Resort Check In and MB Questions

[PSUGuy]

Wifey and I arrive at Board Walk on Nov 2, daughters on the 4th, we're all on the reservation and I did online check in already. All the Magic Bands came to my house so we'll have them with us and what I'd like to do is activate ours and theirs when we arrive by using them to open our door, that's all that's required, right? If we do that then when our daughters drive up their plastic tickets should be active and will open the gate without bothering with the booth, correct? Since I did the online thing they won't have to stop at the desk, they'll be good to go, i'm thinking. Is any or all of this true?

Bill From PA

 

[Lynne M]

Nothing needs to be done to activate the magic bands. I'm not sure what you mean by plastic tickets?

Doing online check-in doesn't necessarily mean you don't need to stop at the desk. Some guests get a message with their room number on their arrival day, which allows them to bypass the desk and go straight to their room. Some don't.

 

[PSUGuy]

Nothing needs to be done to activate the magic bands. I'm not sure what you mean by plastic tickets?

Doing online check-in doesn't necessarily mean you don't need to stop at the desk. Some guests get a message with their room number on their arrival day, which allows them to bypass the desk and go straight to their room. Some don't.

I was informed on the DIS board that Magic Bands won't open the parking lot gate on arrival until we use them at least once on our room door, perhaps that info was wrong. All of us bought our park hoppers from UT so we have physical, plastic tickets in addition to the Magic Bands. My thought was, wifey and I check in, use everyone's MB to activate them, if needed, so that when the girls arrive their plastic tickets will open the parking lot gate.

Bill From PA

 

[DisneyHardin]

We were at Disney this past week and I didn't notice any kind of automatic scanner at the resort gates - the attendant had a hand held scanner that he was using on peoples bands.

 

[PSUGuy]

We were at Disney this past week and I didn't notice any kind of automatic scanner at the resort gates - the attendant had a hand held scanner that he was using on peoples bands.

At least the Board Walk has 2 lanes entering the resort each with it's own gate. There's a tap sensor on the right hand lane where you just tap your band and the gate goes up. That lane is usually not used while most folks wait in the left lane by the booth.

Bill From PA

 

[DisneyHardin]

At least the Board Walk has 2 lanes entering the resort each with it's own gate. There's a tap sensor on the right hand lane where you just tap your band and the gate goes up. That lane is usually not used while most folks wait in the left lane by the booth.

Bill From PA

Thanks. We didn't go to the Boardwalk. At the Poly they did not have any auto scanners.

 

[Wood Nymph]

Wifey and I arrive at Board Walk on Nov 2, daughters on the 4th, we're all on the reservation and I did online check in already. All the Magic Bands came to my house so we'll have them with us and what I'd like to do is activate ours and theirs when we arrive by using them to open our door, that's all that's required, right? If we do that then when our daughters drive up their plastic tickets should be active and will open the gate without bothering with the booth, correct? Since I did the online thing they won't have to stop at the desk, they'll be good to go, i'm thinking. Is any or all of this true?

Bill From PA

I was informed on the DIS board that Magic Bands won't open the parking lot gate on arrival until we use them at least once on our room door, perhaps that info was wrong. All of us bought our park hoppers from UT so we have physical, plastic tickets in addition to the Magic Bands. My thought was, wifey and I check in, use everyone's MB to activate them, if needed, so that when the girls arrive their plastic tickets will open the parking lot gate.

All of the MagicBands on a room reservation should work to open a resort room door without being "activated" -( although sometimes there is a glitch that needs fixing.) That is why people who do online check in can walk straight to their resort room when they enter the building.

I am not sure that I am understanding your thinking here. If you've heard that a MagicBand needs to be physically activated in order to open the parking lot gate then wouldn't a park ticket also need to be physically activated to open the gate? And I'm not sure a park ticket would work for getting access to a resort parking lot.

 

[TIS Grandma]

All of us bought our park hoppers from UT so we have physical, plastic tickets in addition to the Magic Bands.

You know you can link tickets from UT to your bands? No need for plastic tickets.

 

[Darbie]

I was informed on the DIS board that Magic Bands won't open the parking lot gate on arrival until we use them at least once on our room door, perhaps that info was wrong. All of us bought our park hoppers from UT so we have physical, plastic tickets in addition to the Magic Bands. My thought was, wifey and I check in, use everyone's MB to activate them, if needed, so that when the girls arrive their plastic tickets will open the parking lot gate.

Bill From PA

If those tickets are linked to MDE, all you need is the Magic Bands. Magic Bands are your room key, your park ticket and how you charge back to the room if you choose that option.

 

[Lynne M]

I was informed on the DIS board that Magic Bands won't open the parking lot gate on arrival until we use them at least once on our room door, perhaps that info was wrong. All of us bought our park hoppers from UT so we have physical, plastic tickets in addition to the Magic Bands. My thought was, wifey and I check in, use everyone's MB to activate them, if needed, so that when the girls arrive their plastic tickets will open the parking lot gate.

Bill From PA

Those plastic cards you get from UT are just park tickets. They won't open resort room doors or parking lot gates or pool gates. You can link them to your MDE account in the MDE app, but that doesn't transfer any resort reservation info to the park tickets.

The magic band just identifies the wearer as being linked with a certain MDE account. There's nothing stored on it but a code that references an MDE account on Disney's servers. When you scan the band at your resort room door, or the parking lot gate, or at a park turnstile, or at a pool, the system doing the scanning reads the code, and asks MDE if the account associated with that code has a resort reservation, a valid park ticket, etc.

You still have a few weeks...is it possible for you to ship your daughters' magic bands to them? Even if you can't, the stop at the guard shack only takes a minute. You drive up, tell them you're checking in, they look it up and confirm, and let you in.

 

[tjmw2727]

Your dd's can just pull up to the guard gate and give their name to the CM for access to the boardwalk, my kids and my sister arrive after I do often. If you aren't going to be there when they arrive you could arrange to leave the bands with the front desk for them.

You shouldn't need to use everyone's band to open the door first but we do just to make sure they work. I have read that sometimes a band that hasn't been used to open the door won't open a pool gate but that isn't my personal experience. We also individually make a small purchase at the resort to be sure the charging privileges are working.

Your MB is the key to your MDE so it can access the room, room charging park ticket and more. It sounds to me like you think your park tickets act that way as well and this isn't the case, your park ticket will get you into the park and access to FP+ and that's it.

 

[PSUGuy]

Thanks for the replies. Didn't know the plastic didn't open the door, we've been exclusively using MBs since they came into being. No big deal, just trying to minimize the hassle when the girls arrive.

Bill From PA

 

[Allison]

Thanks for the replies. Didn't know the plastic didn't open the door, we've been exclusively using MBs since they came into being. No big deal, just trying to minimize the hassle when the girls arrive.

Bill From PA

You are thinking of the plastic resort room key cards which are different than the tickets you bought from UT.

 

[bumbershoot]

Doing online check-in doesn't necessarily mean you don't need to stop at the desk. Some guests get a message with their room number on their arrival day, which allows them to bypass the desk and go straight to their room. Some don't.

So true. I've never been able to go straight to my room like many do.

I was informed on the DIS board that Magic Bands won't open the parking lot gate on arrival until we use them at least once on our room door, perhaps that info was wrong.

Some people have that experience. Some haven't. I'm a "haven't".

Even if you can't, the stop at the guard shack only takes a minute. You drive up, tell them you're checking in, they look it up and confirm, and let you in.

Your dd's can just pull up to the guard gate and give their name to the CM for access to the boardwalk

Yep. Easy. They will need one person's ID, though. So have that out and it's easy.