Uh oh! Fingerprint for Magic Band?

Just read an article that says the Magic Band is linked to your fingerprint at first park entry and that fingerprint is used to authenticate entry for the length of your stay. Is this still the case? Is fingerprint authentication also used at FP check-ins or Dining Plan charges or purchases charged to my account? I’m searching but finding inconsistent dated information.

The problem is I don’t have detectable fingerprints. You can sort of see the swirl pattern in certain light, but it doesn’t show up on scanners very well. I had to be fingerprinted for a professional license and it was a long ordeal with multiple attempts, finally getting something usable on the third try with the state bureau of investigation fingerprint tech who used all sorts of tricks with alcohol and lotion.

Has anyone had this problem? Worried about what in the world I can do and don’t want long delays at entry.

You can use any of your 10 fingers hopefully one shows up better than the others. You just have to use the same finger each time you enter the park and it is only for entering the park.

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To use the dining plan, FPs or charging using your band, you use a PIN.

And if you have problems with the scanner, there are CMs who will scan your band and retrieve details on their iPads; not sure what they pull up but I’ve seen them do it where the scanner didn’t work.

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Yes, they do use the fingerprint at entry. After my 6 year old was stopped at every park for the first several days because his would not work, we finally got a nice, experienced CM who taught us the trick. Make sure whatever finger you use is all the way on the scanner, with the tip of your finger touching the back of it. Once we learned that trick, it worked every time. If that doesn’t work, they do have iPads to verify and may take your picture instead.

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The good thing about how busy Disney has become is there isn’t a medical/physical condition you can throw at them that they haven’t seen before. Disney sees a lot of burn victims. I’m betting more than a few of them has had fingerprint issues. Just plan to get there earlier on your first day and talk with them about the issue.

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There is a CM at the entrance that can take your picture and add that to your profile for entry.

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We’re at WDW now and have needed fingerprint for entry but not for food purchases. It’s coded up whatever finger uou used the first time, which we found out when DSS16 switched fingers

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My dad has this same issue with his fingerprint. It was a pain. Every time we went to go through the taps they had to try his fingerprint 4-5 times and it usually required the help of 2-3 CMs. They managed to get him in each day though.

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They have a system to handle this (younger kids have trouble doing the fingerprint right, as does anyone dehydrated) and like PrincipalTinker said it’s a picture taken by a CM on a tablet. When you enter a park head for a tapstyle with a CM standing near and tell them your fingerprint never registers and I bet you’ll be looked up immediately. Also as Nickysyme said, the fingerprint is only for tapstyles into park, everything else is a pin. Or it was June 2017!

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Thanks so much, everyone!

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From Disney site “If you don’t want to use Ticket Tag, you can simply carry and show a photo ID that matches the name identified with your ticket.”

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/faq/my-disney-experience/my-magic-plus-privacy/

This is for people who don’t want to scan their finger but I expect would also work for those who don’t have a good print to scan.

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The quality of fingerprint scanners varies widely. It’s sounds like you’ve seen the most common tricks for getting a good scan. The best one, though, is to just use a light touch. Pressing too hard on the best scanner can wash out the deepest print. It will obliterate a shallow one. The scanners at WDW seem to be of good quality, but as others have said the fingerprint is not a showstopper. And it’s only an issue at the front entrance, anyway. As long as you can present a valid, acceptable form of ID you should be fine. There’s a list of everything they will accept somewhere on their website, but passports and U.S. state-issued IDs are givens.

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I had to get fingerprinted as part of the process to get approval just to volunteer in my son’s preschool class (crazy policy, they changed it a while back). The tech I was working with had a really hard time getting my prints and wasn’t sure if the powers that be would be okay with the set we ended up with. The WDW tapstiles had no problems with my print, though. It might be worth trying it the “regular” way to see how it goes.

Now, my children were another story. We ended up linking their bands to my fingerprint, because we had a really hard time getting the tapstiles to work with their little wriggly fingers.

GL!

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