Since I’m currently considering booking a 1-night campsite throwaway reservation for Fort Wilderness to get MagicBands, parking on our first day and be able to book my FPP’s using the 60-day rolling window I’m going through the logistics of this move. Some details on what to expect are still somewhat unclear to me so I was hoping somebody here could help me out with getting my facts straight.
We expect to land on MCO somewhere between 7:30 (19:30) and 8:00 (20:00) PM on a Saturday. At that point we’ll have to get our luggage and rental car and after that should be good to go to our hotel. The plan is to do a (expected 8:00 (AM)) ropedrop for Magic Kingdom the very next morning. Obviously I’m looking to get the maximum amount of sleep possible that night before doing this ropedrop on Sunday. Now I have the following questions:
Do I need to physically check-in at the resort before going to my actual hotel in order to get my MagicBands and possibility of free parking at the parks for the next morning? If so, how long does it usually take to go through this entire routine?
Will I be able to use the free parking at the parks even though I won’t be paying for parking at the resort? Normally this would probably be considered very odd but since I’m parking the rental car at the actual hotel we’ll be staying at, I was hoping it could work out this way.
Is it possible to have my MagicBands sent to my actual hotel instead? If so, do you advice for or against this practice? Considering we’ll have our park tickets already linked to the MagicBands and if the package would get misplaced this could mean somebody else could end up using our park tickets, no?
These are the points I took into consideration about this possible throwaway reservation. If any of you guys think I missed something vital about this practice, please let me know so I can take it with me while making this decision.
Thanks in advance for any and all help provided! If there is any more information needed in order to fully answer my questions, please let me know and I’ll try to provide said information as soon as possible.
Nobody here that can answer even 1 of the 3 questions I posed? Or is it taboo to ask about throwaway rooms since people disagree with it from an ethical standpoint?
I’m not sure your premise is valid. If you only have a single day, then your “rolling window” is only a single day wide, isn’t it? It isn’t much of a rolling window. Perhaps I’m not clear this.
Some do and some don’t. I do. But maybe someone who doesn’t can help better.
I can only answer one of your questions with certainty: If you are paying for a site at the campsites then yes, parking at the parks is included for your check-in and check-out day, even though you don’t pay for parking at the campsites.
I would go check on disboards…they have a large thread dedicated to throwaway rooms.
From what I’ve read on this forum and some other places online, the window moves along on a day-to-day basis even though your park tickets aren’t entirely covered by an on-site stay. Could be outdated information though, but pretty sure that’s at least the way that it used to work.
No problem! Maybe with more info on the matter will drop in. Thanks for your reply anyways.
Thanks for helping me out on the parking issue. It seems very counter-intuitive for it to work that way, but in this case it’ll definitely help me out.
I’ll be sure to drop in on DISboards. That forum came up a few times when Googling certain Disney related things but thus far I usually preferred to pose my questions over here.
Well, I don’t think you can ask any questions over there unless you’re a member or whatever. But there is a very long thread dedicated to throwaway rooms. Here they seem to be frowned upon. I’m not sure how many people would even know the answers to your questions in here…
As I said before, @profmatt should have some answers, and I believe that @SneakyPete has knowledge as well. I’m quite sure there are others, whose names aren’t coming to mind, but, I figure there are at least a dozen liners here who have knowledge.
My understanding of the rolling 60 day window is that it only applies to the dates PRIOR to your check-in day. So in order to use this for your whole stay, you would want your checkout day to be your last park day. At day 60 from check-in all of your park days would open. So some days would be 60-x nights before check in.
I have never done this myself, so I can’t say for sure.
“With a Resort Hotel Reservation Plus Tickets, Plan 60 Days in Advance
If you are staying at a Walt Disney World Resort hotel and also have theme park tickets, you’ll be able to start making your FastPass+ selections as early as 60 days prior to your check-in date for the entire length of your stay. Please note that if your stay is longer than 2 weeks, then FastPass+ selections can be made for up to 14 days.”
I added the emphasis to highlight the “entire length of stay” aspect. I think if you get 1 night throwaway and have tickets, you get 60+1 for that one day only since you are only staying on property 1 day. (I presume it isn’t JUST 60 days because you could decide to check in on day 60, but not go to the park until day 60+1).
Again, I don’t have experience with this, but as worded the implication is that your 1 night throwaway room with get you a 60 day window for a SINGLE DAY even if you have tickets for multiple days. Whether Disney enforces this as stated or not is for others to answer.
But I wrote what I meant. My understanding is that when MDE opens your 60 day window it also opens for the dates prior to your 60 days too. It’s a glitch in their system.
Let me see if I can find the link where I read it.
What I mean was that it isn’t based on your check out date, but your check in date. And you add the number of nights stay to your 60 days.
So, if you have a reservation from August 1 through August 7, which is 6 nights, then 60 days before August 1, you can start scheduling your FPP for all 6 nights of your trip.
Well, that is less than 60 days, so I can see that being allowed. But once you schedule FPP for the number of days matching the number of nights you are staying, you are done. So if you schedule FPPs for 3 days prior to your check-in date, and you have a 3 night stay, then you are done. You can’t schedule any more in your “usual” 60+number of days window.
OK, some of the questions have already been answered but here is my take from my experience.
No, you don’t need to physically do anything. You MagicBand will be enabled with all the information.
Yes, you will be able to use the parking at the parks on your check-in day and the next day ( your check-out day). Just wave your MagicBand and off you go. Hotel parking has nothing to do with it.
I suppose but why would you possibly want to do this? Just get them mailed to your house and be done with it. The bands come in a regular non-descriptive white cardboard box. I suppose your hotel would treat it as it would any other package but misplacing it would create and extra hassle that you don’t need.
Bands are sent about one month before your stay so the chances that someone doesn’t even know who you are are big. Don’t risk it. Besides, kids love opening the box. It gets them in “magic” mode.
