Fear of Magic Band not working

[Robo]

Never used a locker.

1. They have lockers close to the water rides?

2. You put it in the locker before the ride then pick it up after?

1. There's only ONE water ride at WDW that offers enough likelihood of drenching to need a locker.
That is Kali River Rapids at DAK, and yes, there are (relatively new) guest lockers directly across from that ride designed for just such purpose.

2. Yup.

 

[mom2AidanAndEli]

I'll also go along with the suggestion to make sure you have backup payment of some sort.

Last summer, on our arrival day, we went to MK. Caught MDE from the airport, no problem. Got checked-in at the resort, no problem. Got in the park, no problem. Went and had lunch and scanned for our meal credit, no problem. Tried to buy a bottle of water that afternoon and charge it to the room (not wasting a snack credit on that!) and it wouldn't work. It said we were over our charge limit!!! Okay, I can do some major shopping sometimes, but we had only been in the park about 4 hours! Tried it at another place to see if it would work. No luck. Had to trek to Guest Services to get it straightened out. Wasn't a huge deal, but still time wasted that was totally unnecessary.

 

[fbb]

I'll also go along with the suggestion to make sure you have backup payment of some sort.

I have backup payment, but I wouldn't use it for something I had already paid for, like a meal credit or a snack credit or park admission.

 

[jtowntoflorida]

Thank you Robo and jtowntoflorida for your replies.

Robo, I like you never go anywhere without a wallet but we will be doing water rides at MK and AK. What do you do with your wallet on water rides?

I'm not Robo (and not a dude) but you don't need to do anything with your items on Splash Mountain (the only real water ride at MK). My husband just leaves his wallet in his pocket. I do carry a small backpack to hold my camera, and even that is enough protection from the water on Splash (though I do throw the camera and my phone into a gallon baggie inside the backpack just because I'm paranoid.

 

[DizneyLizzy]

On a recent trip, we had this problem at the Magic Kingdom. My husband's band wouldn't work at the turnstile at rope drop. Luckily I had packed our plastic card tickets in my wallet just in case there was a problem with the bands. We tapped my husband's linked ticket to the Mickey head, and it turned green right away. That was the only time we had a problem with the bands the whole trip, but had we not had the back up ticket, we would have wasted an entire morning trying to beat the rope drop rush.

Moral of the story - if you have them, bring the physical tickets that are linked to your bands just in case.

 

[lugnut33]

I thought it was FOB, Fear Of Birds, not FOMBNW.

 

[Babsy]

My MB never worked at the turnstiles. The CM's tried to make it work several times when I was entering. It was an issue every time I tried to enter so I just gave up and used my card after a few attempts. If I were you, I would have a card (for back up) on hand with me just in case. Ask for one t check in or guest services if you don't have one.

We never had any problems with the cards. We also get a card for our room, too. MY MB worked for the room door but DH's didn't. His did work at the gates for entrance to the parks, though, so we figured that we were even on the working/ not working of the MB's.

I wouldn't worry about it - just go with a back up card.

Good luck!

 

[kbr345]

Thank you! I will make sure I bring the hard ticket too, just in case!!! I am not too worried now with the mostly positive replies.

 

[Babsy]

I wouldn't count on a 'reward' for the hassle. We had lots of issues and weren't offered anything. We didn't ask or expect anything though. We were seriously prepared with back ups so it wasn't much more than a few minutes - half hour wasted each time. (depending upon how long I let them try to 'fix it'). I don't know what the issue was, but it apparently wasn't fixable so I always insist on back up cards for this very reason.

 

[VAB2013]

We are starting our trip early in the morning at Epcot and won't get to Art of Animation to check in until the afternoon. We have already completed online check in. My fear is getting to Epcot that morning without already testing our MBs and having them not work. I'm concerned our FP times could be affected while dealing with the MBs. Keeping fingers crossed the bands work like they are supposed to!

 

[CampbellzSoup]

Here at the world this week purchased magic bands not sent to me and registered them with my Disney experience and had not One problem yet

 

[famy27]

I didn't really have a fear of it not working, but we did have a few issues. The good thing is that it was all resolved (CM blamed it on the system somehow only linking the resort reservation but not the tickets), but it did take up at least 30 minutes of our first morning at EP and made us dangerously close to losing our Soarin' FPs. That was one out of four FP trips, but you always remember the time it didn't work, not the times it worked just fine. We had a few issues with FPs and kiosks, but those were all fairly minor. I hope that with time, more of these issue and hiccups will get worked out and we'll see fewer of these types of problems.

 

[skibum25]

We received our MB's over the weekend. The connection between the child and adult band looks tenuous. Has this disconnected in error any anyone's band? I feel like my 9 year old may snap the connection as he is a little rough when taking the band off.

 

[nilla]

MBs are fine, but we've always had intermittent issues with the fingerprint checker. Typically at Epcot. No idea why.

 

[nilla]

Until (and if) it happens, there's nothing that can be done about it so I choose not to worry. Life is too short to live in fear.

LOVE this comment!

 

[twodogs]

I just tried to remove the gray "adult" band from the inner colored "child" band for my daughters' bands for our trip Wednesday. I had to get the Exacto knife out to get it started at the end, then it peeled off pretty easily but took some force (kids were able to do that part). I don't think it could tear apart accidentally, unless you are really, really trying. I couldn't peel it apart myself without the Exacto knife.

Separately, do we have to set up a PIN for charging on the MBs? Where do we do this? At check-in at AKL or can I do this ahead of time?? I don't want any delays that I can avoid! Thanks, this is our first time using the MBs!

 

[FeralCatRogue]

I had a choice I was able to use my prior pin wiht my old bands or new ones, or set up a pin at check in.

 

[disneyfantotheend]

Never worried about it on our last trip. Everything went well, except on our party night. For some reason our party tickets disappeared, but 30 minutes or so at guest services fixed the issue, and that was mostly the line. The actual service took about 5 minutes.

Separately, do we have to set up a PIN for charging on the MBs? Where do we do this? At check-in at AKL or can I do this ahead of time?? I don't want any delays that I can avoid! Thanks, this is our first time using the MBs!

If you do online checkin, you can pick your pin at that time.

 

[skibum25]

I just tried to remove the gray "adult" band from the inner colored "child" band for my daughters' bands for our trip Wednesday. I had to get the Exacto knife out to get it started at the end, then it peeled off pretty easily but took some force (kids were able to do that part). I don't think it could tear apart accidentally, unless you are really, really trying. I couldn't peel it apart myself without the Exacto knife.

Thanks twodogs. I won't worry about it then. Even though the connection is thin it must be strong.

 

[twodogs]

Ok so I can select the PINs at check in desk or online check in only? Thanks All!