My wife,kids and I are all arriving late on Thursday in a couple weeks, and we aren’t staying on resort.
We’re rope dropping Epcot Friday morning. Can anyone tell me where we go to get our passes (or tickets or whatever they’re called) and roughly how much time we should budget for that process. Kids are 6, 3, and 1 years old. I assume we can do this right on site before the park opens. I also assume there’s nowhere at the aiport (or whatever) to get our passes as we land at 8:30 pm.
Also, because we’re not on resort, I know we don’t get the fun wristbands. What does Disney provide for us instead?
I saw mention of people using fingerprints for things (and using their own fingers instead of kids to make life easier). Is that relating to tickets or that’s for something else?
I’ll start by recommending you take some time to scour the internet for research before you go. YouTube is really great for a lot of “first timer” info with visuals.
#1 – I’m unclear as to whether you’ve already purchased tickets & need to pick them up somewhere or if you haven’t bought any tickets and want to pay at the ticket booths? If you still need to purchase them the day you arrive the ticket booths are right up front and easy to identify.
#2 – You’ll get “real” / hard copy tickets. I haven’t had one in a long time, but when I did they looked / felt like hotel room keys.
#3 – Yes. Your fingerprint is scanned and logged / assigned to your ticket ID so that no one else may use your ticket or MagicBand for entry.
That’s great thanks. We have 5 day tickets purchased and a confirmation number (FP+ , adr booked, etc), but I was wondering what the tickets look like, and I don’t plan on handing one to my kids to hang on to.
We’re not planning to spend the extra cost for magic bands either.
I’m kind of waiting for @darkmite2 who knows much but/and the Epcot Guest Services outside the tapstiles are in my experience really slow —lovely but understaffed. You should get there at least 60 minutes before opening to sort out your tickets
Edited: the regular ticket booths will send you to Guest Services since you have existing tix
There is also Guest Services in Disney Springs that is opened until like midnight, I think. Parking is free in Disney Springs. You may be able to take care of the tickets the night you arrive, if you have energy and time, so that you don’t need to worry about them when trying to RD the next morning.
Thanks, we’ll consider that. I’m a night owl and probably going for a grocery run anyway if I can. It’s a 20 minute drive from where we’re staying (CLC Encantada) to D Springs. Dragging the fam out 60 minutes early in the morning doesn’t sound ideal, but good to know how long it can take. At least Epcot doesn’t open too early.
If you go to D-Springs, depending on when you get there, there’s plenty to do / see / eat. Heck…if you’re a night owl…go over there get the tickets and pop into any of the places for a beer / night cap before heading back to the hotel. It’s a pretty neat place!
Also, if you got the Cad resident price, I believe you’ll need everyone’s passports to prove you are Canadian. The best way is to do it a Disney Springs, if you can, so you don’t have to worry the next morning.
About the bands, you can just buy a band for the 6 year old if you want. You don’t all have to buy one. That said, when my guys were small, I kept all the family tickets with me. But at that time, I needed them to get in-park FPs. That necessity has been gone for a few years now. You will need to pull those tickets out for each FP, though, if you don’t buy the bands.
I know that you said you don’t really want to spend extra for the magic bands, but even though we stay off property, I get them so I dont have to keep having to pull the hard tickets out of our bags, we just tap to get into the park and for.our fast passes. This also makes it easier if our group splits up(although my kids are teenagers, not little).
May I recommend lanyards for your cards? You’ll need to pull them out every time you enter a park, and each time you scan a FPP. Ideally each person scans their own, sometimes they make you do it individually. Lanyards just make your life nice and simple. I’d take the tickets away quickly from the littluns though…you don’t wanna lose them. Take a picture of the back of the card (the number mostly) in case you do, sometimes they can give you a duplicate If you have that number.
I’d recommend Ragland Road. If you are picking up tickets solo - you can probably sit at the bar. If you think the family is coming I’d make a reservation.
Our last Disney trip in 2016, we didn’t have MBs…and, to protect the risk of losing tickets, I was the keeper of the tickets in my wallet.
This ended up being a bit of a pain. Not too bad…but checking in for FP, I pulled out the ticket and tapped each one in so that I kept the tickets in my hand. This worked…but did slow the process down.
The worst was for Test Track, though. I didn’t know that you would need your ticket (or MB) at a couple stages, including just before you board the ride. So, at the stage where you designed your vehicle, I scanned their cards for them…and then they handed them back to me. When we got to the place you board, the CMs were telling us to scan our cards, but I had all of them, and in no particular order. So, I just didn’t end up scanning any of them. The CM looked dismayed on our behalf. It wasn’t until the ride started that I realized we were missing out on part of the fun having not scanned our cards.
In hindsight, I would have either done lanyards for everyone to carry their own, OR just fork over the money for the MBs. For our May trip, I just paid for MBs for everyone to avoid the whole mess.
My first trip I didn’t purchase a magic band and just exchanged my tickets at guests services on DHS, that took about 30 minutes. This time I just bought a magic band and it felt like the ultimate luxury (I bought a $15 magic band at MCO), not having to worry about my ticket nor search for it at every FP.
Also pay attention to Guest Services hours if you end up changing your ticket at a park. One of my friends had to change her tickets at TTC and it only opened with the park (at an EMH day)
I know! I hated those cards so much I also ended up getting splurging for a MB because it was a pain in the butt doing the scanning! Get a Canadian @clruban!!!
ShopDisney.com has 40% site wide once in awhile. I ordered the plain $15 Magic Bands for $9. While they were convenient, they weren’t that comfortable to wear.
People do reuse them. However, the RFID in the Magic Band has a shelf life. The long range ones go first (Photopass pictures on rides). The short range ones last longer (taps). How long? Maybe someone else can chime in.
So… did I answer your question about this? Did you get them through Disney?
