New Handheld Device Used During Extra Magic Hours

Do you remember when we expressed our disappointment regarding the fact that more and more money are being spent for the new MyMagic+ project? Well, this is another quite major expensive addition that has definitely required Disney to spend additional thousands of dollars, as hundreds of new handheld devices were recently bought and will soon be used to scan MagicBands during Extra Magic Hours:

"Starting Sunday, November 17, handheld devices will be used to identify Walt Disney World Resort hotel Guests for Extra Magic Hours at all Walt Disney World theme parks. For Magic Kingdom Park, this is effective with the evening EMH Monday, November 18, 2013 and the morning EMH Thursday, November 21, 2013.

Cast Members will be stationed outside of the park entrance during Extra Magic Hours and will ask Guests wearing MagicBands to touch their MagicBands to a handheld device to verify that they are resort Guests. These Guests will then enter the park as they normally would.

Additionally, during evening Extra Magic Hours, Guests will be asked by Cast Members at each attraction entrance to touch their MagicBands to a handheld device before entering. While this process is needed for Guests who only have MagicBands, Guests may also touch RF enabled Key to the World cards to the device if they have one.  

Guests staying at Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Hotels, Shades of Green Resort, the Hilton Hotel on Plaza Boulevard, Golden Oak, Disney's Vero Beach Resort and Disney's Hilton Head Resort can continue to enjoy Extra Magic Hours by presenting their resort ID cards."

As you will have noticed, all the rides and attractions remaining open during Extra Magic Hours throughout all four of Walt Disney World's theme parks will require AT LEAST one of these new devices (the major attractions may require two or more); in addition to that, for each of these new devices there is yet another device (an iPad) to be used in case the regular device crashes... Yes, that's a lot of money spent. Why didn't they just use the existing scanners in the FastPass+ lines? Questions, questions.