Reviews of MagicBand
Reviewed by dailey71 Review Date: 06/15/2014
Rating: (8) Recommended
We stayed for a week and had only minor issues with using it to get into parks. I had to have mine reset at the gate one day which involved a cast member using their iPad to reset it. I didn't have any issues after that. I had heard of friends having worse issues with their band not working at the park gate and the cast member not being helpful at all. It was nice not to have to worry about losing the card that we used to carry for park access.
Pros:
convenienceCons:
system can be glitchy sometimesReviewed by Time2Talk Review Date: 06/15/2014
Rating: (7) Recommended
I recommend wearing the magic band on your left wrist so you can easily put your right index finger to scan when entering a park. It saves some time.
Pros:
—Cons:
—Reviewed by WDWDad1974 Review Date: 05/14/2014
Rating: (10) Recommended
This thing is just awesome. After leaving the park, I found myself raising my hand at the gas station, grocery story, coffee shop, wishing I could just pay for my order with a swipe of the wrist and entering my pin. It always worked for me. I wore it in the pool with no adverse effects. My kids loved being able to let themselves into the room. And I did not have to carry my wallet anywhere!
Pros:
Awesome. Just awesome.Cons:
None.Reviewed by seymourmomof3 Review Date: 05/11/2014
Rating: (10) Recommended
We used the bands for the first time on our recent visit and we loved them. No issues, kids loved going up and using them to get in park and room it was fun for them. No worries about losing key to world cards nice not to have to dig them out each time needed just pop your wrist up. We liked them better!
Pros:
—Cons:
—Reviewed by disneyduet Review Date: 05/08/2014
Rating: (8) Recommended
There are improvements made regularly - I would like to see more availabilty earlier in the day and also like to see castmember eligibility. Hope it's coming soon. DD
Pros:
It is getting better week by week.Cons:
Popular rides are pretty backed upReviewed by dragonsbreath Review Date: 05/08/2014
Rating: (10) Recommended
Having just got back from WDW with my family (wife, 15yo daughter & me) and being from the UK, I thought I might add and reinforce Debra’s review in #763.
Having been reading some pretty harsh reviews of magic bands from about January onwards, I can’t say I was looking forward to the new experience with any enthusiasm – this is my sixth visit. However, after one day in the sun, I was converted. Of course there are little annoyances but the benefits far, far outweigh those niggles. It is vital that visitors create a My Disney Experience (MDE) account well before travelling even if you are not a serial planner. A few weeks before our holiday, we were asked what colour magic band we all wanted, pink (by far the most popular and in descending order), blue, red, grey, green and orange were available when we picked but I did see yellow in the park shops so this might be an option now. Other things we booked using MDE before leaving were our dining experiences – Fantasmic package (book early as The Brown Derby was the only available choice and this might not be to everyone’s taste), character breakfast at The Tusker House (recommended) and Hoop-Dee-Doo and buying and linking our Memory Maker to the account so, by default, the magic band. Accommodation was automatically linked. MM is great and worth the money but must be bought before you go for a $50 saving and ensuring you get the pictures from day one. We managed 180 photos for £149.99 meaning less than a dollar a photo! The magic bands were waiting for us on check-in at the Caribbean Beach – lovely keepsake box – and the band being the door key was very useful. I thought I’d miss the tickets but no, scanning the band with a fingerprint was quick, charging items to the band was great and even your dining plan details were stored (we didn’t have this package but others seemed to use this without problems).
Booking fast passes is a breeze (even though we tended to book them the day before). Select your 3 rides and the system comes back with four options. Generally the recommended option is one that has all your rides with a suggested time (with an hour spread i.e. 10:40 – 11:40). The other options may give you your three selected rides or substitute another. Look at them all and accept one. You can then change the time of individual rides (if available). Initially, I thought the restriction of on-line booking of three fast passes per day (soon to go up to 4?), was a mistake but now I’m sure this is right. Having too many fast passes means you may not use them and as the number per time slot is restricted, others could miss out.
The only irritating thing was the one park restriction. It would be great to have, say, 2 fast passes at MK and another at Epcot for your evening trip to watch Illuminations. You cannot do this (yet?). Also some rides are categorised so you can’t have say both Soarin’ (what a disappointment that the film is identical to my last visit 6 years ago) and Test Track but this is reasonably sensible.
Summing up, this is a giant step forward and with the crinkles now seemingly sorted, something to pat Disney on the back. With more things being added, it can only get better.
Pros:
Multi useCons:
1 park restriction for fast passReviewed by deaner Review Date: 05/07/2014
Rating: (10) Recommended
My husband and I just returned home from Walt Disney World last week after spending 4 days at Bay Lake Tower. I know my husband was skeptical of wearing the bands as he doesn't wear any kind of jewelry, including a watch. He carried his in his pocket. BUT, he really enjoyed how easy it was to use and he most certainly liked sitting in our room in the evening and planning the next day on the computer. It worked so well for us and I can't wait to go back and to it all again.
Pros:
ease of movement around Walt Disney WorldCons:
sometimes it doens't read the band and you have to keep trying.Reviewed by teller7 Review Date: 04/08/2014
Rating: (6) Recommended
Husband and I had a couple issues entering the parks. Also if you have large wrist it could be tight on you my husband carried his with him. Otherwise convenient for fast pass and charging items to your room. You also had to pick a pin number to use it for charging this put my mind at ease in case you lose it.
Pros:
use for everythingCons:
entry to parks/not large enough if u have large wristReviewed by tink Review Date: 04/04/2014
Rating: (10) Recommended
Received customized wristband in the mail. I was able to link my park ticket with no problem. I also
made purchases easily. I like that you can wear in it the pool and not have to leave your room key
near a chair.
Pros:
easy to use, water proofCons:
—Reviewed by bellebookworm9 Review Date: 04/02/2014
Rating: (9) Recommended
In early January I had written a review about how it took the front desk staff 2.5 hours to activate our MagicBands. I'm happy to say that this time there were no problems at all!
From the beginning at Magical Express, they pulled up our reservation right away. We had no problems charging to the room (on separate credit cards), opening up the room door, and I was even able to attach my Annual Pass almost instantly after exchanging the voucher for the real thing. Once I got FP+ set up, it worked for that too, no problem. I took the leap and bought a couple of the Mickey head MagicBandits because I plan to use this band for the rest of my AP year. I only wish they had purple bands, but I'll settle for pink.
There was a slight problem when we switched over to the Boardwalk unexpectedly for an extra night. The reservation had been made by someone else and then transferred to me, so I couldn't link it in my MDE account. As such, my current band couldn't link up. We were given a KTTW card (and told to guard it with our lives!) for the night. Lobby concierge said they could give us new gray bands, and did try to link the reservation to my current band, but it was not working and we said the KTTW card would be fine.
