First Grandjoy @ Disney (2016)

I published a monthly newsletter to internal subscribers at Union Pacific on innovation and trends in the mobile industry. This article was first published in March 2016 as a "special report" after taking our first grandjoy to Disney World.

My wife and I wanted to take our children to Disney, but they thought it would be boring (teenagers), so we never went to Florida. We decided to go ourselves after becoming empty nestors and last year decided we would take each grandchild individually around 7 years old while Disney would still be magical.?Our oldest grandjoy Ashlynn turned 7 in January, so we took her for a "long weekend".

LG Gizmo:?Coolest Wearable

My son-in-law purchased an LG Gizmo for Ashlynn - a new mobile device that is only available on the Verizon network. This is a kid-friendly version of a "smart watch"?that is only able to call 4 pre-programmed numbers and has a GPS tracker that the account holder can use to view the child's location.?The device isn't able to download apps, but is an AMAZING alternative to getting a small child a mobile phone to send/receive calls for safety.?The GPS tracking lets her parents watch which park she is at on a Google Map and live the vacation vicariously - plus interact / talk with her at anytime / anywhere.

Entertainment on Airplane

Ashlynn had never flown on an airplane and I was worried she'd be VERY bored. I brought along my iPad with shows downloaded the previous night from Amazon Prime, so she would have "in-flight movies" to make time "fly faster". I'm a big fan of the Amazon Prime eco-system - offline viewing, an intuitive UI with factoids from X-Ray (IMDb) (X-Ray gives details about actors in scene (plus other films), details on plot, and even the music playing in background). I notice passengers in most rows have smartphones or tablets - rarely a laptop.?Our row of six seats had 2 tablets, 2 phablets and 1 smartphone (me).?I'm surprised the US airlines STILL DON'T have screens on the back of EACH seat for in-flight entertainment like most Asian Airlines !??Cathy Pacific (HK) in the mid-1990s had them for kids to watch movies or rent video games to play.??US airlines are missing a HUGE opportunity to sell content and/or services.?Do you think passengers are more likely to pay for a pop & snack or to watch a movie, watch TV or listen to streaming music ?

Arrival at Orlando Airport

Our direct flight on SouthWest left Omaha (OMA) at 5:30am CT and arrived in Orlando (MCO) at 9:30am ET (~3 hours). This railroader starts the vacation by getting the front car on the MCO monorail to the main terminal for baggage claims. Most travelers don't walk to the "far cars" and enter the first door that opens - I highly recommend walking to the end to ride the front car and get an amazing view - plus you'll be the first passengers to exit at the terminal and beat the crowd.

If you stay on property at a Disney hotel - you don't actually pickup your checked luggage - Goofy does it for you.?:-) You just take your carry-ons and head to the Disney Magical Express (airport bus).?The attendant scans your MagicBand (shipped to your home before the trip) and confirms your itinerary before directing you to the queue for your bus to the hotel.

Hotel Check-In @ Art of Animation

We stayed at a more kid friendly hotel - Art of Animation, which features themed rooms from Cars, Lion King & Little Mermaid. This is a very bright and fun hotel with lots of laughing in the lobby.?We find an attendant with an iPad that scans our MagicBand and assists us with finding our room (we had signed up for email notification of room#, but arrived before noon, so didn't get it). Although we arrived early for check-in our room was ready.?Our concierge asked if we were celebrating anything special (e.g. birthdays or any first time visitors).?We told the concierge it was Ashlynn's "First Visit" to WDW, so she got a special button. This is used by all Disney employees as a way to engage and acknowledge the special event(s).?This will move in the near future to part of the data stored on your MagicBand with "beacons" to inform and/or hand-held scanners that employees can read the same way that the special buttons currently work.?Our luggage from the airport will be delivered directly to our room in a couple of hours.

We checkout the room and drop-off our carry-ons before getting lunch.?The complex is huge !?We walk through the Lion King buildings before finally coming to the Little Mermaid complex.?Ashlynn is excited that her MagicBand can open the hotel door and gives it a try ... CLICK - we're in !??I learn that the TV not only has every Disney channel, but provides info available on the Disney mobile app?(e.g.?event info or extended park hours) for people without a smartphone or unaware of the app.

Disney Property Transportation

WDW in Florida is over 40 square miles and physically twice as big as Manhattan island.?This make mass transportation a key for getting around - there are trains, trams, boats and buses.?We catch a Disney bus to Disney Springs (formerly Downtown Disney) for lunch & shopping (the mall is open to the public).?Our last visit to WDW we met an intern working on a live GPS tracking mobile app for the buses;?I'm disappointed this has not been implemented yet.?It turns out that the logistics are VERY complex and the buses are not run on an simple schedule, but routes are dynamic and often change on a moments notice.??

We go to Wolfgang Puck's to eat (Ashlynn LOVES sushi).?We use our MagicBands to access our pre-paid meal plan to pay for lunch, then checkout the shops for my tradition of getting a baseball hat for collecting Disney pins.?Ashlynn likes the idea of collecting pins and gets a traditional pin lanyard,?plus a few presents for little sisters and baby brother.?The MagicBand can not only be used for paying for meals, but ANYTHING by putting cash in your Magic account or linking your CC with PIN verification (create a unique PIN on Disney account and not your bank account).?Disney is working to also enable Apple Pay this year at all stores on Disney properties.? The afternoon of shopping quickly passes and we start planning our transportation from Disney Springs to the Grand Floridian for dinner and then across the lake to Magic Kingdom for the evening.?It is not uncommon to spend 30-60 minutes on transportation, plus waiting 15-30 minutes for your bus or boat to your destination (this is why I really hoped that mobile transportation app was done).

Disney Photographers (PhotoPass)

Ashlynn is excited to use her MagicBand as her ticket to get into Magic Kingdom.?The first thing you see in Magic Kingdom walking down Main Street is Cinderella's castle in the background.?This sight is SO powerful that Disney has professional photographers every 20 feet with a total of over a dozen to take your picture - all you have to do is pick how close you want to be to the castle ! Grandpa is so excited he takes a picture of Grandma & Ashlynn and gets in line at the first professional photographer available. The PhotoPass app has a map showing hundreds of photographers. MagicBand linked photos to our account last time, but didn't appear in the mobile app until AFTER our trip (photographer camera cards used all day and turned in after end-shift, then uploaded to accounts). Cameras now are connected to the "Tinkerbell Cloud" and uploaded in minutes to view in the Disney mobile app.?WOW !!!

The professional photographer is on the left edge in the middle picture with the lighted tripod in the picture I took. The professional photographer picture on the right in the mobile app is 1000 times better and you can view it immediately.?If you didn't pre-purchase the memory maker, you can still see the photos, just with a bold watermark across the image.?These photos once purchased can be posted to social media or developed into prints for putting in the family scrapbook album.?

Wearables other than MagicBand

We head to the bus terminal outside of Magic Kingdom after a FUN and BUSY half day at Disney World.?Judy looks at her?FitBit?and says she has taken over 15,000 steps in JUST a HALF DAY at Disney and wonders how much a full day of steps she will take.?We're the first people in line for the bus and have to wait for more people to come before the bus can depart for the Art of Animation resort. The bus driver tells us even driving a bus all day he has taken over 8,000 step - showing us his Apple Watch.?He also demonstrates for Ashlynn the "Mickey Mouse" face built into the watch that takes the classic design and animates Mickey by making him DANCE. I' ve noticed during the day that MANY people (guests AND employees) have FitBits (cheaper than Apple Watch & focused on fitness).

Disney Characters (Next Gen)

I'm a Star Wars fan and excited about the Star Wars addition will be completed in ???? Disney gives guests a preview in the "Launch Bay" of the coming attractions - but the most amazing part is next-gen characters and the customer experience.? Most animated characters don't talk (e.g. Mickey, Minnie, or Pluto) and just mime, although some cast members are trained to speak similar to "people characters" (e.g. Cinderella or Princess Elsa or Princess Anna from Frozen) at special character events.

Chewbacca & Kylo Ren are full suits with voice synthesizers that the employee can say words that are spoken in the voice. This has a HUGE impact on the experience.?Chewie roars in various volumes and phrases and challenges you to hear your roar. He says I did so-so shaking his paw and proceeds to let me know how short I am (just 6' 4") by placing his arm on my shoulder. The result is this picture (which I really like).?Kylo Ren is VERY intimidating and s-c-a-r-y.?He gets in your face and says he sees "Dark in you" but you need training.?My response was showing mental strength through my facial expression and arms crossed. The 5 year boy with his family before me was VERY scared and didn't want to look at the camera - he just kept an eye on Kylo Ren. Disney says the next step is using beacons to share your name & birthday from your MagicBand and broadcast it to Kylo Ren to speak your name and acknowledge your birthday.?This will all be voluntary like the buttons (so no confidential information about a child is used without parent's permission).?The BIG DREAM for Disney shared on an earning call a few years ago is enabling using characters for impromptu stealth crowd control to draw guests AWAY from congested areas & improve traffic flow.

Mobile Battery Life

We learned on our last trip to Disney that our smartphones ran out of juice around lunch from constant use of the camera app and posting pictures to FaceBook. I discovered turning location services OFF for FaceBook helps save battery life, but still doesn't solve the problem.?I've come to expect outlets as a commodity, but at Disney it's a VERY RARE thing.?We purchased from Amazon prior to our trip a backup battery with enough juice to charge both our phones.?I forgot to charge our backup battery one day and got lucky that the lobby at the Brown Derby had an outlet for charging my phone and battery.

I thought it was a little ironic where the outlet was located to charge our iPhone.?:-)

CX:?Transactions vs. Interactions

Customer Experience (CX) is the core of Disney.?This is why they are able to charge premium prices and where UP want to go. All Disney employees are told that every guest will have bad experiences, but the goal is for the good to outweigh bad by 10:1. Each employee is enabled and expected to give a guest that memory/experience that is so amazing they tell friends about it. This is referred to as "transactions versus interactions" using an actual example.?A woman with the official job of selling popcorn from a mobile cart in the Main Street courtyard saw a couple of elderly women talking pictures individually of each other.?The employee "left her responsibility" (getting potential transaction of popcorn sales) to interact with guests by asking to take pictures of the two of them together.?A letter was sent 6 months later thanking the unknown employee for taking the picture.?The two women were sisters and one of them had been diagnosed with terminal cancer.?The picture not only gave a memory of the last time the sisters spent at the happiest place on Earth, but was enlarged and used at the funeral for the family to celebrate her life.

Do you think this family would ever consider returning to Disney ??

Do you think cost is a deciding factor for returning to Disney ?

We were given a pager (like most restaurants use) while waiting for a special character breakfast at the Grand Floridian and told to enjoy browsing the shops while waiting for our table.?These are some of the most expensive stores at Disney and out of our price range, but it gave us something to do while waiting for our table.?Ashlynn had just gone to Bibbidi Bobbidi?(beauty salon) that transforms girls into their favorite princess (costume dress, hair style, tiara, makeup, nail polish & magic wand that lights up). The employee behind the cash register "left her responsibility" and started interacting with Ashlynn.?She addressed her as "Princess" and asked if she could get her autograph.?The employee grabbed a book behind the counter and a fancy pen for her to sign her name and continued to talk with her for nearly 15 minutes - AWESOME !?This put a HUGE smile on Ashlynn's face (and her grandparents), plus grew her confidence.?Although the beauty salon package cost $200 - it was worth EVERY PENNY.

CX:?Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique

I have learned that you can get into parks BEFORE official opening time by having breakfast reservations at a restaurant. You have to get up a little bit earlier to catch one of the special buses (running every 30 minutes instead of 10-15 minutes), but on this day there was a Disney MARATHON at WDW !?This happened to us a previous year and experience taught us that about half the pool of buses are removed from regular routes/service to shuttle all the runners to the starting line. We were told there would probably be just one bus and to be STANDING AT the bus stop around 6am to make our breakfast. My wife was smart enough to realize this wasn't going to happen - Grandpa is morning person, but 3 people using a single bathroom to get ready was going to take too long.?We got lucky that the day after the marathon we were able to get an appointment at the beauty salon (a.k.a. Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique) with all the runner families sleeping.?I was expecting Ashlynn would "get her hair done", but this was another over-the-top Disney experience.?My wife is a very sensitive (and emotional) person.?She started crying after seeing Ashlynn try on her Cinderella costume dress.?You spend about 30 minutes with the stylist and a professional photographer taking pictures (although Grandma & Grandpa took a few). There is a special ingredient called "Fairy Dust" (glitter that is sprinkled on each little girl's hair). One of the assistants was touched by my wife, asked her if she also needed a little "Fairy Dust".?She continued crying, smiled and said yes.?

I will confess that I was holding back tears at the end seeing our grand-daughter being transformed into Cinderella !

CX:?Lost Prescription

There are many great restaurants at Disney World with some of the best at specific resorts.?We stayed at the Coronado Springs Resort last year and ate at the Mayan Grill.?The food was not only some of the best, but so was the service and LIVE music. We had an amazing time, but were a little exhausted from a long day and my wife accidentally left her prescription medication on the table (it has to be taken with food so you don't get nauseous).?She didn't remember until the next morning looking for her pills before getting ready for breakfast.?We HAD to go get her medication, but this was going to take several hours getting a couple of buses to the restaurant (buses only go from resorts to parks, NOT resort to resort), plus the restaurant was closed for breakfast and who would we contact/meet to pickup the pills ??I then noticed the phone in our room had a blinking light that we had a message (I figured it was the gift shop reminding us that packages purchased the previously in the park were ready for pickup - this is a great FREE service that saves carrying sacks throughout the day and getting lost or damaged). The message was from our waiter just before midnight saying he found our pills and had them delivered to the concierge at the front desk of our resort (which we walk past each day to board any bus to a park) !?Our problem evaporated and we returned to the "Happiest Place on Earth".?I later thought about how much work it took to plan the logistics for numerous employees to deliver a single package so quickly in the middle of the night and COMMUNICATE to us where to get the package.

CX:?SouthWest Airlines FAILURE

It's a sad time the day you have to leave WDW, but Disney even tries to make this a good experience by letting you check-in your luggage at the resort instead of at the airport.?We unfortunately were told by the attendant that he couldn't assist us, since SouthWest Airlines had CANCELLED our flight (not delayed - cancelled or in railroad speak FULLY ANNULLED).?Disney allowed us to board the Magic Bus to the airport early to talk with a SouthWest representative to book another flight.

Our flight home was not direct, but through Chicago (which was getting snow) and the SWA representative told us the soonest flight to Omaha through Chicago was Sunday (4 days later).?He routed us through Denver instead of Chicago and booked us a flight for Friday (still 2 days later than planned).?We scrambled to get a room at the Hyatt hotel at the airport (it filled up fast). If we had been notified by SouthWest at Disney, we could have spent the additional time at Disney ... WIN-WIN ! ... instead we got stranded at the airport for 2 days and Hyatt charged us $365 PER NIGHT.?If I had to do it all over again, I'd have purchased one-way tickets on Frontier that day or the next and gotten home sooner and probably even saved money.?I was so frustrated that I was ready to put SouthWest on my "Do-NOT-Fly list" (even forfeiting our previously earned free tickets).?We did finally get an email from SouthWest around noon letting us know our flight at 3pm had been cancelled.?We also had to call our veterinarian and tell him our dogs would need to stay at the kennel until Saturday (our flight would not arrive in Omaha until after they closed). Customers want good prices, but Customer Experience is a VERY BIG factor and Frontier is worth the price for a direct flight, plus doing a better job of modifying logistics due to weather instead of just abandoning customers (I got stranded in Chicago several years ago during snow; Southwest LOCKED the terminal doors at Midway and forced everyone to sleep on the floor). We were tired of airport life and "a little excited" to finally board a plane for home and leave the MCO airport.?#grandPAsmile

Just a reminder on term: #grandMAsmile (princess smile) &#grandPAsmile (goofy grin).

CX:?Disney wrote the Book

Exceeding?expectations rather than simply satisfying them is the cornerstone of the Disney approach to customer service. This book from the Disney Institute helps see new possibilities through concepts not found in the typical workplace, revealing even more of the business behind the magic of quality service.?I purchased this book after our previous visit to Disney and seeing it for sale in stores throughout the parks.?The introduction is by Tom Skaggs (COO) and was expected to become CEO in 2018 after the retirement of Bob Iger.?The Disney Board recently decided that the future CEO of Disney will need to have a strong technology background and be creative to grow and strengthen the Disney Customer Experience.

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