I just happened to have checked
MDE yesterday afternoon and saw the option for managing magic bands as well as the Fast Pass+ option was available to me.
The magic band page indicated that was our last day to customize the bands. Yesterday was July 23rd and we arrive at YC on August 23rd. The names were already selected based on the profile name so no change there. However, I was unable to change the band color through the MDE website. I called the help line and spoke to an IT CM who had a similar issue when she did her CM test. She said to go through the mobile app and I should be able to change colors there. Success! Blue for me, red for DW and green for DD. No offense to lovers of grey (the default band color), but I'm glad the color customization worked.
I pressed the IT CM on a few more questions and she said we would also get KTTW cards during his test. The idea is to have a backup for guests in case there is an issue with the Magic Bands/Fast Pass+. She told me I should be getting a letter 17 days out from our arrival date informing us of the Magic Bands/Fast Pass+ test.
I have played around with selecting FP+ and so far have made selections for the first four days of our trip. There are six steps.
1. Select day
2. Select members of your party for whom you are getting FP+
3. Select park
4. Select attractions. You can prioritze them here with #1 being the first FP+ time that day.
5. Select the option for FP+ you desire. There are four combinations of FP+ option labeled A, B, C and D. One of them comes up as "Best Match!" but you can select any of the four. From my limited use, it seems that one option places your FP+ choices in the first half of the day, one does the second half of the day and two spread the FP+ choices thoughout the day.
6. Make changes to FP+ selections. As noted elsewhere, you also get the opportunity to modify your FP+ attractions as well as times.
In step #4 you may also use the FastPicks option where the system picks three FP+ attractions for you. In HS, FastPicks offered me ToT, TSMM and ST over an almost eight hour period.
Other observations:
- I was not able to pick FP+ more than once for each attractions. For example, I was not able to get two FP+ for TSMM on the same day
- FP+ is aware of ADRs and gives you an overlap warning if you overlap a FP+ with an ADR. I can only verify ADRs made prior to selecting FP+. Not sure if this is true if you make ADRs after scheduling FP+
- I was not able to schedule FP+ for times during Extra Magic Hours
- On our MK day, I received a bonus FP+ for PoTC. I was able to change PoTC to Peter Pan with no problem
- Closed attractions are grayed out and you cannot select them. A note as to why the atraction closed is provided. Jungle Cruise and MV3D are both closed for refurbishment during our stay
Sorry for the long post. I just wanted to get some info out there.
One last thing, I am positive I spoke to someone in IT rather than a regular customer service CM. She did not sound like she was reading from a script and, while she did say goodbye, she did not wish me "A magical day."
I told her she could try to buy one of those band covers that I've seen photos of - sure hope they are available!
