We want to reuse our MagicBands, but . . .

[LennyMachine]

Eek, I've been lurking on these boards since 2012, but now I have a question I haven't found the answer to . . . Curses!

We're planning our first Disney cruise this August, spending a day at MK before the cruise sets sail. My family and I all have our MagicBands from when we went last October, and want to reuse them again -- BUT . . . my mother-in-law is coming with us this time. (Lucky me, right?! Naw, I'm just kidding, I love her. )

So, I gather from reading prior posts that, if we want to reuse our MagicBands, we would have to ignore the prompts to customize new bands, and refuse the grey ones when we check in at our Disney resort. But since my mother-in-law is on my My Disney Experience profile as a fifth member of our party, and she needs a customized band herself . . . Can I customize only her band and have only that one sent to me, or are they going to send me 4 uncustomized bands in addition to hers? Because if they're going to send us 5 bands, I might as well customize all of them and get us new bands for our collection, y'know?

Ecch, first post! So nerve-racking, sending this out in the ether. Many thanks in advance for any help!

 

[Mommyof2Boos]

Maybe calling Disney and requesting only one. Or declining all of them, buying her her color choice from disneystore.com and linking it to her profile in MDE. Or if she is okay with grey decline them and she can get hers at the resort. Or bring stuff for her to customize her band (nail polish, stickers, tattoos, etc) and y'all can have a decoration party to jazz up her grey band the first night at the hotel. I am not sure if there is a way to decline some but not all of the new bands being shipped to you.

 

[bern1992]

I don't understand the issue.

You want to reuse your MagicBands from last October? That's great, bring them along.
You have an additional guest that didn't come last time? That's also great, bring her along.

Your new upcoming reservation is going to receive MagicBands no matter whether you customise them or not. You will still be able to use your existing MagicBands, as well as the new ones, so you might as well customise them (unless everybody wants Iconic Gray). You can have up to (at last I heard) 7 active MagicBands for each guest, so why not start collecting them in each colour to match every outfit?

I personally have at least two of every colour, plus some of the cool printed ones you can buy in the stores, and could theoretically use any one of them to perform every function of the MagicBand.

 

[LennyMachine]

Maybe calling Disney and requesting only one. Or declining all of them, buying her her color choice from disneystore.com and linking it to her profile in MDE. Or if she is okay with grey decline them and she can get hers at the resort. Or bring stuff for her to customize her band (nail polish, stickers, tattoos, etc) and y'all can have a decoration party to jazz up her grey band the first night at the hotel. I am not sure if there is a way to decline some but not all of the new bands being shipped to you.

Great alternative ideas! I haven't seen her in a couple of weeks so I have yet to see what her preference is. She is an artsy type, so I'm sure she wouldn't mind customizing her own band -- I'd just be worried that half her luggage would be dedicated to bringing art supplies for just decorating her band, ha ha. (Seriously, you should see the ridiculous amount of art supplies my kids have . . . from just one art project she planned.)

Your new upcoming reservation is going to receive MagicBands no matter whether you customise them or not.

Is that absolutely true, though? I had read here that you don't receive MagicBands if they aren't customized -- they offer plain grey ones to you at the resort at check-in, which you can turn down. I'm aware you can use multiple MagicBands, but I'm wondering if it's possible just to have Disney save their money (bwahahahaha) and send me just one customized band, and I can turn down the rest at the hotel.

I mean, it wouldn't surprise me if they are only able to treat the transaction as all or nothing. I just wanted to see if splitting the order had been attempted and was possible.

 

[rizzo0904]

Will they still work? I just made a new reservation and mentioned losing one band and asked for a replacement. She said they only work for about a year and I would need all new ones since it will have been two years between visits.

 

[bern1992]

Is that absolutely true, though? I had read here that you don't receive MagicBands if they aren't customized -- they offer plain grey ones to you at the resort at check-in, which you can turn down. I'm aware you can use multiple MagicBands, but I'm wondering if it's possible just to have Disney save their money (bwahahahaha) and send me just one customized band, and I can turn down the rest at the hotel.

I mean, it wouldn't surprise me if they are only able to treat the transaction as all or nothing. I just wanted to see if splitting the order had been attempted and was possible.

Yes, it is true. There is a set of MagicBands containing one for every person on the reservation, created for each reservation. Customising them in My Disney Experience means you can select the colour and what name/nickname/whatever is printed on each one. If you don't customise them, they will all be Iconic Gray and have the names of each guest as it appears on the reservation. If you really don't want them at check in, I suppose they can't force you to take them, but they've already gone to the effort of printing them and shipping them to the resort, you might as well take them IMO.

EDIT: I just realised, there is one occasion where MagicBands would not be created for your reservation, and that is if you booked the reservation less than five days prior to check in. If you're eager not to receive new MagicBands, and to have an Iconic Gray one issued for MIL at check in, you could go ahead and cancel your current reservation, and then hope the room is still available five days before check in. I don't recommend doing that.

If you REALLY, REALLY wanted to get tricky about it (and are adamant about not receiving new MagicBands), you COULD call and book a one night reservation for just your MIL at any resort for a month or so away from right now, and then customise the MagicBand in MDE, and they'll ship it out to you. Then once you've received it, call and cancel the reservation. As long as it is still outside the cancellation window (I believe 5 days before check in), you'll get a full refund, and the MagicBand will remain active for use on any future reservations (like the one you have upcoming!)

To be honest though, I would just go ahead and order new customised MagicBands for everybody on the new reservation.

Will they still work? I just made a new reservation and mentioned losing one band and asked for a replacement. She said they only work for about a year and I would need all new ones since it will have been two years between visits.

MagicBands have an estimated battery life of about two years, but seeing as how they haven't actually been in use for two years yet, we can't know for sure. It would be safest to customise new MagicBands for your party, and take both the new and old ones in case it becomes evident the old ones aren't working properly. I have a MagicBand from the original test period in June 2013 that I was still able to use fine in October 2014.

 

[Eeyore Girl]

If you do not customize you will not recieve them in the mail. I have about 7 magic bands from doing the customization because I wanted the different colors. I just came back from Disney and did not customize this time. They did not have any there for us at check in either. They only asked us if we had our previous ones. My DH unfortunately left them at him and we told the cast member and he was like no problem and just gave us a couple of the genetic ones for this trip. You MIL can just get hers at the desk.

 

[LennyMachine]

Hmm, based on the answers here, it's sounding like everyone agrees that it's an all or nothing proposition. I figured as much. I think we'll just get new ones; I want to give my MIL the full experience, because she's never been, and may not again. Thanks, all!

 

[LowerLake]

Based on my recent experience if they send one they send them all. Disney dropped one of our family from the first shipped magic band order (dropped him from the reservation too - blamed in on Orbitz though that record was unchanged and clearly a Disney issue). When they shipped his (the only one customized) they shipped a complete set of 4 again.

 

[LennyMachine]

Awesome, that was exactly what I needed to know. Thanks, LowerLake!

 

[bumbershoot]

Hmm, based on the answers here, it's sounding like everyone agrees that it's an all or nothing proposition. I figured as much. I think we'll just get new ones; I want to give my MIL the full experience, because she's never been, and may not again. Thanks, all!

There's no reason not to get more.

But you could call, ask to speak to the tech support people for MBs, and see if they can just send hers. They seem to have far more tools than they used to in regards to that.

When MBs first came out they said 2-3 years battery life. I have all colors plus a duplicate color, and the first I got were from oct 2013 and all are still working.