Walt Disney World to Begin Accepting Apple Pay Starting December 24

[MacRumors]

Walt Disney World will officially begin accepting Apple Pay starting this Wednesday, December 24, reports WDWMagic (via iMore). The inclusion of Apple Pay will allow users to make purchases at the theme park with an iPhone 6 or an iPhone 6 Plus, and is a part of Disney's initiative to accept more contactless payment methods rolled out with its MyMagic+ program.

Leveraging the RFID infrastructure deployed as part of MyMagic+, Walt Disney World will also accept other contactless payments, such as Google Wallet and contactless RFID credit cards.

Initially, most stores, quick service restaurants, bars and ticket sales booths will be included. Any locations that use portable payment terminals, such as table service restaurants, will be added later.

Walt Disney World was listed as one of the first partners for Apple Pay alongside retailers like Macy's, Walgreens, Subway, McDonalds, and Whole Foods. The report also states that Disneyland will begin accepting contactless payment methods like Apple Pay in 2015. Apple Pay has seen impressive early adoption numbers since launching in October, making up 1% of all digital payment dollars in November with Whole Foods being the most popular location for the payment method.

Article Link: Walt Disney World to Begin Accepting Apple Pay Starting December 24

 

[bbeagle]

When I'm at Disneyland or Disney World, I leave my cell phone in the hotel. I try to immerse myself in Disney culture, and leave distractions from home at home.

We usually use Disney Dollars, helps budget easier. Convert $100 American dollars to $100 Disney dollars a day at the hotel in the morning, and I'll keep in my budget for the family that day.

There are already just as easy options, like show your hotel key and pay for stuff that way. I guess it improves the use case where people are pulling credit cards out to pay for the Tiki Room pineapple dole whips, something that can't be charged to the hotel room key.

 

[Merkie]

Really annoyed by the title. This makes it seem like retailers have to support Apple Pay. They don't. They have to support contactless payments, which has been standardized globally. There is no additional effort required to accept Apple Pay.

 

[cdmoore74]

What about Leo's grill down the street? I go there maybe twice a week. I go to Disney world maybe twice a lifetime.

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Really annoyed by the title. This makes it seem like retailers have to support Apple Pay. They don't. They have to support contactless payments, which has been standardized globally. There is no additional effort required to accept Apple Pay.

I feel your point. Even for big names we have to hear them one by one. What about the normal places I go to? Places that I shop at much more frequently than Disney. Or maybe I want to be adventurous and go somewhere new. There's only so many times you can eat McDonald's crap or walk into the same Wholefoods. Don't want some alternate payment option to control my shopping habits so that I can say I used a phone to make payments.

 

[rdlink]

What about Leo's grill down the street? I go there maybe twice a week. I go to Disney world maybe twice a lifetime.

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I feel your point. Even for big names we have to hear them one by one. What about the normal places I go to? Places that I shop at much more frequently than Disney. Or maybe I want to be adventurous and go somewhere new. There's only so many times you can eat McDonald's crap or walk into the same Wholefoods. Don't want some alternate payment option to control my shopping habits so that I can say I used a phone to make payments.

It's a process, dude. It won't happen overnight, but the train has left the station. Momentum will build as it chugs down the track. Hopefully things will pick up speed as merchants are forced to update their readers in preparation for the Fall of 2015 deadline on chip based readers, and they'll opt for spending a few extra bucks to include NFC. All of this publicity and the commercials about Apple Pay are only going to help with that process.

 

[Jeremy1026]

When I'm at Disneyland or Disney World, I leave my cell phone in the hotel. I try to immerse myself in Disney culture, and leave distractions from home at home.

You should take it with you. Their app is great. Being able to see quickly see what characters are where, for how long, and how long the wait for them is. Wait times for rides, fast pass management. As wel as GPS enabled maps, no more fumbling with a map that you have to fold a dozen times to get it back into your pocket. I can understand wanting to leave home at home. But just disable your email accounts during the day, and have some self control to keep from playing on the web.

 

[billnye97]

This works for some visitors. If you are staying at one of the WDW Resorts they give you a MagicBand that has your room key, dining plans (if applicable), tickets, and if you set it up your credit card info. That way you only tap to pay with the Magic Band. However, if you aren't staying at one of the resorts and don't want to pay $12.95 for the Magic Band this is a great alternative.

 

[gixxerfool]

This works for some visitors. If you are staying at one of the WDW Resorts they give you a MagicBand that has your room key, dining plans (if applicable), tickets, and if you set it up your credit card info. That way you only tap to pay with the Magic Band. However, if you aren't staying at one of the resorts and don't want to pay $12.95 for the Magic Band this is a great alternative.

You can choose not to hook a CC to the band and then pay the balance upon checking out at the desk. We get gift cards for getting chase cards and just pay the balance with that. All we carry is our bands, phones, and ID.

 

[TraceyS/FL]

You should take it with you. Their app is great. Being able to see quickly see what characters are where, for how long, and how long the wait for them is. Wait times for rides, fast pass management. As wel as GPS enabled maps, no more fumbling with a map that you have to fold a dozen times to get it back into your pocket. I can understand wanting to leave home at home. But just disable your email accounts during the day, and have some self control to keep from playing on the web.

The app is amazing... Wait time, fast passes, dining reservations.... I can't imagine not having it. Wifi is everywhere so you don't even have to have the phone part on if you don't want to.

We aren't there for a "vacation" but a day trip since we are local. Heck, I've had to sit on a bench and work occasionally. Fine by me, better than sitting at home!


I was told yesterday in Epcot that it starts TODAY, maybe a soft launch then? Last night my phone was near the reader and it launched on my phone, but wouldn't complete.

I hope it is today and not Wednesday - I was hoping to use it tomorrow!

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Really annoyed by the title. This makes it seem like retailers have to support Apple Pay. They don't. They have to support contactless payments, which has been standardized globally. There is no additional effort required to accept Apple Pay.

Right now saying, "We accept Apple Pay" means more marketing wise than "we acct NFC". Disney is an Apple Pay marketing partner....

I frankly don't care, that are making things a bit easier for me and that is all that matters!!

 

[Jeff Meredith]

This is big news for Contactless Payments and Apple Pay

This was posted in the IOS Blog and not even on the Front Page. So I don't understand the complaints.

Disneyworld is the iconic location of a huge US company and a very important travel destination for US and foreign visitors. When you couple this with the Orlando Magic announcement and I am sure Sea World and Universal Orlando are going to pay attention.

Paying with Apple Pay or contactless is so much more than paying on the phone. With the news coming out that 45% of people had a credit card compromised in some fashion last year. The biggest thing about Apple Pay is security in my opinion. We have Point of Sale (POS) terminals that can be affected remotely with malware and the information harvested can be used to manufacture credit cards or used online. This is a deterrent for some foreign visitors that our credit card security is so crappy. Every country in the world, even N. Korea, has more secure Chip and Pin technology and there is higher usage of contactless overseas. So yes this is a big deal.

BJ's, Whole Foods, Winn Dixie along with the other Apple Pay supporting merchants are in Orlando. So Orlando becomes one of the easier places to get around with using Contactless.

The App Store Disney Store App is great and I used it to get two of my Christmas gifts with Apple Pay and I didn't give them my credit card. They received acknowledgement of my funds, I got my merchandise and my credit card info was not available to be compromised as it should be.

I am going to Disneyland in the spring with my son and I hope they can propagate it to there soon.

 

[TraceyS/FL]

When I'm at Disneyland or Disney World, I leave my cell phone in the hotel. I try to immerse myself in Disney culture, and leave distractions from home at home.

We usually use Disney Dollars, helps budget easier. Convert $100 American dollars to $100 Disney dollars a day at the hotel in the morning, and I'll keep in my budget for the family that day.

There are already just as easy options, like show your hotel key and pay for stuff that way. I guess it improves the use case where people are pulling credit cards out to pay for the Tiki Room pineapple dole whips, something that can't be charged to the hotel room key.

The other part of this says you haven't been to WDW since the magic band. You can still get a key, but the bands are everything. Keys, charging, admission, fast passes. You are going to need to adjust your thinking about the app before your next trip!

Those of use that are not staying in a Disney hotel don't have payment options with the bands. I'd love to be able to load it with a gift card tho, especially for my kids. And I can assure you I'm not spending $100/day when I go... I wouldn't be going. PB&J for us! Lol!

But I love Disney dollars and have used them in the decent past before we were local. I don't see them much these days, they are pushing readable gift cards more. Which is great because I can buy those wherever when I have extra money in the budget.

 

[psac]

This works for some visitors. If you are staying at one of the WDW Resorts they give you a MagicBand that has your room key, dining plans (if applicable), tickets, and if you set it up your credit card info. That way you only tap to pay with the Magic Band. However, if you aren't staying at one of the resorts and don't want to pay $12.95 for the Magic Band this is a great alternative.

I was just there, and the MBs work fine, but I would love to do the opposite. Somehow code the MB into my phone, and use that for everything.

 

[bbeagle]

The other part of this says you haven't been to WDW since the magic band. You can still get a key, but the bands are everything. Keys, charging, admission, fast passes. You are going to need to adjust your thinking about the app before your next trip!

You're right. On our last trip, we went to Disneyland in California in February. Disneyland doesn't have magic bands yet. Maybe our tune will change when we plan to go to DisneyWorld in Florida in 2016.

Those of use that are not staying in a Disney hotel don't have payment options with the bands. I'd love to be able to load it with a gift card tho, especially for my kids. And I can assure you I'm not spending $100/day when I go... I wouldn't be going. PB&J for us! Lol!

But I love Disney dollars and have used them in the decent past before we were local. I don't see them much these days, they are pushing readable gift cards more. Which is great because I can buy those wherever when I have extra money in the budget.

Yeah, for our last visit, not as many people use Disney Dollars anymore. Even the employees are surprised once in a while when they get them.

$100/day for a family of 4 is pretty cheap. We're going to buy lunch there ($10 a person), a few snacks or drinks ($15 a person). We'll eat breakfast at the hotel in the morning, and dinner when we get back. We only go once every 2 years, I'm not going to eat PB&J when I can get something unique like popcorn in a dumbo container that we'll use for years later.

 

[lokey]

Walt Disney World enabled it this morning.

 

[TraceyS/FL]

I was just there, and the MBs work fine, but I would love to do the opposite. Somehow code the MB into my phone, and use that for everything.

I'm hoping that will work for the Apple Watch.... I won't hold my breath, but that would be awesome!

You're right. On our last trip, we went to Disneyland in California in February. Disneyland doesn't have magic bands yet. Maybe our tune will change when we plan to go to DisneyWorld in Florida in 2016.

By then I expect more to be on the bands.

Here is an example. There are no paper fast passes - all on your ticket (short range RFID) or band (long range RFID). You must scan your ticket on the way in - no more "mom carries the fast passes and hands them over" - then you must scan the card or band again before getting into the area where you could not jump the line. This makes the cards a pain - did that one day and was ready to buy bands over waiting for our free ones. Ride pics? A lot of them are doing long range RFID scans on the bands and they just load, others you have to touch your card to the reader.

The app holds all the info. Sure you can print that out, but you aren't going to want to do that. You might want to change your Fps while waiting in line, or better yet - check the wait times for rides that are updated like every 3 minutes. Very helpful getting off the boat from the Studios at Epcot knowing if we book it Soarin had a 30 minute wait (that was more like 15!!). You have a small window of things like that - because everyone is checking wait times. Your fast passes might all be in the evening - like ours tomorrow, they don't even start until 4pm!

It will be a different trip than you are used to for sure.....

Yeah, for our last visit, not as many people use Disney Dollars anymore. Even the employees are surprised once in a while when they get them.

I still have some of the special ones here..... they are too pretty to use!

$100/day for a family of 4 is pretty cheap. We're going to buy lunch there ($10 a person), a few snacks or drinks ($15 a person). We'll eat breakfast at the hotel in the morning, and dinner when we get back. We only go once every 2 years, I'm not going to eat PB&J when I can get something unique like popcorn in a dumbo container that we'll use for years later.

Image

Very cheap - i'll be surprised if you can manage that in 2 years. Prices are going up - i'm blaming the dining plan. Snacks are crazy expensive, and even today you would be hard pressed to get lunch and a drink for under $10 (unless you use kids meals at $7). The app has most of the meal prices - so you can plan that way.

We are local (50 miles away), we have annual passes (was the kids Christmas gift this year). We have been.... gosh, it looks like 12 times since we got the passes October 7th. Between gas money, tolls and food - if we didn't pack lunches we wouldn't have been able to go as much. Some trips were just a couple of hours because we were in the area for other reasons.

I get not everyone wants to eat PB&J, heck, I don't even LIKE them! BUT, for us it is the difference between going 12 times or not. Trust me, they are fine with it.

Now if it was an "every two year" vacation - we wouldn't be doing it, but they gladly packed when we had the chance to stay in Kissimmee for a couple of days and day trip. Hotel cooking at its finest!

I'm excited about the Apple Pay aspect - I don't like carrying my cards for the remote chance I need to buy something, this way I can know I have it with my phone handy should the need arise.

ETA: That dumbo popcorn thing is cute - i've only seen creepy ones so far... i'da bought Dumbo!
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Walt Disney World enabled it this morning.

YES!

That is what I was told yesterday was going to happen!!!!

Happy Dance!!!!!!!

 

[l3it3r]

Awesome. I'm going with the kids for Christmas, will make things a bit easier for sure

 

[MasterRyu2011]

I hope this includes all the random food kiosks sprinkled throughout the park and not just the major restaurants and stores.

 

[Psypher]

I'm hoping they will make it possible to use your iPhone or Apple Watch instead of the Magic Bands. I'd rather not have to wear both the Apple Watch and the Band. I'd love to use my Apple Watch as my hotel room key, park ticket, fastpass, and payment method.

 

[jmelrose]

Meanwhile, the cast is waiting for the Disney employee credit union to allow CU Visa cards to be used with Apple Pay... #irony

 

[ebika]

I was at Disney World two weeks ago, and I was bummed when I found out they hadn't enabled contactless payments yet. This is great that they're turning it on. Using the Magic Band + PIN to buy stuff is pretty great, but having a running tally of the charges on the phone is a better way to track spending (not what Disney wants, I'm sure).

 

[2457282]

Not a big fan of the Disney Parks, but I am a big fan of Apple Pay. Anything that helps Apple Pay gain traction so that it can roll out to additional vendors is a win as far as I can tell.

 

[tpabrad]

I'm hoping that will work for the Apple Watch.... I won't hold my breath, but that would be awesome!


By then I expect more to be on the bands.

Here is an example. There are no paper fast passes - all on your ticket (short range RFID) or band (long range RFID). You must scan your ticket on the way in - no more "mom carries the fast passes and hands them over" - then you must scan the card or band again before getting into the area where you could not jump the line. This makes the cards a pain - did that one day and was ready to buy bands over waiting for our free ones. Ride pics? A lot of them are doing long range RFID scans on the bands and they just load, others you have to touch your card to the reader.

The app holds all the info. Sure you can print that out, but you aren't going to want to do that. You might want to change your Fps while waiting in line, or better yet - check the wait times for rides that are updated like every 3 minutes. Very helpful getting off the boat from the Studios at Epcot knowing if we book it Soarin had a 30 minute wait (that was more like 15!!). You have a small window of things like that - because everyone is checking wait times. Your fast passes might all be in the evening - like ours tomorrow, they don't even start until 4pm!

It will be a different trip than you are used to for sure.....




I still have some of the special ones here..... they are too pretty to use!


Very cheap - i'll be surprised if you can manage that in 2 years. Prices are going up - i'm blaming the dining plan. Snacks are crazy expensive, and even today you would be hard pressed to get lunch and a drink for under $10 (unless you use kids meals at $7). The app has most of the meal prices - so you can plan that way.

We are local (50 miles away), we have annual passes (was the kids Christmas gift this year). We have been.... gosh, it looks like 12 times since we got the passes October 7th. Between gas money, tolls and food - if we didn't pack lunches we wouldn't have been able to go as much. Some trips were just a couple of hours because we were in the area for other reasons.

I get not everyone wants to eat PB&J, heck, I don't even LIKE them! BUT, for us it is the difference between going 12 times or not. Trust me, they are fine with it.

Now if it was an "every two year" vacation - we wouldn't be doing it, but they gladly packed when we had the chance to stay in Kissimmee for a couple of days and day trip. Hotel cooking at its finest!

I'm excited about the Apple Pay aspect - I don't like carrying my cards for the remote chance I need to buy something, this way I can know I have it with my phone handy should the need arise.

ETA: That dumbo popcorn thing is cute - i've only seen creepy ones so far... i'da bought Dumbo!
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YES!

That is what I was told yesterday was going to happen!!!!

Happy Dance!!!!!!!

As a passholder for a few years now I have been eagerly waiting for this to get enabled. We learned very quick to either bring stuff with us or eat/snack on the way there and back due to prices. However, we almost always buy something in a store for my youngest or get s drink/snack throughout the day. Not having to pull out my credit card during these visits will be really nice. I love the magic bands but I wish they would have enabled use of credit cards for passholders and not just resort guests. I also wish they would tie in the discount card as well. Big improvements though that have been well received on my side.

 

[l3it3r]

We took the kids to Disney world for Christmas vacation. We got magicbands (HIGHLY recommended) and have been using their amazing iPhone app. As for Apple pay, MOST of the vendors and stores are using it, but there are still a few that haven't updated their software to support it yet (hardware is there, just not active). It works about 90% of the time, since it's new and there are so many transactions occurring concurrently, there was about a 10% failure rate on initial tries.

Should be mentioned that almost every time I used apple pay, I was that particular cast member's "first time".

Apple Pay at Disney is brilliant though. Hope to see it more and more places.