UPDATED: MagicBands will NOT be coming to Disneyland

The fact remains that making FP+ viable would require the addition of FP to many rides that don't have it now. And there just is not room to add FP return lines to many of those attractions.

And I think the biggest impediment is the lack of motivation with only 3 onsite hotels that stay booked pretty easily already (Note the high rates and lack of discounts recently).

Disney didn't add MBs at WDW for guest convenience. They added them because they benefit Disney in some way. My personal belief is that they added them to lock people in to keep them from going to other Orlando destinations and to know what their staffing needs would be in the 4 parks each day in advance so they can cut staff wherever possible. With DLR only selling up to a 5 day ticket, they have already been known to encourage guests to visit other SoCal destinations. And with both parks acting more as one huge single park, they really don't have the same need to figure out which of the parks will be busier on a given day.
 
Disney didn't add MBs at WDW for guest convenience. They added them because they benefit Disney in some way.

We'll just never agree on this. Guest convenience --> guest satisfaction --> good for the bottom line. Guest satisfaction/convenience is inextricably linked with profit for Disney. This is how a service business like this works.

Of course they do things for guest convenience! And of course a big part of the reason is because it leads to greater profits. It's a business. That's how that works. And it's a good thing. Profit motive isn't evil -- it's what keeps a business thriving if done well. Thank you, capitalism! Decisions that lead to more $$$ lead to all of the cool new park stuff we can anticipate over the next 5+ years.

My opinion is that added convenience and saving guests time in DL would also result in bottom line benefits. But CapEx need to be spread out, and waiting to see if smartphone technology becomes a BETTER option for DL than MBs also seems to make sense. Just my opinion.
 
I'm a WDW passholder making my first visit to DL next month. :)

FP+ and MB's took some getting used to. The app recognizes my AP so that's a nice feature.
At first I really missed paper FP's. Having to wear the band all the time drove me nuts.
(I don't usually wear a watch or bracelets)

Using the MB's made things convenient as MickeyMinnieMom said above. After a while I didn't even notice the MB on my wrist.
At first, you could only get 3 FP's it didn't seem fair that you were limited to 3 FP's/day
Many guests complained so they added the ability to get more FP's after you use your original 3.
BUT you still can only get 1 at a time, so you have to keep returning to the kiosks to get more FP's ...
You can't get additional FP's using the app. You have to go to a kiosk.
which does waste time because the lines at the kiosks can be very long at times.

A definite plus...If you miss a FP for any reason you CAN go to the kiosk & reschedule it for another time which you can't do with a paper FP.

I always suggest to ppl to choose your FP's times for the morning, that way you can get additional ones for the entire rest of the day.
If you choose your FP times for evenings, you can't get any additional FP's all day until you use your first 3, unless you go to a kiosk and change the times. I think you can change the FP times on the app, but my phone doesn't have good service in WDW so I didn't use the app to do that.

It did change the way we tour the parks. I don't use a specific touring plan, I like to freely roam,
but now I try to group things in the same areas so we are not traversing the park back and forth constantly
The system has it's advantages and disadvantages for sure, and considering that DL is more local visitors, I'm not sure how it would work.

I am looking forward to using paper FP's again, and trying to decide how my 20 yr old and I will
tour DL/DCA next month.

Sorry for the longwindedness :o
 
We'll just never agree on this. Guest convenience --> guest satisfaction --> good for the bottom line. Guest satisfaction/convenience is inextricably linked with profit for Disney. This is how a service business like this works.

Of course they do things for guest convenience! And of course a big part of the reason is because it leads to greater profits. It's a business. That's how that works. And it's a good thing. Profit motive isn't evil -- it's what keeps a business thriving if done well. Thank you, capitalism! Decisions that lead to more $$$ lead to all of the cool new park stuff we can anticipate over the next 5+ years.

My opinion is that added convenience and saving guests time in DL would also result in bottom line benefits. But CapEx need to be spread out, and waiting to see if smartphone technology becomes a BETTER option for DL than MBs also seems to make sense. Just my opinion.


Yeah, best not to anticipate us agreeing on this. :)

I just think Disney is looking for a more direct method of getting to the payoff. I think they've been less interested in fooling around with running things through the "guest satisfaction" filter to get to increased profits. It's much quicker to just raise prices and use RFID technology to "right size" staffing in the parks. If guest satisfaction happens, that's good too. I just don't think that's where they go with it first any more.
 
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Yeah, best not to anticipate us agreeing on this. :)

I just think Disney is looking for a more direct method of getting to the payoff. I think they've been less interested in fooling around with running things through the "guest satisfaction" filter to get to increased profits. It's much quicker to just raise prices and use RFID technology to "right size" staffing in the parks. If guest satisfaction happens, that's good too. I just don't think that's where they with it first any more.
Yup... probably won't agree... but I have ALWAYS appreciated how we can disagree without being disagreeable, and have found common ground here and there! :) :goodvibes
 
Yup... probably won't agree... but I have ALWAYS appreciated how we can disagree without being disagreeable, and have found common ground here and there! :) :goodvibes


Thanks, and I have always appreciated your even handed posts. There's no shame in agreeing to disagree.

You're in for a real treat visiting DLR after such a long absence. We are absolutely hooked and planning our own trip again for this October.
 
Look -- if the smartphone route includes ALL features listed above for the MBs, I could see that happening instead. It's a bit of a cultural / generational thing for now -- not everyone has / wants to have a smartphone. That'll change even more over time in the US, making the smartphone route more viable for DL -- maybe that's what they're waiting for.

I personally much prefer the MB than using a smartphone. I never wear a watch, hate jewelry, etc. and I LOVE the convenience of the MB. I'd be disappointed if they replaced them at WDW in favor of smartphone technology at some point. I'd understand it, but would not prefer it.

I really enjoyed the magicbands last year, but I also see the problems bringing it to DLR (demographic differences, infrastructure). IMO, when the future CEO of the entire company and thr Vice President of the park state that MBs aren't coming to DLR, I have no reason not to believe them.

The thing with technology is how fast it changes. everything in the MB, except the long range scan for photopass pictures on rides (and back end data mining) can be accomplished with the RFID tickets that DLR already has. If the rest of mm+ is coming to DLR, I expect It will come with more updated tech as well.
 


Thanks, and I have always appreciated your even handed posts. There's no shame in agreeing to disagree.

You're in for a real treat visiting DLR after such a long absence. We are absolutely hooked and planning our own trip again for this October.
Very cool!! We're pretty excited!! I used to live in San Diego and went to DL on a semi-regular basis, but all back before DCA was... let's call it worth going to, IMHO. ;) My biggest concern: I have to train for a 5K + 10K + half marathon! :scared1::scared1::scared1:
 
Very cool!! We're pretty excited!! I used to live in San Diego and went to DL on a semi-regular basis, but all back before DCA was... let's call it worth going to, IMHO. ;) My biggest concern: I have to train for a 5K + 10K + half marathon! :scared1::scared1::scared1:


Yeah, that would scare me too!

I merely hope to survive the week of walking around the parks. That's almost the same, right? ;)
 
There have been reports that magic bands are not coming to DL.

But there are rumors that they will fiddle with the FP system in other ways this year. Nothing recently.

This is actually good to hear. We are WDW vets and are used to the whole MyMagic+, Fastpass+, and wearing MBs all the time...however, we are really excited to go back to the "old way" of doing Disney when we are in DLR. We really miss the paper FPs and we want to be more spontaneous on this trip, something that we haven't been able to do in a long time at WDW. What is funny, when I first saw this thread I thought to myself..."Oh no, hopefully they are talking about sometime in the next few years, not 3 months from now when we are there", but then I realized that the thread was started in January of 2015, then when I saw @mom2rtk's post, I felt even better about it.
 
From what I have heard from friends who go to WDW this is a pain in the butt - so I hope it never comes to DLR. People do not plan their vacations in Disneyland like they do for WDW, in fact all of that is one of the reasons I don't know if we will ever bother going to WDW - it sounds like a lot of work to plan and added to the fact you can't walk anywhere compared to DLR, it doesn't sound magical at all!
 
We thought the same for a very long time about WDW. We finally made a trip out there last December and had a wonderful time. It is a little more work, and stress, and even with all the help here, a lot of unfamiliarity. We actually liked the magic bands once we sent them up, quite convenient for there, though the FP system still needs some work. Getting around was ok, we had a car the whole time, but when we used the WDW transportation it worked fine.

Cannot imagine using magic bands at DLR though, we love the legacy paper FP's.
 
We took our first trip to WDW last month and LOVED the magic bands. The convenience of park entry, charging privileges and room key all at the tap of a wrist was fabulous! FP+ had its pluses and minuses, but the magic bands were a win all the way! I would love to see them come to DLR! :thumbsup2
 
We just got back from WDW and while I loved the convenience of the MB, we absolutely hated fp+. We will never go to WDW again.
 
We just got back from WDW and while I loved the convenience of the MB, we absolutely hated fp+. We will never go to WDW again.

Wow that's a shame. We loved the Magic Bands, FP+, being able to charge everything with the band, basically everything about it! Can't wait to go back to WDW in February.
 
Wow that's a shame. We loved the Magic Bands, FP+, being able to charge everything with the band, basically everything about it! Can't wait to go back to WDW in February.

The thing I like about the FP system at DLR is it works better if you work better - so the playing field is not even. If you pay close attention to your times and you have a FP runner then you are going to get a LOT of fast passes in one day between the two parks. The idea of planning ahead of time outside of the park evens the playing field for everyone. Sure that sounds great to people who don't want to do all that extra work to get more fast passes out of their day but it makes it unfair to those of us who want to put in the work and the walking required.

Also with DLR rides go down a LOT and that can really screw with pre-planning of fast passes, if a ride is down with the current system, you are not pulling a fast pass as that ride might not come up again that day - so you move on to something else.

Either way, at least there is the choice - people will always differ on their opinions.
 
We just got back from WDW and while I loved the convenience of the MB, we absolutely hated fp+. We will never go to WDW again.
I totally agree! I've been to WDW many times over and hate the FP+ system. I just got back from a day at DLR and it was so wonderful going back to the "old" system. We had such a great time! We used FP's for Indiana Jones, BTMRR and Hyper Space Mountain. We had 7 in our group and not all like those types of rides so my niece and I were able to go twice in a row. She just loved it! Not something you can do in WDW. We would have had to choose our rides 60 days out and probably miss out on something because we would have had to get a FP+ to meet Anna and Elsa (which we did in DLR with a 15 minute wait - I'm not sure what the wait times are running in WDW now but it was 45+ minutes when I was there last Nov.). I am a planner but even I had a hard time adjusting to the FP+ system. Many FP+ were gone at our 60 day mark (including Anna + Elsa, 7DMT). I was on at midnight too. I felt I missed out on things at WDW but we were able to get to everything and more at DLR. Not to mention the dining reservations at DLR are so much easier. We booked the Plaza Inn character breakfast about 2 weeks out for our large group. This would be difficult to do for WDW as most character dining is booked 180 days out. Just crazy to think about the amount of planning needed. I think I will be taking a break from WDW and sticking with DLR at least until they decide to "upgrade" to FP+...
 

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