiments may facilitate communication
with guests via portable communication devices,
such as cellular telephones, pagers, and other wireless
devices. Such devices may be referred to as mobile devices.
Communications referenced herein between a system and
guests include email, text, video, web-based, aud audio communications
from the system to the mobile devices or the like.
The location of guests within the amusement park may also be
obtained by monitoring such mobile devices or other means
(e.g. facial recoguition systems, ticket scanning, etc.). In
some embodiments, conn1mnication with guests may be
achieved via publicly accessible displays. For example,
kiosks with communication features (e.g., computers capable
of accessing a network) may be positioned throughout the
amusement park.​
 
Disneyhead'71

Disneyhead'71

Well-Known Member
luv said:
Technology doesn't drive business forward.
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I guess that you are unaware of the fact that most of the people who booked trips to WDW in 2014 did so almost exclusively to play with the "magic" door locks. They are so popular that crowds of people are following fellow guests to their rooms just to WATCH the Cirque-esque contortions necessary to "magically" open the doors. When the light finally turns green, the crowd erupts into rapturous applause. It's truly "Magical®".
 
danlb_2000

danlb_2000

Premium Member
Jimmy Thick said:
Funny how the Uni fanboi's come a runnin' with damage control, or attempt to.

Fact:
Universal will implement the exact same thing more or less because Disney did it and there is absolutely no way Universal cannot do the same things Disney has, they must adhere to Disney's standard which includes MM+.
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This one is interesting, can you please point me to the Uni press release where this was announced, I would be really interested in reading it. You are pretty good about calling out other people for not providing sources so I would assume you have a source for this fact otherwise you would not have posted it.
 
sshindel

sshindel

The Epcot Manifesto
wdisney9000 said:
I Love Chefs de France! (if thats where you ate). But I wanna enjoy Spaceship Earth when I ride it, not make a reservation on my phone. It just seems to be that the whole world is moving in a direction where efficiency and speed is more important than actually experiencing life. Why even ride SSE if your gonna be on your phone? Or instead of enjoying dinner in France pavilion with your family and talking to one another, should everyone just b on the their smart phones booking their next experience and when they arrive for it just start booking the next one and so one... We might as well just stay home and enjoy Disney on our smart phones.
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It's all based on how you would like to enjoy the parks. Honestly, I'd rather be booking some sort of reservation than staring at the touchscreen show on how my "future" is going to go for the umpteenth time. Part of the nice thing here is you can book from home, you can book from your hotel, you can book from the park, and you can book while taking the big drop on Splash Mountain if you want. The choice is wide open here. What you don't have to do is walk over to Splash Mountain only to find out that the FPs are all gone for the day. You've got that at your fingertips if you choose to take advantage of it.
 
luv

luv

Well-Known Member
Sassagoula-Rvr said:
I'm not shocked Uni could be implementing something on the heels of NGE...I have said it before...Disney lead the pack with Fastpass...everyone else caught up...now the same with NGE. It's just the scope of Disney's program is incredible...but we will see. Uni will take advantage of Disney already clearing a bit of the trail for them...and like others said...their numbers are much more manageable regarding the infrastructure to power the system.
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Uni had Express Pass before Disney had FastPass.

Uni also had a FOTL system before Disney had these bands. Since the get-go, I've been saying I thought Disney would pull the paper FP machines, just because Uni did it and Disney tends to copy what Uni does.
 
sshindel

sshindel

The Epcot Manifesto
luv said:
Technology doesn't drive business forward.
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If you don't mind, I'm going to steal this for my work email signature.
sshindel
Information Engineer
"Technology doesn't drive business forward"

It'll remind me of where I really stand.
 
ford91exploder

ford91exploder

Resident Curmudgeon
orky8 said:
It has competition for worst use of company funds, if that is what you mean by competition?

Go.com, anyone?

http://articles.latimes.com/2001/jan/30/business/fi-18700
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Notice that both involve technology, Something TWDC manifestly does not get, I'd be willing to bet that TWDC is the type of company where senior executives have their admin assistants print out their e-mails for them and print out web pages so the execs can look at them. Use a computer 'that's for peons'...

Oddly enough tech disasters tend to occur on a regular basis at such companies, I wonder why...
 
S

Sassagoula-Rvr

Well-Known Member
luv said:
Uni had Express Pass before Disney had FastPass.

Uni also had a FOTL system before Disney had these bands. Since the get-go, I've been saying I thought Disney would pull the paper FP machines, just because Uni did it and Disney tends to copy what Uni does.
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I'm not very good on dates and history...I'll take your word for it...but regardless...MM+/NGE/whatever it's called is going to become the industry standard.
 
orky8

orky8

Well-Known Member
luv said:
Another gigantic waste of money.

Why don't they get rid of Bob Iger? They need a real businessman in there...and one who understands why Disney makes money.
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To be fair to Iger, Go.com was Eisner's brain-child. I agree they need to get rid of Iger, but mainly because he lacks creativity and passion. Disney functions best when you have one creative genius with a passion for the products and one accounting genius (also with a passion for the products) both running the company together.

Today, you have a CEO that loves being CEO, is probably a decent people person in making deals, but would be just as happy to be CEO of any other major corporation. He makes deals to bring in the creative works of others, because he lacks his own. Iger needs to surround himself with creative people, but instead has done the opposite and filled the upper ranks with MBAs, leaving you with a CFO who is happy to be an executive, has a fantastic understanding of the numbers and the technical details behind those numbers, but doesn't give a flying squirrel about the actual product. This combination is great at boosting short financials, but is really not a good long-term strategy, in my humble opinion.
 

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