Interesting read about Magic Bands

I agree w/MagicMN in that while MDE can be buggy, we had no issues w/magicbands… which is quite a feat, considering the scope of what was done.

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The thing that I think is hilarious is looking waaaay back when people thought the whole “Next Generation Experience” bit was going to be some sort of wild and crazy audio animatronic tech (Lucky the Dinosaur, Remy, Muppet Mobile Labs, etc.) or like the dragon flying over New Fantasyland, but when it turned out to be MagicBands, FP+, and MDE, it was so different from what people were expecting that no one made the connection that that was the NGE. I still wager there’s people out there expecting that “Next Generation Experience” is going to roll out another AA or something….

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I think they’re just laying the groundwork.
There are loads of possibilities now that the MDE/Magicband foundation has been laid.

Whether any of those “possibilities” will become reality, or whether they’re all good things can certainly be debated. :wink: The jury is out, but BOG is genuinely impressive.

TP is even more impressive, especially given the size of the staff & budget & what is delivered.

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Interesting article! Thanks for posting.

Interesting read. Thanks for sharing.

What I found interesting was “If Disney decides to roll out sensors throughout the park…”

I would be surprised if they weren’t already throughout the parks.

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Kind of what I was thinking…

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Our last WDW visit was Fall 2012, before MB rollout. On a couple of occasions we were given a lanyard to measure our wait times. Swiped at entrance and again at boarding, it told CM how long the wait was. This system wasn’t very accurate as wait times can and do fluctuate too quickly for this method. The biggest “pain point” is waiting in line. The MBs can track wait times in nearly real time. With this real time information, CM can react quicker to alleviate some of this pain from increasing the carrying capacity of rides, making the queues more interactive, diverting characters to distract guests, to targeting promotions based on location. If the system knows I’m near a Dole whip stand, how about a reminder and an offer.

I’m not normally in favor of data mining my personal information for use by marketers. But if Disney is going to collect data on me via MB/MDE to enhance my Disney experience, I’m fine with that.

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If I want a videogame I’ll go to DisneyQuest. The parks are my playgrounds.

Not a “conspiracy theorist”, but consider this.

Even before MBs, Disney could track the following info on us: What resort we stayed in, what parks we visited on what days, did we take advantage of EMH, did we park hop, what FPs we used, and every single purchase we made using room charges or credit cards. With the addition of MBs, they can now track every ride you go on and every picture that is taken with MM. If someone wanted to, they could pretty much track your entire progress through a park for an entire day (as well as when you returned to your resort, hopped to another park, etc). The amount of correlational and trend analysis that could be performed with all of this data is mind-boggling (e.g. People who stay at POR are most likely to eat at xx restaurant; Families who stay at GF spend an average of xx dollars/day in the parks, etc). This kind of info is pure gold to the people in marketing.

With in-park sensors, they would be able to gather collective crowd flow data, as well as be able to track an individual’s progress through the parks with pinpoint accuracy. With crowd flow analysis they could determine that xx area of xx park has an especially high volume between 9 and 10 AM, therfore they can station more sales carts in that area or determine the ideal time to open and close kiosks. With individual tracking, they could determine things such as averages of how long people spend in a given shop, how many people go straight from KS to Pangani, etc. They could also use this to pinpoint an indivdual for a targeted “magical moment”. A plus would be that finind a lost child would be MUCH easier.

As the data will be stored long-term, after a number of trips they will be able to determine that a certain family always stays at POP (except for that one trip with no resort records, so they must have stayed off-site), goes to CRT every trip, buys a lot of t-shirts, always gets FPP for SM and BTMRR, and drinks primarily beer and margaritas.

WDW is definately the world of “Big Brother” - Big Brother with mouse ears…

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I don’t have a problem with it. I was just pointing out that the sensors are probably already in the park, not some future development. From a facilities standpoint, it makes more sense to roll it all out at the same time.

I’m somehow more at ease with Big Brother Mickey than I am with any other organization doing this. I have an established relationship with WDW. I would have a problem with them selling that information on me to a third party who can use it to try to inundate me with offers I don’t want.

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