We love Magic Bands!

[SarahInMN]

We haven't even been here a full 24 hours yet but we love the Magic Bands so far.

We've used them to get into the rooms, buy food at the F&W kiosks, buy food at restaurants, and buy gifts.

The FP+ is awesome - we like Soarin and Toy Story but not enough to stand in line OR race for FP's. But we like them enough to arrange FP+ for them.

I know it will go away once testing is over but we've been able to "triple dip" for FPs - magic bands for FP+ and we've been able to use both our AP's and our KTTW cards (which do not have any tickets linked to them) to pull legacy FPs.

Anyways, I just wanted to share my two cents amidst all the negative reports or anxiety about upcoming trips. For us, the Magic Bands have been awesome!

 

[DisneyRegulars]

We too fell in love within 24 hours. Glad your are enjoying them too. I would have to say one of my favorites was swimming and not having to worry about where to leave the room key.

 

[JamesA1]

We too fell in love within 24 hours. Glad your are enjoying them too. I would have to say one of my favorites was swimming and not having to worry about where to leave the room key.

Have to agree that going to the pool and not worrying about your key was great. Another for me was not worrying about forgetting the key in the room.

 

[NoleFan]

We loved them, too! Being able to plan FP+ was awesome! Also, having room key, ticket, and room charges all in one was great.

 

[heynowirv]

Are they waterproof?

 

[DisneyRegulars]

Are they waterproof?

Yes they are! Says it right on the packaging, went swimming with them many times.

 

[heynowirv]

kewl

 

[disneymath]

We love them too ... So convenient, especially at pool and waterpark.

My three nephews liked them to varying degrees ... One wore his morning to night, one wore his most of each day until it bugged him, the third wore it only when he had to tap a Mickey Head to enter someplace (but he insisted that we put in on him so he could tap the sensors himself). Adults had no issues.

FP+ worked out great for us. Here's what we used them for:

At Mk: Splash, Thunder and MSEP (busy night and so worth it)

At DHS: IJ show (last minute change as Star Tours was walk on), TSMM, and F! (Standing room only for walkups, great seats even near end of our window).

Had Soaring and TT at Epcot, but slept in and missed them and no later times were available plus a lot of other rides we like were down, so we went to AK instead ... Was able to book FP+s for FotLK, KRR, and KS for the afternoon at 11am that morning.

 

[ABE4DISNEY]

I know it will go away once testing is over but we've been able to "triple dip" for FPs - magic bands for FP+ and we've been able to use both our AP's and our KTTW cards (which do not have any tickets linked to them) to pull legacy FPs.

To double dip, do you need to use your AP's to enter the park or were you still able to just use your MB's?

 

[Doug7856]

I've read a few posts that cast members were critical of guests with bands using the traditional FastPass. Did you experience this?

 

[SarahInMN]

To double dip, do you need to use your AP's to enter the park or were you still able to just use your MB's?

No we did not need to use our AP's to get into the park. For fun and to see if it would work, I used my KTTW and my DH used his AP to pull hard FP's for Maelstrom and both worked = we had both entered the park using our MB's.

So far we have only pulled out our AP's to pull the Maelstrom FP's and to get shopping discounts = you need to take the hard AP to get any sort of discount.

I've read a few posts that cast members were critical of guests with bands using the traditional FastPass. Did you experience this?

We did not but the only double (or triple dipping) we did was to use paper FP's for Maelstrom yesterday. We didn't sense anything from the CM and I was trying to pay attention because we had heard that too. Granted it was Maelstrom but the standby line was out the door and about 45 minutes according to posted wait times.

I would have to say one of my favorites was swimming and not having to worry about where to leave the room key.

We've talked to other people in line while waiting (in the FP line at Soarin and in line for Kitchen Memories) and most people seem to like the MB's. The app is a bit glitchy and slow to load at times - sometimes switching to LTE off of Disney Wifi solves that, sometimes not. My only critique so far is that when they do full park roll out, Disney is going to have to make sure both the Wifi AND the MDE servers can handle the in park traffic. I think both of those issues are what drives the glitchiness and slowness of the app in the parks.

 

[luckyman_apd]

I loved them too. They get very hot on your wrist in the summer months but very convienent. We double dipped too. I hope when the testing is over and the traditional FP are gone, they allow park hopping FP+ with the bands.

 

[granmanh603]

Well there is no thumbs down icon. Been here since Wed and entered parks 8 X and DH has worked 2X other that it takes over 5 min to get a CM and they have no answer and reset? and don't really seem to care. Some early entry some later in the night. works fine at FP gate , he also has trouble at room door. But mine works fine. Still prefer to get FP at park we are at and have done that . Find FP return lines longer than usual but when they realize they are they hurry then along, actually saying just one in group needs to use the band to get in? Oh and by people double an triple dipping FP are gone sooner...they have a lot to fix yet.

 

[ABE4DISNEY]

No we did not need to use our AP's to get into the park. For fun and to see if it would work, I used my KTTW and my DH used his AP to pull hard FP's for Maelstrom and both .

Awesome to know! Thanks so much!!!

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Well there is no thumbs down icon. Been here since Wed and entered parks 8 X and DH has worked 2X other that it takes over 5 min to get a CM and they have no answer and reset? and don't really seem to care. Some early entry some later in the night. works fine at FP gate , he also has trouble at room door. But mine works fine. Still prefer to get FP at park we are at and have done that . Find FP return lines longer than usual but when they realize they are they hurry then along, actually saying just one in group needs to use the band to get in? Oh and by people double an triple dipping FP are gone sooner...they have a lot to fix yet.

I had very mixed feelings on them. Nice to be able to go in late to a park and know I had a FP but that's about it. Otherwise I agree that they have a lot to fix yet - I saw many problems and had a few myself. The FP entries themselves were a mess with people getting in. Often it did not ok one in the group and a CM would be trying to verify when a supervisor would finally come over and say to just let them in. Also the one magic band they verified for me at BCV was the only one that did not work at the door. Because of other reservations I had 2 other bands and thankfully they did work so I did not have to spend extra time getting anything reset. And I found it awkward to use on the readers. That coupled with the fact I still needed my AP in order to get discounts meant things really were just a trade off and I'd have been happier if they put this billion dollars or whatever the cost was toward a couple new attractions.

 

[granmanh603]

I had very mixed feelings on them. Nice to be able to go in late to a park and know I had a FP but that's about it. Otherwise I agree that they have a lot to fix yet - I saw many problems and had a few myself. The FP entries themselves were a mess with people getting in. Often it did not ok one in the group and a CM would be trying to verify when a supervisor would finally come over and say to just let them in. Also the one magic band they verified for me at BCV was the only one that did not work at the door. Because of other reservations I had 2 other bands and thankfully they did work so I did not have to spend extra time getting anything reset. And I found it awkward to use on the readers. That coupled with the fact I still needed my AP in order to get discounts meant things really were just a trade off and I'd have been happier if they put this billion dollars or whatever the cost was toward a couple new attractions.

Oh yes forgot that awkward to use too. I did better than DH ,he is left handed but not sure that was problem for him ,he had lots of trouble at room door getting the angle right, today was his best attempt yet.
I agree about waste of money but for us this week SM,TM and TSM down rather have them working not wasting time crossing the park 4 X to back and forth to use the FP+ .

 

[Micca]

We had MB on our trip a few weeks ago and thought they worked fine. Sure is easy to spend money I think many Dis-ers are freaking out unnecessarily over them. Much more user friendly in real life, sort of difficult to convey on a message board. CMs can help with questions too.

 

[Peepster]

Question please and I'm sorry if I missed this in a post.
Are you annual passholders, too?
I may be behind in learning about the MB's but I thought AP holders could not yet get them.
Thanks.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Question please and I'm sorry if I missed this in a post.
Are you annual passholders, too?
I may be behind in learning about the MB's but I thought AP holders could not yet get them.
Thanks.

Yes, I am an annual passholder. The ability to get the MB's is dependent upon if the resort you are staying at is testing them or not. It's not dependent on the type of ticket you have. In order to utilize the FP+ you have to have your ticket or pass linked in MDE.

 

[lawgator]

We haven't even been here a full 24 hours yet but we love the Magic Bands so far.

We've used them to get into the rooms, buy food at the F&W kiosks, buy food at restaurants, and buy gifts.

The FP+ is awesome - we like Soarin and Toy Story but not enough to stand in line OR race for FP's. But we like them enough to arrange FP+ for them.

I know it will go away once testing is over but we've been able to "triple dip" for FPs - magic bands for FP+ and we've been able to use both our AP's and our KTTW cards (which do not have any tickets linked to them) to pull legacy FPs.

Anyways, I just wanted to share my two cents amidst all the negative reports or anxiety about upcoming trips. For us, the Magic Bands have been awesome!

Just got back from a 4 night stay at OKW where we tried the magic bands and I have to agree that although it was a bit of a pain to set up everyone's account (duplicate profiles and other problems), it was nice in the long run to have the convenience of the fp+. I got right on the Toy Story ride this morning while watching a mob of people race for the only 2 fast pass dispensers they have open now. The cast member I spoke with while waiting a few minutes for my entry time told me that ride is the most popular ride in all 4 theme parks and most the paper fast passes are gone now before 10am...if not sooner. They dispense fewer paper fast passes now and only use 2 dispensers because of the magic bands fp+. We did have some problems with not all of our family (who are connected on the mde site) not showing up in the account for some of us (making it impossible to order fp+ for everyone in our group) and another issue arose when the cast member I renewed my annual pass with somehow reported to the system that my magic band was "lost" (it was always on my wrist) so it stopped working and took another trip to guest services for them to finally sort that out. We tried the triple dipping for just one of the rides to see if it worked and it did...at least for now. Oh, and I totally agree with the other comments that the mde app is really slow and freezes up frequently. It seemed to work a bit better on my sister's iphone than my Samsung Galaxy phone. It was much easier to do all the internet stuff in the room beforehand, but sometimes one needs to change the times of the fp+ on the fly. I do think it is a great idea and will be even better when some of the problems are worked out and both the users and the cast members become more familiar with the system.