Multiple consecutive DVC reservations and Magic Band confusion

[pxlbarrel]

I have reservations at a few DVC resorts over the Christmas holidays. BWV, AKV then AKV (club) and then BWV again. It's about 3 weeks with a 3 night cruise stuck in their for good measure.

So this looks like a mishmash 4 reservations on MDE. I'm wondering how making dining reservations is going to be possible if they're all different resort reservations? Is there any way they can be considered one big reservation instead of 4 separate ones?

And to make it even more complicated, I bought an Annual Pass when they were cheap for DVC members ... but it's not activated yet.

So .. is there any way, those 4 reservations can be put on the same Magic Band by doing it online or is it better to call them? (Or can't it be done at all?) If I go by what the site is telling me, I"ll end up with 4 Magic Bands!!

And while the Annual Pass is being recognized as being mine, I can't link it to a Magic Band because it's not activated ... do I need to call that in too?

And finally... 3 of us were given Magic Bands last year when we went ... but I want new ones this time because I can't be sure the batteries are still good and quite frankly, I don't want to pack them (We're in Canada so we would pick them up at the resort). Do I just deactivate the ones that are currently in the MDE?

I've been going in circles on the MDE site ...

 

[erionm]

So .. is there any way, those 4 reservations can be put on the same Magic Band by doing it online or is it better to call them? (Or can't it be done at all?) If I go by what the site is telling me, I"ll end up with 4 Magic Bands!!

Nothing is stored on the MagicBands except for a unique id number. Everything (Room Reservations, Park Admission, FP+ Selections, MagicBands, etc.) is linked to MDE profiles. The MagicBand is just a key to reading the data stored on your MDE profile. All MagicBands assigned to an individual can be used interchangeably.

 

[kruegeme]

You will only be able to book dining as you hit the 180 day window on each reservation. They don't treat these as one single reservation. Just ran into this for two reservations we have for Christmas week.

You will need to associate your Annual Pass coupon with your MDE account. Stop by Guest Services before going into the park as they have to activate your annual pass as well as give you a card to carry around in order to get your AP discounts. You should be able to associate this to your account now. We did this prior to our trip in June and were able to see FP+ options 30 days out. If you can't get it to associate the account, you will want to call.

Also, you will get a Magic Band for each reservation so you'll have lots of extras. If you don't want your older bands, there is a number on the back of them that you can use to identify which band to delete from your MDE account.

 

[drusba]

1. Any Magic Bands will work with all your room and other reservations as long as the reservations are in your MDE account. You can get a set of new MBs for each reservation you have. The ones you have now should work in December since the expected battery life in them is 2 to 3 years. If you leave them home, you can deactivate them but that is not necessary for any purpose relating to your trip; your new MBs will work regardless of whether the old ones are active.

2. You can make dining reservations for your earliest reservation 180 days out from its date of arrival, then for the second one 180 days out from its first date, etc.

3. If not already done, you need to get your APs into your MDE account and you can do that by setting the passes up in your account using the confirmation number.

4. After the APs are connected to the account via the confirmation number, you will be able to make FP+ selections 60 days out for each reservation you have from the particular arrival date for each such reservation.

5. When you get to WDW, you will need to get your actual APs at guest services or the ticket booths at the parks. You will get a plastic card for each AP . When you get them have the person giving them to you attach them to your MDE account or have that done at the desk when you return to the resort. Once that is done all your MBs will be usable for park entry.

6. For any AP discounts or DVC discounts you can get at stores or restaurants, you will need to show your AP plastic card or your DVC member card so carry those with you.

 

[runmommyrun]

You will have more MagicBands than you know what to do with. I'm starting to get annoyed with that. I wish they gave you an option NOT to get new bands if you already have some. It is too much to try to keep track. We have APs and have stayed at four different hotels over the last year. That's five bands PER PERSON. And we have two more coming up in the fall. I have a huge box of them for my family. They will all work, but I was told at the last hotel that they had to "activate" all the bands if we wanted to switch bands during the day. That lead to me pulling out a huge box of bands and activating 20 bands for four of us. Not sure how that is efficient. (Although it is not like I was forced to activate all of those).

 

[ali in wonderland]

Once you link your AP confirm to your MDE account, you can get AP magic bands. One magic band will work for the whole year, and each reservation will be linked to it. You don't even need to order the resort bands. We went in May. I had ordered our resort bands before I knew about the AP bands. Then I ordered AP bands and CS told me not to order the bands for my reservations in July. The AP bands will work. Also once you link your APs to your MDE account you will have the 60 days FP+ booking window.

 

[ali in wonderland]

You will have more MagicBands than you know what to do with. I'm starting to get annoyed with that. I wish they gave you an option NOT to get new bands if you already have some. It is too much to try to keep track. We have APs and have stayed at four different hotels over the last year. That's five bands PER PERSON. And we have two more coming up in the fall. I have a huge box of them for my family. They will all work, but I was told at the last hotel that they had to "activate" all the bands if we wanted to switch bands during the day. That lead to me pulling out a huge box of bands and activating 20 bands for four of us. Not sure how that is efficient. (Although it is not like I was forced to activate all of those).

You can get AP bands and not order the resort bands. The AP bands will be active the whole year if the AP.

 

[MouseMomx2]

Also, you will get a Magic Band for each reservation so you'll have lots of extras. If you don't want your older bands, there is a number on the back of them that you can use to identify which band to delete from your MDE account.

You will have more MagicBands than you know what to do with. I'm starting to get annoyed with that. I wish they gave you an option NOT to get new bands if you already have some. .

If you don't want a set of MBs all you have to do is ignore the order in your MDE account. If they are not personalized they will not be shipped out. When you arrive at the resort the CM will offer you plain, gray bands. Simply tell him/her that you don't need them. Since they will never have been linked to your profiles they can be used for someone else.

We now have every color if MB so we do the above. All of our MBs work interchangeably for anything linked to our MDE profiles.

 

[runmommyrun]

If you don't want a set of MBs all you have to do is ignore the order in your MDE account. If they are not personalized they will not be shipped out. When you arrive at the resort the CM will offer you plain, gray bands. Simply tell him/her that you don't need them. Since they will never have been linked to your profiles they can be used for someone else. We now have every color if MB so we do the above. All of our MBs work interchangeably for anything linked to our MDE profiles.

I didn't know that! I thought they sent them to you regardless if you personalized them. I'll do that for the next trip. We actually have 28 of them total. More than we need!! Thanks for the tip!!!!

 

[n2mm]

We tried to ignore the order and when we got to the resort we had a box of gray ones waiting. The cm made us take them. Even though we didn't customize them online they still had our names on them. We are glad we did because during that trip my granddaughter broke the pins off of her band by opening and closing constantly ( it bugged her she said). Then after she started wearing the gray one she lost it on a ride. I say you can never have enough. The yellow one gets dirty fast. Between us and other family we probably have 30 or more. That includes passholder ones too. I do wish they would do a black one though. I color coordinate my bands to my outfits now. We keep them hooked like Christmas garland

 

[bumbershoot]

OP, it's not as complicated as you think it is. First, just don't OK your address or customize them if you really don't want them. Second, the ones you have will still work; their batteries are supposed to be good for 2 or 3 years. Third, any of them will access your resort information and doors.

Caveat: unless there's a glitch. If there's a glitch, something will go wrong. But they can't do anything to prevent a glitch. That's the nature of glitches. (must stop saying "glitch" now...)

But if everything goes nicely, all MBs will open the door of your current resort, etc etc.

They will all work, but I was told at the last hotel that they had to "activate" all the bands if we wanted to switch bands during the day. That lead to me pulling out a huge box of bands and activating 20 bands for four of us. Not sure how that is efficient. (Although it is not like I was forced to activate all of those).

That's that CM's understanding. It's not true. We had 4 consecutive reservations in January, happily ordered all the MBs (I want one in every color), brought them all plus the ones from October, and they all worked interchangeably and without any voodoo (like "activating" them individually at the front desk) involved. We only ever needed to present ONE at checkin (not one per person, but ONE) and I just pulled a random one from my bag, and it was all good.

If you don't want a set of MBs all you have to do is ignore the order in your MDE account. If they are not personalized they will not be shipped out. When you arrive at the resort the CM will offer you plain, gray bands. Simply tell him/her that you don't need them. Since they will never have been linked to your profiles they can be used for someone else.

We now have every color if MB so we do the above. All of our MBs work interchangeably for anything linked to our MDE profiles.

We tried to ignore the order and when we got to the resort we had a box of gray ones waiting. The cm made us take them. Even though we didn't customize them online they still had our names on them.

That sounds like someone customized them, that they had names on them.

If I were in your shoes and truly did not want them, the CM could not have superglued them to my hands and made me walk out. I would have simply left them.

But they had names on them which sounds like they had already been linked, which seems like someone customized them.

 

[JoeA]

OP, it's not as complicated as you think it is. First, just don't OK your address or customize them if you really don't want them. Second, the ones you have will still work; their batteries are supposed to be good for 2 or 3 years. Third, any of them will access your resort information and doors. Caveat: unless there's a glitch. If there's a glitch, something will go wrong. But they can't do anything to prevent a glitch. That's the nature of glitches. (must stop saying "glitch" now...) But if everything goes nicely, all MBs will open the door of your current resort, etc etc. That's that CM's understanding. It's not true. We had 4 consecutive reservations in January, happily ordered all the MBs (I want one in every color), brought them all plus the ones from October, and they all worked interchangeably and without any voodoo (like "activating" them individually at the front desk) involved. We only ever needed to present ONE at checkin (not one per person, but ONE) and I just pulled a random one from my bag, and it was all good. That sounds like someone customized them, that they had names on them. If I were in your shoes and truly did not want them, the CM could not have superglued them to my hands and made me walk out. I would have simply left them. But they had names on them which sounds like they had already been linked, which seems like someone customized them.

You don't have to customize them to get your name. Only if you want a "custom" name. Otherwise they'll push the name on the res and give you grey.

Wife and I had a split stay in May and I ignored the emails to customize since we each had two from our precious trip in Dec. When we showed up at the resort(s) there was a box waiting with grey bands and our names on them.

Had I thought about it I could have gotten bands in different colors I guess!

 

[n2mm]

You don't have to customize them to get your name. Only if you want a "custom" name. Otherwise they'll push the name on the res and give you grey. Wife and I had a split stay in May and I ignored the emails to customize since we each had two from our precious trip in Dec. When we showed up at the resort(s) there was a box waiting with grey bands and our names on them. Had I thought about it I could have gotten bands in different colors I guess!

Yep just like us. They pull the names from the reservation. You only have to customize if you want a nickname or different color. No one ever customized our gray order we actually ignored it and thought it would not be processed but it was.

 

[pxlbarrel]

We don't want grey so I guess I'll have to customize. Only I have an annual pass so the rest of them will end up with gazillion Magic Bands. We'd gladly take a discount and only 1 magic band, eh?

OK... I'm still not sure how it works but I think I don't really have to worry until November. LOL I'll just do my ADR's on Thursday and hope for the best. It's a bummer that I can't do the entire stay and only one resort reservation at a time. It'll make things a bit harder to get. Ah well....I'm spending 3 weeks onsite ... I can't get too sad about that.

Maybe it's just me that finds it a tad confusing and maybe because I'm used to the old way of doing things but how are newbies finding the system???

Oh...had to add ... it looks like MDE already has the annual pass linked to me. It's showing up there as being assigned to me.

 

[kruegeme]

It does seem more challenging to do all of this online as we were also spoiled by using member services for all these reservations. It seems that with MDE they've closed down most of the loopholes like booking across multiple reservations.

We used MDE for a last minute trip for Star Wars Weekend and were really happy with it. It was stressful getting all the ADR's and FP + reservations but once we got them booked life was good. It would have been easier if we could have done both sets at the same time so we didn't have to keep moving things around. Should be interesting for our Christmas trip as I don't want to give up any of my ADRs for FP + as we probably won't have any other options.

Even though the AP is associated with your account, you'll still need to stop by Guest Services. We had the same thing and they had to activate the AP and give us our card for discounts.

Enjoy....

 

[drusba]

Maybe it's just me that finds it a tad confusing and maybe because I'm used to the old way of doing things but how are newbies finding the system???

Oh...had to add ... it looks like MDE already has the annual pass linked to me. It's showing up there as being assigned to me.

How can you possibly find it confusing and wish for the old days? In the old days I had to dial a phone, wait for an answer, then make the room reservation and provide those going, order tickets, and then had to make ten days of restaurant reservations in sequence over the phone. Under that old way, it usually took an excruciating ten minutes to complete all those steps. Now with computers in control I have come into the 21st century with all the modern systems that speed up everything and are obviously simple to understand and as a result it has never taken me more than 15 1/2 hours to complete all those same steps on line.

 

[DebbieB]

I've managed to collect every color except orange and grey. It's good to have extras in case you lose them or the battery dies, plus you can color coordinate. I was there last month and ended up using the pink one from my November BWV trip the whole time. It worked with no problem at VGF and WL. Did not scan it at check-in.

 

[pxlbarrel]

How can you possibly find it confusing and wish for the old days? In the old days I had to dial a phone, wait for an answer, then make the room reservation and provide those going, order tickets, and then had to make ten days of restaurant reservations in sequence over the phone. Under that old way, it usually took an excruciating ten minutes to complete all those steps. Now with computers in control I have come into the 21st century with all the modern systems that speed up everything and are obviously simple to understand and as a result it has never taken me more than 15 1/2 hours to complete all those same steps on line.

I didn't find it confusing last year when I had ONE resort reservation and none of us had Magic Bands and we all had a regular park ticket. NOw, this year, I have 4 consecutive resort reservations, 3 with regular park tickets, 1 annual pass and apparently a Magic Band at each place. It's taking a heck of a lot more time to set up than last year's ONE Resort. In the "old" days, I made reservations online and it didn't take more than a few seconds to do it ...

 

[MichiganDVC]

As for having multiple reservations during your stay, if you called Disney a CM will most likely be able to recognize that you do have several reservations in a row and will make reservations for you with the 180+10 with that in mind. The computer will not.

 

[CraftyMouse]

As for having multiple reservations during your stay, if you called Disney a CM will most likely be able to recognize that you do have several reservations in a row and will make reservations for you with the 180+10 with that in mind. The computer will not.

The CMs will not be able to do this. We had a similar scenario on our last trip and had to make each set of dining reservations separately. Neither the online system nor the phone CMs were able to book beyond the window for each separate resort reservation.