Category Archives: Park Tickets

I love MagicBands! (for some things)

Disney Planning, Park Tickets April 11, 2014 Leave a comment

On our recent trip to Disney World, we were very excited to use the new MagicBands that I had heard so much about!  My friend and former cast member Jo Anne wrote a guest post a few months ago, and I was anxious to try them out for myself.

Disney MagicBands

Disney MagicBands

Tickets & Charging

For the main purpose of using the MagicBand as a park ticket and room key with charging privileges, I absolutely loved it!  At first I felt naked leaving my resort without having my purse – no key to the world, no money, but I soon realized all we needed were our colorful and handy MagicBands!  There was one scare in Epcot when we saw someone getting carded for a beer (we had not brought our ID’s), but apparently we look old since we didn’t get carded. Whew! That could have been bad.  Scanning and entering the pin number made spending E-A-S-Y.  Luckily we had the free dining plan so we weren’t really ‘spending’, but boy do MagicBands make it simple!

FastPass+

The other main purpose of the Magic Bands is to store FastPass+ reservations. Continue reading →

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MagicBands – Love ’em or leave ’em?

Disney Planning, Park Tickets January 12, 2014 Leave a comment

Today I have a guest post from my friend and former cast member, Jo Anne!  She has been an annual passholder, is a DVC member, and when we first met I thought she was a Disney fanatic (in a bad way.)  I still think she’s a Disney fanatic, but in a good way!  She used the new MagicBands in September and this is her review. 

Since this review took place during the test phase, things may have changed since then. Be sure to check Disney’s website for updates to policies and procedures.

In late October/early November we took a family vacation to Walt Disney World with family and friends to celebrate several birthdays (including my daughter’s first birthday.)  As DVC members, my parents stayed in a 1 bedroom villa and my family and our friends stayed in a 2 bedroom villa at Animal Kingdom Lodge. We were all super excited to find out we would be able to participate in the soft launch of the new Disney MagicBand program. Marketed as a colorful, all-in-one band that connects all of your vacation plans and reservations through My Disney Experience, we weren’t sure what to expect. My friend and I were super excited about the colorful bands and a free souvenir for the kids’ first trip to WDW.  However, our husbands were very cynical – they made comments about how Disney will know everything about us, can track us, help us spend money…but deep down they were excited too.

Once we were registered in My Disney Experience, I linked all of our ticket and dining information to our bands. I still brought my trusty spreadsheet, but I could see phasing this out now that I have this great tool.

I highly recommend taking the time to customize your MagicBands through My Disney Experience. We assigned a character to each person and had fun picking the colors of our bands. The packaging on them is amazing as well. We were so excited when we finally got them in the mail. If you don’t customize your band, you will be issued a gray one at the front desk when you check in. Boo…gray is so boring!

When we checked into our resort, we were flooded by MagicBand merchandise. Continue reading →

To hop or not to hop

Disney Planning, Park Tickets April 17, 2013 Leave a comment

A big part of planning a vacation to Disneyworld is deciding what kind of ticket to purchase. There are several options which can be customized to your vacation style and budget.

As I mentioned in my last post, we learned the hard way that you can’t use a single day ticket to get into multiple parks (rookie mistake!) We thought if we had a 5 day park ticket that we could use 2 in one day, leaving 3 tickets left to get into the parks. That’s not how ticketing works, which we learned as our daughter threw a tearful fit in the turnstiles of Hollywood Studios.  Since we had a long planned dinner reservation, we caved and upgraded to a Park Hopper ticket on the spot. Lesson learned!

Here’s the lowdown on tickets just in case you aren’t planning on making a special memory of dropping an extra $250 on a ticket upgrade as you’re walking into the park!

Single Day ticket –  allows entry into one park per day. The longer you stay, the lower the ticket price per day.  As of today, a 1-day adult ticket is $89, 2 days are $88/day, but a 6 day ticket drops to $46.33/day. So after your first 2 days, you basically pay another $100 for 4 more days in the parks. Good deal!

  • Best for: First time visitors can definitely get away with single day tickets because there’s so much to do in each park that you can easily spend 8-10 hours there (or more if it’s extra magic hours!)

Single Ticket Prices

Park Hopper ticket – allows same-day entry into any of the 4 parks – Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Epcot, and Hollywood Studios.

  • Best for: Anyone who wants to go to 2+ parks in one day. Sometimes extra magic hours are available in one park, but your dinner reservation or special event is in another park – that’s when the Park Hopper is so convenient because you don’t have to plan to spend your entire day in a park just because you have a reservation.

Water Parks and More ticket – adds a ton of other options for entertainment outside the 4 main parks. The ticket includes entry to the 2 water parks (Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon,) ESPN’s Wide World of Sports Complex, DisneyQuest in Downtown Disney, Disney’s Oak Trail Golf Course, or Disney’s Fantasia Gardens/Winter Summerland mini golf courses.  One thing to note is that you can only pick one extra per day – you can’t go to 2 water parks or golf and a water park in a single day.

  • Best for: Visitors who will be staying a week or more, have been to the parks before and want other options to spend a few days outside of the parks while remaining in the Disney bubble!

You might also like:

Pros & cons of staying on Disney property (a.k.a. in the bubble)

The best laid plans

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