The privacy freaks and paranoia nuts are already have a field day with this, but I love the idea.
Basically when you’re at Disneyworld you’ll wear and RFID bracelet that matches your room id (and thus charge account).
On the one hand this means I won’t have to carry money at all anywhere on Disney property (theme parts, resorts etc.) and that they can pass the names of my kids directly to the “actors” which will make for a better interaction. And from Disney’s perspective they will have a huge amount of data not only on what rides people are going on, but what order they take them in.
Sounds like a win win to me.
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Disney’s ‘MagicBands’ will track the movements and behavior of theme park attendees
Disney wants to make its theme parks more interactive, and it’s hoping digital wristbands will do the trick. Over the next few months, Disney World will be introducing a new program called MyMagic+.…..
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Right. People share every drop of their lives on FB and other social media, but if Disney says they’re going to use RFIDs to track guests, it’s all Evil Empire, all the time.
I’m interested in the practical application of said wristbands. You’re competing for physical real-estate on people’s wrists, against watches and activity monitors like Nike’s Fuelband and Jawbone’s UP.
You have to have a product capable of withstanding a day in the park. Slamming around on the thrill rides, banging against railings, etc … yet make it affordable enough to mass produce. (Reusable bands could present issues for guests with sensitive skin, even.)
You have to address theft/loss.
Some of Disney’s magic is that extra step to make me feel like a guest. Tracking so they can address traffic flow and guest experience is really a tool that they’re in a position to experiment with, and I imagine that if it proves successful, other venues will follow.
Well, remember that the first part of that is already done. Your room key was already typically setup as your admission pass and as a room charge. (And if you were on a dining plan, linked to the dining plan as well.)
And your admission ticket was what you used to get fastpasses.
The big question is if they can combine this to be both authentication and authorization, which they couldn’t do with ticketed methods. Perhaps, but I’m not sure they’re going in that direction.
The new features are, from a customer POV, personalization (being able to know your kids name, etc) with some small safety aspect.
Interesting idea. This could replace/supplement Fastpass and you could load balance the park. You could even potentially have people set an agenda with their priorities and a system could help optimize the day based on information available. To keep things flexible, I imagine the agenda “rereouting” similar to gps systems when people deviate from the plan.
As of this year they’d even replaced the “room key” with an RFID card +Allen Firstenberg and were testing out a new fast pass system where you could book the night before.
Didn’t know they were doing that, +Eoghann Irving, tho thats been something people haev been speculating about since FP first launched.
I agree, I don’t think it’s that big of a deal to be tracked when within the park. If it makes for a better experience for the customers, even better.
They already track with fast pass, your room key and the bio metrics of your ticket. It’s not that much of change.
“I want technology to advance!… I just don’t want to be involved in any way”
- People opposed to this.
No more wait time cards! Praise Jeebus! Those things were evil, and FLIK isn’t much better.