Do I really need a magic band?

[hakepb]

As long as a family has enough common sense to get out / distribute cards before entering a FP queue, it's all good.


Unless you want to be "that family" that appears dumbfounded at the Mickey scanners at the entrance to the ride, and then frantically tried to pass out their cards.

 

[Summertinkerbell]

OP is staying offsite (vacation home), only onsite guests receive free magic bands.

We stayed onsite in May using MB's never received any spam. MBs were really convenient for us. I prefer them to the cards.

Oops! Sorry. I misread it. When OP typed vacation home, I thought she meant vacation club as in DVC. My mistake.

After using them last week, I would pay for them and get some really cute ones. We had free ones, and DH still bought one that was personalized to him. Since they can be used over and over again, he didn't mind spending a little to have what he wanted.

To each his own.

 

[subtchr]

The people in line ahead of us that had cards held up the lines and people behind them got really irritated. It was awesome to use the magic band and move quickly into the parks.

If you are saying that the people in front of you had to dig their cards out and distribute them, I can see your point. I just want to point out that if the card is in the hand of the guest, it takes no longer to enter the park or the FP+ line with a card than a MB. In fact, it can be quicker, because no wrist twisting to match Mickey to Mickey is required.

 

[BobC]

If you have kids, you can also buy wraps for them or little inserts for the holes with DIS characters....kind of like they have for Crocs shoes.

 

[kj2mom]

Definitely not a necessity but I am glad we got them. We went in July but back in February some family went down so we asked them to bring back the bands we liked (I had to have Tink). I linked everything up before heading down and we were good to go. My children loved them, as did I, and we ended up having the character on our band autograph our band as an extra little keepsake. Maybe because I paid for them months before the trip it didn't seem like such a big deal? It was in the high 90's the entire week we were there and we did not mind the bracelets at all. For us they were quite comfortable. Again, you absolutely don't need them but we loved them!

 

[kj2mom]

If you have kids, you can also buy wraps for them or little inserts for the holes with DIS characters....kind of like they have for Crocs shoes.

Yes, I forgot about this. My children did buy the inserts and just FYI, save the receipt and if one gets lost during your trip you can go to any store that has them and they will replace it!

 

[jillgunter]

If you don't want to buy a band, you could use a lanyard to keep your card handy. And it will be safe and not lost easy. Also we in the past before bands used the card holders. Dh would keep them all and hand them out when we needed them.

Like this: http://www.amazon.com/WITZ-Safe-Wat...=1438957286&sr=1-1&keywords=waterproof+holder

 

[Summertinkerbell]

If you are saying that the people in front of you had to dig their cards out and distribute them, I can see your point. I just want to point out that if the card is in the hand of the guest, it takes no longer to enter the park or the FP+ line with a card than a MB. In fact, it can be quicker, because no wrist twisting to match Mickey to Mickey is required.

No, actually, they had their cards in hand. The cards didn't immediately work. This happened at every park we went to every single day. The worst was when we got in line behind a large group (20 or more) with cards. The lines of people with magic bands moved along very quickly.

I don't know if it had anything to do with the kind of cards they had (many of these groups were obviously from out of the country) or if the cards are slower or if the people with cards didn't know how to use them. I just remember CM's inspecting cards and this whole ridiculous time wasting nonsense. I prefer the quickest and most convenient entrance to the parks.

Like I said before...to each his own.

 

[hakepb]

If you are saying that the people in front of you had to dig their cards out and distribute them, I can see your point. I just want to point out that if the card is in the hand of the guest, it takes no longer to enter the park or the FP+ line with a card than a MB. In fact, it can be quicker, because no wrist twisting to match Mickey to Mickey is required.

It could be general FP confusion

I've seen groups where only some individuals had the FP on their card

A group entering the FP line 8 hours too early

A group thinking they could re-enter the FP line as many times that they wanted during their return hour.

It's easier to get cards confused (need a sharpie to have any attempt at keeping cards straight)

Off site guests also get less advance info on FP+, so I did see more delays with card guests.

 

[KJMAX1]

Thanks. There are 10 of us in our family so it would be very costly. Glad to know we can skip it.

 

[Summertinkerbell]

Thanks. There are 10 of us in our family so it would be very costly. Glad to know we can skip it.

I wish you well. Have fun!

 

[SeilerBird]

Is there a way to opt out of the emails?

None of the emails I received had any method of opting out or I would have and solved the problem that way. I went to the Photopass web site and looked around and I still could not find a way to opt out.

 

[Julylady]

We saw lots of people using the cards in July. Like others have said, just have the cards ready and available when you get to the reader.