MyMagic+ News: MagicBands Now Available to All Guests
All Walt Disney World Resort day Guests are able to join MyMagic+ testing starting TODAY (Monday, March 31, 2014) and MagicBands are now officially available for sale. This enables day Guests opportunity to make FastPass+ selections 30 days in advance of their trip and can purchase MagicBands to link to their plans in My Disney Experience. MagicBands are available for purchase at 18 merchandise locations across theme parks and Downtown Disney for $12.95 plus tax. Continue reading for additional information.
MagicBands are now available in seven colors (pink, blue, red, green, orange, gray, yellow) at the following retail locations:
Magic Kingdom Park
Main Street, U.S.A. – Emporium (Zone1), Curtain Call Collectibles, Box Office Gifts (Expo Hall)
Tomorrowland - Space Mountain Gift Shop
Storybook Circus – Big Top Souvenirs
Frontierland – Frontierland Trading Post
Transportation and Ticket Center - Mickey’s Gift Station
Epcot
Camera Center
World Traveler at International Gateway
Disney Traders in World Showcase
Disney’s Hollywood Studios
Legends of Hollywood
The Darkroom
Stage One Studio Store
Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park
Disney Outfitters
Creature Comforts
Chester and Hester’s Dinosaur Treasures
Downtown Disney Area
Downtown Disney Marketplace - Disney’s Pin Traders
Downtown Disney West Side - DisneyQuest Gift Shop
After a MagicBand is purchased, Cast Members will link the Guest’s admission media (or other RF media such as an existing MagicBand or Memory Maker card) to the retail MagicBand. If the Guest’s ticket is already linked to his/her My Disney Experience account, all of the plans, such as tickets, dining reservations and FastPass+ selections, will be seamlessly linked to their new MagicBand.
Touch to pay is not available for day Guests. Only Guests staying at Walt Disney World Resort hotels who establish charging privileges upon check-in are able to touch to pay using MagicBands or RF-enabled theme park tickets.
Guests staying at the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Hotels now can make FastPass+ selections up to 60 days prior to their check-in date. They are not issued MagicBands, and they are not able to touch to pay.
The true reason why disney made the switch to fastpass+
ReplyDeleteSo, what does that mean for people staying on the resorts? Do they have to pay an additional cost?
ReplyDelete@Karen: no, Disney Resort Guests will still continue to get the MagicBands for "free" as they are included in the price of the room.
ReplyDeleteIf people hated fast pass plus before, they are really going to flip out that they have to pay for it. Not too smart on Disney's end to announce a price increase for admission and then for parking and now for the passes. This is extremely poor marketing on Disney's part. This might backfire on them. You have to pay for Universal's express pass, but that is for almost all the rides anytime you want. Disney is only offering three and not a park hopper option. I can see the day tourist going to Universal over Disney. What is Disney thinking? Better fire your marketing people before people start boycotting the parks. Absolutely ridiculous!
ReplyDeleteMy family just returned home today from a week in Orlando and we spent two days at MK, one a DHS, and one at Epcot. The new Fastpass+ system did not stop us from getting on our favorite rides, but it did make us wait in line for 60-90 minutes for some of them, which we never had to do before with the old paper fastpass system. At MK, we got in the park at 9AM right when it opened, I quickly got in line for the FP+ kiosk, and I tried to book Big Thunder Mountain, Splash, and the Buzz shooting game. We were given good morning times for Big Thunder and for Buzz, but given 5:30PM for Splash. I'm sorry but that is not fair. I refuse to believe that at 9AM all FP's for Splash were booked until 5:30PM. Also, at Hollywood Studios, we got in the park at 9AM, quickly got to a FP+ kiosk, and booked Toy Story, Tower of Terror, and Star Tours. We got good morning times for Tower and Star Tours, but were given 3:30PM as the earliest time to return for Toy Story. Once again, this is not right and not fair and would not have happened with the old system. I think the idea of "pre-booking" rides, days or weeks in advance, is going to hurt Disney's business. I also noticed that at these FP+ kiosks that there were as many as nine staff working at a kiosk to help guests book their three fastpasses for the day. Once you get to the cast member and find out the that the times you want for your favorite rides are gone (even first thing in the morning), you have to stand there and change your plans on the fly which took time and going around and around checking their IPAD's with you for other attractions. With the old paper system, did it ever take nine CM's standing near the FP machines to help people? No, it might have taken one or two. Also, at MK, my family tried to book the Wishes special viewing area (to try avoid the busy hub with thousands of people on top of us), and we were told that this area was completely pre-booked, and was not available before the park even opened. My family still had fun, but we were a little disappointed with the new FP+ system. They've got some kinks to work out, that's one thing I'm sure of.
ReplyDeleteAs I've said before, a billion dollar blunder.
ReplyDeleteMagicbands are NOT required to use Fastpass+, so it does not cost offsite guests/non-annual ticketholders anything to use it. Magicbands are completely optional. The system can be used with the normal RFID ticket.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Universal's pay system only allows you to skip the link of each ride once per day. When they add additional options above the 3 ride limit to Fastpass+, you'll be able to (again, like in the old system) skip lines more than once per day.
ReplyDelete