Disneyland Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi is everywhere now, that’s obvious. You can even get internet access on the plane – for a price. So that’s what’s next for the Happiest Place on Earth – Disneyland.

If you’ve been to Disneyland in the past 5 years, you know it’s getting almost impossible to get a good cellular signal where there are upwards of 60,000 in the park. So, just like JetBlue, Southwest Airlines and Virgin America, Disneyland needs to spend the money, install a crazy-powerful wifi setup that covers 100% of Disneyland – then charge $30/day for it. Sure, on a 4 hour flight it only costs $8, but when you’re trying send texts to friends or family in the park, post your photos and videos to social media so those less fortunate than yourself can live vicariously through you – you’ll pay.

Knowing how Disney operates though, they likely wouldn’t even put in the network themselves… they’d ‘partner’ with HP (oooh, or maybe Google would do it!) and then so a sponsorship deal. That would be a fine idea though – as long as they give guests what they want – the ability to share their experiences with their friends who aren’t there with them. Plus, talk about a social media blitz! Disney would barely need to buy advertising after that, as there would be so many people posting and sharing about the attractions and shows – serious social networking!

On top of that, the same infrastructure could be used to finally bring private wireless access to all of the ODV (OutDoor Vending) locations and allow people to use their smartphones to pay for goods. Faster checkout, more product sold… sounds like a win-win.

We know it will happen – the questions is, when?