The more things change, the more they stay the same, and with Disneyland’s 60th anniversary upon us, Walt Disney co. executives have hinted at some new attractions coming to the Anaheim Park. They have also shed some light on a few things that will not be making an appearance.
In a recent interview, new Chief Operating Officer Tom Staggs said that Disney has plans to introduce characters from the Star Wars franchise in both large and small ways. He didn’t offer many details but one thing he made clear was that Disneyland would not be removing any favorite features in order to make room for the Star Wars additions.
“We will look at ‘Star Wars’ to be a plus while not taking away from things that people love,” he said.
Since the acquisition of the Star Wars franchise in 2012, fans have speculated how Disneyland would incorporate the films characters and storylines into the park. Though they have yet to offer many specifics we know Disney chief Bob Iger told Wall Street analysts that there’s “a fair amount of design and development (taking place by the company’s Imagineers) to greatly increase ‘Star Wars” presence in multiple locations around the world,”
Now as for what’s not coming to the park? It appears that MagicBands will not be added to the park anytime soon. According to Mary Niven, vice president for Disneyland Park, the wristband which uses microchip technology to let guests use the bands in place of theme park tickets, hotel room keys and even credit cards won’t work for Disneyland. She said that with many of the visitors being local residents who do not stay for long periods at the nearby hotels and that it just doesn’t suit Disneyland’s guest demographics. They may not be getting magic bands, but according to Staggs, “We will bring variations on MyMagic+ to our parks and other businesses around the world,” so it may not be in the immediate future, but its still not out of the realm of possibility.
Tell us what you think. Do you think MagicBands would work at Disneyland Resort?
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I think it would work well for Annual Pass holders. I agree that with only 3 hotels it doesn’t make as much sense for multiple day tickets, but it was a great feature in Florida. The only thing I didn’t like was the fast passes. We had to sign up for them 2 months ahead of our visit and if we decided to change our plans while we were actually on vacation there was no hope of getting a fast pass for one of the popular attractions. At least with Disneyland I know that I can get a fast pass for almost every ride on the day of my visit.
I think it might work for annual pass holders only as park entry, photo pass, and FP options only.
I would say that most out-of-towners that go to Disneyland stay at non-Disney hotels, making the very large benefit of the Magic Band null-and-void as those guests’ purchases will not be linked back to their room account nor can their MB open their resort room door or handle any other transaction that takes place at their hotel. Plus, Walt DIsney World has over a dozen resorts, tons of restaurants, 4 parks, 2 water parks, mini golf, rentals, etc – so many more things to which the magic band can be linked. When you’re at Disney World, Magic Band is the key to practically all aspects of your vacation. Distributing magic bands to Disneyland guests in place of a ticket, I’m thinking, might be really cost prohibitive. There just aren’t enough guests who need it for more than that to justify the expense of the bands or revamping the whole resort-wide technology to accept them. Having lived 10 miles from Disneyland and known so many locals who are regularly DL guests, and having worked for Disney World Marketing in my past, and taken many Disney World vacations from where I live now, that’s my 2 cents on the topic – LOL 🙂
I still think they could make MBs work with modifications and tailoring to DL and the different needs of guests there. There may be more locals there than at WDW, but there are certainly a lot of out of town visitors, too. It seems, as mentioned, that some form of them may find their way to DL in the future.