Magic bands with no expiration

[connor2002]

During our last visit at the Fort in the summer of 2012 we purchased a 5 park with water park addition for the trip. Due to bad weather we ran up against the 14 day rule and upgraded to a 10 day no expiration (5 tickets). we used 4 days (i think) and I have a few questions.

1. I want to convert the tickets to magic band with a fort visit in May 2014 (now) prior to going
2. I need a 6 th ticket (band) as my youngest needs a ticket now.
3. I want to book the fort (AAA) now and then some dining a few months from now .
4. I have tried calling after hours and had too long of a wait time so I was hoping to get some info before calling. Maybe Bama Ed or another expert has some input..


Steve

 

[retired and happy]

What exactly is your question?

 

[jbrostek]

I think he is wondering how the tickets will transfer to the magic bands of a future reservation. My guess is it will likely take a trip to the front desk, but I noticed on the "my disney experience" website that shows my reservation for Jan 2014 I can now "add tickets" to magic bands. Though I do not have any tickets to add to the band yet. I know I can get them as part of the reservation, but I make my reservation without the tickets as a package on purpose.

 

[Judique]

During our last visit at the Fort in the summer of 2012 we purchased a 5 park with water park addition for the trip. Due to bad weather we ran up against the 14 day rule and upgraded to a 10 day no expiration (5 tickets). we used 4 days (i think) and I have a few questions.

1. I want to convert the tickets to magic band with a fort visit in May 2014 (now) prior to going
2. I need a 6 th ticket (band) as my youngest needs a ticket now.
3. I want to book the fort (AAA) now and then some dining a few months from now .
4. I have tried calling after hours and had too long of a wait time so I was hoping to get some info before calling. Maybe Bama Ed or another expert has some input..


Steve

1. You are too early. Magic Bands are being tested right now and haven't gone live for all yet.

2. When the time comes and if Magic Bands are a go at that time, you will be able to buy your ticket and have it added to your 'My Disney Experience' and use it through your band.

3. If your days are available, you should do that asap.

4. Calling is good, but you may get many different answers!


I'm on my way to Disney this weekend. I have the magic bands ready to go and my tickets have been added and I've chosen my fastpasses.

 

[mom2pandc]

During our last visit at the Fort in the summer of 2012 we purchased a 5 park with water park addition for the trip. Due to bad weather we ran up against the 14 day rule and upgraded to a 10 day no expiration (5 tickets). we used 4 days (i think) and I have a few questions. 1. I want to convert the tickets to magic band with a fort visit in May 2014 (now) prior to going 2. I need a 6 th ticket (band) as my youngest needs a ticket now. 3. I want to book the fort (AAA) now and then some dining a few months from now . 4. I have tried calling after hours and had too long of a wait time so I was hoping to get some info before calling. Maybe Bama Ed or another expert has some input.. Steve

I think some of your list simply can't be done.

You can book your trip to the fort now.
You could purchase the 6th ticket now if you wanted to.
What you can't do is link your existing ticket or even the 6th one (if you purchase it now) onto a magic band. Magic bands haven't been rolled out that far as of yet since they are still "testing". And only have been released to guests who are around 60 days out or less.

If I were you, I'd book the fort now, book dining when you would like between now and your trip dates, get magic bands if and when they become available, and deal with adding tickets to the magic bands and purchasing the additional ticket upon check in. As of right now, I don't think there is a way to link existing no expiration tickets to magic bands unless there is a ticket number on them.

 

[super_camper]

1. You are too early. Magic Bands are being tested right now and haven't gone live for all yet.

2. When the time comes and if Magic Bands are a go at that time, you will be able to buy your ticket and have it added to your 'My Disney Experience' and use it through your band.

3. If your days are available, you should do that asap.

4. Calling is good, but you may get many different answers!


I'm on my way to Disney this weekend. I have the magic bands ready to go and my tickets have been added and I've chosen my fastpasses.

I don't think they are still in testing. We have a reservation and park tickets and at the 60 day mark customized the bands. Looks like they are generally available.

 

[bama_ed]

Steve,

We had a question similar to your #1 not too long ago. The question was if tickets bought in advance from authorized resellers such as Undercover Tourist, etc could be put on the new magic bands. The answer (which IIRC was provided by Rusty Scupper) was that yes they could but they would have to be taken to the Concierge window (two locations at the Fort - Outpost/Checkin building and next to Hoop Dee Doo) and the CM would mate them. Basically there is a serial number on the ticket that is "loaded" onto the MB. Do your tickets have a serial/id number on each one?

I said your question is similar not the same because you've already used a few days. But as long as you have the original ticket media with the serial number on it, the WDW computer-in-the-sky has kept up with how many days are left on your tickets.

The only problem I foresee is it sounded like you wanted to mate them up before you get to Orlando and I don't know if that's possible (say over the phone). The answer above required an "in person" presence.

Initially other folks have said when MB were getting started that they had problems (that got worked out) using MB with mated tickets. So I would suggest having the old "non-expiration" tickets with you but try to use the MBs. If there's a problem you have them with you (or a photocopy of them or their serial numbers written down etc).

Beyond that I haven't really paid too much attention to the MB, FP+ yet but I will have to learn it before long.

For questions as specific as yours, you may want to pose it on the DIS board named "Theme Park Strategies" or whatever it's called. They seem to be able to answer ticket, MB, FP+ questions over there pretty well.

Good luck if you can get a AAA discount at the Fort next year.

The above is just my two cents....

Bama Ed

 

[CiCiBee]

to piggyback on what Bama Ed said, we just recently bought and received tickets from Undercover Tourist, like a PP said, I was able to go under MDE and add the serial number myself. So it is possible for you to do that. We didn't want to wait to add so that we could make our FP+ reservations before our upcoming trip.

 

[ChrisinNJ]

Steve,

We had a question similar to your #1 not too long ago. The question was if tickets bought in advance from authorized resellers such as Undercover Tourist, etc could be put on the new magic bands. The answer (which IIRC was provided by Rusty Scupper) was that yes they could but they would have to be taken to the Concierge window (two locations at the Fort - Outpost/Checkin building and next to Hoop Dee Doo) and the CM would mate them. Basically there is a serial number on the ticket that is "loaded" onto the MB. Do your tickets have a serial/id number on each one?

I have non expiring tickets from my trip last year. We ought 10 day non expiring and we have 8 days left. I was able to link the tickets to my reservation through MDE by entering the number under the barcode, and linking each ticket to the proper person in my party.

MDE is now properly showing that each ticket has 8 days left on it. I should now be able to use my MBs to enter the park. I will find out for sure in a few days. I was also able to book FP+

I don't know the timeline for linking tickets to reservations. We received a letter and an email about 30 days out asking us to test the new system and directions for how to link the tickets.

 

[bama_ed]

Well, how about that? We DO have our resident experts for Magic Bands on the Camping Board in ChrisInNJ and CiCiBee.

You two ROCK!

Bama Ed

 

[mikek]

MB's are live for every resort stay now (will i think one last resort, bay lake towers maybe, goes live like friday). I have a december stay in the cabins and have my bands all set in MDE, customized with colors and names picked, and waiting for 30 days from checkin to ship to me.

if the tickets have bar codes on them then you can easily set up your account online then use the smartphone app to scan them and assign them to people in your group. That has been working for literally months. I've done it myself with our annual passes. (you can also TYPE in the number on the back of the tickets on the website but that seems buggier at the moment- see below)

that being said- MDE, MB's and FP+ area complete buggy mess at the moment, while it gets better all the time, I'd wait till you are closer to the trip to do anything so nothing needs to get redone, undone, whatever. You can't get FP+ till 60 days from check in. So I'd wait till maybe 90 days and then start fiddling.

there's upmteen threads in other parts of the boards if you want more specifics/info- mostly theme park board i think- with all sorts of other info and people willing to help if you need that.

 

[mikek]

to piggyback on what Bama Ed said, we just recently bought and received tickets from Undercover Tourist, like a PP said, I was able to go under MDE and add the serial number myself. So it is possible for you to do that. We didn't want to wait to add so that we could make our FP+ reservations before our upcoming trip.

head up to others- UT tickets seem to be hit or miss. Old paper ones are fine. New plastic RFID chipped ones seem to be inconsistant from what others are posting elsehwere. Some poor souls seem to need to make several calls and wait weeks on end for the IT department to 'link' them.

We've purchased from UT in the past, but if it were me if i cared about not being hassled I wouldn't buy from them right now. I'd wait till others report all the UT ticket issues are resolved or I would pay for the extra money to get disney tickets- which i believe you can just buy online and link up to your MDE/MB account instantly. If you wouldn't mind having to be patient and make a few phone calls then saving ghe money from UT is always fun!

 

[mikek]

reading the OP again-

just to clarify some things. You dont really link anythign to magic bands.

you create an online profile in "my disney experience" with your name and age. Then to that profile you can add your tickets - but you have to assign the ticket to an individual profile- so me or my wife or my kid, etc.

If you are booking online- set up the profiles for each person in your group beforehand- as when you get the reservation it will ask for who is going.
On the phone they will ask too but then later you go online and type in the reservation number to link it to the guests.

THen at about 60-90 days prior to a stay (right now, some are saying they have trips as late as may that are enabled) they will enable your profile for magic bands. These bands are basically just have a secret encrypted code number that points to your MDE profile. If you have tickets and a reservation in your profile then the Magic band will be able to link to your ticket and reservation (so become your room key).

At 60 days from check in if you have an MDE profile with Tickets linked to it then you can reserve fast pass pluses for your entire stay (well up to 14 days).

After that first trip that magic band will stay linked to your profile and you can reuse it as long as you would like.

hope that answers more questions than it creates.

 

[connor2002]

update

I booked the stay today for June 2014. I requested even sites 606-614. There was no AAA rate. The reservation agent said to call back in a month or two and see if they open up any premium. She did offer a preferred AAA rate today and I declined. The ticket agents could not help me today to validate my "no expiration" upgrade i made in 2012. I set up my profile and tried to enter the tickets (keys) that we had in 2012 and just received a message saying to call. I hope I won't have a problem with the tickets.

 

[connor2002]

I also set my calendar on December 17th to book dining reservations for Father's Day . We want to do a dinner show but are not sure which one.... Aloha or Hoop Dee. Kids are 5, 7, 8, 11....

 

[Born 2 Fish]

I also set my calendar on December 17th to book dining reservations for Father's Day . We want to do a dinner show but are not sure which one.... Aloha or Hoop Dee. Kids are 5, 7, 8, 11....

With kids I'd say Hoop-Dee-Doo.

 

[veraletta]

I went on the Disney website and add 3 AP and my husband old ticket which had 3 days on it, so everyone has tickets or AP added to their Disney Magic Bands that we will be using at Christmas time.

I have to say that once you add tickets, that the website will show like the last 3 tickets we had. It even show my granddaughter old ticket that was lost and even says lost across the ticket and shows the new one.
So it shows that we have been track for a few years.

 

[ChrisinNJ]

Just to update, I had linked my non expiring disney tickets to my MB before arriving at the Fort. We booked FP+ selections. We used our bands to enter the park on 2 days. The bands worked perfectly!!! I used the FP+ and they all worked perfectly as well. I went to guest services on my last day in MK and had my youngest DD's ticket switched to an adult ticket as she turned 10 last week.

My Disney Experience is now showing the appropriate remaining ticket days remaining for everyone in our party, so it looks like it all worked the way it should have!

My friend on the other hand had a lot of trouble with her MBs and went back to guest services a few times to get issues resolved. Along with her regular tickets, she linked her Christmas Party tickets, and linking them both caused the glitches (or so she was told). I called before my trip to ask if the MVMCP tickets should be linked and was told "NO." But nothing in the paperwork or on the MDE site stated that.

So my advice to you is book your dates, set up a MDE account if you don't already have one. When prompted link your tickets and personalize your bands, but don't link any party tickets, just your general admission.

Happy Planning!