A lot, when it's Walt Disney World
First major thing that has come in with WDW is that they're out with the old paper park tickets and in with new plastic cards which don't work on the turn styles, they're for the new Mickey scanners that seem to have popped up all over the park at the start of the Fast Pass lines. This was all very interesting to me and my father. We came up with our own theories as to what these scanners were for. Then as if Disney were reading our minds, a few days later as we entered the Magic Kingdom, we saw a sign saying My MagicBands this way. Wanting to know all about these new bands we found a Cast Member inside and questioned him about it all.
If you already know everything about My MagicBand then there's no need to read the rest, if not, read on :)
Basically, you'll have a band for your wrist, they're just like a bracelet or a watch and come in a lot of different colours, this band will be your park ticket, your Fast Pass tickets, and your credit card, pretty much everything about you will be on this band. But, and it's a big but, to receive the full benefit of these bands you need to have an account on the My Disney Experience app, I'll tell you more about that now. They're currently running guest trials for these bands for guests who arrived last week and will do 2 more trials before they release it to everyone, pending everything goes smoothly. The trials with Cast Members and their families were successful, so this is why the Guest trials have started. So, until the bands become the main thing, Disney are distributing plastic park tickets, almost like credit cards.
So, these scanners that have popped up in the entrance ways to the Fast Pass lines in most attractions, this is where the MagicBands get INTERESTING! Remember that Disney app I just told you about? Well, when you activate your bands onto the app you're able to book Fast Pass times for the Park you plan on visiting that day. I became very wary of this when the CM told us but he said you're only able to book for 3 attractions in one park a day until they see how things go, apparently they've researched the average amount of Fast Passes distributed by Guests is 3 in one park. He also said they are getting rid of all of the Fast Pass machines for all the attractions, so you really need this app or when the park opens Guest Relations will have computers with the app on them so you're able to do it from there. Also, you will need to check the app to remind you of your Fast Pass times, or you could write them down when you've booked them.
I'm not sure if the band will have Disney Resort room keys on them, but seen as the current room keys are Guests park tickets as well, they probably will be.
This is a VERY big change for Disney and it's not the only change within Disney property but I'll save that for my next post.
As always if you have any questions, comments, suggestions or things you'd like covered, let me know in comments below or contact me on Twitter at @WDWHoliday13
Thanks for reading,
Emily
