Disneyland photographs multi-day ticket users to combat "rental" tickets

I still don't get why DLR is so resistant to just adding biometrics to their turnstiles and moving on. It seems like a perfect solution to this problem, and something they've already invested in at other parks.

Couldn't they just print your name on the ticket, then ask for ID for subsequent visits? Seems a lot easier, and you don't really need the info from the kids if the adults with them have it.

I don't get it either. They solved this problem in Florida years ago. As for the name + ID, my understanding is that they have done this. They did it at WDW even, two decades ago.

Hopefully the parks can streamline the process to speed things up. Their annual passes bring up pictures of users and that process works out fine, but 45 minutes sounds like a major headache for the masses of muliti-day ticket holders. There's got to be a reason they're not going with one of the simpler solutions mentioned. But what? It's strange.

I'd rather hand over my ID than spend 2-3 minutes at the scanners trying to get my fingerprint validated...for the longest time, at least it was Busch parks that had the tricky scanners making entry gates a real bottleneck. Now Universal is getting more and more difficult to enter (maybe my fingerprints have changed?)...LOL!

For some reason my son can *never* get through the Busch scanners---he's had trouble both at Williamsburg and SWO. But, he had no issues with the Universal ones (at least, I don't recall any.)

Some people have fingerprints that are very difficult to scan. My wife is in the group. Fingerprint scans are required for certain activities at work. They had to add a password bypass for her. We almost always have issues with her getting in anywhere fingerprint scans are required. I am not sure if most times when the scanner does not find a match that the person is trying to use someone else's ticket (rather than having a fingerprint that does not scan) but some employees definitely presume that is the case (unfortunately).

They're not opposed to biometrics. The reason is two-fold. First, they're on a different ticket system than what is used at WDW and second the resale of tickets hasn't been an issue until just recently.

The majority of the attendance at the DLR comes from day-tripping locals and annual passholders. One day tickets have no resale value and annual passes display the picture of the passholder. Multi-day tickets account for such a small percentage of the attendance that until recently the random ID check was sufficient.

Disney has done a number of upgrades to their ticketing at DLR with regards to annual passholders over the past decade, so they clearly have been making changes based on their needs.

At this point I think they'll wait to make changes to their front gate ticketing based on what technology from NextGen they'll use.

It hasn't been an issue...that they cared about. There's been a healthy trade on ebay for partially used tickets for years and years---at least as far back as 2003.

But, now that they are focused on gate integrity with the new Cars Land, all of a sudden they care. A lot.

I do suspect that the '14 or '15 deployment of NextGen at DLR has so far prevented them from installing WDW-style turnstiles, because they will just replace all of those again when the no-turnstile turnstile is installed. But, that strikes me as penny wise and pound foolish unless they can get a handle on the logistics for park entrance in a hurry.

I would dispute your claim that there has been a healthy trade of partially used tickets on eBay. It's pretty hard to resell partially used tickets on eBay for the Disneyland Resort since nearly all multi-day tickets expire 14-day after the first use. Unlike Walt Disney World they haven't sold a ticket with no expiration in more than a decade and the renting or resale of partially used multi-day tickets that expire is largely done through vendors in the immediate area, not via online auctions. The majority of the tickets I've seen for sale online appear to be new, unused tickets which isn't breaking any rules.

eBay isn't a threat for DLR like it is for WDW.

We also know that until recently guests using multi-day ticket at the Disneyland Resort were the minority. I would be willing to bet that until last year partially used tickets that were resold probably didn't even make up a 1/10th of a precent of the attendance. It's pretty well known that on many days passholders make up the majority of the attendance at DLR.

The real issues that prompted this change is the fact these ticket renting-resale scams have just recently moved into the area and Disney's latest ticket promotion is an enabler of this activity. Hence why the photographing coincided with the start of the promotion.

While I don't live minutes from the resort I still have plenty of friends who do and they've said the press is largely making something out of nothing with these stories of long lines to enter the park. If you buy your multi-day tickets at a ticket window they do the photos there like they do passholders. If you bring an e-Ticket they do it at the gate. On my most recent visit this past September, four and five day ticket holders were directed to a separate entry turnstile.

But did they let you ride in the front row, or assign you a seat?!?!?!

I would dispute your claim that there has been a healthy trade of partially used tickets on eBay.

All I know is that when I last went, in 2004, there were a dozen or more tickets put up every single day by families that were going for 2-3 days, and wanted to sell the back half of a longer ticket to someone else that was coming as they were leaving. I suppose you can argue about whether or not that's "healthy".

Disney's latest ticket promotion is an enabler of this activity.

Mulit-day tickets are the latest promotion? They've been doing that for years and years now. The thing that is different is that they are paying more attention to gate integrity, having shortened the maximum ticket length to five days and significantly ratcheting up the annual pass prices.