News Round Up

[eXo]

While my first instinct is to agree with you regarding the bus waits in the parks...I (and Disney probably would also) fear it could create a saftey issue with large crowds of people sprinting out of the parks and towards the bus stops to try to make their resort bus that's arriving in 2 minutes.

That seems a bit over dramatic, don't you think? Plenty of aspects of Disney have specific times, and yet there aren't "floods of people" rushing into them. The notion of a "flood" of wilderness lodge or contemporary guests all rushing their bus at the same time (when they come every 15 min or so anyways) is silly enough to make me laugh.

That's why I do it. I'm not anti-technology, I want my phone to last all day, and I find if I am constantly checking my app the battery doesn't last out the day. I really don't want to spend my afternoon sitting at a charging station. So, I have a small card with my plans for each day. If I need to refer to the app, I do, but my point is that I don't actually need the app to use FP+.

Battery chargers the size of a lipstick case are pretty cheap these days, and hold a charge and half. Then there are the ones the same size as your phone that hold closer to 5 full charges. Wear a pair of cargo shorts or something and you can use your phone as often as you like and never have to spend your afternoon sitting at a charging station. I'm not saying a piece of paper with your FP+ times is a bad idea, but I personally use my phone for a lot more than that when I'm in the parks. Apps that tell you the wait times on all the rides around you, reading a news story while in a line, using the phone to take a picture.... it's hard for me to believe that checking fp+ times is the most battery intensive part of someone's day.

There is another reason for using BOARDS, and avoiding an App - BANDWIDTH. An info DB being updated in real time, and getting slammed by 20,000+ cell phones, is not a good planning scenario. An info DB getting hit by about 100 locations with dedicated boards? That's probably going to actually WORK.

.... They are already designed for this. FP+ is a database of user id's, times, and ride id's, and magic band rfid's. Getting "slammed by 20,000+ cell phones". Not to mention the info DB doesn't have to be quried at all. All it has to do is broadcast times out incessantly. Your phone/app would then receive the data and show you the times that are relevant to you. Why in the world would anyone design it as a two way communication system when there is absolutely nothing the board needs to know about you in order to give you a bus arrival time?

That's three posts where two of them seem to be making up problems that don't really exist, and all 3 have simple solutions. You guys need to try harder in the naysaying dept here guys.

 

[Andrew015]

That's why I do it. I'm not anti-technology, I want my phone to last all day, and I find if I am constantly checking my app the battery doesn't last out the day. I really don't want to spend my afternoon sitting at a charging station. So, I have a small card with my plans for each day. If I need to refer to the app, I do, but my point is that I don't actually need the app to use FP+.

Again, I'm not knocking your approach. Rather, I'm just pointing out that the same arguments (not everyone has a smart phone, I don't want to be glued to it, etc.) were used against FP+. Look where that got us (99% of all park goers glued to their smart phones)...

I'm with you on this one.

 

[Dean Marino]

....... They are already designed for this. FP+ is a database of user id's, times, and ride id's, and magic band rfid's. Getting "slammed by 20,000+ cell phones". Not to mention the info DB doesn't have to be quried at all. All it has to do is broadcast times out incessantly. Your phone/app would then receive the data and show you the times that are relevant to you. Why in the world would anyone design it as a two way communication system when there is absolutely nothing the board needs to know about you in order to give you a bus arrival time?

That's three posts where two of them seem to be making up problems that don't really exist, and all 3 have simple solutions. You guys need to try harder in the naysaying dept here guys.

Glad you mentioned the working reliability of FP+ . Try to get it to actually WORK with wait times, let alone bus times. "Broadcast"? Explain how one does a cell phone app broadcast over HTTP? That's a request/receive protocol - your phone does a request, the back end (likely) does a DB query, and (if the DB isn't overloaded) - you get a result.

Nope - restaurant reservations, "check my schedule", other things that are less intense? Less of an issue. Thousands of folks sitting at breakfast-lunch-dinner, banging the bus "app" every 2 minutes? Ehhhhh - I wouldn't architect it that way . Disney may, of course, do as it likes . The situation, in general, is why corporations HIRE Network Architects.... who make a POINT of considering situations that may, or may not, exist - then actually TEST them . They look for things that sound great, and will bring all the poor little systems behind the network to their knees .

 

[umichigan10]

New theater in DHS seems to be coming along nicely, not sure if its going to be fully enclosed or not but the top work seems mostly done

 

[pork]

Try to get it to actually WORK with wait times, let alone bus times. "Broadcast"? Explain how one does a cell phone app broadcast over HTTP? That's a request/receive protocol - your phone does a request, the back end (likely) does a DB query, and (if the DB isn't overloaded) - you get a result.

You could just set a cache on the api that returns the response. Then it's only going to actually hit the database once in x amount of time. In this case probably a minute or 2

 

[circus4u]

Actually not at all. I don't look at my app much at WDW. Occasionally for wait times, but I have a small card with my FP+ times for each day in my pocket/wallet. I don't need a phone at all to use FP+.

Last five trips, we did the same thing. Only thing the cell phone was used for, was to send pictures to family members and check out the weather radar when rain was close

 

[Budshark]

You could just set a cache on the api that returns the response. Then it's only going to actually hit the database once in x amount of time. In this case probably a minute or 2

Correct. A Disney bus time/wait time app would not be the thing that breaks the Internet.

It's actually the very design and likely why bus displays are slow to roll out. Why invest in equipment, power, and the data required to put in a display when I could just say check your phone. And oh while you're there looking for when the bus to the Magic Kingdom will arrive let me suggest a dining reservation available tonight, or recommend taking the Animal Kingdom bus that is due in 2 mins and give you a free fast pass to Safari to entice you and help Disney maximize park capacity.

Or I could put up a digital sign...

 

[rteetz]

Brilliant. I feel like I kill my battery checking times.

Portable battery chargers are the best vacation invention in my opinion.

 

[rteetz]

New theater in DHS seems to be coming along nicely, not sure if its going to be fully enclosed or not but the top work seems mostly done

Photo?

 

[rteetz]

Here is something that could very interesting. Rumor that Phil Holmes and Dan Cockrell will switch places as VP of MK and DHS.

http://www.wdwmagic.com/other/walt-...he-walt-disney-world-parks-on-the-horizon.htm

 

[mara512]

Here is something that could very interesting. Rumor that Phil Holmes and Dan Cockerall will switch places as VP of MK and DHS.

http://www.wdwmagic.com/other/walt-...he-walt-disney-world-parks-on-the-horizon.htm

Very interesting. If this happens, makes one think about why it would happen at the time of expansion/renovation of DHS.

 

[leholcomb]

Here is something that could very interesting. Rumor that Phil Holmes and Dan Cockerall will switch places as VP of MK and DHS.

http://www.wdwmagic.com/other/walt-...he-walt-disney-world-parks-on-the-horizon.htm

That would be an interesting switch up. I have worked under both of them and both are great assets to the company. While Dan has his strengths, Phil did oversee the NFL expansion so maybe there is more confidence in his corner to help manage the transition...

 

[rteetz]

Very interesting. If this happens, makes one think about why it would happen at the time of expansion/renovation of DHS.

What I've been reading is Phil is going to be retiring soon, he is 63 and doesn't have a lot left. Dan is gearing up to probably be the next in line for president of WDW after George Kalogridis. MK would be the next best thing to president so it's like the last step before the promotion.

 

[rteetz]

Very interesting. If this happens, makes one think about why it would happen at the time of expansion/renovation of DHS.

Because Phil is going to be retiring soon.

 

[rteetz]

That would be an interesting switch up. I have worked under both of them and both are great assets to the company. While Dan has his strengths, Phil did oversee the NFL expansion so maybe there is more confidence in his corner to help manage the transition...

Phil won't have any say in what's coming to DHS tho that's coming straight from Glendale and Burbank.

 

[umichigan10]

Photo?

Unfortunately my phone isn't being nice to me. Gonna see if I can upload tomorrow

 

[rteetz]

Unfortunately my phone isn't being nice to me. Gonna see if I can upload tomorrow

That's ok thanks for the update

 

[umichigan10]

That's ok thanks for the update

No problem. Going to AK tomorrow see how things are going there

 

[rteetz]

No problem. Going to AK tomorrow see how things are going there

Ooo I hope you can get your pictures to work there because things are really coming along.

 

[rteetz]

Hoop dee do Revue 4:00pm show on July 24th canceled

http://www.orlandoparksnews.com/2015/07/hoop-dee-doos-400-pm-show-cancelled-for.html