If you’re planning a Magical Disney vacation, chances are you’ve been salivating over what dining reservations to make to complete the experience. Food Network host Jeff Mauro and his family recently picked a few of their favorites and journeyed to Walt Disney World for a… Read More »Food Network Magical Disney Vacation Special Debuts January 24
If you’re unlucky enough to still be suffering from the “polar vortex,” maybe the thought of spring at the 2014 Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival will help warm you up! The festival will be returning from March 5th through May 18th, and it will… Read More »Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival Returning March 5th
This was bound to happen, was it not? Disney just announced that the box office juggernaut will be revamped in select theaters as a sing along version. The regular film will play with the words and a bouncing snowflake accompanying them to encourage singing throughout… Read More »Frozen Sing Along Coming to Theaters on January 31st
Musician Drake hosted the January 18, 2014 episode of Saturday Night Live, and one of the sketches was set at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Drake played an enthusiastic cast member at the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular, who meets an audience volunteer who doesn’t speak English. As… Read More »Disney’s Hollywood Studios Featured in Saturday Night Live Skit Hosted By Drake
If you want to see Marvel superheroes up close, Madame Tussauds in Las Vegas can help make that happen. As long as you don’t mind your superheroes being made of wax anyways.
Marvel Comics legend Stan Lee himself cut the ribbon to the new Marvel exhibit that includes life-sized favorites such as Thor, Captain America, Nick Fury, and both Iron Man and Tony Stark in the largest collection of Marvel figures.
The creation of the figures began in 2012 and they were brought to life by a team of sculptors who worked closely with Marvel. As with all Madame Tussauds figures, these superheroes are “true to life” to the dimensions of the actors and costumes featured in the blockbuster Marvel films.Read More »Marvel Superhero Exhibit on Display at Madame Tussauds Las Vegas
Wow. Just, wow. This show blew me away. Resurrection is the story of Jacob, a young boy who wakes up in the middle of a rural area in China. Why is this weird, you ask? Jacob has been dead since the 1970’s in Aracadia, Missouri,… Read More »ABC Mid-Season Preview: “Resurrection”
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+
Read More »FastPass+ and MyMagic+ takeover Disney World – Part 3: The Marketing Push Begins
One tap of the MagicBand and Guests access their Disney FastPass+ attractions which can be secured before they even leave home.
The switch from Legacy Fastpass (where select attractions were able to be reserved on a day-of basis as many times as you could according to the rules) to the Next-Gen technology driven Fastpass+ (where most major attractions and many minor ones now offer FP+ entry, but you’re limited to just three FP+ a day) is nearly as drastic a change as the transition from the famous A-B-C-D-E-Ticket ride coupons to a passport system where one ticket gets you in the park and on every attractions.
My memory is a little hazy, but I don’t recall guests getting so worked up about that switch. That’s because it was largely a switch in the method of accounting in the guest’s vacation ledger. With ride coupons park admission was merely a token charge, the real money was in the coupons. So grandma could take the kids and she would only have to pay a small amount for herself. Single admission changed that model forever. The new model meant Disney got more at the gate, but a savvy guest could work the system by staying from open to close (we called them marathon days) and ride many times more attractions than they could with a coupon book. Plus they wouldn’t be stuck with a bunch of unused A-tickets at the end of the day. So in the end, the ledger balanced for the guest.
A certain camp of Disney Imagineers believe this switch was the worst thing to happen to the parks. That the move away from ride coupons and to a single passport, meant that new attractions couldn’t be cost justified based on coupon purchases, that guest behavior was unleashed and less predictable, that minor attractions suffered in attendance, and that it made more difficult for a family to come and enjoy the park if they had to pay a large chunk up front just to get in. The counter arguments were: that most families on vacation had a set amount to spend and they’d spend it on passports or ride coupons just the same, that allowing guests to experience the park without worrying about buying another E-ticket for Space Mountain provided a better guest experience, and that the real money for Disney was in hotels, food, and souvenirs. Read More »FastPass+ and MagicBands Takeover Walt Disney World – Part 2: Challenges and Solutions Ahead