Changed my room reservation - question about MB

[Mambo Junkie]

Today I had to change my room reservation because based on the ADRs we have, it will be well worth it to have the dining plan (lots of character meals). In order to add the plan I had to cancel my reservation (room only) and rebook as a package. I am going in 3 weeks, and have received my magic bands. Will they still work? The CM told me to reorder the MBs (which I immediately did) but what if they don't arrive on time. Will I have to relink the originals to my account? How does this work? I just want everything to go smoothly. I have spent a lot of time making plans. The only reason I waited this long is that a previous CM told me I would lose my ADRs and I worked too hard to get exactly what I want to let them go. That didn't happen and all is good, but now I am worried about these magic bands.

 

[hiroMYhero]

If the room only and the new package reservation used the same MDE account, all linked MagicBands will be active and serve as your room key, ticket, FP link, etc.

Now you'll have two sets to use during your trip. Nice!

 

[ajbtv2]

If you're within 3 weeks, expect the new MBs to ship out tomorrow. When I've done last minute vacations, I've had less than 3 hours to personalize my MBs before they are sent out. If you would not have made any selections before mid-night you would have received all grey bands.

However, you can take any MB to the checkin desk and they can activate it with your account. It's important to do this otherwise it won't work within the resort or for charges until the desk does the extra activation step. They still work as tickets & fastpasses, just not resort features.

The only time you wouldn't need to take an MB to the checkin desk is if you are using the one that was sent to you for the specific reservation.

 

[Mambo Junkie]

If the room only and the new package reservation used the same MDE account, all linked MagicBands will be active and serve as your room key, ticket, FP link, etc.

Now you'll have two sets to use during your trip. Nice!

Does the new reservation negate the old bands? I will have to reactivate them?

 

[bumbershoot]

The only reason I waited this long is that a previous CM told me I would lose my ADRs and I worked too hard to get exactly what I want to let them go.

That's really unfortunate that they told you that. Wow. If you remember the name of the CM, I'd write in and complain.

The CM told me to reorder the MBs

Sigh. There was no need.

Does the new reservation negate the old bands? I will have to reactivate them?

Absolutely not. hiroMYhero was telling you that both sets of bands (as long as YOU didn't deactivate the first set) will be linked and good and ready to go.

 

[Mambo Junkie]

Thanks. My next question was which set would I use to scan the 3 fp+ selections I set up at 60 days? Set number 1 or 2? In the event number 2 arrives on time?

 

[Mambo Junkie]

That's really unfortunate that they told you that. Wow. If you remember the name of the CM, I'd write in and complain.



Sigh. There was no need.



Absolutely not. hiroMYhero was telling you that both sets of bands (as long as YOU didn't deactivate the first set) will be linked and good and ready to go.

I know. I was on the phone over an hour because the CM had to keep checking to make sure she was doing everything right. I would ask a question and she would excuse herself to check with someone. That's ok though. She did it correctly and was very helpful. Right before we hung up she caught the Magical Express request and reissued it, something I hadn't even thought of. On that note, I also tried to add a day to my tickets and the CM I talked to told me I would have to cancel all my fps. No way. I might add, this was a different CM than the one who told me to add the DP I would lose all my ADRs.

 

[ajbtv2]

Both sets will work for your Fastpasses. The room key feature will only be activated automatically for the newest set, which is why you will need to take them to the check-in desk to confirm they are working for resort needs.

 

[Wood Nymph]

Thanks. My next question was which set would I use to scan the 3 fp+ selections I set up at 60 days? Set number 1 or 2? In the event number 2 arrives on time?

All of your MagicBands will work equally. It doesn't matter which set you use, they will all work for everything - fp+, room key, ticket, charge to room, etc.

 

[dansdad]

All of your MagicBands will work equally. It doesn't matter which set you use, they will all work for everything - fp+, room key, ticket, charge to room, etc.

This

 

[ajbtv2]

I'm wondering if you guys are speaking from experience because I am. I have had the exact thing happen and I can tell you that the resort features are more strict on being activated and deactivated against the bands.

I've even had an instance where I purchase an LE band, and when I got to the resort, even though it was attached to my MDE account, it was not activated for the resort features.

The front desk will make sure everything is correct when you check in, just be aware they will need to have each magicband you plan on using scanned when you arrive.


I have 17 magicbands attached to my MDE account, and until I check into the resort and scan the MB I will be using for that stay (unless it is the exact one which was shipped for that reservation), I cannot use it for resort features until the front desk activates those features for that band.

 

[dansdad]

I'm wondering if you guys are speaking from experience because I am. I have had the exact thing happen and I can tell you that the resort features are more strict on being activated and deactivated against the bands.

I've even had an instance where I purchase an LE band, and when I got to the resort, even though it was attached to my MDE account, it was not activated for the resort features.

The front desk will make sure everything is correct when you check in, just be aware they will need to have each magicband you plan on using scanned when you arrive.

I can't speak for the others, but I can speak from my own experience. We now have 5 sets of MBs each. Some were free from WDW and some were purchased separately. Every trip we have not had to have anyone at the resort do anything to any of them and they have all worked for everything. That is how they are supposed to work. But as we all know with technology, poo poo happens sometimes.

 

[ajbtv2]

I can't speak for the others, but I can speak from my own experience. We now have 5 sets of MBs each. Some were free from WDW and some were purchased separately. Every trip we have not had to have anyone at the resort do anything to any of them and they have all worked for everything. That is how they are supposed to work. But as we all know with technology, poo poo happens sometimes.

I have a hard time believing "that's how it is suppose to work".

Given I have 17 MBs on my MDE account, I would never want all 17 bands to be able to access my room or charge to my credit card at the same time, just because they are on my MDE account. What if I decide to carry 3 of the others with me (for the lights & sounds feature, let's say, because that is a different band per park). I would never want all 4 to be able to charge to my credit card or access my room; what if I were to loose one of them for some reason? Only my "primary band" for the vacation is given the resort features (room key & credit charges). That has been my experience and what I expect.

Also based on the logic that any RFID tag attached to your MDE account should give you resort key access means that my AP card and hard tickets should let me into the room and provide charge access, which was definitely not my experience.

 

[dansdad]

I have a hard time believing "that's how it is suppose to work".

Given I have 17 MBs on my MDE account, I would never want all 17 bands to be able to access my room or charge to my credit card at the same time, just because they are on my MDE account. What if I decide to carry 3 of the others with me (for the lights & sounds feature, let's say, because that is a different band per park). I would never want all 4 to be able to charge to my credit card or access my room; what if I were to loose one of them for some reason? Only my "primary band" for the vacation is given the resort features (room key & credit charges). That has been my experience and what I expect.

That is how WDW has designed it to work. If you don't want that many MBs active at any time, you can deactivate them yourself via your MDE account.

It is the sole reason that Bypass The Front Desk is able to work. Our last trip we got a text that our room was not ready yet when we were on ME on our way to CBR. When we got there, we dropped our stuff with Bell Services and headed right to Epcot. Our MBs worked to get us into Epcot, we were able to use our Dining Credits, use our Memory Maker and charge purchases back to the room. Our son likes to wear a Magic Band on each wrist as he thinks its cool to be able to use either one, both worked for everything. While at Epcot we got a text with our room number, headed back to CBR and went directly to our room using our MBs to open the door.

The trip before that, we got a text with our room number while taxing to our gate at MCO. Once at CBR went directly to our room and were able to get in. Since we had all 15 of our MBs we tried them all and they all worked.

We have tons of family and friends that have multiple MBs and I 99% of the time they all work for everything with no resort interaction. Like I said there is the odd time that something goes wrong and there needs to be some resort CM intervention.

 

[POTCfan]

If you go to your MDE account and look under My Account > Magic Bands and Cards, you will see a list of all your magic bands and whether they are active or not. You can make any of them ACTIVE or INACTIVE. Any magic band that is active can be used as your key to your MDE account, which has your tickets, fastpasses, and room reservations. Sometimes if you have too many active, it messes up the system (each in our party had 7 active, and only some of our party could open the door with their older bands). We were told too many active bands could cause confusion. So we reduced it so that we each only had 2 active bands, and that seemed to work. This was over a year ago, so not sure if that issue has been worked out. If your band that you want to use, and it can be an old band of yours or a custom one you bought at the store, does not work for your room, you can take it to the front desk and they will either scan it or read the number off of the back and make sure that number is active and linked up with your room.

 

[ajbtv2]

I completely understand how MDE and the ACTIVE/INACTIVE function works.

I can also tell you that I am much more technical than most and have spent a large amount of time talking to different CMs that most do not have access to about how MyMagic+ works.

Again, I don't ever just go by what CMs tell me, everything I share has been backed up by that experience happening.

If you'd like to prove me wrong: next time you visit, go purchase a MagicBand from the shop Disney website or app before you leave and try to use IT as your room key after you've activated it on MDE.

It will work as your ticket & Fastpass entry, but it should not work as your room key until the front desk has activated it.


Long story short, there are mixed experiences. Multiple factors may lead to those different experiences happening.
- If you "bypass front desk" for checkin, your experience may be different.
- If your room is not ready, your experience may be different.
- If you purchase a custom band for the trip, your experience may be different.
- If you cancel a reservation, your experience may be different.
- If you don't set up a PIN, your experience may be different.
- If you opt out of charging to your CC via MB, your experience may be different.
- If you have too many bands on your account, your experience may be different.

Be prepared a multitude of different scenarios to play out during the beginning of your stay. You won't know until you get there what exactly is going to happen.

 

[dansdad]

I completely understand how MDE and the ACTIVE/INACTIVE function works.

I can also tell you that I am much more technical than most and have spent a large amount of time talking to different CMs that most do not have access to about how MyMagic+ works.

Just trying to share my experience. Sorry if I offended you.

Again, I don't ever just go by what CMs tell me, everything I share has been backed up by that experience happening.

Me neither. That's why I go by what I have personally experienced.

If you don't believe me, next time you visit, go purchase a MagicBand from the shop Disney website or app before you leave and try to use IT as your room key after you've activated it on MDE.

It will work as your ticket & Fastpass entry, but it won't work as your room key.

We have. We each have 3 sets purchased online and once activated worked for everything at our resort, including room entry.

I purchased 2 special sets for my parents for Xmas. They just returned from their trip and their new MBs worked to open their door without any resort CM interaction.

 

[ajbtv2]

We have. We each have 3 sets purchased online and once activated worked for everything at our resort, including room entry.

I purchased 2 special sets for my parents for Xmas. They just returned from their trip and their new MBs worked to open their door without any resort CM interaction.

Not offended, just looking for validation because your experiences differ for both my experiences and what was explained by CM teams.

Now you provided the EXACT same scenario as I for XMAS 2015 with different experiences.

I set up a trip and then purchased the "Exclusive" shop Disney 2015 XMas magicband. I received my MagicBand for the resort stay as well as my father's. I wanted to use my XMas band and he used his free band that came with the room.

I had to present ID at the front gate to get in prior to checkin, they didn't even scan my band. When I went to the front desk to get my room number, he scanned my band and my fathers band. It was at that point that I found out my band, even though it was on MDE and had the reservation attached to it, was not activated for resort features. He pushed 2 buttons on computer to activate my XMas band for a room key and CC/Dining access, asked if I remembered my PIN, and said "You're all set".

I proceeded to also purchase a MVMCP magicband. That band did get the resort features, and I was told it was because all features of the current band were "cloned" (for lack of a better term) to the new band. They also suggested I keep the other band close to me because both bands now had CC charge access (because I was just going to have it sent back to my room so I didn't have to carry it around).

It was at that point that I began probing some of the Guest Relations CMs as well as some personal friends working backstage about the evolution of MyMagic+. It was in those conversations that I found out all the new features that were delivered this week. They actually had these "April features" (4th FP via mobile) in the first round of testing back in mid-November.

 

[POTCfan]

Yeah sorry. I was only thinking that if you had 17 bands and they were all active, maybe that is why you are having a problem. I personally had a problem with 7. Once I brought that number down to 2, I didn't have a problem using both of them for room access. When we bought my daughter her band with an image of the castle, they also "cloned" it and she could use the band for our current resort and the subsequent resort of our split stay. Though looking at our MDE account, the band we bought has a different number and is shown separately from the bands that were mailed to us for that stay - so it doesn't clone the number of the band.

 

[rcraw45425]

I personally have probably six or seven bands and all have worked on my trips for charging, door, tickets (AP) and fast pass. I always carry one in each color and decide which one to used based on what I'm wearing that day.