Walt Disney World’s Ambitious Payments Renovation

For the past year, Disney has been testing its MagicBand contactless payment system among a limited number of employees and Walt Disney World resort patrons. The infrastructure has been incorporated across multiple Disney World parks and hotels to enable patrons to make payments with just a wave of a hand using a waterproof and heat-resistant wristband. The device stores a digital token that links the patron’s credit card, hotel key, theme park ticket, and Fastpass. The band communicates wirelessly with payment terminals, hotel doors, and scanners that have been installed at park entrances and at each ride. Disney’s MagicBand also is designed to be used with Disney’s smartphone app. The band’s functions are essentially the same as those on the wireless plastic Key to the World cards given to Disney hotel patrons, with the exception of the Fastpass service. The contactless reader in the terminal does not read Visa PayWave, MasterCard PayPass, or other common formats, so the only way to make a contactless payment is to use Disney’s card or wristband. Disney’s approach is somewhat similar to how Starbucks designed its mobile payments app by building upon an existing technology.

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From “A Peek at Walt Disney World’s Ambitious Payments Renovation”
Payment Source (09/12/13) Wolfe, Daniel