Staying off-site...magic bands question

[deedisneydream97]

I'll be staying off-site for a late summer trip. I have a premium A/P. I'll be getting park hopper passes for the other two guests through my AAA discount. Since I have not stayed off property in many, many years....and with the additional confusion of magic bands, my question is: how do I go about getting magic bands for my two guests? I am assuming that I can use the magic band from another trip I'll be taking a few weeks before this one. Do they need to purchase one? Or can they use whatever ticket media I get from AAA? I am hoping I can input the AAA ticket information ahead of time to get fast pass and all that. I am realizing how very spoiled and lucky I am to be a DVC member....things are so much easier. This off-site stay will be a learning experience for me.

 

[ziravan]

You can buy bands at Disney, but the IR ticket cards you get from AAA will work just fine.

Since you're going in between now and then, you can look at bands while you're there, but they shouldn't be necessary.

Your bands should work fine. At least one set of your bands should be AP bands, but I'm pretty sure that shouldn't matter.

 

[deedisneydream97]

Okay....so, if you have a AAA ticket you are not REQUIRED to turn it into a magic band? I'm delighted that we won't have to pay for parking anywhere because of my AP. For some reason, I thought you could only book Fast Pass if you had a magic band. I suppose I should go ahead and get my discount tickets from AAA and go from there. BTW...they have a pretty good discount without all the stress.

 

[ziravan]

Correct. They can use the park tickets both at the park and the ticket confirmation to book fast passes. You do not need a magic band to use FP+.

 

[Eeyore's My Favorite]

They will need to turn their AAA vouchers in at guest services in order to get their actual ticket. They can, however link the voucher number on MDE to make FPs prior to the trip.

 

[CMNJ]

They will need to turn their AAA vouchers in at guest services in order to get their actual ticket. They can, however link the voucher number on MDE to make FPs prior to the trip.

AAA gives active plastic Tickets right at the local offices when you buy them-there is no voucher or need to exchange anything. You can easily add them to your MDE account after purchase to make Fast pass + at 30 days for off site guests.

 

[Eeyore's My Favorite]

AAA gives you a plastic voucher here in Florida not an active RFID Disney ticket. Just did it for my APs. But you can add the voucher to MDE to make fast passes.

 

[deedisneydream97]

Thank you all so much for the information. Yikes...I wonder if anything will be left at the 30 day mark. Not a busy time of year, so I'll keep my fingers crossed. Thanks again.

 

[erionm]

AAA gives you a plastic voucher here in Florida not an active RFID Disney ticket. Just did it for my APs. But you can add the voucher to MDE to make fast passes.

There's a difference in how Disney handles pre-purchased MYW tickets & Annual Passes. Vouchers for pre-purchased APs must be exchanged for the actual pass. Vouchers for pre-purchased MYW tickets only need to be exchanged for the actual tickets if you don't already have a MagicBand. MYW tickets self activate when you use them for park entry, APs don't.

 

[CarolMN]

Moved from DVC Forums -

 

[Hootch]

Thank you all so much for the information. Yikes...I wonder if anything will be left at the 30 day mark. Not a busy time of year, so I'll keep my fingers crossed. Thanks again.

Most of the attractions will still have availability. Anna and Elsa and the parades/fireworks are often booked before 30 days. Here is a site that helps you see the availability.

http://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/fastpass_plus_availability.php

 

[CMNJ]

AAA gives you a plastic voucher here in Florida not an active RFID Disney ticket. Just did it for my APs. But you can add the voucher to MDE to make fast passes.

Didn't realize about the annual pass vouchers-we live in PA and you can only buy MYW tickets at the local offices here not annual passes. They are activated before you leave AAA (had to wait like 10 min both times I have bought them for AAA to log into their disney ticket computer system to activate the tickets)

 

[sweetnjmom]

AAA gives active plastic Tickets right at the local offices when you buy them-there is no voucher or need to exchange anything. You can easily add them to your MDE account after purchase to make Fast pass + at 30 days for off site guests.

I bought my tickets from AAA and that was my experience exactly. I'm also done with my 30 day FP+ and got most of my choices, including Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. I could NOT get a 9 PM MSEP but there were several 11 PM spots available. No Festival of Fantasy spots. The Dibb board was good but doesn't show the full spectrum of what's up.

Wishes was available several times during my trip, but we are going to "play it by ear" with that, as my son is 5-1/2 and I don't want to PLAN for him to stay up late... if he wants to, fine, but if not no worries. We're dong the Pirates and Pals Fireworks cruise our first night so we'll see Wishes then.