Patents would be good. Companies don't protect their ideas with patents unless they think they have merit. What do the patents talk about in terms of MM+ ??
Sorry I’m just getting back to this. Disney has a number of patents related to MyMagic+. Initially, when I first stumbled upon these I was pretty excited, because there is so much potential here. But it’s the execution that fell flat and is so disappointing.
Here’s what I consider to be the main MyMagic+ patent that includes FP+, what Disney calls the “Guest Experience Management System and Method:”
http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=/netahtml/PTO/srchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=20130018661.PGNR.
The gist of this invention, per the patent: “An exemplary computer implemented method comprises receiving information from a guest, determining a guest strategy based on the information received from the guest, and generating a schedule for the guest visit based on the guest strategy.” In other words, “we’re going to find out what experiences the guest wants to participate in, and then make a an optimized schedule for them, based on business rules and logic to help them avoid lines and busy areas of the park.”
In the Background of the invention, the inventors note that the two issues they’re trying to resolve is long waits in lines to enter the parks, get food, and experience attractions, but also they want to move guests through the parks in the most efficient means possible, while avoiding bottleneck areas. In the Detailed Description, the inventors note that “The schedule will also include appointments… or passes for the guest for each selected attraction for a time period or window of time that is also optimized in accordance with the applicable business rules as described below. In this manner the guest will be able to pre-select the desired experiences … and when he shows up at the theme park, the guest will be able to following an optimized route through the theme park. Additionally, the guest will already have appointments or passes for each of the selected experiences, without having to rush to an attraction to obtain one appointment or pass for a later time, ensuring that the guest is able to visit the desired experiences
according to a geographically optimized route, while both minimizing the waiting time at each attraction and allowing the guest to take more time and enjoy the surrounding events, sights, shops, etc. as the guest follows the route.”
Herein lies my first issue: let’s go to
MDE and see if really creates a “geographically optimized route” though the parks. Luckily, we have APs, so I can go to MDE and play around. I choose my 3 experiences for 30 days from now for my family of 4. I decide to pick an attraction in three lands to see how MDE will send me through the park, so I go with 7DMT, Splash, and Aladdin. What does MDE give me? My optimized schedule/best match according to MDE is Splash from 3:35-4:35, Aladdin from 6:25-7:25, and 7DMT from 9:25-10:25. So I’m supposed to make it from the entrance to the park to the very, very back of the park during FOF? How is that optimized to avoid bottlenecks? And then I go to Aladdin, before finally being sent to 7DMT, which would presumably take me through the Hub, just prior to Wishes?
Option 2: Splash 5:50-6:50, Aladdin 7:20-8:20, and 7DMT 9:10-10:10. Um, OK. Again, I’m cutting through the Hub just prior to Wishes?
Option 3: 7DMT has been taken out of the mix and substituted with BTMRR, presumably because of limited availability for 7DMT. I’m going from Aladdin at 1:45-2:45, Splash 3:15-4:15, and BTMRR from 4:15-5:15. DOES THIS SYSTEM NOT REALIZE THAT FOF IS A THING? How am I supposed to get from Adventureland to Splash Mountain while avoiding the FOF route? At least Splash followed by BTMRR makes sense. So yay?
Option 4: Again, no 7DMT, which has been substituted for BTMRR. Where does MDE want to send me? Splash 9:50-10:50, Aladdin 11:20-12:20, and BTMRR 12:45-1:45. WHAT? Why not Aladdin, Splash, and then BTMRR? How is backtracking between Frontierland and Adventureland optimized?
That’s just one example, but you can always play around on your own. So, the “optimized route through the park avoiding bottlenecks” is a promise that hasn’t been kept.
Back to the patent. It goes on to explain, that based on data available, if a guest arrives early at an attraction “the guest experience manager may check the available capacity of the experience. If the available capacity is below a certain threshold or value, based on specified factors, such as, for example the number of guests at the experience, the popularity of the experience, the time of day (e.g. ramp-up or ramp-down periods in the day), the presence of other events nearby that might affect the crowd at the experience (such as a parade), etc., the guest may be allowed to enter the experience early.” I’m pretty sure this feature isn’t operational, either. We all know that CMs can manually override the windows, but I’ve never heard of it being done automatically. And I don’t think the 5 minutes early/15 minutes late grace periods are what is described here. So again, another idea that hasn’t come to fruition.
The patent also talks about a guest being able to pre-select desired experiences both inside and outside the parks (it specifically mentions golf and spa appointments) over multiple days and then having MDE generate an optimized schedule for all desired experiences both inside and outside the parks. We know that MDE doesn’t even have information for most outside-the-park experiences, and we also know that MDE can’t generate a multi-day schedule for you, so again, not something that is operational. It also describes “business rules” that will generate personalized optimized schedules based on who is in the group, and specifically points out that the schedule for a group of “four female friends” will different significantly from a schedule for a family of four with two young children.
So let’s test out the “different logic based on different group composition” because that sounds pretty interesting. Back to MDE. I decide to first test an “adults only” day, so I select just my husband and I. I pick Peter Pan, BTMRR, and Aladdin to see how it will send me through the MK. Best option according to MDE is BTMRR from 3:35-4:35, Aladdin from 6:20-7:20, and Peter Pan from 9:20-10:20. Notwithstanding the fact that it has me getting to the back of the park during FOF and crossing the Hub pre-Wishes again, let’s compare that to the optimized schedule it gives me when I cancel those selections and go in and select me and my son, who is 5 but MDE apparently thinks is 4 even though I have his birthdate entered correctly. Presumably, it will change the schedule based on the party having a young child, according to the patent. But instead what does it give me? BTMRR 3:30-4:30, Aladdin 6:15-7:15, and Peter Pan 9:15-10:15. The same is true for options 2 and 3. Essentially the exact. same. schedule as with a party of adults only. Option 4 for each party actually has some variance. For the adults it’s Peter Pan from 5:25-6:25, Aladdin from 6:55-7:55, and BTMRR from 8:20-9:20. But for the party that includes the 4/5 year old? Disney apparently thinks staying up late is a really good idea, because they gave me Aladdin 7:15-8:15, Peter Pan 8:45-9:45, and BTMRR from 10:30-11:30. LOL! So much for differing logic based on party composition.
There is so much potential there, so much the Imagineers envisioned, so much to get excited about…and very little of it has actually come into practice. That’s just one of the patents. What I picked out here isn't about pretty things that the guests can see...it goes to the fundamental premise on which MDE is based. If a system isn't reducing lines and bottlenecks in the parks, then it's not accomplishing its goals.
I’ll go through another when I have more time to post coherently about it.
