Universal's Epic Universe General News & Discussion

[PerceptiveCoot]

Say what you will about Disney, but they are stepping up their game. This is a walkthrough of the new Hong Kong Disney Frozen land. I can imagine something similar to how HTTYD will feel (in a way).

Wait are they doing previews already?

 

[OrlLover]

My thoughts concerning this whole rivalry is that it only really applies to the Orlando market. Universal is still trying to catch up in market share in California.

It seems like Disney is not willing to invest into too much in the states until their current overseas projects are finished. I didn’t have any expectations with D23. So I was indifferent on the slate of announcements.

I will give Uni credit for trying to address their capacity issues all at once but to act like this park is going to cause Disney to drop several notches down in the theme park game in Orlando is silly and delusional.

Don’t get me wrong Disney certainly has more competition with the completion of Epic but to be honest I don’t feel they are truly in the position financially to really counter Uni at the moment.

They tend to do less of this in Orlando, especially. I’d lovveeeee for this somewhere in the states.

Technically New Fantasyland is the last thing they built of this similar caliber. Of course the execution is much better on this but to say they don’t build these type of lands in Orlando is false.

 

[darkridelover]

Say what you will about Disney, but they are stepping up their game. This is a walkthrough of the new Hong Kong Disney Frozen land. I can imagine something similar to how HTTYD will feel (in a way).

That really benefits from having an actual real mountain in the background. Looks great though

 

[saint.piss]

 

[Jake S]

I can not overstate how much I loathe the facial recognition aspect of this park.

 

[Mad Dog]

I can not overstate how much I loathe the facial recognition aspect of this park.

I remember the facial recognition the USO deluxe hotels used for the Express passes. It was unreliable, terrible, slow, and they quit using it for a time. After experiencing it for a good number of visits, I sure agree with you. Perhaps the tech has improved, but that was just the years before covid, so it hasn't been long ago.

 

[Jake S]

I remember the facial recognition the USO deluxe hotels used for the Express passes. It was unreliable, terrible, slow, and they quit using it for a time. After experiencing it for a good number of visits, I sure agree with you. Perhaps the tech has improved, but that was just the years before covid, so it hasn't been long ago.

It's also a solution in search of a problem. I don't need or want Comcast scanning my face for some minor convenience. (For the record I'm also not a fan of these parks scanning our fingerprints for entry)

 

[OrlLover]

It's also a solution in search of a problem. I don't need or want Comcast scanning my face for some minor convenience. (For the record I'm also not a fan of these parks scanning our fingerprints for entry)

I don’t think that’s necessarily the case here as I’m pretty sure this will save them money in the long run not having to have tons of staff working the turnstiles in front of the park.

 

[Jake S]

I don’t think that’s necessarily the case here as I’m pretty sure this will save them money in the long run not having to have tons of staff working the turnstiles in front of the park.

Should have been more clear: I think from a guest experience perspective it’s a solution in search of a problem.

 

[GAcoaster]

They (and every just about every public place) are already using facial recognition as well as tracking your phone everywhere. Universal is just being honest about using it and positing it as an advantage to not have to use a ticket, or magic band, or even your phone for admission. It will be just like the newer style security scanners where traffic continuously flows with only the occasional hiccup when someone does not have an admission ticket. Rather than the lines of people trying to get their media to scan and/or fingerprint.

I don't know about anyone else, but it always feels like I end up in the line where they have no idea whose ticket it whose, and which finger they scanned, or even where their tickets are. To not have that hassle I'll live with facial recognition-- if you leave your house you really should have no expectation of not being on cameras and facial recognition software scanning you.

Universal has been using this technology and perfecting it on the employee gate for years and it works.

 

[Tomfoolery]

I can not overstate how much I loathe the facial recognition aspect of this park.

Not just this park but will be added to all of the resort, yes volcano bay too, and for ride lockers ,

 

[Jake S]

if you leave your house you really should have no expectation of not being on cameras and facial recognition software scanning you.

I could not disagree with this more strongly. I'm not claiming it doesn't happen (though I'd argue it's not quite as widespread as you're implying) but I absolutely believe we should expect a reasonable amount of privacy when leaving our homes. previous trampling of our privacy does not, for me, lead to an ambivalence about future trampling.

 

[Casper Gutman]

I can not overstate how much I loathe the facial recognition aspect of this park.

Universal does seem to have a real fondness for implementing complicated, unnecessary tech solutions to nonexistent problems. The only upside is that, unlike Disney, they’ve shown a willingness to abandon those systems quickly when they don’t work. But they don’t seem to learn anything.

And yes, we’re all being tracked in multiple ways by multiple entities every day, but at least leave us the illusion we don’t live in a corporate surveillance state. I’ve never worn a magic band - I know Disney can likely still track me, but it matters to me.

 

[OLSinFLA]

It's also a solution in search of a problem. I don't need or want Comcast scanning my face for some minor convenience. (For the record I'm also not a fan of these parks scanning our fingerprints for entry)

The dont actually take fingerprints. It's biometrics which makes a math-based set of numbers corresponding to the pattern. But your fingerprint itself is not stored. I assume the facial ID will be like Apple's FaceID, which is simply numbers. When it scans your face, it runs the numbers to see if it matches.

 

[GAcoaster]

And facial recognition works the same way.

If you've ever visited Walmart or Disney you've been scanned with facial recognition software. I'm sure there are many others who do it as well, but those I know do it. Don't like it, don't go...

 

[Cygnus]

I should add:

 

[Casper Gutman]

And facial recognition works the same way.

If you've ever visited Walmart or Disney you've been scanned with facial recognition software. I'm sure there are many others who do it as well, but those I know do it. Don't like it, don't go...

Or how about if we don’t like it, we make mild complaints about it on a theme park message board rather then give up something that clearly means a lot to us?

And the glib hand-waving about a massive, under discussed invasion of privacy is a pretty big dereliction of civic duty. The fact that our most personal data is tracked, recorded, and sold without our explicit consent is a massive issue a lot of people treat like one of those silly quirks of modern life.

 

[OrlandoGuy]

And facial recognition works the same way.

If you've ever visited Walmart or Disney you've been scanned with facial recognition software. I'm sure there are many others who do it as well, but those I know do it. Don't like it, don't go...

Found the guy who invented facial recognition

For me I dont care about the data they’re collecting (I work on the other side of the customer data collection process for a relatively evil company). It’s more about the application of it from a guest experience POV. Like @Mad Dog said, it was clunky and slow when they tried it the first time. Maybe it works better now, sure, but psychologically there’s something more satisfying, to me, about pushing a finger down. Compare the Disney entry process, where the light starts spinning on contact and gets faster and faster as you get closer to verification, and you can brush off an issue by troubleshooting with another finger/using different pressure or angles, etc. vs. just staring at a camera and waiting for something to happen. Having that autonomy to control the process is one of those things people don’t realize they want or have until it’s gone (and the only reason I know about it is because I’ve done consulting work that required research on this topic).

 

[Casper Gutman]

For me I dont care about the data they’re collecting (I work on the other side of the customer data collection process for a relatively evil company). It’s more about the application of it from a guest experience POV. Like @Mad Dog said, it was clunky and slow when they tried it the first time. Maybe it works better now, sure, but psychologically there’s something more satisfying, to me, about pushing a finger down. Compare the Disney entry process, where the light starts spinning on contact and gets faster and faster as you get closer to verification, and you can brush off an issue by troubleshooting with another finger/using different pressure or angles, etc. vs. just staring at a camera and waiting for something to happen. Having that autonomy to control the process is one of those things people don’t realize they want or have until it’s gone (and the only reason I know about it is because I’ve done consulting work that required research on this topic).

I’d even go further back - the old ticket system always struck me as preferable and often faster than the modern fingerprint based system. I’ve recently tangled with Disneys admission system and it seems to have constant issues.

 

[HandsomePete]

So… the “friction” at park entrance isn’t the biometric method (facial recognition, finger, etc.) used to validate that a person is a specific person. The biometric scan is one step in a process where the ticket is read, the biometric is used as confirmation that the same person has been using it, and then the system checks if there’s a valid “entrance” on said ticket, and then responds to the turnstile with a green light. That flow is why it takes a few seconds per person.

There’s a big difference between checking faces against databases of faces (casinos, *** offenders, etc.) in situations where a couple seconds here or there isn’t a big deal and mass scanning faces and needing to catch someone (who has no ticket) within a 25-30 foot area.