Most Recent Reviews
Review of MagicBand
Reviewed by elindros Review Date: 11/20/2013
Rating: (8) Recommended
Just returned from a week at Disney World and using Magic Bands and MDE. First snag was not being able to connect annual passes to bands before leaving home. Seems there is a little problem with anyone who purchased their annual pass last year, had to go to Guest Relations where they had to reissue the annual pass and then connect to Magic Band.
Whatever you do - do not use hand cream or sun screen on your hands before entering the park - it creates a problem with the finger reader.
Having the band was great when coming back from the park to our room no fumbling through anything to find the room key card much easier to just put the band on the door to unlock.
They are also starting new rules for the FastPass+ for the more popular rides which should help more people being able to get the most popular ones easier.
I think once all the bugs are ironed out the Magic Bands will be a great addition to everyone's vacation.
Pros:
Makes everything easier from park admission to room entry and not having to carry credit cards when shoppingCons:
still have a few bugs to work outReview of MagicBand
Reviewed by miketp Review Date: 11/20/2013
Rating: (7) Recommended
It took 4 phone calls to Disney to get our bands linked tickets. I had a 10 day park hopper with no expiration date. I could not get My Disney Experience to accept ticket number but cast member fixed on first call. However, it took 3 more calls to get my wife's Premier Pass accepted. When we got to Magic Express neither band worked and cast member would not accept paper voucher. It took long enough to fix that we missed bus and did not get to resort until 1 a.m. Also we always have park hopper but Fast Pass+ is only good at one park a day! a major drawback.
Pros:
Ease of useCons:
No park hopper featureReview of MagicBand
Reviewed by shoprgal Review Date: 11/20/2013
Rating: (10) Recommended
We used the MBs on our trip to WDW in Sept/Oct. The issue we had was that we mailed the MBs to our resort, but they were not there when we arrived (or so we thought, even though I had received a tracking no.) We were issued gray bands. Three days later the original bands showed up in our room.....Here's what happened...I had made our original Disney Co. Reservation, picked out the MBs, linked reservations to MDE in advance of the trip - BUT a week before the original arrival date, I made an adjustment to arrive 2 days earlier....that date was not programed into the original MBs that had been mailed to our resort prior to the new, earlier arrival date. We had double the MBs for the rest of the trip!
Pros:
—Cons:
—Review of MagicBand
Reviewed by 2SweetFlowers Review Date: 11/20/2013
Rating: (8) Recommended
These arm bands are amazing -- they contain all the information you need to board the Magical Express bus at the airport, open the door to your resort room, enter the parks, purchase food and merchandise, and get FastPass+ entry to attractions. At the Be Our Guest Restaurant, it even acted like a GPS so the servers knew right where to deliver our meal. When an attraction broke down minutes before our FastPass time, we didn't lose out on the attraction, but were able to return at a time convenient for us.
The downside is when the magic band didn't work. We repeatedly had problems with one of our magic bands entering the Magic Kingdom -- although it worked just fine at all of the other parks. The first time it didn't work, we needed to show photo ID and annual pass card (which we fortunately had with us). The second time, it was only necessary to show the annual pass card. The third time, we accidentally handed the cast member our Key to the World for the resort instead of the annual pass. Somehow, they managed to transfer our resort information onto the annual pass card, and vice versa. We were then sent to guest services to obtain a new annual pass card, which meant we had to update the info on My Disney Experience before changing or making any new FastPass+ selections. When the magic band worked, it was great...but there are still a few glitches to work out.
Pros:
Convenient -- no need to carry cards & passes!Cons:
When it doesn't work, still need to carry cards & passes!Review of Kona Cafe Lunch/Dinner
Reviewed by 2SweetFlowers Review Date: 11/20/2013
Rating: (8) Recommended
The Kona Cafe has long been a last-night-of-vacation dinner tradition for us, but after dropping our favorite almond coconut chicken with salad from the menu, we may need to find another restaurant and start a new tradition. We were extremely disappointed in the revised menu and really had a hard time finding anything we even wanted to order. The chicken dish now offered on the menu was rather nondescript despite the curry sauce. The kona coffee rubbed pork chop was delicious, but we didn't care for the mushroom bread pudding served alongside.
Pros:
Bread and DessertCons:
Disappointing Menu ChangeReview of MagicBand
Reviewed by Susan C Review Date: 11/20/2013
Rating: (1) Not Recommended
Just got back from Disney. A group of us went and all had the bands. Our bands were so bad that for 3 of our rooms we were refunded a full night for our deluxe resort along with 3 anytime any park fast passes for the length of our stay. We went from the bands not opening our doors, to getting into the parks, reservations etc... To also our cards not working. It was so frustrating to constantly having to have them fixed. We wasted more time on them. I know it wasn't just our group because you would see others having to deal with managers trying to enter the parks. They need to do a lot more work on these before they have everyone using them. We did hear they are going to hold back rolling them out until spring 2014 instead of by the end of the year. I do have to say there were a number of great cast members who tried to help!
Pros:
NoneCons:
—Review of FastPass+ (Retired)
Reviewed by Murrellfam Review Date: 11/20/2013
Rating: (9) Recommended
Main problem, sometimes there are glitches...but if you plan your fast passes for the second park you are in...it helps since you won't get fast passes any other way...a little bit if planning goes a long way
Love magic bands and fast pass+
Pros:
Setting times for rides ahead of timeCons:
NoneReview of MagicBand
Reviewed by para522 Review Date: 11/19/2013
Rating: (5) Recommended
We visited the World for a short visit (long weekend) November 15-18, 2013, specifically to see the new things (i.e. Fantasyland) and the Christmas events/decorations. The bands basically worked great, except my DH had a hard time getting the hang of it and it took him a while to get through sometimes. It was easy for purchases, photopass, etc. DD10 LOVED using it. Basically a great system. The drawback and the reason I only give it a 5 is the Fastpass+ system. Others have mentioned this - you get three FP per day in one park - period. We did not know this ahead of time and I've looked through the site and I can't find mention of this, at all. So, we made FP for morning times and then found that we had to wait in line the rest of the day. Wasn't that big of a deal this time of year, but I can't imagine going through that when it is more crowded. I hope that is something they consider changing in the future.
Pros:
convenient, fun, fastCons:
Fastpass+Review of Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe
Reviewed by Hstepzinski Review Date: 11/19/2013
Rating: (4) Not Recommended
The location is great and very convenient for our plans. The food was terrible though. It was dry and really overcooked. I had a hard time eating the bread because it was thick and dry. My daughter only ate her food because she was so hungry but still only ate about half. My son who is a toddler had a hard time even chewing the food we shared with him.
Pros:
locationCons:
dry overcooked foodReview of Columbia Harbour House
Reviewed by Hstepzinski Review Date: 11/19/2013
Rating: (10) Recommended
The food here was great and something completely different than you would expect to get.
