Disney's $1B Bet on a Magical Wristband • Hacker News Board

Re: Disney's $1B Bet on a Magical Wristband

#31

Post by VikingCoder » Tue, Mar 10, 2015, 1:56 PM UTC

1) You still can't see how many frickin days you have left in the parks when you're at home. Are you kidding me?

2) Joining groups, and saying who can reserve for whom is still a pain. It probably works GREAT for 98% of people, but we got screwed on three different trips.

3) The way they track photos is great for small parties, but it's a pain for groups that get together, split up, get together, split up, form with another group of people for a few days, split up, etc.

4) Doesn't work on the cruise ships yet. It'll be great when it does.

5) You can book three rides. When you're done with the third one, you can book another one. When you're done with that, you can book another, etc. They don't make this well-known, so we ended up with just 3 rides per day. Could have done more.

6) My wife and I have different reasons to be in the parks, at different times of the year. But we can't have a POOL of park tickets. Nope, you have to pre-allocate the tickets to each band. That sucks. Either that, or let me move tickets between our bands however we want.

Re: Disney's $1B Bet on a Magical Wristband

#32

Post by koz1000 » Tue, Mar 10, 2015, 2:00 PM UTC

emsy wrote: post #22

I remember that not too long ago, somone commented on HN that he basically pitched this idea to Disney but they declined and said the idea wasn't really good. I hope he shows up and tells us his story. edit: found it https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8839888

The idea has been around forever, probably from the moment someone figured out how to attach a unique ID to a radio transmitter. I pitched the idea myself (half-heartedly) fifteen years ago which puts me 7 years before this guy. And others commented with their prior art.

http://www.halfbakery.com/idea/Theme_20Park_20Leash#10639908...

Re: Disney's $1B Bet on a Magical Wristband

#33

Post by smoyer » Tue, Mar 10, 2015, 2:03 PM UTC

I always wanted my kids to have a wristband that's tied to my credit card - good thing there's nothing they'd want at Disney World!

Sarcasm aside, we always get a big wad of cash when we go on vacation (and especially to Disney World). It's almost impossible to track your spending if you follow the normal pattern of pulling out your credit card ... this wrist band (in my mind) is to make sure you don't realize what you're spending.

Re: Disney's $1B Bet on a Magical Wristband

#34

Post by maxerickson » Tue, Mar 10, 2015, 2:11 PM UTC

koz1000 wrote: post #32

emsy wrote: post #22

I remember that not too long ago, somone commented on HN that he basically pitched this idea to Disney but they declined and said the idea wasn't really good. I hope he shows up and tells us his story. edit: found it https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8839888

The idea has been around forever, probably from the moment someone figured out how to attach a unique ID to a radio transmitter. I pitched the idea myself (half-heartedly) fifteen years ago which puts me 7 years before this guy. And others commented with their prior art. http://www.halfbakery.com/idea/Theme_20Park_20Leash#10639908...

Yeah, here's a company saying an amusement park was using their RFID wristbands in 2006:

http://www.wristband-rfid.com/en/amusement_parks.html

Here's a 2004 article about using them in Legoland:

http://www.networkworld.com/article/2332669/network-security...

Re: Disney's $1B Bet on a Magical Wristband

#35

Post by aros » Tue, Mar 10, 2015, 2:11 PM UTC

Sounds like a good way to get people to spend more money, that's for sure.

Re: Disney's $1B Bet on a Magical Wristband

#36

Post by timf » Tue, Mar 10, 2015, 2:17 PM UTC

smoyer wrote: post #33

I always wanted my kids to have a wristband that's tied to my credit card - good thing there's nothing they'd want at Disney World! Sarcasm aside, we always get a big wad of cash when we go on vacation (and especially to Disney World). It's almost impossible to track your spending if you follow the normal pattern of pulling out your credit card ... this wrist band (in my mind) is to make sure you don't realize what y…

Only adults have charging privileges and even then you need a PIN (that the cardholder does not need to share).

Re: Disney's $1B Bet on a Magical Wristband

#37

Post by scoggs » Tue, Mar 10, 2015, 2:19 PM UTC

fastball wrote: post #9

wyldfire wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My first reaction to the magicbands was pretty cynical, like this. But it's really astonishing how much more convenient and enjoyable it made the vacation. No need to slog a camera, wallet, etc. I was surprised that even the smallest out-of-the way Disney feature (Magic Express at the airport, entry into the resort pools, e.g.), they still had a way to scan the magic bands. If we did end up spending more because of i…

Wait, how does the Magic Band replace a camera?

The RFID chip / GPS locator inside matches up against data for the camera operators. I imagine when a family and camera operators data "matches" that indicates they stood still for a picture and I'm sure DIsney tries to find every opportunity like that to display those images to the visitors as a chance for them to purchase memories they hardly realized they were making during a picture they didn't realize they were taking.

All in all I think it's really really amazing what they are capable of doing.

Re: Disney's $1B Bet on a Magical Wristband

#38

Post by oh_sigh » Tue, Mar 10, 2015, 2:22 PM UTC

timf wrote: post #36

smoyer wrote: post #33

I always wanted my kids to have a wristband that's tied to my credit card - good thing there's nothing they'd want at Disney World! Sarcasm aside, we always get a big wad of cash when we go on vacation (and especially to Disney World). It's almost impossible to track your spending if you follow the normal pattern of pulling out your credit card ... this wrist band (in my mind) is to make sure you don't realize what y…

Only adults have charging privileges and even then you need a PIN (that the cardholder does not need to share).

It would be cool if you could get a text message for the charge amount(if it was over some set limit), location, and possibly itemized bill(since disney does control every system after all), and respond yes or no to allow or deny the transaction.

Re: Disney's $1B Bet on a Magical Wristband

#39

Post by mbrock » Tue, Mar 10, 2015, 2:25 PM UTC

Neal Stephenson wrote about Disney in "In the Beginning was the Command Line":

"Americans' preference for mediated experiences is obvious enough, and I'm not going to keep pounding it into the ground. I'm not even going to make snotty comments about it--after all, I was at Disney World as a paying customer. But it clearly relates to the colossal success of GUIs and so I have to talk about it some. Disney does mediated experiences better than anyone. If they understood what OSes are, and why people use them, they could crush Microsoft in a year or two. [...]

"As I've explained, selling OSes for money is a basically untenable position, and the only way Apple and Microsoft can get away with it is by pursuing technological advancements as aggressively as they can, and by getting people to believe in, and to pay for, a particular image: in the case of Apple, that of the creative free thinker, and in the case of Microsoft, that of the respectable techno-bourgeois. Just like Disney, they're making money from selling an interface, a magic mirror. It has to be polished and seamless or else the whole illusion is ruined and the business plan vanishes like a mirage."

There's quite a bit more about Disney in the essay. If you haven't read it in a while, check it out, it's a pretty good read!

Re: Disney's $1B Bet on a Magical Wristband

#40

Post by Consultant32452 » Tue, Mar 10, 2015, 2:27 PM UTC

atwebb wrote: post #4

It reads kind of like a fluff/marketing piece but I'll be damned if it wasn't pretty seamless. I have no idea what it was like prior to the bands but the whole experience was clearly made a lot easier by them and the accompanying app (which is pretty solid). I needed my phone and my band, that was really it (well,...snacks, water bottles, strollers etc..) It was 85% well done, when you're actually scanning it can be…

The long range reads are primarily used right now to detect that you were on a particular ride when your photo was taken so when you swipe your band they can pull up your photo for purchase. A lot of the other ideas they had for this tech was never brought to fruition because it creeped out a lot of the test guests.

Source: I played a very very small role in making magic bands happen.