MagicBands at Typhoon Lagoon: is this right?

Weather_Lady

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Hello, all! I recently e-mailed Disney with the following question and want to confirm that I was given the right answer.

My questions related to an upcoming visit. We will be visiting Typhoon Lagoon on a Monday, staying off-site that night, and checking in to our Disney hotel on Tuesday. This means we'll have a set of MagicBands linked to MDE (to which I also have a credit card linked), but we will not have checked in for our onsite stay yet when we visit Typhoon Lagoon.

I e-mailed and asked Disney: (1) if we buy single-day Typhoon Lagoon tickets online ahead of time, can I link them to MDE and use our MagicBands to get in to Typhoon Lagoon; and (2) either way, will we be able to use the MagicBands to make purchases while at Typhoon Lagoon? Disney's answer to both questions was, "No, there's no way to link waterpark tickets to MDE, and you won't have checked in to your Disney hotel. As such, you won't be able to use the MagicBands for park access or to charge purchases while at Typhoon Lagoon."

Does this sound right to you? I know I've seen photos and read accounts of people using MagicBands at the Disney waterparks. Does this mean that they were all just checked-in onsite guests with Waterpark Fun & More (now known as Parkhopper Plus) tickets, and that those tickets are able to be used for waterpark access via MDE/MagicBands, while single-day waterpark tickets aren't?

It's no big deal either way -- carrying a credit card with me won't be much less convenient than wearing a MagicBand -- but I was just curious.
 
Last edited:

wdwmagic

Administrator
Moderator
Premium Member
The purchasing wont work because you are not checked in at that point, but I would have thought you could link the ticket. I've not heard either way for sure though, so give it a go and let us know, Unless someone else here knows for sure.
 

DisneyJoe

Well-Known Member
I believe the answer to 1 should be yes, and I know that the answer to 2 is No - you cannot charge to your MagicBand since the hotel account is not open yet.

In other words, charging isn't made to your MDE account but to your resort account.
 

Rob562

Well-Known Member
While I don't know for sure, I'd also presume that the answer to #1 *should* be yes.

Also, if you do the pre-arrival checkin where you can give it your arrival time and they text you your room number without having to visit the front desk, room charging setup is part of that. Since doing that activates any park tickets for use that are part of a vacation package reservation, I think it also activates room charging using the card on-file in your MDE.

-Rob
 

DisneyJoe

Well-Known Member
Also, if you do the pre-arrival checkin where you can give it your arrival time and they text you your room number without having to visit the front desk, room charging setup is part of that. Since doing that activates any park tickets for use that are part of a vacation package reservation, I think it also activates room charging using the card on-file in your MDE.
Yes, but she is going to Typhoon Lagoon on Monday, and not checking into a Disney resort until Tuesday, that text won't come until Tuesday. I do know that they allow tickets to be used before a package arrival, but I hesitate to confirm that a resort charge account is activated before day of arrival mostly due to security.
 

Weather_Lady

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Yes, but she is going to Typhoon Lagoon on Monday, and not checking into a Disney resort until Tuesday, that text won't come until Tuesday. I do know that they allow tickets to be used before a package arrival, but I hesitate to confirm that a resort charge account is activated before day of arrival mostly due to security.

That's right! Just to emphasize - not that it probably makes any difference - but our intention is to purchase separate, 1-day waterpark tickets for Monday. We don't have package tickets, as our stay that begins Tuesday will use 6-day MYW tickets that were purchased separately from our room reservation.

We did do the math to see whether it made sense to upgrade our 6-day MYW tickets to 7-day Parkhopper Plus tickets instead of purchasing an extra days' worth of waterpark tickets, and simply have them activated a day early (pre-check-in). However, the cost to upgrade would be about $470, in comparison with the ~$260 cost of 1-day waterpark tickets for my family, and our current itinerary wouldn't really allow us to get our moneys' worth out of the hopper option. We still might consider doing it that way, especially if we find we want to do other things that the upgrade would cover (e.g., mini-golf), although to go that route, we'd have to wait until we physically arrived at the Typhoon Lagoon Guest Services window to make the change.
 

Rob562

Well-Known Member
Yes, but she is going to Typhoon Lagoon on Monday, and not checking into a Disney resort until Tuesday, that text won't come until Tuesday. I do know that they allow tickets to be used before a package arrival, but I hesitate to confirm that a resort charge account is activated before day of arrival mostly due to security.

Whoops my bad, you're right. I missed that the first time around. I only read it as "going before we check in"...

In that case, the room charge won't work.

-Rob
 

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