Our Magicbands have arrived!

Our Magicbands have arrived for our upcoming trip!  The MyMagic+ system is set to replace the traditional room key/park ticket as your access to all things Disney. Right now they are "testing" them based on what resort you are visiting. Included in the roll out are Pop Century, The Polynesian, The Beach and Yacht Club, Animal Kingdom Lodge, Port Orleans Riverside, and Art of Animation. The agent we spoke with said that while it is still considered a test, there are no plans to stop issuing bands after the official test is completed on October 31st.

Exclusively for Disney Resort Guests (non property park guests will get a traditional ticket embedded with an RFID computer chip), these bands do some really cool things: They are your room key, park ticket, they have swipe-to-pay ability on property, give you the ability to pre-book Fastpasses before you go to the park, hold dining reservations, find lost children, allow rides and characters to recognize you and speak to you by name, and who knows what else will come! Also of note, you can book more than just the traditional FastPass options. The bands allow you to reserve select quick service lunches ( I'm talking the Be Our Guest restaurant people!) and select seating for fireworks, shows and parades. Pretty awesome.

Incredible packaging. See what I did there?

I was alerted to the fact that we were selected to trail the bands via email from Disney. I logged onto My Disney Experience and there was a button to customize my bands( choose colors and assign names to bands). If you don't do this step, your family will be given grey bands upon arrival. It took about 2 days from when I completed customizing them on the website for my bands to appear on our doorstep. Disney sent them priority overnight via UPS. I really liked the packaging. It was sleek and minimal, very Apple-esq. They fit fairly well. You can leave them as they come or peel the surrounding grey section off to accommodate smaller wrists.

Peeling the outer layer to fit smaller visitors

We have a wide variety of ages (and thus wrist sizes) in our family, all the way down to 11 months, and everyone was able to comfortably wear their bands.

Our 11 month old with his MagicBand

Me with my MagicBand, outer grey layer intact

 They are stiffer than I imagined they would be, but with a bit of force you can shape them to fit your wrist. I don't foresee them being uncomfortable to wear all day during the heat while at Disney. They are personalized both by color and with an individual name on the interior of the band.

The next day after our bands arrived, a happy UPS envelope covered in Mickey stickers showed up on our doorstep. Inside was a letter that explained the MyMagic+ bands in greater detail and offered website and phone support. So far I'm impressed with Disney's through effort to acclimate their guests to the new system. Can't wait to try them out!

For more information about the MyMagic+ system, see our other post http://www.betheirguest.com/2013/08/magicbands-and-fastpass.html