4 ms·

>I don't understand though - why the fingerprint? Disney first started using the biometric turnstiles about 10 years back to stop people from sharing season pa

by ben1040 14y ago

>I don't understand though - why the fingerprint? Disney first started using the biometric turnstiles about 10 years back to stop people from sharing season passes, and then a few years later they added it for plain old multi-day tickets. It used to be that there were folks lingering in every Denny's and IHOP parking lot on International Drive in Orlando, buying and selling partially used multi-day theme park tickets. The marginal price increase for adding an additional day drops quite a bit for every day you add to a ticket - so you could have bought a 10 day ticket for not all that much more than a 5-day, used half, and sold the rest to someone else. The fingerprint scan is done so that the ticket is biometrically locked to the person who first uses them, thus killing that secondary market for partially used tickets.

edouard1234567 14y ago
I'm guessing they did that because most kids don't carry ids with them? Otherwise requesting an id seems simpler?
- cpa 14y ago
  But less efficient as it probably takes more time to check an id…
  - hmbg 14y ago
    I'm guessing an automatic ID reader is a lot cheaper than a fingerprint reader. Most long-distance buses around here have them, so you don't have to bring a ticket (just book with your id number). It might be easier to spoof an ID reader, but I bet it would be hard enough to seriously hamper the second hand market for day passes at least.
- wallywax 14y ago
  For a while (not sure if they're still doing it), they were checking IDs for multi-day ticket holders at Disneyland in California (no fingerprint readers there). It slowed the lines down massively. I've been to both parks many times, and the fingerprint readers are immensely faster than checking IDs. For annual passes, they scan the pass and your picture comes up on the screen, but that's not as practical for a 3-day ticket.
joezydeco 14y ago
And, to to get more meta, why didn't the OP ask the Disney staff what the fingerprint was for? It's not that hard of a question and you have to be 99.99% certain that the staff is trained to handle questions like this. I'm sure he thought about this question the entire visit before rushing home to write an urgent blog post, which is sad because it probably ruined his trip a little.
- wpietri 14y ago
  My experience generally with front-line staff making people follow policies is that they have no idea why the policy exists. I expect to have to go up one or two levels in the hierarchy before I find somebody who can talk sensibly. So I could understand him not bothering. Also, he was clearly startled the first time, and then mad the second time. The blog post may have only occurred to him later.
  - mgamache 14y ago
    FYI, I visited on a multi-day pass (4 days this last week). I didn't rush home to post, in fact, I did it on my last night after packing for home so I wouldn't lose the motivation and things were still fresh in my mind. Also, the front line staff was pretty clueless (IMO). I was told it's for our 'guest's convenience'. However, I didn't really engage in a deep discussion with them because my family was waiting to have the fun I promised.

by ben1040 14y ago

edouard1234567 14y ago

I'm guessing they did that because most kids don't carry ids with them? Otherwise requesting an id seems simpler?

cpa 14y ago
But less efficient as it probably takes more time to check an id…
- hmbg 14y ago
  I'm guessing an automatic ID reader is a lot cheaper than a fingerprint reader. Most long-distance buses around here have them, so you don't have to bring a ticket (just book with your id number). It might be easier to spoof an ID reader, but I bet it would be hard enough to seriously hamper the second hand market for day passes at least.
wallywax 14y ago
For a while (not sure if they're still doing it), they were checking IDs for multi-day ticket holders at Disneyland in California (no fingerprint readers there). It slowed the lines down massively. I've been to both parks many times, and the fingerprint readers are immensely faster than checking IDs. For annual passes, they scan the pass and your picture comes up on the screen, but that's not as practical for a 3-day ticket.

joezydeco 14y ago

And, to to get more meta, why didn't the OP ask the Disney staff what the fingerprint was for? It's not that hard of a question and you have to be 99.99% certain that the staff is trained to handle questions like this. I'm sure he thought about this question the entire visit before rushing home to write an urgent blog post, which is sad because it probably ruined his trip a little.

wpietri 14y ago
My experience generally with front-line staff making people follow policies is that they have no idea why the policy exists. I expect to have to go up one or two levels in the hierarchy before I find somebody who can talk sensibly. So I could understand him not bothering. Also, he was clearly startled the first time, and then mad the second time. The blog post may have only occurred to him later.
- mgamache 14y ago
  FYI, I visited on a multi-day pass (4 days this last week). I didn't rush home to post, in fact, I did it on my last night after packing for home so I wouldn't lose the motivation and things were still fresh in my mind. Also, the front line staff was pretty clueless (IMO). I was told it's for our 'guest's convenience'. However, I didn't really engage in a deep discussion with them because my family was waiting to have the fun I promised.