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Disney World starts accepting Apple Pay and Google Wallet this week
Making a trip to Walt Disney World during the holidays? You might not avoid the long queues or endless parking lots, but you won't always have to pull out your wallet. As promised back in September, the Orlando area theme park will start accepting mobile payments on December 24th. The launch will let you use Apple Pay, Google Wallet and tap-to-pay credit cards to buy tickets, shop at stores and order from both bars and fast service restaurants. There are a few gaps. The system doesn't yet work at places that need a portable payment terminal, so you'll still have to break out the cash or plastic at a table service restaurant. You'll also have to wait until 2015 to get similar treatment at Disneyland in California. But hey, it's a start -- and it may save you a few headaches the next time you're jonesing to take a ride at Space Mountain. [Image credit: Kent Philips]
Walt Disney World reportedly testing iPads for Fast Pass system
According to a Twitter account that is not affiliated with the Walt Disney Company (@DisneyProjects), Walt Disney World is testing a new iPad-based FastPass ticketing system. The system would use RFID technology and an iPad-based scanner to let visitors schedule ride passes before their visit. If visitors wanted to ride Space Mountain in the morning and Splash Mountain in the afternoon, they could schedule their time in advance and not have to wait in long lines. When they enter the park, visitors would be given an RFID-enabled wrist band that they will scan at the entrance to each attraction. Their information would then be sent to a nearby Disney employee who is equipped with the iPad. Disney World is reportedly testing this system for a few weeks starting in May. There's a first-person report of the test experience at the Touring Plans blog. The system, known as either X-Pass or FASTPASS+, may not use iPads for the final system. [Via MacNN]
iPads aid Disney's Imagineers in expansion of Magic Kingdom
Disney has posted a pretty cool video that shows how their "Imagineers" are using iPads to monitor and make changes to the New Fantasyland at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. Using proprietary Disney software on the iPad, which allows Imagineers to view and manipulate a 3D digital rendering of Fantasyland, the Imagineers can communicate with the engineers and contractors working in the field to immediately see if any conflicts of design vs. practicality emerge. If there are any conflicts, the contractors can use the iPad's built-in cameras to photograph or record the areas in question. If there's a conversation to be had, they can kick off meetings right on the spot with Cisco's WebEx for iPad software. Check out the video below to see the whole process as well as some cool behind-the-scenes footage of how a theme park is built. It's wonderful to see Apple's "magical and revolutionary" device helping create magical and fantastic places.
Disney converting Droid Eris into GPS tour guide (update: video!)
If you shed a tear when Verizon put the Droid Eris out to pasture, it's time to dry your eyes; it seems the handset's found greener fields in Florida, at Epcot Center to be precise. That's right, Walt Disney World is reportedly testing out Verizon's HTC Hero as a GPS navigator and tour guide for the entire park, complete with shopping discounts, special bonuses and up-to-the-minute wait times for rides. How or when you'll get your hands on one is presently up in the air, though the man who snapped these shots told Mickey Updates the phones may be an inexpensive addition to your vacation -- perhaps like the $10 BREW-based Mobile Magic application Verizon and Disney introduced last year. Here's hoping that chunky case includes an extended battery -- there's no way a stock Eris could last as long as Nintendo's guide. Update: A video walkthrough of the whole shebang is posted after the break. Thanks, Matt! %Gallery-99188% [Thanks, Durango Jim]
Walt Disney World on 5 apps a week
We did a write-up of apps used at Disneyland and Walt Disney World back in November, but I just spent a week at Walt Disney World where my daughter got married, and wanted to add some personal perspective on my experience with five iPhone/iPod touch apps for seven days. There are a lot of apps out for Walt Disney World, but from reviews both here and anywhere else I could find, I decided upon, and bought, five of them. The quality of these apps ranged from beautiful but arcane, to incredibly useful. The most eye-catching of all the apps has to be The Walt Disney World Maps Boxed Set US$3.99 [iTunes Link]. This set contains maps of all four parks: Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios and Epcot, along with Downtown Disney, Blizzard Beach, Typhoon Lagoon and the Orlando International Airport tossed in for good measure. Maps of each of the parks can be bought individually for US$.99. When running the app, you are presented with the main screen which goes black for a few seconds and then re-appears. Odd. Tapping on any of the parks gives you a detailed "cartoony-looking" map that can be pinched and stretched to an extent. You can't pinch any map enough to see the entire park on one screen. This means that you really have to know basically what you're looking for before the app can be of much help, and since the map has no text of what the buildings represent, it's hit or miss. At least it was until I found the spyglass button which brings up a screen that searches attractions either by A to Z, by location, or by category. Choosing one brings up a screen with the name, a one line description, and some additional information.
Mousing around: A review of Disney theme park iPhone apps
My wife and I are unabashed Disneyphiles, so the last two months have been a lot of fun. After my wife taught a tutorial in L.A. last month, we spent a few days at the West Coast properties -- Disneyland and California Adventure. This month, we had some Disney Vacation Club points left over, so we spent five days at our "home" resort near Disney's Animal Kingdom, Epcot, the Magic Kingdom, and Disney's Hollywood Studios. I thought these trips would be a perfect opportunity to try out some of the many travel apps that have sprung up for the iPhone, all of which purport to be the solution to all of your Disney dining, lodging, and theme park information needs. As with any genre of app, there are a mixture of good and bad apps available. Since the Thanksgiving holiday weekend is generally a big time to visit the parks, here's a quick tour of a few of the apps that my wife and I used on our trips so you can load up your iPhone if you're going to visit The Mouse over the holidays.
Walt Disney World Notescast for iPhone: one Disnerd's review
To start with: I am a Disney fan -- to be precise, it's a lot like the way Jack Nicholson is a Laker fan -- so on my very nearly annual expeditions to a Disney park, I don't really need the map. I have memorized shortcuts and low-traffic restrooms, how to get all the good stuff done in one day, and loads more random bits (look closely in the Hall Of Presidents; molds for their faces are used on other animatronics around the park), mostly because carrying them around in my head was the easiest way to carry them. Then I got my iPhone (my first smartphone) and was able to put data on my phone (which I always carry with me). Enter the Walt Disney World Notescast. This $0.99 app is a handy planning/informational tool that can guide your entire Walt Disney World trip, from vacation packages to tips on annual events and park history. I tested the iPhone version of this app, but TimeStream Software also sells a $1.99 version for notes-capable classic iPods and nanos. It doesn't rely on a data connection and you can carry all this info with you easily.When you first launch the application, you get a list of options to choose from. I liked the variety of options, but I wish I could customize or at least re-order it so I could get at a few of the options more quickly. There is a bookmark system available, but I ended up bookmarking a lot of things so that list went non-functional pretty quickly. And while I understand not having a ton of information on one page, I had a hard time figuring out why there were breaks between, for example, "Tours of EPCOT I" and "Tours of EPCOT II". I love the list of phone numbers, especially since I can tap the number to make the call. In the now cutthroat world of Disney Dining, having that number handy -- as well as the ticket line and even the camping and Magical Express numbers, not usually easy to find on the WDW site -- is a huge convenience.
Walt Disney World to start fingerprinting everyone
There aren't that many places (yet) where you have to provide biometric data to gain access. Usually they're limited to high-security areas, you know, places like nuclear research facilities, airports, libraries (!) and by the end of this month, Walt Disney World. Oh yes, the Magic Kingdom will soon be taking fingerprints of its visitors at all four Orlando-area theme parks, and is well on its way becoming a real nation-state, given that it already issues passports and has a standing army of costumed characters (and let's not even speak of their monstrous robot dominion). Disney says that this is to prevent ticket fraud and officials claim that the company is not actually taking "fingerprints," but rather, mathematical representations of fingerprints, as calculated by series of points measured on a fingerprint. A little math never hurt anymore, right? Except when it can be tied to an individual's identity, a record of their whereabouts, and corresponding physical traits. It's a world of hopes and a world of fears, indeed.[Via BoingBoing]
