Please tell me what to do about my multiple bands? Split stays, etc.

[disprincess2213]

Im sorry if this has been answered, as I see several posts regarding magic bands lately and them not working. We have never had a problem with our MBs before but this time, it may be different.

We are expecting THREE sets of bands due to split stays. What is your advice to them not getting 'screwed up"? We also have one half of the trip with a dining plan but not the last two. Should I only bring one MB per person and not switch? Do they have to be reactivated each time we change hotels? Is there anything on MDE that I need to do with current or old magic bands to not confuse things ( i see randomly under one of my old MBs from September it says INACTIVE underneath it but not for DH or DD)?

Reading all these horror stories about MBs failing at random times, If there is anything I can do to try and prevent this from happening before we leave, I will do it!!!

 

[jerseyduke]

Do not worry because of multiple bands. I personally have about 10.

keep them separated by person. If they are all the same color, or you do not care about that, bring only one each. If the color is important, bring them all.

They will associate them with the room on check in if needed. When dealing with fast passes, they will all work as long as the band is activated on MDE.

If it were me, I would just bring one per person, but you should be able to rotate them in a three day cycle if you want.

 

[disprincess2213]

Thank you! So even though this will be a 3 split stay, they should all work? All 9 of them? We are a family so it doesn't matter who charges what. If we wanted to change colors during our stay, as long as they are active on MDE, then we shouldn't have a problem using any or all of them for the stay? We have APs by the way if that makes any difference.

Also, this may be a dumb question, but how can I know which are active?

 

[erionm]

So even though this will be a 3 split stay, they should all work? All 9 of them?

All MagicBands that are assigned to an individual can be used interchangeable.

Also, this may be a dumb question, but how can I know which are active?

If you go to the MagicBands & Cards page, any not marked as 'Inactive' or 'Lost' are 'Active'.

 

[carlbarry]

Last year I had a split stay at OKW-BCV-VGF. They mailed me my MB for OKW. When I got to BCV, they gave me a new band. My old band still worked.
When I got to VGF, they gave me yet another band! I never even took it out of the box.
All the "old" bands worked at VGF and for entry to parks.
Don't forget--the MB just links you to the Disney computer; other than your ID number, it has no information. So it makes sense that all bands issued to you would work the same.

 

[bumbershoot]

They are intended to all work interchangeably. It should all work fine.

Any "horror" stories are caused by glitches.


We have had a perfectly fine time with our MBs, and the thing that seems to work just fine is that at checkin you give them ONE band to do whatever with, and it has worked fine. Some CMs think there's more voodoo that needs to be done, but the one band being scanned or whatever has worked perfectly for us. CMs are just making things harder on themselves IMO by thinking more needs to be done.

That said, glitches do happen. And we've had more glitches with getting *charging* to work. My biggest tip for charging is to just set it up at each checkin, even if you don't think you'll want it. If you do want it, use it. If you don't, don't. Every charging problem we have had came from setting up charging AFTER checkin.

 

[luckyman_apd]

You will be fine. Pick one band (unless you are into matching your outfits ) and use it. As long as the band is active in your MDE, then any band will work (as long as it has a working battery...I've heard they can last up to 2 years or so). I've only ever had 1 Magic band problem and that's because I deactived my son's band by mistake. Once I "reactivated" it, it worked just fine.

 

[DVC4US]

As others have posted the bands are interchangeable and all of them should work fine.

We just returned from a trip and I had - 1 band from last Dec, 2 from March, 1 from being an AP holder, and 1 new one for this trip. I used them all at some point during the trip. The one thing I do when I get into the room is use all the bands at least once on the door to make sure they are working properly.

 

[disprincess2213]

You guys are the best!! Thank you all so much!! Im sure we will be just fine!! I am beyond excited (or should I be embarrassed?!) to say we have had/have so any Disney trips that we now have EVERY color offered! I guess we can match outfits if we wanted lollllll!! Thanks again for the info!!

 

[Anal Annie]

We just started planning our first split stay trip for this summer and the only time we have used the magic bands was over MLK weekend last Jan. Hadn't really thought much about the bands until I saw this thread. Will they send us new bands automatically or do we have to order them or do we re-use the ones from last year? If they send them automatically will they send 2 sets? Will we have problems charging or getting into the parks on the day we move if we haven't checked in yet at the 2nd resort?! If we buy something that day does it get charged to the first resort or should we go to resort #2 and check in before we go to the parks?!

I miss the good old days. We went to DL last summer and were so happy to be able to use the old FP system.....

 

[jerseyduke]

We just started planning our first split stay trip for this summer and the only time we have used the magic bands was over MLK weekend last Jan. Hadn't really thought much about the bands until I saw this thread. Will they send us new bands automatically or do we have to order them or do we re-use the ones from last year? If they send them automatically will they send 2 sets? Will we have problems charging or getting into the parks on the day we move if we haven't checked in yet at the 2nd resort?! If we buy something that day does it get charged to the first resort or should we go to resort #2 and check in before we go to the parks?!

I miss the good old days. We went to DL last summer and were so happy to be able to use the old FP system.....

If you are planning a split stay this summer, everyone will get getting 2 new magic bands automatically!

Your old ones will work (provided the battery is good).

One word of advice:

MDE can only handle a certain number of bands per person, 8 to 10 or something like that (I have more than it can handle). Take some older ones, go onto MDE, and "Deactivate" them. Then retire them and put them with souvenirs. (You can reactivate them if you need to).

I also believe you can recycle the new ones if you want when you arrive, just tell the resort to keep them.

 

[kid-at-heart]

Another Magic Band question, once I have used my band and no longer need it, can I deactivate it and give it to my sister to use when she visits? She will be staying off site. Like many of you, I have several from past trips and truly do not need to keep all my bands.

 

[jerseyduke]

Another Magic Band question, once I have used my band and no longer need it, can I deactivate it and give it to my sister to use when she visits? She will be staying off site. Like many of you, I have several from past trips and truly do not need to keep all my bands.

I do not think you can reassign them to another person. Call. I know you can not remove them from a MDE profile, even if they are deactivated.

However, now they sell them! (What a surprise) She can buy a basic one for 10 or 12 dollars.

It gets a little ridiculous, I have 14 bands under my own name, and am getting (at least) 3 more this year, probably 4

 

[carlbarry]

Someone was selling ebay a boxed set of two, both with names (one was "Goofy"), along with the DVC sliders!

 

[DVCPAT]

Im sorry if this has been answered, as I see several posts regarding magic bands lately and them not working. We have never had a problem with our MBs before but this time, it may be different.

We are expecting THREE sets of bands due to split stays. What is your advice to them not getting 'screwed up"? We also have one half of the trip with a dining plan but not the last two. Should I only bring one MB per person and not switch? Do they have to be reactivated each time we change hotels? Is there anything on MDE that I need to do with current or old magic bands to not confuse things ( i see randomly under one of my old MBs from September it says INACTIVE underneath it but not for DH or DD)?

Reading all these horror stories about MBs failing at random times, If there is anything I can do to try and prevent this from happening before we leave, I will do it!!!

Dining credits can cause glitches….make sure your last day of dining credits are transferred to your new bands. Another issue is room change, you can not check into your new room before checking out of your old room. The bands prevent you from having access into two rooms. In the past, I always had good luck checking into my new room early AM…the magic bands eliminate early check in.

 

[lah3hh]

If anyone is interested...you can recycle the bands too. Just deactivate them from MDE and take them to the front desk and turn them in when you check out. I see no need to keep so many sets of MB at my home. I have been told the batteries last roughly 18-24 months but we would have quite a stock pile of them if we did not recycle.