Bio Fingerprints

[The4OfUs]

Well, even still, how much of a profit are they making???

Let's say they purchase a 5-day hopper at $250 = $50 a day. They use two days, so $100 worth. They have 3 days left ($150) and sell it on ebay for $125 plus $6 to ship it in a FedEx envelope....(these are all rough numbers mind you)...how much profit did they make? Looks to me like the seller would not even be breaking even unless they sold it at a break-even price. Most don't, they just do not want to be out all that money.

Oh, I agree it's silly - but remember we're talking about a company that protects its trademarks and such with incredible strictness - a company that sues day care centers that have Mickey painted on the wall. I could see the idea of "shutting down a black market source" as a motivating factor. *shrug*

I never have any days left over, so I don't really mind one way or another. However, my in-laws have many tickets left over for "guest" use, etc - so they DO mind...and have to deal with it I guess.

 

[peter11435]

Oh, I agree it's silly - but remember we're talking about a company that protects its trademarks and such with incredible strictness - a company that sues day care centers that have Mickey painted on the wall. I could see the idea of "shutting down a black market source" as a motivating factor. *shrug*

I never have any days left over, so I don't really mind one way or another. However, my in-laws have many tickets left over for "guest" use, etc - so they DO mind...and have to deal with it I guess.

The real problem is that their are many guests who show up every day with invalid passes they purchased at flee markets and places like Ebay. This will limit some of that, becuase guests will realize that they cannot use these passes, and therefore won't buy them.

 

[Immelman]

if you look at the new programs laid out this year - MYE and the ticket tagging, magical express.... Disney is becoming even more hard-core about making sure the only time you see another theme park is from I-4. other parks are seriously making a run at WDW, and they're becoming even more reactive. here's a quote from the Jim Hill page :

"You know, there used to be a time (Not so long ago, in fact. Just 20 years ago) when the Walt Disney Company prided itself on being a good neighbor in Orlando. I remember hearing stories about how Dick Nunis -- the then-head of the Walt Disney World Resort -- actually discouraged the construction of new on-property hotels. The way I hear it, Nunis thought that the Mouse was already making enough money off of the theme parks and the resorts that Disney had in Central Florida. That there was no need for Disney to go head-to-head with every hotel & motel on 192 in an effort to grab every possible tourist dollar. That there was more than enough money here for everyone.

Well, these days, that's clearly no longer the mindset at the Mouse House. With programs now in place like Disney PhotoPass (Which allows the Walt Disney Company to radically prolong the period that it can try & sell you souvenir photos of your vacation) and Ticket Tag (Which effectively prevents you from reselling and/or giving your ticket to someone else so that they can use the unused portion on your ticket), Mickey wants to maximize the profit that the company makes off of its Disney World resort. More importantly, to make sure that the Mouse -- and NOT Disney's competition -- gets the lion's share of all that tourism dough that flows into Central Florida these days.

Now don't get me wrong, folks. I'm not actually against the idea of the Walt Disney Company making money. But when I see the Mouse starting up programs like "Magical Express," PhotoPass and Ticket Tag, while -- at the same time -- Disney is cutting back on the number of full time employees that it hires to work at its Central Florida resort (Why for? Because you don't have to pay for health benefits and/or fund the retirement of part-time employees) ... I can't help but think that Disney's priorities are now seriously out of whack. That -- in the company's never-ending pursuit to improve its bottom line -- the Mouse has become a bad neighbor in Orlando as well as a really lousy employer."

 

[safetymom]

After the hurricanes Disney was very generous in donations to the Orlando area and CM's.

They may not be perfect but they do try to be good neighbors in the Orlando area. Many schools receive donations from Disney every year.

They do need to look at improving wages but they aren't the only ones in Orlando not paying their workers enough.

 

[SuzyQue]

I don't consider is "transferring" tickets if I own them both, pay for them both, and use them within my family

I agree (and love your screen name Letsbgoofy!). I've always bought 4 passes to cover my DH, my 2 DD's and myself. I too am going to purchase the 10-day MYW passes, I believe they are the best value. But both of my DD's are now in college and may not get to go as often, if my DH and I get to the end of our passes, and they still have some days left, I'd like to use their's before I purchase more.

 

[dizplanner]

Do the water parks and DisneyQuest have the biometric scanners? Or do they just take a day off the pass? I don't remember any scanners, but I've never used a PAP, just an AP.

 

[rwodonnell]

I suppose for everyone it takes something different to send them over the edge. For me, this is what is doing it.

While in the past, I was able to spread a longer Park Hopper pass across multiple visits for the guests I bring (like my parents, my brother's family, etc.), I now am going to have to try to get as close as possible to the number of days we will go into the park. Obviously I don't want to be short on the number, not knowing for sure how things will go once you're there. And you if you end up with days left, with people's names on them that are not coming back in the foreseeable future, you've wasted money. And I see no point at all in the no expiration option for my guests tickets.

I wish it was more clear about the group tagging thing, because in theory I could still do it as I have and then I would use the remaining days on my guests tickets on my next visit, since I was tagged with them in the beginning.

Also, is there some sort of buy-back if you over-purchase days and can't use them?

 

[SuzyQue]

I know I read somewhere the CMs were having people sign their passes at the entrance, I wonder if maybe you can only sign your last name, that would help me anyway... I think...

 

[MrsToad]

Maybe I've been naive but I have a slightly different take on two issues that have been raised:

1) Under the rules, the tickets have been sold as belonging to a particular guest and as being "non-transferrable." Yet, some posters comment that they "own" multiple tickets because they bought them with their own money and so unused days should still belong to them (the purchasers). I disagree with this thought process in that according to the rules, once the tickets are purchased for a specific guest, they officially belong to that guest; if anyone chooses to purchase a ticket for someone else, including a family member, that ticket should be considered a permanent "gift" to that person. I understand not wanting to waste extra days so we always try to plan ahead and only buy the correct number of days per person when we bring guests, even though a ticket with more days may be cheaper per day.

2) I disagree with the thought that Disney isn't losing anything by allowing people to use the unused days on other guests' tickets. When you buy a multi-day ticket, it is cheaper for a reason. Many items and services are cheaper when bought in bulk. My interpretation was that Disney was selling the longer passes at a discount over the same number of single day tickets because that individual guest was committing a longer period of time in WDW, not so that several guests could share a cheaper-per-day multi-day ticket.

Just some friendly thoughts...thanks for letting me share.

 

[Immelman]

After the hurricanes Disney was very generous in donations to the Orlando area and CM's.

They may not be perfect but they do try to be good neighbors in the Orlando area. Many schools receive donations from Disney every year.

tax write-offs.

 

[peter11435]

I know I read somewhere the CMs were having people sign their passes at the entrance, I wonder if maybe you can only sign your last name, that would help me anyway... I think...

Trying to get around the system is not going to work.

 

[Mary Anne]

Do the water parks and DisneyQuest have the biometric scanners? Or do they just take a day off the pass? I don't remember any scanners, but I've never used a PAP, just an AP.

Yes, you need to use the Biometric scanners at Disney Quest, and I think you do and the WaterParks, not sure about them as we don't go their ofter. We do do Disney Quest at least 3 or 4 times per trip.

 

[micheleHELP]

HI there, does this mean that at all the Disney Parks they are now doing Bio FIngerprints for everyone...Is this even for people with the old passes or just the new passes?

 

[RescueRanger]

I suppose for everyone it takes something different to send them over the edge. For me, this is what is doing it.

While in the past, I was able to spread a longer Park Hopper pass across multiple visits for the guests I bring (like my parents, my brother's family, etc.), I now am going to have to try to get as close as possible to the number of days we will go into the park. Obviously I don't want to be short on the number, not knowing for sure how things will go once you're there. And you if you end up with days left, with people's names on them that are not coming back in the foreseeable future, you've wasted money. And I see no point at all in the no expiration option for my guests tickets.

I wish it was more clear about the group tagging thing, because in theory I could still do it as I have and then I would use the remaining days on my guests tickets on my next visit, since I was tagged with them in the beginning.

Also, is there some sort of buy-back if you over-purchase days and can't use them?

With the new tickets, there isn't much difference in price once you get past 5 days. So, if you have a 7 day ticket and use only five, you only lose a few dollars. It really isn't that big of a deal. People are trying to make it more complicated than it really is.

 

[rwodonnell]

With the new tickets, there isn't much difference in price once you get past 5 days. So, if you have a 7 day ticket and use only five, you only lose a few dollars. It really isn't that big of a deal. People are trying to make it more complicated than it really is.

I'm not trying to make it complicated, I completely understand the price structure, and how it compares to the park hoppers. We are not idiots.

I am trying to avoid what is effectively a 40% increase in my expenditure in park tickets for my guests. In the past, we would get our guests tickets for them, and we would all enter the park together, tour together, keep the passes together (for fastpass runs, etc.) and just wheel them out at the gate. We would generally stay a week and have 4 park days.

Whereas I used to buy 7 day Park Hoppers (good for a full trip for one guest and 3/4 a trip for the next time for someone else) at an average of $40 per day per guest (and), my likely option now is for each guests to use a 4 day hopping MYW, which is $56.25 per day at the discount brokers (really hardly a discount at all with the new tickets at these brokers).

So you see, my complaint is that they are saying they are after all the "bad guys" on ebay, but who they are nailing is, for the most part, people like me who take different family members over successive trips. And I bet if you checked the DVC population, there are a LOT of people like me there (and a whole lot of other non-DVC people I'm sure) doing what they have called legitimate sharing in the past.

 

[LeftCoaster]

I think a photo pass would take more time. How often do you change your hairstyle or color or are wearing it differently? The cm would have to look at the photo and look at you and try to decide if it's the same person.

Disneyland currently has the photo passes and it slows things down because you have to have one cast member for each turnstyle instead of one cast member manning two or three. The other issue is of people lending out their AP to people that look like them. The castmembers don't look too closely (as the lines to get into DL are generally backed up) and it seems fairly easy to do.

 

[Simba's Mom]

HI there, does this mean that at all the Disney Parks they are now doing Bio FIngerprints for everyone...Is this even for people with the old passes or just the new passes?

I just came back late last night. DS had a pass I bought him in December. He never had to use the biometrics. One odd thing we noticed was that even though he got his hand stamped when leaving a park, the new park never checked for the stamp, we didn't even see any black lights at turnstiles. As far as signing passes, neither one of us signed, didn't know we were supposed to, and right now our passes are still packed so I can't check.

 

[RescueRanger]

I'm not trying to make it complicated, I completely understand the price structure, and how it compares to the park hoppers. We are not idiots.

I am trying to avoid what is effectively a 40% increase in my expenditure in park tickets for my guests. In the past, we would get our guests tickets for them, and we would all enter the park together, tour together, keep the passes together (for fastpass runs, etc.) and just wheel them out at the gate. We would generally stay a week and have 4 park days.

Whereas I used to buy 7 day Park Hoppers (good for a full trip for one guest and 3/4 a trip for the next time for someone else) at an average of $40 per day per guest (and), my likely option now is for each guests to use a 4 day hopping MYW, which is $56.25 per day at the discount brokers (really hardly a discount at all with the new tickets at these brokers).

So you see, my complaint is that they are saying they are after all the "bad guys" on ebay, but who they are nailing is, for the most part, people like me who take different family members over successive trips. And I bet if you checked the DVC population, there are a LOT of people like me there (and a whole lot of other non-DVC people I'm sure) doing what they have called legitimate sharing in the past.

I'm sorry. I hope you didn't think I was saying you were idiots (not my intention). I think what you need to understand is that Disney is finally closing that ticket loophole. The tickets were never meant to be shared whether it was from EBAY users or what you call "legitimate" sharing. It has always been very clear. They are not "supposed" to be transferrable. I have allowed my father-in-law to use a day left on me and my wife's pass, so I am not trying to say that people who have done this are bad, but Disney has now chosen to stop that practice. They are the rule makers and they have every right to enforce them. I do understand everyones displeasure of not being able to do things that they have done in the past, but Disney is a business and is there to make money. Multiple day tickets got cheaper the more days you bought not because they wanted you to give those unused days away, but to entice you into staying longer on your trip. I for one love the new system. If enforcing the rules is what it takes to keep prices down, then I am all for it. The new tickets are already saving me $300.

 

[NotUrsula]

Personally, I don't mind if they make a hard and fast rule about tickets being reused only by the person who activated them. What I would find unfair is the idea that guests might be allowed to "swap within a group" if the tickets were purchased in a batch, but not if the tickets were purchased separately.

*If* that is true (and I'm still not convinced that it will work that way in practice, at least not over time) then they would be penalizing parties who don't have the financial wherewithal to buy several tickets at once, but who are nonetheless paying customers, and often repeat customers at that. It's just not good customer service to create that kind of blind pitfall.

Now, this is just me guessing, but I'm predicting that if you (the buyer) take these issues to Guest Services and present receipts and ID to show that you purchased the tickets new from WDW or one of their authorized brokers, the odds are that Disney will re-code the remainder of the ticket so that it can be used by any person you want. That would still foil the Ebay people and the streetcorner hawkers, but it would keep loyal and honest repeat guests satisfied.

The catch is that WDW will have to open a lot more guest services windows to deal with the increased volume of issues like these, but that is part of the operating cost that arises when your ticketing system becomes exponentially more complicated. As the airlines are discovering, complex ticketing rules supposedly create just the right ticket for every buyer and save money for lots of people, but in reality complexity coupled w/ inflexibility just confuses people and drives them away. WDW derived an ENORMOUS amount of goodwill from the fact that "leftover" tickets have historically been still good for use even years later, even though most people lost the tickets and never brought them back. I don't think that they will want to entirely destroy that goodwill over this whole Ebay issue if there is a workable compromise to be found.

 

[SuzyQue]

"With the new tickets, there isn't much difference in price once you get past 5 days"

Ticketmania Premium w/no exp. prices:

5-day 3 pluses, 299.00 divided by 5 = 59.80 per day
6-day 4 pluses, 311.00 divided by 6 = 51.83 per day
7-day 5 pluses, 323.00 divided by 7 = 46.14 per day
10-day 5 pluses, 379.00 divided by 10 = 37.90 per day

That's why I like to buy the 10 day. ~~