Disney Calling...

[cabanafrau]

I'm not sure you are understanding the link you posted. They are using AI agents in a simulator environment to determine how physical changes to design will affect aggregate crowd decisions BEFORE designing and implementing in the real environment. Think Sim City. Nothing is being tested on the guests. Where I see guests coming into the picture (which is not discussed in the linked white paper) is the collection of real movement data via detection of magic bands. This data would lead to changes in the agents' decision tree to help them better equate to real guests when facing new obstacles and crowd flow devices that the real guests aren't experiencing.

Engineering crowd flow is a good thing, not something I see as intrusive or smacking of a conspiracy. In the hotel industry, we strategically placed people counters to come up with flow patterns through the casino and other public areas. I would have killed to get my hands on the kind of movement data magic bands can give. Two main reasons for wanting to know this information are the ability to strategically place revenue generators in the most lucrative path, and to provide guests a better, less stressful experience when moving through space.

Your comments bring to mind a couple thoughts. First, once upon a time Disney was known for, and prided themselves loudly, as being the home of imagineering. Now the focus is crowd engineering. Second, data for said crowd engineering is being gathered via the magic bands, the very same magic bands a current Disney survey is inquiring about guest willingness to pay an extra fee to subsidize.

Sounds like the formula for success, happiness and magic to me.

 

[momimouse27]

What blows me away is that after raising ticket prices and AP's and prices on just about everything else, they still have to cut CM's. Why? I am no mathematical genius, but raise in prices should compensate for employee salary, I would assume. And if they're going to be at capacity, those people bought tickets, of course.

I would be okay with them calling and asking me to change, if they did offer me that FP+ compensation. But the whole thing is just weird. What the heck is going on up there...do they have monkeys running the place??

 

[DVCcurious]

My take (I know you're dying to hear it) is that Disney sees this as a short term problem.

Right now HS, AK, and Epcot aren't up-to-snuff. So clearly people are preferring MK.

But in just 4 short years Star Wars and Toy Story will drive people to HS and Avatar + nighttime entertainment will drive people to AK. So the overcrowding in MK is only a problem for 4 weeks a year (before and after easter, christmas, 4th of July) for 3 more years. That's only 12 weeks total. So if they can ease the crowd level by asking some people to switch out of mk that could be a cheap and easy solution for a short-term isolated problem.

kudos to disney for thinking up ways to ease congestion and improve the guest experience during this transition period. It would be worse if they refused to acknowledge the problem. At least they came up with a way to try to help decrease the crowd levels.

To me this isn't that big of a deal. So they call you and ask you to move....you can still say no, right? And adding 12-2am emh or 7-8am emh won't do a damned thing about the crowds at fireworks/parades time. Adding hours won't ease congestion (the problem) so why spend money (additional wages) on something that will do nothing to fix the problem? Although we may like longer hours Disney needs to focus on decreaing crowds at mk from 11am to 11pm.

If I'm having financial problems with my husband bringing home a hotter, younger girl for a three-way may be something he'd like but it wouldn't do a damned thing to help our financial problems.

In that analogy additional emh are the hotter, younger chick and financial problems are overcrowding during 11am-11pm at magic kingdom.

 

[strat68]

What blows me away is that after raising ticket prices and AP's and prices on just about everything else, they still have to cut CM's. Why? I am no mathematical genius, but raise in prices should compensate for employee salary, I would assume. And if they're going to be at capacity, those people bought tickets, of course.

I would be okay with them calling and asking me to change, if they did offer me that FP+ compensation. But the whole thing is just weird. What the heck is going on up there...do they have monkeys running the place??

Why? Cost overruns in Shanghai and apparent losses(?) at Disneyland Paris.

 

[mom4fun]

This is really scary to me. We never got a phone call and we have fast passes booked for MK on the 31st. All of our fast passes start at 5:30 or later. We are staying for fireworks so we didn't want to do an early start day.

 

[prestoncaldwell]

calling guests to get them to alter their plans is intrusive, imo. Not saying it's a conspiracy, but it is intrusive.

I agree with this. I was responding specifically to the suggestion that the linked white paper was proof they are using guests as lab rats.

 

[prestoncaldwell]

Sorry but did you read the link? I am talking about the testing of the simulation. "In park validation" is specifically in there to test this simulation. Of course they are using the magic bands to test it. It was the plan all along.

In Park Validation means you predict a certain flow using the simulator, then observe actual flow to test accuracy of the simulation. It doesn't require physical reconfiguration of the park.

By the way, change/observe/learn/change is how Disney has always done it. If anything, simulation allows Disney to reduce the use of guests as test subjects.

 

[Micca]

So I got the call...

We have 2 week upcoming stay starting on 3/22 with FPs at MK on Weds March 30. Rec'd a voice message last Weds from a "407" number identifying themselves as Guest Services. Initially I thought it might be a scam and wasn't going to return the call.

Curiosity got the better of me. I called back and spoke with friendly female who advised they anticipate higher than normal crowds at MK on 3/30 and asked if I would be willing to wait to go to MK until after 5pm. In exchange they would give me 3 FPs per person in the park of my choice.

Now the FPs I had for MK were already scheduled after 5pm. And we are going to change resorts from BWV to BLT on 3/30 anyway so I said sure and picked Epcot. They added the 3 extra FPs to my MDE immediately and gave me a number to call them with any questions before or while we are there.

Of course my husband is wondering why we would ever want to go to a park that we've already been warned is going to be potentially at capacity. It's spring break/Easter week...what else can you expect? Just go with the flow my dear...

OK, the extra FP sounds like a deal,and all they were asking is could you wait to visit until after 5. Sounds like to me they are trying to make the best of a jam packed situation.

Also I wouldn't necessarily think by expanding the park hours they are doing anything different from what was in their long-range plans to begin with. We're in a little cyber bubble here on the Dis (and other sites) we're not insiders at WDW.

 

[prestoncaldwell]

Your comments bring to mind a couple thoughts. First, once upon a time Disney was known for, and prided themselves loudly, as being the home of imagineering. Now the focus is crowd engineering. Second, data for said crowd engineering is being gathered via the magic bands, the very same magic bands a current Disney survey is inquiring about guest willingness to pay an extra fee to subsidize.

Sounds like the formula for success, happiness and magic to me.

Imagineers have been in the business of crowd engineering for a very long time. Disney invented the reconfigurable stanchion queue, queue distractions, fastpass, and many other innovations to ease queue discomfort and aid crowd flow. Disney didn't invent RFID, but it used it in a unique way to speed transactions and help with crowd tracking.

On your second point, I agree wholeheartedly. Since the magic bands help Disney in terms of transaction speed, spending volume, and data collection, they should be given free with each ticket purchase, not just to Disney Resort guests. Or should I say, they should be built in to the ticket price?

 

[loves to dive]

I would have no problem with it, we've found plenty to do at the other parks even with the construction and closings, they wouldn't even have to give me extra FPs since we rarely use the 3 we have anyway.

As far as MBs go, we were there last week and saw plenty of people using the old fashioned card tickets for their FPs and entrance. I would have no problem with them doing away with them all together, I certainly wouldn't pay for one.

 

[DisDadDVC]

So I got the call...

We have 2 week upcoming stay starting on 3/22 with FPs at MK on Weds March 30. Rec'd a voice message last Weds from a "407" number identifying themselves as Guest Services. Initially I thought it might be a scam and wasn't going to return the call.

Curiosity got the better of me. I called back and spoke with friendly female who advised they anticipate higher than normal crowds at MK on 3/30 and asked if I would be willing to wait to go to MK until after 5pm. In exchange they would give me 3 FPs per person in the park of my choice.

Now the FPs I had for MK were already scheduled after 5pm. And we are going to change resorts from BWV to BLT on 3/30 anyway so I said sure and picked Epcot. They added the 3 extra FPs to my MDE immediately and gave me a number to call them with any questions before or while we are there.

Of course my husband is wondering why we would ever want to go to a park that we've already been warned is going to be potentially at capacity. It's spring break/Easter week...what else can you expect? Just go with the flow my dear...

Now I don't have any problem with this situation.

ps, I don't see how they can enforce this. I assume by giving you FP to another park, that entices you to go there instead of MK, but I'm sure if you change your mind that day you can get into MK at any time.

 

[Stacy's a freak]

I'm not sure why some are up-in-arms about this. PP, you're really going to CANCEL your long-planned vacation if Disney courteously contacts you and asks if you would LIKE to take extra FPs at another park that day (or early part of that day)? If so, I think you must already be on edge and this sent you over it. You can simply say, "no thank you" and go about your day. Frankly, if you planned your trip on Easter week, you should know MK will be packed whether Disney adds throngs of CMs or cuts back. There is just so much real estate there and human bodies are not getting any smaller/thinner.

 

[cabanafrau]

Imagineers have been in the business of crowd engineering for a very long time. Disney invented the reconfigurable stanchion queue, queue distractions, fastpass, and many other innovations to ease queue discomfort and aid crowd flow. Disney didn't invent RFID, but it used it in a unique way to speed transactions and help with crowd tracking.

On your second point, I agree wholeheartedly. Since the magic bands help Disney in terms of transaction speed, spending volume, and data collection, they should be given free with each ticket purchase, not just to Disney Resort guests. Or should I say, they should be built in to the ticket price?

But the primary function of imagineers absolutely wasn't crowd engineering -- and that's certainly not how Disney trots them out for promotional purposes. Imagineering was about finding ways to amaze guests and make the magic happen. It's pretty sad when today a large part of their purpose and function is indeed crowd engineering. No wonder it takes so long for new stuff to come into reality.

 

[AnthonyB]

I posted this in the " Disappointed in Easter Hours" thread. I was called on 3/7 about our upcoming trip from 3/24-4/1. A nice young man named Ross explained that Disney was expecting MK to reach capacity from 3/28-3/31, Monday - Thursday after Easter. He suggested that I consider changing our plans. Since we have evening FP+ and won't be arriving until after 6:30 PM, I politely declined. Ross and his colleagues are part of a new "team" that has been making the calls.

We go over Easter week every year and take advantage of the 7:00AM EMH's that were offered daily at MK in all of our previous 7 Easter trips. I expressed my displeasure to Ross over the reduced hours. He said he was scheduled to be in a meeting with those who determine the park hours. Ross called me back yesterday to inform me that he spoke to the Vice President of the MK personally and told him of my concerns. Apparently, Ross used to work with the VP at DHS. The VP told Ross that they are studying guest arrival patterns. There was no promise of increasing the hours but he was looking into it.

Ross also asked for permission text my cellphone. The text to confirm my permission stated that Ross and his team would text me during my stay. I'll report back after returning if I do receive any texts from Ross.

 

[bryanb]

I posted this in the " Disappointed in Easter Hours" thread. I was called on 3/7 about our upcoming trip from 3/24-4/1. A nice young man named Ross explained that Disney was expecting MK to reach capacity from 3/28-3/31, Monday - Thursday after Easter. He suggested that I consider changing our plans. Since we have evening FP+ and won't be arriving until after 6:30 PM, I politely declined. Ross and his colleagues are part of a new "team" that has been making the calls.

We go over Easter week every year and take advantage of the 7:00AM EMH's that were offered daily at MK in all of our previous 7 Easter trips. I expressed my displeasure to Ross over the reduced hours. He said he was scheduled to be in a meeting with those who determine the park hours. Ross called me back yesterday to inform me that he spoke to the Vice President of the MK personally and told him of my concerns. Apparently, Ross used to work with the VP at DHS. The VP told Ross that they are studying guest arrival patterns. There was no promise of increasing the hours but he was looking into it.

Ross also asked for permission text my cellphone. The text to confirm my permission stated that Ross and his team would text me during my stay. I'll report back after returning if I do receive any texts from Ross.

Thanks for posting this. A lot of people here on the forums assume that Disney is just a monolithic entity. In reality there are a lot of very hard working people behind the scenes who are not perfect but they do care. Sentiment on this board has turned very negative and I don't blame the board for frustrations. But Disney folks do care what guests think and I know this first hand as well.

 

[GPC0321]

So let me get this straight. Seeing the upcoming crowds and knowing that MK will likely reach capacity, thereby shutting people out from being able to use their scheduled FP+ there for that day, Disney calls future guests and offers them a pretty sweet back-up plan just in case that happens. They offer them 3 additional FP+ in the park of their choice for that day, so that if MK reaches capacity and people get shut out from using their FP+ there, the day isn't a total loss. Correct me if I'm wrong, but they aren't asking guests to cancel their MK FP+ are they? Just giving them 3 extra ones elsewhere? Or do they cancel the MK FP+? Or ask them to schedule them after 5pm, as one poster said.

Either way, it seems like Disney is trying to look out for guests and offer them alternatives during such a hectic time.

 

[AnthonyB]

So let me get this straight. Seeing the upcoming crowds and knowing that MK will likely reach capacity, thereby shutting people out from being able to use their scheduled FP+ there for that day, Disney calls future guests and offers them a pretty sweet back-up plan just in case that happens. They offer them 3 additional FP+ in the park of their choice for that day, so that if MK reaches capacity and people get shut out from using their FP+ there, the day isn't a total loss. Correct me if I'm wrong, but they aren't asking guests to cancel their MK FP+ are they? Just giving them 3 extra ones elsewhere? Or do they cancel the MK FP+? Or ask them to schedule them after 5pm, as one poster said.

Either way, it seems like Disney is trying to look out for guests and offer them alternatives during such a hectic time.

They asked me to cancel my MK FP+ and reschedule in one of the other parks. I didn't try to "negotiate" extra FP+ as we weren't changing our plans. I certainly would have made certain that I could get FP+'s of my choice had I accepted their offer.

 

[jeepnjudy]

Interesting...we will be there the week after Easter Sunday and have yet to receive a phone call. However, all our FP+ are booked prior to 5PM and we are rope drop people!

 

[Shanti]

......??? I can't pick the right emoticon for this thread.

 

[Jennasis]

Poster above says he got the call. Page 3.