Walt Disney World (FL)

My Experiences with MyMagic+

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2013-09-16 at 21-26-54A few weeks ago I wrote an article about optimizing your FastPass+ experience using a Touring Plan. Well, I made it there and back again, and I have a mixture of advice, information, and opinions that I’m going to soak you with as if you were in a raft on the Kali River.

In general I was happy about my experience with MyMagic+. The MagicBands themselves were comfortable and easy to wear, although it took me about 4 days to stop looking at my wrist for the time. I haven’t worn a watch regularly in a few years, but you apparently don’t lose that reflex. One thing that surprised me was that both of my kids wore their Bands all week without complaint, even the two year old. Of course, my two year old didn’t actually need a MagicBand since he didn’t have a park ticket, but when I ordered my Bands prior to my trip I called, and Disney agreed to send him his very own accessory to avoid the inevitable screaming. 

The actual use of the bands was easy for what we used it for. I loved using it as a room key, especially when going swimming, where I didn’t need to bring another key. We also had no issues using the Band as a park ticket or for using our FastPass+ reservations. I only used the Band to pay for items once or twice, just to see if it worked (it did). As a person who carries a wallet almost all the time, I found the process of swiping my credit card to be easier than scanning the band and typing in my PIN.

2013-09-19 at 11-13-57
Cinderella in the new Princess Fairytale Hall

We only had one small issue with the Bands, and that was because we stayed at three different resorts. The Magic Bands were pre-linked to our room at Animal Kingdom Lodge because that was the resort that was part of the test. The other two resorts had to be linked by Guest Services, which took about 5-10 minutes each time. As I said, a minor issue, but one that seems like it shouldn’t be a problem at all. Of course, once all resorts participate this will not be an issue at all.

General FastPass+ Notes

As many of you know, the current paper FASTPASS has a one hour return window. There is a little leeway, however, as you are generally allowed to enter the FASTPASS queue up to 5 minutes prior to the start of your window or up to 15 minutes after the expiration of your window. This leeway has remained in place for FastPass+, which is good news.

A major reason that this is good is because you are not allowed to overlap FastPass+ times. For instance, you may schedule a Big Thunder Mountain Railroad FastPass+ for 3pm-4pm and a Splash Mountain FastPass+ for 4pm-5pm, but they cannot run concurrently. The added 15 minutes helps allow you to ride Big Thunder later in the window and ride Splash right after rather than do extra walking.

One thing that happened constantly with FastPass+ was making changes. Adjusting my FastpPass+ times became so common that I kept forgetting what FastPass+ reservations I had. Since I found myself a bit forgetful about times, I often checked the My Disney Experience app to remind myself. Of course, once I realized that the My Disney Experience app moved about as fast as the family of 12 in the middle of Main Street checking their map, I began using a notes program on my phone to log the times. But I’m not here to rag on Disney’s technology (because I don’t have enough words to do that properly), so let’s talk a little about some of the individual attractions.

Attractions, FastPass+, and You

Main Street Electrical Parade from the Fastpass+ viewing area
Main Street Electrical Parade from the FastPass+ viewing area

I used FastPass+ for quite a few attractions, but one of the great things about this test phase is that I could use both FastPass+ and the paper, legacy FASTPASS system. Therefore, I focused my FastPass+ reservations mostly on attractions for which there were no paper FASTPASSes available. Such attractions are the ones that I’m going to give my notes on…right now!

– Main Street Electrical Parade: I’m starting with this one because this was the FastPass+ I found most valuable. The viewing area was in the Hub directly across from the castle, and we waltzed into it about 8 minutes before the parade arrived. I can envision problems with this, however, depending on the types of people in the crowd. What I mean is that there were too many people in the FastPass+ area for everyone to be front row. Luckily, most people in the area were seated, and remained seated throughout the parade, which allowed us to see the parade unobstructed. If people had decided to stand in the front, we would have been three deep and holding up our children, just like we would have if we had walked over to Frontierland.

– Wishes: Directly after our viewing of the Main Street Electrical Parade we headed over to the viewing area for the Magic Kingdom’s fireworks show: Wishes. I was not particularly happy with this FastPass+ use, mostly because of the viewing area. While it seemed like there were fewer people in this area, it was in the Rose Garden, which is between the Hub and Tomorrowland. The problem with that is that it is not only an off-center view, but Cinderella Castle is partially obstructed by trees. As you can see in the photo, this was not a great view. I think we would have been better off in the crowd on Main Street, and I won’t be using this FastPass+ again.

Wishes from the Fastpass+ viewing area
Wishes from the FastPass+ viewing area

– Fantasmic: This was the last nighttime spectacular that we used FastPass+ for (I couldn’t get one for Illuminations). I was excited about this one because I don’t see Fantasmic often, mostly because I refuse to show up hours early. We walked into the amphitheater about 15 minutes before showtime and were led to the FastPass+ seating section. They use the Pocahontas area for Fastpass+, which is just left of center, so good seats. Now, there wasn’t a ton of seating  left at that time, but we did manage to find seats for four.

– Meet and Greets: We used the FastPass+ for several meet and greets, including mermaid Ariel in New Fantasyland, the Character Spot in Epcot, and the new Princess Fairytale Hall. I find these to be quite valuable if meeting these characters is important to you. We had to wait no more than 5 minutes for any of these meets.

– Enchanted Tales with Belle: Despite the Cast Member in front of this attraction telling me that there was no FastPass+ for Enchanted Tales (they’re still training as well), we used one anyway. Basically, this allows you to be let straight into the mirror room ahead of those in the general queue. Definitely a valuable FastPass+ for an attraction that often has a long wait.

– Disney Junior – Live on Stage: I ended up not using a FastPass+ reservation for this show, but I did make sure to find out how it works. A secondary queue pen is set up right near the door for those with FastPass+ so they can enter the theater first. Additionally they now fill the theater one section at a time: center first, then right, then left. Any FastPass+ users that arrive after the theater begins to fill are directed to the front of one of the unfilled sections. That way the FastPassers are always towards the front. The problem with this is that the front is not the best spot for Disney Junior. Because of the need to hide the “mechanics” of the puppets, being in front means that it is hard to see the whole stage.

One last thing to mention before I open it up to questions is the Be Our Guest Restaurant lunch FastPass+. This is a special FastPass+ that is not tied to the rest of your FastPass+ reservations (meaning it doesn’t count against your 3). You are allowed  two options for a quick Be Our Guest lunch. Option 1 is to simply bypass the line and go straight to the ordering stations. Option 2 is to pre-order your food and go directly to your table.

We were meeting some other fabulous Touring Plans team members there for lunch, so we went with Option 1. Said team members were also not on our FastPass+ reservation, so we decided to test if we were allowed to enter with more people than we had reserved (known lovingly as Testa-bombing after my liege, Len Testa). There was no problem entering, ordering, or receiving our food, and being able to eat lunch at Be Our Guest with practically no wait was extremely valuable. If you can deal with the stares of promised pain that those waiting in that long line give you as you trot on past them, I strongly suggest taking advantage of this one.

Those are all of the notes, recommendations, and experiences I can think of for now. Please ask any questions you have and I will do my best to answer them. Thanks for reading!

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Brian McNichols

In addition to blogging, I also do some analyzin' here at Touring Plans. I am a travel nut, planning nut, Disney nut, wall nut. Husband of 1, father of 2. Hilariously funny in my own mind. Find me on Twitter @YesThatBrian if you like really dumb jokes.

80 thoughts on “My Experiences with MyMagic+

  • I am very excited for the BOG fastpasses! But it seems a little too good to be true. If it doesn’t count as one of your 3 fastpasses, who would ‘choose’ to stand in that line to get in for lunch? Will this only be available to guests staying at the nicer resorts, or will anyone (even non resort guests) be able to use it? Will it be one of those things that fills up super fast? Trying to decide if I need to plan 30 minutes to eat here on our april trip, or an hour. The fastpass will be the differece…

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  • Question about the electrical parade fastpass seating and wishes show. Couldn’t you have just stayed in the electrical parade seats and have a great view for the wishes show?

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  • We are headed to Disney in February. We will be purchasing military tickets on base rather then through WDW. Will I be able to make FP+ reservations with those tickets before arriving at the park?

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  • I just called Disney and just got some new info in regards to Fastpass+ and Be Our Guest Quick Service. That is a separate pass not hooked to the Fastpass+ system and only certain resort reservations qualify. Only way to get it now is to go to beourguestlunch.disney.go.com. Sign in like you would your regular Disney account. Then you need your resort reservation number to see if you qualify. If you do you it will let you schedule. These do not count as one of your 3 fastpasses.

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    • You are a goddess! It never occurred to me that there would be a separate process for this perk. It worked beautifully. Thanks for the post. 🙂

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    • I signed in, then I tried putting in my confirmation number for my reservation but it has 2 letters in it, and I am unable to type them in. This seems to be the only thing I have as a confirmation. Is there another number I am unaware of? Any help would be appreciated! (I am a Canadian so maybe that is why?)

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      • Are you staying at a Disney resort and did you make the reservation through Disney? Only certain Disney resorts qualify and if you made the reservation through a company other than Disney then you will have a different confirmation code. It should be a longer (like 12 numbers) code without letters. But if you are staying in a qualifying Disney resort I’d check to see if you still qualify regardless of who you made it through. I would call Disney – use the 407-939-7849 number and ask them if there is another confirmation number – or even if they could set up that fastpass for you, If not, another option is to try both at the counter when you check-in or at the Be Our Guest check-in area. Someone here earlier posted they saw others get in who had similar issue by asking at restaurant. It shouldn’t matter that you are Canadian. Good luck!

      • Thanks for the advice! I am staying at Coronado Springs and I booked it directly with Disney since I received a free dining pin code. Maybe that is why? I will try calling Disney and I will let you know what they say.

      • Good news, I called Disney and they gave me my reservation ID, I put it in and was able to make my fastpass reservation for BOG! I don’t see the reservation listed on MDE with all my other reservations (hotel, dinner, fastpass+ selections, etc…) but maybe that will take some time? If I don’t see it before I leave (in Nov) I will call Disney. Thanks everyone who helped me out! I really appreciate it!

      • I called and asked Disney Magicbands number if there was a reservation (confirmation) number I needed or could use to link it so it would show up on MyDisneyExperience. They said it is linked to the resort reservation itself which is why we needed to enter it – so it won’t show up separately. But it will be linked onto our bands – I’m planning to confirm that when I check into my resort. Also lady said if we pre-order we need to pick up a yellow rose from either city hall or philharmonic anytime before going to BOG. She did say pre-ordering saves a lot of time and you can still see all of castle.

      • Monica, was your reservation ID different from your confirmation number? I’m still having trouble reserving a BoG fastpass.

      • My reservation id was different, it was a 10 digit number, not like my confirmation number that had 2 letters in it. I had to call the number that Kim posted and they gave it to me. Good luck, I hope you get one too!

      • Sorry, it was a 12 digit number.

      • Strange. When I tried calling they said it was the same. Guess I will call again tomorrow. If at first you don’t succeed….

      • I called again this morning and was unfortunately told the same thing. They said 12 digit reservation numbers are for room only reservations, and mine indicates we have a vacation package. I guess we’ll have to keep our fingers crossed we can get one once we arrive. Thanks Monica & Kim for all your help!

      • Kris,
        I think I found something that will help! I was reading on DISboards that when you click on early check in (or modify check in if you have already checked in) on My Disney Experience, as it loads, look at the URL. At the end of the URL you should see a 12 digit number. That was the number I used for my reservation ID! Put that in and you should be able to book the BOG fastpass! Good luck and let me know if it works!

      • Thanks, Monica! It recognized my reservation, however now it is wanting me to set up a disney account and I already have one. Did you experience this as well? Any tips?

      • Here is another thing that might help! When you click on the magicbands icon on MDE (this will only work if you are able to customize your magicbands)and when it loads you will see a confirmation number which is the 12 digit number that you can enter for BOG fastpasses.

      • Kris, I would suggest you call Disney tech support. If you make a new account, your old one may be erased and all your fastpass+ selections could disappear.

  • Is any one else not able to see BOG as an option for either lunch or dinner? We are going for a week at the end of October and it doesn’t matter what day/time I choose it is never listed as an option. We are staying in the family suites at AoA. For those of you who have been able to make FP+ reservations, how did you do it? I tried using the link above, but it says our reservation number is incorrect (it isn’t).

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    • As I posted above – the link worked perfectly for me to make the BOG FP+ reservation, but then in doing that apparently my whole Disney account got mixed up and I couldn’t see any of my reservations for anything on MyMagic+. And now I can’t access or see my BOG FP+ reservations (but can see everything else). I believe this has to do with multiple identities.

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    • Kris, see my note below to Monica – maybe it will help.

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      • Thanks, Kim! I’ll try calling. We also booked directly through Disney, but have the same issue with our reservation number as Monica. I’m assuming AoA family suites might not be included in this. Too bad. That was the only reason I got the bands in hopes of getting this FastPass.

  • Any new information on linking more than 1 ticket per person on an acount? We linked our MNSSHP tickets, will we still be able to link the regular park tickets? We have a combination of undercover tourist tickets for some members of the party and AP with a room only disney resort reservation. Will we be able to get fp+ reservations in advance? It sounded on past blog posts that plenty of people have been able to do this, but a commenter above said it is now not working?

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  • We were part of a Fastpass+ test last December and it was an interesting experience. I don’t remember exactly how many Fastpass+ we had per park, however we were able to use regular Fastpasses as well. How many will you have per day or per park? Will we be able to use regular Fastpasses also? We tend to park hop (mornings at one park and evenings at another). How will this affect Fastpass+? My dining and tour reservations have been in place since June. I am somewhat apprehensive at the thought of adding in Fastpass+ and making it all flow.

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  • I’m not exactly sure how they do the “direct to table” option, but I imagine it’s like the regular lunch. For that, you place your Magic Band (or Rose disc if you don’t have a band) on the table and the waitstaff finds you with their carts. As long as the food is linked to your bands they will find you and you would seat yourself, so table size wouldn’t be an issue.

    I don’t see why that wouldn’t work, but this is all new, even to the Cast Members, so anything is possible 🙂

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  • I toured all the parks a month ago without the FastPass+. While I was envious of all the attractions that never had the regular FastPass but do have +, overall I was glad I wasn’t using +. My biggest problem with it is the limitation of only getting to do the same ride once per day per FastPass+. This would be a major, major crimp on how we tour the parks. We’re less interested in hitting everything and more interested in focusing on our greatest hits, again and again. I had a party of 7 that included 4 adults, of which I was the only one who ever wanted to do the major action attractions. So we routinely used the FastPasses of the other adults to double up on FastPasses for the kids to the major attractions. Then we would use them again after doing the attraction. We road Space Mountain 5 times in the same day using FastPasses every time using these two methods. And the kids loved it. They are past the age they wanted to do anything in Fantasyland (other than us forcing them on Small World for our sake). So really there is about 4 rides they wanted to do over and over. Seems like the FastPass+ will make this virtually impossible on even moderately crowded days. That will be a major letdown.

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    • I agree, there are quite a few drawbacks to FP+, and this is certainly one of them. My hope is that, since this is a test phase, things will be adjusted for the better. We’ll just have to wait and see (and fill our our surveys!).

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  • Just wondering if anyone has any advice about fastpass+ for Festival of the Lion King and Finding Nemo shows at Animal Kingdom? What are the viewing areas like?

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    • I asked the Nemo CMs in the park last week because I was curious if there was a special area of the theater set aside. They told me that there was no real benefit to using FP+ for that show, unless you really wanted to make sure you had a reservation for it (and they said absolutely no reason to use for a 5pm show). They said you don’t get special seating, no special section, and if I understood them correctly, you don’t necessarily get early entry to the theater either. You just have a spot.

      I don’t know if FotLK is the same.

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      • Both nemo and lion king get you in a separate entrance with the doors opening at the same time as the regular line. Nemo was the upper back right side of the theater, with regular line being lower left. Lion king was where they let the handicapped in opposite the regular line entrance.

    • As ‘disney fan’ said, they basically just let the FP+ in towards the front so theoretically you will get a better seat without showing up too early.

      I didn’t make it over to Lion King, but I asked at Nemo and the Cast Members there flat out told me that they don’t know why people would use it for that show.

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    • We were let in the exit doors for Festival of the Lion King. We were let in earlier than the rest of the crowd though. So I’m not sure if that was just a special circumstance because it was raining so much. We were told that we could sit anywhere that there weren’t reserved signs.

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  • I am sincerely stressed out by the new fast pass+. I completely optimized my days using the touring plans, and was so happy. Then recently got invite to use fast pass +. Now I have to reoptmize. Hmmmm if I’m happy with my plans, should I even bother with fast pass +? Perhaps I dont understand them at all. My husband thinks I’m over thinking it all. Lol

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    • Are you my clone? We basically posted the exact same idea at almost the same time. I do NOT want to go back and change my plans haha!

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      • Seriously, and I will do it. I will change my plans, but the one day my mother who is a fl local joins us we aren’t using it because she cant.

  • So let me see if someone can settle some confusion:
    I have no intentions of using FP+ (I know, call the lynch mob). I am praying they still have the legacy FP system in Late Jan.

    So, is there no hope in me getting/needing the wrist band? Do you ONLY get “the band” if you use FP+?

    I love that it can be used as park entrance and hotel key, but I literally completed my “Perfect” WDW touring plans a few weeks ago and feel almost as exhausted as if I actually went to the parks. I don’t really want to go back through it all and alter it for the FP+

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    • I’m sort of with you. I liked FP+ as an “add-on” to my normal touring, but would have been fine with the paper FP and I fear that I will miss it when it’s gone (actually, I fear that we’ll all miss it once FP+ is the only game in town).

      That said, I liked having the band for the room key especially. If you don’t plan on using FP+, you can still get the band, but just have Guest Services print a ticket for you “as a back up,” that you can then use in the paper FP machines. Once you play with it though, you may find some usefulness in the FP+ as a way to get even more attractions into the trip.

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  • We will be at WDW Oct. 14-21 and are in the FastPass+ trial with Magic Bands. Have our selections made. If we can use the regular FastPass system, too, that would be great, but how can we do that without the cards to put into the machines? Also, we didn’t see Be Our Guest lunch as an option. You said it was a choice that didn’t count toward the 3. Is there somewhere else I can find it besides under FastPass+? Thanks for any advice!

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    • You will need cards to put in the paper Fastpass machines. You can get tickets printed (I did, as backups, which I fortunately didn’t need). I would also try putting your room keys in the Fastpass machine, just to see what happens 😉

      The Be Our Guest lunch is found at https://beourguestlunch.disney.go.com/

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      • Did you print your ticketst at Disney? I am coming from Canada and purchased a package through disney, so I won’t be getting any tickets sent to me, only magicbands that I get when I arrive. I want to use the legacy fastpasses as well. Any advice?

      • Two of the tickets we had prior to the Bands, but my Annual Pass I had printed at guest services. It only takes a few minutes for them to do.

      • Where do I find my resort reservation id to make a reservation using the link provided to BOG?

      • The link is only for those participating in the Fastpass+ testing right now, so you need a resort reservation at one of the participating resorts. If you have that, the ID should be right in your reservation details.

      • Thanks soooooo much! I got the Be Our Guest lunch reservation and it even asked me about special occasions. I was thrilled since one member of our party is having her 13th birthday that day. I’ve heard we may be able to get some of the gray stuff!

      • “The Master’s Cupcake” was added to the menu last week when I was in the parks, and it’s basically The Grey Stuff on a cupcake. And it was REALLY GOOD!

      • I spoke too soon! After getting the Be Our Guest Lunch Fastpass so easily last night, clearly linked to our Magic Bands, I found I was unable to get onto MyMagic+ at all this morning. Apparently some different disney.com accounts got mixed up when I went to that other website. After about an hour on the phone I was able to get back onto MyMagic+ and everything is still there – except the BOG Fastpass. And now I can’t access the BOG lunch website since tech support deleted a username associated with my email- but my reservation number is used up so I can’t make another. Beware of multiple accounts I guess is the warning! Eventually I may call to see if they can tell if I have that Fastpass+ reservation or not.

  • Is there a limit to the number of days of fast passes a person can get? We are going for 9 days and when I tried to book my fast passes for day 8 the system told me I had no more fast passes available. I had only booked 3 a day for 7 of the days and the last day (8th day) that I was trying to book was in the middle of our stay.

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    • There is no limit, but I think it depends on how many days your tickets are for. Are your tickets for 7 or 8 days?

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  • I bought my family’s tickets through Undercover Tourist and I’m experiencing a problem linking them to my Disney account in such a way that I can utilize FastPass+. I’ve found that the tickets appear linked to the Magic Band, but are not incorporated into Reservations, which means you can’t reserve FastPass+ through them. Disney’s Customer Service has assured me that they are working on the problem. They are apparently back-logged with many other MyMagic+ testers experiencing the same issue. I was told that they are correcting the problem one-at-a-time, by order of arrival date. We’re set to arrive on 10/13, and we’re still waiting for the tickets to be added to Reservations. Has anyone else had this problem? Was it resolved prior to your arrival? Any information would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

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    • We had the same problem. they fixed ours within days. hopefully yours has been solved by now.

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    • I had the same issue earlier in Sept. Four phone calls to tech support later they finally fixed my issue today, but only after I finally started to get noticably annoyed when they once again told me to “call back in a week if you haven’t had an update”. One note, when I called a few weeks ago they were able to manually book some fastpasses for me at my request. Now that I have the ability to add fastpasses myself online, I found that I am able to keep the manually added fastpasses and add 3 additional fastpasses. A small bonus for my trouble I guess.

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  • We are heading to WDW on 6 November, and I was able to customize my MagicBands earlier this week. We will be purchasing the military hopper tickets with gift cards once we arrive so we won’t be able to use FP+ until after we arrive as our tickets won’t like until then. Any idea if there will even be spots left? I hate to use pick times willy-nilly at the last minute. Seems like it would be easier to just use standard FP’s instead, at least this time around.

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    • You can purchase them ahead at your local MWR ticket office or call and order them either at the ITR in Orlando or Shades of Green. I’m not sure if you have to go through a process of activating them once at DW. But maybe if you call DW after you have the tickets and told them of the issue they would let you activate them over the phone. It’s worth a try.

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      • I wish that would work! We can’t use our Disney gift cards at MWR otherwise we totally would do it.

  • So, I have a question. We are a family of 4, but with one under 3. I’m hopeful that we’ll get a band for the little, but… what if we split up (as we are used to doing thanks to naptime for the little). Will we have to have one smart phone that we pass back and forth for any changes? And my husband wouldn’t ride Everest, but I love the coasters… will we be locked in- all of us or none of us type thing?

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    • We had the option of choosing a band for our 2-year old when we personalized the bands on MyDisneyExperience. I think as long as you have him/her listed on your reservation, you should be fine. Also, FastPass+ changes can be made at the new kiosks located in multiple locations throughout the park (no smartphone necessary).

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    • As Susan said, there are kiosks in the parks for changes. And no, not every member of the party has to have the same FP+.

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  • I’m really concerned about the limit of 3 FP’s in one park per day. I do see some of the benefits to this whole system but that limit really bothers me. We park hop all the time. The idea that I can’t go to DHS in the evening and grab a FP for Star Tours because I was at MK earlier in the day kind of puts a wrinkle in how we tour the parks.
    I like the idea of push notifications for the FP’s. I do hop they reevaluate the 3 per day at one park issue.

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  • “We were meeting some other fabulous Touring Plans team members there for lunch so we went with Option 1. Said team members were also not on our Fastpass reservation, so we decided to test if we were allowed to enter with more people than we had reserved”

    Did these extra people that joined your party have a BOG FP+ reservation on there own? I’m asking bc on a trip coming up I’m eating lunch with a group there that already has a fp+ reservation but the website is being buggy on me. Thanks!

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    • No, they did not. I tried to get them added but was unable to, so we just showed up 🙂

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  • We are staying off property Thanksgiving week. Any idea if Fastpass+ will be available to off-property guests by then, and/or will regular Fastpass still be available at that time?

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    • I highly doubt FP+ will be available for off-property, but I would also be surprised if they discontinued the paper Faspasses so soon.

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  • Thank you for a great and informative report.

    Does anyone know if the bands etc will have a different process for international visitors?

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    • I live in Canada and the process was the same for us with the exception that International visitors currently have their bands shipped to their resort rather than to their homes. Hopefully that changes in the future.

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  • I think they are still restricting parades & fireworks to weekends only. I just checked a few moments ago for FP+ reservations on Wednesday of our trip (Nov 1-10). I was specifically looking for parades and nighttime spectaculars at HS, MK and Epcot. None showed up. However, I do have Illumination FP+ reservations for both Saturdays of my trip.

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    • Our trip is Oct. 14-21 and the parades and shows were not on FP+ a week ago but they did appear as options yesterday. So I’d say to keep checking. They did not only show up on weekends – I was looking at a Tuesday.

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  • Thanks for the review! The info on where the FP+ areas are for the nighttime shows was particularly helpful. Unfortunately, it seems impossible to really get a feel for how FP+ will work as long as the old FP system is still available. For example, I can’t imagine touring the MK on a busy day with only 3 FP’s to use. Or any park for that matter if they limit us to one “headliner” FP. Also, since they are adding FP to so many attractions that have no use for it, I hope the standby lines are not negatively impacted on those attractions. I guess we’ll just have to see.

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    • I share the same worries as you and nothing I saw about FP+ eased those concerns. I’m leery, but hopeful 🙂

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  • I agree! The FP+ for the Electrical Parade was the best! I was so surprised when it showed up as a choice on the app! We were part of the field test for that attraction and there were only 30 passes offered that evening. (They wanted to see if their portable iPhone scanners would work with the MagicBands, so it was a little tentative.) Having the castle as a background for my photos was really amazing! We didn’t use our Wishes FP+ because I like my own personal spot better.

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    • Thank you for the info. We are going Oct 9-15 and testing fp+ so I am trying to figure this out. I see where it says we can get fp+ for different parades and fireworks but when I click on it, it just says it is not a reservation- but it saves it to our itinerary. Was that the same for you or did it say it was a reservation? I also saw I could get fp for Be Our Guest QS but when I click on that it bounces me out of it.

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      • When we checked in we saw several people that had received the email invitation for FP at BOG but weren’t able to book them. Disney accomodated them and scheduled them for same day FP reservations and one lady even got to go right in.

  • My experience was positive as well. I found that logging the fast pass + times into my phones calendar with alerts set up worked well for me. I would like to see them implement some sort of push notification option when you book your FP+ reservations.

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  • Brian,

    Nice Update we are going in 70 days. Any word on when full roll out will be or if they will be extending the testing. Sounds like most people are having a good experience and few problems. We are very excited about the new technology and can’t wait to try it out.

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    • There hasn’t been definitive word yet on a full rollout, but everything I’m hearing is that there is a good chance it will be up and running by your trip.

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  • Laura,

    I would try to redo your FP+ for the day you want to get Wishes.

    We are going last week in October and had Wishes show up as a choice for the first time yesterday. I’m still hoping to get Illuminations to show up, so I redo our Epcot FP+ every couple of days hoping to see it show up as an option.

    If you find there are no new FP+ options you can cancel out and not change your current FP+ settings so its safe to check without loosing anything you set up already.

    Reply
  • Thanks for the information! We are leaving for wdw in less than a week staying at aoa resort. I am wondering if they are offering different fast pass+ options based on resort. For example, I was never given the option to sign up for any fireworks, parades, be our guest restaurant or little mermaid greet. I don’t think it was because all the slots were filled because I made my reservations on the first day possible. Have you heard any news on this?
    Thanks!

    Reply
    • We were curious as well about the differences between resort levels, but we spoke to several people that were in Value resorts that could reserve parades and fireworks. It seems more random to me than that and it could be as simple as Disney only offering it certain days as a crowd flow test.

      Reply
      • Perhaps fireworks or parade not being offered that day due to a holiday party or other scheduling. Be Our Guest is a separate FP+. No clue about Mermaid!

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