Walt Disney World Epcot Discussion Thread

[coasterfreak101]

I'm really interested to see how they keep people from walking through in the future, when less people (management and extra employees there to teach everyone how to use the new technology) are there monitoring the place. But hey, this is some cool stuff! I love what RFID chips can do to speed up these processes, and like someone mentioned, I wonder if we'll see the ability to load money on our annual passes to spend around the park?

[larrygator]

Looks very cool! I wonder if this will be incorporated into other aspects of the park as well. Virtual queuing and payment options ect.

 

If they don't incorporate it in those ways, then I really don't see the benefit.

 

Robb - Was the tap and go that much quicker than the old method? I don't remember the old method ever being a big time eating exercise.

Edited November 13, 2011 by larrygator

[cfc]

Interesting--I had no idea Disney was going to try something like this. I wonder why they stopped the fingerprint scanning for regular tickets. I guess eliminating the need for stroller and wheelchair gates would make lines a bit more orderly, too.

Edited November 13, 2011 by cfc

[larrygator]

Ignore my question, I wasn't taking into account how slow the General Public (yes, they exist) is with the finger scanning method.

[ZackBack™]

This is an awesome idea if they can get it down pat. It really depends on how the public takes to the new method, and if they can get through it quickly. I imagine that the Cast Members have to constanly instruct the guests what to do, and ocassionally help them out if the system will not scan someone's pass. It may take some time to get the process standardized.... It will be interesting if they decide to use this technology.

 

 

And the idea of using them as fastpasses is a great one. Afterall they named them "The Key to the World". The Magic Your Way passes already can be used to charge things from the parks (a.k.a.- credit cards). It would be nice to be able to use them as a pre-loaded card of some sorts, though.

[UniverseHollywood]

I never really had an issue with walking through turnstyles...

[Chroniq]

Looks very cool! I wonder if this will be incorporated into other aspects of the park as well. Virtual queuing and payment options.

 

Here is some information about what Disney hopes to do with the RFID tags- From the article found here- http://dizfanatic.com/DizTech012.aspx

 

"Need to get into your awesome Pirates of the Caribbean themed hotel room? Just hold your wristband up to the door.

At Magic Kingdom gates at 5:30AM for an 8:00 opening? Just hold your wristband to the turnstile (at 8:00 am).

Mmm, time to buy a yummy cinnamon bun at the Main Street Bakery. Just hold up your wristband to the paystation to pay!

Oh, hurry, FastPass to meet Mickey Mouse (or Tinkerbell in my case <3 ). Just hold up your wristband to the FastPass kiosk.

Next? Get that classic photo on Main Street with the castle in the background, and even daddy can get into this photo thanks to PhotoPass. Just hold up your wristband for the photographer to scan. (No more digging in your pocket for that card)

Love EPCOT's Kim Possible interactive spy game? Try some new adventures like a Magic Kingdom Pirate Adventure, an Imagineer's hidden secrets adventure or even "a romantic adventure"? Use your wristband to keep the adventure going.

Can't wait to show your jealous friends at home that awesome ride video of you on Big Thunder Mountain? Just hold up your wristband to be sure that it is added to your 'Enhanced' PhotoPass account."

- Check that page out for some photos of the RFID enabled wrists bands, concept art, etc..

 

 

Robb- From the photos, the turnstiles (or lack there of) appeared to be very temporary looking. Did it look like a test or part of a larger roll out to you? Also; Were the people using the regular entrances also required to get rfid enabled stickers on their tickets?

 

 

Edited to add: Robb's post is the first to verify that the above article is actually true as the photos Robb posted of the Mickey rfid scanner match the style of the one's found at Epcot.

Edited November 13, 2011 by Chroniq

[chrisdanger]

Neat fact about these readers: the scanners dont read your prints, they read the bone density in your finger..

[robbalvey]

I never really had an issue with walking through turnstyles...

It's not just about walking through a turnstile...

 

"Need to get into your awesome Pirates of the Caribbean themed hotel room? Just hold your wristband up to the door.

At Magic Kingdom gates at 5:30AM for an 8:00 opening? Just hold your wristband to the turnstile (at 8:00 am).

Mmm, time to buy a yummy cinnamon bun at the Main Street Bakery. Just hold up your wristband to the paystation to pay!

Oh, hurry, FastPass to meet Mickey Mouse (or Tinkerbell in my case <3 ). Just hold up your wristband to the FastPass kiosk.

Next? Get that classic photo on Main Street with the castle in the background, and even daddy can get into this photo thanks to PhotoPass. Just hold up your wristband for the photographer to scan. (No more digging in your pocket for that card)

Love EPCOT's Kim Possible interactive spy game? Try some new adventures like a Magic Kingdom Pirate Adventure, an Imagineer's hidden secrets adventure or even "a romantic adventure"? Use your wristband to keep the adventure going.

Can't wait to show your jealous friends at home that awesome ride video of you on Big Thunder Mountain? Just hold up your wristband to be sure that it is added to your 'Enhanced' PhotoPass account."

EXACTLY! It's about the possibility of a fully integrated system, and not *just* for resort guests. For example, I would LOVE to have a credit card tied to my annual pass and just "tap it" when I want to charge something, very similar to the "Octopus Card" in Hong Kong or "Suica Card" in Japan.

 

Robb- From the photos, the turnstyles (or lack there of) appeared to be very temporary looking. Did it look like a test or part of a larger roll out to you? Also; Were the people using the regular entrances also required to get rfid enabled stickers on their tickets?

It absolutely looked like a "test", but a test of something that was definitely happening, just needed to work things out through the system. The fact that they gave us an actual RFID embedded annual pass today was a sure sign of that. That means they've actually spent money to get the tickets designed, printed up, and working with the POS systems at all the ticket booths. That didn't seem temporary at all to me.

 

--Robb

[A.J.]

My question is - what can this system do to stop a guest from entering the park if they get a (color assumed) red light? One time when I didn't put my finger down properly and I assumed I was good, I started charging forward, essentially falling over the non-moveable turnstile.

[Chroniq]

My question is - what can this system do to stop a guest from entering the park if they get a (color assumed) red light? One time when I didn't put my finger down properly and I assumed I was good, I started charging forward, essentially falling over the non-moveable turnstile.

 

 

 

Just a guess, but I suspect they'll either outfit three or four security guards with tablets/smart phones (like Robb mentioned) that will alert them to which person walked through without authorization (via someone watching on closed cirtcuit tv and automated video tracking) or they take the more traditional approach and have an auditory or visual system above the turnstile (like if you walk out of a department store without having them de-magnetize the radio tag).

[robbalvey]

My question is - what can this system do to stop a guest from entering the park if they get a (color assumed) red light? One time when I didn't put my finger down properly and I assumed I was good, I started charging forward, essentially falling over the non-moveable turnstile.

While I didn't get any pictures of, there absolutely seemed to be a system running in the background that was counting people. I also briefly noticed on some of the iPad/iPhone looking devices the cast members had that it looked like it was monitoring the system, counting people, etc.

 

There were a couple of silver boxes on both sides of the entrance area, on the ground, just past the RFID scanning systems, that appeared to be counting people, just like they have those "turnstile-less" entrance systems for most attractions with the two holes on each side that count you as you walk through then. They looked very similar to that.

 

Overall, I'm SURE they haven't gotten to this point without heavily discussing "How to mitigate people trying to sneak past the system."

[SharkTums]

I guess eliminating the need for stroller and wheelchair gates would make lines a bit more orderly, too.

 

This!

 

Come on, even those of you who don't use a stroller or wheel chair know how frustrating it can be to be behind one. Or how the cast members have to move out of the way to let one in, it absolutely slows down the line.

[chadster]

This is very technological of them. Cutting edge in fact. Just think, if you could buy a set of mouse ears with a RFID chip inside, an overhead reader scans your ears (similar to toll tags, car wash RFID's, etc) and you get a personalized welcome message from Mickey himself as you walk through. Winning.

[chrisdanger]

Robb, I have a feeling this is part of the NGE initiative at DisneyParks, which is basically a test bed for new park tech both on and off-stage, I wouldn't be shocked if these were placed at all the park entrances by EOY 2012..

[Mrlittle]

These looks like a cool system. I'm sure it will take a few months to get it right. By summer, they will probably have it all parks. I'm sure Disney has come up with plans to keep people from sneaking in. But how many families do you know go to EPCOT and try to sneak in?

[crazydaveh]

They've been testing this gate for a few months now off and on, mainly during slow times lately, I'm surprised they pulled it out today with how crowded it was! I think anything to speed up the process will be great. I'd too like to link a credit card to my pass to make it all easier while on property. What will clog this system? A huge group with bum tickets... it will kind of be like a drain, a huge clog will back it all up... But I'm sure that's part of the kinks they're working out/have a plan for.

[aimster]

That's pretty cool! Hopefully this will speed things up because so many people seem to have absolutely no clue what to do with their tickets with the "old" system.

[sfga2008]

I think the biggest benefit this will offer is having 8 turnstiles in the same space 4 or 5 had. The process of validating does not need to be faster when sheer increase in turnstiles will help move longer lines through faster using the same amount of space.

 

There are 6 employees standing at that one entrance when usually there is one or two there, I wonder if this is simply for the test and adjust, or if the new turnstiles will bring higher labor cost?

 

This does seem more permanent than the previous testing at EPCOT earlier this fall (late summer?) I hope it is the beginning of a larger scale test/roll-out.

[Chroniq]

They've been testing this gate for a few months now off and on, mainly during slow times lately, I'm surprised they pulled it out today with how crowded it was! I think anything to speed up the process will be great. I'd too like to link a credit card to my pass to make it all easier while on property. What will clog this system? A huge group with bum tickets... it will kind of be like a drain, a huge clog will back it all up... But I'm sure that's part of the kinks they're working out/have a plan for.

 

 

I think you might be confused with the other "turnstile-less" system they tested back in March. That test used the old ticket machines but added multiple stations and a virtual counting system. It was designed as a precursor to this version as a way to test the systems that prevent unauthorized entry. Here's a link to an article about that test- http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/disney-a-mom-and-the-mouse/2011/03/disney-world-tests-new-ticket-scanning-system-at-epcot-entrance/

 

 

Today WAS the first day this new system was tested...

 

Not that any of this matters. I'm just excited about all the new possibilities the RFID tickets and NextGen initiatives bring to the parks.

[sfga2008]

I love the wider entrance and increased number of ticket validator's used in the latest test. I'm very curious to know what kind of technology is being deployed to monitor the guests walking through to determine who scanned the ticket.

Edited November 14, 2011 by sfga2008

[eddytheviper]

Wow! They look great! Something new and out there, I suppose rather fitting for EPCOT.

 

I hope they are a success, look like could be much faster if people know how to use them, could be a bit messy though if something goes wrong though, something to keep an eye on there.

[larrygator]

Overall, I'm SURE they haven't gotten to this point without heavily discussing "How to mitigate people trying to sneak past the system."

 

You make it an all-in-one card/pass. You need it to enter any building within the park (shows/rides/restaurants/restrooms) or the red warning lights go off. Problem solved.

[BrownStreak]

My initial thought with this was 'How Many Jobs are going to get cut as the result of this thing?' Its like when the Indy Toll Roads installed the ATM-like Machines to collect the tolls - it saves money, but costs a lot of humans their jobs.

[CoasterGuy06]

I guess eliminating the need for stroller and wheelchair gates would make lines a bit more orderly, too.

 

This!

 

Come on, even those of you who don't use a stroller or wheel chair know how frustrating it can be to be behind one. Or how the cast members have to move out of the way to let one in, it absolutely slows down the line.

 

And as someone that has had to work a turnstyle the only thing that slowed me down more than a hard to scan ticket are people with strollers simply because of having to move around and open and close the side gate for them. Eliminating that alone is awesome!