Charging To Magic Bands - First Time Renter

[Sinders99]

Hi All
DH & I are planning our second trip to WDW for November 2019. Because we're travelling from Australia ours will be a longer stay (2 weeks onsite) and we're thinking of splitting our time between a 7 night stay at Boardwalk (close proximity to EPCOT for Food & Wine & the Wine & Dine Half Marathon which I hope to run), and a 7 night stay at the Contemporary.

On our previous trip we booked a Disney package so we had magic bands sent to our hotel for pickup on check-in and loved the flexibility our bands gave us when it came to going cashless.

So as a first time renter I wonder how or if we can charge to a magic band? I'm assuming our previous bands won't be operational in 2019 (we got them in September 2016) so we'll have to purchase new ones once we touch down in Orlando.

To ease my mind can someone please explain how the use of magic bands ties into a DVC rental???

Thanks so much for your help in advance

 

[bumbershoot]

If you use the same MDE profiles, you might very well be just fine using the old MBs. Barring glitches, the activities that involve you putting the band right up to the "Mickey head" reader, like entering your room, entering the park or FP line, or charging, don't involve the long range scanner and so don't require that battery to work. So your old bands would almost certainly be just fine for those activities.

It might not be fine for photopass and automatically capturing your pictures, or for getting the one or two ride videos they now have with photopass (memory maker). These activities involve the long range scanner and a battery that does wear out.

That said, they have a new design now.

But if you're staying onsite you won't buy them. Enter in the confirmation number of the rental to your MDE account, and you'll be able to customize bands. Since you are international they won't be shipped, but they will be at the front desk of your resort when you arrive.

If you have done online checkin, during which you enter a credit card, you'll be set for charging to the room by way of the magicbands. Or just set it up at the front desk.

 

[LisaS]

Currently for those with a split stay booked you will get two sets of Magic Bands, one for each onsite reservation. As bumbershoot explains, log in to MDE (My Disney Experience) after your reservations are booked and enter your DVC confirmation numbers. Once your reservations are linked in to MDE you should be able to customize your magic bands (choose the color and the names to put on them).

Your bands are tied to your MDE account, not to a specific reservation. They will continue to work for years to come as long as you don't delete your MDE account or deliberately deactivate a band, which you can do in your MDE account.

 

[Sinders99]

I thought Magic Bands were only sent for packages booked via Disney, not DVC. Isn't it just the DVC owner who gets issued a Magic Band upon purchase of their points package?

 

[ivanp91]

I thought Magic Bands were only sent for packages booked via Disney, not DVC. Isn't it just the DVC owner who gets issued a Magic Band upon purchase of their points package?

That's incorrect. DVC owners do not get a MagicBand as part of their purchase, they are either sent before a vacation or given at check-in just like a normal cash reservation.

All you need to do is add your confirmation number to the My Disney Experience website and you can pick your MB colours just like you would have for a 'normal' reservation.

PS: Greetings from Australia!

 

[Sinders99]

Are you a fellow Australian @ivanp91? Thanks for clarifying the magic band situation for me. I mistakenly thought that only the DVC owner was issued the bands. This really helps clear up some confusion for me. So if they send the bands to the resorts can I link them in MDE upon check in for charging privileges if we don't bring our existing ones? Sorry for all the questions. Just want to be clear on what we need to do if we decide to go ahead with DVC rental.

 

[ivanp91]

Sure am, from Perth I've used the same MB since 2014, so I've opted out the last few years, but if my memory serves me correctly the CM at check-in should sort everything out for you. I'm pretty sure they will be all set up and ready to go when you get there, as they will access the reservation and info on MDE.

 

[Sinders99]

@ivanp91 WOW!! An Aussie DVC owner!! So rare to find one. I'm pretty sure we'll be at least doing a DVC tour on our next trip with a view to buy. We visited Disneyland in 2010, WDW in 2016 and look to be going back to WDW in 2019. If we do a trip every 3-4 years I'm assuming we can buy in with a low number of points and bank them until we take our trip every 3 or 4 years. Do they have DVC at Tokyo Disney? It's so cheap for us to fly there from where I am in Townsville.

 

[ivanp91]

No DVC in Tokyo unfortunately! You can use points at Tokyo, Hong Kong and Paris, but as they only have non-DVC resorts they require a higher amount of points (plus a US$95 fee).

Something to keep in mind regarding banking is you can only bank up to one year - for example, if I have 50 points left in 2017 I can bank them into 2018, but if I don't use them that year then I lose them forever. You can also borrow from a year ahead also, so theoretically you can have your 3 years worth of points by banking into the next year and then borrowing from the year after points can also be transferred to RCI, which is kind of like an exchange program for timeshares, so you can use your points at a huge range of resorts around the world that has nothing to do with Disney.

We've gone waaay off topic but I get excited talking DVC with other Aussies

 

[Best Aunt]

So if they send the bands to the resorts can I link them in MDE upon check in for charging privileges if we don't bring our existing ones?

When you rent, you will be given the reservation confirmation number. You enter the confirmation number into your My Disney Experience account. You then customize your Magic Bands in your My Disney Experience account. When you arrive at the hotel, you can give a credit card and then you can use your Magic Bands to charge.

You're planning a trip for 2019, so we are assuming everything will work the same way then.

Keep in mind that November may be a tough month to book, so think about booking early if you can. People like to stay at the Epcot resorts like Boardwalk for Food & Wine, which this year runs through mid-November. Every US public school gets a long weekend for Thanksgiving near the end of November. DVC owners who have BoardWalk as their home resort can book 11 months ahead. All DVC owners can book 7 months ahead. Clearly you are early planners, but I don't know if you also tend to make reservations early.

 

[Sinders99]

When you rent, you will be given the reservation confirmation number. You enter the confirmation number into your My Disney Experience account. You then customize your Magic Bands in your My Disney Experience account. When you arrive at the hotel, you can give a credit card and then you can use your Magic Bands to charge.

You're planning a trip for 2019, so we are assuming everything will work the same way then.

Keep in mind that November may be a tough month to book, so think about booking early if you can. People like to stay at the Epcot resorts like Boardwalk for Food & Wine, which this year runs through mid-November. Every US public school gets a long weekend for Thanksgiving near the end of November. DVC owners who have BoardWalk as their home resort can book 11 months ahead. All DVC owners can book 7 months ahead. Clearly you are early planners, but I don't know if you also tend to make reservations early.

Yep definitely early planners here! We're planning to arrive in the last few days of October and stay through until the 2nd week of November (around the 14th) so we're hoping to avoid the Thanksgiving crowds. We know that we'll probably run into the half marathon crowds but that's ok as we'll be amongst it running with them

We're flexible with the resort choices. An EPCOT area resort would be fantastic seeing as though we want to run the half marathon but we'd be fine with Saratoga Springs too (close to Disney Springs - ALL THAT FOOD & SHOPPING!!!). As for the Magic Kingdom resorts we'd be fine with Wilderness Lodge if we couldn't get the Contemporary.

I've heard the key is to remain flexible with your resort choices so we're going in with an open mind

 

[bumbershoot]

I thought Magic Bands were only sent for packages booked via Disney, not DVC. Isn't it just the DVC owner who gets issued a Magic Band upon purchase of their points package?

Happily, that's not the case!

Anyone with an onsite Disney resort reservation, who links their confirmation number to their MyDisneyExperience account, has the option to customize their MBs.

So once that points-renter gives you your number, add it to MDE and you can do that!

Thanks for clarifying the magic band situation for me. I mistakenly thought that only the DVC owner was issued the bands. This really helps clear up some confusion for me. So if they send the bands to the resorts can I link them in MDE upon check in for charging privileges if we don't bring our existing ones? Sorry for all the questions. Just want to be clear on what we need to do if we decide to go ahead with DVC rental.

When you add the reservation to MDE and the option to customize the MBs is there and you do that, the MBs are linked to your MDE already. You can do online checkin once you're 60 days out and add the CC, and that means you're set for charging to the room using the MBs.

You could even bring your old ones and use those if you wish, assuming you're using the same MDE account that they are on. MBs on MDE can be used interchangeably.

The only issue is that long range rfid battery maybe being at the end of its life, but again that really only impacts photopass. And photopass isn't important to everyone.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Magic Bands are the default room key for every Disney accommodation, and while they will not ship them internationally, you will be issued MBs at the desk on arrival unless you specifically request a key card instead. This has nothing to do with DVC/not DVC. It's what Disney uses as resort keys, universally, on campus.

Also worth mentioning that it sounds like OP's dates overlap Jersey Week and possibly run all the way to the Wine & Dine. You need to have owners lined up to book 11 months in advance of each half of that split stay, as both Epcot resorts and BLT will book rapidly at 11 months for those dates.