Since 2010, Disney author Kevin Yee has filled a valuable niche in the Walt Disney World field — a photographic look at everything new and departed at the resort. A yearbook, but in Disney terms an ‘Earbook.’ Think of it as an unofficial appendix to… Read More »2013 Unofficial Walt Disney World Earbook Now Available
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
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
Update: Welcome to NY Times readers. Please find the latest news on MyMagic+ and Fastpass+ here. See all of our coverage here.
I went to the Magic Kingdom on Sunday to test how the FastPass+ (FP+) experience would work for someone who has time for a mid-day 4 hour visit. I’m still building back up to theme park conditioning, so anything more than that exhausts me. I’m a local and haven’t yet booked a night at at Disney resort, so I don’t own a MagicBand. Even though FP+ has been running in place of the paper (aka legacy) Fastpass system at Disney’s Animal Kingdom since before Christmas, this was my first experience with FP+.
Given that the FP+ system had been live for a few days already, I made sure to read various discussion boards about other people’s experiences and tried to determine an optimal strategy for myself and my son. Unfortunately, almost nothing turned out the way I thought it would.
My first attempt at accessing FP+ was a strikeout. I had read a few accounts of how guests were able to make FP+ reservations at the TTC via Guest Relations cast members armed with tablets. When we arrived at the TTC via the parking lot tram around 10:45AM there were no Guest Relations cast members to be found. Disney might have just been experimenting with that service earlier in the week. In theory, almost everyone arriving at the TTC is on the way to the Magic Kingdom, but you don’t really know until they’ve actually swiped their cards at the front gate. So I can see why they pulled that option.
After a quick ride on the monorail to the main gate, we immediately headed to the Main Street Opera House to score our FP+ reservations. I entered and went right to the MyMagic+ terminals, which would let me make a FP+ reservation if I was a Disney resort guest, but apparently not if I was a day-guest. There was a separate queue for that. A queue with a long-line as it turns out.Read More »FastPass+ and MagicBands Takeover Walt Disney World – Part I: My Magic Kingdom Experience
For the last several days, Disney has been hinting at the new “mystery float” that will be added to the “Disney Festival of Fantasy Parade” coming this spring, and they’ve finally revealed that the latest addition will be a giant Maleficent Dragon. The Steampunk-inspired float… Read More »Steampunk Maleficent Dragon Coming to Disney’s Festival of Fantasy Parade
Earlier this week famed photographer of the stars Annie Leibovitz added Jessica Chastain to the list of celebrities she has featured in her Disney Dream Portraits series. The famous redhead portrayed Pixar’s first princess, also a redhead, Merida from the hit animated feature Brave.
Today we get two exciting videos that take us behind the scenes of the photo shoot and reveal how the magic is made. (Love the fake horse in the shot above. Makes sense though.) Appropriately enough for the Scottish princess, the photo shoot took place in an area of Cold Spring, New York known as the Hudson Highlands.
Turns out Chastain is a fan of a certain activity enjoyed by many guests at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World – Pin Trading. Below she shares her Pin Trading strategy:Read More »Behind the Scenes on Jessica Chastain’s Disney Dream Portrait Shoot with Annie Leibovitz