MagicBands and the larger My Disney Experience system have been highly controversial since testing began in 2013. Some people love the freedom and convenience of using the bands for everything from unlocking their hotel room to paying for purchases and entering FastPass Plus ride queues. Others feel that MagicBands are a massive invasion of privacy, and worry about what Disney plans to do with all the data the company collects.
Regardless of where you stand on this debate, it appears that MagicBands are here to stay. With the massive outlays of both money and time that have already been invested, and many of the bugs having been worked out of the system, it seems likely that Disney will press on with additional uses for the technology. Here are 5 possible future advances that could build on the existing framework.
1. Personalized encounters
This one has been heavily discussed throughout the Disney fan community, and it is probably only a matter of time before it happens. Way back in 1990, Universal Studios Florida broke new ground with the E.T. Adventure, using “boarding passes” (now known as Interplanetary Passports) to allow E.T. to say goodbye to each guest by name at the end of the ride. The feature has proved extraordinarily popular, but the cumbersome card issuing process can back up the queue and is sometimes turned off due to low staffing levels.
MagicBands could take this experience to a whole new level. Imagine Captain Jack Sparrow or Cinderella greeting your kids by name, or being welcomed like a regular when you stroll up to the Hollywood Brown Derby for the first time. You could even pre-select a cocktail to enjoy during your wait to be seated, or pre-order your entire meal. On rides, how fun would it be for Peter Pan to warn you by name that Captain Hook is nearby, or for your Jungle Cruise skipper to note that today is your 20th wedding anniversary?
2. Lost child tracking
Walt Disney World’s lost child system works pretty well, and families are quickly reunited. Still, how nice would it be to simply turn on tracking on your child’s MagicBand and follow his precise movements throughout the park? If you can track your cell phone, laptop, or car, shouldn’t you be able to track your child? MagicBand technology could easily incorporate this extremely useful feature.
This leads to a logical question: what about extending tracking capabilities to other members of your group? Would the convenience of finding out that your husband thought you meant the other side of the castle be worth the potential privacy invasion of tracking an adult? So many people carry cell phones now that the value isn’t as high as it once was, but for those who don’t, it could save a great deal of guesswork and wasted time.
3. Discounts and special offers
Over the years, Disney has come up with numerous creative marketing techniques designed to encourage guests to make more purchases. One of the most enduring has been a coupon printed at the bottom of certain restaurant receipts that entitles the bearer to a percentage discount on merchandise purchased at specific stores during a particular time of day. But this system relies on slips of paper, which are easily lost, and is not customized to the individual guest.
Why not combine push technology, which has been common for years, with the My Disney Experience system? This would enable Disney to provide personalized offers based on your unique shopping and dining habits. It could even be used for proactive guest recovery, sending out a coupon for a free ice cream or bonus FastPass Plus to those who are stuck in a line past the posted wait time or experience a lengthy stop while on a ride.
The biggest challenge would be notifying guests who aren’t necessarily logged into their My Disney Experience accounts. Maybe they could incorporate new technology that triggers the MagicBand to flash when you have an offer waiting, or perhaps the next scan could cause a purple or orange light rather than the existing green or blue. With the combined brainpower and technical know-how of Disney Imagineers, this should be a relatively simple issue to overcome.
4. Custom vacation footage
Disney has cameras everywhere. Currently, they are used mostly for security purposes. But what if the existing cameras were upgraded or supplemented with the latest in high definition technology, and additional RFID readers were installed on them? Then your MagicBand could be used to pick you out of the crowd and identify footage of some of your most magical vacation moments. Disney could then stitch those pieces together for a custom vacation video unlike anything you could film yourself.
5. Experience customization
One of the most beloved features of the revered Horizons ride was the opportunity to choose your own flight path for your return to the 20th century. You and your companions voted via flashing panels on the ride vehicle between three different scenarios: space, sea, and land. Depending on what the majority selected, you would view an entirely different scene on a monitor in front of your ride car.
There is no reason that this type of customization couldn’t be incorporated into future rides using MagicBands. Just swipe your band to make your decision, either during the ride or as you enter. Perhaps future attractions could be designed around this idea, incorporating the concept of choice with the capability for characters to speak directly to you. The result would be a stunningly personalized experience that would have been impossible just five years ago.
No one can really say what the Imagineers have in mind for future iterations of the MagicBand and My Disney Experience systems. But with such powerful technology at their disposal, we can only hope that whatever they come up with will honor Disney’s ideals of fantasy and exploration rather than being used solely to drive increased spending. The results could be truly astonishing.
