Sentinel Exclusive: Disney's MyMagic+ rollout delayed

[JerseyDad]

....more than just a little bit relieved that our last trip to WDW (meaning ..like ...possibly ...forever) ...was in August ..when the whole system was only in the smoldering stages. As I see it ...it's going down in flames now ...like the Hindenburg.

[DisneyBarb]

Having just returned, I think the Magic Bands are great. However, the FP+ is not. There was nothing wrong the with the old system (in my opinion). It beats Universal (non resort staying) with having to pay and only good for one ride. However, Universal resort guest with front of the line passes is fantastic, and price considerably lower then Disneys deluxe.

[Tekneek]

& if they did start to up charge for this experience I doubt I would be using it

I agree. I would more likely not go to WDW than pay for FP+ slots.

[Tekneek]

Having just returned, I think the Magic Bands are great.

I second that. The bands worked very well for us and were actually quite convenient. It is a huge improvement when it comes to entering the parks, paying for items/DDP entitlements, verification during EMH, room entry, etc. I wouldn't want to go back to using KTTW cards for everything.

FP+ has a lot of potential, but it seems poor design choices will bring about its failure.

[mrte62]

I dont see how the magic bands are going to turn "profitable". Unless they are going to charge for the experience like Universal does. Its just a FP to me & way to get into the park & way to use my free dining credits I dont get it...

I think that we should start thinking of the bands as a way to generate multiple streams of revenue some obvious and some long-term. Folks have already mentioned covers for bands for example. Some have mentioned having more time to spend money and how that seems a bit far-fetched for those on a budget.

But what if we start thinking of all that information that is now contained about everyone's patterns of attendance, atractions, spending habits, eating etc. Disney could begin to offer "Perpetual Limited Magic". Think of it as never-ending special events that would cost Disney next to nothing. Some examples:

1) Because of your FP choices you are going to be at EPCOT on a Tuesday night at 7 pm. How about you and 50 others being offered a special snack, a pin and a reserved location to watch Illuminations?

2) You are not planning on being in a park one day during your visit. You and a small group might be offered a behind the scenes tour of your resort followed by lunch.

3) You are traveling with teenagers (or older) and you get an offer that if you rent water mice, play a round of mini golf, go horse back riding or rent a bike on certain morning, you will get 4 FP's for the MK which is open late that evening.

Think of offers being extended to hotels, resturants, attractions or shows that are not serving to capacity. I keep thinking of all the special events my DW and I have attended (and paid for) over the past few years at the Food & Wine Festival.

I know it has been mentioned before, but the cruising concept is being brought to Disney. Sure your ticket will let you in, wait in line for attractions and see the shows .... but if you want a little or a lot of extra magic, get ready to open your wallet - or should I say swipe your band.

[WiltonJohn]

mrte62,

If you don't work for Disney, you should.

Stuff like this is exactly why this program is in place. It is all about the long range scanning and the tracking.

That information stream can easily be turned into money. A LOT of money in diverse ways.

And as I mentioned elsewhere.... also allow them to controls some costs... again making money.

best,

.............john

[mrte62]

I don't and not sure I would last too long ...

[DizneyFreak2002]

OK can we please finally say and everyone admit that NGE is a complete and utter failure?????

[Ian]

There's an article out there I just read regarding how livid Bob Iger is at the situation with NextGen. Apparently it's caused him to shut down literally every single Imagineering project underway while they evaluate just how off-the-rails MDE really is.

Heads are about to roll ....

[BrerGnat]

The whole thing is overly complicated. That is why it's doomed. More tech with LESS steps is what the public wants. When the addition of tech makes people have to do MORE work...it's a head scratcher.

[waymickey]

I think that we should start thinking of the bands as a way to generate multiple streams of revenue some obvious and some long-term. Folks have already mentioned covers for bands for example. Some have mentioned having more time to spend money and how that seems a bit far-fetched for those on a budget.

But what if we start thinking of all that information that is now contained about everyone's patterns of attendance, atractions, spending habits, eating etc. Disney could begin to offer "Perpetual Limited Magic". Think of it as never-ending special events that would cost Disney next to nothing. Some examples:

1) Because of your FP choices you are going to be at EPCOT on a Tuesday night at 7 pm. How about you and 50 others being offered a special snack, a pin and a reserved location to watch Illuminations?

2) You are not planning on being in a park one day during your visit. You and a small group might be offered a behind the scenes tour of your resort followed by lunch.

3) You are traveling with teenagers (or older) and you get an offer that if you rent water mice, play a round of mini golf, go horse back riding or rent a bike on certain morning, you will get 4 FP's for the MK which is open late that evening.

Think of offers being extended to hotels, resturants, attractions or shows that are not serving to capacity. I keep thinking of all the special events my DW and I have attended (and paid for) over the past few years at the Food & Wine Festival.

I know it has been mentioned before, but the cruising concept is being brought to Disney. Sure your ticket will let you in, wait in line for attractions and see the shows .... but if you want a little or a lot of extra magic, get ready to open your wallet - or should I say swipe your band.

But they were able to do this with the old KTTWK as well. In August I was emailed an invitation to do lunch at BOG. I did not have a magic band. But I missed it because I don't check my email on vacation. I pretty go to WDW to leave the real world behind. I don't take phones to the parks or computers and I don't worry about Email .

[Tekneek]

There's an article out there I just read regarding how livid Bob Iger is at the situation with NextGen. Apparently it's caused him to shut down literally every single Imagineering project underway while they evaluate just how off-the-rails MDE really is.

Heads are about to roll ....

I can't figure out where all the money went. There are lots of good ideas in it, but design choices (which have caused implementation problems) are the biggest problem. The combination of that with CMs, that are so poorly trained in guest service these days, makes for a bad cocktail.

[1DisneyNut]

Really the entire thing is a mess from the top down. They obviously didn't have a definite plan prior to implementation. That is a huge problem from the beginning with software development. Imagineering is coming up with ideas after software has already been designed and then the engineers have to go in and try to make the necessary changes which then breaks other parts. Instead of getting to the point where they have a working system, they are constantly breaking it with changes.

Another problem is, they are rolling out phases but obviously not having staff meetings to keep the CM's up to date on what can and can't be done or how to solve the problems when they do come up. Basically, we guests as their beta testers are training their employees (CM's) on how the system works and how to fix the problems (think logging in and out and repeating FP+ changes).

Then you have the rollouts where one particular resort only has bands but no cards so when there is a problem, they can't fall back to the old system. Of course, most of the CM's are oblivious to this as well.

Then there is the fact that they are forcing a system on their customers that the vast majority absolutley hate. Sure there is a small percentage that want to plan every little detail of their vacation months ahead of time but for the masses it is absolutley annoying. It is bad enough, you can't get into a restaurant without booking it 6 months ahead of time but now if you want a FP you have to book it 2 months ahead. It is just absolute insanity.

Many of us predicted this from the beginning. We have been labeled as whiners and complainers but without all the noise we have been making, they would have continued the roll out of this mess and ruined our favorite place in the world. Hopefully, our displeasure has been duly noted and they will can this piece of garbage and send a few people behind it out the door.

[Melanie]

Many of us predicted this from the beginning. We have been labeled as whiners and complainers but without all the noise we have been making, they would have continued the roll out of this mess and ruined our favorite place in the world. Hopefully, our displeasure has been duly noted and they will can this piece of garbage and send a few people behind it out the door.

Amen! I've disliked this from the very beginning, but have felt the need to pull back on my comments. Finding out that all these wonderful Imagineering projects have been frozen in response to this epic failure infuriates me. The only positive I see from this is that hopefully this means this mess will never see the light of day at Disneyland.

[1DisneyNut]

Amen! I've disliked this from the very beginning, but have felt the need to pull back on my comments. Finding out that all these wonderful Imagineering projects have been frozen in response to this epic failure infuriates me. The only positive I see from this is that hopefully this means this mess will never see the light of day at Disneyland.

I don't think there is even the slightest chance of this mess showing up at Disneyland. I hope it doesn't because we are going to Disneyland in July instead of going to WDW. It is completely on the other side of the country from us but we are going there to avoid the mess at WDW. If they start rolling FP+ out at Disneyland, I will cancel that part of our trip and do something else.

[Melanie]

I don't think there is even the slightest chance of this mess showing up at Disneyland. I hope it doesn't because we are going to Disneyland in July instead of going to WDW. It is completely on the other side of the country from us but we are going there to avoid the mess at WDW. If they start rolling FP+ out at Disneyland, I will cancel that part of our trip and do something else.

It's still the nice, pure Disney experience we all love. Fingers crossed it stays that way.

[DizneyFreak2002]

There's an article out there I just read regarding how livid Bob Iger is at the situation with NextGen. Apparently it's caused him to shut down literally every single Imagineering project underway while they evaluate just how off-the-rails MDE really is.

Heads are about to roll ....

I know exactly what article you are talking about... Not mentioning the site here, but I can also tell you half of that article was complete nonsense... Projects affected are WDW only at this point, not in Disneyland... While it is possible they may wind up delaying a few of the DLR projects, they aren't downright cancelled... WDW is another story... The BoD will not free up any money for WDW until they see ROI on MyMagic... They have aimed for an 11% increase... They won't get it... Avatar and Disney Springs are not going to be affected right now, but that is right now.. Money has already been allocated..

Many of us predicted this from the beginning. We have been labeled as whiners and complainers but without all the noise we have been making, they would have continued the roll out of this mess and ruined our favorite place in the world. Hopefully, our displeasure has been duly noted and they will can this piece of garbage and send a few people behind it out the door.

Not only were we called whiners and complainers, we were called doomers and gloomers, from the same people who hate being called drones, brainwashed, or pixie dusters... Kind of ironic huh? They don't like being called names, but they sure do toss name calling around a lot... I remember being one of the first to question this program, calling it a failure from the start... Saying how this would impact WDW vacations... I was laughed at, mocked, told never to go back to WDW again if I hate it so much... It warms my heart to see those who attacked me now complaining about FP+ and MyTragic and how complicated and frustrating booking a WDW vacation is becoming... Seems some of us knew what we were talking about... Too bad people have an unhealthy addiction to WDW... They would have seen it before when the rest of us saw it too, and maybe they wouldn't have been so fast to attack... WDW is heading into dark days... I'm sure there will be defenders popping in here soon thought o say the parks have never been better (despite cobwebs infesting everywhere, mold growing in the monorails, recently refurbed attractions already broken), and more and more being shut down and taken away from guests enjoyment while prices skyrocket in the double digits...

Amen! I've disliked this from the very beginning, but have felt the need to pull back on my comments. Finding out that all these wonderful Imagineering projects have been frozen in response to this epic failure infuriates me. The only positive I see from this is that hopefully this means this mess will never see the light of day at Disneyland.

The projects are cancelled or at least put on hold in WDW, excluding Avatar and Disney Springs... Remember when I put the rumor about Imagineering closing? Now we know why... It is all about cuts, cuts, cuts while charging the unsuspecting guests more, more more... WDW is in trouble despite what defenders of the rat want to say... And don't worry about Disneyland... Like I said before, the bands may be the only thing to go west... FP+ and the rest of this failure won't... If it does, DLR will become a ghost town... The locals won't stand for this stupidity...

[cer]

... And don't worry about Disneyland... Like I said before, the bands may be the only thing to go west... FP+ and the rest of this failure won't... If it does, DLR will become a ghost town... The locals won't stand for this stupidity...

DizneyFreak,

I want to know, what (other than FP+) are you including in your phrase...."and the rest of this failure". Right now in my opinion FP+ is the greatest failure, in concept, in execution and in public relations. So, what (in your opinion) is "the rest" or are you just speaking figuratively?

Truly, I'm just curious if I am missing something more that the FP+ mess as far as the NextGen program...

[DizneyFreak2002]

DizneyFreak,

I want to know, what (other than FP+) are you including in your phrase...."and the rest of this failure". Right now in my opinion FP+ is the greatest failure, in concept, in execution and in public relations. So, what (in your opinion) is "the rest" or are you just speaking figuratively?

Truly, I'm just curious if I am missing something more that the FP+ mess as far as the NextGen program...

MyTragic in general is a failure... This NextGen is not just FP+... it is interactive queues which have been shut down and cancelled, it is the MyMagic app... The bands... the RFID, the tracking of guests, the data mining... the technology infrastructure... it is Disney forcing you to micromanage and plan out every second of your WDW vacation... Isn't that stressful just thinking about it?

People think the bands and FP+ are all this program is... it isn't... it was and is technology infrastructure... And they have created a huge mess... While some aspects may work fine, like the bands (and honestly, I used them at the end of October, they worked fine for what they were used for), the fact of the matter is, Disney has now destroyed their technological infrastructure in WDW... All for the sake of the all mighty dollar... You can tell this program was designed by an accountant, MBA, bean counter.. and not by folks who actually know how to run a theme park/amusement park...

The goal was for an 11% increase THIS QUARTER on guest spending based solely on MyTragic... Guess what? Not getting it... Not going to see any increase or return on investment until at least 2015 (MAYBE)... The only way they can spin anything positive is by jacking up prices by double digit percentages AGAIN, and then claiming guest spending is up due to this program... Sadly, people fall for their lies and nonsense... Truth is, guests are not buying more.. They are PAYING more... Huge huge difference that some WDW fans fail to realize... (not you cer!!!)

I'm not sure how many people know this but, the Disney Infinity game works and interacts with your Magic Band... This is all part of this NextGen program... And it is a complete waste of billions of dollars...

I hope that answered your question...

[BrerSchultzy]

Disney will make the money back from the patents alone. No need to worry about that. But the money they invested in MyMagic won't be won back any time soon, and it won't go back to the parks, which means WDW loses much needed money to improve the Studios and Epcot (and let's face it, if Epcot had just two more decent attractions, FP+ problems there would be much less tragic). That said, I hope things get straightened out soon...and that they don't start chasing bad money with good.