New Park Entry Method at WDW
 

While there last week, WDW unveiled a new method of getting into the parks that gets rid of turnstiles and gates.

They affix a little Mickey sticker to your pass and activate it. You then walk up to a pole with a Mickey head stuck on top and wave the sticker at it. A light then comes on for your biometric finger reading. If all passes and you get a green light, you can just walk right in.

It must have been the first day of testing because I would swear the entire IT deparment was standing there watching :D

Right now, they have 4 or 5 sections installed with 3-4 poles each. I don't know how it would work when they have thousands trying to get into a park on a busy day. There are no barriers to entry at all in that area. Putting them up would defeat, IMHO, the purpose of making going through the turnstiles easier/faster.

It was pretty slow last week and using the new system we got into the park pretty quickly. We didn't try when it was busier and they were closed when we returned in the evening.

We only saw them in Epcot.

FWIW - it has been years since we went to WDW the week before Thanksgiving and had forgotten just how ideal it is to go at that time. We were walking onto all of the most popular rides. Of course, the closer it got to the weekend the busier it got, but it was all relative. There were no waits for Space Mountain on Tues night, and only 20 minutes on Thursday night. That's unheard of most of the time. Oh, and the weather is nearly perfect. Perhaps we'll swap out our usual Nov Hawaii trip for Disney going forward.

I can't comment on the new entry procedure, but IME, the first two weeks in December are slow too. The downside is that they seem to do a lot of maintenance then, so some rides/attractions/shows may not be open.

Glad you liked our weather, we have had a great fall so far.

Yep, my favorite week(s) of the year as well. Low crowds, lower hotel costs, ideal weather, few Brazilians and Jerseyites, etc.

Best time of year I have ever found.

I went last year during 1st week of December. Weather was perfect, but they were filming the Christmas day show. There were tons of extras in the park to fill the crowd shots and we had to listen to Mariah lip-syncing the same sound clips all day long.

We used to go every year for a week the second week of Nov. We then started going to Hawaii that week and would go to Disney for long weekends. We may cut back a Hawaii trip and start going to Disney again around that time.

Dec is very slow too, except for the weekends. Unfortunately, it's not a good time for us.

:D No Brazilians to be found this trip. The Jerseyites go whatever week election day falls. We avoid that one as well :) It was a bit busy our first few days because it was the tail end of Jersey week and Veterans Day fell that weekend too. It didn't bother us because we knew that once Monday rolled along, we'd have the place to ourselves (relatively) and we did ^

ACCCKKKK. I would have left the park :)

As it is, I'm already sick and tired of holiday music :D

If it saves time at the entry gates.. then I'm all for it.:)

Having my family go last year around December 15th.. I noticed it was pretty busy for a slow week..

I believe it was due to the shortened hours that the parks open up for the crowds.. I actually preferred Christmas week going to the parks because the park hours were open early and late.. Sometimes MK was open 8 am and closed 1 or 2 am..

Christmas Day at MK wasn't too bad neither, for having sold out.. my wife and I were pleasantly surprised..

Plus, to help all the patrons get seats for meals, all theme parks offered hours where quick serve was 30% off to entire general public.. We saved a tonne of $$$, and the eats and selection seemed affordable with the discount..

Mary, just got back from four nights at WDW and the entry procedure you describe was nowhere to be found. We entered every park, including EPCOT, by inserting our room card into the turnstile and then getting our fingerprint read. Worked fine.

Hmmmm. Maybe it didn't work out during the tests. The poles were set up on the far-left hand side as you approach the entrance to Epcot. But they're hard to see, since, well, they're only poles with Mickey heads on them. You may have thought they were decorations :D I'm going next month and will check it out and see if I can find out what happened. My annual pass still has the special sticker on it for the pole-reader :)

The adding a mickey sticker to the pass and activating is an extra step.. for what? Never understood this extra step and what it does to act as security..

Seems to me the fingerprint is as effective as anything possible.. without having to add the extra step..

What ARE you talking about? They were special stickers given out during the trial of the new entry method - ONLY. They are of a special material the new machines can read. It was only for the test, since our passes would still work.

I'm sure if the test works or worked out, the entire pass would be made of the material and since it is only waved in front of the machine, it's actually faster.

I explained it all in my first post - which I guess you didn't bother to read before responding.

I heard somewhere that the machine does not read your fingerprint; it measures the shape and dimensions of your finger.

Not sure which it is.

I was aware yes, that it was a test of the entry method and responded in that context. The test revealed that having a sticker didn't necessarily make it faster.. and adds that extra step that clogs up lines activating the sticker..

So lesson learned, and thank goodness WDW doesn't add to the complexity needlessly.. Plus what happens if a sticker is lost? Reactivate that again? How would one verify 100% of identity without the finger print anyway.. Perhaps lose the pass and run the finger print only after the first entry.. that'll save time..

I heard some where the finger print reader reads a portion or a small part of a finger print..

And you know this how? The lines were moving faster during the test. The biometric reading still had to be done. Again, all that is in my first post.

Like I said, the sticker was temporary for a test. I was told the tickets would be made from the material that the sticker was made from.

Funny, your first post in this thread said you thought it would be a great idea.