Questions/Concerns About Magic Bands

[briannarebelo]

A little background on why I have concerns... My family and I have only been to WDW once since the Magic Bands became a thing (January 2015). We stayed off-site (on Hotel Plaza Boulevard) because we were going to rent a car and visit family who live in Florida, which we only do every 3rd or so trip down to Florida. Obviously, we weren't offered the Magic Bands by our hotel. However, being in WDW for the first time in several years, we thought they would be fun so we bought them anyway (they probably weren't worth paying almost $15 a band for since they worked like normal tickets, but we got a tad excited about new-to-us Disney stuff and splurged). We bought the bands before our tickets and had them linked when we purchased the tickets on our first park day. They worked perfectly with the app and Memory Maker and everything. We loved it. We decided that since we used the Disney transportation to the parks more than our rental car, and we liked the easiness of Magic Bands, it would be worth our while to stay on property next trip.

We are trying to plan our trip for March 2016 at the moment. This trip is going to be different than usual because it won't just be 4 of us anymore. My brother's girlfriend, and my boyfriend will be going too, as well as our parents. We're trying to go for my spring break/birthday week (March 12-20, 2016). I know that when booking through Disney's website, you can order your tickets as part of a package. However, all of the tickets will be the same this way. Our plan was that my brother, his girlfriend, my boyfriend, and myself would get 6- (maybe 7-) day tickets with the park hopper option, but my parents wanted 4-day tickets with no hopper as they aren't as adventurous (my brother and I really want our first-timer significant others to get the most of their stay in the World). We also wanted the Memory Maker.

Now the questions are... Is there a way that this can even work? Can we connect our Magic Bands even if they are different types of tickets? Will Memory Maker be able to work for all of us, even though we have different types of tickets? Will they be linked to our rooms correctly if we do it this way (buying the tickets separately instead of as a package)? Or is this just a huge mess and it'll just make more sense to buy everyone the same type of ticket as part of a package?

I apologize if this is horribly ramble-y and confusing! I get a little anxious about doing things wrong, and having to deal with problems later so I really like to be prepared.

ANY tips on this will be so helpful and much appreciated! Thank you all so much!

 

[Foltzy]

I'm not 100% positive but I think you can link everything separately on MDE.
When I bought the tickets for my family I chose who to link it to.
For the hotel as long as you link it it's good.
I'm not sure about memory maker but I believe it'll be the same.

 

[DManRightHere]

You can buy tickets elsewhere and link to your MDE online. Make sure to fo it early so you can book FP+ at the I think 60 day mark.

Hopefully the different length tickets will be in different rooms. Set them up on seperate MDE accounts and request the shorter lengh tickets as friends. Then you can customize who can pick FP's and such.

We did this with some family, they were on shorter tickets but in a different room and reservation.

I also purchased our tickets from Undercover Tourist well the other family used a package.

 

[briannarebelo]

I'm not 100% positive but I think you can link everything separately on MDE.
When I bought the tickets for my family I chose who to link it to.
For the hotel as long as you link it it's good.
I'm not sure about memory maker but I believe it'll be the same.

Oh, good, that relieves some stress off my shoulders! Thank you for the help!

You can buy tickets elsewhere and link to your MDE online. Make sure to fo it early so you can book FP+ at the I think 60 day mark.

Hopefully the different length tickets will be in different rooms. Set them up on seperate MDE accounts and request the shorter lengh tickets as friends. Then you can customize who can pick FP's and such.

We did this with some family, they were on shorter tickets but in a different room and reservation.

I also purchased our tickets from Undercover Tourist well the other family used a package.

That's a great idea, I hadn't thought of doing it that way. We were thinking just the 6-person suites at the Art of Animation, but it actually may end up saving some money to book two rooms at Pop Century or one of the All-Stars (I should check that out!) and could even help with the MagicBand problem! Thanks for helping out!

 

[DManRightHere]

On price of rooms, oh yeah. Looks like a AoA suite is $2,800 - $3,600 whether a discount will be going on or not. You could use dvcrequest.com and get 2 studio rooms for $1,540 each or a 1 BR (not sure how many that sleeps) for $3,038 at Animal Kingdom Lodge. Of course this makes things more complicated and doesn't really save you money, but you'd get a lot more for the same (or a little more) money. With DVCrequest you have have to pay all in advance and ASAP as the longer you wait the less chance points or a room is availble. Actually, if it is spring break, they may already be gone. I've only used them once so far.

If you want all out cheap, go for the value single rooms!

 

[Rob562]

I'll chime in with a few points:

-MagicBands aren't directly linked to your tickets, room, MemoryMaker, etc. All they are is a pointer so that the Disney system can find "you" in the MDE system. Tickets, room, MemoryMaker, FP+ are all associated with your MDE profile. When you scan the Band, the system looks you up to find the info it needs (can you get into this hotel room? Do you have a valid FP+ for Space Mountain right now?)

-You can have more than one active Band associated with you. So when you book your hotel, you'll get new Bands. As long as the hotel reservation is associated with the same profiles as you use previously, the Bands can be used interchangeably. (Obviously those who didn't go on their previous trip will only have the single new Band)

-When you book a vacation package that includes tickets, everyone on the reservation must have the same number of days and ticket options. So if you have one reservation for everyone, you'd have to book for the number of days/options as the person who wants the smallest ticket. Additional days/options can then be added to the tickets that need it after you check in. However, this means that you'd only be able to pre-book fewer days of FP+ for the group. Those who will be upgrading their tickets can't book those additional days until they've upgraded their tickets.

-You can save a little money by buying your tickets separately. However, if you buy your tickets separately, you will not be able to buy the Dining Plan, if that's something you're interested in.


-Rob

 

[briannarebelo]

On price of rooms, oh yeah. Looks like a AoA suite is $2,800 - $3,600 whether a discount will be going on or not. You could use dvcrequest.com and get 2 studio rooms for $1,540 each or a 1 BR (not sure how many that sleeps) for $3,038 at Animal Kingdom Lodge. Of course this makes things more complicated and doesn't really save you money, but you'd get a lot more for the same (or a little more) money. With DVCrequest you have have to pay all in advance and ASAP as the longer you wait the less chance points or a room is availble. Actually, if it is spring break, they may already be gone. I've only used them once so far.

If you want all out cheap, go for the value single rooms!

I've actually never heard of DVCrequest before! How would I check that out? We never use credit cards anyway (my mom is a little paranoid about using credit cards, as she's had her identity stolen before and it went pretty badly), we save and put the money on a gift card and use it that way, so maybe using that would be beneficial to us, since we always pay in advanced anyway!

 

[briannarebelo]

I'll chime in with a few points:

-MagicBands aren't directly linked to your tickets, room, MemoryMaker, etc. All they are is a pointer so that the Disney system can find "you" in the MDE system. Tickets, room, MemoryMaker, FP+ are all associated with your MDE profile. When you scan the Band, the system looks you up to find the info it needs (can you get into this hotel room? Do you have a valid FP+ for Space Mountain right now?)

-You can have more than one active Band associated with you. So when you book your hotel, you'll get new Bands. As long as the hotel reservation is associated with the same profiles as you use previously, the Bands can be used interchangeably. (Obviously those who didn't go on their previous trip will only have the single new Band)

-When you book a vacation package that includes tickets, everyone on the reservation must have the same number of days and ticket options. So if you have one reservation for everyone, you'd have to book for the number of days/options as the person who wants the smallest ticket. Additional days/options can then be added to the tickets that need it after you check in. However, this means that you'd only be able to pre-book fewer days of FP+ for the group. Those who will be upgrading their tickets can't book those additional days until they've upgraded their tickets.

-You can save a little money by buying your tickets separately. However, if you buy your tickets separately, you will not be able to buy the Dining Plan, if that's something you're interested in.


-Rob

Oh! I actually didn't know all that so that's so helpful! That idea of purchasing the same tickets beforehand and purchasing the excess separately is really smart, I hadn't even thought of that. Thank you so much!