Magic Band "tricks"?

[KyGirl]

So when we were preparing for our last trip, about a year and a half ago, Magic Bands and MyMagic+ in general were just getting rolled out. I remember that one of the things that all the articles mentioned that was supposed to be so great was that some of the Disney experience was going to be personalized. Things like the characters knowing your name without being told or certain elements of interactive queues being personalized for each guest. I guess some people thought these things were going to be creepy but I thought it sounded really cool. Plus I thought my family would totally go crazy for it. Especially if I kept it a surprise (and I'm definitely the only one in my crew reading articles about Disney!) I was hoping it would be ready for our last trip and of course it wasn't but I assumed that it would be good to go for next time.

Anyway, it seems like this time around as I'm doing our research for our trip (which is officially 17 days away!!! Yay!) there is no mention of this kind of stuff anywhere. Did that just go away as they were trying to make the basic functions of the Magic Bands work? Or did people think it was too creepy? Or is it happening at spots around the park and it's so old hat now that no one mentions it? I know these are small things but I'm curious, mostly because I remember that the original press on the Magic Bands was all about this "personalization" of our trip and it seems like that message has kind of been forgotten.

Anybody know anything about all this?

 

[robndani]

We were there for a week in February and there was nothing like that. Would be cool though! It would probably take too long to get through the FP line if each scan had to say a name after it...

 

[jtowntoflorida]

Everyone once in awhile a ride operator will say our names. It has never happened with a character.

There are iPad-wielding CMs who will walk up greet you by name when you disembark from your DME bus upon arrival at a resort. My husband finds THAT uber creepy. LOL.

 

[grimley1968]

Everyone once in awhile a ride operator will say our names. It has never happened with a character.

There are iPad-wielding CMs who will walk up greet you by name when you disembark from your DME bus upon arrival at a resort. My husband finds THAT uber creepy. LOL.

I think someone saying my name would be creepy in certain contexts and not in others. For example, I'd be fine with someone saying, "Welcome John ..." when disembarking from a DME bus or at a TS restaurant. I might not be happy with a ride operator saying "Hey John!" as I enter a line.

I, too, haven't noticed much on these boards about the personalization features in a while, save for things like photos going on MM accounts automatically through MB's.

 

[Robo]

The "saying your name" thing looks to be mostly abandoned by Disney.

That's a good thing, in most circumstances, IMO.

 

[KyGirl]

I guess I was thinking more about the different things in lines or stuff like that. I remember one that always came up was the Etch-a-Sketch in the TSMM line being able to say Happy Birthday to a specific guest. And maybe something about the talking Scully in the Little Mermaid ride?

Of course, maybe I'm crazy and I imagined all this stuff too. That's always a possibility. But it SEEMS to me like that was supposedly one of the big advantages to the Magic Bands that was always talked about in the promotional articles at first.

And I guess it could occasionally be creepy but I think little kids at least would really love that stuff and find magic in it. My almost three year old would be totally unsurprised if Mickey knew her name as she is convinced that they are best friends for life and we talk about him as if he is a family member. We even celebrated his birthday last November and she still talks about that-often. So for something like that, if talking Mickey were to say her name, it would be obvious to her and magical to me!

 

[jtowntoflorida]

I guess I was thinking more about the different things in lines or stuff like that. I remember one that always came up was the Etch-a-Sketch in the TSMM line being able to say Happy Birthday to a specific guest. And maybe something about the talking Scully in the Little Mermaid ride?

Of course, maybe I'm crazy and I imagined all this stuff too. That's always a possibility. But it SEEMS to me like that was supposedly one of the big advantages to the Magic Bands that was always talked about in the promotional articles at first.

And I guess it could occasionally be creepy but I think little kids at least would really love that stuff and find magic in it.

You didn't imagine it...those were all touted features of MyMagic+ that haven't come to fruition.

 

[SeilerBird]

i stopped wearing my MB. I found out that it triggers the ride photos on certain rides. Then Disney sends you endless spam trying to talk you into buying these photos. I can't find a way to stop the spam so I stopped wearing the MB and the spam finally stopped. Disney is shameless about spam.

 

[disney2014plan]

The video clip you get from 7DMT only shows your carriage, so they muct be able to locate you by your Magic Band on the ride. I was pretty impressed by that, to be honest.

 

[richmo]

Once in awhile a CM will mention your name at a FP+ entry or maybe when entering the park. That's about all I remember...

 

[agavegirl1]

In an interview about two years ago, Tom Staggs was touting the features the OP mentioned. There was mention of personal greetings on Small World, characters greeting children by name etc. Since cast members are using names less and less frequently, it may be purposely backing off this idea due to the Creepiness factor. Or, since the tech hasn't been implemented for the interractive ride or character ideas, they are just quietly letting this function fade into the history as another "Disney idea that never happened".

 

[starsweeper]

We only had one CM make a name-related comment to us. ODS (8) has name that isn't odd but you rarely hear it, so we had a CM at MK mention she liked his name when entering the park.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

None of that has been implemented yet.

The only thing that came close was having your first name show up on a monitor when you entered a scanning point so that a cast member could call you by name. Apparently folks didn't much like that, because it's been pretty much stopped and now only occurs once in a while. I remember seeing some parents post here that they did not want their child's name spoken by anybody but themselves as they considered it an invasion of privacy and some even thought it could be dangerous.

 

[nilla]

I might not be happy with a ride operator saying "Hey John!" as I enter a line.

Yet we see their names, plain as day, on their name tags

 

[nilla]

I remember seeing some parents post here that they did not want their child's name spoken by anybody but themselves...

For some reason, this made me think of the "Jeffrey" airplane bit from "Bill Cosby Himself"

 

[CAS239]

The video clip you get from 7DMT only shows your carriage, so they muct be able to locate you by your Magic Band on the ride. I was pretty impressed by that, to be honest.

The rfid in your band gets a signal from the rfid on the ride, thus linking your photos to your MDE account

 

[EdmondD]

I had a couple cast members say hello to my son, using his name, as we scanned in for FP. We all thought it was delightful, but I've come to realize I'm less stressed about these things than some parents.

 

[Adam Torres]

In the 2015 Unofficial Guide, Jim Hill mentions the Magic Band/FP+ project went way over budget - a best guess would be that these features are expensive to implement, and Disney didn't want to continue to hemorrhage money. I think they will resurrect those ideas at some point, though!

 

[Robo]

The rfid in your band gets a signal from the rfid on the ride, thus linking your photos to your MDE account

Kinda.
Your MB's RFID transmitter sends your MB number to the RFID sensor on the ride.
That info is sent from the ride to your MDE account.

 

[goodgodmrsmolly]

I have people say hi using my name at various locations when using the band, FP+and Park entrances just about every time I go recently. It seems to be happening more to me these days.

I read they were going to text you and let you know if a ride had low lines or an ADR open, maybe some other tips. I have seen none of that. That to me is something I thought would be useful. When using the app these days, no good "suggestions for you" pop up. Like CRT will show up, why they think that is what I want or even if there is room at that time doesn't seem to matter. Heck, on my phone, the park doesn't change even with the GPS on, I have to change what park I am at manually.

Besides the FP+, I would like to see some useful, real functionality from having the tech. Right now, it is pretty blah and not an improvement from a customer side from what was there before. Maybe the company is getting useful data, but it doesn't seem to be improving anything from what I can tell.