Originally Posted By sjhym333 I was at work very early this week and I was pondering MyMagic+ and the whole MagicBand thing. We know enough about the technology at this point to know that not only can you use your MagicBands as a room key, park ticket, purchases, photopass and characters that will be able to call you by name on attractions and stuff. So here is what I was wondering. Could Disney use the technology to also keep track of your coming and going in a larger way. For instance...if you use the technology to enter your room, it could also know when you leave your room. If you leave your room and then you do not enter a park, waterpark, DisneyQuest and you don't return for several hours Disney could assume that you left property to visit another theme park or something. Could that info be valuable to Disney? Is it important for Disney to know that on a six day vacation you used your MagicBand for four days on property but were basically MIA for two days? How could that information be used? I am not saying this is or will happen but I do find the idea interesting. Every time a Disney guest goes to another theme park it means money not spent at Disney. How important is that info?
Originally Posted By sjhym333 In other non-news. I have heard that Disney is getting a lot of complaints from AP Holders about the slowness of getting the MagicBand technology out to AP holders. Friends in guest relations tell me that they are getting bombarded in the parks and on the phones asking when AP holders will be offered the bands. I hear that it has been heated on occasion.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros The technology really isn't there to document when guests leave their rooms. Since they don't need to tap to unlock the door on the way out, they would need to use the long-range RFID readers; given that the hotels are relatively sparsely populated throughout the day (in comparison to the busy park walkways), it's really not a cost-effective use of resources I would also assume that Disney already has a pretty good pile of that sort of information. They know how many nights you're in the hotel, and how many days your park tickets has (and whether or not you use them). Presumably, you could spend a day lounging by the pool or at DTD, but after all these years of doing the business I'm sure they know roughly what percentage of guests are doing that on any given day. I'm sure they also have a pretty good grasp on how many days guests spend off property, doing whatever it is that they're doing. From my understanding the long-range RFID readers will be used to pair on-ride photos to individual accounts (so they automatically show up on your PhotoPass, which for some reason has been retitled "Memory Maker") and to study traffic flow within the parks. To me, it's the traffic flow that's really interesting, since they'll be able to modify guest behavior (to a certain extent) with the timing of FP+ reservations thoughout the day. The long-range readers only have a range of ~50-100', so it would be a lot of work to install readers to monitor all guest areas on property
Originally Posted By FerretAfros As for APs, they already have RFID-enabled cards, which have all the same tap-and-go technology as the MagicBands. They're just missing the long-range ability, which (for the most part) is mostly there for Disney's benefit, not the guest. If any APer stays in a Disney hotel, they will recieve a MagicBand for the room key, and it can easily be linked on My Disney Experience to also function as the AP What I would guess they're actually upset about is that they haven't been linked into FP+ reservations yet. With all the parks transitioning to FP+ only (if they're not all switched yet, they should be by this time next week), they're stuck making same-day reservations at FP+ kiosks. CMs and APs are going to be able to make FP+ reservations in advance, but the details of how exactly it will work haven't been announced yet
Originally Posted By sjhym333 My understanding is that AP holders who stay at Disney resorts get MagicBands but after 60 Days they no longer have access to FP+. I have heard that from several sources. Can anyone confirm?
Originally Posted By sjhym333 Would a hotel door lock need a long range option? If I walk out my hotel door couldn't the door read my MagicBand as I pass by?
Originally Posted By mapleservo I read this article this week which talked a little bit about the potential of the MagicBands and a little about the privacy angle. <a target="blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://gigaom.com/2014/01/18/you-dont-want-your-privacy-disney-and-the-meat-space-data-race/">http://gigaom.com/2014/01/18/y...ta-race/</a> The one thing I kept thinking while reading is that as this kind of thing becomes more common, there's going to be many companies utilizing the data with all the precision of a sledge hammer. But Disney has been doing this kind of thing to the best of their ability for years. It's a logical next step now that the technology is here.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros >>My understanding is that AP holders who stay at Disney resorts get MagicBands but after 60 Days they no longer have access to FP+. I have heard that from several sources. Can anyone confirm?<< I don't know, but that sounds accurate. When I was booking my FP+ reservations, it only let me do it for days that were part of my hotel stay (though I had a 'regular' ticket, so I can't say for sure). I do know that they're continually working on the system, and APs and CMs are supposed to be able to do FP+ advance reservations within the next 3-4 months if not sooner. For now, they can use the FP+ kiosks in the parks, like all off-property non-AP guests >>Would a hotel door lock need a long range option? If I walk out my hotel door couldn't the door read my MagicBand as I pass by?<< It seemed like the short range readers were very short range and essentially needed to be in contact with the band/card. The cards seemed to be able to read through a wallet that was tapped to the lock, but I occasionally had trouble with the band reading through a shirt sleeve. The park entry, payment, and FP readers also all seemed to need near touching (within about 1/4") to read. That's not to say that they're not capable of reading from further away, but none of them appeared to register anything without a near-touch
Originally Posted By FerretAfros Interesting article. It doesn't really bring up any new points, but it does a great job of summarizing them all in one place in a readible way >>Because they don’t want their database to get confused and think that you, a 45-year-old man, rode the teacups instead of your little son Timmy.<< I don't think they really care all that much who got on the Teacups. Presumably for most parties, the entire group will ride the same rides (and have the same FP+ reservations) most of the time, so it shouldn't really matter much. But what does matter to them is the park entry, which is linked to the biometric scanner. If Dad and Timmy accidentally swap bracelets, neither of them are going to get into the park that day
Originally Posted By -em The door locks already 'know' how long you were in or out of the room and could reasonably assume how many people would be in or out of said room based on the length of time the door was open and which direction the door was opened... There is a long range transmitter in each band they are using for the ride photos so yes the technology is there There was also confirmation about disney being able to use the long range transmitter for 'crowd manipulation' (too many people in frontierland? send a bunch 'free FP+ for TLand', too many people trying to fight for lunch at Cosmics and no crowds at Tortuga- send a bunch of them 10% off codes for lunch at Tortuga) From the business side its genius- be able to track guest movements by the minute and be able to partially manipulate the crowds? Knowing that you have a large # of Pop Century guests heading for the busses and 'magically' dispatch another bus? from the guest side-while I can see its potential advantages its cuts a tad to close to violation of privacy for me- Its one thing for random 'nuggets' being available like when my ticket was used for entry and where I made dining reservations to piece togeather my 'day' is alot more vague requiring use of different programs that used to not talk to each other.. Now a G Relations CM or other could proverablly pull up a step by step review of my day in one program. What time I left my hotel room, ate breakfast (and what) what transportation I used to get to the park, how I maneuvered through the park etc- Not only me but any children with my party would also be 'on the grid' -em
