Originally Posted By EPCOT Explorer >>>And God help us all if they leave Fastpass in at the same time- and I've not read this is 'replacing' FP -- does anyone know for sure ?<<< It would make sense if it was... ...but... hey. This is Disney we are talking. They'll make it more complicated than needed.
Originally Posted By sjhym333 Cant wait to see how this system works during the holiday periods when most rooms are booked and the MK has 80,000 plus guests. I want to comment on vbdad's comment about FastPass and not sure that it lengthens the length of lines. Having worked for several years on a FP attraction I can tell you that when we went from the old FP machines to the new ones several years ago we were without FP's for four days during the switch over. This was for a major attraction that even during slow times can easily have a 90 min wait. The four days that we had no FP's available the longest wait time was 45 mins. On a comprable attendance day with FP's we would average 90 mins. My exeperience at that attraction among others is that FP's do increase wait times at other attractions. It is just the law of numbers.
Originally Posted By Mickeymouseclub ...because it turns a human into a walking bar code...especially with the new credit cards that do not even have to be removed from your pocket to be swiped. So will your guest room key allow Disney to know where you are and how much you are spending and how to entice you to spend more. If Disney knows your open line of credit can they find a way to upcharge you? i have already noticed the airlines increasing the price after my first initial search online. The next time I look for a discount it seems the computer has remembered what I was researching dates departure and destinations etc etc etc...and usually the price has increased just slightly.
Originally Posted By SpokkerJones "and usually the price has increased just slightly." Ticket prices usually increase as the departure date approaches.
Originally Posted By SpokkerJones They gotta increase sometime. I've seen Amtrak prices change within minutes before. They use a bucket system. Someone somewhere must have purchased a ticket as the same time I was looking at tickets, and pushed the price of a coach ticket into the next bucket. It happens. Sometimes people cancel their ticket and the price falls into a lower bucket. What you can do is cancel your own ticket and buy the lower priced ticket. It happens.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt It really does happen. We book blocks of flights for corporate travel and I've seen prices increase within an hour. Generally there are X number of seats at a given price on a flight. Once those seats are sold the next highest tier is what is you get. Hotels operate in a similar fashion. The more popular the date the higher the rate.
Originally Posted By Mickeymouseclub Yes that is what computer generated info does. It monitors rapidly nonstop and Disney wants that info to increase their profits. I would want that info also to increase my odds to find a discount. The odds are not in the individual guests favor. We want more for our dollar and Disney wants to give us less for their dollar. Is there anything about this that worries you? Because it is not just one company it is every company. I guess sometimes it feels relentless.
Originally Posted By Mickeymouseclub Recently Disney was criticized for "looking into the cradle for customers" reprint on LP latest of an NYTimes article from Feb 6th. So they want to brand the child and hook them before they have even left the hospital. I realize it could be worse because we all love and trust Disney but if Disney gets away with this then how do you stop the onslaught? P.S. I am not the person who originally said it was scary. I am sure there are other aspects this person wanted to alert us to. I did not mean to take over this conversation.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt Disney is already scary. It's a big huge greedy corporation that only does what it does to boost its bottom line and fill the pockets of its executives and those who have a significant stake in the business. This is nothing new. It's odd to me that it would take something like a revolutionary theme park reservation system to make some people suddenly see something that has been obvious for the past half century.
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo A budget of this scale could build a Tokyo Disney Sea, or refurb all the major attractions, or provide real value in the hotels. The characters knowing your name could be cool. But this is bonkers. I remember at DLP a fair few years ago, I wanted to buy Sarah an auberge de cindirillon tea set - tea pot, sugar bowl, creamer and cups and suacers for 6. Well Lily's Boutique only had half the set, but the cast member got on the phone (though a halfway decent EPOS system could have told them) and worked with colleagues at other shops to put together what I wanted and had it sent to my room wrapped so Sarah wouldn't know what it was. All it cost me was the cost of the merchandise. sadly Disney stopped carrying such merchandise and the training of cast members have been halved, and I probably spend 20% if not less of what I used to. The plebian rubes might want this, but personally, what would bring me back is the standard of service and maintenance that made me fall in love with Disney, the live entertainment, the unique food and merchandise, and an occassional (every 5 years or so) attraction that makes me go, that was cool, let's do it again. I bet it would cost them less than $1.2bn and guest satisfaction would be much higher.
Originally Posted By SpokkerJones "A budget of this scale could build a Tokyo Disney Sea, or refurb all the major attractions, or provide real value in the hotels." This whole thing reminds me of a local transit agency. They recently bought a ton of LCD screens and put them in the subway stations and displayed the schedule on them. Note, the screens do not show you real-time information on when the next train is coming (which customers are ALWAYS demanding). It just shows you the schedule for the next few trains whether they show up or not. Well, the same thing could be accomplished by simply posting a printed schedule in the stations. You basically buy a bunch of frames, print out copies of the schedule for 10 cents a page and tell an intern to go put them in the frames. But instead they spend millions on these screens that add no value to the actual experience of taking public transportation, money that could have been spend on, you know, more bus service or train service. Not only that, but the screens run on Windows and frequently crash anyway, spending the entire day displaying an error message. Value-added is the key term here.
Originally Posted By CuriouserConstance You don't have to be a "plebian rubes" to be tired of spending $5,000 to travel hundreds of miles to visit DL, and your whole trip your fighting your way through crowds, waiting a hour to get on Peter Pan, waiting 30 minutes to get to the service counter to get your dry hamburger and french fries, then fighting what seems like the entire California state for your shot at seeing the fireworks. THAT does not seem like a vacation to me. Wouldn't a little pre-planning be worth it if it means you'll actually have a more relaxing time when you're there? We really have no idea what programs or plans they are trying to develop, it might not be so bad, we probably need to wait and see before jumping the gun and calling this out as a horrible idea.
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 Nah, I'm in the mood to jump any and all guns and say this is a bad idea ... at least in the way it appears headed. Many folks bemoan that APs and FP already take away from the way that visits to DL and MK were intended (I'll leave the others out for a bit since APs didn't exist until EC debutted in 1982) ... even now, people don't visit the way the designers intended. This will just further that downward spiral ... folks don't like lines and crowds (where's that Yogi line about 'nobody goes there anymore because it's too crowded'?) I guess I am just a simple Spirit, but I'll take quality of experience vs. quantity of attractions seen in a day. This new system won't let folks see and do it all. But it will allow PR to trumpet thru the social media blogosphere that this will greatly improve the guest experience. BS. Want to improve the guest experience? Start by living up to your own damn reputation (this would also apply to our declining nation as well). Give people the quality that Disney used to stand for. Give them new and fresh quality immersive family themed entertainment ... ya know, like UNI is doing now. Give them new seasonal offerings EVERY year. Be innovative even on small scale stuff (APPs for meeting princesses don't do much for huge amounts of guests). And don't have stale, neglected, fading parks that desperately need billions of investment, while you spend that on a giant data-mining, guest caste system that will make visiting WDW more of a chore than it already can be.
Originally Posted By CuriouserConstance "Give them new and fresh quality immersive family themed entertainment ... ya know, like UNI is doing now." I'm tired of hearing about Harry Potter over and over. And I'm a huge Harry Potter fan. They do one thing right, and suddenly they are the measuring stick that everyone must measure up to? "(APPs for meeting princesses don't do much for huge amounts of guests)." If they didn't think that this was in demand why would they be doing it? People do want characters, whether you or me like it or not. "Be innovative even on small scale stuff" I think that is exactly what the Gen-next program is suppose to be.
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 "Give them new and fresh quality immersive family themed entertainment ... ya know, like UNI is doing now." <<I'm tired of hearing about Harry Potter over and over. And I'm a huge Harry Potter fan. They do one thing right, and suddenly they are the measuring stick that everyone must measure up to?>> If you're a Potter fan, then you should get your butt (the rest of you as well) down to IOA, Connie. It IS the new measuring stick and it isn't the first time ... attractions like MiB, Spiderman and Mummy have all pushed things ... heck, even Cat in the Hat did sorta. Disney just recycles the same stuff over and over and over again ... (why do I feel like phoning Phil Holmes 'private confidential voicemail' right now and leaving a MAGICal message?) "(APPs for meeting princesses don't do much for huge amounts of guests)." <<If they didn't think that this was in demand why would they be doing it? People do want characters, whether you or me like it or not.>> They want characters because Disney conditioned them to. A horny 18-year-old in a foamhead suit makes about $9 an hour. Much better than paying unionzied musicians and entertainers like WDW once had. ... Was talking to a younger fanboi recently about how when I first started visiting WDW there was no such thing as a character meet and greet or a character meal ... and somehow we all had amazing times. Disney recognized what a LCD deal the characters could be and they have succeeded beyond belief in getting people to buy into it. It is bad ... and I have decided to be a selfish Spirit (since most others are as well). I really don't care what others want anymore. Most people don't even want what's good for them in important things like eating habits, reading, taking part in their community and government ... so, I don't care what they want. "Be innovative even on small scale stuff" <<I think that is exactly what the Gen-next program is suppose to be.>> I was referring more to small entertainment or short term attractions ... but to use NEXTGEN since you did, all I'll say is for a billion dollars plus, I expect a helluva lot more than being able to check in to the BW before I fly down from Chicago or book a meet-and-greet with Buzz Lightyear, two months ahead of my trip etc. What they are spending would buy you an EPCOT Center ...no, not the Walmarted Epcot of 2011 but the full scale EC of 1982-83.
Originally Posted By SpokkerJones "I'm tired of hearing about Harry Potter over and over. And I'm a huge Harry Potter fan. They do one thing right, and suddenly they are the measuring stick that everyone must measure up to?" Islands of Adventure was a quality full-day experience long before Potter showed up. It still had bare and somewhat themed roller coaters, though it broke ground in more ways than one. Potter just pushed it over the top.
