Reviews of MagicBand
Reviewed 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 Fitzboyzmom Review Date: 01/08/2014
Rating: (10) Recommended
I was skeptical, but they worked every time for everything we had programmed, such as fast passes, magical express, etc. I am not sure how comfortable they will be in the heat of the summer, but in December they were fine.
Pros:
—Cons:
—Reviewed by slapps Review Date: 01/08/2014
Rating: (1) Not Recommended
My family and friends have visited Disney World the past 10 out of eleven years. It has always been a very enjoyable time for my family and friends from upstate NY. This year we had 13 in our party and we rented a Grand Villa at Old Key West for 8 days and my family of 4 rented a studio at Wilderness Lodge.
We checked in on December 18 and out on December 28th. From day one, we had nothing but problems with our bands. Not just one but, all of us at one time or another. Everything from not being able to charge, not working to get in the parks, not opening our villa doors, not having the correct charges on each band and card assigned to that band. You name it and it went wrong. I spent hours and I mean hours at the front desk trying to get it fixed. Between the 13 of us we received 53 bands, we had several reservations and everyone of us got bands sent to us and had bands waiting at the counter, what a waste of money. I have never been so disappointed and upset with Disney. I rate our band experience a -40.
Pros:
great when it worksCons:
just a terrible overall experienceReviewed by MouseDaddy Review Date: 01/04/2014
Rating: (6) Recommended
Like a lot of other posters I've seen here, I was REALLY excited when I got my MagicBand invite in the mail. I was aware of the Beta testing and intrigued by the idea. I love techie stuff like this and the idea of having my room key, park pass & charging privileges on my wrist was totally cool. I'd already downloaded the MDE app on my phone a while ago and was excited about the capabilities I'd have there with park info, dining res, FP+ etc. Disney for the 21st Century!! But I'm also a realist and knowing it was still in Beta stages, I expected we'd encounter some glitches.
Note: I encountered some issues with the MDE website/app both during setup and while in the parks. Also had some FP+ issues. I'll post those reviews in the forums AllEars has established for those topics.
I had received my MB invite about a month prior to our trip. I went online and began the process of setting up my MBs. I had myself, DW, DS & DD 12 yo twins and my mom & MIL on our room res (I know, I'm goin' right to heaven, right?). Eventually got room, dining res & park tickets linked to the bands and my daughter and I selected colors for each band. We liked the idea of being able to personalize the bands with color as well as name. The bands came in the mail less than 2 weeks later, surprisingly enough. Pretty short turnaround. The bands themselves were really neat...bright, vibrant color...soft rubber with our names on the back. They came in a cool Elastagirl box! Love The Incredibles.
First glitch...about 2 weeks after that (maybe a week before out trip), I get an email and snail mail advising me that my MB package will be waiting for me at our resort. Weird. I've already got my 6 bands...what's up?
When we arrived at SSR it was later in the evening...around 10pm. During check in, I mention the issue and cast member brings us one MB for my son, but in grey, not the red we chose. But we've already got all our bands. Cast member mentions that they've see isolated issues of additional bands coming through the system.
We head to our room and my son tries his band on the room door. Bingo! How cool. So of course now my daughter has to try hers...success as well. We head to Artist's Palette to grab some snacks before they close for the evening. I had linked my cc to MB for both me & DW. I go to pay for our items and band doesn't work. No biggie, I'll figure it out later, dig for cash. Head back to our room and I tell the kids daddy wants to try his band and...door won't open. All other bands in our party worked fine. So I head to concierge the next morning. They try a couple things...re-format my band...15-20 minutes later, they give up and code a new band for me. Grey...not the blue I chose. Eh...not the end of the world. But I was assured all my other res & tix info is okay and I encountered no other issues with my band for the rest of our trip. Yay!!
With only a 5 day stay and the grandmas along, we only hit MK & Epcot on our trip. At both parks the MBs didn't work for the kids. I made sure to bring along the paper tickets so entry was no problem. At Epcot I spoke with a very friendly & helpful cast member. DW's employer had given us several complimentary 1 day park tickets that I had linked to the kids' MBs. Cast member advised that paper tickets such as we had will not link correctly to the MB. Plastic tickets will encounter no problems. Offered to take us to Guest Relations so they could do the link but it was our last day in the parks so no need.
So even though we encountered one fairly significant issue and some glitches, we all thought the MB was a great idea. Grandmas were just amazed at the technology, kids loved the room key aspect and I gave them charging privileges so they were able to pay for pins, snacks etc. I'm confident Disney will refine the process and work out all the kinks
Pros:
Convenience; techie aspectCons:
Problems with linked park tickets; FP+;Website/AppReviewed by jdkyankees Review Date: 12/28/2013
Rating: (9) Recommended
Loved it. I had 21 people in my party and did it all on line and it was easy, from tickets to park passes, to dining reservations. To do the fast passes, easy, easy, easy. I made them a month in advance, split the parties to do what they wanted,and changed them the night before. It was fun experience, any problems, just call they will take care of it. There were 2 minor problems, one military passes still have to be manually put in, but you can do it at any ticket booth now. The other one person had to be put back on the band would not work. Just go to your hotel and they will reprogram the band. Again, made my life a lot easier. This was 35th time, 3rd at Xmas since 1989. Will be back in Feb. to do it again.
Pros:
loved itCons:
communicationReviewed by emmhorton Review Date: 12/14/2013
Rating: (10) Recommended
We actually liked our magic bands. Putting them on in the morning became part of our normal routine and being waterproof, they stayed on all day. You didn't have to worry about losing the card while in the parks or at the pool. We used ours for our tickets and all our purchases. Never had a single problem. It was nice being able to allow my 12 y/o to make purchases with hers as well.
Pros:
ease, always with youCons:
noneReviewed by alwill Review Date: 12/13/2013
Rating: (8) Recommended
Made our annual Holiday trip plans in September and then received a MagicBand® special test offer from Disney. Just before we left home for our trip, purchased Florida Resident 3 Day Tickets per four family members and received confirmation voucher. I tried to add them to our MagicBand® but was unsure if it worked or not. So I printed out the voucher and took it with me.
Upon arrival to All-Star Music resort, checked with Concierge to see if the tickets were on the MagicBands® and if not, could they could add them to each MagicBand®. I was told I had to go to Guest Relations at park because only Guest Relations could confirm I was an actual Florida Resident and do the MagicBand® transfer. We were going to Mickey's Christmas anyway so took the voucher (or as they called them "certificates") along with MagicBands® to Magic Kingdom Guest Relations and the girl took my confirmation voucher and proceeded to issue four plastic tickets. I asked why she couldn't could just put them on our MagicBands®? She replied I could do it using the MyExperience app on my iPhone. So while eating dinner during MVMCP, I attempted to do so. The app told me the ticket number I was entering per my MagicBand® was already in use! (????) Okay.
So I went to Concierge desk the next morning and reported my issues. The CM tried to help and even called in his manager, who fuddled about on his laptop for about 20 minuted and then declared it was all taken care of. Proceeded to Epcot and tried to enter. Neither the MagicBand® nor the plastic ticket(s) would work. We were directed to Darcy, a CM with a specially setup iPad, who walked us over to a Ticket Counter. But the TC tried and tried but couldn't help. We returned to Darcy. She walked us over to Epcot's Guest Relations and Marc, at Guest Relations, went thru the process of transferring each ticket to a MagicBand®. (While waiting there, my wife met a group of nice senior ladies that included one who had actually worked with Walt Disney in the 60's so it was not all for naught.) For our troubles, Darcy provided us a couple of FastPasses and got us into the park. The MagicBands® must of worked as the FP events we had scheduled via My Experience before I left home worked flawlessly. (If I didn't have tickets, how was I able to do FP scheduling?)
The next day, the MagicBand® worked as advertised. Moral of the story: if you buy tickets online that require resident confirmation, be prepared for snafu (hopefully to be addressed soon) Eventually, Disney will likely work it out and I have to admit, it is a cool system.
Still not sure why neither the Concierge nor the MK Guest Relations couldn't have taken care of this when I asked though.
Or that you can't just swipe a MagicBand® at either Concierge desk or Guest Relations and see what is on a MagicBand®. And to defer to "taking care of it" with the MyExperience app is somewhat flawed too, IMHO.
Pros:
Better than fumbling around for tickets and FPCons:
Glitches with Florida Resident PassesReviewed by Motherhen Review Date: 12/10/2013
Rating: (1) Recommended
I was so excited about this new development and couldn't wait to try it. I was so disappointed! I ordered my park tickets through DVC and was told to link them through "My Disney Experience". I had already set up our dining reservations and had them linked with MDE, so I thought it would be a simple process. We were taking our DD's BFF with us and all of our tickets wouldn't link on-line. I needed to call the help line for assistance. The CM on the help line set everything up for me and I was able to start the FP+ set up.
The FP+ set went fairly smoothly, although, the system was somewhat disagreeable when trying to make changes to the FP+ I had already set up. Nonetheless, I got everything ready and on screen everything looked perfect.
I showed up at our resort and was handed the display box with our customized wrist bands inside. They were exactly what I had ordered on-line. We used then right away to get into our room and they worked perfectly.
The next day when we went to use them at Animal Kingdom the problems started, and they continued through our entire vacation. We were staying for 10 days and out of our 30 FP+ selections that were set up, only 4 worked. It was a horribly frustrating experience.
I had to carry around a print out of our FP+ selections and show them to every CM at every ride or attraction we wanted to get into. Not exactly convenient. I spoke to CMs at every park and each and every time they did a system scan of our wrist bands, it showed everything exactly as I had planned it from home, but for some reason it wouldn't link up in the parks.
At check-in we were also given the original blue park ticket cards to use and these worked better for FP than our wrist bands.
The wrist bands worked exactly as they were supposed to for our meal plan and for entry to the parks themselves, it seemed that only the FP+ wasn't working.
FP+, in theory, sounds like a good idea, however, we found the FP lines were longer, in many cases, than the stand-by lines. In several instances we rode a ride in the stand-by line and then rode it again with our FP. Once the system becomes more widely know and used the FP lines will be useless.
I was expecting a lot more from Disney and was terribly disappointed!
My DH wanted me to add that the wristbands are very poorly designed. He has a very large wrist and found them uncomfortable. It was very hot while we were there, and the bands do not breathe, and caused skin irritation and sweating. They also leave unsightly tan lines. Definitely need work.
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Ours didn't work wellReviewed by minniespal Review Date: 11/30/2013
Rating: (9) Recommended
After making my reservations online for Sept 25-29th at the Pop Century I got an email and then a letter asking if I would like to test the Magicbands. I agreed. Shortly thereafter I was on the phone ordering my customized MagicBand. The castmember on the phone answered all my questions and explained how the band could be used in conjunction with the Disney Experience app. I was very surprised that it came so quickly and in a very cool display box.
I must say I did call again to make sure I had all my dinner reservations, Food and Wine seminar tickets and my Mickey’s Not so Scary tickets all on my Disney Experience app on my cellphone and again the cast member was very helpful.
I had no problems with the Magical Express and with check-in at the Pop Century. I even got a glow in the dark slider with the year on it from one of the cast members which was very cool. I also had no real problems rearranging my fastpasses, except one day when I tried to rearrange them too late in the day to get the times I wanted.
I did have a little trouble at first using the MagicBand to open my door, but I had help from one of my neighbors at the Pop and from then on it worked very well.
There were some times making purchased or entering the park where I had to swipe it more than once
but that also happened with the Key to the World card too. I must admit, having the Magicband on was so much more convenient than having to hunt for my Key to the World card all the time
All in all, I enjoyed using it and it was kind of fun being in the exclusive “Testing Clubâ€. I loved the fact that you had a choice of colors and that the band could be accessorized, though most people left them plain. It was fun at first ordering Fastpasses for Toy Story and Soaring as not everyone could do that yet, but once this becomes the norm, I fear Fastpasses will be harder to get than ever, especially for those who like to wing it instead of planning so far ahead. I think the Fastpass situation will undergo many changes until they get it right.
Pros:
the convenience of having the Magicband vs Key to the World cardCons:
only 3 fastpasses for only 1 park a dayReviewed by Ben Review Date: 11/23/2013
Rating: (1) Not Recommended
I was at WDW this past September and had the magic bands. Here are the problems I see. (1) If you schedule changes you are now locked into a fast pass for where you are not. (ie. rain, tired children, someone getting sick.) (2) It limits how many times you can ride your favorite ride. (ie. you can only get one fast pass on the magic bands per ride per day.) (3) Like the other reader said, if you don't have the magic bands you are stuck with standing in line. (4) I am an annual pass holder and tried using the magic band one morning where I was first in line. It did not work and finally, after several tries, I had to get out my annual pass card. Therefore, I do not like the magic bands and hope Disney realizes they are not as magical as they thought.
