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Disney Invests $1B on RFID Wristbands for Guests

posted by LaminatorX on Monday March 23 2015, @01:18PM   Printer-friendly
from the Magic-Kingdom dept.

cmn32480 writes:

An article in this months Wired details how Disney spent $1 Billion developing, testing, and rolling out their Magicband system that started actually rolling out in 2013.

Disney's Magicband system is based on a wristband containing an RFID chip and a 2.4gHz wifi transmitter. To use the system, the guest simply aligns the Mickey head on the wristband with a Mickey head on the receiving antenna. These antenna are dispersed throughout the park; for example: rides, souvenir shops, restaurants, and on-property hotel rooms. Rather than having to pull out a wallet to pay for something, one simply uses the Magicband and, upon a good read of the RFID tag, your associated credit card gets charged accordingly. It is even used by their FastPass system which allows you to schedule getting on rides.

When everything works, the reader flashes green and emits a pleasing tone; if something goes wrong, it glows blue, never red. Red lights are forbidden at Disney, as they imply something bad happened. Nothing bad can happen at Disney World.

In early 2014, "atdisneyagain.com" did an actual dissection of a Magicband to get a look at the components, complete with FCC look ups to see exactly what was going on inside.

[Update: corrected grammar and phrasing.]

 
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 24 2015, @10:41AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 24 2015, @10:41AM (#161872)

    I was surprised to hear how long it took Disney to get FastPass working. It wasn't until they gave everyone access to fastpass that it was ok for anyone to skip the lines. It took a few tries to get it right but now everyone gets some access to it and few question the idea of people skipping the lines.

    If you, for example stay in a Disney hotel you get more fast passes with fewer restrictions ( overlapping bookings etc.).
    If you pay at the gate you get two fast passes requiring a 2 hour book-ahead and you must use it before booking the second.

    A lot of people assume that the fastpass is the same for everyone and for this reason I feel it's a little bit evil despite the business problem it solves. If they truly felt that you should be able to pay to skip the line then why hide it?

    Congrats to Disney for figuring out how to bring class to Disneyland!