Exclusive: Disney Verizon app will allow users to check wait times, plan for events
Featured, News, Park Tips — By Etan Horowitz on November 10, 2009 at 7:55 pm
A Verizon cellphone running their new application that will serve as a digital guide for Disney parks. (Joe Burbank, Orlando Sentinel)
EXCLUSIVE PREVIEW:
Each day, thousands Walt Disney World visitors are faced with a series of decisions. What ride should they go on next? When is the best time to get Mickey’s autograph? Should they eat lunch before they pick up a FastPass for Space Mountain?
Starting Wednesday, answering those questions and others like it will be a lot easier, thanks to a new mobile phone initiative by the theme park giant. Disney is officially launching a downloadable cell phone application for Verizon customers as well as two new mobile Web sites to provide guests toting BlackBerrys, iPhones and other smartphones more information while inside the park.
The “Mobile Magic” application for Verizon customers marks the first time Disney is making its own real- time updates about ride wait times, FastPass distribution, character locations and events available to the public in a digital form.
The Sims family from Savannah, Ga. becomes the first family at Walt Disney World Resort to use the Verizon cellphone application called 'Mobile Magic' (Joe Burbank, Orlando Sentinel)
The app costs $9.99 for 180 days of use and will initially be available for download on about 30 Verizon “feature phones.” Eventually, Verizon plans to make the app available on smartphones including BlackBerrys and the recently launched Motorola Droid. The program uses GPS to determine the phone’s location and display information about nearby rides, restaurants, events and characters.
“We want to help guests answer the question, ‘What should I do now?’” Arturo Vera, a Disney digital marketing manager, said as he demonstrated the application at the Magic Kingdom on Tuesday. “With this you’ll be able to be on one side of the park and not have to walk all the way to other side of the park to find out that the wait time for a ride is two hours.’’
The app is a recognition of the increasing role that mobile phones are playing as digital sherpas for travelers who want instant access to information about nearby restaurants, attractions and events. Disney has been slow to embrace mobile applications, as several third-party iPhone apps that provide attraction wait times and park information have been available for months.
Mobile Magic covers all six Disney parks in California and Florida, water parks, Downtown Disney, Wide World of Sports, and all Disney resorts and restaurants.
Arturo Vera, a digital marketing manager for Walt Disney Parks & Resorts, demonstrates the 'Mobile Magic' application to Orlando Sentinel reporter Etan Horowitz. (Joe Burbank, Orlando Sentinel)
When a visitor opens up the app while standing at a Disney property, the program will detect their location and display the version tailored to that park. While standing outside Cinderella Castle at about 2:15 p.m. Tuesday, Mobile Magic was able to tell a reporter that Space Mountain was nearby but closed for renovation, the line for Splash Mountain was 10 minutes long and that picking up a FastPass for that ride would allow entry between 3:25 and 4 p.m.
Users can browse for nearby attractions, characters, events and locations or search for them by name, or view them on a map. Phones with the app can be set to vibrate 15 or 30 minutes before an event begins, even if the phone is closed.
“I think it’s a wonderful idea,” said Linda Sims of Savannah, Georgia, who was visiting the Magic Kingdom on Tuesday with her husband and two daughters. “It would save us a lot of time.”
Sims said her family was constantly juggling different pieces of paper with limited park information and struggled to stay up to date on events while inside the park. She said the family had already walked to one attraction only to turn around because the line was too long and had found out about a party they would have liked to attend on a night they already had plans.
“If we had this, we wouldn’t have had to miss the party,” Sims said.
Although the app has GPS, it does not provide walking directions from point to point inside the park because Vera said Disney did not want guests walking around holding their phones up and “spoiling the park experience.”
“We expect people will use this to complement the guide maps,” Vera said.
Although Disney has an exclusive agreement to provide real time data on Verizon phones, non-Verizon customers will be able to access park information through two new mobile optimized sites that are expected to be available Wednesday – m.disneyworld.com for Walt Disney World and m.disneyland.com for Disneyland.
Instead of displaying the number of minutes someone would have to wait in line for a ride, the mobile sites will categorize the wait as “see now,” “moderate” or “high demand.”
Click here to check out screen shots from the Mobile Magic app and see video of it in action
Etan Horowitz can be reached at ehorowitz@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5447. To read his technology blog, visit OrlandoSentinel.com/techblog.
Tags: Apps, Park Tips, Technology, Verizon
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27 Comments
there was an iphone app for this already. I was created by a local Orlando guy. I remember seeing it reported on the news almost a year ago.
I hope they bought the idea from him, instead of tweaking his idea enough to claim it was theirs.
The issue with the iPhone app, is that it needs user input. if you put in the wrong times or no one updates, its not worth anything. a DIS Board is coming up with an app, but this VZW app has official wait times from Disney, NOT dependent on anyone inputing. I also like the ability to track FastPAss times… This app was reported on LAST yr.. before the iPhone guy made his app, BTW..
thanks
Surely you jest. Bought the idea? LOL
Charging $9.99 for 180 days of use. You’re crazier than a lunatic Disney! And what is this Verizon thing. Not all of us have Verizon but I sure see a lot of iphones out there – why not an app for them? Oh, I get it, that would cost $29.99 extra. Money grubbers you are.
Don’t like it, don’t buy it. You’d have to be a moron to complain about something you didn’t want, need or buy.
Disney misses the boat once again with technology. It is a nice AP feature but with Disney determining that not allowing a GPS-directional feature on the mobile phone makes for a better guest experience is rather insulting. For one, we are in 2009 and Disney has always been slow to respond to guests and external technology and needs. I want directional information on my phone. How Disney honestly thinks it is a better experience of looking lost holding up a map rather than using your mobile phone is laughable. The fact that they don’t care to include it is another reason, I don’t care to choose to get the AP. As I said, Disney misses the boat again.
Based on that admission, you would just be part of a bigger problem. We all know that AP holders affect attendance but do not generate the profits that Disney covets. Is it really fair to give this advantage to those who do not spend money to eat/sleep at Disney? I would take the opposite approach and suggest it be offered to those staying in the Disney hotels. After all, the money they spend (over $300 for a room), they deserve the kickback, not a AP holder!
“Vera said Disney did not want guests walking around holding their phones up and “spoiling the park experience.”
Really? What about the Kim Possible Adventure at Epcot!? You can’t walk 5 feet in Epcot anymore without running into somebody who’s walking while looking down at the phone that DISNEY GAVE THEM!
They “intentionally” don’t want people to get directions to where they’re going!? Are you kidding me!? I thought they were trying to AVOID the stereotype that Disney is a controlling, corporation.
The iPhone app is cheap, lasts forever, and isn’t attached to an increasingly evil, yet out-of-touch company. Stick to rides, Disney.
Does it give you a live update on the continuous price hikes at the parks?
I’m a Verizon customer who has been anxiously waiting for this app! Ethan, can you tell us if using the app requires a data plan or data usage. Considering that it links to live data from Disney, it would seem so, but I can’t find any official info.
$9.99? Come on, Disney. That seems pretty steep for an application that most users will only need for a few days while they are in town at the parks. If you insist on charging money for the application (which of course you do, because you are Disney), why not offer 5 or 7 days access to the app for $2.99 or $3.99? I would imagine a greater number of people would be much more willing to pay a smaller fee for the convenience. Good luck with that.
Actually, most of the people that will use this will be locals, like me, so $9.99 for 180 days isn’t too bad. Although for non-locals I like the idea of the 5 – 7 days, but it wouldn’t probably be worth Disney’s time to do this.
Hey Etan,
Did you get any comment from Disney about what exactly “See Now”, “Moderate”, and “High Demand” means in terms of wait time?
Thanks, great preview!
-Henry
Still wishing for an iPhone app. It seems to me that Disney is excluding a big chunk of its visitors, probably a majority, by limiting these functions to Verizon customers only. I don’t understand how these limitations benefit Disney. It seems to me an awful lot of good will is wasted just to have an exclusive contract with Verizon.
Just more crap to run up your cell phone bill…I hate Verizon anyway. Who can afford these price gouging theme parks any more anyway?
Yeah…I spent 6 months on a website like this…I had it all planned out. Spent 4 months learning PHP and HTML coding, and the next 2 months building the website. I was hoping to pitch it to the Walt Disney World Cooporation this Spring when I was due to take my next trip, but I guess that won’t happen now. Oh well, another 6 months wasted.