New here, looking at going to Disney for the first time at the end of this year. I've never been and my wife only went once as a child probably about 30+ years ago.
Know it will be crowded but we needed time kids would be off school and we didn't want to walk around in the Florida summer heat.
Anyways was looking at tickets on
Undercover tourist and it says basically the options are to buy paper tickets or to buy electronic tickets and link them to the magic bands. I looked and saw magic bands cost about $20 a piece for the cheaper ones, so it might be wise to just get those.
My question is step by step if I buy them electronically how would I link them to my magic bands. I just want to make sure I know what I'm doing before I do it.
You should have a MDE account either in your name or in your wife's name, with the other members of your family (including the spouse who doesn't own that MDE account) listed as Family & Friends. The electronic tickets will come with a confirmation number. You follow the links in MDE for LINK A TICKET to enter that number in your MDE and then link a specific ticket to each person.
If you have a Disney resort reservation, you can buy MBs via MDE for each person, and they'll automatically be linked to that person in MDE. If you buy them from the
Disney Store online or in person at WDW, you can enter the number on the back of each MB into MDE, linking each MB to the specific person it belongs to.
Having your tickets linked to each person in MDE and having the MBs linked to each person in MDE means that the tickets are linked to the MBs.
Also if I where to buy paper tickets and have them mailed to me is there any way they can be linked to a magic band later on.
See above - the paper tickets will have numbers on them. You enter each number into MDE for the person it belongs to, and they'll automatically link to the MB belonging to that person.
What would happen if one of our children lost one of their magic bands while at the parks or in our hotel?
Nothing is "on" the MB, so anyone who finds it can't do anything with it that would hurt anyone. If one of the kids loses theirs, you can buy them a new one and enter the number into MDE to link it to them, or you can get a card at the park entrance, or from the front desk, if you're staying at a Disney hotel.
In what ways does the magic band help besides being able to use it as a ticket to get into the parks?
In the parks the MBs are also used for tapping into Lightning Lanes, and ride photos will automatically link to your MDE account. If you're staying at a Disney hotel, it will unlock the door to your room. Kids love doing that! Also, you can assign a PIN number to each person who's old enough to have charging privileges, and they can charge food and merchandise purchases by tapping the MB to the reader and entering the PIN.
We are not planning on getting any dining plans, we are renting a condo off property due to the fact that we have 3 kids and need extra beds, a kitchen to cook meals and a washer/dryer to clean clothes in. We are going to be getting
DAS passes when we can as 2 of our children are on the spectrum.
The DAS passes will be linked to your MBs as well. I personally believe that MBs are much more convenient than ticket cards for entering the parks and tapping into LLs. However, having our grandson lose his MB one afternoon meant that time and $ had to be spent replacing it, so depending on the ages of your kids and their reliability as far as keeping MBs on their wrists, you might find that having a parent keep possession of ticket cards and take them out to scan them when needed is better for your family.
Sorry for so many questions, this whole thing seems complex but I wanted to do this before the kids got too old and it's something that I missed out on as a kid.
Hope y'all have a lot of fun! You may have already found them, but there's a
Disney for Families board and a
disABILITIES board here as well that might be helpful for you.
And don't hesitate to ask more questions!