Disney's MyMagic+ system falls behind schedule

[mjstaceyuofm]

3) ... Its interesting that we have been seeing some recent reports as well that people are convinced this will increase return guests, and while I see several people here suggesting they like the new system, I would say the vast majority here, and of people I know in real life who are WDW people, do not like the system, and it is already making them consider alternatives. Now, I know I know, its possible to have a vocal minority and a silent satisfied majority, but I just don't see that in this situation. So, I wonder if they have to be rethinking the overall strategy behind MM+ and FP+.

Went down the first week of November and tested it. Liked the idea of the MB and the MM+, but the implementation definitely lacked. I also hated the FP+ implementation and the "tiering" they've been testing. I consider myself part of the "WDW people" you speak of (DVC member, AP holder, etc.) and I wasn't entirely happy with the whole thing myself.

As far increasing "return guests" - I could see that happening because if you go down for 4 or 5 days and only get one "E" ticket attraction FP+ selection per day (as it currently stands in some testing modes), you'd never get to ride all the big ones unless you wait in line for hours at a time, thus eliminating your ability to ride the lesser rides, or you ride the lesser rides whilst skipping the other non-FP+ "E" ticket attractions. So, if you want to see it all, you either book a longer stay or you return.

I think the infrastructure of the system has real potential and liked the way it worked (when it worked - had a number of hotel door entry issues, linking of park tickets issues, etc.). I think the system is needed for ticketing, access, door entry, paying, etc. - but the FP+ element could be it's downfall. Not a fan at all of that.

 

[mom2rtk]

As far increasing "return guests" - I could see that happening because if you go down for 4 or 5 days and only get one "E" ticket attraction FP+ selection per day (as it currently stands in some testing modes), you'd never get to ride all the big ones unless you wait in line for hours at a time, thus eliminating your ability to ride the lesser rides, or you ride the lesser rides whilst skipping the other non-FP+ "E" ticket attractions. So, if you want to see it all, you either book a longer stay or you return.

I'm not sure about the rest of the world, but I don't return somewhere because they have an inefficient system making it too hard to do what I want on my first trip. I return because I had such a great time I want to go and do it all again.

 

[mjstaceyuofm]

I'm not sure about the rest of the world, but I don't return somewhere because they have an inefficient system making it too hard to do what I want on my first trip. I return because I had such a great time I want to go and do it all again.

I'd agree with that, but there are a lot of fans/Disney addicts out there that will drink the Mickey Mouse kool-aid and feel they have to return...

 

[tjkraz]

When I heard the price of the magicband system, I gulped. Boy, I would have rather had an entirely new theme park for that cost. Animal Kingdom cost $1B to build the entire park. A new park would definitely entice me to come back more often and spend more money.

In fairness, that was $1 billion nearly 20 years ago. Adjust for inflation. And it wasn't much of a park at opening. It was Kilimanjaro Safari, Dinosaur, Tough to Be A Bug and a handful of walk-through animal exhibits.

MyMagic+ adds a number of welcome enhancements to a Disney vacation. But how the cost ballooned to over $1 billion is beyond me.

 

[artesian]

In fairness, that was $1 billion nearly 20 years ago. Adjust for inflation. And it wasn't much of a park at opening. It was Kilimanjaro Safari, Dinosaur, Tough to Be A Bug and a handful of walk-through animal exhibits.

MyMagic+ adds a number of welcome enhancements to a Disney vacation. But how the cost ballooned to over $1 billion is beyond me.

Funny I am in the same feeling on how this could be a true billion dollar developement. We aren't talking engineering a new space shuttle here. The current system did need to be refreshed but this appears to be a boondogle that I'm not seeing the ROI.

Instead of allowing you to reserve rides in advance I think they should make this a paper replacement first. You still go get your FPs the traditional way and as you scan they sync to you MDE. Once you have that part working and figured out then you introduce that other features. My point is they should step back and start taking baby steps and correcting parts first then implement a long term later.

 

[tjkraz]

Instead of allowing you to reserve rides in advance I think they should make this a paper replacement first. You still go get your FPs the traditional way and as you scan they sync to you MDE. Once you have that part working and figured out then you introduce that other features. My point is they should step back and start taking baby steps and correcting parts first then implement a long term later.

I'm starting to agree with that, too. I love the smartphone tech, being able to choose return times and not having to run around grabbing paper FP tickets. But I think the advance booking, daily limits and tiered implementation are real turn-offs to guests.

I think they should just focus on replicating the current system of grabbing FPs after entering the parks. If they want to tweak it to their benefit, give Disney hotel guests the ability to pre-book ONE FP per day prior to park entry. They could even limit it to same-day reservations on that one FP. For instance, anytime after 7am guests with a Disney hotel reservation can schedule one advance FP prior to entering the parks. Make it something people can do while eating their cereal or waiting for a bus.

Then, upon entry at the parks, guests fall into the usual pattern of being able to get a new FP every 2 hours. But instead of running around pulling paper tickets, it's done via smartphone or one of the FP+ service centers at the park. And guests can actually choose their own return time rather than having a single window forced upon them.

With that sort of implementation, Disney can still benefit from staffing reductions and increased merchandise sales which seem to come out of the MagicBands. But they aren't obligating guests to pre-plan weeks in advance.

The potential financial gains from MDE have always been modest, IMO. We're talking a couple percent here and a couple percent there. The risk Disney is running now is that any forced MDE / FP+ implementation is going to result in lost business from people who don't want to deal with the hassle and limitations proposed under the new system. It would only take a small loss of guest traffic to offset gains made elsewhere.

 

[artesian]

I'm starting to agree with that, too. I love the smartphone tech, being able to choose return times and not having to run around grabbing paper FP tickets. But I think the advance booking, daily limits and tiered implementation are real turn-offs to guests.

I think they should just focus on replicating the current system of grabbing FPs after entering the parks. If they want to tweak it to their benefit, give Disney hotel guests the ability to pre-book ONE FP per day prior to park entry. They could even limit it to same-day reservations on that one FP. For instance, anytime after 7am guests with a Disney hotel reservation can schedule one advance FP prior to entering the parks. Make it something people can do while eating their cereal or waiting for a bus.

Then, upon entry at the parks, guests fall into the usual pattern of being able to get a new FP every 2 hours. But instead of running around pulling paper tickets, it's done via smartphone or one of the FP+ service centers at the park. And guests can actually choose their own return time rather than having a single window forced upon them.

With that sort of implementation, Disney can still benefit from staffing reductions and increased merchandise sales which seem to come out of the MagicBands. But they aren't obligating guests to pre-plan weeks in advance.

The potential financial gains from MDE have always been modest, IMO. We're talking a couple percent here and a couple percent there. The risk Disney is running now is that any forced MDE / FP+ implementation is going to result in lost business from people who don't want to deal with the hassle and limitations proposed under the new system. It would only take a small loss of guest traffic to offset gains made elsewhere.

We have a winner! (or at least I think)
I think part of the problem of the people developing the systems don't fully understand how the family that has been there a bunch of times wants to tour the park. I think it's safe to safe if you've been to WDW multiple times you more or less establish a system to get the experience you are looking for. For me and the fam personally at this point don't want to pre plan visits months in advance. The thought of mapping a static touring plan and being locked into it because I have certain etickets booked is a huge turn off. I want to wake up every morning on a vacation and one day say lets do pool today in the morning not oh wait I have TSM at 10am we can't. Then the next day going to HS and not being able to get a FP at all for TSM. Some might roast me and say well you can do this you just won't have a FP when you go. My response will be well under the old paper system I could just show up to a park and guarantee at least one FP for TSM if I did get there early enough. It's a vacation after all and we were never commando about planning. Am I flawed in my thinking here?

 

[mom2rtk]

I'm starting to agree with that, too. I love the smartphone tech, being able to choose return times and not having to run around grabbing paper FP tickets. But I think the advance booking, daily limits and tiered implementation are real turn-offs to guests.

I tend to agree with this. But even just the change to electronic pulling of FPs is likely to have an impact on FP capacity. Even if you make people wait until day of, the mere act of removing the barrier of needing to be IN the park, and AT the attraction itself is likely to make those FPs go much faster.

If you still require that they be IN the park, then the late sleepers are a big disadvantage again, only this time with FPs disappearing faster due to ease of booking on a smartphone.

They let the genie out of the bottle. I really don't think there's any stuffing it back in now. When you have a shortage of headliner rides, you can't make it easier to access those rides without issues coming up.

 

[skier_pete]

I've been looking for a place to post this - and this seems as good as any. Our experience with MB/FP+.

Trip Dates: 11/9 - 11/18
Members of Party: 2 Adults, 10 year old DD
Split stay: 2 days room only, 7 days package w/ free dining. Both at CBR
Pre booked FP+ and received MB ahead of time (two sets due to two bookings)

Arrival: No problems. We were issued KTTW cards as well, but didn't need them. We landed at 10 AM and were at the hotel by 11 AM, and in our room 45 minutes later. MBs worked fine.

Early ticket pick-up: While our park packages didn't start until 11/11, we went to the park to pick up our tickets. They gave us both a hard ticket and linked to our MBs. All looked good.

Re-register on 11/11: Here's where our problems started. Since we were changing to a new reservation, we had to go down and register and get our package. This took about 15 minutes and everything *seemed* to be fine. They didn't issue me new KTTW cards - which they should have. I got back to the room and only my MB worked as a room key. DW and DD didn't. She had to go back and wait again and reprogram the bands. (Fortunately we were going to MVMCP in the evening so weren't anticipating an early start.)

Later that night: DW and DD got back from MVMCP early (10 PM) and DWs band wouldn't let them in the room. DDs band worked ONCE, so they got in, but when DW was to go out for ice she checked and band wouldn't work. I got back at 11:30 PM and mine didn't work either. Called Front desk and said we would have to come to Custom House the next morning to solve it.

Next day: Brought all six MB (the ones we were using and the other set). Took about 45 minutes. They said mine was fine (I had tried it again that morning and it wasn't and they had to completely start our booking over to get the MBs to work. They also issued us KTTW cards.

We continued to have (minor) problems getting into the parks each day - according to CM this was a problem with the Finger scan - NOT the MB.

That said, here is my overall opinion of the MBs:
Pros:
- I really liked the "handiness" of it. No pulling out a ticket for FPs, purchases, or especially getting into your room with your hand full.
- The all in one aspect of it was very convenient too.
- They were comfortable to wear.
Cons:
- My MB popped off on a ride at Blizzard Beach, otherwise they weren't a problem.
- DD kept figitting hers and taking it off. I had to keep telling her, either wear it or give it to me.
- It took some getting used to to line up the Mickey's just right.


Our Fast Pass + experience went pretty much without a hitch. But here are some observations about it:

1) It's pretty much a perfect system for someone like me whose a planner and thinks ahead. I had no problem pre-booking them.

2) It also is a pretty good system to make changes on the fly. I changed our times/experiences several times during the trip. In fact, we got to Spaceship Earth to use our FP+, and there was no wait, so I actually changed my FP selection even though I was already within the window for its use. I made many changes like this during the trip.

3) You pretty much could get ANY experience time you wanted up until the day of use. For instance, on this past rainy Saturday, we decided we didn't want to rush for rope drop, so I changed up my FP+ such that went from Kali RR to Kimanjaro Safaris FP+, and got any time I wanted that day.
It also made it really nice that you didn't have to get into the park for rope drop to get a FP+ for the "prime" attractions.

4) It appears that the way the system works is there is a set number of available FP+ and FP combined. In the morning, once the regular FP start to be given out, the available FP+ times disappear. This means that you can adjust your times for the less popular rides almost all day, but the more popular rides leave less opportunity. For example, TSMM ran out of hard-ticket FPs at 9:40 AM. After that point, if you didn't have a FP+ booked, you were SOL, and if you had one booked, you couldn't change it. So it appeared extremely flexible up until the park opened for the day.

5) For all the MB problems we had, the FP+ worked every single time we tried to use it with no problems.

5) We had FP+ for a couple of shows, and it was a waste. For Indiana Jones they did not have a section cordoned for FP+, so basically going in the FP+ entrance was no different than the regular entrance. Same with Finding Nemo, though in both cases we did not arrive right when the gates opened. Both cases we had very good seats, but could've gotten the same seats without FP+. At Festival of Lion King we did get there as they were letting people in, and they did allow the FP+ folks into the section first if you were there right when they opened up.

6) The limit of three FP+ was rather, well, limiting. We utilized regular FP as well at MK, Epcot, and DHS. We had booked everything before they started "Tiering" the experiences, and I can see a real problem with the tiering (ONly one "prime" attraction FP+ allowed) at slow times of year. For example, at Epcot - the ONLY rides with any wait at all were Test Track and Soarin. If I can't get BOTH of those as FP+, the other FP+s were a complete waste of time. The same went for DHS, where TSMM and RnRC were the only rides with more than a 10 minute wait. This will be especially problematic I foresee at MK, where there are numerous rides that you could end up waiting in long lines.

 

[mjstaceyuofm]

I've been looking for a place to post this - and this seems as good as any. Our experience with MB/FP+...

Skier - omitted quoting the whole post because it was so long, but some great observations in your post! We went Nov. 2-5 and had experiences similar to yours. The only thing I'd say that might be different from our experiences were that crowd levels were higher on our trip and we had a more difficult time finding decent times when we needed to modify some of our FP times.

Given your experience with the whole system seems to fall in line with many other stories we've heard, it seems the MDE system and all it's hardware/software/connectivity issues would indicate it is most definitely NOT ready for prime time. The Scupper's info would seem correct. This whole thing is in trouble and it's going to take some serious time and investment to figure out.

 

[disneyworld1977]

SKIER - -

Have a question for you, maybe you can help me. I am all for experience this new system whether good or bad..if I was going with just me and my wife. I have other family going that has never been to WDW, so this is making me anxious that we are going to have a bunch of mess ups and wasted time and they won't enjoy themselves.

If I receive KTTW cards, should I just try to stick with those when I can? The FP+ stuff is just going to be on the MB though right? I am going to lead the way down there so hopefully and can jump on something quick where it won't affect them too much. I don't know how fond will everyone be with wearing the bands but we will see. Any suggestions you have would be great. THANKS!

 

[granmanh603]

AND NOW . . . THE REST OF THE STORY:
(From a person with whom I play cards and is "high up", and whose opinions/rumors/statements have never been wrong . . .)

1) The man in charge of the Billion-Dollar-Plus project has been zipped.
2) The project now reports directly to Staggs and Iger, jointly !!!
3) In fact, Iger came out 2-weeks ago to see what was happening.
. . . it was Iger's first Trip to WDW to see the program
. . . as a CEO, he had NEVER seen it operate, just read the reports !
. . . for a billion-dollar project !
. . . he was given a magic band
. . . he tried the FP+
. . . he tried park entries
. . . he tried the room charging for merchandise
. . . he tried room charging for character meals and pictures
. . . he tried several hotel room door locks
4) Now, the program is WAY, WAY in trouble.
. . . too much money has been invested to drop it
. . . they have to proceed
. . . but, the official word is "THE TOTAL COST IS NOW UNKNOWN"
. . . so, the $1-billion+ pricetag could go to 1½, 2, or even 2½ billion !!!
5) The program "delay" is due officially to "reassessing" the program.
6) There is no date, official or anticipated, for a successful system

I sure hope this is true. I have just spent the most miserable 3 week vacation at WDW ever. I really do not want to plan my day in advance and run around the park,we were exhausted and only one park. We also were forced to make 3 FP+ reservations and given3 weather we wanted them or not. We did better with the old paper fast pass system for the most part. Also left FP+ unused because we either left the park tired or just did not want to do them

 

[Chuck S]

I sure hope this is true. I have just spent the most miserable 3 week vacation at WDW ever. I really do not want to plan my day in advance and run around the park,we were exhausted and only one park. We also were forced to make 3 FP+ reservations and given3 weather we wanted them or not. We did better with the old paper fast pass system for the most part. Also left FP+ unused because we either left the park tired or just did not want to do them

I think FP+ is nice, but it certainly has a learning curve for guests. I know now, that unless I am traveling during a really busy season that I will not make FP+ arrangements every day, nor will I book FP+ for early morning right at park opening. I think the Magic Band and FP+ system has great potential, but there are still some kinks to be worked out, like the mandatory 3 FP+ for using the system any one day.

I was able to re-arrange my FP+ attractions and times pretty much as needed prior to the trip, but the options became pretty limited once I checked in, naturally as more and more people were doing the same thing.

Since MB accesses your Disney profile, I am hoping in the future that they can add TIW to the profile, and that the system will communicate applicable discounts to the registers so I don't need to carry a pocket full of cards...DVC, TIW, AP plus ID to obtain discounts.

The MB itself worked flawlessly for me as far as park admission, room key, Magical Express, FP+ and room charging.

 

[skier_pete]

SKIER - -

Have a question for you, maybe you can help me. I am all for experience this new system whether good or bad..if I was going with just me and my wife. I have other family going that has never been to WDW, so this is making me anxious that we are going to have a bunch of mess ups and wasted time and they won't enjoy themselves.

If I receive KTTW cards, should I just try to stick with those when I can? The FP+ stuff is just going to be on the MB though right? I am going to lead the way down there so hopefully and can jump on something quick where it won't affect them too much. I don't know how fond will everyone be with wearing the bands but we will see. Any suggestions you have would be great. THANKS!

It's hard to say what they will be doing, as they are starting to phase out the KTTW cards, and I don't know how fast that is going to happen. In our case, our tickets were NOT on the KTTW cards - they were a separate third entity. We used the MB for park entry, but used the hard tickets for getting additional FP.

My advice to anyone would to use the MB as your primary, but make sure to carry your KTTW/Park Tickets as well. As someone else mentioned, the MB/FP+ do require a learning curve, but they are pretty convenient. I am used to wearing a watch, so the MB didn't bother me at all. (I honestly forgot it was there most of the time.)

I get the concerns though - and I thought this from the beginning. Disney wants to simplify your vacation, but actualy makes it more complicated to get over that learning curve.

We also were forced to make 3 FP+ reservations and given3 weather we wanted them or not. We did better with the old paper fast pass system for the most part. Also left FP+ unused because we either left the park tired or just did not want to do them

I do think this is a problem that Disney has - you feel like you were "forced" to book FP+. Disney intends this as a perk, but if guests take it as a punishment, that is not very effective.

I myself didn't like the restrictions to only 3 FP. That plus now tiering the FP makes this a downgrade from the old FP system for me - even though the elimination of having to go to get them is a major perk. They need to find the right balance here.

 

[granmanh603]

I think FP+ is nice, but it certainly has a learning curve for guests. I know now, that unless I am traveling during a really busy season that I will not make FP+ arrangements every day, nor will I book FP+ for early morning right at park opening. I think the Magic Band and FP+ system has great potential, but there are still some kinks to be worked out, like the mandatory 3 FP+ for using the system any one day.

I was able to re-arrange my FP+ attractions and times pretty much as needed prior to the trip, but the options became pretty limited once I checked in, naturally as more and more people were doing the same thing.

Since MB accesses your Disney profile, I am hoping in the future that they can add TIW to the profile, and that the system will communicate applicable discounts to the registers so I don't need to carry a pocket full of cards...DVC, TIW, AP plus ID to obtain discounts.

The MB itself worked flawlessly for me as far as park admission, room key, Magical Express, FP+ and room charging.

Well we had issues during our stay in Oct/Nov. DH MB did not work right for the first week. held up every entry had to wait show Id etc. then one CM re booted the band at entry... locked us out of room had to go to front desk and have 2 CM come to room and re do KTTW and MB. We do not know where we are going until night before or day of and are always up and out early trying to avoid crowds. Before we went you said try, so week beforeI booked day we arrived at BWV for Epcot later afternoon. Got to room around 3 ish and realized we had the fast passes so rushed out to use them. Got to TT and got on FP+ line and waited , would have done better with our usual Single rider line, which we did as soon as we were done with the FP+ line. then had to wait to ride SSE so did walk on at MS and went to SSE no line so got on Stand by line so did not use that. had to wait for Soarin FP+ so ate in the food court(didn't want to walk all the way back to showcase and back later) and so did the boat ride then did Soarin then left. Normally we might not even go to park but if we did it would have been more leisurely.
Got FP+ most of the morning before we left for the park but found alot of running from side to side of park(to add to it all one day SM,TM where down during FP+ time) and another day same week Splash Mt and Jungle Cruise were down during FP+ time Oh and it was crowded with longer lines than we were used too. Usually left early in the day and did not return like we usually do because FP+ gone, and often FP- usually gone and will not wait on a long line. Also 2X FP+ did not show up. First time for DHS for TSM but thank goodness we wrote down times and after we got off line and had a CM come over they showed up on his ipad so we got in. We do not have a smart phone. Oh another issure finding the kiosks, very hidden most of time. by the end of 3 weeks we finally found some in each park, mainly because of having to fix a problem. and near end of trip the 3 FP+ at AK never showed up on band or at computer screen at entry, they finally let us in but eventually we had to go all the way to the front to get them put on the MB's. Like I said finally using the regular old paper FP finally worked better for us. but by the week around Halloween the crowds had thinned and lines were less too. I can't imagine Thanksgiving and Christmas..

As for the forced....yes they give you 3 FP+ whether you want them or not. One night we only wanted to book the fireworks and it would not let us it chose 2 other rides? for us...and since it was after the tiered thing started it was no where we were going to. Like I said the whole thing was very frustrating. I know others love to plan, us not so much.

 

[Chuck S]

...but found alot of running from side to side of park...

Funny you should mention that. Another DIS Moderator and I had lunch the other day, and we were discussing FP+, and I said it seemed like I was going from one side of he park to the other a lot. But then we both agreed that that is almost "normal" for us anyway, just not on such a tight schedule.

One thing I did notice, is that with the regular fast pass, I'd always be there "Johnny on the spot" as soon as the return time came up. With FP+, I tended to stop along the way while crossing the park if another ride had a short line. And sometime would wait until almost the end of my FP+ time to get to the attraction...so in some ways, I could actually see more in a shorter time with FP+ than I did with the old system.

 

[granmanh603]

It is not normal for us we do areas then move to another area. We have a patern we follow. This time when we left in early afternoon we were exhausted,with knees hurting and then had to walk back to buses often not even going back to park. Never saw firework,parade or Fantasmic.

 

[wdwgreg]

We've just come back from 2 week stay at SSR

To be honest i was very very skeptical about MBs before the trip, because we are from the UK we only received our bands at check in, however they had personalised in terms of colours and names as we requested (an awful lot of people were wearing grey so i think they could increase their communication about these before you get there)

I had already linked everything to our cards our 14 day park passes and our MVMCP tickets, and at check in we authorised them for spending and added a pin to them

Have to say overall i was very impressed with the system, we never had a problem with entry to our room, and only a couple of times with entry to the park, but this was likely the finger scanner as those things have never liked me (on our first trip it did'nt let me in any day without problems, and yes i had the right ticket for entry, as every else got in fine)

When it came to paying it was very easy and simple to do, and i actually stopped carrying my wallet into the park, and it was one less thing to worry about/keep track of. It is very similar to contactless payment that we have over here, and you just had to line up the mickeys, very simple once you got the hang of it, the biggest issue was at restaurants, where sometimes their little scanners struggled for signal sometimes.

We made four days of FP s before we left, one for each park, and these were all stored on there, and worked easily to let us in, we also were able to modify these (times) very easily if our plans changes slightly

In terms of making more from my phone we found that very easy as well, sometimes deciding the night before what we felt like doing, and sometimes changing our mind again in the morning and we were always able to get the fps that we wanted for the parks that we wanted

In terms of having to make three FPs, just because Disney give you three doesnt mean you have to use three, just let it expire, on our final day we went to Epcoty and made a FP for TT and for spaceship Earth, because they were the two we definetly wanted to do once more ~(plus soarin, but you couldnt do both TT and Soarin, and we knew we could still get old style FPs for soarin) and set out third one as Living with the land as we knew there was not gonna be a shortage of fps for this that we would be depriving someone else of one

TBH, i cant see the point of having them delivered to your house before you go, as opposed to picking them up at arrival, i cant imagine the airport x rays can be good for them

 

[egulley612]

Wow ... that is some impressive insider perspective. And it sounds about right, that's jives with the feeling I get as an outside observer. I hope all that is true, and I have no reason to doubt you, though I am not going to review your equally impressive 17 THOUSAND posts to see if you have provided any insider info in the past that has turned out to be true or not.

This leaves me with two problems. 1) I wonder, if Iger tested it I would imagine his experience would have been similar to some of the testers have said, with so few people, being able to book FPs same day, and switch around and be flexible. Maybe that was not his experience ?

I as this because, as I have tried to explain to some testers, I would imagine if I had tested FP+ (and all my reservations went properly) I would have LOVED my testing experience, but I would also recognize it has not applicability to the full roll out.

So is the project WAY WAY in trouble because of his experience ??? Is that flexibility going away as more people are added to FP+ testing ?

2) If the project really is in this much trouble, and it appears it certainly is still under considerable "adjustment", where is this going to end up ? I know you say too much has been spent on it, but surely they could still end FP+ as we know it, keep MM+ and MBs which still change the experience and probably add to revenue growth and a ton of Meta Data to be used.

Instead of letting the cost grow to 2 or 2.5 Billion, cut FP+, build another major expansion or two !? That sounds like a much better investment for revenue growth while still holding on to MM+ ?

3) ... Its interesting that we have been seeing some recent reports as well that people are convinced this will increase return guests, and while I see several people here suggesting they like the new system, I would say the vast majority here, and of people I know in real life who are WDW people, do not like the system, and it is already making them consider alternatives. Now, I know I know, its possible to have a vocal minority and a silent satisfied majority, but I just don't see that in this situation. So, I wonder if they have to be rethinking the overall strategy behind MM+ and FP+.

(Yes, that was 3 points instead of 2 )

I love how reports state the Magic band program is in trouble and it's really not. I also love how there are false reports of the program being pushed back to 2015. This is why I am laughing HARD!


The magic band program IS 100% being rolled out within the next 3 months FULL TIME and FULL ROLLOUT! The testing locations are all updated and there is no more testing being scheduled after december 21st, 2013. Disney wants a full roll out before the new rides and parades start next year, otherwise, there's going to be LOOOONNNNGGGGG lines.

 

[ArwenMarie]

I love how reports state the Magic band program is in trouble and it's really not. I also love how there are false reports of the program being pushed back to 2015. This is why I am laughing HARD!


The magic band program IS 100% being rolled out within the next 3 months FULL TIME and FULL ROLLOUT! The testing locations are all updated and there is no more testing being scheduled after december 21st, 2013. Disney wants a full roll out before the new rides and parades start next year, otherwise, there's going to be LOOOONNNNGGGGG lines.

What about non-resort customers?