People who actually experienced Magic Bands

[Jim Buck]

Not sure how I'd keep up with all that without it being a colossal pain at check out. We have 9 different members going for 5 days...trying to remember exactly whose charge for what belongs to who isn't something I'd want to bother with on vacation.

We check into Yacht Club as just 4 for 3 additional nights after the other 5 leave...then it would make sense to do it this way because there's no doubt they would all be my charges.

Each party should be able to add their own credit card under the MDE for charging from the bands with a pin number. Try that and it should not matter what is used for the room.

 

[flynnibus]

My question is a little different though...I don't want to charge to the room. I want to be able to use magic bands to charge to a credit card.

As stated before... There is no mde charge account... Only your room charge account. Mm+ has not changed this... (Yet? No one knows)

The magicband is a token allowing you to bill to your hotel.

You can always bill to your room and pay individually once you've looked at the itemized bill. Same as before

 

[MadMax11]

As stated before... There is no mde charge account... Only your room charge account. Mm+ has not changed this... (Yet? No one knows)

The magicband is a token allowing you to bill to your hotel.

You can always bill to your room and pay individually once you've looked at the itemized bill. Same as before

Got it...was hoping I could simply link a credit card to a MDE for purchases in the park.

 

[EpcoTim]

As stated before... There is no mde charge account... Only your room charge account. Mm+ has not changed this... (Yet? No one knows)

The magicband is a token allowing you to bill to your hotel.

You can always bill to your room and pay individually once you've looked at the itemized bill. Same as before

Are you sure? When I went in January I was asked at check in if I wanted my band linked to the credit card I used to pay for the room. I said no. Then had to sign a form stating that i didn't want to link it. It ended being linked to it anyway.

 

[Rob562]

Each party should be able to add their own credit card under the MDE for charging from the bands with a pin number. Try that and it should not matter what is used for the room.

Ding! We have a winner! (Though it's under the hotel's charging account, not the MDE app, as Flynnibus said)

You can set up separate charge accounts with different credit cards to as many or as few people as you want. Each will have its own charging limit and PIN code. At Saratoga Springs last year, we had four people with three different credit cards in use (one card was shared by two people). I can't imagine how complicated it'll be with our 6-person trip this year (probably 5 cards spread across the 6 Bands).

My only suggestion is to skip the Room Charge section if you're doing online check-in. Wait until you get to the resort and then have the Front Desk do it. It'll take a couple minutes per person to get set up.

-Rob

 

[PrincessNelly_NJ]

Was your balance at the time over $1,500? The front desk at WL told me that was the policy.

No. Any other time we've stayed on property. We were only charged if we hit the limit for that resort (1,000 for moderates, like POR)
Well, we woke up to a surprise $545 charge in the middle of our trip and when I called the front desk, I was told that we were charged because we had used over 50% of our room charge. We still have an additional $116 balance after they charged off $545. Weird. The guy at the front desk didn't even sound sure of himself.

 

[Queenof<3<3]

I found the magic bands very helpful. Never had to pull out a credit card once in the parks. Usually we always have to be shuffling the bank card around and always worried who has it and so on, but with the magic band it was easy not have to worry about who has what card. Also like that we didn't have to worry about fumbling with photo cards and hotel room keys.

Now the cons. Maybe not a magic band thing itself but I had more than one issue with the system not showing proper times or members of my party. There were multiple times where if it wasn't for having my passes and family members listed on my phone app they weren't going to let me in to rides. For example showing up for a fast pass on time and then telling me I was 3 hours late for it or having 5 people in my party and it only showing two. They need to work out some kinks with their system.

 

[Kman101]

I like being able to have the band on my wrist, tap the mickey head and enter the park. That was nice. As a passholder, my park admission was already linked to my band, and I had zero issues with FP. They even alert you (through e-mail, which I never check when in the parks) if an attraction goes down and you can't use your FP time. It lets you use it for almost any attraction at any time, which was great. I used that for Big Thunder. It was also nice bypassing the line and virtually having no wait.

I wouldn't mind paying with it, either, but at the same time, the less linked the better. It's fine for me to have my admission ticket on there and ready to go. I agree that the RFID card works just fine but I found it a tiny bit easier to already have the band on my wrist. I actually forgot I was wearing it half of the time and was still wearing it after leaving the park. It fits a bit weird but I have a smaller wrist for a guy, I guess, so it wasn't a big deal, but I can see how they wouldn't fit right for some. It also wasn't awkward at all to tap it to the mickey head. Was it NECESSARY. No, but I don't see the issue with it.

Now, data mining, and what could be done, yes, I have a bit of an issue and I also don't agree with the price tag of it all, but having used it, I quite like them. And it's really nice to book FP's before I even leave the house, the day of. Or the night before. Of course, I was never the type to have a bunch of paper fast passes anyway. If the line's too long, I just move on.

I don't like how limited the app seems to be and I don't like having to wait in a line to get to a kiosk so that's not appealing to me. I know the attendants are there to help but there are SO many (what a waste of labor, IMO) and I don't need someone breathing down my neck. I'm capable of working the kiosk.

 

[inchy warrior]

We used the bands last November and had no problems whatsoever.
Nor did it irritate us to wear for the 21 days of our stay.
Very satisfied with our experience of MBs

 

[BernardandBianca]

As APs, we have the bands, and leave them in our car now after having worn them twice. To us, they are a pain in the wrist, and after half a day in the Florida sun, they cause quite a bit of sweating underneath them, which is not easy to get rid of. Since we're not staying onsite, we're going to have to carry a wallet anyway, so I just stick our cards in there, and away we go. Plus, it conflicts with my watch, and I cannot put it onto my other arm.

The FP+ has worked fine each time we tried them, but it takes away from the pleasure of just going to whatever park we like and riding. I realize we do not have to preplan, but this brings up the part that makes me hate the program.

The lines to get on all attractions appear to have expanded significantly, and it now takes forever to get onto any ride. Not like before, where there was variability in line length, now every line is long. Even the FP return line is long. But the days of going to any park and enjoying going on something appear to be gone. (Which is understandable, as the new system has not increased capacity, just gave priority to some and took spaces away from others.) I personally wonder, and would love to know, if the "average" numbers of attractions a guest can do is up, down, or the same now that FP+ has launched. It seems to me that the time saved using FP on three attractions (or more if you can) is then wasted on all of the other longer lines you need to wait in for the non-FP portion of your visit.

 

[cw1982]

The lines to get on all attractions appear to have expanded significantly, and it now takes forever to get onto any ride. Not like before, where there was variability in line length, now every line is long. Even the FP return line is long. But the days of going to any park and enjoying going on something appear to be gone. (Which is understandable, as the new system has not increased capacity, just gave priority to some and took spaces away from others.) I personally wonder, and would love to know, if the "average" numbers of attractions a guest can do is up, down, or the same now that FP+ has launched. It seems to me that the time saved using FP on three attractions (or more if you can) is then wasted on all of the other longer lines you need to wait in for the non-FP portion of your visit.

Can I ask for which attractions in particular you have seen such a detrimental wait increase? I'm excited about my trip next week and have found myself looking at wait times on the MDE app when I get bored lol. I haven't seen any wait times on the app that have really shocked me. Granted, I didn't start planning this trip until after the FP+ rollout, so I really have nothing to compare with (my last trip to WDW was 13 years ago), but like I said... nothing seems to be so far off base on a regular basis that I would say FP+ is causing a problem. Everything else I've read seems to indicate that the rides that have an increased wait time are only increasing by a few minutes, so hardly what I would call "significant."

It'll be interesting to see whether or not the data on the effects of FP+ starts to change as we head into summer.

 

[Kman101]

I agree about FP+. I've been able to book anything I want the day of or the night before. You DON'T have to book FP 60 days in advance as far as I can tell. Maybe for something brand brand new, or clearly the Frozen sisters, but honestly, I don't see why you'd have to book FP's that far in advance. And even if you're given a time, you can usually edit your choice and select a better time that works for you. I think it's great to be honest, and I was really dreading that part of it, as being a semi-local and planning last minute trips.

I just don't see how they cause you to sweat on your wrist though. They're barely noticable and hardly heavy. A watch or something similar would do the same thing. No one is saying you have to wear it on your wrist.

Lines seem to be about the same, honestly. I've only noticed Haunted Mansion having really long waits at times in standby. I think many were just spoiled by near unlimited fast passes. There are going to be waits, you have to get there at rope drop, hit what you want, and then use fast passes. If it's that important to someone not to wait in lines, there are ways to mostly avoid it. Getting to the parks at 10 or 11 (as I did one day), yeah, you're going to see longer waits.

 

[doctornick]

The lines to get on all attractions appear to have expanded significantly, and it now takes forever to get onto any ride. Not like before, where there was variability in line length, now every line is long. Even the FP return line is long. But the days of going to any park and enjoying going on something appear to be gone. (Which is understandable, as the new system has not increased capacity, just gave priority to some and took spaces away from others.) I personally wonder, and would love to know, if the "average" numbers of attractions a guest can do is up, down, or the same now that FP+ has launched. It seems to me that the time saved using FP on three attractions (or more if you can) is then wasted on all of the other longer lines you need to wait in for the non-FP portion of your visit.

The big difference here is not with any mechanics related to FP+ relative to paper FP, but simply that usage of FP+ is much higher among all guests. Basically, a lot of guests that previously would have never or rarely used paper FP are using FP+ due to better advertisement and encourage by Disney to use it.

Since capacity is fixed and most attractions basically run near full capacity, I would think the "average number" of rides is the same assuming stable attendance -- but the distribution is different with some guests (people who were knowledgeable about the parks and used paper FP very efficiently) doing far less and the majority of guests doing somewhat more.

 

[lostpro9het]

I don't mind the band a bit as a means of a park pass and managing my fast passes but since I still need to carry my id for alcohol purchases, TiW card for food discounts , AP to get discounts on purchases and CC to make purchases, I have no faith in letting Disney IT taking my CC info mobile, the band does not reduce my need to carry a wallet, or in my case a ziploc bag, of cards and cash.

 

[bjlc57]

if you have the bands.. they work great... but , and there is a BIG BUTT.. you need to use your smart phone, in conjunction to the band.. that the My Disney Experience on the smart phone, puts you at the top of the food chain.. at least until everyone else catches up.. in fact, we did not own a "smart phone" but right before we left I bought my wife a virgin mobile phone for $50.. ( no contract).. those two, working together, were the GREAT EQUALIZER.. they put us ahead of the crowd no matter what we did.. and trust me I just got back from 10 days of only waiting in line 4 times for over 15 minutes..

 

[TubaGeek]

if you have the bands.. they work great... but , and there is a BIG BUTT...

 

[Rodb]

Just got back and the bands worked great. I HAD THE APP loaded on my phone, but never bothered to check it once since i had a paper copy of our plans. Even when splash mountain broke down, we just had to walk over to the haunted mansion and our fastpass was transferred for us. there was a couple of times when one of our party didn't have their band turn green entering the park, but a CM would quickly come over and get them through. Overall; if you do your proper planning, MDE is a great way to make sure we could experience the attractions and dining we wanted at the times we wanted. On a side note: We were at the parks from may22-25th and it was HOT everyday. (even got to 100 degrees on saturday while at AK.; I can't imagine going to the park during the mid-day. I really appreciate having the hopper passes to start the day in one park/ go back to the hotel from 1-4:30 for swimming/resting and then go to another park that night. I know it has been talked about before; but it is a pleasure to just have my band open the hotel door when i am carrying 4 refill/mugs and not having to reach for cash/credit card everytime i want to purchase something.

 

[Penelope]

Here's my experience with them when I used them in March:

My biggest complaint with FP+ is the lack of spontaneity. My family is not a "super-planning" family. We like to go and have a "wing it" attitude; it makes the vacation more enjoyable. We decided to go a week in advance of our arrival, but we had our hotel reservations for a few month. We got our MagicBands at Port Orleans Riverside upon our arrival, so we planned our FP+s the night before. Some attractions we were able to get decent times for, and other were either not available or terrible times. The new FP+ system does not allow for people like my family to continue the way they like to do Disney. My next complaint is planning FP+s between multiple groups. Halfway through our trip we had relatives join us. Planning FP+s between our group of 3 and their group of 4 was a huge pain and stressful. There is supposed to be a way to link the groups together in order to make FP+ selections together, but it did not work for us, so we had to do it over the phone with each other. We were not able to get the same FP+ times for each FP+, and it was just a big pain. Another complaint would be the FP+ lines. They are constantly backed up because of how much slower it is to get through the beginning of the line. While it's not a problem once you get through the scanners, it creates a problem in the middle of the pathways because of everyone backed up trying to get in line.

I had one other complaint with FP+, but I forgot it as I was typing.

Overall it was not a terrible experience, but I would not say it was a good one, either. I would take the old system of a plastic card and FP over the new system any day.

I agree with you but I haven't yet had the "pleasure" of using the new magic bands and FP+ systems to see how it will impact our trip. We like to plan out the vacation around our dining experiences and other things geared towards my daughter, but this coming trip we now will have an infant and I am a bit nervous how the FP+ will hinder vs. help our experience. One of us is going to need to sit out some of the FP type rides due to the baby. My question is has anyone traveling with an infant have tips for the FP+ on how to best use this? Do we need to decide in advance who is NOT riding the ride because of the band? And what if one person in our party chickens out on a ride (we have 3 adults going, 1 child, 1 infant) are they out of luck when we hop to another park because they did not use the 3 FP s for the first park of the day we book in advance?

Lots of questions I know. I just learned of the FP+ a few weeks ago when we booked the trip so I am trying to get a handle on all possible situations well in advance.

 

[PUSH]

I agree with you but I haven't yet had the "pleasure" of using the new magic bands and FP+ systems to see how it will impact our trip. We like to plan out the vacation around our dining experiences and other things geared towards my daughter, but this coming trip we now will have an infant and I am a bit nervous how the FP+ will hinder vs. help our experience. One of us is going to need to sit out some of the FP type rides due to the baby. My question is has anyone traveling with an infant have tips for the FP+ on how to best use this? Do we need to decide in advance who is NOT riding the ride because of the band? And what if one person in our party chickens out on a ride (we have 3 adults going, 1 child, 1 infant) are they out of luck when we hop to another park because they did not use the 3 FP s for the first park of the day we book in advance?

Lots of questions I know. I just learned of the FP+ a few weeks ago when we booked the trip so I am trying to get a handle on all possible situations well in advance.

I don't know 100% on this, but I believe if a FP+ is not used, then you can get more FP+s after the time for that FP+ has expired.

 

[ratherbeinwdw]

I agree with you but I haven't yet had the "pleasure" of using the new magic bands and FP+ systems to see how it will impact our trip. We like to plan out the vacation around our dining experiences and other things geared towards my daughter, but this coming trip we now will have an infant and I am a bit nervous how the FP+ will hinder vs. help our experience. One of us is going to need to sit out some of the FP type rides due to the baby. My question is has anyone traveling with an infant have tips for the FP+ on how to best use this? Do we need to decide in advance who is NOT riding the ride because of the band? And what if one person in our party chickens out on a ride (we have 3 adults going, 1 child, 1 infant) are they out of luck when we hop to another park because they did not use the 3 FP s for the first park of the day we book in advance?

Lots of questions I know. I just learned of the FP+ a few weeks ago when we booked the trip so I am trying to get a handle on all possible situations well in advance.

It goes by the time, not whether you used them or not. I did this many times two weeks ago.