Magic Bands??? Over Planning Panic

My son will be going to Disney next year with his band. What's the story about these.

I'd like to advise him on the latest to make his Spring Break trip most efficient. I HATE having to make dinner reservations but I'll try again...It was complex because they never knew where they were going to be. They had a hard time getting to the reservations...mostly ended up giving up and eating hamburgers or pizza the whole week. AND now...they have "magic bands"...sounds like they'll be stuck with just standing in 2 hour lines...the whole trip.

1. Are the "magic bands" only for "resort guests"??

If not...

2. Does this mean they'll have to set up what rides they want to ride 30 days or earlier than their trip. This is CRAZY? They won't have a clue which park they're going to go to till they get there?

3. Does this mean the "fastpass" system will change??

4. Can I load money to his account remotely??

This has me very nervous. I'd really like his last trip to be "fun"...But I'm afraid it's turning into a nightmare of over planning. I don't even know how to advise him anymore. I'm thinking about going...I'd love to see my son march in his last Disney parade before he graduates...but...I'm scared to go anymore...it's just not vacation if you have to plan every minute...Maybe I'm not understanding these bands right and I'm just panicking....:(

Bump test?

Yes I think your panicking over something that is silly to panic over.

Magic Bands will eventually be for all guests (or at least the RFID enabled cards will be). Whenever it gets out of the testing phase, looks like the start of 2014 everyone should be rolled in.

The original fast pass system will go away. They do not have to make fast pass plus reservations in advance. They can, they don't have to. They can on the day they walk into MK pull out their phones and do it then or walk up to a kiosk and set them up there.

No idea on the loading money remotely. I'd imagine that is a no. Why not just send him with disney gift cards? Is your concern him having large amounts of cash or loosing a credit card? A pre paid credit card would also work.

And if they don't want to schedule things, don't make reservations. The new disney app is pretty helpful on finding open reservations if you want a sit down meal. But if it was my teenage self in the park with a bunch of friends I don't think I'd want to be tied to reservations.

There are plenty of great counter service options that serve many other things then burgers and fries.

We are testing the magic bands and were just informed recently. While I believe that it is true that you can sign up for some fast passes the day of or at the park, there are certainly others that are not going to be available.

While booking our fastpasses now for a week or two away, there are some rides or time slots that are already all gone.

I agree that there is no reason to panic about something that you can not help. Make fast passes for those things that you do not want to miss but going every year, I have found that you can do just about every ride with or without a fastpass if you be smart about timing and not getting stressed.

Good luck!

We'll be testing the bands on our quick one-nighter tomorrow-Thursday. I also got Fastpasses ahead of time but have questions - i.e. can you only book three at a time or can you get one or two? I didn't realize until I'd finished that you can choose from a list of times vs. letting the system choose options for you. We'll see how it goes!

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Originally Posted by thrillme

Bump test?

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This is EASY to understand....and actually planning for a ride before a person goes is fantastic!
But, call WDW or visit the website.
But to panic of this....is silly. NOTHING to panic over...it is just planning, and thats easy.

I feel your pain. My daughter is going with her band at the same time. We have a tentative itinerary from their director but I can't imagine that they will be able to know who all will be in their group at any given time to be able to reserve FP in advance. I guess they'll just have to wing it.

Thanks for the replies. I guess I was just "nervous" because I couldn't offer any "recommendations" for him other than tell him they have a new system than we were "used" to.

As it turned out whatever system is going on it worked ok. They didn't pre-plan anything at the park but they managed to ride pretty much everything they wanted (I "think")...at least he didn't complain (except that they royally screwed up "Test Track")...

I was able to give him his own credit card thru my bank (I hate "pre-paid" cards because they always cost "some money", pre-paid cards...if you lose them they're gone just like cash and I didn't want him to be "short" if he needed something). I just gave him a verbal "limit" and monitored the card. It was a good opportunity to teach him to monitor his spending. It worked well for us...

He didn't even come close to his limit BUT he said that we absolutely MUST lose the "Tinkerbell" on the card...It just doesn't fly with the "Macho" theme...LOL :D

Just a note about the card design. I'm assuming since you mentioned that Tinkerbell was on it that it is the Disney card offered by Chase. You can choose to have different designs on the various cards for the account. I have the card with the castle on it and DH really didn't want that, so his card has just sort of grey. Same account number and everything just different card designs. I'm trying to remember if I was able to choose on the website or if I had to call in, but I remember it wasn't very difficult to do. Just a thought.

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Originally Posted by Figment104

Just a note about the card design. I'm assuming since you mentioned that Tinkerbell was on it that it is the Disney card offered by Chase. You can choose to have different designs on the various cards for the account. I have the card with the castle on it and DH really didn't want that, so his card has just sort of grey. Same account number and everything just different card designs. I'm trying to remember if I was able to choose on the website or if I had to call in, but I remember it wasn't very difficult to do. Just a thought.

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Yep...I'm with ya. "I" picked the Tinkerbell a looonnngg time ago...It was "MY" card only at the time soooo....Tinkerbell is "cute". When I got "HIS" card I just didn't put any thought into changing the design till he mentioned something...LOL...:D When he gets back home I'll let him pick his design. There are lots of "fun" designs to choose from...

We're getting a little chuckle out of it.