Any Rumors on Magic Band Testing.

[Yellowstonetim]

And I am sick of people here saying this system has been well received. Because I know several people who have gone and they all say it absolutely sucks. People say that it is only on these boards were it gets negative reviews, but please tell me where you see the positive reviews. Is it from the Orlando Sentinel (owned by Disney)?

Where are you getting your information? Majority of guests? C'mon... If that were the case you wouldn't be hearing all of the reports (from fairly reputable sources) that upper management is hot about implementation, the sky-rocketing costs, the NEGATIVE customer feedback, etc.

The people who like it come on here and say it has been well received everywhere, except from people on boards and blogs.

Well then, whats left. Is there a secret forum where people are raving about the new system? Micechat had an article saying it sucks. People I know that went there says it sucks. Disney officials have been fired. Others are about to be. The only place where people read good reviews is from Disney owned public written articles. The Orlando Sentinel (Disney Owned) had a good article on the Bands, but if you read the comments every single person, something like 238 comments, hated it.

The funniest is hearing people say "oh, I love the Magic BAnds, I didnt have to go in my pocket for a ticket". Or the " I didnt have to go in my purse to get money". Those reasons to love the system is laughable.

Last I checked, it took me 3 seconds to get money out of my wallet or to get the key from my pocket. Good Job Disney for spending over a BILLION dollars on a system that helps us to save 3 seconds from retrieving these items. And dont forget, Lines to get in the park will be as long as they were before. Because no matter what, it is the police searching through bags, that hold everything up.

There are no such thing as "runners" either. As I said in another post, Last March my wife and her friend tried to retrieve fast passes for Toy Story Mania for me and a all the kids who stayed behind in the resort. When she tried, the tickets said not eligible with a 4 digit code. The cast member said, this code means these people havent even entered the parks turnstiles yet, therefore are uneligible to get passes. So for all the hoarding responses, Nice Try.

This is the crux of the disagreement. Some are convinced this is a disaster and others are convinced it is doing great. It is interesting how perspective makes all of us gather information differently.

FAIRLY reliable sources. Sorry, but I am not going to fly on a fairly reliable airplane or use a fairly reliable parachute.

There is no real hard evidence or factual reports that the firings that did happen were directly related to MM+ being a "failure." Yes people were fired but it is absolutely conjecture as to the reason. There are lots of rumors of management being mad and things are terrible. All rumors. Whether from someone on this board, Micechat, or other articles, people are talking rumors.

Any project of this size is difficult and people will come and go. And I have no doubt the cost and difficulties may have gotten some fired, but that doesn't mean it is a failure at all!

Anecdotal evidence is very suspect. Some say EVERYONE they know hates it, EVERYONE they meet hates it, EVERYONE knows its a failure. Others say everyone loves it, everyone they meet loves it, everyone they know loves it! Both are probably looking at the world through colored glasses.

My favorite was a rumor that Iger had come and was upset and everything went wrong and how horrible the system was. Many started to talk about this as fact when it was nothing but rumor and there wasn't any reason to believe it except if you wanted to believe it.

What hard facts we have lean to a successful albeit not perfect roll-out. When I was there in September I loved it, most everyone I talked to that had a band on loved it. CM's said it was doing well. Survey's show the majority are fine with it. A survey on this board showed that it worked fine for the majority! Disney has reported success. But not as quickly as they wanted or as smoothly. My local friends that have used Magic Bands and MM+ loved it. When I showed the bands and app and explained how I used it, many liked it. On this board there are many who like it even among the fan-boy crowd. There are many positive reports. HOWEVER, I do understand that my evaluation of the circumstances and facts is colored by my attitude. EVERYONE's attitude is coloring their perspective to some degree.

Being an honest to goodness fan-boy on various things in my life I understand that die-hard fans are the toughest critics, but they often don't represent the majority. In life, people who are upset are always more vocal than those that are happy. So if half of those talking are upset, that probably represents a small minority of overall participants.

Fan-boys rained vitriol down on all three Star Wars prequels with some of the strongest, nastiest, horrible views that the world of Star Wars had come to a horrible end. All three movies made humongous amounts of money. One bad movie makes money, but the sequel to a bad movie never does. Bottom line: Those three movies are good and did well. The vast majority did not agree with the VERY vocal minority. The wailing and gnashing of teeth were a bit much.

Same here. Is it perfect. No. Have there been problems with roll out. Yes, but this was expected. Is it working. YES. How do we know? If things were so terrible they wouldn't continue using it!!!! Every bit of factual evidence points to it working for the not-so-vocal majority.


And another thing:

It is ok for people to like not using cash and if that isn't a little thing to them, that is OK, whether or not you have disdain for them and laugh at them. I love that aspect. It is an important part of making my vacation easier. AND, if you think that is what Disney spent a billion dollars on then you do not understand what this technology represents at all!!!

We will know for sure by middle to late 2014 if this is a failure or if it is successful.

No one has to like it. All should share their views with Disney, but vitriol and exaggerated predictions of doom will actually cause Disney discount your opinion. We all need to reasonably and politely relate to Disney both what we like, how we think things could be better, and what we dislike.

I for one think we will have more than 3 FP+ when all is said and done. I have told Disney I want this. I think it will work well and be flexible. I also think MM+ is going to be one of the most amazing technological advances that will revolutionize the entire theme park industry for the better. For the better for business and for consumer.

And I am contributing to paying off that Billion.

 

[Hoodie]

Well, my confidence dipped a bit.

Just logged on to make another dining reservation and everything is gone. No resort reservations, MagicBands are gone, dining reservations are gone, everything is missing.

We are set to make our FP+ selections on Tuesday. This should be fun.

 

[Robbi]

Well, my confidence dipped a bit.

Just logged on to make another dining reservation and everything is gone. No resort reservations, MagicBands are gone, dining reservations are gone, everything is missing.

We are set to make our FP+ selections on Tuesday. This should be fun.

Call Disney IT (407) 939-4357
There is an option for website help. My APs are still disappearing so when it comes times for me to make our reservations, I'm calling IT to do it for me if the website has not improved. I refuse to sit at the computer and lose my mind. Instead, I'll relax while someone else does it for me. It's supposed to be a vacation not a war planning exercise.

 

[Hoodie]

Call Disney IT (407) 939-4357
There is an option for website help. My APs are still disappearing so when it comes times for me to make our reservations, I'm calling IT to do it for me if the website has not improved. I refuse to sit at the computer and lose my mind. Instead, I'll relax while someone else does it for me. It's supposed to be a vacation not a war planning exercise.

Thanks!

 

[77catwoman]

Somewhat OT...will the MB work for FP+ if you do not use your MB or AP for park entry? We are going to MVMCP so we are not using our MB to get into the park but I was able to schedule a FP+ for the 4-7 hours without adding the CP tix to our account. Will we be able to use the FP+ options we selected when we didn't actually use the MB and AP to get into the park or will it not work?

 

[77catwoman]

repost

 

[kmarie99]

This is the crux of the disagreement. Some are convinced this is a disaster and others are convinced it is doing great. It is interesting how perspective makes all of us gather information differently.

FAIRLY reliable sources. Sorry, but I am not going to fly on a fairly reliable airplane or use a fairly reliable parachute.

There is no real hard evidence or factual reports that the firings that did happen were directly related to MM+ being a "failure." Yes people were fired but it is absolutely conjecture as to the reason. There are lots of rumors of management being mad and things are terrible. All rumors. Whether from someone on this board, Micechat, or other articles, people are talking rumors.

Any project of this size is difficult and people will come and go. And I have no doubt the cost and difficulties may have gotten some fired, but that doesn't mean it is a failure at all!

Anecdotal evidence is very suspect. Some say EVERYONE they know hates it, EVERYONE they meet hates it, EVERYONE knows its a failure. Others say everyone loves it, everyone they meet loves it, everyone they know loves it! Both are probably looking at the world through colored glasses.

My favorite was a rumor that Iger had come and was upset and everything went wrong and how horrible the system was. Many started to talk about this as fact when it was nothing but rumor and there wasn't any reason to believe it except if you wanted to believe it.

What hard facts we have lean to a successful albeit not perfect roll-out. When I was there in September I loved it, most everyone I talked to that had a band on loved it. CM's said it was doing well. Survey's show the majority are fine with it. A survey on this board showed that it worked fine for the majority! Disney has reported success. But not as quickly as they wanted or as smoothly. My local friends that have used Magic Bands and MM+ loved it. When I showed the bands and app and explained how I used it, many liked it. On this board there are many who like it even among the fan-boy crowd. There are many positive reports. HOWEVER, I do understand that my evaluation of the circumstances and facts is colored by my attitude. EVERYONE's attitude is coloring their perspective to some degree.

Being an honest to goodness fan-boy on various things in my life I understand that die-hard fans are the toughest critics, but they often don't represent the majority. In life, people who are upset are always more vocal than those that are happy. So if half of those talking are upset, that probably represents a small minority of overall participants.

Fan-boys rained vitriol down on all three Star Wars prequels with some of the strongest, nastiest, horrible views that the world of Star Wars had come to a horrible end. All three movies made humongous amounts of money. One bad movie makes money, but the sequel to a bad movie never does. Bottom line: Those three movies are good and did well. The vast majority did not agree with the VERY vocal minority. The wailing and gnashing of teeth were a bit much.

Same here. Is it perfect. No. Have there been problems with roll out. Yes, but this was expected. Is it working. YES. How do we know? If things were so terrible they wouldn't continue using it!!!! Every bit of factual evidence points to it working for the not-so-vocal majority.


And another thing:

It is ok for people to like not using cash and if that isn't a little thing to them, that is OK, whether or not you have disdain for them and laugh at them. I love that aspect. It is an important part of making my vacation easier. AND, if you think that is what Disney spent a billion dollars on then you do not understand what this technology represents at all!!!

We will know for sure by middle to late 2014 if this is a failure or if it is successful.

No one has to like it. All should share their views with Disney, but vitriol and exaggerated predictions of doom will actually cause Disney discount your opinion. We all need to reasonably and politely relate to Disney both what we like, how we think things could be better, and what we dislike.

I for one think we will have more than 3 FP+ when all is said and done. I have told Disney I want this. I think it will work well and be flexible. I also think MM+ is going to be one of the most amazing technological advances that will revolutionize the entire theme park industry for the better. For the better for business and for consumer.

And I am contributing to paying off that Billion.

This may be the most rational post that I have seen on these board in a very long time.

Life is what you make of it.... 'whether you think you can or you think you can't, you are right. - Henry Ford'

 

[dmoore718]

I have called IT several times and they are very helpful and have always fixed my issue

 

[conyo910]

My magic band is in and I have fast passes already reserved for Christmas Day. CANT WAIT

 

[Borishack]

Anger over what exactly? The Magic Bands are almost entirely a success.

I hope you are engaging in sarcasm!

 

[kcwiak]

I did not have a chance to read everything but on Friday, 12/20 we received the thumb drive (and the customized book/magnet) and customized our magic bands for our trip on 09/27 so I don't think they are abandoning the magic band ship.

 

[WMorganS]

I was just told that magic bands are no longer in testing, that they're now official. If I had been thinking, I would have pushed for clarity, because maybe the CM was mistaken.

 

[Itinkso]

I was just told that magic bands are no longer in testing, that they're now official. If I had been thinking, I would have pushed for clarity, because maybe the CM was mistaken.

Officially begins January 5th. Anyone with reservations beginning on the 5th or later receives the official info booklet, thumb drive etc...

 

[Yellowstonetim]

Officially begins January 5th. Anyone with reservations beginning on the 5th or later receives the official info booklet, thumb drive etc...

What's this about a thumb drive, book, and magnet?

 

[Itinkso]

What's this about a tumb drive, book, and magnet?

Most guests with reservations beginning on or after January 5th have received a Mickey icon thumb drive explaining MyMagic+ along with a customized booklet for their resort stay. We received ours in late November for our February stay at AoA.

 

[kcwiak]

I have not looked at the thumb drive yet but the magnet seems pretty useful. It has dates to make different reservations (ADRs etc) when payment is due...

 

[wholesalestunna]

We just got our bands in the mail for our trip in the middle if January... No thumb drive though. I'm lost as to how they will be used. I have the Disney app on my iphone though and it shows up in there and that it's activated to me.

 

[Stefecatzz]

Officially begins January 5th. Anyone with reservations beginning on the 5th or later receives the official info booklet, thumb drive etc...

If it's official on January 5th, I wonder if passholders will begin to receive them in the mail then?

 

[Peanut Giggleface]

If it's official on January 5th, I wonder if passholders will begin to receive them in the mail then?

I sure hope so.

 

[Marvindude]

I just got back from WDW yesterday and I was part of the magic bands testing. Now all of the the Disney resorts have the bands but not all of the guest are involved in the testing. It was a great experience for my wife and myself. I talked to one of the resort managers who said that Disney is all in with the magic bands. I liked having my room key, park ticket and credit card all in one. We were also able to change fast pass times on the spot. This was our 24th trip to WDW.