Another MagicBand question

[sfcaguy]

So we're heading down there in June, not staying on property so we got regular card tickets. Does anyone know if those can be traded in for the MagicBands if we want to, once we arrive?

Mine is an Annual Pass redemption. Are those on MagicBands or still cards? (My concern is if I get a band, my 4 and 2 year old will want one too.)

I believe you can have your Annual Pass on your MagicBands. (This was the case when I was there in November.) At that time, however, the cash register system was not set up yet to "recognize" that you were an AP holder, so I carried my pass with me in case I needed to show it for discounts.

[Sleepy90]

Since Disney uses the "Meat-Puppet" principal with the most of park workers (the tasks are mostly automated and they aren't given the power of decision), I wonder if the people scanning at the front of each ride can make those decisions freely? Did they scan the passes, have them show up as expired/rejected, then re-authorized them? Or did it just let you go in on the first attempt? It might be something built into the system if the ride shuts down it allows the affected passes to stay valid until close.

Ahhh wizzard sorry to burst the bubble but they scanned red and they reset them.

[Wizzard419]

Ah, no bubble burst, the meat bags actually got some authority for once. Though I wonder how much discretion they actually have since now someone is monitoring the system? Though, since there isn't a physical barrier like a subway would have, I would imagine there could still have workers letting their friends through and whatnot.

[Sleepy90]

Ah, no bubble burst, the meat bags actually got some authority for once. Though I wonder how much discretion they actually have since now someone is monitoring the system? Though, since there isn't a physical barrier like a subway would have, I would imagine there could still have workers letting their friends through and whatnot.

Authority maybe but maybe not. It may just be that because the bands have the window time in them if a ride is down the computer will allow them to be reset once.
The double barrier with two different cast members could put pay to letting friends through, unless they really can reset what they want and if that is the case then the system is open to all sorts of friends and family fiddling.

[Wizzard419]

Being able to lock-down returns and track flow is nice but I am still not sold on the claim that it increased the number of riders for anything since that is a finite number.

[BenB]

Being able to lock-down returns and track flow is nice but I am still not sold on the claim that it increased the number of riders for anything since that is a finite number.

It's a finite number, except when the attraction isn't being used to capacity. If they're able to increase the amount of time of capacity level utilization, it would increase the total number of riders.

Take PoC for example. Sometimes there's a line out the door and around the entry, other times they're launching half-filled boats. If some of the folks who were standing in line would have come at the other time instead, it can handle more people daily. I don't suppose this would apply to one like Soarin', which seems to run at capacity pretty much all day.

[Wizzard419]

It still is a finite number, since any level of use is still a hard limit and they can't up max rider capacity with the flip of a switch. Hence why they are big on you booking 2+ months in advance. Even if you do not use 100% of it, you still know you can only have X number of riders per day.

Soarin' is terrible in design because it uses only huge chunks, so on each side there is a theater full of people riding, a theater full waiting in the preshow area, and then a the rest are standing in the general line so they end up only moving once every few mins.

[BenB]

It still is a finite number, since any level of use is still a hard limit and they can't up max rider capacity with the flip of a switch. Hence why they are big on you booking 2+ months in advance. Even if you do not use 100% of it, you still know you can only have X number of riders per day.

Two scenarios:
(A) An attraction has a capacity of 1,000 people per hour. It's open for 10 hours. 10,000 people come, spaced evenly throughout the day. The attraction runs at maximum capacity all day with very little waiting.
(B) Same attraction. This time only 7,000 people want to ride, but they all show up in the later part of the day. This time the lines are huge, and yet the attraction doesn't serve nearly as many people.

This explains how the number of riders can be increased by a system that will more evenly space guests and fill in those empty seats in off-peak times. Max capacity is a hard number, but only if the attraction actually runs at max capacity all day. Very few do.

[cy1229]

There's still a limit on how many people can ride based on "rider density" because they're not going to shut the ride off, waiting for enough people to fill a boat on PotC, for example. I think that's what you were saying, BenB, but I wasn't sure.

[BenB]

There's still a limit on how many people can ride based on "rider density" because they're not going to shut the ride off, waiting for enough people to fill a boat on PotC, for example. I think that's what you were saying, BenB, but I wasn't sure.

Yup, that seems like it. I just mean if an attraction has empty seats, like you said, they're not going to wait to fill the seats. It'll run with empty seats. If a crowd comes later, it's not like they can go back in time and fill all the empty seats that ran earlier. If a system makes it so that people are more evenly spaced to fill those empty seats, more people could be able to ride. Easy concept but tough to explain!!

[Wizzard419]

Though the frequency of empty seats on top tier rides has been lowered/eliminated by using single rider lanes. RSR has few to none on each car that goes out and will even pull people from the single lane to fill up the handicapped cars.

[cy1229]

Though the frequency of empty seats on top tier rides has been lowered/eliminated by using single rider lanes. RSR has few to none on each car that goes out and will even pull people from the single lane to fill up the handicapped cars.

Right... But those high-demand attractions also rarely have slow times where one can just walk right on, if ever.

[Wizzard419]

During the off seasons they actually can, but I think there might also be issues with sending out cars that aren't full since it still costs money to send one out and the wear might also be off if they regularly have empty seats.

Though some rides are just really bad at flowing people though like Toy Story or the previously mentioned Sorin'.

[cy1229]

During the off seasons they actually can, but I think there might also be issues with sending out cars that aren't full since it still costs money to send one out and the wear might also be off if they regularly have empty seats.

Though some rides are just really bad at flowing people though like Toy Story or the previously mentioned Sorin'.

Uuuggghhhh!!! Toy Story! I love the ride, refuse the wait. Absolutely refuse.

[Wizzard419]

Even at DCA it has a 30 min wait during the deadest times of year. Going back to the part about how they hate sending out less than full cars, RSR and Toy Story both routinely open later than the rest of the park. It's an odd thing, rides that draw a massive amount of power (as opposed to gravity powdered and low draw rides) tend to be delayed in opening when times are slow at DLR.