Pool access curiosity

Before I begin, I will say I have NO PLANS whatsoever to pool hop or anything. But I was curious.

So, I know you aren’t allowed to go to another resort’s pool. But, how, exactly, are they enforcing this? Or are they?

At Pop Century, at least, there was no attempt to enforce this. Anyone could just show up at the pool and get in. There was no verification. I though maybe you’d need your MB to get through the pool gate or something, but you didn’t. Are other resorts just as lax? Or is it just like this at Pop because who would even WANT to pool hop to those pools?

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Most resorts (all by now?) have magic band access. No stay, no entry. Of course you can sneak in on the heels of someone ahead of you. But then some resorts (often BC) give wristbands too after verifying you are a resort guest.

If you’re not planning to hop, what makes you think of this?

It really is curiosity. Since Pop Century didn’t seem to enforce it, I would think that pool hopping would be rampant, which made me wonder how exactly this is being enforced at other resorts.

I suppose it could be less strict right now with so many fewer guests around. And Pop isn’t really a go-to hop spot anyway so it probably doesn’t need the strictness that you would at BC or Poly.

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Yeah. For sure. I’m not sure why anyone would choose to leave their resort to swim at Pop instead. But definitely I could see someone from Pop wanting to use the BC or even BW pools.

At Pop, there was no scanning of magic bands at all. You could just open the gate.

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At Stormalong Bay, they are still scanning magic bands and giving you a wrist band to wear.

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I’ve not seen any verification at any pool ever… I’ve read that they check for Stormalong Bay. At Pop and AoA they are ok with going to both pools.

That seems like a reasonable way to do it.

At Boardwalk in September we had to scan our magic band to unlock the gate. At All Star Movies in September we could just walk right in I believe.

This is what I had expected at Pop…but it makes sense that they aren’t really worried about it at the value resorts.

But…this just occurred to me. With Disney no longer planning to give out MagicBands, I wonder if they will need to change their procedure. I wouldn’t feel comfortable bringing my phone down to the pool area, left alone while I’m in the water. So they will need to find a way to verify identify that doesn’t involve a MB nor a phone, it seems! (It makes me wonder if Disney has thought that through yet!)

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maybe it’s the deluxe places that have scanning but not value or moderate… GC didn’t ask for a scan but DL doesn’t use mb

I think it’s specific to certain in demand pools. AKL doesn’t check bands, but Stormalong Bay and the Volcano pool at the Poly definitely do.

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ahhhh… I would love to go to Stormalong Bay, now I’m going to have to look up Poly’s vol. pool :wink:

The volcano pool is pretty cool. But I think the reason it becomes a draw for hoppers, more than anything else, is that it is cool AND close to the MK.

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When we stayed at Wilderness Lodge, you could only access the pool using your Magic Band.

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I dont know that any value resorts have checks. But Ive heard, and I dont use the pools much so im not 100, the nicer/popular pools do. Makes sense, if your going to pool crash, you wouldnt go to a value resort to do it.

I really hope they change course on this!

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the value resorts have some of the best over the top theming though. AoA is an example… at night it’s beautiful. PO serpent slide is good. The last time I was there we didnt’ swim cuz it was cold so I dont’ know if they band in?

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When I was there in May 2019, I remember banding in to AoA Big Blue Pool. Don’t know if they are still enforcing that now.

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I do think that it is the more “in demand” pools that have restricted access. There was no band scanning when we stayed at SSR last year at any of the pools. We legally pool hopped to Kidani on our check-out day and nobody checked our bands. We did have a Sanaa lunch reservation to get us in to park, but I also don’t think it would have been difficult to say that we were just visiting either.

We were kind of hoping to pool hop to perhaps CBR via the Skyliner on this trip but technically DVC pool hopping is suspended. I doubt we would have trouble doing so though.

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