Magicbands to be used in place of paper parking permits - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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This is a change I definitely like - especially where we're people that have forgotten or misplaced the paper in the past. Last year we got into the habit of showing our MB at every resort we went to anyway because it was just easier than finding the paper. Granted at the theme parks it might take a little longer where they'll have to scan our bands instead of looking at a piece of paper but that's a very small price to pay IMO.
Ugh. We had real issues with getting into the resorts using our MagicBands, as I had to take mine off and pass it to DH, as he couldn't easily lean out of the car to use his. It seemed to us that the design wasn't that great, so this news doesn't inspire me. Hopefully there will still be Cast Members to scan you in at the parks - I can imagine this could lead to longer lines to get in.
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Ugh. We had real issues with getting into the resorts using our MagicBands, as I had to take mine off and pass it to DH, as he couldn't easily lean out of the car to use his. It seemed to us that the design wasn't that great, so this news doesn't inspire me. Hopefully there will still be Cast Members to scan you in at the parks - I can imagine this could lead to longer lines to get in.
This is where having one of those old bands that is still active could be useful. I think it was Lizard Cop who said he kept one in the car just for resort checkin. Of course, not everyone has one of those.
We had a rental for one day on our trip last week and even with the paper in the window, we still had to use our magic band to enter the resort. (We didn't drive it to a park.) I can see where that could really slow down the lines, as even with good scanners, it takes longer than just looking at a paper and waving you on through.
On our last trip, we went out with some friends and when they brought us back, my DS was on the driver's side in the back seat (DH and I were on the other side of the car), so he rolled down the window and stuck his arm with the band out.
We didn't really have any issues with our bands not scanning or having any other issues. We really liked having everything on the bands. We carried very little with us into the parks.
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I think that I still had to use our Magic band to get back into our resort even though we had the paper parking pass. With today's technology, it is so easy to duplicate something. I would agree that the magic band or ID should be to gain access at the resort gate. As far as the theme parks, it may slow things down quite a bit. It is nice to pull up to the booth and get waived through at the park entrances.
They are still using both. They can scan your magic band but if you have the paper on top of your dashboard, they still wave you through.
One a side note, the scanning is a bit slower. During evening EMH on Saturday, the CMs would only scan one MB per party. The scary part is that when they scan your your MB, they know your name and where you are staying. Even when we used our FPs, they knew who we were.
We were given a paper permit for the Poly and had to have it and a MB. At AoA we just scanned the MB - no paper permits were given.
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The Fun, Old-Fashioned Family Vacation, 3.0 http://www.passporterboards.com/foru...ml#post4472933
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We were given a paper permit for the Poly and had to have it and a MB.
At the Poly I can understand. Leaving the paper in your windshield while parked would make it easy for any security guards passing to just glance at it and see that you were indeed staying there and therefore entitled to parking there (unlike people who aren't staying there but just want to park and go to the MK for the day and avoid paying at the TTC). At AoA I can see not needing the paper because who in their right mind would be going to the values to leave their car for the day to ride a bus to a park (this means people NOT staying at the values)?
At the Poly I can understand. Leaving the paper in your windshield while parked would make it easy for any security guards passing to just glance at it and see that you were indeed staying there and therefore entitled to parking there (unlike people who aren't staying there but just want to park and go to the MK for the day and avoid paying at the TTC). At AoA I can see not needing the paper because who in their right mind would be going to the values to leave their car for the day to ride a bus to a park (this means people NOT staying at the values)?
That's EXACTLY what the CM at the front desk said when I double checked about the parking pass. She said "we're so out of the way, no one wants to come here unless they're staying here" Ironically, I found the bus transportation to be better there than at the Poly.
Darlene, I wanted to pass along that all parks now offer park-to-park buses and the larger buses are loading two scooters/wheelchairs etc first then taking on passengers. The only place you can't get to from a park is DtD because "everyone would park free there and go to the parks". The DtD area is a madhouse of construction so I would definitely recommend taking Disney transportation. The bus stops are all near the Christmas Shop and the parking is on the opposite side.
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The Fun, Old-Fashioned Family Vacation, 3.0 http://www.passporterboards.com/foru...ml#post4472933
Ch-Ch-Changes July 2015
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Darlene, I wanted to pass along that all parks now offer park-to-park buses and the larger buses are loading two scooters/wheelchairs etc first then taking on passengers. The only place you can't get to from a park is DtD because "everyone would park free there and go to the parks". The DtD area is a madhouse of construction so I would definitely recommend taking Disney transportation. The bus stops are all near the Christmas Shop and the parking is on the opposite side
Thank you for that info. We weren't sure about the park to park busses. We rode one from DHS to Epcot a few years ago but since it was thundering and lightning the boats weren't running and there was no other way to get to Epcot (unless you wanted to walk and the storm was too much for that).
As for DTD, that's what I was afraid of - the parking not being near where we need to go. We'll definitely be using Disney transportation and right now we're thinking the boats from POFQ but things could always change between now and then. Thanks again.
No problem We actually took a bus from DHS to POFQ then the boat to DtD. It was a beautiful, sunny and hot day and while we were waiting for a bus to POFQ, two separate busses to Epcot pulled up. At DHS, the park to park buses are near the drop off points, not the resort bus lines.
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Ch-Ch-Changes July 2015
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I'm sure eventually, when the construction is done, the busses at DTD will resume having stops at either end. But that won't be anytime terribly soon, so in the meantime ...
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We had real issues with getting into the resorts using our MagicBands, as I had to take mine off and pass it to DH, as he couldn't easily lean out of the car to use his. It seemed to us that the design wasn't that great, so this news doesn't inspire me. Hopefully there will still be Cast Members to scan you in at the parks - I can imagine this could lead to longer lines to get in.
We actually took a bus from DHS to POFQ then the boat to DtD. It was a beautiful, sunny and hot day and while we were waiting for a bus to POFQ, two separate busses to Epcot pulled up. At DHS, the park to park buses are near the drop off points, not the resort bus lines.
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