My magicband experience this past week.

[wogwog]

I understood going into my trip that the magicbands were still in the testing mode. I expected some hiccups from them. The hiccups started at check in. The ones I received in the mail were no good. I stood at the counter for an hour trying to check in. 5 managers and an hour later I was finally off to my room. They did however compensate me for my waiting at check in. They credited my account $150.00. Little did I know I would log about 5 more hours during my trip at these same counters trying to figure out the problems I was having. The problem was being caused by My Disney Experience". It wasn't linking up with my bands. So everything from park tickets to fastpass + to dining reservations were screwed up. The more people that got involved, the more screwed up it became. I wanted to just open a new MDE account and be done with it. Well Disney wanted to find out how the problem originated and how were they going to fix it. Needless to say on my last day there I opened a new MDE account. When the Bands worked I loved it. The problem though is that they only worked one day. I have been told that I would be contacted by someone from Disney. I don't really see that happening.

Say no to the rubber band. The resorts will not offer the option but you can demand only a card. Use a credit card for purchases. The above bad experience is not rare. I am local and friends and neighbors who work at the Mouse report massive issues. They have lost count of the updates to the system. I would not expect a smooth system working most of the time for a long time.

 

[lostpro9het]

I expected some hiccups from them. The hiccups started at check in. The ones I received in the mail were no good. I stood at the counter for an hour trying to check in. 5 managers and an hour later I was finally off to my room. nd how were they going to fix it. Needless to say on my last day there I opened a new MDE account....

We checked into AKL yesterday and had nearly the SAME experience! Our debacle only took about 20 minutes on top of normal check in so we weren't compensated but here is the Cliff's notes:
Cast Member: oh these bands are no good anymore
Me: No good!?!? You sent them to me just a week ago! All my reservations and tickets have been linked
CM: yes, these bands have been deactivated.
Me: then reactivate them! (This was my biggest issue, they knew they had been "deactivated" but couldn't/wouldn't reactivate them.
CM: No, we'll just give you new ones
Me: what about all our reservations and tickets?
CM: they will all be there, I'm just replacing your initial bands with these bands.
Me: even our APs?
CM: bring your APs with you just in case.....

So again, 20ish minutes of the above and we had new bands, fortunately she was able to get the same colors we selected AND we got to keep the ones with our names on them even though it seems they'll never be useable. We got to the park and and they Worked! It was sooo sad how excited we got when tapped our bands to enter the park and then again to use the fastpass+ but let's be honesty, Disney and IT leaves a lot to be desired.

 

[cowanfamily]

We checked into AKL yesterday and had nearly the SAME experience! Our debacle only took about 20 minutes on top of normal check in so we weren't compensated but here is the Cliff's notes:
Cast Member: oh these bands are no good anymore
Me: No good!?!? You sent them to me just a week ago! All my reservations and tickets have been linked
CM: yes, these bands have been deactivated.
Me: then reactivate them! (This was my biggest issue, they knew they had been "deactivated" but couldn't/wouldn't reactivate them.
CM: No, we'll just give you new ones
Me: what about all our reservations and tickets?
CM: they will all be there, I'm just replacing your initial bands with these bands.
Me: even our APs?
CM: bring your APs with you just in case.....

So again, 20ish minutes of the above and we had new bands, fortunately she was able to get the same colors we selected AND we got to keep the ones with our names on them even though it seems they'll never be useable. We got to the park and and they Worked! It was sooo sad how excited we got when tapped our bands to enter the park and then again to use the fastpass+ but let's be honesty, Disney and IT leaves a lot to be desired.

The said I could keep the ones with our names on them as well. I said no thanks. I did find it interesting that they do have colored bands on hand for cases like ours. (we recieved colored ones as well). Yet if you make late reservations they will only give you gray ones.

 

[devoy1701]

We checked into AKL yesterday and had nearly the SAME experience! Our debacle only took about 20 minutes on top of normal check in so we weren't compensated but here is the Cliff's notes:
Cast Member: oh these bands are no good anymore
Me: No good!?!? You sent them to me just a week ago! All my reservations and tickets have been linked
CM: yes, these bands have been deactivated.
Me: then reactivate them! (This was my biggest issue, they knew they had been "deactivated" but couldn't/wouldn't reactivate them.
CM: No, we'll just give you new ones
Me: what about all our reservations and tickets?
CM: they will all be there, I'm just replacing your initial bands with these bands.
Me: even our APs?
CM: bring your APs with you just in case.....

So again, 20ish minutes of the above and we had new bands, fortunately she was able to get the same colors we selected AND we got to keep the ones with our names on them even though it seems they'll never be useable. We got to the park and and they Worked! It was sooo sad how excited we got when tapped our bands to enter the park and then again to use the fastpass+ but let's be honesty, Disney and IT leaves a lot to be desired.

yes!!! atleast you were able to get new ones in the same colors as the original ones!!! Yay Disney!

 

[jkl2000]

Say no to the rubber band. The resorts will not offer the option but you can demand only a card. Use a credit card for purchases. The above bad experience is not rare. I am local and friends and neighbors who work at the Mouse report massive issues. They have lost count of the updates to the system. I would not expect a smooth system working most of the time for a long time.

If I was having problems like this, I think I might have just resorted to using the paper fastpasses at some point. But why should she (or anyone) have said "no" to the bands? As I understand it, she had the same problems using the KTTW card as with the bands. If you have the bands and they aren't working, then just stop using them - there's no harm in having them initially, right? I'm not suggesting she did anything wrong - what I'm trying to understand is if she was in any way "locked in" to using the bands. I don't think so, but maybe I'm missing something.

 

[jkl2000]

Why do they have that option on the site to deactivate your magic bands? Why would anyone ever want to do that? I just checked, and ours are active, but it's scary just looking at that page.

 

[Rob562]

Why do they have that option on the site to deactivate your magic bands? Why would anyone ever want to do that? I just checked, and ours are active, but it's scary just looking at that page.

I'm thinking it's either a) you lost the Band, or b) you can only have one Band active at a time (or perhaps there's a limit to the number of active Bands per profile that's some number greater than 1).

Theoretically after multiple trips you could have multiple Bands in multiple colors. This would allow those who are so inclined to color-coordinate their Band each day. Going in and activating/deactivating them on an individual basis allows that.

-Rob