Our Best MagicBand Tips

Even though we only have one trip under our belts using Magic Bands and Fastpass+, I feel like we learned a thing or two.  Here are our best tips for using Magic Bands at the Walt Disney World Resort:

• You don’t have to wear them on the opposite hand as your “scanned” finger—you know when you are gaining entry into a theme park or water park.  The system allows you to scan your band and then scan your finger.  For the boy, he wore his band on the same hand as his scanned finger—which helped him to know which finger to use.
• Have everyone try to open your resort room door with their band.  This allows for a test of all the bands before using them for something more important, like paying for a meal or gaining entry into a park.  We didn’t have any problems but we know people who have.
• The bands are secure with two notches, but nevertheless, they do fall off.  The husband had his come off as we were sitting in Rock-n-Roller Coaster waiting for the launch.  (I quickly put it in the seat pocket and held it secure with my knee.)  We found ourselves doing “band checks” every so often.  Not compulsively, just preventatively.
• They are water proof.  I was especially looking forward to using the MagicBand at the water parks to pay for meals, etc.  No more going back to our stuff to get a Key to The World Card to pay for our meal and then returning to put the card away.  We floated, or walked, to the dining establishment of our choice, ordered, paid, ate, and floated off again.  Love it!
• It’s okay to take them off, too.  We took our bands off each night upon returning to our room and then put them back on in the morning.  Each of us has a designated spot to put our things like that—jewelry, watches, lanyards, etc.  And, since they are personalized on the inside—if you customize prior to your trip—it is easy to know which band belongs to who even if they are the same color.

On a personal note, I liked not having to wear a lanyard, or feeling like I had to wear a lanyard to keep track of my Key to The World Card.  The convenience of the MagicBand holding all of our ticket information, Fastpass+ selections, dining plan credits, and it opened our resort room hotel was terrific.  It would have also been cool to use it for the Disney’s Magical Express ride to our resort, but we only used Magical Express for the ride back to the airport and they are still using the paper ticket hanging on your resort room door system.

If you have found other helpful hints and tips for using your MagicBand, please let us know!  Oh, and the boy enjoyed the extra Disney Infinity surprise his MagicBand opened up on the game.