Seems the new My Magic Plus system is looking more and more like a failure!

[DPCummerbund]

That's the problem that most people seem to ignore. The consequences of the "testing" are being felt by real people who spent a ton of money on vacations. If your trip is negatively affected, it matters.

As HydroGuy mentioned in another thread, there is damage being done.

But as is being discussed in many other threads, any "damage" being done is purely hypothetical at this point. The article states that the NextGen project is overbudget and has not pulled in the revenue that was expected so far, and that may well indeed be the case. Sure, many people on this forum (and others) are ranting about it, but that doesn't mean that the public, as a whole, is unhappy with it.

 

[ethanwa]

seems the new my magic plus system is looking more and more like a failure!

disagree.

 

[flicx]

Regardless of whether the information was true when it was written, or whether its predictions have come to pass, the article itself is OUTDATED. As in "not up to date." It was written at the end of November 2013, and for the most part referenced a 90 day hold on most of the projects mentioned in the article.

90 days from the end of November was the end of February 2014, a month ago. Are those projects still on hold? Are issues with FP+ still bogging down Imagineering development? The article doesn't say, because it wasn't written last month. An UPDATE to the OUTDATED information is in order.

Ok, I surrender, sorry to have brought some factual information to the table many people have not seen. I guess this "outdated" information is useless! I personally think it offers a lot of interesting insite albeit apparently old!

 

[HydroGuy]

But as is being discussed in many other threads, any "damage" being done is purely hypothetical at this point. The article states that the NextGen project is overbudget and has not pulled in the revenue that was expected so far, and that may well indeed be the case. Sure, many people on this forum (and others) are ranting about it, but that doesn't mean that the public, as a whole, is unhappy with it.

I talked about damage in another context so am being a bit misquoted here in this thread. I said Disney has damaged their brand in the past and gave an example of the building of the Disney California Adventure park in 2001. They finally admitted they had a problem in 2007 and spent $1.2 billion to upgrade the park. Before that the word of mouth around their large customer base in CA was to avoid that park. And folks did in droves. They sold only like 200 park tickets a day. Really. It looks like they have reversed course after the upgrade completed in 2012 and attendance is going through the roof now.

2015 is DL's 60th anniversary and there were some things underway to support that celebration that have reportedly been sidetracked by the ongoing expense of MM+/MDE+/FP+ at WDW without the ROI that was expected. If that happens it will lessen the marketing push for their 60th anniversary next year. Yes, they will still push. Yes, guests will still come. But it may be less than they wanted to do.

I have never claimed that real or perceived guest unhappiness with MM+ caused any of this. What is not in question is that MM+ is behind schedule and over budget. Not that unusual with large IT projects so it is fair to cut Disney some slack here. What some observers are wondering is how Disney is ever going to recover this investment and whether the ROI promises made by decision makers will materialize. In that respect I totally agree the jury is out. We will not know for another a year or two.

If the ROI does not materialize then the company will be damaged - regardless of whether guests are happy with MM+ or not - through the shear fact they could have spent all that money on something else that could have paid for itself such as CarsLand. If guests are unhappy with MM+ in sufficient enough numbers that will further damage the company. The jury is out on that until we see attendance numbers for 2014 and then 2015.

 

[HydroGuy]

Another thing to remember about this article is that it was written by Al Lutz. As a Disneyland guy, Al has long had an obvious axe to grind when it comes to WDW, and his information has been notoriously unreliable.

A few points here.

1. Al Lutz may or may not have written this article. There is no author acknowledgement.

2. Al Lutz did start MiceAge the source of this article

3. I have followed MiceAge articles since 2005 and have found them to be accurate far more often than not

4. I do not care for Al Lutz's snarky tone

5. I think Al Lutz does offer some genuinely valuable insight to Disney and it is clear to me he has solid confidential contacts inside the company

6. The constant negative reporting by MiceAge on the Disney California Adventure park was based on actual negative experience not just a bunch of crybabies. Disney was only selling 200 tickets there per day. The negative press was based on a negative reality and it did get Disney's attention. Kudos to Iger and the Pixar gang (after the 2006 acquisition) for recognizing this and letting the imagineers do their job at DCA. The result was the grand re-opening in 2012 and monster attendance growth.

 

[TLSnell1981]

You realize that article is from November and FP+ is a moving target right now? Just this week they're changing the rules to allow offsite pre booking and we already know that Disney is thinking about adding extra passes once the first 3 are gone. People writing off FP+ need to just chill for a few months until Disney decide they're done tweaking then see what it looks like.

Disney is thinking? Some are writing off Disney, not just MM/FP+. A win/win for Disney? Although, it's a very expensive experiment for the lab rats.

The halo has slipped and is a bit tarnished, after this latest "enhancement". JMO

 

[Mnrlred]

Ok, I surrender, sorry to have brought some factual information to the table many people have not seen. I guess this "outdated" information is useless! I personally think it offers a lot of interesting insite albeit apparently old!

The information isn't factual. I don't have any fancy credentials and my word is about as good as a bus drivers to you. But this article doesn't provide a single shred of evidence with regards to the projects he mentions(also no rumors of mass imagineer layoffs yet!) Did anyone consider that imagineers may have been pulled en masse because Shanghai is in need of it?

 

[WillAustin]

I talked about damage in another context so am being a bit misquoted here in this thread. I said Disney has damaged their brand in the past and gave an example of the building of the Disney California Adventure park in 2001.

Sorry if I did that. I was talking about brand loyalty damage for loyal and fanatical customers. There is definitely some of that occurring right now at WDW. We'll have to wait and see if it's long term or not.

 

[flicx]

I talked about damage in another context so am being a bit misquoted here in this thread.

Hydro I hope you don't think I misquoted you. I just thought it was relevant that more people on here see the information in the article. Since you were the one who posted it I wanted to give you credit for that. My opinion after reading the article is the title of the post. It seems to me as more light is shed on this project the more the Disney execs wish they could have a do over on this one.

 

[flicx]

The information isn't factual. I don't have any fancy credentials and my word is about as good as a bus drivers to you. But this article doesn't provide a single shred of evidence with regards to the projects he mentions(also no rumors of mass imagineer layoffs yet!) Did anyone consider that imagineers may have been pulled en masse because Shanghai is in need of it?

Really? So projects weren't put on hold? The executive meetings never happened? The my magic plus isn't over budget and not reaping the rewards they thought. I'm sorry seems like a well done factual article to me!

 

[ConnieB]

Disney was only selling 200 tickets there per day.

To me this isn't surprising nor indicative of a failure......people simply were buying the hopper tickets because DCA was not a draw onto itself.....people go to Disneyland to go to....well, Disneyland, and DCA is an added attraction for the hopper cost not the other way around. I know DCA has become more popular with Carsland, but are you saying that they now sell a larger amount of DCA ONLY tickets....so people are skipping going to the other park and only going to DCA? I seriously doubt that many people say "let's go to DCA....oh and the hopper is only XX more so let's do Disneyland too". Rather is it DL first and DCA is the low cost extra.


I have a friend who interviewed a couple years ago for Disney's IT team and what is now known as MDE/MM/FP+ and all the other letters was in discussion then.....details were a bit different but all IT projects evolve. Friend decided against the job even though it was offered at a very nice salary because he felt it was going to be a rather large FUBAR that might eventually succeed but the failure first was going to be large and messy and that the IT team would eventually be blamed because the concept just wasn't well thought out. Haven't heard about the IT team being fired yet, but that was his belief and the reason he didn't take the job....he didn't want to put in that kind of effort on something that was so poorly thought out in the early stages that it could only be a cluster as it went along.....he didn't want to be fired from a sinking ship. He has been to WDW twice so far since et al came out and says he's not surprised at all.....they'll eventually find a way to make it work properly and hopefully get people liking it. He did remind me that no one likes changes and being the Disney fan that he is was able to name several "how could Disney do that to us fans" times that were thought of as horrid mistakes and that we now accept as "that's how it is"....and eventually we'll feel that way about FP+. The one that I felt hit it on the head was dining plans.....those of us who remember "way back" when it included appetizers, gratuities, etc have pretty much stopped complaining about it finally.....and many still get the dining plan now despite the "losses".....and remember those who are going for their first trip, have no clue how it used to be.....to them the dining plan is what it is and so are FP for that matter. I guess someday we'll all feel like the FP+ is a good thing....or at least have accepted that this is how it is going to be, take it or leave it. Let's just hope for Disney's sake those who are wanting to "leave it" don't take too many others with them. I'm not happy about it....but we had APs paid for before the problems and restrictions became the new reality, so we're here and going to use those expensive APs......whether we continue will depend on how much our unhappiness changes before the next AP has to be bought. When I get frustrated at the long lines that never used to be there that time of year, my mantra becomes "I'm at Disney, it's still better than a day at work".

 

[Laz]

The final determination on success or failure will all come down to the bottom line on stockholder's equity. An old timer like me may not return to WDW, but this could target a whole new generation of WDW enthusiasts.

 

[Mnrlred]

His article is totally heresy.....We don't know A) if those projects all truly exist B) Their current status C) if they were/are on hold then why. MM+ over budget? That news way older than the article. MM+ not reaping reward? We do know that Guest spending is up when using MB, but given that it's not final product, the jury is out and will be out for a while. As far as MM+ having anything to do with imagineers working on Shanghai, at best you have correlation, but they certainly don't have FACTs to prove causation.

 

[KYDisneyDad]

Yes the article mentioned by OP is outdated, but if you remember when that story broke, it was less than a month later after Iger went ballistic that we had the Full Roll Out "test" of FP+, with less than a months notice to the public about the full rollout and end of legacy fastpass. This should tell you just how bad the meeting In Orlando went. Like it or not, Bob Igers legacy as head of Disney is NextGeb/MyMagic. It should be about IP (intellectual property) acquisition of Pixar,Marvel, and StarWars, international expansion of the Disney brand, and a strong stock price. Nope, he will be forever associated, good or bad, with this Next Gen mess. This fact alone should tell everyone that it 'ain't goin nowhere! "Too big to fail" ring a bell to anyone???

 

[mom2rtk]

Haven't heard about the IT team being fired yet, but that was his belief and the reason he didn't take the job....he didn't want to put in that kind of effort on something that was so poorly thought out in the early stages that it could only be a cluster as it went along.....he didn't want to be fired from a sinking ship.

Weren't a couple of IT execs shown the door late last year?

When I get frustrated at the long lines that never used to be there that time of year, my mantra becomes "I'm at Disney, it's still better than a day at work".

That's setting the bar pretty low.

The problem for many is that they only have the budget to get to Disney a limited number of times. To spend some of that budget on a trip and have it diminished in some way by this rollout is really unfortunate.

Not everyone can just go back later for a "do-over".

 

[Planogirl]

I don't know that MDE is a complete fail yet but it seems to have at the very least delayed quite a few plans. Where are they now? Who knows but it seems clear that we are dealing with things not happening that were supposed to long ago.

People sometimes comment that it could lure new people to the parks. I can't imagine that many people getting excited about a new system that is being put into place to make WDW more efficient. I think that most people want to know if the rides are fun and if the restaurants are good, not whether Disney can more easily track visitors and lock them into the parks more successfully.

 

[JeremyGNJ]

People sometimes comment that it could lure new people to the parks. I can't imagine that many people getting excited about a new system that is being put into place to make WDW more efficient. I think that most people want to know if the rides are fun and if the restaurants are good, not whether Disney can more easily track visitors and lock them into the parks more successfully.

I don't know about that. Most people I talk to about WDW roll their eyes and say "I don't want to stand in line for vacation".

I think the biggest negative impression people have at Disney is the lines.

 

[Planogirl]

I don't know about that. Most people I talk to about WDW roll their eyes and say "I don't want to stand in line for vacation".

I think the biggest negative impression people have at Disney is the lines.

Will skipping three lines really make much of a difference though? I suppose that it might to some.

 

[WillAustin]

Will skipping three lines really make much of a difference though? I suppose that it might to some.

Probably not, especially when you factor in the tiers. I'd imagine a standard reaction will be, "oh, that's nice, but what about for all the other rides?"

I don't think "at least we don't have to wait in a long line for all of them!" is much of a plus.

 

[clsteve]

But as is being discussed in many other threads, any "damage" being done is purely hypothetical at this point. The article states that the NextGen project is overbudget and has not pulled in the revenue that was expected so far, and that may well indeed be the case. Sure, many people on this forum (and others) are ranting about it, but that doesn't mean that the public, as a whole, is unhappy with it.

Original estimate: $400-$500 million

Analysts' estimates: $1-$2 billion

Disney's estimated time-to-completion: May 2013

Doesn't matter if it's AMEX, Boeing, or the neighborhood grocery store- there will be an impact.