MyMagic+ how big can it get?

[bcrook]

DZNEFREEK's comment on the avatar thread got me thinking. "...we haven't seen anything yet in terms of what My Magic+ can do."

Most people on the rumor board have big dreams for Disney. Star wars land, something new in animal kingdom, New pavilions at world showcase, e-ticket rides to counter Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

Seven Dwarves mine train may be awesome, but it doesn't meet the scope most people want. There won't be a major addition of any kind before 2017 most likely. But we do have instead --- More than a Billion dollars worth of MyMagic+.
Insiders say it is going to amazing, fabulous, transformational, and the new standard for theme parks.

How good can it get to replace an entire new land or two. This money is more than two times the cost of new fantasyland (close to three times?). I understand it will make money for Disney, but as an attraction of epic proportions what could it possibly be?

Is it the infinity tie in?
Interactive queues?
Personalized meet and greets?
Will be connected to every single ride and show?
What do the imagineers have up their sleeves?

 

[DizCaptain]

They'll probably gimmick it everywhere if you ask me. There's the basic swipe to pay and all that jazz, but with fine tuned frequencies they could project your profile anywhere on anything.

Example, the talking character initiative. Your name is on your band, given the distance radius the character can interact in real time and use your name and completely disturb or amaze you.

No more swipe to get into hotels after 11 PM, DVC, etc. Its just a wave. That whole quick service reservation system they're trying out? Have your meal on your band, wave it and sit down, food brought to you, no lines or cash/credit interactions.

It is brilliant in so many ways. Sure they could do personalized interactive queues, but again that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Think about this... Given the right algorithm and sensor placement they could essentially develop a "sonar" system in the queue to scan all passes close by and in doing so give a real nice estimate of the number of people in line and then determine an even more accurate wait time.

Lost child? Again the tracking capabilities while creepy have their positive sides, if Disney places long range readers throughout the park and a missing child's pass is detected they essentially have GPS on them.

So many ideas and possibilities, I do see it becoming much bigger.

 

[MrRomance]

DZNEFREEK's comment on the avatar thread got me thinking. "...we haven't seen anything yet in terms of what My Magic+ can do."

Most people on the rumor board have big dreams for Disney. Star wars land, something new in animal kingdom, New pavilions at world showcase, e-ticket rides to counter Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

Seven Dwarves mine train may be awesome, but it doesn't meet the scope most people want. There won't be a major addition of any kind before 2017 most likely. But we do have instead --- More than a Billion dollars worth of MyMagic+.
Insiders say it is going to amazing, fabulous, transformational, and the new standard for theme parks.

How good can it get to replace an entire new land or two. This money is more than two times the cost of new fantasyland (close to three times?). I understand it will make money for Disney, but as an attraction of epic proportions what could it possibly be?

Is it the infinity tie in?
Interactive queues?
Personalized meet and greets?
Will be connected to every single ride and show?
What do the imagineers have up their sleeves?

Personally, I think the possibilities (and that is all they are at this stage because there is limited official information) are endless and it has the potential to be amazing, transformational and all of those things.

We know that there will be interactive experiences, both with live characters and features in queues (Scully was specifically mentioned in this context). We know there will be time saving factors, at the turnstills, with FP+ and purchasing. However, what I suspect is that a lot of the things that will feature will be largely unseen.

For example, I think it will be used for crowd control, CM mobilization, bus service improvements, targeted marketing such as coupons that are relevant to the individual guest and also ways to give a little "pixie dust".

Ultimately, it will be designed to improve Disney's bottom line, but happy guests spend more money! The emphasis will be on improving guest experiences and giving to the guest to take more money out of their wallets.
For example, at noon, the data tells them that they have long lines at Space Mountain. As guests head in that direction, the band triggers a coupon for free ice cream at a location on Main Street before 1pm or a FP for Splash Mountain. This diverts the guest to use their FP or get their "free ice cream" hence avoiding them adding to the long line. One free ice cream for a family of 4 will mean that they buy at least one addition ice cream for their other child, right!?

Therefore, you have a happy guest, with something for nothing (at least in their mind), the line on Space Mountain grows much slower, Disney potentially sell another Ice Cream Bar...everybody is happy.

In terms of "new attractions" Disney has a lot of tricks up it's sleeve. There is potential for a new "Pixar Park" which has been rumoured for a while. The acquisition of Lucas Film will no doubt result in some form of Star Wars expansion probably at DHS. Avatar is also in the pipeline. The new stuff will come, have no doubt about that, but at the moment, I think they are pushing through to complete the Fantasyland expansion. I predict a new park will be announced in the next couple of years.

 

[Let'sGoFlyAKite]

Hi, I've been out of the Disney "loop" for a while now, so please forgive my ignorant questions. I am wondering is the "My Magic +" something that is optional, or automatically included in the price of admission? Is it for resort guests only? How does it differ from "Fast Pass +"? Are any of these going to cost me extra? Will the "old" FP kiosks be disappearing? Sorry, but I havent been to the parks since '07 and I'm looking to go back in the next year or 2, and I'm in the process of catching up.

 

[Disneytwinsmom]

I can't wait for all the exciting things that they are going to do with the magic band. Our next trip isnt until November, so I am just hoping that they will have all the "glitches" worked out by then!

 

[sachilles]

Hi, I've been out of the Disney "loop" for a while now, so please forgive my ignorant questions. I am wondering is the "My Magic +" something that is optional, or automatically included in the price of admission? Is it for resort guests only? How does it differ from "Fast Pass +"? Are any of these going to cost me extra? Will the "old" FP kiosks be disappearing? Sorry, but I havent been to the parks since '07 and I'm looking to go back in the next year or 2, and I'm in the process of catching up.

My understanding of it is this. It's a wrist band, that has an rfid chip in it. It performs similar tasks to your room key ticket card. I've read that they are being rolled out now for guests that stay at a resort property and are also using the photopass+ service. The goal being to roll it out to others later in the year.

The writstband has a radio frequency chip in it. Where the traditional cards have to be passed through a swiper, the wristbands do not have to pass as close to to a reading device allowing many more conveniences as well as the technology to have your wristband read for other purposes.

There is no additional cost as of now. Now doubt it can be built with al a carte services should they decided to go down that road. However, I'm sure they are in the process of limited roll out confirming the new setup works as intended and trouble shooting bugs that they encounter.

RFid stuff isn't particularly new, but the way they've discussed using it means there is a significant behind the scenes rollout just to get to work in its basic form.

As mentioned here and elsewhere, your personal info will not be on the band itself. The band will have a unique serial number. That number will be tied to your user account in a computer database identifying that 13x345c34cd34 is John Doe staying at the contemporary on a 5 day park hopper pass with dining plan and whatever spending/personal information they mine from you.

The goal with any program like this is to gain as much about your guest and customer habits, and tailor you selling techniques to the customer needs. The more innovative use of this is to get animated characters to say hi specifically to you and other cute things like that. On customer service side it allows for quicker service and more adaptive service if used correctly.

Ultimately, what I think you'll find is that Disney finds away to get a wristband on everyone in the park. To do that you need to get it on wrists for free, or require it to be on your person to access all the cool features, so that folks buy in to it. It will not prove to be useful from a marketing end unless most of the guests use it.

 

[sachilles]

Some of the benefits from the company end, include facility usage statistics. This allows for a better idea of use and therefore when maint is required as well as when a good down time might be. They'll be able to put "gates" in traffic in pinch points. If done correctly, you can determine traffic patterns and see how certain events during the day changes the patterns, without the guest encountering any limitations.
If done correctly it can be a VERY powerful management tool that allows Disney to be more efficient in their current operation and design future expansion to fit their ideals. Like anything, you need to use the information correctly. I'd wager that even with the perceived improvements to information gathering, even they don't fully understand just how much info they'll be able to gather and how to use it effectively for quite some time.

 

[sachilles]

last one on this topic for a while.
Just one of the cool possibilities that I haven't seen mentioned, so this is just a wish on my part. If you've used a smartphone with gps nav like google nav, you'll notice they have traffic on there. It can actually re-route you based on traffic levels.
With this tech and the disney experience app, you may very well be able to see a point in time where you can see what regions of the park are busier than others, or even that Park 1 is swampped, but park 2 isn't busy at all and move accordingly.

Certainly, the customer privacy stuff is a concern for many. I do think some don't fully understand how it works and that causes concern that isn't fully warranted.
I find it epically cool as I work with this sort of stuff at work, and have found it very useful, and wish we had more resources we could throw towards developing it more. It makes me jealous to see how other places get to use it. I'm going in May and hope to have the bands, and i'm excited to be a guinea pig to see how the stuff works. Now if I could only convince my boss this is a research trip.

 

[Let'sGoFlyAKite]

My understanding of it is this. It's a wrist band, that has an rfid chip in it. It performs similar tasks to your room key ticket card. I've read that they are being rolled out now for guests that stay at a resort property and are also using the photopass+ service. The goal being to roll it out to others later in the year.

The writstband has a radio frequency chip in it. Where the traditional cards have to be passed through a swiper, the wristbands do not have to pass as close to to a reading device allowing many more conveniences as well as the technology to have your wristband read for other purposes.

There is no additional cost as of now. Now doubt it can be built with al a carte services should they decided to go down that road. However, I'm sure they are in the process of limited roll out confirming the new setup works as intended and trouble shooting bugs that they encounter.

RFid stuff isn't particularly new, but the way they've discussed using it means there is a significant behind the scenes rollout just to get to work in its basic form.

As mentioned here and elsewhere, your personal info will not be on the band itself. The band will have a unique serial number. That number will be tied to your user account in a computer database identifying that 13x345c34cd34 is John Doe staying at the contemporary on a 5 day park hopper pass with dining plan and whatever spending/personal information they mine from you.

The goal with any program like this is to gain as much about your guest and customer habits, and tailor you selling techniques to the customer needs. The more innovative use of this is to get animated characters to say hi specifically to you and other cute things like that. On customer service side it allows for quicker service and more adaptive service if used correctly.

Ultimately, what I think you'll find is that Disney finds away to get a wristband on everyone in the park. To do that you need to get it on wrists for free, or require it to be on your person to access all the cool features, so that folks buy in to it. It will not prove to be useful from a marketing end unless most of the guests use it.

Thanks SO MUCH for your very knowledgeable answer! Sounds cool, I look forward to seeing this in action. I still don't know how this has anything to do with Fast Pass. Main worry is that I don't want to be "Tied" into going/doing certain things in the park at certain times....Dining ressies are a headache enough for me. We like a vacation to FEEL like a vacation, but I had hear somewhere that this wristband system will have you choosing certain ride times 6o days in advance! That's TOO much structure for MY vacation. But I love the idea of being able to choose what I want at a counter service b/f I even walk in the door. It's a THIN line: Convenience/crowd control vs. feeling like you're on a 'tight schedule"....This is VERY interesting!

 

[DizCaptain]

Thanks SO MUCH for your very knowledgeable answer! Sounds cool, I look forward to seeing this in action. I still don't know how this has anything to do with Fast Pass. Main worry is that I don't want to be "Tied" into going/doing certain things in the park at certain times....Dining ressies are a headache enough for me. We like a vacation to FEEL like a vacation, but I had hear somewhere that this wristband system will have you choosing certain ride times 6o days in advance! That's TOO much structure for MY vacation. But I love the idea of being able to choose what I want at a counter service b/f I even walk in the door. It's a THIN line: Convenience/crowd control vs. feeling like you're on a 'tight schedule"....This is VERY interesting!

The tie in with fastpass is the new Fastpass+ system where you'll be able to "book" your ride times before your vacation or in the morning at a kiosk or hopefully even from the Disney Experience app. This is still controversial in handling and is seen as annoying by many since it sort of ruins your ability to use fastpass and not feel chained to one plan...