MagicBands available to purchase next week for offsite guests at a lower than expected price point

Mar 28, 2014 in "MyMagic+"

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Posted: Friday March 28, 2014 11:37am EDT by WDWMAGIC Staff

MagicBands will be available for purchase next week for guests staying offsite at non-Walt Disney World Resort hotels.

Selling at a lower than expected price, the MagicBands will be available at select merchandise locations for $12.95 plus tax. This is slightly lower than the expected $15 price point. Color choices will be pink, blue, red, green, orange, gray and yellow.

As we reported a few days ago, advance FastPass+ reservations will be available to offsite day guests from March 31 2014. Those guests will not be issued a MagicBand, but will instead use their RFID ticket media for touch to enter, and FastPass+. A MagicBand can then be purchased and will be linked to the guests My Disney Experience account and will operate in the same way as their RFID ticket media. The bands will not be eligible for touch-to-pay, which is currently only available to Walt Disney World Resort hotel guests.

Offsite day guests will be able to make FastPass+ reservations for each day that is linked to their My Disney Experience account, starting 30 days in advance of the visit.

Discuss on the Forums

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jrlbc06Mar 29, 2014

Ok thanks. So I'll have to hope the Swan and Dolphin come online in the next month or so then. I will be annoyed at buying a magic band for my friend when I already have 4. Even though they don't really need it.

Rob562Mar 29, 2014

No, once they're linked to someone they're locked to that person. You can use them all interchangeably yourself, but all 4 would still point back to the same ticket on your MDE profile. -Rob

DisLuverMar 29, 2014

Yes. I have several Magic Bands linked to the same ticket (AP). It works interchangeably. Same has been done for split stays.

jrlbc06Mar 29, 2014

I have four magic bands actually.....can I link one to someone who will be traveling with me who hasn't had one before? Or will they have to buy one?

Rob562Mar 29, 2014

Well that makes sense, since most people who'd be walking through the stores in the resorts would already have Bands... Yes, you can use the new tickets with your existing Bands, but in reality tickets are not linked directly to the Bands. Instead, think of the tickets and Bands as both being linked to your MDE profile and they talk to each other through the profile. A Band (and RFID cards) are just pointers back to your profile. -Rob

jrlbc06Mar 29, 2014

I am staying either offsite or in the Swan / Dolphin in May. I have several magic bands already. Can I link them to the ticket that I'm going to be using for this trip and not have to buy another one?

KatMariaMar 29, 2014

As far as I have heard, they will only be available in the theme parks and downtown disney. Keeping them out of the resorts shops for now.

LittleJMouseMar 29, 2014

Is there any way to buy them online to have before your trip?

Rob562Mar 28, 2014

If you have a 7-day MYW ticket, you'll be able to make 7 days' worth of FP+ reservations. Any 7 days. (Presumably the system will also give errors if those 7 days aren't within a valid 14-day window for a ticket without the No Expiration option.) I think where your confusion lies is that there doesn't seem to be anything stopping someone from making FP+ reservations for days that they don't even intend to enter the parks, but I don't think that'll be much of a problem. Plus given enough time and data points, the FP+ system can easily take those "phantom" reservations into account and "overbook" the FP+ windows slightly. Though there are some things we won't be able to answer until people start playing with it on Monday. -Rob

cw1982Mar 28, 2014

Right, but what I don't understand is how is Disney going to allow offsite guests to use FP+ 30 days before they use their tickets if the tickets don't have a date tied to them? I have the feeling that I'm missing something here... lol. Not that it matters for me for this trip, since we're staying at the Pop... I had just been wondering.

Rob562Mar 28, 2014

The Bands are linked to peoples' MDE profiles, and the hotel reservations are also linked to those profiles. So a hand-held scanner will be able to tell if a particular Band is associated with an active hotel reservation. CM's located at the entrances to rides will scan the Bands. Magic Your Way tickets aren't linked to any specific dates (even if they're purchased as part of a vacation package). Once purchased, they're good indefinitely until you start to use them. A MYW ticket will then expire 14 days after its first use, or until the last day of admission is used, whichever happens first. Adding the No-Expiration option to the ticket will keep those unused days from expiring and they can then be used at any future point. In order to use FP+ in advance, you'll have to link the ticket to your MDE profile. You're then limited to the number of days on the ticket. -Rob

cw1982Mar 28, 2014

One thing I've been curious about... I've never bought tickets to WDW without having resort reservations as well, so I don't know much about how that works. When one buys WDW tickets, are they for specific dates? This seems foreign to me, because usually if I'm buying tickets to a theme park I'm not buying them in advance... but I guess they must be date specific somehow now if guests can register for FP+ without hotel reservations.

cw1982Mar 28, 2014

Only thing I can figure is that the MB's will be linked to our reservations, so CM's will be able to tell who is supposed to be taking advantage of EMH based on the way they scan, maybe? As in, maybe guests will use the FP+ line during EMH and the scanner will tell the CM whether or not to let a guest in based on whether or not the guest shows up as having reservations onsite... But I could be (very well probably am) way off.

LostPrincessKarleighMar 28, 2014

How are they going to check for resort guests during EMH now? Personally, I think the magic bands should have been exclusively for resort guests and AP holders.