Reviews of MagicBand
Reviewed by John Review Date: 12/07/2014
Rating: (2) Not Recommended
When we checked in they asked us to make sure we could access our room with the Magic Bands. They all worked fine. Then we went to the Magic Kingdom and my grandson's would not allow him access to the park. We were told we had to go to Guest Relations, but because it was raining and I did not want to stand out in the rain we went back to the hotel to get in straight. When we got there it took over an hour to finally get it cleared up and then my grandson's "Tragic Band" was the only one that could access the room. Luckily we had Key to the World Cards which would also work to access the room.
Also My son and daughter-in-law could not use their Bands to charge meals or other items.
I wish Disney would not have messed with a system that was pretty good before.
Pros:
NoneCons:
Don't work all the timeReviewed by bellebookworm9 Review Date: 01/11/2014
Rating: (2) Not Recommended
I was not a fan of the Magic Bands, and I don't like the whole next gen thing in general. Our problems started upon arrival at our resort. We came to the desk at 8:30pm after a long day of traveling. There was some glitch with activating our bands, and repeated reassurances of "it will only take five minutes to fix" turned into two and a half HOURS of waiting and waiting to get into our room. Ridiculous. We had no issues charging or using the dining plan. Because we used cast member admission, that was not linked to the band and we were also unable to take advantage of FP+. I found the band itself to be irritating to my skin and I disliked the texture. Wish they'd offer an alternative for people like me, but alas, they've totally done away with the Key to the World Cards!
Pros:
ConvenientCons:
Difficulties with activationReviewed by Anonymous Review Date: 02/19/2023
Rating: (3) Not Recommended
Convenient if you have a disability pass and multiple folks in your party. Don’t have to use your phone but…you could use the free card. The buzzing on your arm at Animal Kingdom could drive one to insanity. Kept buzzing for no reason. Also kept coming off with brushes against your body or someone else’s. Sometimes just fell off. I lost mine on the Dwarves Mine train. The staff is fantastic!! They found mine. We found someone else’s at the same ride and turned it in for them. It literally wasn’t there when we arrived and 15 minutes later it was lying in between us. It needs a loop to place over the cheap plastic male/female prongs…like the Tapoo at Universal Volcano Bay (heavy duty, water proof, not going anywhere, works the same way, given FREE at the gate and returned upon leaving.) After Disney…these are worthless except as a souvenir. If it had a clock function… even a cheap digital flashing Walmart type/gum ball toy watch function, it’d be worth it.
Pros:
Easy and convenient to use with the DAS serviceCons:
Kept popping off.Reviewed by ears2you Review Date: 08/05/2014
Rating: (3) Not Recommended
terrible for FP entry--looks like it works fine for all the "groups" that file past you in the hundreds. no wonder that the rides are constantly broken. will NEVER go again during summer. not impressed with the service of this item-I think WDW is using it in a way they are not admitting as it in no way made FP easy for us. all the other perks are kind-of so-what to us-we can manage our tickets, credit cards and hotel keys. We are not "new" to Disney, we always stay on property and this is or 23rd trip.......
Pros:
hotel entryCons:
numerous FP glitches just like the rides!Reviewed by pls Review Date: 01/23/2014
Rating: (3) Not Recommended
I was part of a family group of 10, and we spend HOURS of park time both at our resort and at Epcot trying to link up our bands (to be fair, each cast member who tried to help us gave us extra fast passes, and one gave us a $50 Epcot merchandise certificate because we had so many issues) to each other and to the memory maker. We and the cast members were never able to link my mother's band to the rest of ours. Several of our group had problems at the park entrance when the bands did not work. If we wanted to park hop, we could not split our fast pass selections between the parks (you can only select one park for the three fast passes each day). We did not have a problem with the meal plan or charging things back to the rooms. We were all upset that there were so many kinks with the band, all the expense of our time and aggrevation.
Pros:
No need to fumble for a park ticket/room keyCons:
multipleReviewed by trudeasm Review Date: 11/21/2013
Rating: (3) Not Recommended
Just got back from the World. We were staying in one DVC room, but traveling with another family staying in a cash room at a different resort. We had problems every day with our Magic Bands. First, we could not link our reservations so that we could make reservations and FastPass+ together. Many hours on the phone with tech support prior to the trip did not resolve the issue. Then when we arrived, the bands were all mixed up, even though the names on the inside were correct. They were actually mixed up across the parties, making a simple switch impossible. Again, Cast Members were unable to correct the problems. We were told to wait a few hours without eating or visiting a park! Um, ok. When we returned to the desk to pick up our new bands, we discovered that no one had even begun addressing our problems. More waiting. The subsequent days were repeats of the same: our mugs kept turning off (because we were "checked out" when we were not!), our park tickets wouldn't work, entitlements were wrong, the PINs would not work, etc. Magic Express reservations were incorrect and required several calls. Pretty much an epic fail. I also agree that those not using FastPass+ are almost completely shut out of the major attractions. Hoping that Disney works out the bugs soon! That's what a beta test is for, right?
Pros:
convenient for park entryCons:
many technical issues that cast members cannot resolveReviewed by dreams Review Date: 05/19/2015
Rating: (4) Not Recommended
It's probably my age but I found the band uncomfortable to wear. I wear a wristwatch on my left arm which is the arm I needed to wear the magic band to have it work on the hotel door and to get into the parks, being right-handed. It fell off my husband's wrist as we were getting off the safari but thankfully a woman behind us noticed and stopped us. I ended up carrying them like the old cards and taking them out when we needed them. They did not seem to help get people in the parks any faster.
Pros:
convenienceCons:
uncomfortableReviewed by lw Review Date: 03/16/2014
Rating: (4) Recommended
Having just returned from a Disney vacation over Spring Break I feel this was the first real 'test run' for Fastpass+. The concept in theory is great if everything is working and that is where the problem rests. An example for our party of eleven was a visit to Typhoon Lagoon on Tuesday March 11th. As we are patrons from Canada our bands are not shipped to us prior to vacation departure but we receive them upon check-in which seems reasonable. Unfortunately, 4 members of our party 2adults and 2 children were denied access to a Typhoon Lagoon as it was not synchronized on their passes. The ipad carrying Fastpass resolvers explained they had not paid for this product and denied them access to the park. Which was highly upsetting. Our family members were then shuffled to wait in line at guest services to pay for a product which they had. At this point a very expensive telephone call was made to Canada where our travel agent scanned and emailed documentation showing payment for waterpark and more. This was a very upsetting situation. The Disney Fastpass resolvers were rude and it seemed their job is to push people through lines or ask for payment. It just was not the Disney hospitality that one expects.
I hope that once these glitches are resolved the Fastpass+ is a success.
Pros:
Simplicity. No need to carry money credit cards in park.Cons:
A few snags to be worked on by Disney.Reviewed by tpetty Review Date: 11/13/2013
Rating: (4) Recommended
Sorry this is so long but it combines our experience with the MagicBands and FP+ since Disney is lumping that together.
We were asked to participate in the testing of the MagicBands for our trip from Sept. 3rd to Sept 12th while staying at Pop Century. I had been playing on WDW website when I noticed our reservations had the option for Magic Bands and making Fast Pass reservations. I clicked around a little bit but didn’t make any plans for us or confirm we wanted either. By that evening I had received an email to participate and then the next day which was a Saturday morning we had received a letter via UPS asking us to participate. We had read different things about it and it got us curious since we know overnight shipping isn’t cheap let alone a Sat. morning delivery. We were concerned about participating because we had heard we only get 3 Fast Pass+ a day and only at one park. We tend to park hop and use the Fast Pass system as much as possible to our advantage so 3 passes wouldn’t be enough with our normal touring habits. My DH called the number they gave us and asked the CM if we could opt out at any time if we decided it was no longer for us and he said yes. He even went on to say that the old Fast Pass system and new Fast Pass system didn’t talk to one another so we were free to schedule our FastPass+ on the new system but still use the old system with our Key to the World Card that they would give us as a backup to the MagicBands. After hearing this we agreed we wanted to try it out for ourselves.
Next up was ordering the MagicBands. Kind of fun because we got to pick what colors we wanted but from the beginning I have said I thought they were ugly and who wants pictures ruined with everyone wearing silly bracelet type things in them. I knew though that we could use the Key to the World card in the end. After we completed that we had to try to link to different reservations up so we could plan for both traveling parties. Originally it was my DH, DS (age 2) and myself in one room and my DMIL in her own room. Right away we had problems linking the two reservations up. We ended up calling the number again and they even had trouble. We were told it would take 30 minutes and my DH would receive an email letting him know the reservations were linked. After 45 minutes we decided to call back because their office hours had them there for only 15 more minutes. The CM we talked to said they were still working on it and they would have it fixed before they went home for the night. After about an hour we received an email that it was fixed. We logged back in and it wasn’t fixed so we gave up for the night. The next day my DH called back and they did something else and it made it better but not 100% perfect. The problem was I could see that everyone was eligible for FP+ but couldn’t make changes for my DMIL. I was supposed to be able to make changes for everyone since I was part of the reservation and authorization to do so. We figured if we were at the park and my DH cell phone went dead we needed a backup or maybe he wasn’t around and I was needing to make the changes I should be able to do so. We decided we would deal with that later if nothing else at the park with a CM there.
The next on our agenda was to schedule the FP+ for the rides we wanted to ride. We tend to not be planners unless we are on the free dining plan where you have to plan the sit down meals. Otherwise we tend to go with the flow and decide which park we will visit even the night before usually looking at who has morning hours (skipping that park since we aren’t morning people) and knowing we might want to do the extra magic hours in the evening. So we tried to apply this same strategy with make the reservation. 3 per park with the exception of the MK where they threw in a bonus FP+ for the Little Mermaid ride. Fantasmic and Illuminations were an option but Main Street Electrical Parade was not which we found interesting.
Within 2 or 3 days of picking out our MagicBands they were overnighted to us and I received a reminder email from Disney a day or two before our trip to remind us to bring these with us and have them available when we arrive.
Fast forward to our trip and my DMIL had to cancel at the last minute for another family members health issues so that took care of not being able to make FP+ changes for her. After checking in at PC we headed to the food court to get our free resort mug since we were on the free quick food service dining plan. At check out the CM asked my DH to use his Magic Band and then input his key/passcode. Problem was his pass code wasn’t validating the mugs for us so the CM used our Keys to the World card to complete this transaction. Back to the check-in area where they had my DH confirm his passcode again hoping this would fix the problem.
Off we went to the MK and the MagicBands got us into the gate with no problem but you still have to link a finger with the band so it that slowed it down a bit. The rest of the night we had no problem.
Our 2nd day there we were off to DHS. We decided we didn’t think we would make our first FP+ ride so DH rescheduled it on his phone for later in the day. Once at the park we realized we could make it so pulled our My Plans FP+ on our phones and we showed we still had our original ride time and also the one we rescheduled. So we went to the ride and were denied access b/c their system said it wasn’t until later. We were fine with that but he suggested we go to the FP+ kiosk that has CM there to answer questions or give feedback to. When we arrived there they pulled up our FP+ plans for the day to their surprise and ours I was scheduled to ride this ride 4 time for the day (when you are only allowed to have 1 FP+ for each ride per day). They had never seen that before and when we showed them what our cell phone displayed it was completely different from what their screen showed. They ended up fixing it so we could ride the ride right then like we originally had scheduled as well as later in the day like we rescheduled.
Another day we noticed that Main Street Electrical parade was an option but we weren’t going to MK that day so we switched all of our FP+ to the MK. After making the switch our old FP+ for the other park were still there. We are guessing they weren’t valid like what happened previously but didn’t park hop that day to test it out.
Finally, on our last day we thought we would go to DHS before leaving for the airport but our DS was really getting into the MK so we decided after checking out of Pop Century to head there instead. We decided to make the change at guest services on Main Street since half the time our phone took forever to pull up our plans and the other half of the time it wouldn’t pull it up at all. When we got to the kiosk it pulled up our plans for DHS but there wasn’t a way to change it. The CM there was puzzled so he enlisted the help of 2 of the tech CM for this initiative and they were stumped. They then decided you couldn’t switch parks at the kiosk so we had to do it by our phone. This was fine but again after making the changes it pulled up our old reservations and the new ones which completely confused them. We should have only seen our MK plans at this point. They said they would look into it and we went on our way to enjoy our last day at the park.
In the end it was very interesting to be a part of the test. We still aren’t convinced this is worth the money that we have heard Disney put into it. Like I mentioned before half the time our phones weren’t able to pull up our plans. Imagine when this rolls out and everyone is trying to use their phones to get their plans. My MagicBand came unsnapped at different times throughout our trip so they aren’t the most secure thing. They sent us one for our 2 year old even though he was free for everything but imagine asking a 3 year old to wear one and have nothing happen to it. I guess there is the option of not putting it on him/her and use the card but it is needed to show you have a FP+ ride time with the rest of the family.
We also ran into multiple CM that didn’t know anything about the system or didn’t know how to deal with it. One example being at the Emporium when we went to use a snack credit the CM told us we need our card to do it but we had just used our bands at another shop buying snacks. She went backstage and confirmed we could use our band. Another example was when we went to use the FP+ at Fantasmic they had us form a separate line but then we were lead in with the general crowd. When we asked a CM where the FP+ seating was she said she didn’t even know they had FP+ seating. We finally found the section but then there was no one to prevent any guest from hopping under the rope to get into that section which we did see people do.
The one positive thing I do have to say about preplanning the FP+ is that my DH didn’t have to run from ride to ride getting us FP when we had time available to have one. We were able to stroll down Main Street and take it all in as a family so that was really nice.
Pros:
DH wasn't rushing to get us FPCons:
system problems, too much preplanning, only 3 per day and at 1 parkReviewed by cccc Review Date: 04/06/2024
Rating: (5) Not Recommended
Set up and use is not at all intuitive
