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

[dianeschlicht]

Thanks for sharing your experience. It sounds exactly like our situation will be for our late November/early December trip. I'm feeling more confident.

I wish I were!

 

[Silver19]

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?

Yes, go directly to GS. We too were turned away at Epcot because the magic band / AP voucher issue and ended up spending a good 45 minutes at GS. We should have simply gone straight into the line.

 

[LisaS]

I wish I were!

The biggest problem we saw this trip were with people who did not have either magic bands or the rfid tickets. At the IG into Epcot, all of the turnstiles have been removed. When someone wants to enter a park with a paper ticket the CM has to call over to another CM with a mobile card reader. It slows down the line, especially since some CMs held up the entire line when this happened. At one point, a few of us in line behind a small group with paper tickets asked if perhaps that group could be moved to the side so that those with magic bands and plastic rfid tickets could proceed to the idle band/card readers and get into the park.

The other issue with the IG is that they make everyone go through the bag check line. I bought some cargo shorts this year so that I could stop carrying my tiny park purse and instead carry everything I need in my pockets, but then had to wait to get through the bag check line anyway. This was not an issue at other parks, just when entering Epcot via the IG but since this was a F&W trip, we went through that entrance many times this trip. And if you happen to walk up just after a Friendship boat has unloaded, it can be a long wait.

 

[Lorelei528]

I was in WDW over Columbus Day weekend. I had purchased regular APs with a DVC discount online in the Spring before the prices went up (not a renewal). So I had a Will Call receipt I printed from Disney's website, not a paper voucher. I had a little trouble linking it so I could participate in the FP+ test with Magic Bands, but I finally scanned the barcode with my iPhone from the MDE app and it worked great. I assigned the APs to the appropriate people, made FP+ reservations, and just hoped for the best. On the first day we planned to go to a park, I arrived before rope drop at MK and went directly to Guest Relations. The wait was around 10-15 min at this point. I handed the CM my Will Call receipt, explained I needed to have my APs activated and linked to my MBs. She first issued me the hard plastic APs so we could get our discounts, etc then spent a few minutes at her computer making sure the bands were linked correctly. I was a little worried because I came early by myself and only had my MB, but she was able to get everything linked properly without the other MB even being there.

It took a total of about 20 - 25min. Our MBs worked as a room key, for room charges, for FP+, and entrance into the park for the whole trip without incident.

I realize my experience may not be typical, but I actually enjoyed the whole system very much. I wasn't sure if I would like it, but it was very convenient.

My advise is to come prepared and expect a few glitches.

Can I ask...did you have any FP+ made before your arrival? When they linked the AP's to the MBs, did you lose the FP+ that you had made?

It sounds like a fairly painless process. I also linked will call numbers to our MBs and made all our FP+....

So, it sounds like they just link the will call numbers to a hard card and then link the hard card to the MB? But is it "unlinked" first as a pp had said?

This is the only part I'm a bit concerned about...

Our first day is EPCOT, so I was going to head to GS anyway as we also have to pick up our TIW card....

I was just worried about losing all of our FP+ I've made....

Does anyone know etc?

Thanks!

 

[LisaS]

Can I ask...did you have any FP+ made before your arrival? When they linked the AP's to the MBs, did you lose the FP+ that you had made?

It sounds like a fairly painless process. I also linked will call numbers to our MBs and made all our FP+....

I'm not fortheloveofminnie, but I did exactly what you described (linked the will call number, made FP+ reservations prior to leaving home) and all of my FP+ reservations were intact and worked fine after turning in my will call certificate for our actual PAPs. We did not lose any FP+ reservations and had no issues using them.

 

[Disney Doc]

No problems at all for me last week. Had previously linked my AP voucher to my Magic Band, so I successfully made FP+ in advance. Went to IG ticket window (not Guest Relations). Processed my voucher, got the plastic AP. She did not do anything with my MB - it stayed on my wrist. I asked if the AP would be automatically linked to the MB, since the voucher had been Was told "no, you'll have to do that separately." Used the plastic AP to enter Epcot and hurried to lunch at Via Napoli. While waiting for food, I logged onto MDE with my iphone, intending to enter the new AP number so that it would be linked. To my surprise, it was already linked to my MB online (along with my brand-new BCV room key, and the original DVC AP voucher.) All 3 cards still show up as linked to my MB today. I used my MB exclusively from that time, with no problems. They had a reader for MBs at SAB, too. Double-dipped for FP with the room key. I have no MB glitches to report after 6 days of using them extensively for everything. (Though getting the correct angle with the door lock was humorously difficult at times.)

 

[runmommyrun]

We had vouchers and Disney IT assisted us linking those into MDE. When we went to redeem the vouchers, we had a fabulous CM at Animal Kingdom when we exchanged the vouchers to tickets and she linked everything for us. Everything went very smoothly and I did NOTHING once we redeemed the vouchers. The odd thing was that two days after we started using our tickets, my oldest DS and my Magic Bands seemed to show each other... thus my pink band scanned and showed him and his red band showed me. This was two days later! It was baffling. Later in the day it seemed ok. Then two days later it did it again. We are still at a loss. But as for the vouchers, we had a very capable CM at Animal Kingdom when we redeemed the vouchers and had no problems. And we had linked the vouchers to MDE prior to heading to WDW.

 

[Terapin]

Hi there-

Just to clarify for all those kinda clueless (me!), what is the best way to do this?

I want to buy DVC-discounted AP and get Magic bands and FP+. Would someone be so kind as to walk me through the steps I will need to go through to get it all working, from the start? Thank you ever so much!

 

[Firepath]

No problems at all for me last week. Had previously linked my AP voucher to my Magic Band, so I successfully made FP+ in advance. Went to IG ticket window (not Guest Relations). Processed my voucher, got the plastic AP. She did not do anything with my MB - it stayed on my wrist. I asked if the AP would be automatically linked to the MB, since the voucher had been Was told "no, you'll have to do that separately." Used the plastic AP to enter Epcot and hurried to lunch at Via Napoli. While waiting for food, I logged onto MDE with my iphone, intending to enter the new AP number so that it would be linked. To my surprise, it was already linked to my MB online (along with my brand-new BCV room key, and the original DVC AP voucher.) All 3 cards still show up as linked to my MB today. I used my MB exclusively from that time, with no problems. They had a reader for MBs at SAB, too. Double-dipped for FP with the room key. I have no MB glitches to report after 6 days of using them extensively for everything. (Though getting the correct angle with the door lock was humorously difficult at times.)

The CM I spoke with earlier this week on the phone told me that the MB and AP card are interchangeable. You can use either or both for all transactions. It sounds like he was correct. Glad to hear this!

 

[mikek]

The CM I spoke with earlier this week on the phone told me that the MB and AP card are interchangeable. You can use either or both for all transactions. It sounds like he was correct. Glad to hear this!

for ticket related transactions (park entry, FP+) or ALL transactions (like charging to your room or credit card )?

I know on MDE you can enter a credit card for payment. I wonder if in the end could you use an AP to charge a purchase to your credit card as an example.

 

[laura-k]

I haven't been keeping up with my Disney stuff lately and now I'm almost completely
lost and feeling more than little confused about the MB's
We have upcoming reservations At the beach club and BLT in March ,I can see them in my Disney experience along with about 4 or 5 passes--most likely 2 of those passes are AP's from last year and I am Not sure what the others are---in any case We'll probably have to purchase new ones during my upcoming trip -I also have a few restaurant Reservations
So I could really use some step by step advice to activate everything for the MB and learn how to do the fast pass Plus thing ....BUT still try to keep my options open for double dipping on Fast Pass
A little mini guide for the best way to use the MB -Please
any advice would be great
thanks,
Laura

 

[dgaston]

Was able to link DH's PAP and my PAP voucher to Magic Band prior to trip. Difficulty came in linking tickets purchased from Undercover Tourist. 2 of 3 linked fine. The 3rd automagically made my 25 year old son a 2 year old! CMs at Kidani spent 30 minutes at check-in trying to straighten things out. Two members of our party had non-expiring tickets and had to manage those at ticket booths in the parks. Were able to double dip for FPs with KTTW cards. FPs were honored a few minutes late, probably due to glitches in the system. Don't know how long that will last. Magic bands worked well to open doors. They didn't work to purchase items with PAP discount. Needed real ticket and usual id for that. I only put charging privileges on my own band.

There is potential in the system, but it's not perfect yet. We'll try again in December.

Two people's bands fell off. One was returned to Guest Relations in park lost in. Deactivated as soon as reported. Another reason not to put charging privileges on band.

 

[mikek]

..

Two people's bands fell off. One was returned to Guest Relations in park lost in. Deactivated as soon as reported. Another reason not to put charging privileges on band.

not fun that they fell off for sure.

Did i read somewhere else that they require a pin to charge?

 

[SugarLoaf]

We just got back the other day...and I have to say...we absolutely loved FP+ and Magic Bands! They worked very well for our room, AP, charging, everything!

I was very concerned about linking my AP voucher, and getting everything linked correctly when I got my actual AP, and everything else, etc. But everything worked like a charm. The CM we got at the ticket window outside MK knew exactly what he was doing, and we never had a problem during our whole stay.

FP+ we thought was totally awesome. I loved not having to run around and get paper tickets. We just walked up, waved our band, and walked right on our favorite rides! It was so great!

I do agree with other posters though that it would really be nice to be able to make them in different parks, for any given day. We do like to park hop. Hopefully we'll be able to do that perhaps in the future.

I hope they are either still testing, or fully rolled out by our next trip in May!

 

[LisaS]

Did i read somewhere else that they require a pin to charge?

Yes you choose a 4-digit PIN at check-in when you set up charging privileges. As long as guests don't pick something easy to guess like "1111" (or any other repeated number) or "1234" they will probably be OK if they lose the band and it takes a bit of time to find someone who can deactivate it. If someone finds a lost band and tries to purchase something with it, unless they are extremely lucky and guess the owner's PIN on the first or second try, I would hope the system (and the CM as well) would become suspicious and deny the charge.

ETA: I know you get at least two attempts to enter your PIN because given how tiny the buttons are, DH and I both had problems on several occasions entering our PINs correctly and were given a second chance.

 

[doctornick]

Ok. So we have PAP vouchers (electronic, I did not get paper ones mailed to me) for our upcoming trip in Dec. I went online and linked the PAP with the voucher # to MDE and ordered FP+ and MBs. So, the following is my plan...

We arrive around noon. I was going to check in to our resort (but realize the room will not be ready) and then go straight to Epcot. We will go to guest relations and have them issue our actual physical PAPs. I will have my voucher number so they can be looked up in the system. They we will have them link our MBs to the PAP (as opposed to the voucher they are currently linked to). We can then proceed to the gates and use the MBs for entry. Sound right?

IF that is correct, I have a couple of follow up questions....

1. We will get a separate physical PAP for each person, correct?
2. If "double dipping" for paper FP is still enabled, can we use the physical PAP for that purpose?
3. Alternatively, I know you can get a KTTW card at the resort that (right now) can be used for paper FPs. Should we ask for them upon check in? If we get a PAP, is there any benefit to getting them?
4. We have another trip planned for next year, do we keep the MBs for that trip or would we order new ones?

Thanks for the answers that anyone can provide.

 

[LisaS]

Ok. So we have PAP vouchers (electronic, I did not get paper ones mailed to me) for our upcoming trip in Dec. I went online and linked the PAP with the voucher # to MDE and ordered FP+ and MBs. So, the following is my plan...

We arrive around noon. I was going to check in to our resort (but realize the room will not be ready) and then go straight to Epcot. We will go to guest relations and have them issue our actual physical PAPs. I will have my voucher number so they can be looked up in the system. They we will have them link our MBs to the PAP (as opposed to the voucher they are currently linked to). We can then proceed to the gates and use the MBs for entry. Sound right?

That's exactly what we did. We checked in at BWV and then headed over to the Guest Relations window at the IG to exchange our "will call" certificate for the physical PAPs. We then entered Epcot using our Magic Bands.

With new tickets, the first time you enter a park they capture the finger scan information so take your time to position your finger in a way you can replicate from that point on. DH must have done something odd the first time (finger wasn't all the way forward or wasn't flat or something) because he had problems passing the "scan test" after that. They finally reset his scan and had him re-do the capture and he was fine after that.

IF that is correct, I have a couple of follow up questions....

1. We will get a separate physical PAP for each person, correct?

Yes each person gets his/her own plastic PAP. The one-year countdown starts the day you pick up the PAPs.

2. If "double dipping" for paper FP is still enabled, can we use the physical PAP for that purpose?

Can't help you here...

3. Alternatively, I know you can get a KTTW card at the resort that (right now) can be used for paper FPs. Should we ask for them upon check in? If we get a PAP, is there any benefit to getting them?

We were each issued a plastic KTTW card at check-in in case we had any problems with our Magic Band.

4. We have another trip planned for next year, do we keep the MBs for that trip or would we order new ones?

I don't know. When we picked up our PAPs at the IG, the CM told us our bands would be deactivated at the end of our stay. I'm opting to hang on to them anyway in case they can be re-activated for our next stay. I trimmed and filed the strap on mine so it fits better so I would prefer to re-use this one for our next trip if possible.

 

[n2mm]

Wanted to mention that we already have one broken band. My granddaughters band broke 2days into the trip. The pins broke off. We have been here for 2 weeks now and don't leave until this Saturday.

 

[Firepath]

for ticket related transactions (park entry, FP+) or ALL transactions (like charging to your room or credit card )?

I know on MDE you can enter a credit card for payment. I wonder if in the end could you use an AP to charge a purchase to your credit card as an example.

He didn't specify, but I believe the AP card would get you in the gate and fast passes only. If you had a Key to the World card I would think that would be interchangeable with the MB, but I don't think they would give you both.