My experience with Mymagic, fastpass plus and magic bands March 10-14

[hpfan100]

I just came home from the world and wanted to share my experience with the new bands, fastpass and app. I stayed 6 nights total- 2 at AKL and 4 at CSR. I was with my boyfriend and this was his first visit to WDW. We are former DLR annual pass holders and have been there multiple times. I booked all of our trip items through third parties. Tickets were bought through last minute travel and room was booked through cheaptickets. I was able to link all ressies to my disney experience app ahead of time. I was also able to personalize magicbands before our trip again with no issues. We each got 2 bands and both worked throughout the entire trip.

Bands-

Bands worked fine to open rooms and access to club level lounge. Bands worked fine for entrance to parks, magical express and to access fastpass plus. Many of the ear readers were very slow but they did light up correctly. Watching others in fastpass lines it seemed similar for everyone. Bands worked for charging items to room and our ressie for Be Our Guest lunch fastpass. Bands were not very comfortable and I needed to wear mine loose to allow air flow and reduce sweating. Overall, the bands were fine and much nicer than packing keys, paper fastpasses, memory maker card and credit card. It allowed us to have some park days with very light packing.

App-
The app worked well at home when I was setting things up. It was slow but effective. At WDW, I was able to change an early FP+ at DHS from RnR to TSMM with no problems. Later in the week when I tried to change things I had so much more trouble. The app crashed more than 10 times. It made my phone battery die at least 3 times. I could not make changes to rides easily and the ride choices were limited many times. For example, when I tried to make my Jungle Cruise FP+ later I had to try 4 times to move it. When I could get my FP+ moved it did not always show up in the app. I had to go to a FP+ Kiosk twice to make changes/check changes. It took a long time work with the CM and their Ipad. Lines were long for kiosks most of the day before evening times. Overall, I did not like the app and I don't feel it helped me during my trip. It was handy for pre-trip planning.

Fastpass+-
I was able to book FP+ ahead of time for our trip with no problem. I could change them during our trip although it was a hassle at some times.
DHS- we prebooked RnR, GMR and ToT. We had planned to rope drop TSMM once to twice and then head to RnR and to FP+ it later in the morning. Then hit the lesser rides/attractions. Well they didn't let people in until 8:55 am and everyone was running/jogging/speed walking to TSMM so we headed to RnR first instead. We were able to ride it 2 times before the line built up. Then we headed to TSMM for our fastpass. We were able to ride everything else we wanted without the use of fastpass. The lines for RnR and TSMM seemed to build up very fast. I have serious issues with the FP+ at DHS. I can not ride Star Tours (motion sickness) and do not care for ToT so that leaves GMR and either TSMM or RnR for me. Lame....ended up not using 2 of 3 fastpasses at DHS.
AK- I prebooked FP+ for Safari, EE and Kali. We used early entry and headed to DINO and PW first, then EE and Safari. We took a long break and returned in the afternoon. We used our FP+ at EE but decided not to ride Kali since we didn't feel like getting wet. We changed the Safari FP+ to Character meeting. (had to use the kiosk for this) So we ended up using 2/3 FP+ at AK.

EPCOT- we went to early entry here as well. We rode Mission Space , Land boats, Figment, Nemo, Spaceship Earth, Test Track (FP+), toured Seas building and browsed shops all before World Showcase opened. We spent most of the day cruising World Showcase and then took a break. In the evening, we met the characters, rode Maelstrom , and Gran Fiesta tour. We used 1/3 fastpass +.

MK- We went to early entry and rode Dumbo, Space, Small World, Pooh, HM, Pirates without FP+. We had lunch at BoG and then took a long break. We used FP+ on BTMRR, Jungle Cruise and Peter Pan. We also had 3 super FP from attending a DVC tour which we used on BTMRR and meeting Mickey Mouse. We used all FP+ here.


Overall, I was fine with bands in place of KTTW cards. FP+ worked but it did not fit our touring style and ride preferences. If we ever go back to WDW we would buy 2 day tickets with hoppers instead of 4 day no hop tickets. We would go to DHS or EPCOT early and ride either RnR/TSMM/TT and then hop to other parks. FP+ seems to be best used in MK or AK rather than wasting them on lesser attractions/shows at DHS and EPCOT.

 

[Junebugwv]

We were there about 10 days before you were and found the app to be problematic at the parks, too. Thanks for your report.

 

[crostorfer]

We have hoppers. Out of 5 park days I rolled the dice and made 4 out of 5 days of our FP+ reservations for the MK, with the other day at DHS for the RNRR and ToT.

Glad you had a nice trip. Are you considering heading back to Disneyland where they still have regular FP?

 

[hpfan100]

We were there about 10 days before you were and found the app to be problematic at the parks, too. Thanks for your report.

Glad to know it wasn't just me.

We have hoppers. Out of 5 park days I rolled the dice and made 4 out of 5 days of our FP+ reservations for the MK, with the other day at DHS for the RNRR and ToT.

Glad you had a nice trip. Are you considering heading back to Disneyland where they still have regular FP?

That's a good choice. If we had purchased hopppers I would have done the same. With the tiers in place at DHS, we could not get a FP for both RnR and TSMM.

We are planning to return to DLR. In fact we are looking at having our wedding and honeymoon there. A CM at the CSR lounge said the rumor is that bands will be headed to all parks within the next few years. I told him I'll believe it when I see it. DLR is so much easier for us to get to so it's our preferred location.

 

[missnic]

We were there on Friday, and I could not get the app to work. At all. We have APs, so I set up my FPs a week or so ago. Of course, I couldn't remember which ones/what times. No biggie, just look at the app, right? Nope. I kept getting an error message for everything I tried to do - FP, dining res, wait times.. I've never had a problem with it in the parks until this trip - it worked great for 2 trips in January.

 

[JennyMP03]

Hate to hear that about the app. I had no problems with it all in September.

 

[Csaks]

We were there on Friday, and I could not get the app to work. At all. We have APs, so I set up my FPs a week or so ago. Of course, I couldn't remember which ones/what times. No biggie, just look at the app, right? Nope. I kept getting an error message for everything I tried to do - FP, dining res, wait times.. I've never had a problem with it in the parks until this trip - it worked great for 2 trips in January.

Could it be because of March break volume?

 

[MaryKatesMom]

Someone on another thread suggested taking a screen shot of the FP+ so you don't have to access the app unless you want to make changes.

 

[dorchrislen]

I'm "old school", so after I make my FP+ ressies, I plan to write them into my touring plan, which I'll print and take with me on paper. That way, unless I have to modify those days, I'll remember. Nothing wrong with good 'ole paper and pen.

 

[mlittig]

Nice review

 

[missnic]

Could it be because of March break volume?

Yeah, I'm thinking it may have been due to an increased volume of users.

 

[diane1432]

I was there with my two sons (9 & 13) during this same time (March 10-14) and I have the identical feedback. I did all planning from home and loved the app for that purpose but when we arrived at the parks I found it to be very glitchy. I had trouble moving FP's around and could not make dining reservations due to constant error messages. I also had an issue the first day where my all my FP's for the week displayed that they were for 2 people instead of 3. I had to wait on a long FP+ line to get it sorted out. Turns out the system still had them as 3 but the CM said the app is sometimes "glitchy". I'll say. I also was a bit annoyed that even with a FP we waited almost an hour for RnR and I found the wait times for anything where you did not have a FP to be extreme (never did get on Toy Story Mania due to 75 min wait time). I just don't like to spend my vacation waiting on lines and if we didn't have a FP, we found other fun things to do instead. I loved the convenience of the Magic Bands and feel OP has pretty much nailed the overview of the entire experience.

 

[2Tiggies]

I'm "old school", so after I make my FP+ ressies, I plan to write them into my touring plan, which I'll print and take with me on paper. That way, unless I have to modify those days, I'll remember. Nothing wrong with good 'ole paper and pen.

I actually like my tech gadgets, but when it comes to Disney, you're right. Good ol paper never crashes. I'll take screen shots of mine too but it won't help much at 9 pm if the battery is dead.

 

[Mrs K]

We were there at the same time. I liked the bands for opening the room door and getting into the parks, but they are awkward and mine fell off one day and I didn't feel it. It was easy to get a replacement but I list my customized pink one. We were at the BC and I wonder if the snap things stretched out in the hot tub. I found that the app really drained my phone battery too! Ended up with a dead phone twice. I didn't like FP+ because it limits you to one park per day. I hope that changes.

 

[Nicki87]

I was there from March 8 - 14th and had no problems with the app. It always worked when I checked it in the parks. My biggest complaint would be that you can only make fastpasses for one park a day.

 

[hpfan100]

Someone on another thread suggested taking a screen shot of the FP+ so you don't have to access the app unless you want to make changes.

I had screenshots but I wasn't able to make changes to reservations.

 

[hpfan100]

I'm "old school", so after I make my FP+ ressies, I plan to write them into my touring plan, which I'll print and take with me on paper. That way, unless I have to modify those days, I'll remember. Nothing wrong with good 'ole paper and pen.

I did that too. Which was very helpful for me.

 

[hpfan100]

I was there with my two sons (9 & 13) during this same time (March 10-14) and I have the identical feedback. I did all planning from home and loved the app for that purpose but when we arrived at the parks I found it to be very glitchy. I had trouble moving FP's around and could not make dining reservations due to constant error messages. I also had an issue the first day where my all my FP's for the week displayed that they were for 2 people instead of 3. I had to wait on a long FP+ line to get it sorted out. Turns out the system still had them as 3 but the CM said the app is sometimes "glitchy". I'll say. I also was a bit annoyed that even with a FP we waited almost an hour for RnR and I found the wait times for anything where you did not have a FP to be extreme (never did get on Toy Story Mania due to 75 min wait time). I just don't like to spend my vacation waiting on lines and if we didn't have a FP, we found other fun things to do instead. I loved the convenience of the Magic Bands and feel OP has pretty much nailed the overview of the entire experience.

Totally agree... We won't be back for some time.

 

[MermaidMommy]

I was there from March 4-14, and I found the app to be almost completely unusable. Either it wasn't working at all, or it would drop someone off the account, or all our reservations would disappear, and so on. Easily couldn't use it at all over half the time. It made it impossible to change or cancel ADR's or FP's, so we started logging onto the website instead. It made for a very frustrating experience.

 

[wuzzy6]

I'm about to post my own review, but I wanted to comment on yours as well. We were there 3/14-17 (4D/3N) and the app worked beautifully for everything except making dining reservations. Every time we tried to add a new dining reservation, it would error out, even though there was a table available. We had to log in to our account via the laptop in order to make the reservations. While it wasn't a HUGE deal, it was not very convenient. We were able to change FP+ times with no problem - although, some of the times were not optimal. Additionally, we found the wait times to be mildly inaccurate, which was not a huge deal, either. For the most part, I liked the app and MB. Will review my experiences in another thread.