Just back, LOVED FP+ and the Magic Bands

[roomthreeseventeen]

I have been called a Disney defender many times, and I guess I'm still going to be called that. We just got back from a week at the World, and our MB/FP+ could not have gone smoother.

To be honest, the only issue we had the entire week was the day at DHS when TSMM was down the whole day. I had already been on ToT and RnR, and I don't really like any of the other attractions there, so it was just a wasted FP.

Other than that, the app worked great. I was able to get last minute FP+ reservations for all sorts of things, change my reservations around, and loved the convenience of the Magic Bands.

So when I see threads that say people aren't going to go to WDW because of this, I have to say I'm going to continue to think how silly they are. I had maybe my favorite WDW vacation using the new technology.

 

[TX Momof2]

Thanks for the review of your experience! We're going first week of Feb and I can't wait to try it out!

 

[DizFanSLD]

Good for you! I am glad it worked well for you, as my MagicBands just arrived today, and i am really looking forward to trying them out! I hope I have a positive experience too. I am pretty easygoing, so I expect I will like it just fine. It is nice to hear something besides gloom and doom about this!

 

[Huff]

To me it works ONLY if you do not park hop and crowds are light so 3 FP's are all you need. Otherwise it greatly effects the level of enjoyment we have had for years with the old system.

I also do not see the value in making everyone wear a bracelet. I never charge things to my room account so only need them for hotel room entry, park admission, FP+ and dining plan. For those few items a card to me is much easier than wearing a bracelet all day. An RFID card makes more sense.

 

[wordwitt]

To me it works ONLY if you do not park hop and crowds are light so 3 FP's are all you need. Otherwise it greatly effects the level of enjoyment we have had for years with the old system.

I also do not see the value in making everyone wear a bracelet. I never charge things to my room account so only need them for hotel room entry, park admission, FP+ and dining plan. For those few items a card to me is much easier than wearing a bracelet all day. An RFID card makes more sense.

For us, park hopping was the way to maximize the MB. We did one park at RD without FP+, then we went back to the resort and chilled for a while, and then we worked our evening FP+ around our ADR at another park. It worked really well. Another day, we went to a water park in the morning and then did a park with FP+ (and ADR) in the evening. When we go in May, we'll utilize the same strategy.

Also, Disney isn't making anyone wear a MB. If you prefer to carry a card, you can get one. It works the same as the MB.

 

[Claire&TheBoys]

I have been called a Disney defender many times, and I guess I'm still going to be called that. We just got back from a week at the World, and our MB/FP+ could not have gone smoother.

To be honest, the only issue we had the entire week was the day at DHS when TSMM was down the whole day. I had already been on ToT and RnR, and I don't really like any of the other attractions there, so it was just a wasted FP.

Other than that, the app worked great. I was able to get last minute FP+ reservations for all sorts of things, change my reservations around, and loved the convenience of the Magic Bands.

So when I see threads that say people aren't going to go to WDW because of this, I have to say I'm going to continue to think how silly they are. I had maybe my favorite WDW vacation using the new technology.

We also had a good experience with them on our recent trip, which was during a very busy time (12/31-1/5). I was able to move times around with the MDE app, even after one FP+ time had elapsed, I was able to reschedule and then change it to something else. I liked being able to walk into Studios at 3:30 and have a FP for TSM for 4:00, and having one for late morning without having to be there for rope-drop.

I told several friends upon our return, "with a lot of planning and a little luck, everything went very smoothly!"

 

[CinderellaDreamer]

We just got back this weekend and had a good experience as well. We used to get up earlier when the kids were little, but now they like to sleep in. I like not having to rush over to get a fast pass or be there at rope drop. And I found the system to be very flexible right now without everyone having the fast passes all booked up (like ADRs that would go unused in the past. I do worry about that for the future). We were able to change our mind about which park to visit and switch our fp on the fly. I also missed some fp times and was able to reschedule them afterwards! That was nice.

We liked the bands. We liked only having to have them to go into the park or down to the pool. I found it convenient. I charged everything to the card linked to it. It gave my preteen sons freedom also. They had a key and charging capability for food all to themselves. I like not having to worry about losing tickets or credit cards. I like that there are more fast pass options. Sometimes, we want a fast pass for Pirates or Small World, as crazy as that might sound. We have annual passes, sleep late, and are sometimes only in the park for a few hours in the afternoon; we can ride small world with hardly any wait (when there are a lot of people there at Thanksgiving).

My chief complaint is the tiered choices at Epcot and DHS. I need a fast pass to both of the headliners there. (But we dealt with it last week and only rode one per day.) I also like to ride more than once with fast passes, so that will be missed. But I will deal with it and stand in line if I really want to ride twice.

I have used it at a busy week in Thanksgiving and a slower marathon week in January. It worked pretty well both times. Very few hiccups.

We will be going back in March. I think it will still be a great vacation.

 

[CinderellaDreamer]

And congrats, roomthreeseventeen, on completing the Dopey challenge! Way to go!

 

[JanaDee]

I have been called a Disney defender many times, and I guess I'm still going to be called that. We just got back from a week at the World, and our MB/FP+ could not have gone smoother.

To be honest, the only issue we had the entire week was the day at DHS when TSMM was down the whole day. I had already been on ToT and RnR, and I don't really like any of the other attractions there, so it was just a wasted FP.

Other than that, the app worked great. I was able to get last minute FP+ reservations for all sorts of things, change my reservations around, and loved the convenience of the Magic Bands.

So when I see threads that say people aren't going to go to WDW because of this, I have to say I'm going to continue to think how silly they are. I had maybe my favorite WDW vacation using the new technology.

I was with you until the bolded sentence.

I'm glad your trip went smoothly, but not everyone had the same experience.

 

[kaybird]

To me it works ONLY if you do not park hop and crowds are light so 3 FP's are all you need. Otherwise it greatly effects the level of enjoyment we have had for years with the old system.

I also do not see the value in making everyone wear a bracelet. I never charge things to my room account so only need them for hotel room entry, park admission, FP+ and dining plan. For those few items a card to me is much easier than wearing a bracelet all day. An RFID card makes more sense.

I agree with a PP, it made park hopping much, much better for us.

As far as the bracelet being more convenient, perhaps you have never stood behind someone at a turnstile, juggling 6 park passes, trying to get them all separated and finding them in their wallet/pocket/backpack/ purse. Even at the most crowded time of the year, entry was much quicker!

 

[stormer]

My chief complaint is the tiered choices at Epcot and DHS. I need a fast pass to both of the headliners there. (But we dealt with it last week and only rode one per day.) I also like to ride more than once with fast passes, so that will be missed. But I will deal with it and stand in line if I really want to ride twice.

This is what I am worried about too! I won't stand in line for 2 hours for Soarin. I would rather skip it. I am looking forward to being able to sleep late, though!

 

[redsbe]

I have been called a Disney defender many times, and I guess I'm still going to be called that. We just got back from a week at the World, and our MB/FP+ could not have gone smoother.

To be honest, the only issue we had the entire week was the day at DHS when TSMM was down the whole day. I had already been on ToT and RnR, and I don't really like any of the other attractions there, so it was just a wasted FP.

Other than that, the app worked great. I was able to get last minute FP+ reservations for all sorts of things, change my reservations around, and loved the convenience of the Magic Bands.

So when I see threads that say people aren't going to go to WDW because of this, I have to say I'm going to continue to think how silly they are. I had maybe my favorite WDW vacation using the new technology.

Be very careful because that type of experience and attitude will certainly draw out the doomsayers......just watch now........

 

[wiigirl]

And congrats, roomthreeseventeen, on completing the Dopey challenge! Way to go!

 

[morethananyonex]

I was with you until the bolded sentence.

I'm glad your trip went smoothly, but not everyone had the same experience.

My thoughts exactly.

I don't like the new system. I realize that people do, and it would be stupid and a little rude for me to state that anyone who goes because of it is silly. I'm glad you had a wonderful time OP. That doesn't mean your experience is the only one.

 

[DVCJones]

To me it works ONLY if you do not park hop and crowds are light so 3 FP's are all you need. Otherwise it greatly effects the level of enjoyment we have had for years with the old system. I also do not see the value in making everyone wear a bracelet. I never charge things to my room account so only need them for hotel room entry, park admission, FP+ and dining plan. For those few items a card to me is much easier than wearing a bracelet all day. An RFID card makes more sense.

Exactly!! I want to hear from a family of hoppers before I can feel better about this.

I still won't like the tiering of rides. They need to get rid of that. You only have the FP+ to use in any given day. Does tiering make a difference other than limiting guest satisfaction even more?

 

[roomthreeseventeen]

Exactly!! I want to hear from a family of hoppers before I can feel better about this.

We park hopped and it wasn't a big deal. For instance, I used my FP+ at DHS, and then waited on the lines at DAK. The longest we waited was about 45 minutes for Kilimanjaro.

 

[Lisa0806]

We were just there 1/4-1/9. We used the magic bands and over all enjoyed using them. Being able to just scan our bracelet and not look for tickets made it so easy to charge food or other things to our room. I def. liked that aspect. I also liked that we knew we had atleast three things planned even if we did get up later. When we were there we were also able to pull extra fp tix with our key to the world card at MK, Epcot, and HS. We could not do this at animal kingdom but we were there on a cold day and were able to pretty much walk on to most of the attractions there, so I can't say what it would be like at a busier time. For MK, Im not sure that three fastpasses would have been enough. We def enjoyed pulling extra ones at MK. At Epcot, it rained while we were there and crowds were not too bad. We ended up changing some of our fastpasses while there when we were able to practically walk on to some of them. However, we wanted to change our Soarin Time that was set for morning and the my disney exp. said we couldnt but then we were still able to pull paper fast passes for later in the day. My only real complaints with the magic bands were that they came off easily. It was cold a few days and if you had coats on and took them off, bands could easily come off, we almost lost one, and my two year old kept easily pulling his off so we just held onto his the rest of the trip. The other issue was when a ride we had a fastpass for was temporarily down. It would say you could go on another ride with fastpass during that time, but it would not show it under the change times thing, so you couldnt easily reschedule that same ride when many times it would reopen later. So that was a bit frustrating. However, when I asked a CM, they said we could still use our fastpass from earlier when the ride was down so it turned out to not really be an issue.