Question about being a passholder and magic bands...

I don't know the right place to ask this, none of the boards really fit my questions so I will just try here!

We just recently became passholders. We have been to Disney a TON and we each have like 9 Magic Bands right now. I have called Disney and asked them if we can just not get them anymore because it is such a waste when we can use past Magic bands for our current reservations and their answer was no. They are generated automatically and sent automatically (which I think is so silly, it's a waste!)

But I digress...

We recently became passholders and it asked us to customize our passholder magic bands, which is funny because just today we got our magic bands for our trip later this month! So now they are going to send up passholder magic bands. Is something special about this magic band or is it literally going to be exactly like our other ones? Right now we have all our magic bands activated and we always just use whatever ones they just sent us for our trip but I am thinking of deactivating all the magic bands and having just 1 activated one for each person (maybe the passholder one I will keep activated) this isn't going to cause a problem is it? If I deactivate even the one that I just received today and just keep the ones that are coming next week. As long as I have one activated whatever reservations or fastpasses I have will automatically appear when we use that magic band right?

The pass holder magic bands come with a fancy blue box...lol. Seriously though, in addition to different packaging you will get your AP cards under the bottom of the box as well as your little AP paperwork thing that describes your AP benefits. The reason you need the AP cards is because if you use your AP to get any discounts (all WDW retail checkout locations, basically...and a few restaurants) they will ask to see your physical card. When/if you use your MB to pay, it does not show them anything about your AP or discount eligibility. So even if you have your park admission on the MB, make sure you have your card with you in the parks.

As far as the multiple MB - I also think it's a bit ridiculous. We are rapidly collecting drawerfuls of them. I have decided to view it as an opportunity to collect every color so I always have one to match. You can have all of them active at the same time; no need to deactivate unless you lose one. Anything saved in MDE (like your FP+ and AP attached to your person) on each person's MB will be saved on any active MB that person chooses to use. For instance, I make FP+ for myself and have AP attached to my name in MDE. I also have 5 active Magic Bands. I can choose to use a different MB on each day of our trip if I want to, and I never have to change/deactivate/activate anything in MDE.

I have also been told that you can recycle your bands. Call Disney, tell them that you already have bands, you don't need another (unless it comes with diamonds on it or something else!) and return any that you don't want at the front desk of your hotel. I'm a passholder, and we usually do room-only ressie, and the front desk keeps trying to foist MBs on us. I just tell them no, don't need it, and to keep the ones they have. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. Be firm though. I shouldn't have to wear two bands (one to open the door and one for my ticket). What is the point of that, especially when they sell all the neat ones at the hotels/parks?

Bluegrrl said:

I shouldn't have to wear two bands (one to open the door and one for my ticket). What is the point of that, especially when they sell all the neat ones at the hotels/parks?

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You wouldn't need to do this anyhow. They can attach your room key and room charge privileges (if you use this) to any MB. You control any/all the active MB in MDE and any/all of them will have your AP, Room key, charge privileges already coded. I have checked in for room-only with one MB, made sure that "all is good" with the MB at the front desk at check in, and then throughout the trip I changed MB (because I just want to wear a different color one day) and everything worked - room key, charging, FP+, etc.