People who actually experienced Magic Bands

[kma71677]

We love ours. As AP, we use them all the time! I can't wait til we have the upgrade and can link them to a debit/cc. I think that is my only complaint now. Between MDE and the bands, we are in Mickey heaven!!

 

[minniemickeyfan]

I think they work great at the parks. I've had some trouble with them on the hotel door and having to go back to the front desk. I also had some trouble this early Jan when it got down to freezing temps not working on the hotel door.
The problem I see is that we generally stay at 2-3 resorts a trip so that equals many Magic Bands for 4 people. Plus I just got them for my annual pass. So leaving at the end of next week and bringing 16 new bands. I guess I can leave our other 12 at home? Kind of wasteful to me. But I am putting them on the tree this Dec.
Also I started putting the resort initials on them after our name when I went to customize them to keep all these bands straight.
Another thing I put mine on a loop I have on my cross body purse to prevent tan lines.

 

[PAW PAW 70]

You can use your same MB. When you go on your next trip just bring your MB with you and they will reset them at the hotel for you.

 

[gsimpson]

I've used them twice so far and liked them overall. I went with friends both times and one of them has a index finger that has had surgery and cannot be read by any fingerprint scanner, he tried telling this to the CMs but they kept insisting he had to use that finger so for the first 4 days each park entry included several minutes of wasting time while they re-enrolled him. Finally we got the same CM a second time and just to shut me up he let my friend try to enroll with his ring finger and that worked great from then on. I'm glad they are adding additional fast passes and park hopping, those were my only real complaints.

 

[Tinkerbella16]

We used them in November and we loved them! We had no glitches except for one morning entering DHS, my friend, her daughter and I. Me and her daughter entered with no problem and we were in a hurry to get to TSM for our fp time and I was walking really fast, holding my goddaughtgts hand, not knowing my friends band did not work at the entrance. We were all the way to the hat when we realized she wayyy behind haha! Woops! But the CM fixed that issue with her band and all was fine and she caught up to us. We had no other problems. I love not having to dig for our cards. I also like getting a new one each trip.. We go once a year so I want to have a different color band each trip. I'm really not worried about Disney wasting money on them.. they certainly do not care about the money we spend on these trips, thats for sure! Lol

 

[jonesenon4]

my family and i just returned monday from our trip.and we all loved the magic bands.first you don't have to dig a card out of your wallet,purse or lanyard very easy and handy.secondly speaking for myself i did not even notice i was wearing it.last but not least very easy to enter room when your arms are full.the hardest thing i noticed was getting the mickey head properly aligned.overall though loved it had a great trip and its a pretty cool souveiner.

 

[Poggie]

We are not staying at Disney but we bought magic bands just for the experience and I am so glad we did.
Super easy admittance and fast pass scanning without rooting round in my bag for cards.

They don't irritate or make my wrist sweat, however after 9 days of use, one of the fasteners has broken. So quality might be an issue if you don't want to wear it 24/7.

The bands, combined with the mde app made our holiday run smoothly. I liked scheduling in advance and then amending on my phone. We got fast passes for everything we wanted, the only negative was that we are unable to schedule additional FP from your phone and unable to select FP in a different park.
That made park hopping less of an option as who knew what would be available on arrival.

 

[EvilQueen-T]

I used mine in January and had two problems. One my room would not open with it and two getting my passholder discounts required me to first tell the cm I had one and two I had to present it to use it. They were not linked to the bands at that time. I do not know if that has changed or not.

The last weekend in April was our 3rd or 4th trip with the MB and we're AP holders too. Our bands were linked and some places, like Jiko, saw that fine. Others, like the gift shop in AKL couldn't see that fact and I still had to tell them and present my card. I'm hoping this gets worked out eventually since the whole idea behind the bands is to have everything in one place and not to have yet another thing to bring with you. Our MB's worked as expected with the exception of one trip where my 9 y/o granddaughter's worked great except when we'd go to use a fp+ it would say she wasn't in the park. multiple trips to everybody they sent us to to fix the problem over a 3 day weekend never did fix the problem that trip.

 

[deanaandrich]

We had difficulties with our magicbands today. As passholders, we were hoping for the best. But today we had problems. It took more than 30 minutes to fix it. I was told the magicband and my passholder card were not communicating. Once I got to guest relations,I was told that 1 in 50 don't work. Turns out that my band both showed as being active and not active. So it was turned over to the gurus and I waited another hour to have it fixed.

 

[R W B]

I like the idea of the band itself and I have no issues with it. It is pretty easy just having to swipe my wrist to pay for things and to open up my resort room door. However I think FP+ is beyond dumb and not worth my time to plan rides 60 days before my trip. I absolutely hate that part. It's suppose to be a vacation but it takes more work to plan the damn thing then my job does.

So there's a lot of threads out there based on the Magic Bands and I'm not seeing if there is any focusing on actually experiencing it. Sure, it's mixed between.

My thought: It was quit a good experience. The Magic Bands seem to be working all the time though my parents friends brother had difficulty using them. If it wasn't for the people who didn't know how to put the Mickey on Mickey and get to the fastpass time early, it would be great. However, I think Disney spent way too much money doing this because according to my uncle (3 times since Magic Bands), you get new ones every time. Seems like a lot of waste to mail them to your house and to give you new ones every time.

As for the fastpasses itself, it worked brilliantly though I wish Disney allowed you to get more without waiting in line. Toy Story Mania and Aerosmith was a 90 minute wait and we got on within 10 minutes. Though I'm not sure why you would get a fastpass for a show? It was nice not not go for a fastpass and then come back for it.

It was great for the kiosk at Epcot and etc instead of fumbling around with your money or credit card. However, did it get me to spend more? I probably spent less than usual. But 75% of people will probably spend more. I used a mixture between cash and magic band.

My conclusion....Based on Disney giving you different magic bands for every trip and mailing them out. I didn't see the benefits. If Disney stopped doing that, I think they would be fine.

I read page 1, not page 2 so idk if someone mentioned it already but when checking in 2 months ago the CM said you can use the same MB for 2 years before needing a new one so if people do that, it will cut costs down.

 

[Arty Cordova]

I too would assume that the cost of mailing magic bands was close to the same cost of reprinting plastic cards. Especially since they don't mail them outside the US. (i'm not even sure they mail them outside Mainland US)

We didn't find that we spent anymore than when we charged items using the band. I'm not sure if this is new or not, but midway through our trip they charged off our room charge balance. In the past we have always received one large charge at the end of trip. It sucked because we had GC and weren't able to apply them because they had already charged our card.

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

 

[doctornick]

However I think FP+ is beyond dumb and not worth my time to plan rides 60 days before my trip. I absolutely hate that part. It's suppose to be a vacation but it takes more work to plan the damn thing then my job does.

I still don't understand this complaint. If you don't want to pre-plan your trip (or do so that far before) then don't do it. Make your FP+ selections a week before or the night before or on the car/bus ride over to the park in the morning. Or wait until you are in the park. People have reported that FP+ is generally for most everything even day of in the morning. You might lose a little flexibility in terms of times (and not be able to get the rare high demand thing like Elsa and Anna) but surely if planning bothers you that much, you would be understanding that "relaxing" and not planning would result in some lack of availability.

 

[Arty Cordova]

I still don't understand this complaint. If you don't want to pre-plan your trip (or do so that far before) then don't do it. Make your FP+ selections a week before or the night before or on the car/bus ride over to the park in the morning. Or wait until you are in the park. People have reported that FP+ is generally for most everything even day of in the morning. You might lose a little flexibility in terms of times (and not be able to get the rare high demand thing like Elsa and Anna) but surely if planning bothers you that much, you would be understanding that "relaxing" and not planning would result in some lack of availability.

I agree with you. The planning process has now become one of the fun parts of the trip. For my past trip, I turned on the Apple TV and displayed my Disney experience on the big screen. The kids then picked their fast pass selections and really felt that they contributed to the trip. I can't wait for my next 60 days.

 

[MadMax11]

Quick question someone here might know the answer to:

I'm staying at OKW with a party of 9...4 of those people are my immediate family (wife, 2 sons, myself).

Is it possible to link a credit card just to the 4 in my immediate family without having it also linked to the other 5 travelling with us?

 

[flynnibus]

Quick question someone here might know the answer to:

I'm staying at OKW with a party of 9...4 of those people are my immediate family (wife, 2 sons, myself).

Is it possible to link a credit card just to the 4 in my immediate family without having it also linked to the other 5 travelling with us?

Yes you can control who has charging privs to the room. Same as before

 

[MadMax11]

Yes you can control who has charging privs to the room. Same as before

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. There will be others in our room who may want to do the same separately using their own magic bands to charge to their own credit cards.

I'm only financially responsible for 4 of the 9 people on that reservation. I don't want someone outside of the 4 charging something to their magic band and having it appear on my credit card.

 

[Arty Cordova]

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. There will be others in our room who may want to do the same separately using their own magic bands to charge to their own credit cards.

I'm only financially responsible for 4 of the 9 people on that reservation. I don't want someone outside of the 4 charging something to their magic band and having it appear on my credit card.

The room will have one credit card attached to the reservation. If all 9 are staying in the same room you will probably have to work something out with the front desk.

 

[MadMax11]

The room will have one credit card attached to the reservation. If all 9 are staying in the same room you will probably have to work something out with the front desk.

Sounds like I won't be doing this then. That's a shame. You'd think that..like everything else...it would just be linked to your MDE and not merely to a room. Particularly when you can stay in villas that can house more than one family.

 

[Arty Cordova]

Sounds like I won't be doing this then. That's a shame. You'd think that..like everything else...it would just be linked to your MDE and not merely to a room. Particularly when you can stay in villas that can house more than one family.

You will still be fine. The policy is, the front desk will not charge your room until the morning of your departure or until you reach $1,500 on your running balance. At some point before check out, just go to the front desk with the different credit cards and tell them what you want charged to where.

 

[MadMax11]

You will still be fine. The policy is, the front desk will not charge your room until the morning of your departure or until you reach $1,500 on your running balance. At some point before check out, just go to the front desk with the different credit cards and tell them what you want charged to where.

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.