Official word on the success of MyMagic+

[Shaden]

Any chance of Fuzzylogic posting the link or links to this (these) articles/posts ???

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

At Walt Disney World, this was the first full quarter in which MyMagic+ was available to all guests. About half of the guests now use MagicBands and 90% of them rate the experience as excellent or very good. We’re very pleased with the growing popularity of MyMagic+ and expect it to contribute to parks earnings growth starting in the fourth quarter.

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.

Just a note, though in general I think MM+ is probably rated as positive as well.

That is not what this sentence says, this sentence says Magic Bands are rated very positively. Nothing else.

This says nothing about the approval rating of Fastpass+ or My Magic+ (which are themselves 2 different things).

And, November 2014...

The early returns we are seeing from MyMagic+ are encouraging. During the fourth quarter MyMagic+ had a positive contribution to year-over-year increase in the segment’s operating income. Attendance at our domestic parks was up 4% with Walt Disney World setting a new fourth quarter record.

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

This is far more vague than you would like it to be. Attendance here clearly isn't related to MM+ (though it might be for all we know, attendance might be down because of MM+ or up because of it, we don't know)

I am guessing they really aren't clear on the numbers (or the numbers aren't very impressive) but it would be quite difficult (as someone who also does research) to isolate the causal relationship of MM+ to revenue, there are simply too many intervening variables. Though its possible there are people who aren't using MM+ and they are trying to use them as a control group, but I would guess there again are elements of that group that make them non-representative of the larger population.

Whats -REALLY- interesting here, nothing about profit, just revenue, operating income. And that's what Disney cares about, profit.

Per room spending at our domestic hotels was up 5% and occupancy was up 5 percentage points to 83%


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.

Wondering how they calculate this, I mean, the hotel rates were up considerably this year, do they calculate per room spending including how much is spent on the room ? Or are they simply talking about how much people charge to their MB's? And while people will toss around the correlation causation debate here, I have little doubt people spend more on MBs than they do otherwise, even with a card, there is a lot of research that indicates they more removed you make a purchase from "cash" the more people are going to spend, I would still really like to know how they calculate this number.

And on a far more sinister / conspiracy related note - I'd like to know how they determine who they question / what they ask. My own experience has been interesting with this. While in the parks this may, they had a ton of people kicking around with the Ipads asking people to take surveys, but more often then not they were actually just standing there with them, not surveying people. At first I just gave them the "I'm available" eyes ... but that didn't seem to work, so a couple days in I just offered to take their survey, I was told they couldn't survey me, it was "random". Random how exactly ? Random as in, see someone who is clearly having an awesome time and ask them ? Or random as in, every 17th person to walk by ? I did get to fill out one survey when I returned home though, but it was about the parks, not about MM+ or FP+. Even there though, the questions were pretty leading, and I agree that for some, there wasn't really a negative option to respond with.

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

Any chance of Fuzzylogic posting the link or links to this (these) articles/posts ???

You can just google the full quotes that Fuzzylogic posted. They're from earnings calls and Board of Directors' announcements -- direct from Disney, basically.

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

Perhaps. But, you'd have to see the statistics and how the statistics were gathered to know if it is a fallacy or a true refection of cause-and-effect. To jump to either conclusion before seeing it all (which we will never get to do) is illogical.

Probably safe to conclude that SO FAR, MM+ hasn't led to the company's demise, though... ...

 

[MakiraMarlena]

but that didn't seem to work, so a couple days in I just offered to take their survey, I was told they couldn't survey me, it was "random". Random how exactly ? Random as in, see someone who is clearly having an awesome time and ask them ?

Random as in they will not accept requests from people to take the survey. How many surveys do you know where they actually survey people who ask to be surveyed? I can't think of any.

In most of the WDW surveys I took via e-mail there was a section to write in your explanations on some questions, where one could have written their displeasure with pretty much anything if they wished. It might not be relevant to the survey but it would be read by somebody.

 

[Mome Rath]

Random as in they will not accept requests from people to take the survey. How many surveys do you know where they actually survey people who ask to be surveyed? I can't think of any.

In most of the WDW surveys I took via e-mail there was a section to write in your explanations on some questions, where one could have written their displeasure with pretty much anything if they wished. It might not be relevant to the survey but it would be read by somebody.

Self-selected samples can easily skew results because they result in a biased sample.

 

[MrInfinity]

I've often wondered why Disney doesn't report actual park attendance numbers.

Really? This would be incredibly valuable data to the competition.

 

[surferdave]

Random how exactly ? Random as in, see someone who is clearly having an awesome time and ask them ? Or random as in, every 17th person to walk by ? I did get to fill out one survey when I returned home though, but it was about the parks, not about MM+ or FP+. Even there though, the questions were pretty leading, and I agree that for some, there wasn't really a negative option to respond with.

I wonder if they were surveying the masses stuck outside the parks on the days MDE wouldn't let anybody in and they sent the carts out to sell water.

 

[ellie05]

Now that's something I completely overlooked during our stay. How did that work for you? Did you return to your resort after using your 3 FP's in a park that day, and then make an additional FP for a park you were headed to? What sort of availability were you seeing?

It was great. We usually went back for a quick nap or in one instance to change our wet clothes. We were able to get FP+ for Space mnt. and a FP+ for RR at the concierge. At the parks this is the first time that we took first timers and had so much time to spare. The other 4th fp that we were able to get in the park also worked really well specially if you do RD. I would schedule my FP+ for mind day. Then in the afternoon we would be able to get FP for smaller attractions like pirates or jungle cruise. Our longest wait this trip was 30 min for mine train. Other than that we basically walk on to everything and we rode each coaster at least 2 times.

 

[Suvadoo]

Really? This would be incredibly valuable data to the competition.

How would this be incredibly valuable to the competition?

 

[davedmaine]

Really? This would be incredibly valuable data to the competition.

Not really

 

[Laketravis]

Really? This would be incredibly valuable data to the competition.

How so? You could probably say the same about revenue figures, and those are readily available.

 

[Shaden]

No Response Fuzzy ???

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

At Walt Disney World, this was the first full quarter in which MyMagic+ was available to all guests. About half of the guests now use MagicBands and 90% of them rate the experience as excellent or very good. We’re very pleased with the growing popularity of MyMagic+ and expect it to contribute to parks earnings growth starting in the fourth quarter.

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.

Just a note, though in general I think MM+ is probably rated as positive as well.

That is not what this sentence says, this sentence says Magic Bands are rated very positively. Nothing else.

This says nothing about the approval rating of Fastpass+ or My Magic+ (which are themselves 2 different things).

And, November 2014...

The early returns we are seeing from MyMagic+ are encouraging. During the fourth quarter MyMagic+ had a positive contribution to year-over-year increase in the segment’s operating income. Attendance at our domestic parks was up 4% with Walt Disney World setting a new fourth quarter record.

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

This is far more vague than you would like it to be. Attendance here clearly isn't related to MM+ (though it might be for all we know, attendance might be down because of MM+ or up because of it, we don't know)

I am guessing they really aren't clear on the numbers (or the numbers aren't very impressive) but it would be quite difficult (as someone who also does research) to isolate the causal relationship of MM+ to revenue, there are simply too many intervening variables. Though its possible there are people who aren't using MM+ and they are trying to use them as a control group, but I would guess there again are elements of that group that make them non-representative of the larger population.

Whats -REALLY- interesting here, nothing about profit, just revenue, operating income. And that's what Disney cares about, profit.

Per room spending at our domestic hotels was up 5% and occupancy was up 5 percentage points to 83%


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.

Wondering how they calculate this, I mean, the hotel rates were up considerably this year, do they calculate per room spending including how much is spent on the room ? Or are they simply talking about how much people charge to their MB's? And while people will toss around the correlation causation debate here, I have little doubt people spend more on MBs than they do otherwise, even with a card, there is a lot of research that indicates they more removed you make a purchase from "cash" the more people are going to spend, I would still really like to know how they calculate this number.

And on a far more sinister / conspiracy related note - I'd like to know how they determine who they question / what they ask. My own experience has been interesting with this. While in the parks this may, they had a ton of people kicking around with the Ipads asking people to take surveys, but more often then not they were actually just standing there with them, not surveying people. At first I just gave them the "I'm available" eyes ... but that didn't seem to work, so a couple days in I just offered to take their survey, I was told they couldn't survey me, it was "random". Random how exactly ? Random as in, see someone who is clearly having an awesome time and ask them ? Or random as in, every 17th person to walk by ? I did get to fill out one survey when I returned home though, but it was about the parks, not about MM+ or FP+. Even there though, the questions were pretty leading, and I agree that for some, there wasn't really a negative option to respond with.

 

[sharadoc]

I haven't read through the whole thread so sorry if this was brought up already, but I'm guessing they are basing these results on the post-visit e-mail surveys that are sent out. They ask specific questions about the use of the app, reservations, and magic bands. I had a lot of positive responses to the individual questions, like "did you use your magic band to charge to your room and how was that experience?" (paraphrasing). It worked great and I was happy. Same with opening our room and having our tickets on the bands. Did I use the app? Yes, was it positive? Yes, so I guess that means my experience with MyMagic+ overall was very good.

But overall, there had to be two guards at our resort entrance because the bands didn't work on the gates, so they had to let everyone in by hand, and scan the bands numerous times. One of the guards just chuckled when we brought up that they never work at the gates and just said "1 Billion Dollars". It became our mantra every time something went wrong, it was kind of fun as the week went on. Also the servers at the restaurants had trouble scanning the bands in, always took at least 3 times before it registered.

No one asked how my time between FP reservations was. We hated that we were done one at 1:20, and our next one was 2:05. It was obvious that Disney assumed we would spend money during that time. So we purposely refused to LOL.

So, individually, taken in tiny doses, the MyMagic experiences were fine. But overall, it completely changed the way we vacationed. Was it negative? No, we found ways to deal.

But nobody asked me if I thought it was a good system, or was overall easy to use or beneficial to my vacation. And they'll never ask those kinds of questions, just the tiny little ones that they can aggregate together. Forcing answers to fit their agenda.

 

[Laketravis]

There's currently another thread running that mentions surveys, but the point I made there I want to make here.

I think first of all it depends on who has been tasked with the surveys and why.

What arm of Disney is behind the noticeable presence of a large number of survey takers in the parks (and note it is just in the parks, not the resorts)?

Is it guest services, marketing, IT, operations, or a C-suite directive?

Is it an attempt to measure an existing condition or to forecast one?

Over the course of 15 days I was asked multiple times for my zip code and if I would participate in a survey. I always responded affirmatively, and rather than continue to survey me they asked for my email address to send the survey to. I thought that was odd - I'm in the park right now, don't you want to capture my immediate impressions? Or do you want to see if I'm still pissed off about something even after several days or weeks?

My personal view is that their current survey efforts are reactive, not proactive, and are predicated by a negative observation. I don't believe these are forward looking efforts but instead are backward looking to find out what is manifesting that negative impact.

Because while many companies survey their customers, it's rare for them to do so for positive reasons when they are on such a phenomenal success curve as measured by stock price, boasted resort occupancy and park attendance levels, revenue increases and cost reductions as Disney is right now.

Something is wrong and they are looking for the reason.

 

[MrInfinity]

No Response Fuzzy ???

Oh, sorry. Didn't know you were looking for specific responses. You have some good points, others seem tangential, almost stretching the financial reports to suit your case. Despite your responses, the same general conclusion remains, which most ppl who have commented on this thread agree:

MM+ (including all aspects of it, one of which is FP+) did not cause the doom and gloom that many predicted. And those that don't like it are in the minority, because people are still visiting WDW in droves, and are for the most part, loving it.

At Walt Disney World, this was the first full quarter in which MyMagic+ was available to all guests. About half of the guests now use MagicBands and 90% of them rate the experience as excellent or very good. We’re very pleased with the growing popularity of MyMagic+ and expect it to contribute to parks earnings growth starting in the fourth quarter.

Just a note, though in general I think MM+ is probably rated as positive as well. That is not what this sentence says, this sentence says Magic Bands are rated very positively. Nothing else.

This was tangential. Whether your literary breakdown is that the experience as a whole was 90% or the experience of those who wore bands was 90% is irrelevant. Either case is a resounding 90%, whichever subset you're applying it to (all who use MM+ vs all of those who used MM+ and had a band).

This says nothing about the approval rating of Fastpass+ or My Magic+ (which are themselves 2 different things).

So? the point some would like to make out here is that FP+ is a failure. And they have no data to back that up. Here this data at a bare minimum shows that WDW is thriving, FP+ and all.

The early returns we are seeing from MyMagic+ are encouraging. During the fourth quarter MyMagic+ had a positive contribution to year-over-year increase in the segment’s operating income. Attendance at our domestic parks was up 4% with Walt Disney World setting a new fourth quarter record.

This is far more vague than you would like it to be. Attendance here clearly isn't related to MM+ (though it might be for all we know, attendance might be down because of MM+ or up because of it, we don't know)

That's a lot of "mights" on your part. What we do know, is that MyMagic+ had a positive contribution to year-over-year increase in the segment's operating income. That is pretty darn committal to go on record to the shareholders and say that not only did operating income increase for several reasons, but MyMagic+ had a positive contribution to that increase.

I am guessing they really aren't clear on the numbers (or the numbers aren't very impressive) but it would be quite difficult (as someone who also does research) to isolate the causal relationship of MM+ to revenue, there are simply too many intervening variables.

Nah. They know the numbers. They know them crystal clear I'm sure.

Per room spending at our domestic hotels was up 5% and occupancy was up 5 percentage points to 83%

Wondering how they calculate this, I mean, the hotel rates were up considerably this year, do they calculate per room spending including how much is spent on the room? Or are they simply talking about how much people charge to their MB's?

Yes, I think the jist here is they're talking about how much ppl spend in addition to their room, as tracked by the MB. What additional they spend in cash would be tracked in a separate cash bucket.

I have little doubt people spend more on MBs than they do otherwise, even with a card, there is a lot of research that indicates they more removed you make a purchase from "cash" the more people are going to spend, I would still really like to know how they calculate this number.

Agree! Disassociating the expense from the fun of spending is one of the most beneficial advantages to MM+. Other theme parks are copying this. Even Great America wants me to now buy a food pack ahead of my visits.

At first I just gave them the "I'm available" eyes ... but that didn't seem to work, so a couple days in I just offered to take their survey, I was told they couldn't survey me, it was "random". Random how exactly? Random as in, see someone who is clearly having an awesome time and ask them ? Or random as in, every 17th person to walk by ?

Correct. You can't ask to be queried in a random sample. Then it's no longer random, and will instead be skewed toward those who want to say something, aka those who have a complaint. If 1000 guests visit happily and 1 out of 100 has a bad FP experience, but they make the survey a walkup-station labeled "tell us about your visit" they will get the 10 ppl that had a problem walk up and it'll seem like 100% dissatisfaction, even tho it's only 1%. instead by asking people on the streets and giving them no say in who gets chosen, the actual survey results will point to the correct 1%.

 

[Laketravis]

You can't ask to be queried in a random sample. Then it's no longer random, and will instead be skewed toward those who want to say something, aka those who have a complaint. If 1000 guests visit happily and 1 out of 100 has a bad FP experience, but they make the survey a walkup-station labeled "tell us about your visit" they will get the 10 ppl that had a problem walk up and it'll seem like 100% dissatisfaction, even tho it's only 1%. instead by asking people on the streets and giving them no say in who gets chosen, the actual survey results will point to the correct 1%.

I wondered the same thing as I passed so many of the iPad Survey crew.

After over a week in the parks, passing them several times a day entering/exiting the parks and on the walkways, we were never asked.

There were times when they would ask the guests in front of us if they could ask them some questions and receive a negative response, but then wouldn't move on to us or the people behind us. I figured it didn't have anything to do with every Nth guest.

So I tried smiling at them when I passed them. Got asked almost every time the following week.

If anyone is there now, please try it.

 

[jade1]

We got asked for a survey at EPCOT. But it turned out to be about dining.

Once home the survey did appear and was mostly about using "tablets" for ordering and paying the check etc.

I think they do surveys for a lot of things.

 

[Suvadoo]

There's currently another thread running that mentions surveys, but the point I made there I want to make here.

I think first of all it depends on who has been tasked with the surveys and why.

What arm of Disney is behind the noticeable presence of a large number of survey takers in the parks (and note it is just in the parks, not the resorts)?

Is it guest services, marketing, IT, operations, or a C-suite directive?

Is it an attempt to measure an existing condition or to forecast one?

Over the course of 15 days I was asked multiple times for my zip code and if I would participate in a survey. I always responded affirmatively, and rather than continue to survey me they asked for my email address to send the survey to. I thought that was odd - I'm in the park right now, don't you want to capture my immediate impressions? Or do you want to see if I'm still pissed off about something even after several days or weeks?

My personal view is that their current survey efforts are reactive, not proactive, and are predicated by a negative observation. I don't believe these are forward looking efforts but instead are backward looking to find out what is manifesting that negative impact.

Because while many companies survey their customers, it's rare for them to do so for positive reasons when they are on such a phenomenal success curve as measured by stock price, boasted resort occupancy and park attendance levels, revenue increases and cost reductions as Disney is right now.

Something is wrong and they are looking for the reason.

The first question on the most recent e-mail survey I received from WDW asked if I had another trip planned. When I answered "no" that was the end of the survey.

 

[famy27]

This was tangential. Whether your literary breakdown is that the experience as a whole was 90% or the experience of those who wore bands was 90% is irrelevant. Either case is a resounding 90%, whichever subset you're applying it to (all who use MM+ vs all of those who used MM+ and had a band).

I think people are reading this quote two totally different ways, and I have no way to tell which was the actual subject of the survey.

"At Walt Disney World, this was the first full quarter in which MyMagic+ was available to all guests. About half of the guests now use MagicBands and 90% of them rate the experience as excellent or very good. We’re very pleased with the growing popularity of MyMagic+ and expect it to contribute to parks earnings growth starting in the fourth quarter.'

Does this mean that 90% rate their experience with MagicBands as excellent or with MM+ as excellent? Those are completely different questions.

I, personally, liked the MagicBands quite a bit. They were convenient for opening doors, charging without having to carry my purse everywhere, and for not accidentally leaving them in FP machines (as I once did in the days of yore). However, if you asked me about MM+ as a whole, I'd have a very different opinion.

 

[brettf22]

MyMagic+ had a positive contribution to year-over-year increase in the segment's operating income.

As others have stated, be careful touting an increase in operating income due to MyMagic+ as something positive. Looking at the most recent 10Q

“Selling, general, administrative and other costs decreased $26 million from $1,422 million to $1,396 million primarily due to the absence of development costs for MyMagic+”

In other words, operating income is up because MyMagic+ has been rolled out and they are no longer pumping so much money into its development.