Park passes and Magic Bands, Staying Off Site

[VickynMicMouse]

We will be staying Off Site May 2017. I am curious to found out where is the cheapest place to purchase 5 day Park Passes and do they come with Magic Bands or do we have purchase separately? This will be our first time back since the introduction of Magic Bands. Do they still have paper fp in the parks?

 

[Jennasis]

You will have to purchase bands separately. Only onsite guests get them included with their stay.

Paper FP no longer exists. You book your FP through mydisneyexperience.com up to 30 days prior to your trip (for those staying off-site). You will need to log on to the site and create an account.

 

[Lynzer4]

Parksavers seem to be the cheapest place currently to get tickets because they have a 3 day free ticket but with that ... It might not last past 2016.

Undercover Tourist is also a thrid party ticket agent that offers tickets with a savings.

As for magic bands... they are not required for a trip. When you stay onsite you receive magic bands because they are the "key" for your hotel room. You can purchase bands but you don't need to. Your tickets will be a plastic card and you can scan that to get into the park and for Fastpasses. You pick your 3 fastpasses (30 days in advance for offsite guest) on the My Disney Experience website. You can get additional ones via the app while in the park after your use your 3.

There is a great thread all about FP and MDE. I would encourage you to go read it because it will answer a lot of your questions.

Have a great trip!

 

[Alesia]

You will have to purchase bands separately. Only onsite guests get them included with their stay.

Just to clarify this:
You don't have to have magic bands at all - they're not necessary. But if you want them, you'll need to buy them.

 

[VickynMicMouse]

Parksavers seem to be the cheapest place currently to get tickets because they have a 3 day free ticket but with that ... It might not last past 2016.

Undercover Tourist is also a thrid party ticket agent that offers tickets with a savings.

As for magic bands... they are not required for a trip. When you stay onsite you receive magic bands because they are the "key" for your hotel room. You can purchase bands but you don't need to. Your tickets will be a plastic card and you can scan that to get into the park and for Fastpasses. You pick your 3 fastpasses (30 days in advance for offsite guest) on the My Disney Experience website. You can get additional ones via the app while in the park after your use your 3.

There is a great thread all about FP and MDE. I would encourage you to go read it because it will answer a lot of your questions.

Have a great trip!

Thanks so much for the info, I will check out Park savers and the thread you spoke of

 

[kj2mom]

When I priced everything out, I found the Official Ticket Center to be the cheapest for our ticket needs. It can be beneficial to do a comparison on each of the ticket vendors, just be sure you are comparing apples to apples (some sites include the taxes/fees/delivery as part of the initial cost that you see while some don't add those until you begin the checkout process so just be careful with that).

We decided we did want bands so we bought them prior to our trip and linked everything up before arrival. It is easy enough to do once there though so that is up to you. As stated, you don't have to have them but I wanted them, we had the characters on our bands sign them so they are kind of an extra souvenir. Also, we had Memory Maker and the only way to get the ride videos (7DMT, TOT) and some of the photos that have no monitors at the exit (7DMT and FEA come quickly to mind) is to have a magic band. This was also important to me, I absolutely adore the 7DMT videos and watch them randomly here and there!

 

[Leelo]

Undercover tourist is where I always buy my tickets. Sometimes they have a buy 4 days get 1 free which they are offering now.