Magic Bands/FP+ VASTLY improved my Disney vacation.

[wickedgood]

You guys seriously had me questioning whether or not I should even go ahead with this trip but I'm really glad that I did.

Basic info...
Number of guests: 2 adults (honeymoon!)
Room: Port Orleans - Riverside
Date: Monday, 2/24 - Saturday, 3/1
Dining Plan: None
Dining Reservations booked prior to arrival: None
FastPass+ selections prior to arrival: None

Note: Although we booked an on-site room and received magic bands in the mail prior to our trip, we DID NOT purchase park tickets in advance and therefore did not make any fastpass+ selections in advance.

OK, so we arrived at MCO Monday afternoon and hopped right on the magical express with a simple tap of our wrists at the desk and no more than a pleasantry or two exchanged with the cast member. When we got to the resort we checked in at the front desk (we did not check-in online), got our room assignment, and tapped into the room (we tested both of our bands) with no problems whatsoever.

We headed to our first park, EPCOT, around 4 p.m and purchased 5-day tickets at the ticket window. They gave us a card, which we tapped to enter and then immediately scanned to our account once we got through the gate. This whole process took no longer than 5 minutes. We had only planned on doing World Showcase but checked out the fastpass for Soarin' and Test Track just for the heck of it. They were both still available, so we grabbed a 5:00-6:00 reservation for Test Track. Headed over there at 5:30 and tapped in with no problem and walked straight to the design area with no wait. No problems tapping to design the car and again to retrieve the car before the ride either. The whole process worked flawlessly.

During the rest of the week we visited all four parks and were able to tackle all of the major attractions (and most of the smaller ones, too) using a combination of fastpasses (which we selected each morning on our bus ride over to the park) and stand-by, without ever waiting longer than 20 minutes for anything (except for a 25-minute wait to see Buzz & Woody at Hollywood Studios), and without ever arriving at any park before 11 a.m.

On our fourth day we decided to add a 6th day to our ticket. This took about 3 minutes at the ticket window and worked flawlessly for entrance.

On our fifth day we went to Magic Kingdom and tried our luck with a Be Our Guest lunch fastpass before leaving our room in the morning. At about 9:30 a.m. we successfully made a reservation for 12:05 p.m. and ordered our food without incident. Again, no issues whatsoever.

We charged everything to our room during the whole trip and it was so convenient. We never encountered any grumpy cast members, never got stuck waiting in a long fastpass line, and never even saw anyone else in lines ahead of us having any problems with their bands. Everything worked perfectly.

And to those who will say, "well it's February...": We went to Disney World last year at a very similar time (late January), with very similar weather, nearly identical crowd indicators on easywdw, and we showed up before the park opened every day. We slept late this time, spent less time in line, were able to do a lot more than we did last time, and had a much better experience overall.

So, yeah... FP+/magic band worked for us.

 

[Melora]

YAY! So glad to hear you had a wonderful time!
We are saving right now to go in November and are SO excited when we hear positive reviews!!!!

 

[roseandcrownfan]

I was initially skeptical about the magic bands when I read about them here. After using them, I was impressed. It was really easy and convenient to not have to dig out a card or money (I did not like wearing a lanyard). I've read some pretty frustrating glitches here, but out experience was glitch-free. I especially loved linking the memory maker to the bands. That made picture lines fun for us. We probably got a picture with every photographer we saw!

 

[kia5711]

We had a similar experience, for the most part everything worked great and FP+ was just a huge relief as our planning was "done" and we knew we'd get to do what we wanted, everything else was gravy!

 

[jenninaustin]

Yea for Disney honeymoons and yea for a great experience! Very happy to read all of that.

 

[aaturner]

That's great, thanks for sharing! We are going in June and I was getting a little concerned with all the posts about problems. We have spent extra on this trip with where we are staying and how long we are staying, our oldest is graduating from high school so we wanted to plan a really nice trip!

 

[Nancy F]

We were there in Dec. and loved using the bands. We had only one glitch with a fast pass for Soarin'. But overall we were pleased with how easy everything went. Hoping I'll be able to say the same thing after our April trip.
Nancy

 

[David Brent]

Great review! I can't wait to try myself with my wife in March during her spring break. Any reviews, I always take with a grain of salt, whether it's WDW, restaurants, movies, hotels, resorts. etc.

 

[practicallyperfect77]

Happy to hear it worked for you! When making your FP+ ressies in the morning did you find the times you wanted were available or maybe you didn't care what time you rode certain things? Also, were you able to to do repeats of rides using standby and FP+ or just a once and done? I'm not saying 6 times in a row on EE or space mountain, but just curious if you were able to get 2 rides on say Soarin' in the same day.

 

[MickeyChix]

Thank you so much for posting a positive review!! Sometimes these boards are so negative that they do more harm then good. At the same time i don't want to down play those that truly had awful things happen. But I think it's easier for people to post the bad things instead of the good so again I say thank you!! I have a feeling that if more people posted after a successful trip that more than likely they would out weigh the unsuccessful ones.

One thing that I'm more and more curious about is why some have so many issues. It makes me wonder if their is a numbering issue with the RFID Chips where certain number patterns are so similar that it's causing confusion. For example your seen as POP 2346 and another guest is seen as POR 2246? I'd be very interested if Disney were to ever come out and say what the glitches turned out to be.

 

[wickedgood]

Happy to hear it worked for you! When making your FP+ ressies in the morning did you find the times you wanted were available or maybe you didn't care what time you rode certain things? Also, were you able to to do repeats of rides using standby and FP+ or just a once and done? I'm not saying 6 times in a row on EE or space mountain, but just curious if you were able to get 2 rides on say Soarin' in the same day.

Yes, I was able to choose any time that I wanted and was able to move them around freely throughout the day. As far as multiple rides, I can't really comment on that since we're really one-and-done people for the most part. Had we wanted to I'd say we could have easily done all of the major rides twice in one day without much of a wait and more than twice if we'd gotten to the parks earlier in the morning. Maybe not both soarin' and test track twice in one day though.

 

[DisneyFive]

Posts like these suggest that there may be hope yet.

Congrats on the wonderful trip and the marriage.

Dan

 

[Marthasor]

You guys seriously had me questioning whether or not I should even go ahead with this trip but I'm really glad that I did.

Basic info...
Number of guests: 2 adults (honeymoon!)
Room: Port Orleans - Riverside
Date: Monday, 2/24 - Saturday, 3/1
Dining Plan: None
Dining Reservations booked prior to arrival: None
FastPass+ selections prior to arrival: None

Note: Although we booked an on-site room and received magic bands in the mail prior to our trip, we DID NOT purchase park tickets in advance and therefore did not make any fastpass+ selections in advance.

OK, so we arrived at MCO Monday afternoon and hopped right on the magical express with a simple tap of our wrists at the desk and no more than a pleasantry or two exchanged with the cast member. When we got to the resort we checked in at the front desk (we did not check-in online), got our room assignment, and tapped into the room (we tested both of our bands) with no problems whatsoever.

We headed to our first park, EPCOT, around 4 p.m and purchased 5-day tickets at the ticket window. They gave us a card, which we tapped to enter and then immediately scanned to our account once we got through the gate. This whole process took no longer than 5 minutes. We had only planned on doing World Showcase but checked out the fastpass for Soarin' and Test Track just for the heck of it. They were both still available, so we grabbed a 5:00-6:00 reservation for Test Track. Headed over there at 5:30 and tapped in with no problem and walked straight to the design area with no wait. No problems tapping to design the car and again to retrieve the car before the ride either. The whole process worked flawlessly.

During the rest of the week we visited all four parks and were able to tackle all of the major attractions (and most of the smaller ones, too) using a combination of fastpasses (which we selected each morning on our bus ride over to the park) and stand-by, without ever waiting longer than 20 minutes for anything (except for a 25-minute wait to see Buzz & Woody at Hollywood Studios), and without ever arriving at any park before 11 a.m.

On our fourth day we decided to add a 6th day to our ticket. This took about 3 minutes at the ticket window and worked flawlessly for entrance.

On our fifth day we went to Magic Kingdom and tried our luck with a Be Our Guest lunch fastpass before leaving our room in the morning. At about 9:30 a.m. we successfully made a reservation for 12:05 p.m. and ordered our food without incident. Again, no issues whatsoever.

We charged everything to our room during the whole trip and it was so convenient. We never encountered any grumpy cast members, never got stuck waiting in a long fastpass line, and never even saw anyone else in lines ahead of us having any problems with their bands. Everything worked perfectly.

And to those who will say, "well it's February...": We went to Disney World last year at a very similar time (late January), with very similar weather, nearly identical crowd indicators on easywdw, and we showed up before the park opened every day. We slept late this time, spent less time in line, were able to do a lot more than we did last time, and had a much better experience overall.

So, yeah... FP+/magic band worked for us.

We had a similar experience the week before. So glad you had an enjoyable trip.

 

[ethanwa]

So glad to hear someone didn't cancel their trip before they tried it!

I hear so many people saying "I read about FP+, now I am worried, going to Universal instead". DON'T DO THAT.

Give FP+ a chance! Too many of you are writing it off because of other people's experience. Personally mine has been GREAT too!

Don't go in with a negative attitude. FP+ may not work for some people, but it DOES work for some people too!

 

[practicallyperfect77]

So glad to hear someone didn't cancel their trip before they tried it!

I hear so many people saying "I read about FP+, now I am worried, going to Universal instead". DON'T DO THAT.

Give FP+ a chance! Too many of you are writing it off because of other people's experience. Personally mine has been GREAT too!

Don't go in with a negative attitude. FP+ may not work for some people, but it DOES work for some people too!

In fairness to the folks that are changing their plans, I am guessing they are doing so because it's too big of a gamble for them. I just priced a trip for 3 adults 3 kids (2 rooms at Pop for 5 nights with 6 day tickets and dining)....it is ~$4250 and that doesn't include flights. That is a lot of money for folks to gamble with. I personally don't believe anyone needs to experience it first hand to know they won't like tiering or being limited to 3 FPs a day. It worked for the OP and works for many others too. That is great. The fact that others are deciding to postpone/cancel trips does not take away from the fact it benefits others. It takes away from other touring styles as well.

 

[practicallyperfect77]

Yes, I was able to choose any time that I wanted and was able to move them around freely throughout the day. As far as multiple rides, I can't really comment on that since we're really one-and-done people for the most part. Had we wanted to I'd say we could have easily done all of the major rides twice in one day without much of a wait and more than twice if we'd gotten to the parks earlier in the morning. Maybe not both soarin' and test track twice in one day though.

Thanks for the report back. Good to know you could change throughout the day. I was there in first week of Dec (just 2 of us) and didn't have that experience.

 

[chrissy92972]

I am glad it worked so well for you and your spouse. I wish it would work that well or even just a little bit for my husband and son.

I am wondering if it is just too much to have room, tickets, dining, and pre selecting fast passes on the system? That is what we did for their trip and it is just not working.

Chrissy