We just got home from our trip to Walt Disney World during the Christmas break and I have been looking forward to telling everyone about our experience using the new Magic Bands at the resort.
Right from the start we were excited about having the bands for the main reason we planned our trip as a surprise Christmas gift to our kids and because we had the bands shipped to our house ahead of time they were something very tangible to wrap up and put under the tree. The bands came in our own color choices with our names (first names) printed on the inside. If you wait to pick your bands up at the resort you can only get them in the color grey not nearly as cool as pink, blue, gold, and green. Check out our video of the kids unwrapping them on Christmas Day.
Using our bands at the resort was absolutely wonderful. They are made of flexible rubber and are waterproof, you can wear them swimming, in the shower, and never really need to take them off. Our son left his on the whole time the rest of us took them off at night to sleep. When we checked in they had each of us tap our bands to their electronic pad so they could be set up to unlock our room. For my husband and I ours were set up so that we could pay for our purchases using the bands along with a personal pin number we chose right there on the spot. I loved having the ability to not carry anything around with me at the resort and still have the flexibility to purchase and get back into my room with just the band.
The bands were also our tickets into the parks. I love the way it streamlined the entrance gate. Each guest just walked up and tapped their bracelet to the pad and waited for the green signal. It was very quick and we never had any problems with them working properly.
However, my favorite part of the Magic Bands was the Fastpass+ options. Before we even left home my husband and I plotted out which days we would be in the what parks and then chose three rides we wanted Fastpasses for. The Magic Bands set us up with Fastpass+ times for each of the rides we wanted on the days we asked for. Since we were at Disney World during the busiest time of the year having the prearranged Fastpasses for us really made a difference in our overall experience at the park. We didn’t have to wait in the Fastpass Distribution lines and we didn’t have to worry that if we didn’t get there early enough they would be out of Fastpasses for the day. Our Fastpasses were timed at great intervals so that we could pace ourselves through out the parks. My husband and I truly feel that if we had not had our Fastpasses before we got to the park we would have not ridden on as many rides as we did and we would have had to wait in long lines. As it turned out at the busiest time of the year we never waited in a line longer than 30 minutes.
Before we left we also arranged for a few dinners at some nice sit down restaurants. You can read about how having preset dinning reservations is a great way to plan for a better Walt Disney World trip here. Our dinning reservations were linked to our bracelets as well. Once we got to our restaurant we tapped our bands to check in and then we were quickly seated at our table.
I came away absolutely in love with my Magic Band and think that they should put these at every resort and even on the Disney Cruise Line. It was such an easy way to vacation.
No comments:
Post a Comment