MM+ never materialized?

[bcrook]

I just got back from a week in Disneyland Resort and then a week at Walt Disney World. It provided a great laboratory to analyze MM+ and FP+.

I recorded every story released in late 2012 and early 2013 about the impending MM+. It’s all recorded here…

I was able to test the MagicBands in October of 2013 as one of the first guests from Animal Kingdom Lodge to use the system. We were able to book some rides and still use the regular fastpass system. That worked out well. There weren’t any tiers yet.


Since then, things have changed considerably. One of the things that I was intrigued by had to deal with the interactive capabilities of the rides and line queues. Here is one of the original articles from the NY Times. Look at this quote: LINK

“The data will also be used to make waiting areas for rides (“scene ones” in Disney parlance) less of a drag. A new Magic Kingdom ride called Under the Sea, for instance, features a robotic version of Scuttle the sea gull from “The Little Mermaid” that will be able to chitchat with MagicBand wearers.

“We want to take experiences that are more passive and make them as interactive as possible — moving from, ‘Cool, look at that talking bird,’ to ‘Wow, amazing, that bird is talking directly to me,’ ” said Bruce Vaughn, chief creative executive for Walt Disney Imagineering.”​

I spent an entire week at WDW with a party of 9. We all had magic bands (I had two! I know I am a showoff). 2.5 years after that article, still nothing like the interactive nature of the MM+ is on display in any locations. I thought at least my name would pop on the It’s a Small World goodbye boards (They put in the monitors to do this). Scuttle didn’t talk to me. Not one single character addressed my 4.5 year niece by name. I wasn’t sent one single special offer, no bonus “surprise” fastpasses, and Mr. Potato Head still doesn’t know that I exist.

One of the original benefits touted was ordering ahead at Quick Service restaurants and then swoop in to pick up the food. I guess that isn’t working out as planned. We didn’t even bother to do that at Be Our Guest which is the only place trying this right now.

In addition, even though I like my magic bands I had to go to the front desk two times to get mine reset because it wouldn’t open my room door.

And finally, I still have to carry my ID, my tables in wonderland card, my DVC card, Chase Visa and my annual pass to get my discounts – even though this would be easiest thing in the world to add to my account.

The one place that the magicbands excel…..

My Memory Maker! The ride photo acquisition system and the access to the photo pass photographers works amazingly well. But that technology was borrowed from the Great Wolf Lodge and Luna Park in Australia.

As for FP+… I know it is controversial. It has effectively served as a ride rationing device. The one good FP at Epcot and DHS isn’t an improvement by any stretch of the imagination. It does solve the TSMM problem.

But there is another way to solve that. Back to Disney California Adventure. They have more high quality rides in that one park than Epcot and DHS combined. They don’t even need FP for Soarin and TSMM.

So it looks like building more rides to meet demand still seems to be the logical solution to the excessive long lines at a few rides (TSMM, Soarin, and Aerosmith).

At DAK – I think the Safaris would be best served as an appointment ride, and FP are simply not needed in the rest of the park. Expedition Everest loads faster than the FP+ bracelets can scan. I watched empty car after empty car be sent away simply because they couldn't get customers through the second check point fast enough.

MK – they have queues for the FP+ riders now. On Peter Pan I used to walk up and give my ticket, and load on the ride. Now they have a full blown queue for the FP+ riders. Same thing at the Safari, Dinosaur, the Mine Train, Soarin, and many others. I thought that was strange.

It looks like three years after the first hints of MM+ were leaked, very little of the "Transformational Nature" of the program has come to pass. Maybe some will show up in Pandora, there was an article once about how the magic bands would interact with the plant life...

 

[Alesia]

Most of the things that you mentioned really freak people out. A lot of people just don't understand the technology well enough for those things to be sucessfully implemented yet. There are a lot of people who would lose their minds if Mr. Potato Head called their child by his or her real name.

Also, Disney's ability to implement technology falls well short of their ability to create it.

 

[bcrook]

Most of the things that you mentioned really freak people out. A lot of people just don't understand the technology well enough for those things to be sucessfully implemented yet. There are a lot of people who would lose their minds if Mr. Potato Head called their child by his or her real name.

Also, Disney's ability to implement technology falls well short of their ability to create it.

sayonara Barry on Its a Small World would freak someone out? I have to disagree. If people were the butts of Don Rickles jokes in the TSMM line, it would be a huge hit. Just like the PrimeTime Servers being snarky. Make it only apply to adults then. It would be a blast. And they clearly intended Scuttle to do this. Seems brilliant. I would be waiting in queues for this interaction.

 

[SureAsLiz]

Scuttle does actually seem use the MagicBands, just not by addressing people by name. The only time I've noticed though is when going through an empty queue. When I am the only person (or one of only a few), Scuttle recognizes when we enter and leave. I'm not sure if others notice, but I go through that line enough that I have realized that he doesn't just talk through the same dialogue. I also notice (again, when going through the emptier queue) that when I do play the game with the crabs, he points out objects on the screen, but when I don't play nothing shows up and he just talks. I haven't done any ~official test to see if it is actually the items that I send away that I am shown, but that's just an off hand observation that I've made.

I've never had surprise fastpasses or special offers or anything like that, but I have had Cast Members recognize that I am also a cast member (since it is a special affiliation in my account) when I just walk by their station. They will usually ask me for my ID before I have even pulled it out to offer it, or one time when I was walking by the station in Tattooine Traders where you can insert yourself in a photo a CM singled me out as I walked off the ramp.

 

[bcrook]

Scuttle does actually seem use the MagicBands, just not by addressing people by name. The only time I've noticed though is when going through an empty queue. When I am the only person (or one of only a few), Scuttle recognizes when we enter and leave. I'm not sure if others notice, but I go through that line enough that I have realized that he doesn't just talk through the same dialogue. I also notice (again, when going through the emptier queue) that when I do play the game with the crabs, he points out objects on the screen, but when I don't play nothing shows up and he just talks. I haven't done any ~official test to see if it is actually the items that I send away that I am shown, but that's just an off hand observation that I've made.

I've never had surprise fastpasses or special offers or anything like that, but I have had Cast Members recognize that I am also a cast member (since it is a special affiliation in my account) when I just walk by their station. They will usually ask me for my ID before I have even pulled it out to offer it, or one time when I was walking by the station in Tattooine Traders where you can insert yourself in a photo a CM singled me out as I walked off the ramp.

I noticed that about scuttle too. I didn't know if it was band related or motion sensors. There are a lot of people without bands.

 

[momof2n2]

Thank you for the links and your review! I still think for the kind of investment they made it would be nice to see more. Glad Memory Maker worked out.

I agree with you, although others won't. I see this as ride rationing.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Scuttle does actually seem use the MagicBands, just not by addressing people by name. The only time I've noticed though is when going through an empty queue. When I am the only person (or one of only a few), Scuttle recognizes when we enter and leave. I'm not sure if others notice, but I go through that line enough that I have realized that he doesn't just talk through the same dialogue. I also notice (again, when going through the emptier queue) that when I do play the game with the crabs, he points out objects on the screen, but when I don't play nothing shows up and he just talks. I haven't done any ~official test to see if it is actually the items that I send away that I am shown, but that's just an off hand observation that I've made.

I've never had surprise fastpasses or special offers or anything like that, but I have had Cast Members recognize that I am also a cast member (since it is a special affiliation in my account) when I just walk by their station. They will usually ask me for my ID before I have even pulled it out to offer it, or one time when I was walking by the station in Tattooine Traders where you can insert yourself in a photo a CM singled me out as I walked off the ramp.

I noticed this as well. He seemed to be talking directly to is while at the same time, it seemed to be "pre-recorded" things. So I wasn't sure if we had timed it right or if it was we swing our presence. Didn't occur to me that it was the Magic band.

Makes sense that it had to be. (It caught me off guard enough that I am glad he didn't start addressing us personally with names. Lol.)

 

[itchin2go]

Interesting, OP. When I was considering the recent "spontaneous" thread ("The Incredible Message for my Trip"), I actually had the thought that if the "personal" touches of MM+ had actually come to fruition, they might have actually impacted spontaneity for the better in a certain way.

I didn't notice any of these touches on my last trip either. I thought I read that they were abandoned somewhere along the way, either because of concerns about guests being skeeved out by them, or disagreements with Imagineers - can't remember which one - maybe both.

 

[SureAsLiz]

I noticed this as well. He seemed to be talking directly to is while at the same time, it seemed to be "pre-recorded" things. So I wasn't sure if we had timed it right or if it was we swing our presence. Didn't occur to me that it was the Magic band.

Makes sense that it had to be. (It caught me off guard enough that I am glad he didn't start addressing us personally with names. Lol.)

He definitely seems to 'follow' whoever he is talking to compared to Mr Potato Head who just generally address the room. Once crowds die down I might go back and experiment without a magicband to see if the same thing happens.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

He definitely seems to 'follow' whoever he is talking to compared to Mr Potato Head who just generally address the room. Once crowds die down I might go back and experiment without a magicband to see if the same thing happens.

Could be just my poor memory, but we did not have MB back in December as we stayed off site and just began using our AP. I don't recall him doing that at all. But I just may not have noticed at the time.

 

[LOL!]

It's exciting to think of all the imaginative ways the technology could be used, especially when they've hinted at different ideas and possibilities. But unfortunately many of those dreams are nothing more than still-born ideas used to sell the concept and never materialize.

 

[bumbershoot]

sayonara Barry on Its a Small World would freak someone out? I have to disagree. If people were the butts of Don Rickles jokes in the TSMM line, it would be a huge hit. Just like the PrimeTime Servers being snarky. Make it only apply to adults then. It would be a blast. And they clearly intended Scuttle to do this. Seems brilliant. I would be waiting in queues for this interaction.

I would hate all of that. I don't go to that restaurant because I don't put up with that stuff gracefully.
And what about people with names other than Barry or Molly or Mike? Tons of people with non-phonetic (in English at least) names out there. Annoying enough when E.T. attempts ds's name let alone more animatronics trying it.

I think the whole + thing is ridiculous. All of it.

 

[Mikie]

I do think if much more of the flash and glitz of MM+ had been implemented, it could have taken some of the heat off of the over-planning parts people don't like. I doubt anyone would say "I love that Small World says my name on a goodbye sign, now I have no interest in Disney building additional rides in Epcot!" however, if people were more wowed by what they DID get, there might be a little less complaining about the practical pieces that people dislike. Since the capability is there, (screens on Small World, digital characters that could relatively easily be programmed to say different things) and the original intent was there, I'm not sure why little of this has yet come to fruition.

 

[eyehartdisney]

I would hate all of that. I don't go to that restaurant because I don't put up with that stuff gracefully.
And what about people with names other than Barry or Molly or Mike? Tons of people with non-phonetic (in English at least) names out there. Annoying enough when E.T. attempts ds's name let alone more animatronics trying it.

I think the whole + thing is ridiculous. All of it.

I would imagine all it would take if for you to have to say your name at the start of your vacation

 

[LOL!]

Is Mickey still talking or is that something that has also kind of fizzled out?

 

[ArwenMarie]

Don't forget cash, you still have to carry cash in case the whole thing goes down

 

[Peepster]

FP+ is, as previously stated, nothing more than ride rationing. We are Disney veterans with more than 50 trips accounted for and the first thing noticed with this system was how many fewer attractions we experience per trip.
Can we get better timing to experience some attractions? Yes, but that hardly makes up for the expense of the park tickets, especially at the rate of increases.
The OP is also correct about how far short the program has fallen from what was originally touted.
We cannot help but think how far ahead the Disney company would be had they invested these billions of dollars in additional attractions. Especially in light oh how they're adding on to Disney Vacation Club on property.
What are all these additional guests supposed to do? Oh, that's right...spend money in the gift shops! Sorry, my kool aid ran a little low .

 

[Missyrose]

Is Mickey still talking or is that something that has also kind of fizzled out?

Still talking, but only at Town Square Theater.

 

[Tarheel girl 1975]

I would imagine all it would take if for you to have to say your name at the start of your vacation

I thought it would be displayed on a screen and wouldn't need to be pronounced.

 

[WillAustin]

I thought at least my name would pop on the It’s a Small World goodbye boards (They put in the monitors to do this).

The monitors are still there, just covered up by cardboard signs.

In addition, even though I like my magic bands I had to go to the front desk two times to get mine reset because it wouldn’t open my room door.

We are at WDW now and have had this problem a couple of times too.

And finally, I still have to carry my ID, my tables in wonderland card, my DVC card, Chase Visa and my annual pass to get my discounts – even though this would be easiest thing in the world to add to my account.

I think they do this on purpose. They'd lose a lot of revenue if it was all linked and automatic.

MK – they have queues for the FP+ riders now. On Peter Pan I used to walk up and give my ticket, and load on the ride. Now they have a full blown queue for the FP+ riders. Same thing at the Safari, Dinosaur, the Mine Train, Soarin, and many others. I thought that was strange.

I've noticed more of a steady stream of FP+ returns on more rides than on previous trips. I think they have successfully transitioned a majority of guests to the appointment riding, but a lot of the discussed potential of guest experience enhancements has fallen by the wayside so far.