Disney Magic Bands. Love them or hate them they are here to stay.
My family have used the bands ourselves I really like them. Disney Magic bands act as your admission into the parks. If you stay at a Walt Disney World Resort, they will open the door to your hotel room. You can also check wait times, view special events such as parades, character shows, firework displays, character meet and greets and view park / magic hours. It will even keep track of any dining reservations and Disney dining credits for you. Hopefully the information I provided will make your experience using the magic bands as enjoyable and easy as it was for us.
The first thing you need to know is an account must be set up. Log into this site on your home pc or mobile app www.mydisneyexperience.com. Enter and verify all information required to activate your account. in order to choose from the assortment of colors if you do not set an account ahead of time you receive only the Grey band. If you wish to choose the colors of your family's magic bands setting up an account is fairly simple. No longer do you have to dig through your purse, wallet or pocket searching for your key to the world card. Instead of a lanyard dangling from your neck your Disney Magic Band is always at the ready right on your wrist.
Entering the parks is as easy and pulling up to the gate and touching your magic band to the scanner ( cast members refer to it as doing your Mickey to Mickey scan) and similar scanning to enter your room as well as to enter any of the Disney parks. This scanning process is also used at the beginning and end of all the fast past lines for rides and attractions in the park.
Using your Magic bands for your fast passes eliminates the needs for paper fast passes that can easily be lost or damaged. Guests can obtain fast passes days ahead of time by accessing their www.mydisneyexperience.com account. This eliminates the need to find and wait in fast pass distribution centers lines for the rides your most interested in enjoying.
It is also extremely simple to modify your fast passes if your schedule is thrown off or you find that the stand by time is not long enough to require a fast pass. The only draw back to using the magic bands for fast passes is you are limited to 3 fast passes per day per person. For example if you use 2 fast passes in one or more parks you will only have 1 fast pass remaining for that day.
To make dining and and shopping experiences more enjoyable, all your meals, merchandise and purchases can be charged right to your band at the cash register. You only have to link your credit card to your account when setting it up. Guests set up their own private pin codes so that your credit card details remain secure and perfectly safe. The only drawback to this is its very easy to loose track or what your spending.
This system is new and as with everything Disney, they continually keep improving it to make it even better. We had a Disney Dining Plan and we did run into a couple of minor hiccups that were easily corrected. I would still recommend keeping all receipts if your on the dining plan till the end of each day ensure everything runs smooth.
