Comment by bnycum | Hacker News Reader

Comment by bnycum | Hacker News Reader

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I recently got back from my second trip to Disney World in which I had a Magic Band, the first time it was still test phase and had lots of kinks. This time around it worked flawlessly. To get into the park it requires you to scan your fingerprint as well, to buy anything with a credit card linked to your account or use your dining plan requires your pin number. Other than that it's pretty much tap and go.

The crazy part about the band that scares me is how much you are tracked because of it. After getting back we noticed we had Photo Pass photos, you know the photos after you get off the ride you used to buy. Now these photos are all digital and online, normally requiring you to tap your band at the end of the ride. Well they were just loaded onto our account, we never even scanned our bands for these rides or anything.

At the resorts you can buy a refillable mug, or you are given one on the dining plan. This refillable mug has an RFID chip in them, same with the paper cups. You must place your mug/cup on the sensor below your drink option in order for it to be read and dispense your drink. You can only get so much dispensed in a certain amount of time, or it will just stop dispensing. I also believe they had or used to have a limit per day on refills, I never hit it.

Not to mention their "free" Wi-Fi that they highly promote. I'm curious what all is going on behind the scene and how much is being used. Because they obviously now are tracking what I drink, where I stay, how much money I spend, where I am in the park, what rides I go on, etc.

The RFID refills bothered me. I didn't buy the dining plan/visit-long refillable cup, but when I got a soda at the Gasparilla in the Grand Floridian there was a refill count of either 2 or 3. I kind of fell that if I drop that much on a paper cup, and hundreds of dollars a night on a hotel, they shouldn't be limiting the number of refills I get on my cup of soda during lunch. I don't think I hit the limit to the point that I required buying a second soda, but that it was there bothered me. Though it didn't irk me so much that I won't go back, so they've clearly got it fine tuned.

They've been fine-tuning that for a while.

A lot of that was driven by the cups they sell at the resorts, which used to be something like $15 but as many fills as you wanted for your entire stay. Some people actually brought the mugs back trip after trip and abused the system. I suppose they could do that with the paper cups as well.

But once that was in place, now they needed the dispenser to work with paper cups as well. They couldn't be infinite either (or nobody would buy the mugs) so a limit needed to be set.

I'd say the same thing. I know I had to explain the concept to several guests. Just a little frustrating. No way can you make up for staying there by drinking Coke all day.

Limiting refills is just weird when the cup is a larger part of the production cost than the actual drink is.

You are scared because you are being tracked in a theme park that Disney controls... Odd type of paranoia.

They've been tracking people for years (I grew up going to Disneyland and my sister worked there), with cameras, so this is nothing new -- it's just updated technology.

Personally, I think it's cool and interesting.

In a way, it's mainly just creepy. Five years ago none of this was happening in such a digitized fashion. It's not stopping me from going back again. Outside of Disney I typically don't eat the same type of foods or drink the same things. Some of it was just a little unsettling, especially thinking about my daughter.

I don't think Disney cares about what you eat or drink outside of the park. They care about how you and others behave when you're spending money on their property. I don't think it's any creepier than when a store tracks your buying habits, which many stores do these days.

true... they don't care about you... they're capitalists, focusing on business. They're a corporation focusing on ROI. If only a company would focus on the government, or needy so well.

Magical 1984!

Wait, they fingerprint you?! Wow. Is that part opt-out at all?

Yes, you can opt out of going to Disneyworld.

But what if you feel entitled to go?

Not that I'm aware of, I didn't try. They haven't requested my daughter scan her fingerprint at ages 2 or 3, don't know what age that starts at though. During the testing phase the finger print wouldn't always work 100% of the time, they'd get someone over with basically a tablet with an RFID scanner to let you in.

They don't fingerprint at 6 and 8 either. The finger scan predated magic bands; you had to do it with the plastic card tickets/keys as well.

Update for the interested: you can, indeed, opt out of the fingerprinting.

  Are all guests required to use Ticket Tag?

  If you don't want to use Ticket Tag, you can simply carry and show a photo ID that matches the name identified with your ticket.

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/faq/my-disney-experience/p...

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