Disney World to Add Property-Wide Wifi

[Flynn Rider 1]

Disney filed paperwork to install property-wide WiFi at the Walt Disney World resort. The contractor is Crown Castle, whose website touts their large scale shared multi-user WiFi installations.

 

[zeferjen]

That is fantastic. I wonder what the timeline is.

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

Does anyone know if this is free public WiFi, paid public WiFi, or just an improved implementation of WDW's non-public, password-protected business WiFi?

 

[PACVII]

was there in January, stayed at Riverside and had free internet access.

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

was there in January, stayed at Riverside and had free internet access.

There's a big difference between guest WiFi at WDW resort hotel rooms and true property-wide WiFi.

I still wonder whether this "property-wide WiFi" will be for WDW guests or just improved coverage for the WDW cast internal WiFi system.

If free guest WiFi and local WDW web services are implemented intelligently by Disney, it could be an opportunity for Disney to provide wait times, same-day (and future) dining reservations, and other interactive services that improve the guest experience while encouraging guests to go where there's excess capacity.

 

[Flynn Rider 1]

There wasn't any other info.

 

[Faldred]

I wonder if this has anything to do with the fact that Disney just made their "park explorer" app available for iPhone (no longer a Verizon-only application, although Verizon customers will continue to get features that other carriers don't).

 

[tjkraz]

I'll be very surprised if this isn't a free public network. It seems a natural extension of what Disney is doing at the resort hotels.

Things like the Disney Mobile Magic app and mobile ADR website are just the start of what Disney has planned for smartphones and other portable devices. Implementing wifi extends those services to over 100 million portable devices without 3G / 4G data plans (iPod Touch, iPad, Kindle Fire, Nook, Android tablets, etc.)

Wifi access also means people with smartphones don't have to micromanage their data plan usage during a WDW vacation.

 

[skier_pete]

About F'in time. Though seriously, this is at least partly about NextGen/XPass/whatever-they-call-it.

 

[tjkraz]

Though seriously, this is at least partly about NextGen/XPass/whatever-they-call-it.

Undoubtedly. As we all know, guests will eventually be able to reserve ride times or show seats weeks ahead of time. Sending those confirmations to smartphones and other portable devices will be much cheaper--and more user-friendly for younger generations--than having guests claim paper tickets at some designated distribution point.

 

[lockedoutlogic]

Yeah...this was really a logical step...if ten years after they probably should have done it (ok...maybe 5...but they aren't exactly on the cutting edge on this)...

It makes sense from a variety of angles...especially interactive attraction/guest service offerings.

We'll see...i assume this is the end to the stupid internet access charges that i would NEVER have paid for..

 

[anthony2k7]

id be very surprised if this was for free internet access for everyone.

Why would they do that for day/offsite guests? I dont see any benefit to Disney for offering that.

More likely, it will purely be wifi access for WDW apps. Probably not very imaginative ones either - X-Pass related, maybe resort wide kim possible adventure type games to encourage people to visit all areas of all parks and maybe hotels?

Of course, this also offers them the option of geolocating every guest at every second they're on property I'm sure they'd love to get at data like that to find out things like the types of guests who go off property the most and for how long.

Maybe, just maybe, they'll offer property wide free internet access to deluxe resort guests as well.

 

[Figment632]

lol like usual Disney Parks ten years behind the rest of the world!

 

[tjkraz]

id be very surprised if this was for free internet access for everyone.

Why would they do that for day/offsite guests? I dont see any benefit to Disney for offering that.

More likely, it will purely be wifi access for WDW apps. Probably not very imaginative ones either - X-Pass related, maybe resort wide kim possible adventure type games to encourage people to visit all areas of all parks and maybe hotels?

Of course, this also offers them the option of geolocating every guest at every second they're on property I'm sure they'd love to get at data like that to find out things like the types of guests who go off property the most and for how long.

Maybe, just maybe, they'll offer property wide free internet access to deluxe resort guests as well.

Why would they do it? Because there are practical and financial benefits to Disney when guests can use their mobile sites and apps to see ride wait times, secure XPASS / FASTPASS tickets, book ADRs, play games while waiting in line and so on.

They could just limit access to Disney-sponsored services--we'll see. Given the way Disney has embraced social media, they may now realize there are ancillary benefits to having millions of guests posting live to Facebook, Twitter, Pintrest, YouTube, Ustream and dozens of other emerging social sites while live in the parks. It's free advertising.

Limiting access to some subset of guests (i.e. Deluxe resort guests) is a possibility but it would require some form of authentication system. So far there have been no signs of such a system being implemented.

Six months ago I was convinced Disney was content using Internet service as a profit center among resort guests. Now that they've begun to roll-out free wifi at the hotels, I think it's only a matter of time before it spreads to the parks.

lol like usual Disney Parks ten years behind the rest of the world!

In terms of the hotels, that's true. There are still many high-priced chains which charge daily rates so Disney certainly wasn't alone in that regard. Still it's nice to see the free wifi.

But this thread is about the parks. If Walt Disney World is actually planning to roll-out free wifi throughout the developed areas of its 30,000 acres, it would put them ahead of most of the world.

 

[anthony2k7]

Why would they do it? Because there are practical and financial benefits to Disney when guests can use their mobile sites and apps to see ride wait times, secure XPASS / FASTPASS tickets, book ADRs, play games while waiting in line and so on.

Thats kinda what I said! I said why offer free internet, when a "walled garden" wifi access to just Disney services would still give them the revenue streams they're no doubt looking for from this.

They could just limit access to Disney-sponsored services--we'll see. Given the way Disney has embraced social media, they may now realize there are ancillary benefits to having millions of guests posting live to Facebook, Twitter, Pintrest, YouTube, Ustream and dozens of other emerging social sites while live in the parks. It's free advertising.
/quote]

You do have a good point here, but im not convinced!

Limiting access to some subset of guests (i.e. Deluxe resort guests) is a possibility but it would require some form of authentication system. So far there have been no signs of such a system being implemented.

yeah but its easy enough - most wifi service providers make you hit their own web page first to login before opening up your access to the rest of the internet. Disney could easily just ask for your booking number and some other password to log in.

Six months ago I was convinced Disney was content using Internet service as a profit center among resort guests. Now that they've begun to roll-out free wifi at the hotels, I think it's only a matter of time before it spreads to the parks.

oh im sure this is entirely about a profit center somehow/somewhere. They wont be implementing a project on this size without some direct revenue stream from it. They're definitely not doing it just so they can say that guests can access their emails anywhere on property!

But this thread is about the parks. If Walt Disney World is actually planning to roll-out free wifi throughout the developed areas of its 30,000 acres, it would put them ahead of most of the world.

definitely, wifi on this scale is still quite new.

 

[umichigan10]

Finally! It's about time. Seriously, I don't have a smartphone but I have an ipod touch. How am I supposed to check wait times when I don't have wi-fi access? Given the exuberant rates for the hotels and parks, I'd think this is the least they could've done.

 

[diamondpixienc]

Finally!

 

[anthony2k7]

The more I think about this the more I do hope it is for internet access - even if its fairly limited internet access.

All us international guests would love to be able to stay in touch with home without having to break the bank with data charges and avoid the hassle of buying phone cards as well.

Even with extreme restraint I still managed to run up a £60 phone bill last time just with a couple of looks on google maps and a few other things.

Even just allowing access to skype, google services and facebook would save so much hassle and money.

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

The more I think about this the more I do hope it is for internet access - even if its fairly limited internet access.

All us international guests would love to be able to stay in touch with home without having to break the bank with data charges and avoid the hassle of buying phone cards as well.

Even with extreme restraint I still managed to run up a £60 phone bill last time just with a couple of looks on google maps and a few other things.

Even just allowing access to skype, google services and facebook would save so much hassle and money.

Disney's mission is to make money for Disney.

If this WiFi implementation allows guests to stay in touch with home using services such as Facebook and Skype, that would be good for guests -- but that would not be the reason why Disney has contracted for property-wide WiFi.

If this turns out be WiFi for guests, not just for company use, it will be because Disney has a business plan that justifies the expense. For example, by giving guests real-time access to wait times at attractions and restaurants, Disney could improve utilization of its facilities, allowing Disney to handle more guests without making new capital investments.

As others have noted, this could be part of NextGen, but we don't know what that will give us on our mobile devices. I would like to think that this will be free, open WiFi for all guests, but it's also possible that it would be limited to Disney-provided apps (for various platforms) only.

 

[anthony2k7]

Disney's mission is to make money for Disney.

If this WiFi implementation allows guests to stay in touch with home using services such as Facebook and Skype, that would be good for guests -- but that would not be the reason why Disney has contracted for property-wide WiFi.

If this turns out be WiFi for guests, not just for company use, it will be because Disney has a business plan that justifies the expense. For example, by giving guests real-time access to wait times at attractions and restaurants, Disney could improve utilization of its facilities, allowing Disney to handle more guests without making new capital investments.

As others have noted, this could be part of NextGen, but we don't know what that will give us on our mobile devices. I would like to think that this will be free, open WiFi for all guests, but it's also possible that it would be limited to Disney-provided apps (for various platforms) only.

thats pretty much what I already said on the previous page