Cedar Fair testing RFID wristbands for payment

Would you please stop talking about yourself in the third person?

Level 10
Everything level 9 has, plus a free unicorn that poops candy.

Level 11
Everything that level 10 has except you don't see Tyler's posts anymore.

I would expect a big upcharge for that last level. And it presents a potential upgrade for coasterbuzz memberships as well.

Also, Clavin the Bold will begin referring to himself in the third person.

Tyler Boes said:
Level 1: $100

Unlimited access to Cedar Points. No perks, free parking, or discounts.

Before I make my decision, tell me, how many points does Cedar have? Would Oak Points cost more or less? :-)

Timbers points are cool too

GoBucks89 said:

I would expect a big upcharge for that last level. And it presents a potential upgrade for coasterbuzz memberships as well.

At this point, I'd take the ads back. if I could use my membership toward this.

At this point I'd consider paying Jeff ten cents per post to nuke said posts.

As much as you make good points, it sounds like three paragraphs of overthinking it.

You tie a credit card to the wristband (not exactly rocket science) and the little lemmings spend away. It's been proven time and again that when dealing with non-cash forms of money people have a harder time judging what they're spending and use less restraint. They tend to spend WAY more.

Tomtortoise said:

As many good uses as there are for RFID, it may be one of the most insecure technologies widely used today. You can build a reader rig for $50 or less and just scan tags in a 3-4 foot radius, doesn't seem like much but just wait in a ride queue or a food line and get dozens of numbers. Even with encryption, with this many ID's coming in, it would not take too long to break the encryption. Time to get your aluminum foil wallets out, or just don't use the RFID.

The line cutter (much like steroid athlete) is ALWAYS a step ahead...

At a traditional amusement park, I can see it as a toss up (whether the system would pay for itself), though once you invest in the infrastructure, the actual marginal cost to run the system has to be relatively small.

At a water park, I imagine this would be a home run in terms of increasing guest spending. I usually just stuff my credit card in the velcro pocket of my board shorts, because paper money is basically unusable, but I'm constantly afraid I'm going to lose it.

An anecdotal mention of a crappy IT effort doesn't make it a bad idea.

Don't let my local casino hear of this. Please.

Lord Gonchar said:

You tie a credit card to the wristband (not exactly rocket science) and the little lemmings spend away.

So the customers would have to pay to commit suicide too?

I guess you could make the Intamins an upcharge...

I have no idea what all this over head and red tape you're talking about is. How is you swiping a wristband everywhere to charge your card any different from you swiping your card everywhere to charge your card?

It's no different from charging something back to your room at a resort, and Disney, many resorts in Vegas, and other places have been doing it without issue for quite some time.

It all comes off as one chunk transaction when you check out, so everyone wins. The resort/hotel/park only has to pay 1 transaction fee, and the consumer doesn't need to worry about carrying or swiping their credit card.

I think the point that missing from that is, no one's credit card information will be stored or transmitted via RFID. The credit card information would be on file with Guest Services, or whoever would issue the wristbands, and would never be transmitted.

The only transmission taking place would be the RFID reader, picking up the ID# of the RFID band. Then, I'm guessing it would be transmitted back to the server via basic LAN or wireless (encrypted, of course), and stored under that particular ID# until the end of the day when charges are closed, and each credit card on file is charged X amount. The same way a hotel does it, only they don't use RFID, you either swipe your key, or tell them your room number and they punch it in.

It doesn't have to be any more complicated than that, and if someone wants to use an RFID scanner, best of luck to them, they'll get the numbers on a bunch of bands that are completely useless.

Ensign Smith said:

Would you please stop talking about yourself in the third person?

Jimmy likes Coasterbuzz, Elaine...

913girl said:

....but the technology being flawed is a real possibility as is killing the midway games profits with either the prepaid or credit card wristbands. The credit card attachment would just drown cedar fair in red tape as well. Even trying to figure out if the warning label is adequate or if the amount of information they are collecting is overly invasive requires hiring compliance lawyers. And what happens when additional legislation is passed? The risk clearly outweighs the reward when wristbands are attached to credit cards. I'm skeptical about the prepaid systems benifits, but the credit card should be an absolute no go.

I really hope you're never responsible for innovation for a department or organization. It's wise to identify the potential risks involved so they can be addressed. It's not wise at all to use them as immediate reasons not to move a mission forward.

And as has been mentioned, this isn't even a brand new concept. Cruise ships and other venues have been doing it in variations for years and years.

Unless you are indicating that using RFID is against the law, then your point is not valid. Not doing something because it's hard is not a reason at all.

And if it is against the law, then we should all start whispering. We wouldn't want what CF is doing to get out.