My Experience with Disney World’s New Magic Bands
By: Shellie WylieIn September I was privileged to attend the EarMarked Conference for Disney Travel Professionals. As part of the conference experience, I was allowed to test the Magic Band technology. I must say that I really LOVED everything about using this new Disney technology!
Before my trip, I was given access to My Disney Experience. The web site is specifically designed to correspond with the Magic Bands and other great planning tools. The Disney site is easy to navigate and offers several new and amazing tools!So what did I need to do? As the agency owner of Wishes Family Travel, I HAD to figure out how to use this site paying attention to all the little details. I HAD to experience it exactly the way you my guests and future guests would experience it. It is this level of expertise and experience that sets my agency apart from others – we PROMISE to be Trained. Traveled. Trusted. So, as tech-adverse as I am, I dove right into this site.The first thing I had to do was link my Disney World Resort Reservation. Then I had to link my tickets. I had two different tickets to link; one was a park hopper and one was a Mickey’s Not So Scary Party ticket. Done.Once my tickets and resort reservations were linked, I had access to some great itinerary planning tools! I selected what Disney World parks I wanted for what days – the park hours automatically popped up! If I selected the Magic Kingdom for a day the Halloween Party, I noticed that the park hours were listed different from a non-party day. That’s good. So the park hours are loaded into the system correctly. Sounds strange, but that can be a very important piece of information when planning a week long itinerary.
Now that I know what parks or what days, I can now choose ADVANCE Fast Passes! How spectacular is that! The Fast Pass+ program is only available for those people getting Magic Bands. And boy is it a great perk! I, and everyone, am limited to three Fast Pass+ per day. What was really great, was that so many more experiences are included as FP+ experiences over regular Fast Passes: Parade viewing, Fireworks Shows; Stage Shows; Character Meets & Greets.The downside, the part that kept nagging at me, was do I really want to plan down to what time I am going on a ride? The answer ended up being Yes and No. I will explain more later.So now I want to make a couple of dining reservations. I did notice that some of the search criteria didn’t really work. For instances if I asked for Dinner on a certain date, specifying Character Meals, my list of available dinners included ALL available dinners, not just Character Meals. I am sure that Disney tech geniuses are working on that as we speak! It was easy to make my dinner reservations and since I was logged in, I didn’t have to enter credit card information again for the guarantee. I really like that as opposed to the old engine where I would have to do that for each and every dining reservation that required a credit card guarantee.And my final need was to personalize my Magic Band. First I was asked to verify my mailing address as Disney sends the Magic Bands directly to the guest even if you used a travel agent. Then I selected my color, pink and the name I wanted printed on the inside of the band – Shellie. This is significant as family members can have the same color bands, but with the names on the underside, you can be sure the right band is on the right wrist.It is also significant to note that you can put a nick-name rather than your legal name used on the reservation. So if your name is Christina Grace, your magic band can say “Grace”; or if your name is John Jones, your band can say “JJ”. It’s up to you, and that is great!The final step is to download the phone app for use while at Walt Disney World with the free Wi-Fi resort-wide!My pink Magic Band arrived at my house. As soon as I landed in Orlando, I put the band on my wrist. Be sure that you remember to put the bands in a carry-on bag or just wear them!
Since my resort reservation was linked for the Polynesian Resort, so was my Magical Express, the free transportation toand from the airport to Disney World. It was so cool to walk up to the ME line, hold my band up to the Mickey Icon RFID reader, and get on the bus!With my band on my wrist I could open the door to my lovely pool view room at the Polynesian; get into the parks; use my FastPass+ selections and charge to my room with my pin code! If I had been on the dining plan, I could have used my wrist and pin code to use my dining points too! I found it exceptionally easy and if I didn’t have to wear prescription sunglasses, I would have gone into the parks sans my purse!Now, back to the advance FastPass selections. The really great part is you can get those hard to get fast passes without getting to the park when it opens! This means you can SLEEP IN while on vacation! When was the last time you slept in while at Disney World? I found that most magical! So you can select a timeframe that is good for you. Your selections are still available with an approximate hour window. If you really want to see the Beauty and the Beast show, you can use one of your three Fast Pass+ on one of your Hollywood Studios days.In essence you can select your top three experiences per day and try to make them match your touring and itinerary plans. The downside is what if you change your mind? If you change your mind BEFORE your FastPass time, you can use the app on your phone to change the experience or time. If you don’t have the app on your phone you will have to go to Guest Relations for special assistance. So for tech challenged people, this could be an issue. If you just miss your Fast Pass+ time, that’s it, no do-overs.
On my trip to Disney World, I had no tech issues with my Magic Band. I was very satisfied with the preplanning site, MyDisneyExperience, and the on-site use of my pretty pink Magic Band! What does all this new technology that Disney is introducing mean for my Agency and my clients?I think it means we will be even more involved in your itinerary planning than we were before! Our concierge services include doing as much of the planning available on MyDisneyExperience as you would like us to do for you. With the access to the advance Fast Passes, it is now more important than ever to have a really good itinerary plan. And that is what we really, really love to do! And you know, when you love what you do it doesn’t feel like work!My advice to you is to embrace the Magic Bands at Walt Disney World! It’s new, it’s fun and it is really cool! You might as well learn to love it all. Every Walt Disney World resort is scheduled to be Magic Band ready by November 30, 2013.If you have questions or concerns, feel free to email the author, Shellie Wylie, Agency Owner, Wishes Family Travel.