WIRED article: Disney's $1 Billion Bet on a Magical Wristband

[Angel Ariel]

Good take on the whole thing HydroGuy. (oh, and thanks for the great work you do over on the DL board for us WDW'er visitors)

Just to take this a bit further, it seems like everybody in this thread has focused on FP+ when commenting about spontaneity. The other thing that the MDE/MB/FP+ mashup has done is take care of some housekeeping-type things that guests no longer need to track. Their tickets are in one place. Their room key is handy. If they take DME from the airport, they don't need a separate voucher. Gift shop purchases are just a tap of the wrist. All this leaves the guest free to do other things as they happen upon them.

DH and I did really like the MBs for tickets/room entry/DME. That was handy. We never link CCs to anything, though - we didn't with KTTW, and won't with MBs either - so in that respect it's a draw for us. I don't feel like the tickets/room/entry/DME aspect of MBs added any spontaneity, though. Convenience? Yes, definitely. Spontaneity not so much.

 

[mcd2745]

We did not have the cancellation fees on either of our 2013 trips. I just looked up the information and the resort-wide ADR cancellation fee policy did not go into effect until Oct 31st 2013. So it has only been in place for a year and a half. That is also right in the midst of the FP+ testing, so not "well before FP+" either.

The original policy covering all the character meal restaurants and signatures, (the dinner shows already required pre-payment) went into effect Oct 26, 2011.

 

[River Country]

This is a really silly thread. I go to WDW to have fun, not to be spontaneous.

Now that's funny

 

[Angel Ariel]

The original policy covering all the character meal restaurants and signatures, (the dinner shows already required pre-payment) went into effect Oct 26, 2011.

Which is why I specified resort wide in the post that you quoted above. There are far more restaurants that don't fit into the "character meal/signature restuarant" category than those that do...so for the *majority* of restaurants, it was not something someone had to deal with until October 31, 2013.

 

[mcd2745]

Which is why I specified resort wide in the post that you quoted above. There are far more restaurants that don't fit into the "character meal/signature restuarant" category than those that do...so for the *majority* of restaurants, it was not something someone had to deal with until October 31, 2013.

I think the day that the policy went into effect for places like 'Ohana, Chef Mickey's, Crystal Palace, Le Cellier, Tusker House, etc is a lot more important/relevant than the day when the policy went into effect for places like Shutters, Marrakesh, Turf Club, Boatwright's, etc.

 

[Cormoran]

Good take on the whole thing HydroGuy. (oh, and thanks for the great work you do over on the DL board for us WDW'er visitors)

Just to take this a bit further, it seems like everybody in this thread has focused on FP+ when commenting about spontaneity. The other thing that the MDE/MB/FP+ mashup has done is take care of some housekeeping-type things that guests no longer need to track. Their tickets are in one place. Their room key is handy. If they take DME from the airport, they don't need a separate voucher. Gift shop purchases are just a tap of the wrist. All this leaves the guest free to do other things as they happen upon them.

Wasn't this all handled on the KTWC? I don't see any appreciable difference. so now you wear it on your wrist vs carry a card?

 

[cakebaker]

Wasn't this all handled on the KTWC? I don't see any appreciable difference. so now you wear it on your wrist vs carry a card?

I certainly do! Not having to get the card out to get thru the gates, then get it back into my purse. No more asking who has their key out when we get to the room, no more fishing out my credit card if I want to charge something. No more trying to figure out what to do with they key at the pool. No more paper fp's to keep track of. All absolutely hands free and no worries about losing it. The mb is incredibly convenient.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Wasn't this all handled on the KTWC? I don't see any appreciable difference. so now you wear it on your wrist vs carry a card?

Perhaps for resort guests. Pretty sure our APs were separate cards.

As for differences, the card has to be put away. Some suggested wearing lanyards, but that is an additional expense, still required removal from a pouch and IF you didn't get a good quality one, you run the risk of the card getting lost when the pouch breaks OR the lanyard itself would be bothersome to then neck.

So if you don't notice an appreciable difference, that may well be true for you. But all in one in one place with no need to remove from a carrying device is a pretty big difference.

 

[Cormoran]

I certainly do! Not having to get the card out to get thru the gates, then get it back into my purse. No more asking who has their key out when we get to the room, no more fishing out my credit card if I want to charge something. No more trying to figure out what to do with they key at the pool. No more paper fp's to keep track of. All absolutely hands free and no worries about losing it. The mb is incredibly convenient.

Glad you're so impressed, but it's not much of a technological leap to move from a card to a band.

 

[mom2rtk]

I would respectfully disagree here. I did not feel locked in by ADRs until the new CC cancellation fees, which have not been in place for very long. Previous to that policy, if I had an ADR and decided to hop at a different park or use a fp instead, I could call and cancel the ADR with no penalty and just get CS instead. now that there is a penalty attached to.cancelling, I agree it is locking you in more - but that is due to the cancellation fee, imo.

Agreed. Besides, not all ADRs are tied to a park. Many of them are resort based. We often chose a resort based ADR for the express purpose of not being tied into a certain park on a certain day.

 

[RobDoc]

It might be enlightening to actually discuss the topic. Those who wish to argue need to take it to email or private conversation.

 

[Yellowstonetim]

Excellent article! It was nice to read some of what they did. The possibilities are endless! This technology will change not just the theme park business around the world, but many other businesses, too.

 

[huhwhat]

Big Brother is alive and well

 

[larryz]

Well, I actually said the article was to explain how all the technology can be used together. I wasn't saying that this was a source of technical detail. However, there are indeed some technical details in the article, including;

So it was more like a sales team's slideware than the engineer's spec sheet...?

 

[larryz]

Even so, there were so many times I got a legacy FP and missed my window because of something else "spontaneous" (someone got too tired, it started to rain hard, we decided to not come back in the evening after an afternoon break, the sit down meal took too long). It is great that the legacy FP was spontaneously obtained the day of, but then I was locked into that return window (once windows began to be enforced).

Yeah, but...

When you got that FP-, you weren't eating one of three allotted FPs for the day, and if you decided to bail on it before the appointed hour, you only had to wait a maximum of two hours until you could get a FP- you intended to use.

With this system, you could be hanging around until 8 or 9 pm to use that 3d FP+ before being able to get your 4th.

I'm still on the fence on FP+ but I'm becoming more and more reluctant to spend $5,000 just to see if I like it.

 

[OKW Lover]

So it was more like a sales team's slideware than the engineer's spec sheet...?

I'd say that's a fair analogy. There were some technical details, but probably nothing that we didn't already know. Of course, I'm into the techie stuff so I might not be the best judge of that.

 

[ArwenMarie]

I would respectfully disagree here. I did not feel locked in by ADRs until the new CC cancellation fees, which have not been in place for very long. Previous to that policy, if I had an ADR and decided to hop at a different park or use a fp instead, I could call and cancel the ADR with no penalty and just get CS instead. now that there is a penalty attached to.cancelling, I agree it is locking you in more - but that is due to the cancellation fee, imo.

I agree.

Even with the cancellation fees, the ADRs still aren't locking you in as much as the ride reservations. If you decide to switch parks one day because of whatever, you can cancel your ADRs up until midnight the night before. Or even if you cancel them in the morning, you'll lose the $10 but it might be worth it depending on whatever happened to make you want to switch parks. But you can't get a clean slate back for the rides like you could with paper FP.

 

[jade1]

.

I agree.

Even with the cancellation fees, the ADRs still aren't locking you in as much as the ride reservations. If you decide to switch parks one day because of whatever, you can cancel your ADRs up until midnight the night before. Or even if you cancel them in the morning, you'll lose the $10 but it might be worth it depending on whatever happened to make you want to switch parks. But you can't get a clean slate back for the rides like you could with paper FP.

You can't?

We did, even on XMAS Eve.

 

[jade1]

And we did inside AK

 

[ArwenMarie]

.


You can't?

We did, even on XMAS Eve.

Ok I should have written "Can't always get your picks back at the times you want them"

Better?

My point is the clean slate for FPs each morning is gone. Whether that is a good or bad thing depends on the person. For us, it stinks.