Disney Speak - Magic Bands

Welcome to the modern Walt Disney World!  With the addition of loads of technology we now get a new fashion accessory.  A Magic Band!  

So, let's answer the what, why, how, and do for this high tech wristband. 

How do you get them?

This one is simple. When you book a room at a Walt Disney World Resort hotel you get one band per person on the reservation. If you book at two different resorts during your stay you will get two sets.  Getting a Magic Band is solely based off your room reservation.  You get to pick you colors in advance and they are shipped to your home a couple weeks before your trip. 

Not staying at a Disney resort?  You can still buy one once you get to the parks. 

What does the Magic Band do?  

Well during your stay at Walt Disney World it is your key to just about everything. So let's start from the beginning of the trip. 

The first thing your Magic Band will do for you is get you on the Magical Express!  It is your ticket to get from the airport to your resort. The important thing to remember is to pack the bands in your carry on so you have it when you arrive in Orlando. Or set a fashion trend and wear it on the plane. 

Your Magic Band also is your park ticket. No more paper tickets that you have to worry about losing. Now you wear your ticket on your wrist. Also gone are the traditional turnstiles. Now you find Mickey readers.  

These new style "turnstiles" are much quicker because they allow more people in and take up less space. You scan your Magic Band and then scan your finger. Just remember which finger you use the first time you use you ticket, because you will use the same finger the whole time.  

Thanks to the Magic Band it is easier to get the kids and the stroller through the gates. This has made Rope Drop much less stressful.  With tickets we always got nervous when handing them to the kids to get in.  Now with the band they wear it all the time and you do not have to fuss with getting tickets out. It makes it much simpler going through the gates. After over 30 park days of Magic Band use we  have never had one fall off(including a four year old).   If you do lose a Magic Band do not worry.  None of your information is stored on the band.  Go to guest services and they will deactivate the band and help you get a new one(you may have to purchase a new one)  The Magic Band is more of a key to access your My Disney Experience account.

Now that we are in the parks what does it do for us?  Lots, lets start with FastPass +.  You can book up to 3 FastPass + experiences a day for the number of park ticket days you have.  Once in the park you go to the FastPass+ entrances for the attraction you booked at the time you booked and get to skip the line.  If you stay at a Disney Resort you get to book your Fastpass+ 60 days in advance.  If you are staying elsewhere you only get 30 days in advance to plan you park visit. 

Here Alden is scanning his Magic Band at a touch point to enjoy the Tomorrowland Speedway.  It lights up green when you are good to go.  The best thing is it saves you from running back and forth across the park to collect a traditional paper FastPass. 

Samantha enjoying a drive while sporting her Magic Band.

In true Disney fashion the touch points are not just a boring black box.  This is the touch point to meet Ariel.  

Waiting to tap our bands for the Character Spot in Epcot.  Themed to match future world.

So you have used your 3 Fastpass+ experiences now what?  You go to an in park kiosk and can get another one.  This one is located by the international Gateway in Epcot.

Just outside of Buzz Lightyear.

Sometimes the cast members let you work the controls and find your fourth FastPass+. 

One of the best features is your band acts as your room key!  This is far and away the best thing the magic band does.  After a long day at the parks you do not need to look through your purse to find a key.  The kids often run to the door to open it.  It is easy to do when your hand are full.  This is the feature that we wish we could take home with us.  We would love to unlock our door at home with a wrist band.  

The Magic Band also links up to your Memory Maker!  When you have a picture taken by a PhotoPass photographers you just have them scan your Magic Band and you picture is linked to your account.  No more carrying around a special card to have them scan.  Your ride photos link up to your Magic Band as well.

One of the best parts of the Memory Maker is getting the ride photos.  The magic band makes it so convenient because you don't have to do anything at all.  Just go on the ride and wear your Magic Band.  

Thanks to the Magic Band we got this photo without doing any thing other then setting up our My Disney Experience on line.  Just make your all your reservations are properly linked before you go.

I think it may have been the Magic Band that took out these stormtroopers, not the force, but we know for sure it was the Magic Band that linked the photo to the account. 

Screen shot of MDE

As mentioned above most of the "magic" of the Magic Band results from you setting things up in advance on the line.  The My Disney Experience web site is where you go to link reservations, make dining reservations, and FastPass+ reservations.  This is a screen shot of the App.  It help you remember that you made a dining reservation 180 days ago and what time you get to ride Toy Story since you planed that 60 days ago.  

We like to also type it out before we go just in case we have a dead phone battery or the sort.  Also we set the screen shot as our lock screen so we have quick access to our days advents.  

Worried about how junior will keep from destroying his Magic Band?  Forget about it.  Disney knows your kids are bound to get into things.  So, they are water proof!

Clearly surviving the water.  This makes the trip to the pool so much easier.  No longer do you have to worry about your key sitting somewhere pool side.  You now wear it into the water with you.  Your water proof Magic Band is all you need for a trip to the pool.  You can even make pool side purchases with your band.

It is also chocolate shake proof.  Not only did this Magic Band survive the chocolate but it also payed for it.  You can choose to link your Magic Band to a credit card.  If you elect to pay for things with your Magic Band you must enter a pin number that you set when you check in.  If your band is lost or stolen they would need to know the pin to be able to use if.  

The Magic Band is also how you use your Disney Dining Plan credits.  It is stored on you account that the band links to.  So to use a dining credit you simply have the waiter scan your band.  You can then use the credit card on file to pay the tip.  You can truly go the entire day with out getting out your wallet.

The Magic Band is now the way to complete any princess.  

While the Magic Band does lots of great things it does not prevent headaches, but it does make the over all experience much smoother.  

Lets sum up what this little beauty can do:  Magical Express ticket, Theme Park Ticket, room key, credit card, Dining Plan, Memory Maker, Fastpass+, water proof, and fashion accessory.

That is an impressive list and one that I feel will grow over the years to help create even more magic.  

Meanwhile at sea:

Disney Cruise Line is now using Magic Band for their kids club.  They lock them on so their is no way to take them off.   

They link them up to your stateroom when you check in the first time.  The kids loved using Magic Bands in place of the old plastic strap things they had to wear before.  

Trip Report 2013 - #10 - Disney Dream 3 Night Cruise Day 3 - CastawayCay

Day three has arrived and we find our adventures in the port of Castaway Cay!

View zoomed in from Cabanas

Castaway Cay(pronounced Key) is Disney's private island in the Bahamas and it is the cleanest beach you will ever set foot on.  We love our days at Castaway Cay and were really looking forward to sharing it with the kids.    We started our day by getting to Cabanas nice and early and enjoying a Mickey waffle(or two).  This is a few from Cabanas zoomed in a bit.  As you can see we did not have great weather for our day.  

It is Samantha's 8th Birthday today so we had her wear her birthday button.  She was overly excited about this.  The year before her little brother and sister got to celebrate birthdays in the parks.  She was waiting for this for over a year.  We are "mean" parents and only let the kids wear birthday buttons on the actual day.  Lots of people wear their birthday buttons for their whole trip.  I feel like it is even more special when it is just on the day!

We were among the first to be off the ship. Yep, I even rope drop Castaway Cay.  There was a small crowd of people on the stairs heading to the gangway on deck 2.  As soon as you are off the ship they hand you towels and today as a special treat we got ponchos.  You can grab as many towels as you want but you do have to carry around what you take.  As far as I know this is the only place to get towels, so don't walk by thinking you will get them later.  We always like to walk rather then take the tram.  About half the people get on the tram.  If you are heading further in on the island the tram is good but we were heading to the snorkeling area and it is about the first thing you come to.  

If you need a stroller, wagon, or wheel chair they have beach friendly ones.  It is first come first serve so you may need to be there early.   

First official stop on Castaway is a photo spot with Mt. Rustmore.  You can see the Dream in the background.  Years ago you could see the whole ship. The vegetation has gown to block the view.

Jim with the kids.  He forgot to tell them it was a goofy picture.  

All the foot prints you see on the beach at this time are ours.  That is why you get up and off early.  The sand is sooooooo soft and Disney makes sure it is perfect for your day.

Getting geared up to snorkel.  We rented equipment from Disney.  You can bring your own but according to Doug I was already over packed.

Sam did not even make it in up to her waist.  Here Alden is refusing to listen to Doug on how to move in flippers.

Doug basically drug Alden about 100 yards out.  They finally started to see some fish and Alden got excited and tried to talk to Doug and swallowed half the ocean.  They promptly came back to shore.  Snorkeling is not our kids thing.  

Meanwhile the girls and I headed over to the Pelican Plunge area of the beach.  We got a good spot close to the water slides but not to close.

The water was warm even if the air was cool.  If you want a beach day with big waves then Castaway is not it.  They have breaks that stop the waves so you have nice calm water.

Pelican Plunge is the location of two water slides and some other features.  The open slide is slow the closed tube slide is super fast.  The kids did the slower one a few times.  They have to swim out to the platform to go on the slides.  There is no height limits but they have to be able to swim out there.  They have life jackets available  to wear.

Michelle took a picture of the navigator on the water proof camera before we got off the ship so she could keep track of character meet and greets on the island.  

Alden sharing his stories of adventure on the slides and just how brave he is. He may embellish a little but he is usually entertaining.   

Why not get sand in every crevice?  I am always amazed when you don't find sand allover the ship.  They keep the ship so clean and Ship Shape.(haha)

This is the entrance to the private cabana area.  You have to be staying in a concierge room or be a gold or platinum member of the Castaway Club to have a chance of booking one of these.  They are nice but pricey and we seem to be ok with just a couple of beach chairs.

It is lunch time.  The storm looked like it was heading in so we packed up and headed to eat at Cookies II   They have a buffet lunch in 3 different locations on the island.   We got our drinks and a table as they were opening up lunch.  We got the basic burger, hot dog, and some sides.  They also have ribs and chicken.  There is soft serve ice cream as well just like on the ship.  

About 10 min after we sat down to eat the rain came and people came flooding in to escape the storm. It only poured hard for about 20 min.  So we stayed out of the bad weather and all our stuff stayed dry.  

We were done with the beach so we went to check out the other things on the island. 

Clair played for a little bit in the splash park while Grandpa watched her.

They have a couple maps posted along the way in case you get lost.

A little beach soccer.

Some more shuffle board.

This is the In-Da-Shade area.  Alden attempted to shoot some hoops.

This is the main family beach area after the storm.  It cleared out lots of people.  This beach is closer to the ship so it fills up first.  We like to head down by the slides because there is less people and you are closer to the slides.  

We timed our heading back to the ship so we could catch a dance party.

Who doesn't like a dance party with Mickey and Minnie on the beach.

The kids outside the post office.  If you want to mail a post card from Castaway you can.  Ours took a couple months to make it to friends and family.

Along the path back to the ship we had lots of photo ops of the ship.

Aft

Sometimes when you are on the ship you forget just how huge it is.

Debbie, Mike, baby Lila, Greg, John, and Sandy got off the ship later.  In time for lunch.  Greg and John snorkeled some and I think they all did the slides.  They all had great things to say about the beach.

Once back on the ship we went to the pools and Nemo's Reef.

They were fairly empty.  It was windy up on that deck so we did not have much company.

All alone.  

Still alone.

The only annoying kids in the pool were my annoying kids.

Doug and Jim road the Aquaduck a few times with each kid.  

A couple people finally joined us!

When there are very few people ridding the Aquaduck it makes getting this picture easier.  

The view from our balcony after a full day of water and fun.

Back in our stateroom we found the worst thing the stateroom host could have possibly left, the disembarking information.  The customs form and special luggage tags for the customs area.  Our bags will be in the Daisy area of customs.

Once we were cleaned up from our day on the beach we hit the princess gathering.

Samantha got lots of attention from all the princesses because it was her birthday.

Snow White took lots of time with the girls since they were wearing her outfits!

Pretending to sleep.

Sam's bow kinda blends in with the Christmas decorations.

Tiana got the spot in front of the grand stair case today.

Ariel taught them how to curtsy properly.

Doug and Alden looked on from above.  Where else can you meet 5 princess in a row like this? Nowhere.  This is why we love our Disney Cruises.

To do something special on Samantha's birthday we set up a special hair and pixie dust thing in one of the shops.

They put her hair back with several special little hair clips and then dusted away.  I think we may find glitter on her head until she turns 10.

Clair got to have the special treatment as well.  

Tonight dinner is at the Royal Palace.  The Royal Palace is the most upscale of the Disney Dinning halls.  The waiters wear very formal attire. 

The kids menu is so cheaply made it did not even come with color. (haha)

The bread arrives in a neat little carriage. 

Clair showing off her sparkly face and make up.  

Doug and Alden got the escargot.  They ate it so fast that I didn't even get a picture of it.

Some tasty Prime Rib.

Happy Birthday was sang to Sam from the whole dining crew.

I got a strawberry shortcake off the kids menu.  Feel free to always order what you want and as much as you want.

After dinner we skipped the show.  Doug and I have seen it before and the kids really wanted to supper sloppy science in the Clubs.  They made flubber!  They really barely spent any time in the clubs.  While they were in the club I got our bags packed and in the hall with our special Daisy tags. 

About halfway though the science experiment we got a call on our wave phone letting us know Clair wanted picked up.  Clair did not want to do the flubber thing and was just playing on her own.  She found a friend to play with and when that kid got picked up she decided she wanted out as well.  This is her "resting" on the floor.

Soon the see ya real soon meet and greets started and Clair and I meet a few while Doug waited to get the other after Flubber.  

You will notice Clair is free of her wristband for the kids club.  When you check out the last time they take it from you.

Chip and Dale were up to their usual tricks.

Daisy and Clair by the elevators.

The sloppy science kids had now joined.  They got little bags for doing the experiment.  

Now Sam and Alden made the rounds.  Alden is still concerned about Donald's lack of pants. 

We were the last ones to meet Captain Mickey before the show started.

That worked out great because it left us right in front.  It is kind of a crazy sort of time waiting for the show to start because you really can save a spot for the show because it is where all the lines are for the characters.  

After words they shoot off confetti Mickey Heads.  Alden joined the clean up crew.    Now it is off to bed.  We were totally exhausted.