So....would you believe I am not going to be all positive or all negative about the magic bands? I will tell you the true, un-exaggerated good and bad things that we experienced with one SHOCKING reveal.
So, here we go. Our stay was split (Kidani and VWL), so we got sent two sets of personalized magic bands. I took both with us. We registered for fastpass plusses online using our discounted DVC PAP vouchers that we purchased last December. Check in at Kidani went as smooth as oil off of a baby's buttocks. We then went to guest relations at DAK and our vouchers were turned into PAPs...they linked beautifully to our bands. I also picked up MNSSHP tickets (which linked to our bands, but they still wanted to see the tickets the night of the party) and a TiW card (which does not link to the bands). MK, DAK, TL...all of our fp+'s worked great and we gained admission to parks with ease. I did notice that many people were having trouble using their bands in lieu of credit cards, so I just used the credit card every time. On at least 4 occasions I saw people swearing up and down that they entered their pin correctly and nothing would work. I just avoided the whole scene.
The fun for us really began on the day we transferred to VWL. I checked in and everything seemed A-OK, but as I was leaving the front desk they came running to me with another magic band for the person in our party who didn't have one. Confused, I noted, that our family had 4, but whatever.....When we got to the room I noted that my magic band didn't open the door, but everyone else's did. I went back to the concierge and this was the problem. My wife's first name is Cynthia....the system had Dr. Cynthia xxxxx, Cindy xxxxx, and our two kids in the room and not me. How this could be since I made the reservation is beyond me. Nonetheless, they worked on the problem for me for a bit over an hour whilst I stood there. First, they tried making accounts for Cindy and Cynthia, having them become friends and then having one of them opt out of the room. That didn't work. Then, they did something that made no sense and seemed to think the problem was insoluble. Finally, they cancelled our room reservation and quickly re-did the reservation with my name leaving Dr. Cynthia xxxxx out in the cold. We missed two fastpass reservations at MK because of this, but I didn't complain since I was relieved the whole thing was taken care of.
Everything then worked well, except for two more minor problems and one interesting advantage (the shocking reveal is still coming up). The two minor problems were this - on my phone, whenever I used the app to make fp reservations for a subgroup of our family, it blew away all our other fp reservations. As a result, I wound up making fp + reservations for our whole group. Second, there were times and sections of WDW where my MDE app was completely non-functional. For example, I found that I could use my phone for everything on Sunset Blvd. except accessing MDE (I kept returning to Sunset Blvd at different times to see if this was the case. In case you don't think I'm nerdy enough to do this, you don't know me), so I definitely recommend writing down times. Since there were 4 of us and if we had a dining reservation that made 4 times to remember (counting fp+) we each had one time each day to remember.
Here is the shocking reveal....I used to be a local and have lots of family in Florida. My sister drove out to meet us the night of 10/25. When I found out she was coming I cancelled our BoG dinner (I figure we'll eat there some other time) and made a reservation for both of our families at the Wave (tremendously under rated - note: my sister's family had no park tickets). Anyhoo, when I got to 10/25 I looked at my phone and both reservations for dinner were there at the exact same time (6:45 PM)! I called, explained the situation and avoided the cancellation charge. Really, the two dinners at the same time should be a forbidden state. Someone needs to read up on the Pauli Exclusion Principle.
Physical note - we swam and spent a big chunk of one day at TL. The bands are water proof. No doubt about it. However, in the giant wave pool at TL, two bands floated by me so I took mine off and put it in our pool bag. Also, the decorative bandits they sell can only be purchased at resorts and not at the theme parks yet. I should note, that I found a Mr. Incredible bandit at TL. If you can swim well and open your eyes in the water, the TL wave pool may be the place for all your magic band needs. Overall, not bad, but I hope they get the bugs worked out soon.
So, here we go. Our stay was split (Kidani and VWL), so we got sent two sets of personalized magic bands. I took both with us. We registered for fastpass plusses online using our discounted DVC PAP vouchers that we purchased last December. Check in at Kidani went as smooth as oil off of a baby's buttocks. We then went to guest relations at DAK and our vouchers were turned into PAPs...they linked beautifully to our bands. I also picked up MNSSHP tickets (which linked to our bands, but they still wanted to see the tickets the night of the party) and a TiW card (which does not link to the bands). MK, DAK, TL...all of our fp+'s worked great and we gained admission to parks with ease. I did notice that many people were having trouble using their bands in lieu of credit cards, so I just used the credit card every time. On at least 4 occasions I saw people swearing up and down that they entered their pin correctly and nothing would work. I just avoided the whole scene.
The fun for us really began on the day we transferred to VWL. I checked in and everything seemed A-OK, but as I was leaving the front desk they came running to me with another magic band for the person in our party who didn't have one. Confused, I noted, that our family had 4, but whatever.....When we got to the room I noted that my magic band didn't open the door, but everyone else's did. I went back to the concierge and this was the problem. My wife's first name is Cynthia....the system had Dr. Cynthia xxxxx, Cindy xxxxx, and our two kids in the room and not me. How this could be since I made the reservation is beyond me. Nonetheless, they worked on the problem for me for a bit over an hour whilst I stood there. First, they tried making accounts for Cindy and Cynthia, having them become friends and then having one of them opt out of the room. That didn't work. Then, they did something that made no sense and seemed to think the problem was insoluble. Finally, they cancelled our room reservation and quickly re-did the reservation with my name leaving Dr. Cynthia xxxxx out in the cold. We missed two fastpass reservations at MK because of this, but I didn't complain since I was relieved the whole thing was taken care of.
Everything then worked well, except for two more minor problems and one interesting advantage (the shocking reveal is still coming up). The two minor problems were this - on my phone, whenever I used the app to make fp reservations for a subgroup of our family, it blew away all our other fp reservations. As a result, I wound up making fp + reservations for our whole group. Second, there were times and sections of WDW where my MDE app was completely non-functional. For example, I found that I could use my phone for everything on Sunset Blvd. except accessing MDE (I kept returning to Sunset Blvd at different times to see if this was the case. In case you don't think I'm nerdy enough to do this, you don't know me), so I definitely recommend writing down times. Since there were 4 of us and if we had a dining reservation that made 4 times to remember (counting fp+) we each had one time each day to remember.
Here is the shocking reveal....I used to be a local and have lots of family in Florida. My sister drove out to meet us the night of 10/25. When I found out she was coming I cancelled our BoG dinner (I figure we'll eat there some other time) and made a reservation for both of our families at the Wave (tremendously under rated - note: my sister's family had no park tickets). Anyhoo, when I got to 10/25 I looked at my phone and both reservations for dinner were there at the exact same time (6:45 PM)! I called, explained the situation and avoided the cancellation charge. Really, the two dinners at the same time should be a forbidden state. Someone needs to read up on the Pauli Exclusion Principle.
Physical note - we swam and spent a big chunk of one day at TL. The bands are water proof. No doubt about it. However, in the giant wave pool at TL, two bands floated by me so I took mine off and put it in our pool bag. Also, the decorative bandits they sell can only be purchased at resorts and not at the theme parks yet. I should note, that I found a Mr. Incredible bandit at TL. If you can swim well and open your eyes in the water, the TL wave pool may be the place for all your magic band needs. Overall, not bad, but I hope they get the bugs worked out soon.
