Did your designer friends give you any more information as to what they were hoping to accomplish with this? They already had the cards that tracked information. It is a massive amount of money to spend to just change from cards to bracelets. I am really curious.
Her interest was completing a project, so she had little care as to their reasons. I’d certainly spend a good amount of time at a shareholder meeting asking specifically that question. The remote ride reservations (the MagicPass+ ride queues) could have certainly been done using the cards as well.
I suppose in the end, they assumed they could save money by having the ‘security’ of having the band physically connected to the user, rather than perhaps someone handing over a card for someone to use. And of course, impulse buying by children, whom parents might not want to hand a card to.
In any case, the band users are spending less than the card users are spending per visitor which has Disney World on the ropes trying to justify the expense.