I'm getting a little anxious about Magic Bands

[Daizylover]

Hi All,
I'm a little over a month out from our Disney World vacation. Most of the posts on Magic Bands are negative. I'm getting a little worried and anxious that out vacation is going to be a real bummer now with this new program of Disney's. Has anyone had a positive experience with the Magic Bands?
Someone please tell me there are positives about the bands.

 

[M5ward]

We've done two trips with Magic Bands...one with just the two of us and one with my son, daughter-in-law, and three grandkids. With the exception of very minor glitches, we had no problem. Our bands wouldn't allow us to charge to our room and this was easily fixed by a front desk CM. A couple of times, Mickey's head wouldn't turn green at park entrance but there was always a Cm there to fix it. We always had our AP (hard ticket) with s in the event they couldn't figure it out.
My advice to you is: always carry your physical ticket with you, screenshot your daily plans on MDE and save it in your phone (if you have that technology) or print it out and stick it in your pocket.
We had no trouble changing FP+s on the fly n the park.
Slowly but surely they are working out the bugs.
Just go and enjoy.

 

[mblondie0509]

Just doing a search of "loved magic bands" or "magic bands good" led me to several threads of good results. You will find that a lot of the negative threads that look really long are just the same people rehashing the same bad experience they had. My boss just returned from a trip and so did my best friend and they were so impressed with the bands and being able to pre-book their FP+. I look at it this way...you only hear about the planes that crash...not the thousands of successful flights that land everyday. Relax and don't read the negative threads!

 

[Jennasis]

My sister went between Christmas and New Year and had no problems with their bands.

 

[kidd_freeper]

I would estimate that most people have had positive experiences with MB.
Some, mostly off-siters, who don't have MBs, have had some negative experiences with FP+.

You should be fine.

 

[Bertnie20]

We loved the bands and only once did we have an issue with it not working at mk, but a cm was there and fixed it in seconds. We loved having the connivence of having it all in one spot, at the pools we didn't have to worry about a card being lost, dining plan photos room key and park tickets being together. Both me and my dad loved it

 

[mullysisters]

Went twice in 2013 and had MB. Not a single problem at any time. Loved the freedom of charging everything to MIckey!
Used them at Food & Wine to for all of our snacks. As a door "key" they're great - it's hands free.
The last trip Oct '13 I stopped carrying my purse and just put a twenty in my pocket with some bandaids and a lip balm.
I was happy-go-lucky! I didn't have to go through the bag check line.

It was a little weird being in a TS restaurant without my purse though, I had a couple of "where's my purse" moments

 

[iheartbuffy]

I had 0 issues with mine at the end of Jan.

 

[FiggieFan]

We were there Feb 4 -15 and we ended up LOVING the magic bands! I wouldn't go back to the KTTW cards. The only negative I could say was they were a little sweaty/hot on days around 90 degrees. They made everything so much easier. You didn't have to rifle through purses, bags, etc every time you wanted to get in/out of your room, get a paper FP, they worked great as park passes, FP+, etc. We also used it for the dining plan and they had to scan the band a few times because of bad connections, but it was no big deal. The only issue we had was one morning at EPCOT - my band wouldn't scan when trying to enter the park - they said I was probably using the wrong finger for the fingerprint scan, which I wasn't. The CM raised their hand and someone came over immediately with an iPad. The issue was resolved in less than 1 minute. Now that I have tried the magic bands, I wouldn't go back. Have no fear! The hardest thing was making sure to take them when you left the room.
We took Amtrak back home and I found it funny that you could pick out all the Disney people - we all kept on magic bands on that day for lunch and dinner.

 

[Daizylover]

Thank you for your positive reviews. I was getting worried that our vacation would be one big hassle.

 

[fairy8i8]

Good to hear some positive experiences. I also talked to a manager at my hotel because I heard that people said CMs told them that the cards were not an option, even though it says you have the option on the website. (Didn't know if DS4 would keep his on, and I didn't want to wear 2).

She said that they didn't have cards for a while because they were making new cards that didn't have the bar strip on them. They have gotten the new cards at the hotels, so if you happen hate the Magicbands or have a deep fear of long range RFID technology, you can get a regular card. If a CM says they don't have them, then have them check with a manager. It's a newer change and not all the CMs read all of the updates. Things are changing all the time right now.

 

[ellie05]

Here now no problems with mb.

 

[bumbershoot]

Hi All,
I'm a little over a month out from our Disney World vacation. Most of the posts on Magic Bands are negative. I'm getting a little worried and anxious that out vacation is going to be a real bummer now with this new program of Disney's. Has anyone had a positive experience with the Magic Bands?
Someone please tell me there are positives about the bands.

Do you mean the MBs specifically, or as a shorthand way to talk about FP+s?

If you went last year, during the time that they had the RFID cards, it's really no different. You just have the option of wearing the instead of putting them in a lanyard or wallet or whatever. We actually had MORE problems with the cards last year than we have with the actual MBs.

FP+, however, is a different story. Don't be anxious. You'll like it or you won't. Hopefully you won't be like us and get ridiculously ill while at WDW, thereby making your days short and unpleasant, with no will to make the FP+ arrangements you had made. Having no will to traipse across the park meant I tried to change arrangements, and that was just barely possible for how things were during that visit. (either no experiences for my timeframe or no other timeframes for my experience!)

I wasn't anxious and we didn't like it. Others weren't anxious and liked it. Don't worry. Just go and see how you feel about it.

 

[Pooksie]

Hi All,
I'm a little over a month out from our Disney World vacation. Most of the posts on Magic Bands are negative. I'm getting a little worried and anxious that out vacation is going to be a real bummer now with this new program of Disney's. Has anyone had a positive experience with the Magic Bands?
Someone please tell me there are positives about the bands.

Sure. I've been to Disney multiple times with magic bands since my first trip last September when I was part of the test for guests at the AKL. Each time our bands have worked flawlessly.. From entering the parks, to entering our rooms, to charging at restaurants, we have always have a positive experience using our bands. We've always gotten onto rides without issue, and I now have a pretty snazzy collection of colored bands to coordinate with my outfits..

I like the fit of them, and the only thing that I would like to see is a small digital clock on the bottom of the face of the band. We've enjoyed having reserved times at our favorite attractions and being able to hit rides like soarin' at 3:00pm without ever having to stand on line at a fastpass machine hours earlier. We can schedule our times in the morning or the afternoon to suit our schedule, and we've had no problem making changes to our reservations by using the MDE app. I'd like to see a few adjustments, but that hasn't stopped us from having wonderful trips that we will cherish for a lifetime.

I just had a great trip that I got back from three weeks ago, so much so that we booked bounce a back reservation for F&G/SW Weekends in May, and another for eight days starting the week after Labor Day. We'll probably be there six or more times between now and then as we live just over an hour away and have AP's. Your life is yours to live, don't let others negatively affect it. Live it and have a wonderful trip..

 

[Rosanne]

Good to hear some positive experiences. I also talked to a manager at my hotel because I heard that people said CMs told them that the cards were not an option, even though it says you have the option on the website. (Didn't know if DS4 would keep his on, and I didn't want to wear 2).

She said that they didn't have cards for a while because they were making new cards that didn't have the bar strip on them. They have gotten the new cards at the hotels, so if you happen hate the Magicbands or have a deep fear of long range RFID technology, you can get a regular card. If a CM says they don't have them, then have them check with a manager. It's a newer change and not all the CMs read all of the updates. Things are changing all the time right now.

That would be a great relief to me. Thanks for that info.

 

[mandi321]

Loved the Magic Bands, so easy to use and great for charging items and food right to the band, great to use on the dining plan too!!!

 

[prudence64]

I've seen more and more positive comments about the bands themselves. Not as many glitches reported as when they first started with them. I'd even to venture to say it's been mostly positive in the last 6 weeks when talking about just the bands.

 

[MickeyChix]

Everyone I know whose gone in the last year loved the MB!!! Sure there are some glitches here and there but sounds like they are all fixable. Since they are in their first year of operation I would ask for a key to world card just in case. Have all your ADRs written down somewhere just in case. And once you have made your fast pass selections consider printing out your page from a computer reflecting them just in case.

 

[SashaFarce]

Lots of people like the bands and the MyMagic changes. I am one of these people. It's made our park day much easier.