Purpose for finger scan?

[SweetMelisa]

Does anyone know why Disney scans your finger before allowing you into the parks? I've heard several rumors. . .one being that they have your fingerprints "on file" to prohibit people from transferring their park tickets to someone else.

Here's why I'm asking; I am an annual passholder, I go to Disney at least 7 times a year. In these tough economic times, I'm going for a quick overnight stay to get a friend of mine (who's a Disney "virgin") into the holiday spirit (did I mention he's a soldier who just returned from Iraq?) Anyhoo, the US Army doesn't exactly pay our soldiers a lot of money. . .so I was thinking of asking a friend of mine who also has an annual pass if he could "borrow" his annual pass for the 2 days. (I realize that it's not "kosher", but I ALWAYS pay it forward when I go to Disney. .giving up seats on the bus, giving away unused fastpasses, etc. Not to mention that the $ we save on park tickets will assuredly be used elsewhere on MORE food and drinks at Disney)

The only way I could see us getting caught is if they scan my friend's finger and realize that it doesn't match the passholder's finger.

Any thoughts??

 

[duketennisgal]

From what I know that's the exact reason for the fingerprint scan. I understand why you would want to do it but what if everybody out there started doing it? Kind of like the fridge swap I could see people passing around their annual passholders tickets. A two day ticket isn't that bad, plus he can get a military discount by purchasing the tickets over at Shades of Green.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Yes, you are correct, to prevent cheating. And it also is illegal.

 

[d1gitman]

A couple of thoughts. 1) I would like to think that a member of our armed forces would not want to break the rules and use someone else' ticket 2) the fact that you 'pay it forward' means to me that you are a generous and considerate person. Don't spoil it by acting like you deserve special props for it. 3) the fact that you would spend the money anyway has no relation to obeying the rules.

now, to get off my soapbox and offer a suggestion... Call WDW guest services and explain that you are taking a friend of yours to WDW for 2 days and that he is a soldier who has just returned from duty. Ask if there are any special packages or things that WDW offers to make his visit 'extra magical'. They may have something, they may not. They may offer passes or they may not. However, I think the real point is that if you want to do something special for your friend, then find a way (legit way) to do it, especially if it means sacrifices on your behalf. After all, isn't that what your friend has done for all of us?

 

[BillSears]

I believe if the finger scan doesn't match up Disney can ask for ID to confirm the ticket owner. If the ID doesn't match the name on the Annual Pass then Disney would probably confiscate and cancel the pass and your friend would lose his annual pass.

 

[OKW Lover]

The finger scan is exactly to keep people from "sharing" their AP's.

Can I suggest to the OP that if you really want to be nice to your friend in the military you could always go ahead and buy them their own ticket.

 

[linzbear]

I believe if the finger scan doesn't match up Disney can ask for ID to confirm the ticket owner. If the ID doesn't match the name on the Annual Pass then Disney would probably confiscate and cancel the pass and your friend would lose his annual pass.

This.

I wouldn't even attempt it with an Annual Pass - the AP owner will likely lose his AP and be may be flagged to never get another one.

While I'm sure the fingerscanning partially went in to keep people from selling their tickets on I-Drive, I'm pretty sure one of the major reasons was to keep AP holders from passing their tickets around to friends.

 

[WriteDisney]

Purpose? To prevent stealing or cheating the Disney company.

Lots of said that they could switch IDs.. my DBF and I were in WDW in Sept of this year and accidently switched (we would constantly race each other to see who was faster at this process).. we kept trying out cards and some kind of error message came up.. the CM asked for our cards and when I looked at mine.. it was DBFs! so we switched back and went in with no problem...

theres been lots of explanations when I shared this story before.. bottom line though.. I dont recommend it and would advise against it for many of the obvious reasons...

 

[mbanks21]

So cheating disney out of $80 can be made up by giving up your seat on the bus? I will definately do that next time

 

[RMulieri]

I don't recommend it.If you are caught they can revoke your Ap, and him being an enlisted man could get into deep trouble with his superiors.I know they don't pay the military alot. My brothers are both enlisted men, but it isn't worth the risk of getting caught.

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

Besides matching each person to a specific ticket, I heard another reasons for the finger scan is to stop those illegal offsite ticket vendors from selling passes with used days on them.

 

[kelmac284]

In Disneyland the AP's have your photo on them and when they put the AP's through their machine your photo comes up on their machines and they look at the person and then match the photo to the person going through the gate. But if you just have a regular old ticket they just pass them through the machine. They don't have the finger scanners for regular hoppers so in effect you could swap out regular tickets there. But I guess that aren't as worried about that. In a way I wish they would go to that for regular tickets at DW because I don't have good fingerprints. I have to get fingerprinted for my kid's school field trips and such and it never works so I have to get background checks using my social instead. So this last trip I had a heck of a time with the finger scanner. It really backs up the line when they have to keep scanning and scanning because my fingerprints don't register.

It was so busy that 90% of the time they weren't doing it this last trip.

I get WHY they do it but I think the photo Idea is better personally. And quicker!

 

[gayles]

I am just wondering ------ If he used this person's Ap and did the finger scan ....... Does it Buzz or a light flashes - What happens ----- ???

 

[Poohsmommi]

Does anyone know why Disney scans your finger before allowing you into the parks? I've heard several rumors. . .one being that they have your fingerprints "on file" to prohibit people from transferring their park tickets to someone else.

Here's why I'm asking; I am an annual passholder, I go to Disney at least 7 times a year. In these tough economic times, I'm going for a quick overnight stay to get a friend of mine (who's a Disney "virgin") into the holiday spirit (did I mention he's a soldier who just returned from Iraq?) Anyhoo, the US Army doesn't exactly pay our soldiers a lot of money. . .so I was thinking of asking a friend of mine who also has an annual pass if he could "borrow" his annual pass for the 2 days. (I realize that it's not "kosher", but I ALWAYS pay it forward when I go to Disney. .giving up seats on the bus, giving away unused fastpasses, etc. Not to mention that the $ we save on park tickets will assuredly be used elsewhere on MORE food and drinks at Disney)

The only way I could see us getting caught is if they scan my friend's finger and realize that it doesn't match the passholder's finger.

Any thoughts??

You are going to get slammed by the "holier than thou's" on this board.

Sometimes they don't even scan your finger - they just let you in with the ticket. They can cancel the AP though. When are you going and what is the military rate for a ticket? I will donate 1 day for him. If you PM me your address with the cost, I will mail you a check.

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

Sometimes they don't even scan your finger - they just let you in with the ticket.

That has happened to us two different times. The 1st time was at Hollywood Studios and I guess the system was down. The 2nd time was this past August at the Magic Kingdom and it was because there was a lot of rain coming down from Tropical Storm Fay and they decided it would be faster to not use the finger scans.

 

[CanadianGuy]

What happens is ... the operator of the turnstile gets a message saying this doesn't match.

They may be asked to try again, or to provide ID that matches the name on the AP. If they can't do that - the AP will be confiscated and you'll be invited to buy a ticket at the window or please leave.

 

[Poohsmommi]

What happens is ... the operator of the turnstile gets a message saying this doesn't match.

They may be asked to try again, or to provide ID that matches the name on the AP. If they can't do that - the AP will be confiscated and you'll be invited to buy a ticket at the window or please leave.

How come they don't do that for the kids? Just curious ....

 

[Robo]

How come they don't do that for the kids? Just curious ....

Kids as young as 3 years having to scan fingers would slow the lines tremendously.

They know that kids will be accompanied by adults using the scans, anyway.

 

[seashoreCM]

Finger scanning began for annual passes only. In 2005 finger scanning was extended to regular tickets purchased after 2004. A few months later finger scanning was extended to all adult tickets.

Finger scanning was not used for child tickets because children's fingers are still growing and the stored scan results would literally become obsolete.

Way back then, if the ticket was subject to finger scanning, a light would come on in the scanner after you inserted the ticket.

The system would be more secure if guests were still required to insert fingers in the scanner even during busy times. If the scanners were "turned off" and the ticket was otherwise valid, the turnstile would unlock after a time delay, say one second after the finger was inserted.

 

[DisneyChristmas]

Ok - I'm all for not reselling tickets etc. But I've always wondered about the whole thing.

DH and I often do single overnight WDW visits while we're in Florida in the spring and fall. And then every second year we do a more extended stay.

We purchase 10-day park hoppers (not AP) and use them on various visits until they're expended. We keep them in a file at home and have no idea which one really belongs to DH and which is mine. We've never been stopped at the finger scan. But surely we haven't pulled those tickets out of storage several times and managed 100% to end up with each of us having the correct ticket???

LOL We're leaving for WDW on Monday. Now that I've posted this our luck will run out and we'll get stopped at the turnstyle!