In my book ‘Slingshot’, I talk about Disney’s introduction of the FastPass in 2000. This online reservation system finally addressed the biggest, lingering pain point of park visitors for the past four and half decades: the intolerably long waiting times. Propelled by the strong visitor response, Disney is now boldly venturing to transform the entire visitor experience.
The recently introduced MagicBand is a piece of personalized, wearable technology that is positioned to be the central interface between visitors and everything Disney. In 2008, the genesis of the MagicBand had a development team working on the project. Per Wired magazine: Meg Crofton, then president of Walt Disney World Resort, told them to root out all the friction within the Disney World experience. “We were looking for pain points,”
It’s amazing how much friction Disney has engineered away: There’s no need to rent a car or waste time at the baggage carousel. You don’t need to carry cash, because the MagicBand is linked to your credit card. You don’t need to wait in long lines. You don’t even have to go to the trouble of taking out your wallet when your kid grabs a stuffed Olaf, looks up at you, and promises to be good if you’ll just let them have this one thing, please.
It also allows Disney to optimize employees. The goal was to create a system that would essentially replace the time spent fiddling with payments and tickets for moments of personal interactions with visitors. The MagicBands and MyMagicPlus allow employees to “move past transactions, into an interactive space, where they can personalize the experience,”
