Update: Welcome to NY Times readers. Please find the latest news on MyMagic+ and Fastpass+ here. See all of our coverage here. Finally, I hope you’ll take a moment to discover my new book on the Magic of Disneyland.
The My Disney Experience mobile app delivers pertinent parks information, Fastpass+ reservations, maps and simple navigation to guests on the fly – via their smart phone or other portable device.
In the last 24 hours we’ve looked at MyMagic+ and Fastpass+ from the guest perspective and tried to put a little historical and business sense behind it, now it’s time to turn our eye on how Disney is presenting these new products to the public.
Disney’s marketing has just released a series of video promoting MyMagic+, Fastpass+ and the digital photo package Memory Maker. Look for more videos like these to form the core of Disney World’s 2014 marketing message.
Fastpass+
MyMagic+
Memory Maker
That last one hits home. Of course, it doesn’t even include some of the most next-gen cool stuff Memory Maker can do… like sneak-in attraction photos of your family you didn’t even know were been taken.
I think Disney has chosen a great angle here. I mean wouldn’t the world be better if you could lock in success before you started any venture? And why shouldn’t you lock in vacation success before you leave home? That’s the message Disney’s executive team has been pushing about MyMagic+ for over a year claiming its based on guest feedback and surveys.
It is curious that these ads don’t point out that the advanced reservation ability is currently limited to resort guests only. In fact the disclaimer implies only two things are necessary – “Valid Themepark admission and online registration…” Perhaps they are planning to roll out early-bird reservations to everyone sooner rather than later, otherwise, these ads are leaving out something very important that might make a lot of vacationers who don’t stay on property upset.
Do you think Disney Park’s marketing team is on the right path with these videos? Would the make a difference to you in choosing to visit Disney World over another vacation destination?
Did you miss part one or two.. read about my 1st encounter with FP+ and the challenges MyMagic+ will face as it rolls out and the solutions ahead.
Update: Welcome to NY Times readers. Please find the latest news on MyMagic+ and Fastpass+ here. See all of our coverage here.
(Photo courtesy Disney. Kent Phillips, photographer)
ok… the last one was kind of funny, though I’ve just lost my out for EVERY photo we’ll ever take on our vacation pics…
As an annual passholder who likes to take spur of the moment trips, there aren’t any times left worth taking when people are taking them all six months out. So why bother, I don’t like the new system.
I agree – we’ve had annual passes since moving to Florida in 2003 and with this latest move, we are seriously considering giving up our AP’s.
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As a travel agent, the transition to My Magic + has added a lot more work with guests expectations high that we agents can put together a perfect park schedule. It’s been a challenge to hand hold the client through the additional park planning steps necessary while not being able to get additional commission for all the extra time and effort we have had to give to planning. It also hasn’t helped that the “testing” phase has given us very limited information on what implementation step they are testing next. Clients book with us because we are “experts”, however, we are having as much a learning curve as the guests. It has been a very frustrating few months! I am so used to sending my families to Disney with the expectation that their vacation will be magical and filled with memories – now I wait with baited breath to make sure their bands aren’t one of the ones with nightmare glitches.
I just don’t understand this concept. It nearly takes the fun out of the Disney experience, if your unsure on how to utilize the system properly. I guess because I regularly attend Disneyland, this new MyMagic+ thing has me all thoroughly confused. I really hope this doesn’t happen, but I have a feeling in a few years, MyMagic+ will make its way westward.
I’m planning on attending WDW next year, so I guess I’ll wait and see how affective the system really is or is not.
That ad for Memory Maker conveniently leaves out the fact that you get less product for the same amount of money – no dining print packages, no archive cd (just downloads!) and no bonus stock photos triggered by location.
John –
Is there any way or anyone to contact re: our objection to this new system? Maybe if enough of us object they MAY rethink this whole thing (yeah right sarcastically said). I do not want my every step tracked or become a marketing statistic. Like other writers, we like to take spur of the moment trips over and with this new system, we would be waiting in hours long queues. We were over there yesterday and today visiting with friends who are staying on site and like us, didn’t want to plan their every move, found standby lines LONG and UNMOVING. So many people preprogrammed rides that CM’s were allowing 1 standby party through for every 5 or 6 groups from the FP+ preprogrammed lines. We saw how ridiculous this new system was at EPCOT (yes EPCOT not Epcot) at Spaceship Earth today – the standby line was a 10 minute wait – the FP+ line was 4 to 5 times as long as the standby line. We can but hope they iron these wrinkles out or they are going to be losing long time Disney AP holders. We aren’t the only ones disgruntled!!!
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