Magic bands and split stay

[disneyobessed]

ok I just have a few questions that may have been answered already if so I apologize..

My family is heading down on Thurs Aug 7th. to Port Orleans. I have booked the room with a 8 day hopper pass. On Sunday we switch to BWV until Friday the 15th. My sister is flying down and coming down on Sunday to stay with us at BWV.

1. On Sunday do I use my BWV bands to enter the park or are my park passes still on POR bands. Do I need to go to guest services to have the park passes transfered onto the bands?

2. My sister is getting a 5 day hopper pass prior to getting down there. Does she need to get this through Disney ahead of time to have the park passes on her band? Can she get off Magical Express and head right to the park with her band or does she have to go to guest services to have the passes transferred to band? THanks!

 

[erionm]

Nothing is stored on the MagicBands except for a unique id number. The MagicBands along with your park admission, resort reservation, FP+ selections, etc are linked to a MDE profile. When the MagicBands are scanned (for room entry, park entry, FP+ entry, room charging, etc.), the linked MDE profile is read to validate the function.

 

[disneyobessed]

Both reservations are on MDE. so is there anything else I need to do? Im still somewhat lost here...

 

[tjkraz]

MagicBands are like car keys. As long as they remain linked to your MDE web account (which they should unless you specifically delete bands), you can use any MagicBand issued to you for park entry, hotel door entry, charging, etc.

Since you have two separate hotel stays, you will most likely be issued to sets of MagicBands. But again, both of them should be linked to your information. Pick different colors and use them to coordinate with your outfits if you wish.

So when you arrive at at WDW, you'll have two sets of bands. They can be used interchangeably from day one. Neither is tied to a specific resort.

You still will have to "check-in" at the front desk of each resort, but each resort will add your room information to your MDE account and again you can use either set of bands to open the hotel room doors, enter parks, etc.

Your sister will probably want to buy tickets in advance and have them linked to her MDE account. At this time, you cannot make FastPass+ ride reservations unless you have valid theme park admission. She COULD wait until she arrives to buy tickets, but then you won't be able to book FP+ until that ticket is added.

Tickets can be purchased either direct from Disney or a third-party retailer. She'll log-into her MDE account and enter the code numbers from the back of the ticket (or email) to register that admission with her MDE account.

Here's the short version of what you need to do:

1) All adults should create their own accounts at MyDisneyExperience.com. If you already have an account with Disney, ABC, Espn, use the same username and password to log-in.

1a) One of the adults needs to add any minor children as "Family Members" to their MDE account. That adult will manage everything for the children.

2) Everyone should use the "Add Friends and Family" function to exchange friend requests. That allows all of the trip participants to complete planning functions for each-other.

3) Retrieve the room reservation and add all of the travelers from your list of "Friends and Family."

4) Everyone needs to add a valid theme park ticket to their MDE account.

At this point, you'll be able to customize the MagicBands (choose names and colors) and make FastPass+ reservations for the entire group. Can also make dining reservations via the MDE site and list all of the diners from your "Friends and Family" list.

Everyone in your traveling party can use their own MDE web account to view all plans which have been made. Can also use the MyDisneyExperience smartphone or tablet apps to view and update info.

It sounds a little cumbersome but once you've gone through it, it's pretty intuitive.

 

[happypooh]

Do you have to get new bands? We go to WDW 5-6 times a year and sometimes have split stays so it would be nice if we just kept the same bands since they are already linked to MDE. Can someone let me know if we can decline the new bands and just keep the old ones. We have our annual passes on our current MB.
Thanks.

 

[erionm]

Do you have to get new bands? We go to WDW 5-6 times a year and sometimes have split stays so it would be nice if we just kept the same bands since they are already linked to MDE. Can someone let me know if we can decline the new bands and just keep the old ones. We have our annual passes on our current MB.
Thanks.

If you don't customize the MagicBands in MDE, they will have grey ones waiting at the resort for you. You can have the resort recycle them if you have MagicBands that still work.

 

[disneyobessed]

Do all adults on reservation have to create a MDE account and link the reservation? Can i get fast passes for everyone on our reservation?

 

[tjkraz]

Do all adults on reservation have to create a MDE account and link the reservation? Can i get fast passes for everyone on our reservation?

You have two choices:

1) Each adult creates their own MDE account. Then link the multiple adult accounts by exchanging friend requests. Once the friend request has been accepted, any/all of the individuals can participate in planning, view and purchase PhotoPass images, schedule FP+, customize wristbands, etc.

2) The other option is for one of the adults to add the others as "managed" accounts under their own MDE sign-on. With this option, the adults who are being "managed"--the ones who do not have their own MDE account--basically cannot do anything. The managing adult must do it all.

Regardless of the approach taken, FP+ cannot be scheduled until valid theme park tickets are linked to the account of each member of the party. With option 1, each of the adults buy their own passes and link to their MDE account. With option 2, the single adult with the MDE sign-on must add passes to each of the adults they are managing.

Bottom line is you can't book FastPasses until tickets are purchased.

 

[Judique]

Do you have to get new bands? We go to WDW 5-6 times a year and sometimes have split stays so it would be nice if we just kept the same bands since they are already linked to MDE. Can someone let me know if we can decline the new bands and just keep the old ones. We have our annual passes on our current MB.
Thanks.

You actually have your annual passes on your MDE account. The magic band is the way that you access the account. Any magic band coded to your account will let you use the AP. So unless you specifically deactivate it, your old one should work.

Early morning, the truck delivers magic bands to the resorts for guest checking in that day, if you have not set up magic bands and received them at home.

So, you can decline them at check in - but they will still have been created for your trip. It's your choice to preorder them in your chosen color with your name on the inside, but regardless of whether you do this or not, once you have a reservation a new set will be created. They come to the resort already in the same 'Incredibles' box you got at home. While waiting for magical express at 4am one morning we saw the truck arrive and the boxes of bands being wheeled inside.

This is how it is set up now - perhaps the future will be different. I have a split stay and now have a selection of bands in several colors. I feel if I use them at least they are not in the landfill.

 

[jco_direwolf]

Do you have to get new bands? We go to WDW 5-6 times a year and sometimes have split stays so it would be nice if we just kept the same bands since they are already linked to MDE. Can someone let me know if we can decline the new bands and just keep the old ones. We have our annual passes on our current MB.
Thanks.

As of right now, as far as I can tell there is no way to decline them.

But I assume at some point they will add that feature, right now they seem to be more worried everyone gets one than givign you away to opt out.

 

[E-P-C-O-T]

They really should allow everyone to reuse the same bands throughout their stay. We have 4 sets of Magic Bands from our Christmas vacation. I tried at check in at AKV and BCV to reuse the band that we had and we were told that we needed to use the new ones. My DH has a convention at WDW next week and I didn't customize our bands or confirm our address so now I got an email saying that our bands will be waiting for us at check-in. Seems so wasteful to me, I will bring the last bands we used a few weeks ago to see if we can reuse them. We have a total of 18 bands already, we do not need new ones

 

[crazy4wdw]

Does anyone know how fastpass+ works with a split stay? At 60 days prior to arrival, can I make fastpass+ reservations for my entire 7 day stay? Or is it 60 days prior for the 1st reservation and then 60 prior for the 2nd reservation?

 

[jimandami]

They really should allow everyone to reuse the same bands throughout their stay. We have 4 sets of Magic Bands from our Christmas vacation. I tried at check in at AKV and BCV to reuse the band that we had and we were told that we needed to use the new ones. My DH has a convention at WDW next week and I didn't customize our bands or confirm our address so now I got an email saying that our bands will be waiting for us at check-in. Seems so wasteful to me, I will bring the last bands we used a few weeks ago to see if we can reuse them. We have a total of 18 bands already, we do not need new ones

I'm not sure why in the world they told you that you needed to use the new ones...maybe another case of the CM not being truly educated. You can use each MB interchangeably. We had a split stay in Dec and as of day 1, both sets of our bands worked for everything, including the ones for our second resort. Why not just try to collect as many colors as you can, decorate some, and match them to your outfit? That's my plan

 

[jimandami]

Does anyone know how fastpass+ works with a split stay? At 60 days prior to arrival, can I make fastpass+ reservations for my entire 7 day stay? Or is it 60 days prior for the 1st reservation and then 60 prior for the 2nd reservation?

I am pretty sure you can make them for each day you have a valid ticket. So, if you have a 7 day ticket, you should be able to make FP+ reservations for 7 days.

 

[disney1474]

Can I link more than one park pass for each member of my family?
We have 10 day non exp passes that still have water park admission and another pass just for the parks.