But up until now, that's pretty much all Disney has called upon MagicBands to do: To serve as a ticket, hotel room key, and charge card for visitors inside the resort. In these roles, MagicBands have been performing as little more than wearable versions of the key cards that Disney used to distribute to its on-site hotel guests.
No one who's paid much attention to Disney's MyMagic+ project expects this to be the final extent of the MagicBand project. They've dropped hints about a much more engaging role for the wristbands, one that would allow attractions and themed spaces to transform in response to the presence of individual visitors.
Theme park fans first saw a glimpse of such interactive possibilities two decades ago, when E.T. began saying riders' names near the end of that Universal Studios dark ride. That feature provided a cute novelty, but in an era when video games have become the dominant form of entertainment for millions of fans, theme parks need to develop more interactive attractions to remain relevant. Shooter rides such as Six Flags' award-winning new Justice League: Battle for Metropolis have helped fill this need, but as video games offer fans much more than shooter titles, theme parks ought to be developing a wider range of interactive experiences, as well.
The trick, of course, is defining and managing user input in a theme park environment. Universal did this 20-some years ago by having a team member type in visitors' names and hand them each a card to present for scanning at the ride's loading station. In a modern environment, input needs to be a lot simpler and more intuitive than that.
That is the value of the MagicBand. By placing wearers into Disney's information grid, the MagicBand provides input to Disney's systems that allow them to read and react to the wearer's presence, without the wearer having to do anything buy show up. The rewards can range from simply recreating Universal's "say my name" feature to completing changing the behavior of animatronics or show scenes based on visitors' age, interests or past experience with an attraction.
Imagine a Toy Story Midway Mania that becomes progressively harder as you ride more often, with the opportunity for new levels and higher-scoring challenges in return. (And that keeps track of all your scores on the ride!) Or a Star Tours ride that doesn't simply choose alternatives at random, but does so by selecting options that the fewest number of visitors in the Starspeeder have seen before.
From what we've heard, Disney's Imagineers have been working on creating next-generation applications for MagicBands in Disney's new Avatar land, now under construction in Disney's Animal Kingdom. Given that we expect to hear more about Avatar at the D23 Expo starting tomorrow, perhaps this wish list item is one that we really hear about at D23. No matter what Disney does or doesn't announce at its official fan event, though, we're putting a more creative role for MagicBands on our Walt Disney World wish list.
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Looking at the most rerideable of Disney classics such as Pirates or Indy Jones they have not needed any such variety and have lasted decades as fan favorites. We heard of these "special experiences" years ago while Magic+ was being developed. But disney didn't really invest this billion dollar bracelets for guest experience did they? It's all to data mine and get guests to spend more money. The fact that it costd 30$ for an accessory that at this point does nothing for you that you couldn't do before says it all.
And Daniel you can't honestly say that if you had the ability to visit the parks more often that you wouldn't. I mean maybe I'm wrong but most people here would jump at the chance to visit the parks more often.
Disney needs to serve a lot of people so the Avatar rides will have to serve up a slightly difference experience to each person. A person sitting on the next seat should not inadvertently get another person's experience. I wonder how this will play out.
I think they should fix the dining reservations and Fastpass+ hassles first.
Whilst not as tactile or as immersive as a wand, there's no reason why these arm bands couldn't be paired with another RFID object (like a wand or a lightsaber) for special interactivity in certain areas.
If done correctly, use of these things could hold incredible possibilities in engaging themed content. Whilst some of Disney's oldest attractions hold up as all time classics, they were initially lauded as cutting edge, innovative attractions. Like Universal has shown, the future of theme parks goes beyond great rides in nicely themed areas and I think this technology could be the stepping stone to some great attractions.
They could have a big sign that says "Coming back tonight, scan here" next to a scanner (The kind you have to touch) on the way out so you can scan it if you are coming back and it would know not to cancel your plans.
this way at the end of the day, there would be lots openings on the rides for people who couldn't get them before because they were booked.
I think the opening of Avatar, still 2 years away (ugh!), will see the most widespread application of this Next Gen technology.
Many of the current benefits of MyMagic+ could have been obtained for a fraction of the price with existing technology. Why did Disney need to spend $1.5 billion on this technology?
Silicon Valley is advancing technology so rapidly that within a few years, MyMagic+ will be viewed as what it really is - a colossal misallocation of resources, and another bad business decision by the greedy numbers people at Disney.
The real reason that Disney ponied up 1.5 billion dollars involves both data mining and consumer tracking. This is the Minority Report stuff that’s truly amazing about the investment.
Take this one step at a time. Let’s say that Disney has a year of data, and on a giant map they note that 85% of the time between 2-4 pm, a choke point develops between Fantasyland and Tomorrowland. They can then either focus FastPasses on the other side of the park, launch activities on that side of the park, or build a wider, better path system to relieve that.
Go a step further. Let’s say that two parents, their kid, an uncle and two grandparents all go to the park together. Disney will have all of their ages and group classifications in a database (Caregivers, Unattached Singles, Grandparents, whatever,) and can then MARKET to that group as a whole and the chunks within it – offering guests a more personalized experience, a more ‘custom’ experience (based on data mined about these classifications,) and for the company, a more profitable experience.
Here’s what I mean.
Let’s say that this group is at Epcot for the day.
From the data mine, Disney knows:
- that most Caregivers and their young charges go down for the count around 2pm for a nap, and then return to the park for dinner a few hours later
- that the Grandparents go with them back to the hotel
- that the Unattached Single typically keeps tooling around the park until they return.
With that knowledge, what’s to stop Disney from “personalizing” this vacation for these guests?
To the Caregivers and Grandparents, they make an offer via pre-trip email or via in-park text, for a Grandparent’s Dinner & Storytime Experience held at one of the Disney Resorts. For just $XXX, “generations come together and bond over great food and classic stories told only as Disney can.” It gives Grandparents a more relaxing evening (and a chance to meet and mingle with other Grandparents,) and it opens up the Caregivers to a night off.
The Caregivers, now free for the night, are offered a Mickey & Minny Romance Package at one of Epcot’s restaurants, perhaps with an included laser-globe show viewing location. This is, again, where the data mine comes in, because Disney will look at their restaurants and note that Restaurant Marakesh and the seafood joint at the front underperform, so, of course, this is where they offer the dinner package to “parents looking for a perfect Disney night out.”
That leaves the Unattached Single, now alone in the park at 2pm. With the Caregivers and Grandparents now occupied, he or she is basically on his/her own for the rest of the night. Let’s say Disney has an underperforming ‘café’ location, like that Spice Market Café outside of Morocco, or perhaps they have traffic issues with the bulk of visitors heading to World Showcase for the evening. So they send a text to all Unattached Singles visiting the park at or around 2pm, inviting them to a Special Singles Mixer held at a repurposed location in one of the Innoventions Malls. They MyMagic Band their way in, get a free drink, on average buy three, and maybe “connect with another Disney fan for great times.”
So, what just happened here?
From the guest experience, they got their specific needs catered to, resulting in a more enjoyable vacation, and the illusion that Disney really cares about their family in this remarkable, personal way, knowing what they want or need when they wanted or needed it.
From the corporate experience, Disney got their guests to spend more money at these ‘personalized’ suggestions, and because the guests were happy and felt catered to, they got the guests to spend more overall during their experience. To put this another way, all Disney has to do is ‘cater’ to their existing guests (at about 50 million unique days in a WDW theme park, or roughly 20/10/10/10,) and elevate their spending by $30 per person, per day (illustrated above, and no doubt, those guests spent MORE than $30 MORE for their ‘enhancements’ at Epcot,) and MyMagic+ pays for itself. A year later, even with NO attendance increases, Disney banks 1.5 BILLION DOLLARS.
THAT’S the true “magic” at work here.
Don’t get me wrong: it’s a total cash grab by Disney, couched and disguised as a guest enhancement (which is to say that whether or not the guest experience is enhanced is almost entirely beside the point of the implementation of MyMagic+.) And it’s totally 1.5 billion dollars that could have/should have been spent on new goodies at the parks (to put this into perspective, MK could have gotten New Tomorrowland, New Frontierland and New Adventureland expansions out of this, with 600 MILLION DOLLARS left to play around with.) But is it amazing all by itself as a consumer-revenue innovation. YES. Totally amazing what they can (and will) do with this investment, and no doubt, will totally be duplicated or attempted to be duped elsewhere. It’s a HUGE DEAL.
Sorry it’s so long!
Do you work for Universal or something?
"Universal and IOA makes everyone feel like t hey have an uncle that works at Uni who gave them an "all access" pass."???
Yes, the nice uncle from Uni benevolently gave them an all access pass, then charged them an arm and a leg for the privilege. Say what you want about Disney's fastpass system's flaws, at least its fair and equitable. Universal's express system costs a fortune for a family on any day its worth having, or you have to stay at one of their premium hotels (ie - you pay for it). Then if your one of the unfortunate majority who can't afford this you have to wait in queues all day long whilst the more privileged people skip past you.
I'd be interested to read some of the forum comments on this site if Disney tried to introduce such a system. They could easily do it and make a fortune from it, and it would be an easier thing to implement than what they have done.
I hope that you've tried the new Disney system and are speaking from some experience rather than going off other peoples reports. Because it would be a bit silly to offer someone advice to go to Universal and see what its like there if you're not willing to offer Disney the same courtesy.
Just when you are personalising your bands in MDE add a checkbox of "share my first name and celebrations with Disney Cast". Then offer a selection of celbration reasons to choose (Birthday, anniversary etc). Then characters, waiters, etc can get the info when you arrive and great you buy name and suprise with a birthday gift.
I think the RFID does have powerful application, and with the correct development could be great. I personally don't need to have my birthday and stuff remembered (although it may be nice for the kids), but interacting with the environment, particularly with Avatar land looking so gorgeous (from the art), as well as Star Wars coming, that's exciting.
As for staying at the Portofino, the best prices I can find on their site or Trip Advisor for a standard room, mid week in mid January is $290 a night. For the 900 foot room its $600 a night. You may have a way of getting it less than $200 a night, but that's not realistic for most people booking in the least popular time of year. Universal has some awesome attractions, but selling it as some budget option with no queues is crap.
Criticise Disney World for their lack of big development in recent years, sure. Having to take a bus around, sure. I personally like Disneyland much more for that same reason. But seriously, calling the Magic Band "handcuffs" when the only criticism that someone has made of Universal is that having to carry too many pieces of cardboard that can get damaged by water or lost is less preferable. The magic band is lighter than a watch. I don't get excited about signs and trashcans, but not having to worry valuables when I'm in a theme park, that's a good thing. And just because its at Disney, isn't a reason to auto-hate. If it was at Universal, many people would be marvelling at the convenience.
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