Loved the Magic Bands and oly one glitch...a warning to those with AP vouchers

[patsal]

Hi all, just back from our test of the magic bands and we only had one glitch. Everything went off without a hitch except for the actual turning in of the AP vouchers for the hard tickets and then the band working for admission immediately afterward. ( I will explain that later in the post)

The fastpass plus portion, room key and purchasing at kiosks went very well. So much easier at F&W, which I didn't think would be possible since we always used the wrist band gift card. I think I am going to very much like this if it is up and running by summer.

Now for the glitch. The funny part was I had anticipated this and called twice about it before attaching my AP voucher to the band...
Voucher numbers and Ap numbers are not the same...most of us know that. I called and asked and was told not an issue, that the system was set to deal with it. Turned my vouchers in for hard tickets and there was an issue...sorry these tickets are already active...not possible I have them...mentioned the bands and the smiled, got a mangaer and fixed everything. Went to enter park, bands did not work. "Please step off to the side" the CM looked it all up, ran the hard tickets through her hand held reader and we were set to go. She suggested we stop at guest relations to have the bands and tickets resynched. No time at the park as we had 3D dessert party and were beginning to run late.
Once back at the hotel the manager was able to resynch the tickets with the magic bands. He seemed puzzled at first, then I explained that the issue was probably something to do with AP vouchers and the final hard ticket not having synchronized numbers...Viola! that was the problem. He was able to fix it in about 15 minutes...we had three that needed to be hand entered.
Next day no issues at all.
For those of you with vouchers attached--we needed to do that or the fast pass plus option would not open to us--it is a pretty quick fix. Point the issue out to the CM if they seem puzzled and the situation can be fixed pretty quickly. Know that it will take about an extra five minutes per ticket for processing the hard ticket and another 5 minutes per person for the band/ticket issue to get straightened out.

 

[CarolMN]

Thank you for the heads up!

I'm happy to hear you liked the bands and that they worked well for purchases and as a room key.

 

[luckyman_apd]

Yes, we had an issue exchanging our vouchers in August. We linked the vouchers, and at the ticket window, they had to collect our bands and reassign them. A minor inconvience on the first day. Other than that it was smooth sailing. Since our first night was non dvc, but a MB testing resort, linking our DVC reservation to MDE allowed our bands to work at a NON band resort. It opened our doors at SSR before SSR was testing. Personally I love everything except the limitations on FP+. 3 a day in only 1 park is not going to cut it. If we pay for park hopper passes, it would be nice to schedule a ride at more than one park. Really, how many people stay at AK more than half a day?

 

[dianeschlicht]

Thanks for the advice!!! We do indeed have our vouchers linked and that was how we made our FP+ selections. I'll see if they can fix it at AKL right when we check in.

 

[luckyman_apd]

Thanks for the advice!!! We do indeed have our vouchers linked and that was how we made our FP+ selections. I'll see if they can fix it at AKL right when we check in.

Ours was fixed at the main gate. We couldn't activate the vouchers at the resort.

 

[nicks mom]

Are your vouchers activated the first day you enter the park if you link them to the magic bands. I'm afraid to link them in advance for fear that they would be activated earlier.

 

[goofy30]

I tried to link my AP Vouchers earlier this morning for our trip the first week in December. I got an error message that said they were already linked or there was a problem with system, and I should call. I called and was told that I can't link them yet because the systems not up and running . I'm confused and already regretting this whole band thing.

 

[MouseMomx2]

Are your vouchers activated the first day you enter the park if you link them to the magic bands. I'm afraid to link them in advance for fear that they would be activated earlier.

They will link as a voucher. They will not be usable until you visit Guest Relations and have them activated. The date you do this is the date your year begins.

 

[bethp1968]

We currently have AP's from May 2013. We will be going again in May 2014 (before AP's expire) to visit our DD who will be part of the Disney College Program and working there My question is: Once I book my DVC villa, will I be able to link our current AP's to the new magic bands and if so, how does it work? Thanks!!!

 

[Disfanx4]

We currently have AP's from May 2013. We will be going again in May 2014 (before AP's expire) to visit our DD who will be part of the Disney College Program and working there My question is: Once I book my DVC villa, will I be able to link our current AP's to the new magic bands and if so, how does it work? Thanks!!!

I linked our AP from August for our trip coming up in 2 weeks and when I did my 2 daughters card got linked to me with a message that they were non transferable, obviously I panicked but called and they were able to straighten it out so I could book FP for everyone. They told me I will have to go to guest relations to have both cards re-issued if we wanted to be able to use for anything else like regular fast passes, parking or discount

 

[bethp1968]

So, I need to link the AP's to the magic bands to get FP+, but then I need the "hard" AP to get additional FP's in the parks, or for AP discounts????
Am I missing something here?

 

[cseca]

So, I need to link the AP's to the magic bands to get FP+, but then I need the "hard" AP to get additional FP's in the parks, or for AP discounts???? Am I missing something here?

If double dipping is still allowed then yes you will need your actual AP to get paper FPs and definitely bring it for discounts.

 

[Disneydrmr]

I wish our transition would have gone as "smoothly" as yours.

I too attached my voucher to my magic band prior to our trip last weekend. Everything worked as planned for ME, room key, and FP+.

We tried to use our magic bands to get into Epcot (our first park of the trip). We were pulled off to the side...and told our Magic Bands were not valid with the voucher so please go visit a ticket counter at the entrance. We were told our tickets had already been used (even though we had not used them) but since we tried to get into the park with them 5 minutes prior, it caused their system issues. Then when we told her that these were vouchers and needed to be converted to the PAP (we took advantage of the promotion going on last year for the renewal voucher) they were VERY confused!!! They told me that in order to convert the voucher to the PAP it would BACK DATE IT to the expiration date of our AP's NOT the first day of use.

We explained to her that is NOT how it was explained to us when we purchased our voucher...and that we had until Dec. 31, 2013 to convert them to PAP's and that they would be good starting on the day we converted (Oct. 16th 2013) and not the end date of our expired annual passes (Feb. 2013).

It took them a hour to finally get it all straightened out...but they said we were misunderstood on how the vouchers worked...and that it was only good starting Mar. 2013 and NOT Oct. 2013. At this point, we had missed fast pass reservations. I am fuming because the "manager" on duty is the one telling us the voucher had a start date of March and NOT October. We would have never bought the voucher if that had been the case. I feel like I have been totally ripped off with no one to escalate to!!! They also told us NOT to link our annual passes to our magic bands because there is a known glitch in the system with magic bands and annual passes. They told us to continue to use our plastic cards instead of the magic bands.

It's times like these where I miss the old days when there were no magic bands, fast passes, or RFID technology!!!

 

[Tink2312]

I wish our transition would have gone as "smoothly" as yours.

I too attached my voucher to my magic band prior to our trip last weekend. Everything worked as planned for ME, room key, and FP+.

We tried to use our magic bands to get into Epcot (our first park of the trip). We were pulled off to the side...and told our Magic Bands were not valid with the voucher so please go visit a ticket counter at the entrance. We were told our tickets had already been used (even though we had not used them) but since we tried to get into the park with them 5 minutes prior, it caused their system issues. Then when we told her that these were vouchers and needed to be converted to the PAP (we took advantage of the promotion going on last year for the renewal voucher) they were VERY confused!!! They told me that in order to convert the voucher to the PAP it would BACK DATE IT to the expiration date of our AP's NOT the first day of use.

We explained to her that is NOT how it was explained to us when we purchased our voucher...and that we had until Dec. 31, 2013 to convert them to PAP's and that they would be good starting on the day we converted (Oct. 16th 2013) and not the end date of our expired annual passes (Feb. 2013).

It took them a hour to finally get it all straightened out...but they said we were misunderstood on how the vouchers worked...and that it was only good starting Mar. 2013 and NOT Oct. 2013. At this point, we had missed fast pass reservations. I am fuming because the "manager" on duty is the one telling us the voucher had a start date of March and NOT October. We would have never bought the voucher if that had been the case. I feel like I have been totally ripped off with no one to escalate to!!! They also told us NOT to link our annual passes to our magic bands because there is a known glitch in the system with magic bands and annual passes. They told us to continue to use our plastic cards instead of the magic bands.

It's times like these where I miss the old days when there were no magic bands, fast passes, or RFID technology!!!

I would go to MK guest relations as I've always found them to be the most knowledgeable/ helpful. Sorry to hear you're having problems. We too have vouchers linked to our MBs that we'll need to convert in a few weeks - I'm preparing for a fight.

 

[lugnut33]

So, when we go over Thanksgiving I should probably go directly to Guest Relations at the MK and not the ticket booth to exchange our linked vouchers? I should also ask them to make sure the new AP's are linked to the Magic Bands we have already ordered?

 

[mikek]

Are people having problems if they take their paper vouchers (already linked to magic bands) to guest relations to turn them into AP's prior to trying to enter a park?

 

[Firepath]

The problem isn't with the Magic Bands it is with the linking of the AP voucher through MDE. We went straight to Guest Relations before entering the park. We didn't have Magic Bands but had already linked the vouchers. We just got the AP cards. They told us that the system allows the vouchers to be linked but it causes problems and they basically have to un-do the linking, issue the AP and then re-link it. That's what they told us anyways. After that we were able to get into the parks but only one of the four could get a fast pass. It didn't really matter because everyone with Magic Bands had scooped up all the good FPs before we ever arrived .

 

[n2mm]

we too had a problem similar. my husband had a NEW will call voucher, purchased during the promotion, but was turning in to activate a new PAP ticket. Like most I did link it to his MDE account. and then choose his FP selection. Yes, we showed up at guest relations IG and it took over 30 minutes to get his PAP. The CM was not happy and growled at us....took that name down in my list.....(we had lots of other issues too). He said that people SHOULD NOT link their will call numbers to their account because it's causing alot of work that has to be fixed prior to geting their ticket. He said it had something to do with the dates the voucher/will call was purchased. Somehow it wants to activate the ticket to the purchase date and has to be overwritten. We did get it stratightened out and the expiration date is correct, but again this is a new PAP, not a renewal. As the CM said people should not link this, I told him that the site shouldn't allow it then, because it was the easiest thing I did, it was my current AP that couldn't be linked and that issue did take me my entire first day of vacation to work out, but that's a different story. So anyone who linked their will call voucher, be prepared to spend time getting this fixed and it can only be done at guest relations. We are still here and will not return until Nov. 2. Off to Universal Studios today.

 

[SarahInMN]

I think we did the exact same thing you did but we didn't have any problems.

We linked the AP vouchers (the green things) about 6 weeks before our trip while at home. We set up all the FP+'s and then when we arrived swapped out the AP vouchers for the hard tickets. Our MB's worked right away that night and - knock on wood - have had no problems. Maybe it's a random thing or we somehow did something differently but linking the vouchers and staying linked once we got the hard tickets has not been a problem.

 

[dianeschlicht]

Okay, so I'm now worried about our PAP vouchers that ARE linked to our MDE AND to our Magic bands. I had to make several calls to the tech support for the MDE site to get this all accomplished too. So....what made the difference for Sarah? Why did hers work and others not? Is it at all related to which resort you are staying at? Is it related to WHICH customer service center you go to when you activate the vouchers? There has to be some related glitch in all of these issues.

Frankly, I'm starting to believe that Disney used the same programers t he government did when they did the insurance web site.