Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom Discussion Thread

[SharkTums]

My next point is that I love they are adding the interactive scavenger hunt game to MK. Yes, I do agree that the game will be great at DAK. I did not know that Disney changed Epcot's game from Kim Possible to Fineas and Ferb. The re-theming kinda makes sense because Fineas and Ferb is more recent and more popular, but kinda does not make sense because Fineas and Ferb are not secret agents. I can understand if Harry the Platypus is the main character and everyone else are side characters.

 

It actually is Agent P that is the main character. And I believe the game is even called Agent P ...something...

[Wes]

^ Disney Phineas and Ferb: Agent P's World Showcase Adventure

 

http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/parks/epcot/attractions/agent-p-world-showcase-adventure/

[Jew]

In the space of the former Fantasyland Skyway station are the new Tangled themed restaurants, rumored to also feature charging stations for guests with electronics to enjoy.

 

This is brilliant! I hope this goes resort wide!

[jray21]

As a former CP, I worked at the Main Entrance at Animal Kingdom as a Park Greeter. The new entrance at MK I find very interesting. I think it is brilliant. It allows the guests who are spending the most money on property the easiest and fastest way to enter the park. And those who are staying at the hotels and using the World Keys are not cheating the system. They are your good customers that you want to keep happy.

 

That's exactly it. If you spend the money, you get better things. People that stay on property do spend more, and usually don't leave for other parks in the area. I've been looking for a place to stay in Orlando for this January (if anyone knows of any great deals let me know!), and there are a ton of places for a lot cheaper than Disney. Granted they're not great, but if I were to pay the same price as an All-Star, I could get a really nice place off-property. So, people that are being more frugal and careful with their money are not going to be Disney's marketing target. It makes perfect business sense.

[youngforever]

About how tall will the completed Seven Dwarves Mine Train be? It's kinda hard to tell from the pictures.

[robbalvey]

^ If I had to "guess" - maybe 60 feet?

Edited December 19, 2012 by robbalvey

[Someotherguyuser]

I predict there's going to be a lot of negative comments on YouTube on this ride. After seeing the butthurt from the Test Track redo, does anybody want to bet that people are going to complain that the old Snow White ride was better?

[Wes]

I predict there's going to be a lot of negative comments on YouTube on this ride. After seeing the butthurt from the Test Track redo, does anybody want to bet that people are going to complain that the old Snow White ride was better?

 

Youtube is negative comments.

[azza29]

^Positive, constructive Youtube comments are like shooting stars. You think you see one every so often but it might have just been nothing.

[Solid Gold]

The Snow White coaster is shorter than 60 feet (Track anyway). It looks like 40-50 from the BOG bridge, it's really looking like Disney World's third mine train coaster variation.

 

I asked a Nexgen-dressed up cast member if Cast will be able to eventually use the RFID gates too and he said during the tests no but soon enough yes we will. In that case probably anything RFID that's attached to Disney will be able to use them. Whatever, the current system used by Disney is leagues better than Seaworld and Busch. Watching FP+ work at most places I think these gates will be an improvement, though indeed they seem to probably require more cast to hold back the wolves...

 

I wonder how Fastpass+ will impact the current system of getting onto Disney rides. I imagine it will basically all run the same for a non-fp+ guest, just that there are a lot fewer fast passes out there for those guests and the windows move up quicker. If that's the case it will be funny to see Toy Story Mania sell out of passes in the first hour of park operation someday.

[SLUSHIE]

I'm sure there must be a separate limit for the number of Fastpass+ so that there wouldn't ever a scenario where there are no Fastpasses available because all the Fastpass+ people happened to choose the same time window.

 

The coaster looks awesome, and I'm not sure if people are thinking that 50-60 feet is short, but remember it's a kids ride and not meant to be a big roller coaster to battle Big Thunder... or even Barnstormer probably. While it's not small, I think in the real world it will be smaller than it looks to be in the renderings. I'm sure this thing will pick up a bit of speed, but it will probably be more like Paris' Casey Jr. than anything else.

[azza29]

Is the plan to go completely to Fastpass+ in the future? Otherwise they might end up having a 50/50 split between the number of fastpasses allocated to Fastpass+ and those picked up from the Fastpass machines.

 

I'm sure Bathroompass+ can't be far away...

[SLUSHIE]

I really hope so, the Fastpass system wouldn't be able to work exactly as it does now, but I think there really must be a plan to 'digitize' the whole thing and get rid of those stupid pieces of paper.

 

I just made connections to the ski industry in another thread, and it applies here too. The ski industry is actually pretty far ahead when it comes to ticketing systems like this.

 

All Vail resorts use RFID passes, even if your buying a single day ticket they give you a plastic card with a RFID chip in it. When you get to the bottom of a lift there are 'scanners' which are people with hand held devices that they wave at you and if your pass is good, your good to go. No gates or turnstiles or anything and you actually don't even need have to have your pass out. You just simply point to which pocket or whatever it's in and it pulls up your photo (if it's a season pass) on their PDA. Whats great about it for daily pass people is that if they keep their card and decide to ski another day (at any Vail resort) they just hop on the computer and type in the number on their pass and it adds another day and they don't have to wait in line or print a ticket out or anything.

 

Another HUGE benefit to the system, is that every single lift has these archways that you go though for a feature called 'Epic Mix.' (stupid name and I still have no idea what it's supposed to mean).

 

 

This system keeps track of every chair you rode for the day for the whole season (and multiple seasons) and you can earn pins for doing things like riding the same chair so many times in a row, or riding one chair and then the next chair ridden being one that is completely on the other side of the mountain, stuff like that. It's actually pretty cool. There are also photographers on the mountain that can take your photo, scan your pass and the photos are then available online for you to share on Facebook n stuff for FREE. You can also buy a high res version for a ridiculous price. Something that is new this year and completely AWESOME is that they are setting up race courses, and then your time is uploaded to an online leader-board. FRICKEN SWEET! Another benefit to the system is that with the app, you can see that last chair a family member or friend rode if you get lost or separated and their phone died or something.

 

The real reason behind the system though is that they know exactly how many people are riding what lift how many times... at what time of the day and all that crap. It's super useful information for them to have when it comes to knowing what lifts are more popular, and if maybe they need to build a new lift in an area to help thin out the crowds, or maybe if a lift could even be closed at certain times due to lack of ridership (lets you know if its actually different people riding it rather than the same 20 people over and over). This pins are also a form of crowd control. There are a number of pins that are like 'ride Arrow after 3pm' or stuff like that as a means to get people on a certain area of the mountain that people wouldn't be otherwise, or when the vast majority of people would normally be eating lunch.. The whole thing is pretty genius.

 

Maybe Disney wont take it quite that far, but they certainly could, and knowing exactly what specific people are riding rather than just numbers like they have now could be really useful to them.

 

Anyways as far as Fastpass+ goes, I really do think this is a trial run or something more.

[tmhuber]

During my CP experience, I partook in the Marketing Lecture Series course. I remember a member of the CRM team mentioning something like the tracking system you mentioned the Vail resorts having. The CRM member said that he eventually would like to be able to know what guests expectations are, what they are planning to do in the parks, and finding out if they have accomplished them. He said he wishes there was a way to know if someone planned on riding Space Mountain, and they couldn't because the ride was down. Then he would find out that information, and then send the guest a FastPass.

 

Disney would eventually get there, but it all depends if they want to. I'm wondering if I would want to be tracked all the time. Being scanned at every location just like in the movie The Minority Report. Kinda scary. But in the hands of a company that is trying to create a place "where dreams come true," maybe not a bad idea.

[robbalvey]

The ski industry is actually pretty far ahead when it comes to ticketing systems like this.

It's not that they are "far ahead" it's that the system that is in place at Vail is by far less complex than what Disney is going to do. Sure, on the surface you might *think* it's similar, and it is, but it's one thing to tie in your admission/lift ticket and some photographers to an RFID card, and it's another thing entirely to have a complete admission, ticketing, fast pass, point of sale, photopass, resort key, method of payment, online systems, discounting systems, dining reservation system, etc, etc, etc, all tied into one resort-wide RFID system.

 

Just because Vail uses RFID for their lift ticket system, doesn't mean they are "far ahead" of Disney. Ski Dubai uses the same system, and it's neat and all, but it's nowhere NEAR the level of what's happening right now at WDW. You really can't even compare the two beyond the fact that it's an RFID based system.

 

--Robb

Edited December 20, 2012 by robbalvey

[DJeXeL]

[youtube2]

[/youtube2]

MouseSteps FastPass+ test

 

I've heard about this system being in development for some time now and I'm beyond excited about where this can lead. Like you said Robb, this opens doors to being able to completely tailor your park (Or entire vacation for that matter) experience via an RFID card.

[Double0Kevin]

I'm not going to lie, I'm still trying to grasp all the things the RFID tech is going to do at Disney. I had originally thought it was going to just be a room key with a chip inside that allowed for FP on it. I had no clue it was going to be used for so much more and in such a spectacular way.

 

I'm always hesitant when companies make a huge change to the things that have worked so far, but Disney has clearly done their homework. I could see this whole thing becoming as influential to the amusement industry as it was when Disney went from the ride ticket system to one price general admission.

[Woodie Warrior]

So I'm confused. Will the FastPass+ be available to people staying off site?

My grandmother got a vaction club membership and got a giant suite for when we go next fall, but it is off-site...

Edited December 20, 2012 by Woodie Warrior

[Wes]

So I'm confused. Will the FastPass+ be available to people staying off site?

My grandmother got a vaction club membership and got a giant suite for when we go next fall.

 

Wait for an official announcement.

[SLUSHIE]

It's not that they are "far ahead" it's that the system that is in place at Vail is by far less complex than what Disney is going to do.

 

Well I just meant that they are further ahead in the fact that their system has been in use now for a couple years across 7 resorts in two states. Disney is just now getting theirs up and running.

 

No doubt the Disney system is more complex and will become even more so, but they have different requirements and the Vail system is more complex in ways that the Disney system probably won't be. Theirs has heavy social media integration.

 

I also forgot that you can use your season pass for purchases, but that actually isn't unique to their RFID system and have been doing it for a long time with their old magnetic stripe cards. They also have some sort of bonus system in place with that, but I always brown bag it so I don't care or know much bout how that works.

[Double0Kevin]

This may have been discussed already, but anyone know if Annual Passes will eventually take part in the RFID tech? I figure they won't be given access to Fastpass+ (unless it's offered as an up charge) because that would seriously dilute the exclusivity to resort guests, but I'm curious if they will be able to use the RFID turnstiles and other amenities it might be used for.

 

I know this will all be revealed when the announcement is made from Disney, just curious if anyone has heard anything through the grapevine.

Edited December 21, 2012 by Double0Kevin

[A.J.]

That would be super-awesome if they moved Annual Passes to RFID. They were merely pieces of card stock when I was there in 2011, has anything changed?

[robbalvey]

That would be super-awesome if they moved Annual Passes to RFID. They were merely pieces of card stock when I was there in 2011, has anything changed?

Oh, they absolutely will. I actually had one last year. When they were doing the "test" at Epcot, it was right when we bought our annual passes, and ours had the RFID chip in it. It was still a card stock, but slightly thicker.

[robbalvey]

It's not that they are "far ahead" it's that the system that is in place at Vail is by far less complex than what Disney is going to do.

 

Well I just meant that they are further ahead in the fact that their system has been in use now for a couple years across 7 resorts in two states. Disney is just now getting theirs up and running.

 

What? Huh?!?!? That doesn't make them "farther ahead" that just means they put a system in place that works for what they need first.

 

You are aware that RFID technology has been in place for a while now, and has actually been used in several places at Walt Disney World for some time? Like those "Flik Cards" they hand to guests that help monitor wait times, or the Kim Possible game (now Agent P) that opened in 2009, and most recently the Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom game.

 

I'm pretty sure those Flik Cards have been in use at WDW for at *least* five years, if not longer.

 

Theirs has heavy social media integration.

I'm actually unaware of ANY social media integration. Perhaps it's possible that somehow you'll be able to post something to Facebook or Twitter through your RFID card, but I haven't heard anything like that at all yet.

 

They also have some sort of bonus system in place with that, but I always brown bag it so I don't care or know much bout how that works.

I don't know what these words mean.

 

--Robb

Edited December 21, 2012 by robbalvey

[jray21]

I'm really excited for all the stuff coming from Disney. Using RFID is perfect for Disney. They can easily track all sorts of patterns and can use the information to improve a lot of things.