Trouble with magic bands

[nd43]

We are at VGF now really enjoying our Christmas vacation. However, we did have trouble with our magic bands. Everything worked great online and we were able to make our FP+ selections. All of our reservations showed online with tickets, etc.

However, when we first tried to enter a park, it did not work. Guest relations could not figure out the problem but stated our band showed no park tickets. They let us into the park and told us to check back at VGF and have them "fix it" because they suspected it got messed up with our DVC reservation. We purchased our park tickets when we made the DVC reservation via the phone.

Back at VGF, they looked up our tickets and said everything looked fine. They told us our tickets were active and we could not have made our FP+ selections without active tickets. They blamed "new people" at guest relations and told us more likely the machine at the park was to blame.

So, next day we goto Epcot and decide to upgrade our 7 day tickets to annual passes anyway. We go to guest relations and they tell us we have no tickets on our band. So, it is getting frustrating. Luckily, we have the credit card we used to purchase our original tickets. It was the only way guest relations could find our tickets! She prints out new annual pass tickets for us and tells us to just use the printed tickets and not our bands (states "the bands are messing everything up").

After this, we thought for sure our FP selections would not work. However, they did. So we have to use the regular printed tickets to get into the parks and our bands for FP.

Hopefully this will get sorted out by April and our next visit now that we have annual passes.

So, make sure you carry your ID and some sort of ticket verification item when you first enter the parks until you know it works. Everything looked fine for us online and it was not until we got to our first park we discovered the magic band was not working for the park tickets we purchased via DVC reservations.

 

[MinnieVanMom]

I am sorry for all the issues with the magic bands and your tickets. You offered up very good words with carry the credit card receipt and your ID. What would have happened if you could not prove you had paid for the tickets?

You have a very good attitude in dealing with this and I hope you have a good trip in the future.

 

[Msmithmd]

There appear to still be a great many errors in the system. The recent move to eliminate old FP- at AK was surprising, albeit possibly temporary, in light of all the trouble there continues to be with the bands and MDE. Makes one wonder if Disney hired the same IT consultants that developed the Obamacare web portal.

Low level techs:

"Man, this thing is nowhere near ready, and is gonna crash all the time, glitch inexplicably, and seriously harm our customer relationships."

Executives:

"Fantastic! Full steam ahead! Call marketing and make an ad campaign about how the vast majority of guests love the new system! Everything will be ok...we will just call it ongoing 'testing' when it doesn't work for years."

 

[nd43]

I am sorry for all the issues with the magic bands and your tickets. You offered up very good words with carry the credit card receipt and your ID. What would have happened if you could not prove you had paid for the tickets?

You have a very good attitude in dealing with this and I hope you have a good trip in the future.

Thanks! We are having a really good time. The most frustrating part is when one group points to another group and it goes back and forth. You would like someone just to own the issue until it works.

The print out VGF gave us "proving" we had tickets to show guest relations did not print the ticket ID numbers. Guest services took one look at it and said it was worthless. Thankfully she quickly asked if we had our cc we used to buy the tickets or my patience might have been spent. I am not sure what she would have done if we did not have that cc but I am guessing she would send us back to VGF to resolve it.

 

[houseofduck]

Better that they were blaming each other rather than blaming you!

For us, our bands worked perfectly the first day. The second day, my husband entered with no problem. When I tried my band, I got the blue Mickey. My band was somehow now attached to my husband. When they checked the bands again, they said that I must have switched them in MDE. They "fixed" it and then, both bands didn't work the next day. (I must have switched them again, right!) After a few more fixes, both bands finally worked and we had a great trip.

 

[delilah]

We were there last Saturday until Weds. Our magic bands worked perfectly with everything, except charging to the room. I had checked in on-line, paid for the DDP, and given my credit card number at the time I checked in. Concierge tried twice to add the credit card, but, didn't. So, we ended up not having room charging, which really doesn't break my heart, but, could have been awkward, had I not brought the credit card into the park with me.

 

[Donna M]

We were lucky because our bands worked for everything the way they were intended. Hope all works out next time.

 

[Debby7]

We were at WDW the week before Christmas. We loved the convenience of the magic bands and they worked almost perfectly. The first night we got there , I ran down to the BCV Marketplace and when I tried to pay with my band, they told me I had no charging privileges. So I walked to the front desk and found the young man that checked me in and he said that his computer said that I did have charging privileges. He walked back to the market place with me- no charging privileges . We walked back to the front desk, he got a manager involved. They took off the charging privileges , then put them back on. Then he walked back to the market place with me and Yay, the magicband now had charging privileges!. Evidently, the hotel system and the marketing system were not communicating properly. He printed me new key cards which we carried with us as back up as well as our hard UTC tickets. There were no other problems and we came back as enthusiastic supporters of MyMagic +.

 

[Travel60]

We've just spent a week at Saratoga Springs, first use of bands. We had understood that the band held all needed info (and had not heard of all the problems), so we did not bring our DVC cards.

At check-in, we were told the bands were all we would need. However, various restaurants and retail establishments within Disney have told us that they can or they can't tell from the information available via the band whether we are DVC members. Luckily, we had stayed at Vero Beach prior to SSR and I had a room key card that stated that I was a DVC member. Some establishments accepted that as proof, some didn't.

Looking over our charges for the week tonight, we see that all the retail stores gave us the DVC discount, one restaurant did and all the others did not (including purchases here at SSR).

I know the bands just access information stored in some Disney cloud. I would assume that information includes everything they know about me down to my 3rd grade report card. I don't understand why DVC membership is not clearly indicated. I like the idea of NOT having to carry anything when visiting the parks or just walking around Downtown Disney. That would seem to be a pretty easy programming task - just a field.

 

[CarolMN]

We've just spent a week at Saratoga Springs, first use of bands. We had understood that the band held all needed info (and had not heard of all the problems), so we did not bring our DVC cards.

At check-in, we were told the bands were all we would need. However, various restaurants and retail establishments within Disney have told us that they can or they can't tell from the information available via the band whether we are DVC members. Luckily, we had stayed at Vero Beach prior to SSR and I had a room key card that stated that I was a DVC member. Some establishments accepted that as proof, some didn't.

Looking over our charges for the week tonight, we see that all the retail stores gave us the DVC discount, one restaurant did and all the others did not (including purchases here at SSR).

I know the bands just access information stored in some Disney cloud. I would assume that information includes everything they know about me down to my 3rd grade report card. I don't understand why DVC membership is not clearly indicated. I like the idea of NOT having to carry anything when visiting the parks or just walking around Downtown Disney. That would seem to be a pretty easy programming task - just a field.

I'm sorry you didn't know that you needed the actual membership card to get the discounts. That info has been mentioned on the boards - I knew before our trip in late November. I can understand how frustrating it was that the CM at the check-in desk was mis-informed and passed the bad information on to you.

For those who may not know, you also need the actual card to get annual pass discounts & TiW discounts. In addition to the actual card, some establishments also want to see a photo ID.

Perhaps it will change in the future. It's both a good idea and a seemingly simple programming addition. That said, I suspect that change is quite a bit down the list of things to add, modify or delete from the MM+ system.