Hi Kathryn!
I’m so sorry you are having a struggle with your
MagicBands. I know my family loves getting them. Choosing and ordering them is a big part of the anticipation of every trip. The official policy has been that once MagicBands are purchased, that they were still sent, even for reservations that were later canceled. Of course, not everyone likes this policy, as who wants to spend money on MagicBands for a trip you aren’t taking. While I don’t know exactly what happened with your MagicBand order, I suspect that despite the official policy, your order was canceled thinking this is what most Guests would want.
Since your trip isn’t until October, we have plenty of time to work on this issue. It sounds like you declined new MagicBands in
My Disney Experience and now would like to change that to be able to pre-order them with the discount. If you don’t see an option from My Disney Experience to unselect the decline option, I think the best bet is to
call Disney Tech Support. Hopefully, on their end, they can reset your account so that the option to order appears again. Once that is reset, then you could go ahead and place a new order. I have a lot of experience chatting with Disney Tech Support and they are amazing! (Taking 135 marching band kids to Disney has its fair share of challenges. Disney Tech Support saved the day more than once!)
If Tech Support is unable to reset your choice to decline, you still have a few other options. First, MagicBands have a battery life of about 2 years, so if you have older MagicBands associated to you, you can bring those with you. It’s important to understand that MagicBands are associated to a Guest and not a specific trip. So any MagicBand associated to you will work for any trip. The next option is to purchase full-priced MagicBands. You can purchase in advance from shopDisney or a gift shop at Walt Disney World upon arrival. These MagicBands can be linked to you manually through My Disney Experience.
A final option is to simply not use MagicBands. You can use your Key to the World Card given at check-in to access your room and park tickets, or you can use the new
MagicMobile service! With MagicMobile you can add your theme park tickets to your mobile devices such as a smartphone or smartwatch. Choose from a variety of ticket designs and simply tap your mobile device to the Mickey Touchpoint just as you would a MagicBand. This service is now available on both Apple and Android devices. Your resort room door can be opened with My Disney Experience as well.
I hope one of these options works out for you, Kathryn.
- Kate