Nintendo DS Magic Connection

[MickeyChick]

Walking into the Magic Kingdom last week, a cast member approached us and asked us if we'd be willing to help Disney test a new product and answer some questions. We agreed and followed her to Exposition Hall where we were given a Nintendo DS for the day.

It was SO AWESOME!!! It had a cord attached so we wore it around our neck. It had an interactive park map that would give you walking directions to things like character locations, bathrooms, rides etc.

It had a character wishlist that you could check off and allowed you to customize who in the party wanted to see that character. It had games and trivia too. One of the cool things I liked was that some of the games weren't unlocked until you went on the ride or attraction it corresponded to!

It gave you the wait times for certain rides, up to the minute!

It was really cool and we missed it on the other days in the parks. We kept commenting to each other how neat it would have been to have it for the whole trip!

So when we were leaving the park that day (for the Hoop Dee Doo) we returned the DS and answered a survey. Based on the questions, I think they're planning to rent them at the park. I think I said I would pay $25 to rent one for a day. It was so handy. They gave us promo codes for a free Photopass 5x7 for each member of our party (4 for us!!!) and a limited edition Magic Kingdom pin!

[Disneypixie513]

Wow! That sounds really neat!

It had a character wishlist that you could check off and allowed you to customize who in the party wanted to see that character. It had games and trivia too. One of the cool things I liked was that some of the games weren't unlocked until you went on the ride or attraction it corresponded to!
I think that would be my favorite thing too. My younger sister has a DS. I hope someday she'll be able to use it as a map too..That'd be so cool :mickey:

[chelleincarolina]

Thanks for the info, but I'm wondering did you have to sign a non-disclosure? Others (on other boards) have hinted at it using it, but said they couldn't say much because of a non-disclosure agreement.

[MickeyChick]

Nope.. the only thing I signed was a form that said I'm authorizing my credit card to be charged if I damaged or lost it.

[crazeedizneefinatic]

I had heard about this too. It sounds really cool, a better version my son would like of "pal mickey"! I sure hope that you can use your own DS though. Paying for the service is not something I am willing to do, especially if we already own a DS. Call me cheap but $25 a day to use one seems kinda steep. I know the technology of developing something like this is probably expensive though. Yet another thing to "budget" for. Really thinking about it, I am torn wether or not this is a good idea but I had to chuckle. I can imagine all these people walking around WDW playing with their DS walking into each other, playing games, ignoring each other, kinda defeats the purpose of family time. All the kids will be playing their games and the parents will be saying "watch the parade honey!". We usually bring ours but my son is only allowed to play it on the plan ride and at the airport. Very cool idea but wonder how it will change things?? I am completely torn on this.

[RoosMomKanga]

Years ago, I'm trying to rember which trip...I'm almost positive it was '99, ...we (sister's family and I) were given a small handheld device to use at Epcot for the day. It gave us information/trivia, directions, and current wait times. When we returned it (no incentives given) they said they download them to see how much it was used etc...we also answered a few questions. Besides using them for current wait times, we found them to be distracting and difficult to use (took too much time). But since then, we've all become more familiar with these type of devices, so maybe they would be helpful? Interesting to hear this is back on the table...

[CU Tiger]

This is a neat idea, but I am also cheap and would not pay much for this. It would be nice to know the ride wait times in advance, locations of special things happening, and such. Disney can use this as a information gathering tool. They can track were you go in the park, how much time you spend in an area, what items you are looking for, etc..:mickey:

[thrillme]

Hmmm...that's interesting. I'm curious how they'd charge $25 for the "service" unless you "rent" DS from them. We have DS's but I don't know how you would make them SPECIFIC to restrict everybody. I think you can have a "private" room but once you turn it off it goes away. But then what do "I" know.

It is very interesting. We will be taking our DS's with us ANYWAY. The three of us like to play a "group" game like racing or mario party while we wait.

[scoot241]

Yeah, we also have our own DS systems, so I would really hope they would rent or sell the software. I definitely wouldn't pay $25 a day for it. I'm not sure I'd even rent one of their DS systems.

The DS built-in software includes "Pictochat" which lets you write and draw with other nearby DS users.

[J9]

I agree that I would definitely use this if I could use my own DS. It sounds so promising and hopefully it takes off!

It would be such a great source of cash flow for them to sell the softare for this instead of just renting the DS. Everyone and their mother has a DS nowadays and I bet EVERYONE would buy the siftware if it was reasonably prced!

[Tink#64]

This sounds like such a cool thing! Both of my DS's have ds's & it would be great if this was operating when we visit in the fall & be able to use our own! I don't have a problem telling my ds's to turn off the games when it's not an appropriate time! They would become my property if not! :party:

[playdead88]

we would so use something like that as long as we could us our own ds systems - maybe they could come up with a program you could buy just one time and that way when you got to the park you could use that program to upload info from a system like picochat which communicates with other ds users - who knows but it sounds awesome! :thumbsup:

[Walt Lucas]

I agree with the group. Honestly, i would rather purchase the software for the DS than to rent it for the price you buy a game for. I was able to get a great WDW planner software for my Palm Treo that has showtimes and interactive maps along with menus for every place on the property. I'll be using that for now :mickey:

[MickeyChick]

Just a clarification.. they asked how much I'd pay to rent one for the day and my response was $25. That's my price, not Disney's.

[Mufasa]

The Magic Connection system is not just software for the DS but actually also incorporates a custom receiver unit which plugs into the DS that was engineered to interact with sensors around the park (infrastructure used for Pal Mickey) and is not something that's currently planned to be available for purchase separately.

It is through this receiver which plugs into the DS that we can provide updates on things like attraction wait times and also control the unit by shutting it off during attractions so it's not a distraction and also is used to help provide your location in the park for viewing on a map (like GPS).

The cost of the receiver by itself would be prohibitive for a lot of DS owners and wouldn't be of much use outside of the parks since it is only designed to interact with systems in the park.

So if/when the system is launched in the parks it will only be available for rent at first. (when Pal Mickey was introduced it was first available only as a rental unit).

[MickeyChick]

You can see the set-up here (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v284/purplemommy/26MK59.jpg)... The DS is inserted into this gray thingee that I guess has the transmitter in it.

[scoot241]

The Magic Connection system is not just software for the DS but actually also incorporates a custom receiver unit which plugs into the DS that was engineered to interact with sensors around the park (infrastructure used for Pal Mickey) and is not something that's currently planned to be available for purchase separately.

It is through this receiver which plugs into the DS that we can provide updates on things like attraction wait times and also control the unit by shutting it off during attractions so it's not a distraction and also is used to help provide your location in the park for viewing on a map (like GPS).

The cost of the receiver by itself would be prohibitive for a lot of DS owners and wouldn't be of much use outside of the parks since it is only designed to interact with systems in the park.

So if/when the system is launched in the parks it will only be available for rent at first. (when Pal Mickey was introduced it was first available only as a rental unit).

Well then let's look at it this way... would Disney rent the receiver unit alone? I guess my biggest objection is that I would be renting something I already owned, albeit with an attachment.

Of course, renting the attachments could pose a problem since there are two DS models, the original and the lite.

I think $10 for the day would be my limit on renting anything. To me, it's an added convenience but nowhere near necessary to traverse the parks with.