Wrist bands $5.00 fee

[The_Big_M]

Wow band I'm sure. Definitely old news.

 

Agreed. Fee was introduced for these about 6 months ago.

[The_Big_M]

Can you imagine if any line started charging for a sea pass card?

 

The outcry:confused::confused:

 

As this is just an optional extra, it's not so much an issue. Just like them charging for lanyards. :D

[cruiserinsg]

Was thinking of getting one on board but since it doesn't work on the Ovation (except for opening the door as posted earlier) we will skip. :cool:

[Biker19]

Was thinking of getting one on board but since it doesn't work on the Ovation (except for opening the door as posted earlier) we will skip. :cool:

 

The WOW band not working is a glitch that should be solved - the only thing you can't do with the WOW band is disembark on the last day - you need your Seapass card for that.

[Alohaaloha]

Just off Ovation and the wow band did not work on any of there machines except to open our cabin door . None of there swipe/pay machines would work with the bands.

 

 

Ours on Ovation didn't even open the cabin door! We had to keep going to Guest Services and getting it re-set!

We gave up in the end- luckily they were free with the suite, but if I had paid $4.95 as advertised in the Compass, then it would have been refund time.

 

 

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[cruiserinsg]

Just curious whether they will take it back and give a refund or insist on resetting it till the end of the cruise? :eek:

[dpostman]

I could see us getting them for our kids. And maybe my wife would like one, and then I could carry her seapass with me since I'm constantly getting drinks for the 2 of us, she would not be caught without her card if she went back to the room or to get food while I'm in line at the bar.

 

dp... Also a DRH (Drink Retreival Husband) as I learned on CC this week :D

[Alohaaloha]

Just curious whether they will take it back and give a refund or insist on resetting it till the end of the cruise? :eek:

 

 

Good point! Luckily for us ours were free, so after two trips to GS, we just reverted back to our tried and trusted SeaPass- and I guess they'd probably give you a different new band that hopefully worked better than the last one!

 

 

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[little britain]

No Wow band in my cabin on Ovation today. I wouldn't use it any how but...

 

 

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[foxgoodrich]

As this is just an optional extra, it's not so much an issue. Just like them charging for lanyards. :D

 

I'm glad it's optional! I must be an old school dinosaur or something, but I prefer a sea pass card. It's just second nature to me...get ready to leave the cabin...put the sea pass in a pocket or in my little evening purse. My sea pass makes me feel secure.:)

 

The wow bands are supposed to work just like Disney's magic bands on land. Magic bands work for your hotel door (Disney resort), for any meals/meal plan you've pre-purchased, for stuff you buy, and for all the park admissions. I think Disney charged us $8 pp for them and after final payment we had to order what colors we wanted for our group. They mailed them to us in fancy presentation boxes prior to our trip! I don't think there is any option there - you have to have a magic band. And they've evidently mastered the technology at Diz as for our group of 6 last year, we never had an issue with any of them not working over the 4 days of our visit. I believe they are reusable/re-programmable for subsequent trips if you bring them back.

They even sell little charms to adorn your magic band - I wonder how long it will be before Royal does that...those plastic charms have to be a real money maker for the Mouse!;):D

Judy

Edited May 3, 2016 by foxgoodrich

[Fouremco]

A wow band is like a rubber wrist band with a RFID chip in it which basically replaces your Seapass card when onboard. You can use the wow band to make purchases and open cabin door. Some people prefer this on their wrist than carrying their Seapass card with them.

 

The bands are only limited to certain ships namely Quantum class and possibly Harmony due to their new technology. These bands used to be free when it first started but RCI now charges for them.

Thank you for the explanation. :)

[mcatmcat]

Don't know why you need an arm band...it will just give you an unwanted tan line!

 

 

That's the only reason I don't want to buy one and don't forget that you will also have it in every picture that you take

[jenfromjersey]

We purchased them on our January Anthem cruise at Guest Services. The guy told us he was only charging us for one. We had to make 4 trips down to GS because they would stop working, it got to the point where they had an engineer go up to look at the door. Eventually they got it working, AND refunded us the cost. It was convenient to just put your wrist against the door, or the slot machine. You did have to take it off to pay for a drink though.

[UCF_Knight]

The wow bands are supposed to work just like Disney's magic bands on land. Magic bands work for your hotel door (Disney resort), for any meals/meal plan you've pre-purchased, for stuff you buy, and for all the park admissions. I think Disney charged us $8 pp for them and after final payment we had to order what colors we wanted for our group. They mailed them to us in fancy presentation boxes prior to our trip! I don't think there is any option there - you have to have a magic band. And they've evidently mastered the technology at Diz as for our group of 6 last year, we never had an issue with any of them not working over the 4 days of our visit. I believe they are reusable/re-programmable for subsequent trips if you bring them back.

They even sell little charms to adorn your magic band - I wonder how long it will be before Royal does that...those plastic charms have to be a real money maker for the Mouse!;):D

 

Just to correct a few things...

 

MagicBands are free with a stay at a Disney resort, not $8 per person. You are only charged for them if you want one but you aren't staying in a Disney hotel and you aren't an annual passholder.

 

MagicBands are optional, not required. Anyone without one (or who doesn't want to wear one) can get a standard park ticket (much like a SeaPass card) which can be used for most things MagicBands will work for. You can use the standard card for park admission, room key, paying for anything you want to charge to your room, and FastPass.

 

As for mastering the technology, it generally works great now. However, when it first debuted about 3 years ago it was a complete nightmare. Nothing worked well. Disney was implementing it on a much larger scale than Royal Caribbean tried later on, but even considering that it was a disaster. Disney reportedly spent well over $1 billion implementing MagicBands and the larger "My Disney Experience" initiative. It took them awhile, but they finally got it right.

[foxgoodrich]

Just to correct a few things...

 

MagicBands are free with a stay at a Disney resort, not $8 per person. You are only charged for them if you want one but you aren't staying in a Disney hotel and you aren't an annual passholder.

 

MagicBands are optional, not required. Anyone without one (or who doesn't want to wear one) can get a standard park ticket (much like a SeaPass card) which can be used for most things MagicBands will work for. You can use the standard card for park admission, room key, paying for anything you want to charge to your room, and FastPass.

 

As for mastering the technology, it generally works great now. However, when it first debuted about 3 years ago it was a complete nightmare. Nothing worked well. Disney was implementing it on a much larger scale than Royal Caribbean tried later on, but even considering that it was a disaster. Disney reportedly spent well over $1 billion implementing MagicBands and the larger "My Disney Experience" initiative. It took them awhile, but they finally got it right.

 

Oh yeah, I forgot about the FastPasses being on there too! I thought I saw a charge for the bands on my mega-bill, but maybe what I saw was that it was $8 to replace them. We did a 4 day Disney land vacation following a 4 night Diz cruise last spring. My first experience with Disney! Everything was expen$ive, but it all worked perfectly. (And those silly charms...my granddaughters went nuts over those! There's a never-ending array of Disney characters for adorning your band.)

 

I wondered how long they had been using the magic bands. We were not given cards - just the bands - but we never had a glitch anywhere. Thanks for the info - Good to know they had worked the bugs out of the system by the time we tried it!:)

Judy

[Alohaaloha]

No Wow band in my cabin on Ovation today. I wouldn't use it any how but...

 

 

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I think it depends what cabin category you're in. As far as I am aware they are in Junior Suite and above cabins.

 

 

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[tip]

Just heard from cruisesr getting off of the Anthem that they now are charging $5 for the wrist bands. Boy you talk about nickle and dimimg.

 

One hundred more nickels or fifty more dimes for RCCL. And the RCCL cheerleaders come on and post because this is an old issue.:rolleyes:

[tip]

Can you imagine if any line started charging for a sea pass card?

 

The outcry:confused::confused:

 

Don't give "the suits" any ideas!

[Surfguyxxx]

I believe OP is talking about the ones that act like a sea pass for charges et.

 

I wouldn't wear one if they were free.

 

I haven't read any further into this thread but is this like the "Magic Bands" Disney is using? Not cool if that is the case to charge for them. Not cool at all. Even Disney doesn't charge for them. Let me read on:D

[LMaxwell]

I thought a big benefit to these bands was supposed to be data acquisition to help manage people flow and logistics.

 

So if they charge a fee for it and people don't get it, how do they achieve their original desired benefit?

 

Or was that just an excuse and now they want to squeeze some extra profit?

[The_Big_M]

They even sell little charms to adorn your magic band - I wonder how long it will be before Royal does that...those plastic charms have to be a real money maker for the Mouse!;):D

Judy

 

They did talk about offering those when they were originally announced.

 

However, with the limited use and distribution, probably not a priority until they become more widely used.

 

I have a suspicion Wow-bands will be more popular on Australian sailings since lanyards are popular here, but are not as readily used on the ships with Wow-bands due to card technology.

[The_Big_M]

Just curious whether they will take it back and give a refund or insist on resetting it till the end of the cruise? :eek:

 

If you were to have repeated issues, I'm sure they'd happily provide a refund on request.

[The_Big_M]

I think it depends what cabin category you're in. As far as I am aware they are in Junior Suite and above cabins.

 

Close - grand suite and above.

[Biker19]

I thought a big benefit to these bands was supposed to be data acquisition to help manage people flow and logistics.

 

So if they charge a fee for it and people don't get it, how do they achieve their original desired benefit?

 

Given that it was free for the Quantum season in the US, I assume it was meant as a convenience for customers and something to use as a marketing tool. The logistics to manage them and perhaps lack of use, made RCI start charging for them.

[Alohaaloha]

Close - grand suite and above.

 

 

Oh that's odd, because we were in a junior spa suite and ours were in the cabin and free.

 

 

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