Magic Bands were a magical pain this trip.

JB212

Earning My Ears
Joined
Jul 27, 2013
Messages
65
We just returned from a 4 day trip and encountered seriously frustrating Magic Band issues.
We had military salute tickets, which are a paper ticket certificate you redeem at the ticket counter with your military ID. They give you a hard ticket card or activate the ticket on your magic band. We activated at the HS ticket counter, and we purchased the military discount memory maker then as well.
We went to enter the park and my oldest daughters band lit blue. Someone came and walked her and I to guest relations. She did not have an active ticket on her band. I explained we had JUST activated it. They wanted to know where the paper ticket was now. It was with the ticket counter lady, she kept them. I was starting to worry as we waited, thinking I had no real way to prove she had a ticket. They took our word for it and gave us a multiexperience fast pass since we completely missed rope drop. So we finally get in to the park and our first fastpass was at 9:10am. Except my husbands band now has no Fastpasses attached. So back to Guest Relations we go. Somehow he had split to 2 accounts. They fixed that and we rolled on. Until the app showed I hadn’t purchased memory maker. Third time to guest relations. This took about 30 minutes as the lady had to call tech support because she couldn’t fix the problem. I found the receipt in the bag to prove I had purchased it to begin with. But it was never activated to the band and I wasn’t given a card. We moved to Epcot where my sons band lit blue. Someone came over and messed around on the iPad, took his picture, and let us in.
Next day I get a text from our resort saying there was a problem with the charging feature on our Magic bands and we might not be able to make purchases. I explained all the issues we’d been having and the person asked if the issues had been resolved. Yes. But at that point I kinda wanted to just take the band off and fling it into the Jungle Cruise water or something. Every time we scanned for the rest of the trip I cringed waiting for something to not work.
I think most of the issues stemmed from the ticket counter lady at HS. She missed activating one ticket and did nothing for the memory maker other than take my payment. I remember her name, do you think if I wrote an email that she would maybe be offered some obviously needed extra training? Tech issues normally don’t bother me but I’ve never ever been to guest relations before much less talked to FIVE different guest relations people in 24 hours.
 
We just returned from a 4 day trip and encountered seriously frustrating Magic Band issues.
We had military salute tickets, which are a paper ticket certificate you redeem at the ticket counter with your military ID. They give you a hard ticket card or activate the ticket on your magic band. We activated at the HS ticket counter, and we purchased the military discount memory maker then as well.
We went to enter the park and my oldest daughters band lit blue. Someone came and walked her and I to guest relations. She did not have an active ticket on her band. I explained we had JUST activated it. They wanted to know where the paper ticket was now. It was with the ticket counter lady, she kept them. I was starting to worry as we waited, thinking I had no real way to prove she had a ticket. They took our word for it and gave us a multiexperience fast pass since we completely missed rope drop. So we finally get in to the park and our first fastpass was at 9:10am. Except my husbands band now has no Fastpasses attached. So back to Guest Relations we go. Somehow he had split to 2 accounts. They fixed that and we rolled on. Until the app showed I hadn’t purchased memory maker. Third time to guest relations. This took about 30 minutes as the lady had to call tech support because she couldn’t fix the problem. I found the receipt in the bag to prove I had purchased it to begin with. But it was never activated to the band and I wasn’t given a card. We moved to Epcot where my sons band lit blue. Someone came over and messed around on the iPad, took his picture, and let us in.
Next day I get a text from our resort saying there was a problem with the charging feature on our Magic bands and we might not be able to make purchases. I explained all the issues we’d been having and the person asked if the issues had been resolved. Yes. But at that point I kinda wanted to just take the band off and fling it into the Jungle Cruise water or something. Every time we scanned for the rest of the trip I cringed waiting for something to not work.
I think most of the issues stemmed from the ticket counter lady at HS. She missed activating one ticket and did nothing for the memory maker other than take my payment. I remember her name, do you think if I wrote an email that she would maybe be offered some obviously needed extra training? Tech issues normally don’t bother me but I’ve never ever been to guest relations before much less talked to FIVE different guest relations people in 24 hours.

Yes, I think it’s entirely reasonable to send an email politely reporting the issues you had. It obviously was caused by tickets/FPs/MM not being properly linked to your MDE account.
 

Wow @JB212, I'm so sorry you went through all this...obviously not the first day you and your family were hoping for! Sending that email is probably a good idea.

I hope that the rest of your trip is so magical that it makes up for the first day! :)
 
We had multiple issues with my FIL's ticket at Thanksgiving. We had Military Salute tickets (which you can load into MDE yourself and they will then link to your MBs--when it works). Even though I know they're in MDE, we still always check at Guest Services the night before our first park day to ensure everything is working properly. His MB was not showing any ticket/FP information (at this point, I could still see it all in MDE). Guest Services corrected that. That day, his MB scanned blue at all of our FPs (although the CMs let him go ahead with the rest of us). The next day, all his FPs disappeared off MDE. So, we went to Guest Services, who added them back into his profile. Then, I wasn't able to re-link his ticket in MDE in order to make/modify our FPs. I could at least SEE it, but I just couldn't do anything with his ticket or FPs. We actually bought him a new MB just in case his older one was malfunctioning.

Thankfully, they did not take the original tickets from us and we just ended up carrying them the entire trip.

So, what is the solution in cases like this? Is the solution to get a hard ticket/card? If the MB isn't linking to MDE, will a card properly link instead?
 
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It also sounds as if your husband may ha
So, what is the solution in cases like this? Is the solution to get a hard ticket/card?
In cases such as yours, it’s a system error based on the Military ticket and how it isn’t correctly recognized by the system.

A ticket card or a new MB isn’t the solution. IT has to improve the Military ticket link within the MDX system.
 


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