Hello all, I apologize in advance if this is something that has been covered, but as a first time user I wanted to a few things.
We just received our MagicBands in the mail (YAH!) and I wanted to know. Will they be active for your first day when go to the parks, or will I have do something to make them active?
We won't be checking into the hotel until 3PM the day of our first park but will be hitting MK around 8AM that day, will there be any conflicts?
I was able to save up $500 worth of gift cards(and consolidated them to one card) and I wanted to use them for our food/drink. Can I link this gift card to my Magicband or will have to use a major credit card if we end up paying with our Magicbands (might just be easier to pay with the gift card itself?)?
Thanks so much in advance!
Your MagicBands are active NOW. They go active as soon as they're added to your MyDisneyExperience account. You can log in and see them now (never hurts to double-check that they're all assigned to the correct people).
So, if you want to go to the parks on your check-in day before the official check-in time, you can. Your tickets will be active before park opening on the day of your check-in. Since you land early enough, you can even make it to rope drop!
Always keep in mind - a MagicBand is essentially a key that opens up a big box o' Disney stuff. That box is your MyDisneyExperience account. It has lots of 'stuff' in it: your resort/package reservations, your park passes, your ADRs, your FastPass selections, etc. The MagicBands act as id/keys to get that stuff out of the box at various venues.
Now, although the MagicBands are active immediately, not all of the stuff in your MDX box is active. For example, when you purchase a WDW vacation package that include park passes and dining plan credits, those park passes and dining plan credits are not available until the morning of your scheduled check-in day. So if you change your travel plans - let's say you take an earlier flight, or jump in the van and GO earlier than you planned - you might get to WDW a day early, but you still won't be able to use those tickets or dining plan credits until the morning of your check-in date.
Other stuff would work. If you have separate tickets that are not part of a package, you can use them any time, even before you check in, because those tickets are not tied to a package. If you get there early and get into Bibbity Bopity Boutique at Disney Springs, and the PhotoPass photographer snaps some photos of the results, you can scan those photos with your MagicBand to link them to your PhotoPass account, because linking photos is not tied to a package or reservation.
So hold onto those MagicBands tightly, because they're real, and they're spec... I mean, they're active, and they're functional.
On the subject of charging, here's what I did on my last couple of trips - link a credit card to your MDX account and charge to your MagicBands. However, every few days, stop in the lobby and pay down the balance using your Disney Gift Card. Things charged to your MagicBands are not charged to the credit card immediately; that would cost Disney a fortune in transaction fees. Instead, they let your charge balance build up to a certain threshold - $500 for Value resorts, $1000 for Moderates, and $1500 for Deluxes. Then they charge the whole wad at once. As long as you pay the balance down with your gift card before you reach the threshold, they'll never charge anything to your credit card. Also note: You can get a complete printout of every charge you've made on all of your MagicBands at any time from the front desk of your resort.
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