Official word on the success of MyMagic+

[basketlover]

Yes, I'm sure that Disney is happy with MM+. I've said it before ... they are not interested with the repeat visitor as much as the "once in a lifetime" visitor.[/QUOTE]

I agree, I'm spending way more if "I'm never coming again" than if I go to the same place every year.

 

[wdwfanatic316]

Disney sees the correlation. I'm sure that someone that does a very similar job to what I do at my company has helped to determine it. There are a lot of claims that they can't possibly know, or that it's only an recovering economy that is causing it. My point is that they certainly CAN know, and it sounds like they DO know based on that release. I do not work at Disney so I do not know for sure, but I would think a company that size has a competent research department to do this kind of work. Could their methodology be completely flawed? Yeah, it could, but I have no reason to think that it is.

One would also think a company this size would have a decent website and IT department but many users in the past year would disagree...

 

[jade1]

Well..you could ask what happens when something like 9/11 occurs and people won't travel.

And then you need the locals and repeaters to sustain a theme park, and you've already alienated them by fundamentally changing the experience to cater to the first timers.

None of which the current mangement is anticipating, and I wouldn't expect them to anticipate that.

This is a good point and one I have pondered over at one time or another. After 9/11 the locals and us Disney nuts kept the parks going. It seems very short-sighted from a business perspective to ignore repeat visitors.

Heres "what happens", the system can adapt now. Most of those "alienated" visitors can be enticed back pretty quickly IMO.

So "if" that happened, the locals could grab the best times and availability AND have shorter waits for the rest.

Why would they not want to go anymore?

Plus WDW could easily say no tiers for a while.

Or you can reserve 3 (or more ) in 2 different parks.

Or 8 per day in one park.

Or multiple FP+ for one attraction.

Or 10 for any stays on sight and no restrictions.

What is short sided about that system?

Sounds more like a disaster recovery marketing dream.

 

[BrianL]

One would also think a company this size would have a decent website and IT department but many users in the past year would disagree...

Fair enough, though I still don't see any concrete reasons to doubt them either.

I'll restate, Disney certainly CAN know very accurately if there is correlation between MM+ and spend increases aside from an improved economy.

 

[Laz]

Old Saying:

Their are lies,
Their are dang lies,
And then their are statistics.

 

[ghtx]

I work in research for a big company and I can tell you that they absolutely CAN make correlations between MM+ and the gains in key performance indicators. There is a lot of science behind it and a company like Disney, I can guarantee you is on top of that. They would only use spin if the results were poor. It seems to be having a positive impact, and just because a poster on this board hates MM+ does not somehow make that untrue.

Disney sees the correlation. I'm sure that someone that does a very similar job to what I do at my company has helped to determine it. There are a lot of claims that they can't possibly know, or that it's only an recovering economy that is causing it. My point is that they certainly CAN know, and it sounds like they DO know based on that release. I do not work at Disney so I do not know for sure, but I would think a company that size has a competent research department to do this kind of work. Could their methodology be completely flawed? Yeah, it could, but I have no reason to think that it is.

Fair enough, though I still don't see any concrete reasons to doubt them either.

I'll restate, Disney certainly CAN know very accurately if there is correlation between MM+ and spend increases aside from an improved economy.

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Correlation_does_not_imply_causation

 

[jade1]

I'm sure the stat's are true. Besides there are three types of lies. Lies, dang lies and statistics.
.

Old Saying:

Their are lies,
Their are damn lies,
And then their are statistics.

Is it dang or damn?

 

[jahber]

Heres "what happens", the system can adapt now. Most of those "alienated" visitors can be enticed back pretty quickly IMO. So "if" that happened, the locals could grab the best times and availability AND have shorter waits for the rest. Why would they not want to go anymore? Plus WDW could easily say no tiers for a while. Or you can reserve 3 (or more ) in 2 different parks. Or 8 per day in one park. Or multiple FP+ for one attraction. Or 10 for any stays on sight and no restrictions. What is short sided about that system? Sounds more like a disaster recovery marketing dream.

I'm gonna have to disagree. As a local, if they were to increase FP+ allotments, that would be great, as long as it lasted. But the moment they had to start scaling back again because park attendance was up...well. It wouldn't be pretty. I mean, many of us already get fewer FPs through the new system than previously and are pretty unhappy with that. I'm not sure how much more we can be jerked around before it becomes too much. (Fwiw, we won't be renewing our 3 seasonal passes this year.)

Of course, there will always be people who then call us entitled and selfish (as they do now) because we are upset a perk was scaled back again even though we are paying more. C'est la vie.

 

[jade1]

I'm gonna have to disagree. As a local, if they were to increase FP+ allotments, that would be great, as long as it lasted. But the moment they had to start scaling back again because park attendance was up...well. It wouldn't be pretty. I mean, many of us already get fewer FPs through the new system than previously and are pretty unhappy with that. I'm not sure how much more we can be jerked around before it becomes too much. (Fwiw, we won't be renewing our 3 seasonal passes this year.)

Of course, there will always be people who then call us entitled and selfish (as they do now) because we are upset a perk was scaled back again even though we are paying more. C'est la vie.

You disagree with they will use FP+ packages to entice visitors to WDW in the event of a disaster/downturn-I think they will. Let's hope we never find out.

That's fine-I'm just they now can offer more than in the past to entice visitors and on sight stays than they could in the past.

As you admit-that would be great so it sounds like even you would be involved in "cushioning the blow". So WDW has a much better chance of minimizing the impact than other parks. That means they can recover much sooner and continue future expansion much sooner (or not stop) as planned as well.

Agreed it will have to eventually "return to normal", but having the negative impact reduced would be well worth it IMO-instead of a 10 year recovery like last time.

 

[BrianL]

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Correlation_does_not_imply_causation

You're right,I should have said a causal relationship...but correlation comes before that ("The conventional dictum that "correlation does not imply causation" means that correlation cannot be used to infer a causal relationship between the variables. This dictum should not be taken to mean that correlations cannot indicate the potential existence of causal relations. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Correlation_and_dependence)"

Disney CAN certainly know if this is the case. I am not saying they DO as apparently everyone doubts the abilities of a multi-billion dollar corporation to know their own business and I do not work there, but I do know that it certainly can be done through data that they must have available to them disregarding sheer incompetence.

 

[conandrob240]

Specifically on MyMagic+... August 2014...



I guess this confirms that overall the experience is indeed very positive (Excellent or Very Good) in general. Those who say most people don't like MyMagic+ are just wrong. And those who say nobody knows that only Disney knows if it's successful, well, now we know.

And, November 2014...



MyMagic+ directly increased income, and attendance is up. New 4th quarter record in fact.

And...



Rooms occupancy is up, and those staying in rooms are indeed spending more. So, this does confirm that in general, ppl are spending more, and those who say "no but I'm spending less" are the minority and have little effect on the big picture.

And just this week...



Awesome!

Basic statistics- correlation does not imply causation.

And Disney could not possibly "know" or prove the causation unless they were using a control group with exactly the same environmental nd economic factors who did NOT use MyMagic+ which we know they did not do.

 

[jtowntoflorida]

Disney has been exclaiming the success of MyMagic+ since before MyMagic+ was rolled out. It certainly is not going to come out and say that its $1B cash suck is anything but worth it. This is something that by its very nature can't have hard numbers associated with it, so they can try to spin it all it wants. Until someone looks at guest spending normalized for price increases and the economic recovery, you're really never going to know what the real benefit of MyMagic+ is and whether it really results in higher guest spending.

And after having personally taken some of those MyMagic+ surveys after recent trips...I have no faith whatsoever in their survey data. As has been discussed ad nauseum on here, the answer available were skewed in favor of a positive response.

 

[lugnut33]

I had been saying forever that guest feedback had been very positive, but that still doesn't mean I like FP+. I do like the magicbands.

 

[BrianL]

Basic statistics- correlation does not imply causation.

And Disney could not possibly "know" or prove the causation unless they were using a control group with exactly the same environmental nd economic factors who did NOT use MyMagic+ which we know they did not do.

How do we know what they did or did not do? We do control groups all the time and our customers don't know about them.

I don't get all the doubt about this release. It's like because someone here doesn't like MM+ that it couldn't possibly be a success and Disney must be lying to everyone (including their shareholders). It's just not likely.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

maybe it's difficult for those who dislike FP+ to grasp that more guests might like it than disllike it. Personally I don't know whether more guests do like it than dislike it. I don't think it's terrible but it does have some drawbacks. I know I get to ride 7DMT without waiting for it at a certain time on a certain date, but I had to check back multiple times on the computer to get it. and one day the right time just opened up. So some of it is still chalked up to luck.

 

[jade1]

I think the only thing for at least pretty sure is-if everything was going down or negative (in this economy) most everyone would say it was because of MM+/FP+. So it appears to have not caused the negative impact many predicted, at least not yet.

But since everything is looking pretty good-it may or may not be from MM+/FP+.

The good thing for those of us that like MM+/FP+ is we really don't care why things are looking up-just that we get to keep MM+/FP+. Were just glad things are not going south-not that any of us thought it would.

 

[JoshuaShaw]

the abilities of a multi-billion dollar corporation to know their own business

Knowing what your business is capable of and claiming what it is capable of are not the same thing. That's not to say that they're being deliberately misleading, but numbers and statistics are not the righteous truth-teller some would have you believe. Any data can be skewed to project what you want it to project.

As for my personal wariness, I find it to be too much of a coincidence that MyMagic+ is solely responsible for boosting Disney's park revenue around the same time that more and more people are spending money on travel and vacations, particularly when the first-timers that everyone is certain Disney is courting probably (though I don't know for certain) don't even know about MyMagic+ until they book. Of course, this is assuming that the increase in revenue is coming from an influx in guests and not an increase in spending from the same amount of guests. Though considering most would agree it is more crowded now than it was five years ago, that seems like a fair assumption.

As for whether or not a majority of guests like MyMagic+, it's probably an impossibility to know, unless Disney surveys every single guest, which as of now, they don't.

 

[bumbershoot]

About half of the guests now use MagicBands and 90% of them rate the experience as excellent or very good.

"About"? About half the guests use them. That's a ringing success?

90" of "them". Who is "them"? The "about half" of the guests that are using them? I used them in November and no one asked me a question about them. So they didn't get MY opinion. What they mean is "90% of the people who agreed to answer questions who were using MBs rate the experience as excellent or very good."

That's a MUCH smaller group than 90% of the "about half" group....

People are snapping up the special magic bands at $29 each, I can see how they are making more money off the program.

Of course, it's no surprise that souvenirs are popular. And that souvenirs will be purchased. I have no interest in a Frozen MB, and I have all the colors with more coming, but when face to face with cute little Olaf I nearly caved in! I mean, it makes different noises at the pole thingies! I stayed strong, but I bet that most would not. (I save my money for Universal souvenirs, LOL)

There is an entire science to polling. You can absolutely get the answers you want by nuanced wording, timing and location.

And they do that. We've heard many times here about the surveys, and how with the questions asked it's actually impossible to give a negative answer. There's no "did you like it, yes or no?" questions. It's things like "did you like MM+ for this, that, or the other reason"? "Which did you like more: being able to arrange FP+ in advance or being able to change things around at kiosks?" Can't give a negative answer to those!

Right, those things wouldn't be noticed by first-timers. Other things not noticed by first-timers are old shows, cut parades, cut entertainment, less holiday decorations, the list goes on. Lots of decisions that Disney makes can be run through the first-timer filter and it starts to make sense.

Yep.

One would also think a company this size would have a decent website and IT department but many users in the past year would disagree...

Sadly they use many low-paid very young (not going to argue, and they have no knowledge base for planning big family trips) interns at their IT shop up here in Seattle, though now it seems I know two older guys who work there and I really wish I had more contact with them to have a little chat with them...

How do we know what they did or did not do? We do control groups all the time and our customers don't know about them.

To run such a thing would mean there would have to be paper FP kiosks in the places where they used to be. So that those in that group could still pull them and go about their days as normal. And those people could NOT utilize the new stuff. Back when they were switching over, you could use both. It wasn't one or the other. (oh the good times...good trip that one was) A control group for the old stuff would be noticeable, or it wouldn't be a true control group for the old way of doing things.

 

[Jennasis]

I still don't like FP+.

 

[gdrj]

Obviously all the FP+ haters are now at Universal...That's why the surveys are so positive! ...just kidding.

I don't know if its good bad or indifferent on their bottom line. I doubt they were expecting an immediate return on the investment. Since I'm not in the Board Meetings I don't know what impact it has on there short term and long term strategic plans. Or how it impacts on how they staff, how they monitor foot traffic in the parks, or how they are using all the data they can collect to impact not just sales but profitability.

I do know for myself that I do like that I don't need to be part of the "Running of the Tourists" to get on rides or race back to Big Thunder or Rock N Roll to get my FP. I don't need to go far to get a different opinion, my wife doesn't care for it.

In regards to sales being up and the impact MyMagic has on it I would be curious to know what Disney had expected in sales impact. I also know that I read (probably on here) that guest charging to the room has increased with the use of MagicBands (of course we don't know if they are increased sales or replacing sales on credit cards at the park). With all that said I don't really care why or how sales are up.