Will Disney finally streamline the turnstile process?
There is some great news this morning coming out of Lou Mongello’s Disney World Trivia website. According to Lou, the finger-scanning system found in the turnstiles at Disney World’s theme parks will be going away and replaced with a barcode scanner that will read information on your ticket…
Disney will be installing barcode readers at the turnstiles. Now, instead of scanning your finger, you will simply swipe your card and gain entry. No more choosing which hand or finger, waiting for people to get it “just right” - it will be a quick, automated process. I think this is a wonderful idea, as no longer will Guest interaction and familiarity with the process determine how long it takes to gain entry. As long as the card contains valid entry media on it, the Guest can gain access. Will this possibly allow people to use a card form someone else in their party? Probably. Is that a big deal? Not likely.
Lou is exactly right on many levels here. First, this is a VERY good thing and I simply can’t wait for this to happen. The finger-scanning system is just plain awful and holds up lines at the turnstiles and that is just not necessary. If they were actually using the finger-scanning system to validate that the right person is holding the ticket then that would understanable, but the system doesn’t even do that with much accuracy. We have all handed out the wrong tickets to our party and still have gotten in. That fact has always made me grind my teeth every time I needed to wait for people to get this silly system right.
Also, I agree with Lou on the last part of that paragraph. I never understood why Disney would care what I did with the park days I purchased. As long as I am not leaving the park and handing off my card to someone else on the same day, I think letting someone use your unused days is just fine.
Jerren said,
March 6, 2008 @ 4:33 pm
The original reason for the fingerprint scanners and the previous hand geometry biometric devices was to make sure people where not swapping tickets. I think this is more of a problem in DL than WDW but it works like this, a group of say 11 teens want to enter the park, six buy tickets and go in, the other five wait outside at a pre-determined location. The sixth man gathers all the tickets and goes out and meets the rest of the group and they all go back in together via a different set of turnstiles/security. Of course you can do it with two or three tickets and screw the gate even worse but with a greater chance of getting caught. Disney had to add a bit of tolerance into the system, allowing for multiple fingers/hands for groups who did not put names on their tickets which of course defeats the purpose. I for one would be happy if they only did the checks for folks who where not staying on Disney property as since they are charge cards not many people would lend out their keys to the kingdom cards.
Of course none of this would be an issue if they lowered the price at the gate and went back to ticket books,