Question about Magic Bands that you purchase

[laprana]

I'm thinking about buying a "special" Magic Band for my mom for her birthday, but I'm not entirely sure how it works. We have a trip planned for Thanksgiving, and her birthday is a couple weeks before. My plan is to buy one of the bands from the Disney Store website so she will have it before we leave and to use for our Thanksgiving trip. But how does it get linked to our reservation and/or activated for use in the parks and at the resort (we're staying at AKL)? Will we need to do something in the My Disney Experience app before we leave for the trip? Or do we bring the band with us and have them link it at the front desk during check-in?

I get confused enough by the Magic Bands we get free from Disney each trip. I know she would love the special band, but I also don't want to open up a world of Disney tech issues by trying to use a purchased band. TIA for any help!

[Kplaster]

We bought ours once we got there and went to the concierge to have it activated. If you are buying it before you go just show it at check in and they will link it to your reservation. She can then use either band she would like.

[Speedy1998]

You link it through the MDE website. If I remember correctly the box the MB comes in has the web address and directions to link the band.

[Ms. Mode]

FYI: We purchased special MBs on our trip in March; we found out that if you have several bands on you account they can interfere with the one you are using. The best thing to do is deactivate bands that you aren't using on this trip.

[laprana]

Thanks for the info! It sounds like we can link it either before the trip or after we arrive, so that's really good to know. I'll probably try to take care of it before the trip, but if I have problems I'll just do it at the front desk.

FYI: We purchased special MBs on our trip in March; we found out that if you have several bands on you account they can interfere with the one you are using. The best thing to do is deactivate bands that you aren't using on this trip.

I found this out the hard way last November! We had several active bands linked and it took about half a day for us to get checked in and able to get into our room at SSR because all those old bands were interfering with our new ones. Now I make sure to go in and deactivate all of our bands before leaving home for any WDW trips! That's part of the reason I was hesitant to try using a purchased band...I'm skeptical it will work without any glitches, lol!