Magic Bands and staying off site

[Peace Mickey Lovers]

How does it work for someone staying off site and getting magic bands?
Are we able to get them and do fast pass plus?

 

[Robo]

How does it work for someone staying off site and getting magic bands?
Are we able to get them and do fast pass plus?

Yes, but...

It is not the MagicBand (MB) that allows scheduling of FP+.

You need to set up a MyDisneyExperience account HERE and purchase
your park tickets up to 30 days in advance in order to make FP+ advance reservations.

You can purchase (but do not need) a MB.

Park entry and FP+ entry can be done just using a regular
WDW plastic ticket.

MB's are just optional trinkets.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

As long as you have a My Disney Experience account and park tickets linked to that account, you can book your FP+ 30 days from the day you intend to use the tickets, for up to the length of the tickets. The Magic Band isn't relevant. You can use a ticket card with RFID chip for anything you can use a magic band for.

If you want a magic band you can purchase one at WDW for $12.99 and have it linked to your MDX account so that you can use it for park admission and redeeming FP+

 

[JimmyV]

Keep in mind that much of the functionality of the MB is lost to you when you stay off site, so you should think about whether you want to spend $13 a piece on them.

• On site guests can put their Dining Plan credits on their bands. Off site guests cannot get a Dining Plan, so this function is useless.
• On site guests can open their Resort room with their MB. Off site guests cannot so this function is useless.
• On site guests can add "charging privileges" to their MB so that they can buy food and souveniers by paying with a touch of their band. Off site guests cannot do this, so this function is useless.
• On site guests can put their FP+ reservations on their MB. Off site guests' FP+ reservations will show up on their hard plastic admission ticket, so the MB does not gain them any convenience.
• On site guests can have their Magical Express reservations added to their MB. Off site guests cannot use Magical Express, so this function is useless.

In the end, the MB of an off site person does nothing more than the hard plastic ticket. Only you can decide whether the fashion statement or "convenience" of wearing a band on your wrist as opposed to keeping a ticket in one's pocket is worth $13 x (# of people in your party).

 

[Unearned Happiness]

On site guests can put their FP+ reservations on their MB. Off site guests' FP+ reservations will show up on their hard plastic admission ticket, so the MB does not gain them any convenience.

That seems incorrect. You sure?

 

[MakiraMarlena]

Technically it's not correct. The FP+ reservations are stored in your MDX account. The difference is what RFID-enabled device you use at the scan point to access your MDX account. You can use either a magic band assigned to you, or a RFID ticket card assigned to you. The difference is that if you are staying offsite and are not an annual passholder, you have to pay extra to get a Magic Band.

If you purchase a Magic Band at WDW it will be linked to your MDX account when you buy it, and you can then use it to redeem FP+ reservations you have already made. It does sound like the PP is saying that you cannot use a magic band you purchase onsite to access your FP+ reservations that you made before you got there. It is true that you do not actually need the band to access your FP+ reservations, you can do it with your ticket. There may be an added convenience to using a Magic Band if you wish to have everybody wear their own on their wrist and not have to pull out your ticket or your family's tickets at every FP+ scan point.

It is the case that you cannot use the band for resort access or for charging; about all you can use it for would be for park admittance and FP Plus.

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

We just used our tickets for FPs linked to the MDE app. You don't need a magic band unless you are dying to have one and spend more money for a rubber bracelet. When I logged into MDE on my smart phone, I just had to assign each ticket to a person by scanning the back of the ticket. After that, I could reserve all the FPs.

Magic bands I think are sometimes confused AS the FastPass, but they aren't. They are RFID just like your ticket card. Although I got sick of taking mine in and out all the time so I was wearing my cruise lanyard so I could just wave it in front for the reader. That's one advantageous for a band I guess, but it didn't bother me.

 

[JimmyV]

That seems incorrect. You sure?

Yes, I am sure.

Technically it's not correct.

Actually, it is correct. Your hard plastic ticket gets tapped to the Mickey tapstile just like a MB. No discernable difference. See below...

We just used our tickets for FPs linked to the MDE app. You don't need a magic band unless you are dying to have one and spend more money for a rubber bracelet. When I logged into MDE on my smart phone, I just had to assign each ticket to a person by scanning the back of the ticket. After that, I could reserve all the FPs.

We did the same thing and it worked flawlessly.

 

[Robo]

On site guests can put their Dining Plan credits on their bands...

On site guests can put their FP+ reservations on their MB...

I'm sure you meant to say this correctly, but those statements are misleading.

No dining credit or FP+ info (or anything else) can be "put onto guest's MagicBands."

There is a great deal of confusion when it comes to "what is on" a MB.

Just to keep things as clear as possible-

There is no reservation info, or ticket info, or credit card info,
or FP+ info "put onto" a MagicBand.

The MagicBands just contain a unique serial number that is used
to access the information that is stored in your MyDisneyExperience computer file.

So, even if you were to lose a MagicBand, the info stays locked in your file.
Disney can just set up a new band (different serial number)
to access the info in your MDE file.
Disney can also issue ADDITIONAL MB's to a guest and each
additional band can be used for the same purposes as the first band.
So, yes, there can be multiple MB's per person, and each of them can be used by that person.

The MagicBand works like the combination to a locked safe, or a key to a locked door.

Why does this distinction matter?
Because there is so much fear about losing bands and,
in turn, losing all of a guest's information thought to be on the band.

The MB, itself, is not the file of info or the container of the info.
The MB just unlocks the file of info, allowing it to be accessed from your MDE account when needed.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

You did make it sound like a guest who was staying offsite could not use a Magic Band to access FP+ they had made before they purchased the Magic Band, because those FPs are "on" their ticket. The FP's are not on either the band or the ticket. You can choose which one you wish to use as your RFID-enabled device at scan points, to access the information that is stored in your MDX account.

If in fact what you meant to say is that an offsite guest could access FP+ with a RFID ticket, which will cost them nothing, just the same as they could with a Magic Band, that is correct.

 

[JimmyV]

If in fact what you meant to say is that an offsite guest could access FP+ with a RFID ticket, which will cost them nothing, just the same as they could with a Magic Band, that is correct.

That is what I meant, and it is clear to me. But there is no way to predict which terminology will resonate with a chat board that has almost 500,000 users. So I am trying to explain it in a way that makes sense to people who are unsure how the system works. Let's try again:

If you are staying offsite, and do not have the ability to: use Magical Express, buy a Dining Plan, charge purchases to your room, or access a WDW resort room, then a purchased Magic Band functions only to get you into the parks by tapping the tapstile, and accessing the FP lines by, again, tapping a tapstile. That is all the MB can or will do. If you do not buy a MB and instead opt for a hard plastic ticket (either purchased from Ultimate Tourist, or WDW, or AAA, or wherever), you can go to My Disney Experience, register the card by using the number on the back of the card and assigning that card to a specific user, and tap that card to the Mickey reader at the park entrances and FP lines and gain access the same way that the MB does. The plastic card does nothing less (and nothing more) than the MB in those circumstances. It doesn't matter where in the "cloud" the information is stored, or how it is housed. All that matters is that plastic cards are accepted at all tapstiles and offsite guests get nothing additional by buying a MB other than a plastic piece of jewelry.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

they get the ability to wear them instead of having to pull out tickets, and that's all they get. If that's valuable to them then it does have value. But if you don't care about having to pull out the tickets, then you don't need a band but you can buy one if you think it'll be cool to have one.

 

[Paranoid Android]

We just got back from Disney World, stayed offsite, and purchased MB at DTD. The big plus to me of having the MB when staying offsite was the Memory Maker. As long as we linked the Memory Maker to MDE, the Memory Maker was tied to every MB in my family, which was helpful when we were split up and wanted to take pics separately. Granted, you could probably do this with your ticket card as well (I'm just assuming you can), but the convenience of not having to pull them out every time, and also, my kids are a little careless and they are more likely to lose a card then something attached to their wrist.

The only downside we experienced was purchasing them in DTD. When we choose to link it to our tickets, no one knew how to do it. Only a manager could do it, and they had to page a manager to come to the shop to link the tickets to the MB. We had to wait about 10 minutes. There were about 5 cast members in the shop, but they only knew how to link them to your credit card, and not your tickets.

But yeah, if you find convenience in it, that's really all it gets you. For us, it was worth it.

 

[Unearned Happiness]

If you are staying offsite, and do not have the ability to: use Magical Express, buy a Dining Plan, charge purchases to your room, or access a WDW resort room, then a purchased Magic Band functions only to get you into the parks by tapping the tapstile, and accessing the FP lines by, again, tapping a tapstile. That is all the MB can or will do.

We just got back from Disney World, stayed offsite, and purchased MB at DTD. The big plus to me of having the MB when staying offsite was the Memory Maker. As long as we linked the Memory Maker to MDE, the Memory Maker was tied to every MB in my family, which was helpful when we were split up and wanted to take pics separately. Granted, you could probably do this with your ticket card as well (I'm just assuming you can), but the convenience of not having to pull them out every time, and also, my kids are a little careless and they are more likely to lose a card then something attached to their wrist.

I was just thinking of that. Memory Maker is huge. So yeah, you actually do get a lot of functionality out of them, even if you're not staying on site. So then it just becomes a matter of preference and convenience. Plus it's a cool little souvenir that the kiddos will like.

 

[PirateMom78]

On this same note...
Can someone purchase MB for me while they are at the parks, bring them home to me and I connect them to my MM account?

 

[jco_direwolf]

On this same note...
Can someone purchase MB for me while they are at the parks, bring them home to me and I connect them to my MM account?

As far as I can tell, no.

Disney has to make the initial link with a park ticket or something.

There is a number of the back a "Band ID" which is 3 groups of 4 digits. But I don't see any place in MDE to input them. and I think once they are associated with an account Disney IT would have to disassociate them.

 

[snayak]

On this same note...
Can someone purchase MB for me while they are at the parks, bring them home to me and I connect them to my MM account?

I don't think so - if you purchase them you have to link then and there.

 

[StarCruiser]

On this same note...
Can someone purchase MB for me while they are at the parks, bring them home to me and I connect them to my MM account?

I think you can. I found this in MDE:

Don't See a Purchased MagicBand? If you purchase a MagicBand and don't do in-store set-up, you'll need to link the MagicBand ID Number to your account.

If you go to "MagicBands and Card" under MDE, at the bottom there is a "Link" button with the above information next to to.

When you click on the "Link" button, it will take you to a page where you can select to link a MagicBand.

Click "Select" under MagicBand on that page, and it goes to a page where you can enter your MagicBand ID Number.

 

[libertybelle08]

If I'm understanding what I've read on here correctly, the MBs I've gotten on previous trips will work (for FP & MM purposes) on my November trip, even though I'm staying off-site? I prefer the MB to digging around in my bag looking for the card.

 

[jco_direwolf]

If I'm understanding what I've read on here correctly, the MBs I've gotten on previous trips will work (for FP & MM purposes) on my November trip, even though I'm staying off-site? I prefer the MB to digging around in my bag looking for the card.

Yes magic bands as long as they are linked to your MDE account. I've been using my "Jedi Dad" MB for the last 3 trips down there. I have to stop at the front desk sometimes to make sure it's on the Door lock, but other than that I just use that one.