End of an Era for MagicBands at Disney World.
It’s the end of an era for MagicBands at Walt Disney World. This discusses the decline of Disney’s MagicBands, what led to this, the absence of the OG MagicBands in the pre-arrival discount purchase program, why we don’t recommend first-timers purchase the wearable, and other thoughts.
We’d be remiss if we didn’t start in the same spot as several recent articles, retreading ground previously covered in Walt Disney World is Worried About Its High Prices and that progeny of posts. The company has internal concerns about Disney alienating the middle class, with growing fears about how price increases and unpopular decisions are angering fans and losing guest goodwill.
As we’ve pointed out, it’s not just price increases. It’s those coupled with corresponding cuts, nickel and diming, and other ways the guest experience has been diminished. Price isn’t the only, or perhaps even primary, concern. It’s the value proposition, which has taken hits in both directions.
There have been a few nails in the proverbial coffin of MagicBands at Walt Disney World. The devices were once ubiquitous in the parks because they were given away free to all Walt Disney World resort hotel guests. This on-site perk was eliminated in January 2021, and was one of several ‘soft resets’ to the guest experience that was announced in mid-2020 before the parks even reopened.
Walt Disney World retiring the complimentary MagicBand distribution program, and switching to a pre-arrival discount was announced in the exact same press release as the Disney Park Pass reservation system. This bombshell came only a couple of weeks after the retirement of FastPass+ and Extra Magic Hours, as well as the suspension of the Disney Dining Plan.
Suffice to say, it was a big news month between all of that and the phased reopening, and the end of free MagicBands was probably the least consequential news. There were plenty of fans who were–and still are–upset, but Disney flooded the zone with negative news, and it was difficult to be equally upset about all of it. (Although some fans tried!)
Walt Disney World sunsetting the complimentary MagicBand distribution program garnered the least backlash, by far. That’s in part because MagicBands would still exist, and for as cheap as $5 each when discounted for pre-arrivals.
The next big blow to MagicBands was the introduction of the MagicMobile service at Walt Disney World via the My Disney Experience app. This roughly coincided with the sunsetting of free MagicBands in early 2021.
MagicMobile can be added to your Android, iPhone, or Apple Watch digital wallet once enabled. It’s somewhat similar to a MagicBand, with most features working by simply holding up your smart device near an access point. It can be used to enter theme parks, connect PhotoPass images to your account, enter Lightning Lanes, and more.
MagicMobile didn’t have a seamless rollout, but has worked flawlessly for us in the last few years. As someone who already wears an Apple Watch, I typically don’t wear a MagicBand now because I don’t like two wearables on my wrist, and the MagicBand is mostly redundant to what’s offered by MagicMobile without needing a standalone device.
Possibly in response to this reality and wanting to distinguish MagicBands from MagicMobile, Disney introduced MagicBand+ a couple years ago.
From the time it was announced, our fear with MagicBand+ was that it was going to repeat the mistakes of the Made with Magic/Glow with the Show boondoggle. In a nutshell, that’s to say that Disney would invest a ton of money developing new wearable tech and push it as hard as possible to recoup those costs, only to see it flop with fans.
Judging by the thousands of MagicBand+ that were given away to Disneyland fans and how few of the devices we see in the WDW parks as compared to OG MagicBands only ~5 years ago, it’s safe to say that MagicBand+ has not been the success that Disney envisioned.
The newest generation of the device was probably the knockout punch for both the regular ole MagicBands (officially known as MagicBand 2.0).
When you take time passing by the technology, MagicMobile offering a suitable alternative to many guests for free, and MagicBand+ being met with an icy response from most fans, it’s not surprising to see fewer guests wearing MagicBands in the parks.
Of course, one big factor that cannot be overlooked is the cost. What was once free for everyone staying on-site now comes with a charge. The minimum is $25 and there are upgrade options costing as much as $45. If you want anything other than a plain color, the price is at least $35. You’re arguably better off just waiting for a sale at the Disney Store, which also has better selection.
That brings us to the main point of this post. Here’s the current selection of pre-arrival MagicBand discount upgrade options for on-site guests as of mid-February 2025:
As of mid-February 2025, there are 17 pre-arrival options, which is historically low. Last year, we saw 25-40 choices, on average. That was far fewer than the all-time peak of 82 MagicBands.
This is notable in part because there’s been very little turnover in new MagicBand+ options. About two-thirds of the designs above were also available when we last updated the list 6 months ago! And many of those were there 6 months before that. We’re seeing very little turnover, which is probably because MagicBand+ has flopped. Or because the pre-arrival discount has low uptake. Or a mixture of both.
More notably, for the first time ever, there is not a single regular ole MagicBand 2.0 available via Walt Disney World’s pre-arrival discount program.
While the writing has been on the wall for a while due to a dearth of new designs, this more or less confirms what we’ve long suspected: the OG “dumb” MagicBand is dead.
A quick search of the Disney Store would seem to confirm the same. There are plenty of MagicBand+ designs for $35 to $65, but zero regular ole MagicBands. It’s been even longer since I’ve seen the regular MagicBands being sold in one of the gift shops at Walt Disney World.
This is unfortunate. Not only does the MagicBand 2.0 appear to be dead, but these price points are only going to accelerate the demise of MagicBands, period, at Walt Disney World. While I’m sure there are some collectors who still purchase them, the same could’ve been said for Vinylmations or any number of now-extinct product lines that once had loyal fan followings.
The high cost make the MagicBand+ cost prohibitive for many guests, especially on top of every other expense.
If you have a budget when visiting Walt Disney World, tough choices need to be made when spending on splurges. If you have to choose between MagicBand+ designs for everyone in your party, or using MagicMobile (and regular ole Key to the World Cards for kids or older guests without smartphones/watches) and buying Lightning Lane Multi-Pass at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, the decision should be a no-brainer.
MagicBand+ is a minimal value-add, whereas LLMP is hugely advantageous. The story is the same with just about any upcharge–or even other random souvenirs. I can wear a sweatshirt, t-shirt, or hat in the real world. Ditto coffee mugs and Tervis cups. MagicBand+ is dead weight at home.
Not only that, but MagicBand+ is minimally useful in the parks. The mini-games are somewhat enjoyable (although perhaps more so from a people-watching perspective thanks to all the arm-flailing), but they’re arguably a poor use of limited vacation time. And the decreased utilization rate of MagicBands all but ensures that Disney won’t throw good money after bad by investing more resources into creating new ones (hopefully).
I’m honestly surprised that Disney even bothered to roll out MagicBand+ at Disneyland and Disney Cruise Line. Or that they continue to add effects into shows and elsewhere. Maybe this is a matter of the company knowing more than me, and MagicBand+ being a quiet success story?
I doubt it. More likely is that they want to recoup/spread out some of the development costs, committed to the expansion years ago when they expected it to be a big hit, or are still somehow holding out hope it’ll gain traction. I don’t know why–technology doesn’t exactly get better with time.
Again, this has shades of Glow with the Show. Despite that flopping internationally and finding limited success when it was unveiled stateside, Disney kept trying to make it a “thing” for years. In so doing, they dedicated/wasted valuable retail space to promote a product that was DOA.
The good news is that, in light of all of the above, MagicBand+ will probably continue to be sold for at least the next few years. And as with the OG MagicBand, the devices will likely continue to be supported long after that. Just as you can still use a MagicBand 2.0 from ages ago, you’ll probably still be able to use a MB+ from launch in 2030.
That’s great for fans who already own MagicBands, but we nevertheless recommend that most new guests do not buy MagicBand+ devices.
This is especially aimed at first-timers who don’t have any sentimentality for the wearables, and might otherwise be swayed by fans who have outsized nostalgia for the devices. That is based largely on perceptions of MagicBands from over 5 years ago, not a clear-eyed cost-benefit assessment of the wearables today.
As of 2025, MagicBands simply are not worth the high prices. The free alternatives function nearly as well, and the opportunity cost of allocating a portion of your vacation budget to MagicBand+ as opposed to something else will seldom make sense. It’s for this reason that MagicBands made our list of the Worst Wastes of Money at Walt Disney World. That’s why I’ve bought my last MagicBand, no matter how much I might like that Figment design above.
All of this is bound to be controversial or unpopular with longtime diehard fans, and I get that. It breaks my heart just a little bit to write this. We started used MagicBands since the original pilot program over a decade ago, and have a lot of nostalgia for the wearables and the simpler times they represent.
I was even excited for MagicBand+ and was hoping it would reinvigorate the devices. Instead, it did the opposite. MagicBand+ just isn’t a good device, and it was the death knell for the OG MagicBands.
To be clear, we’re not suggesting that no one should use MagicBands. If you already own one, more power to you! I have an OG MagicBand from a decade ago that’s still going strong. What we’re saying is that very few people should purchase new ones given the $25 to $65 cost and limited functionality over the free MagicMobile. Even if you’re tech-averse, there’s also the free Key to the World card, which is literally just a piece of plastic.
Honestly, I can’t even fault Walt Disney World for this one. We’ve been staunch critics of the end of Disney’s Magical Express, and recently reaffirmed our take that eliminating it was a colossal mistake. That was an unforced error, and an instance of Walt Disney World making a short-sighted decision as opposed to playing the long game.
Sunsetting MagicBands is almost the opposite of that. Time passed them by years ago.
MagicBands were arguably obsolete within a year or two of first being released, and if not by then, once smartphones gained greater market share among Americans and, specifically, Walt Disney World’s core demographics. The biggest thing that kept MagicBands relevant until 2021 was Walt Disney World distributing them to so many guests for “free” (or building them into the cost of rooms).
It’s understandable that many guests, especially technology-averse ones, would disagree with this. It likewise makes sense that fans push back on all cost-cutting, nickel & diming, etc., as a matter of principle–if we give Disney an inch, they’ll take a mile. I certainly don’t like losing perks.
At the same time, we’re now several years removed from the decision to end free MagicBands, so I should be able to “safely” admit that I think it was the right call. There’s no such thing as a free lunch, and providing a MagicBand with every on-site hotel stay was incredibly wasteful on balance.
If anything, I think the truly wrong call here was throwing good money after bad and making the MagicBand+, as I’m highly skeptical that’s even managed to recoup its development costs and it was a worse product than its predecessor. If Walt Disney World is only going to offer one style of MagicBands, it should be the cheaper and dumber ones. Basically, they’ve retired the wrong version of the product!
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Your Thoughts
Do you still purchase or use OG MagicBands or MagicBand+ at Walt Disney World? What do you think about decline of wearables at WDW? Do you think the MB+ is worth the money, or are there better ways to allocate limited vacation budgets? Think Disney made a mistake by sunsetting the free MagicBands for on-site stays, or was it the right call? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
I don’t disagree with anything you said, but I would argue Magic Band+ still has its place. The problem with magic mobile is that 1) I want to use my cell phone less at Disney, not more and 2) I tend to run down my phone battery by taking photos so relying on a phone for tickets/LL passes is not ideal. The Apple Watch integration is nice, but I wear a Garmin.
Magic Band+ is fun and convenient, if only Disney could figure out how to sell them at a semi reasonable price point 🙁
I found the original magic bands that we got for free or at small cost at yacht club very useful. It opened our room door. We could charge meals and purchases with it. And our lighting lane reservations and other attraction reservations were on it. I didn’t need to use my phone constantly. My husband used the magic band and never used. The iPhone.
So frustrating to hear that OG MBs are gone. Is there nowhere that sells them now? We are based in the UK and will be arriving in April. Our daughter would really benefit from a MB, but I’m loathed to get MB+ as it’s yet another device to charge. The OG version would be perfect. Set it and forget it!
Hi Matt
I got an OG MagicBand off Ebay which worked fine, just make sure its not been previoulsy linked to an account. Also with the new MagicBand plus I believe you only need to keep the battery charged for the interactive features, (Lighting effects, Statues etc.) It should still function ok as a regular Magicband for entering the parks, lightning lanes, hotel rooms etc.if you forget to charge it and the battery runs out. Have a great trip!
We were told when we got our MB+ that all functionality works without charging, its just the LED lights and haptics that need the charge.
I wish they had better messaging on what the lights meant. Wed randomly have them going off and we had no idea why.
We just retired our MagicBands 2.0 that we used for many trips and bought the Plus version for our upcoming trip. I cannot imagine not having that on my wrist at Disneyworld. We even put the retired bands in a shadow box on the wall in the middle of our Disney photos.
Ironically, the wife and I (newly empty nesters) just returned from a week at the World sporting our circa. 2019 magic bands with Spaceship Earth and Slinky Dog bands respectively. They worked fine. First trip in about three years, and I was quite shocked at how few magic bands I saw on guests. After mentioning this to my better-half we started counting and I am quite certain less then 30% of the people were wearing magic bands or magic band+. But let’s face it, these MB’s were over-priced from the get go. I come from a manufacturing background and am certain the Magic Band+ can be produced for less the $5 / band and probably closer to $2 / band for the OG magic bands. Keep in mind that does not include any amortized development costs, infrastructure for touch points, back-end software etc., which is driving the total cost and high prices to consumers. That said, at some point you need to re-coupe your investment costs in any way necessary and maximize ROI, so sticking to an absurd $35-50/ part price is simply short sighted greed (and stupid greed as it make no business sense). If you could quadruple volume and sell higher then your manufacturing costs (in this case 3-4X) why wouldn’t you? Oh yeah, someone would have to fall on their sword and say the business case was wrong in the first place – not going to happen. If the price point was in the $10-20 range, I might actually consider buying an upgrade. How many others would do the same? Now that people found alternatives, as did yourself with your Apple watch, that ship has sailed. Since I am not an Apple Watch guy (will stick to my analog Tag Heuer), I could still be a demographic to tap. Just sayin’. Bad pricing policy with damage to the reputation is the worst sin in business.
“I am quite certain less then 30% of the people were wearing magic bands or magic band+.”
This is why I’m kind of taken aback by the consensus here. I first had the idea for a post like this when in line for the turnstiles, noting how few people in front of me were wearing MagicBands, whereas in ~2019, it would’ve been close to 75% of guests–if not higher. Seeing the OG MagicBands totally gone from the pre-arrival program (and barely any MB+ options as compared to when they first launched) further reinforced it.
I figured there’d be significant disagreement, as MB users are almost certainly overrepresented here. Definitely underestimated it, though!
Agree with all the rest of your points. If MagicBand+ were priced at $10 to $20 as part of the pre-arrival program, uptake would be much higher. As with Glow with the Show before it, someone doesn’t want to admit that investing so much in MB+ was a misguided idea.
Just wait until Megatron is old enough to need a ticket for LLMP. Little kids ALWAYS want to hold their own ticket/card and scan it. Inevitably, they end up dropping it, not having it the right way, or at the right angle. MB are a godsend for this. It’s literally attached to them and you don’t have to dig anything out and wait for them to finagle it. Even a 4 year old can match the Mickey heads.
I get why adults with their own devices don’t need them, but kids and heck, even my parents in their 70’s love not having to get out their phones or a card. 100% supporter here!
Yeah, a few of the comments here have given me a sinking feeling–that I’m a couple years too early with this post, and my perspective is going to “evolve” in a big way.
I brought my Pal Mickey with me to Epcot last year and while he wasn’t fully functional, I did still get quite a few fun country factoids. Not necessarily related, but I guess it shows I’m more than willing to use dead Disney tech long past its usefulness.
We still have a pal mickey from 2001 lol maybe I will bring him next time!
Do it! Apparently there’s quite a bit of interactivity at Animal Kingdom, too, but he didn’t match my outfit. Maybe next time.
So, to be a bit of a nerd, there’s this rhetorical term called “kairos.” It means that in order for a product/idea/message to be successful, it has to be presented at the right time. The OG MagicBands were launched at a time where there were few unlimited data plans for smartphones, the phones ran on 3G or LTE, and the in park wifi, when it worked, was about 2mbps down. OG MB hit at just the right kairotic moment to allow people to gain admission, get FP, get in their hotel room, and pay, all with a free piece of plastic Disney sent you. But that kairotic moment has long since passed, and things that were once technologically difficult to accomplish on a smartphone or smartwatch are now fairly easy (though not without bumps). I remember fondly my first trip with a MB, and, while I can look back on it with nostalgia, it’s not something that would be practical to return to.
Learn something new every day–thanks for that!
We still use magic bands at the park mostly because it’s so convenient to charge everything to the room with them and then payoff the balance the last night at the front desk with discounted Disney gift cards. I’m an accounting nerd and make a spreadsheet of our spending by category after each trip and having all the info handy on the hotel folio makes it easy to not miss a receipt somewhere. As I understand it, you cannot charge to your room with the MagicMobile on your Apple Watch. Can you do a room charge with a Key card?
I wish Disney stopped making new MagicBand+ since sales are so low and kept making the cheaper/dumber MagicBands for those who don’t want to/can’t use MagicMobile, since people actually bought those. I personally find MM to be a pain–I don’t want to constantly whip out my phone and drain the battery even more than I already do, and there are always issues scanning in. I liked having the regular MB on my wrist to easily and quickly scan into rides and PhotoPass, and unlock my hotel door. I don’t care about the extra functionality that MB+ offers and I don’t want to have to charge it, so it’s never been worth the extra cost to me. I happily paid less for a dumb product that gives me the simple convenience I’m looking for, and I’ll use that MB for as long as I can at Disney World! I’m going to Disneyland next month, where MB+ is the only option available, and I plan on just getting the plastic card for me and each of my family members and putting them in a lanyard.
For our September 2024 trip to WDW, I had to buy the new MB+ bands. My original bands from September 2022 were more than 2 years old and I wasn’t sure they would work. Why do I prefer the Magic Bands? It’s right there on my wrist, next to the reader/scanner. I don’t have to pull out my phone or plastic ticket card and risk losing them. They save time. Because we used lightning lanes a lot, the bands got a lot of use.
I won’t be back for a few years (waiting on a new grandson and new attractions), so the technology may be totally different by then. But I’ll keep my MB+ bands charged just in case.
I agree with all the comments so far. I don’t want to have to have my phone in hand constantly, or constantly have to get it out to use. And we never use the app for anything except ordering food. (Is that still a thing?) It’s bad enough in the real world the way people are attached to their phones and aren’t interacting with the world around them. When I’m on vacation I want to be fully involved in the vacation! If (when?) I take another trip to WDW, I’ll use one of the ‘free’ bands I already own.
I’m so relieved the comments have backed up my dismay. I enjoy reading your articles Tom but don’t want this one to get any traction! Weirdly I’ll probably never use our magic bands again because we are in Aus. and after spending an amazing 11 days at Disney World I can’t see us doing that again in the short term…however we LOVED the magic band system. I never had to pull out my phone for anything, the kids had control of their own door keys, security gates, ride entry without fear of them loosing a card. We loved finding the gold statues and a highlight was bounty hunting in Star Wars for half a day :-). We also enjoyed the purchasing process of choosing our own designs. It was so much easier and contributed to the whole escaping reality /world of fun vibe. The only negatives were that my daughters did have a connection issue but they replaced it immediately, and I’m very glad for a tip about purchasing the band clips before I left to make sure they didn’t fall off. Disney should definitely add these to the bands themselves. I can’t even bring myself to throw them out now that we are home. Maybe that’s something you could do to solve the $$ problem. Set up a second hand magic band + selling site. Although it still makes me happy whenever I see them in the draw.
I agree that it was dumb to roll out the MB at Disneyland. I bought one the first day they were available, but the only thing you can do with them is enter one of the parks. They even put up these scanners in the parking structure to use an MB for entrance, but they have never worked. And after the first few weeks of being available, I haven’t seen one person using a MB to get into the parks.
I do hope you are correct, Tom, when you stated in one of your comments that MagicBands will continue to be functional for many years to come. For me, whenever I take out my phone in the park, it’s diminishing a little more of the magic. After 32 trips to Disney World, not once did anyone in our family, including kids and grandkids, ever lose a MagicBand. I don’t think that’ll be the case if we have to constantly be taking phones or plastic cards out of our pockets!
When we took our daughter to WDW in February 2022, we LOVED the Magic Band plus’! So convenient! And my then 7 year old daughter felt so special getting to scan into all the rides. I was already having to spend a ton of time on my phone booking DAS and Lightning Lane, so just scanning on my wrist helped! Also, there were never any trouble scanning MB’s, but people were struggling to scan phones all the times (e.g. they held up the line). It worked nearly flawlessly for us. Our only issues were opening our hotel door, but it usually just took a few tries to get the door to open. I’d definitely use them again, rather than being on my phone for one more thing! (And I don’t have an Apple Watch).
Another small (very small) oversight, due to the decline of the Magicband, was that it was no longer possible for foreigners to take advantage of a pre-arrival purchase. The prices were even higher.
It’s a shame, I really liked the days of receiving the bracelets in the mail or arriving at the hotel counter with our names engraved.
I’m going to read your article about how to use Magic Mobile in a minute, as we have iPhones & an Apple Watch and have our park tickets already in our wallets on both devices. But we’re going to take our old OG magic bands (we have multiple different colours that we got free with our stays back in the day, when we used to go more often) as well. Not sure if we’ll wear both the watch & MB, perhaps on opposite wrists? We may indeed decide to scrap the extra wearable, but we’re taking them for old time sake & to see what we prefer using. I never paid for an OG magic band and never thought the magic band+ offered anything worth paying for, so glad that the freebies continue to work. Going to try to avoid buying LLMP as well. Hate to pay to avoid lines when we pay so much for tickets in the first place. It’s been 2.5 years since our last trip to WDW and I expect this will be our last trip there for many more years. Doing international trips (and parks) instead for a while. (I was really tempted by all the 70th announcements for DL in CA, but no plans to go there in the end. We shall see…) I’m curious if the first incarnation of the OG magic bands still work, as I have some of those too. The rectangular shaped ones, rather than the roundish ones. Any idea?
“I’m curious if the first incarnation of the OG magic bands still work, as I have some of those too. The rectangular shaped ones, rather than the roundish ones. Any idea?”
If you’re asking about Disneyland, only the MagicBand+ works there.
If Walt Disney World, to the best of my knowledge, ALL three generations of MagicBands still work. You’re only limited by the ~2 year battery life for the long range feature (linking on-ride photos automatically). I have a MagicBand 2.0 that’s almost 10 years old and still works fine at WDW for tapping purposes.
Great to know Tom, thanks! Yes, was asking for WDW. We head over in a few days, and I was only planning on taking my round ones, but might try the OG of the OG as well, to see if it has any life left in it then! Thanks again.
While I hate everything about Magic Band+, I’d probably still suck it up if it was my only option. I just went with my 6 and 4 year old who, obviously, don’t have their own tech, and being able to “bing” into the hotel rooms and rides and scan for photos is so delightful to them. And letting them be “responsible” for that is a relief for me. It seems small, but on a trip where I’m keeping track of every other little detail, knowing I don’t have to fumble around for everyone’s passes feels like it takes a load off me. We’re lucky enough to have regular bands from a few years ago and I’ll definitely be wearing those into the ground, but I have a hard time recommending nothing over Magic Band + for people with small kids.
“I have a hard time recommending nothing over Magic Band + for people with small kids.”
I’m suddenly dreading the possibility that I’ve offered an opinion prematurely here and will have to reverse course in a couple of years once Megatron needs her own ticket.
I’m in the same boat here too – I have a 10 year old that also utilizes DAS and having a MagicBand for him makes things so much easier in the parks. Everyone else utilizes their passes on their watch/phone but for him it’s perfect. He will not wear a lanyard and “independence” is strong in this one.
Yes! My kids get incredible joy from scanning into the room, the rides and photo ops. And they love every time they buzz and flash colors. I’ll admit that I thought the color flashing would be lame, but the kids absolutely love it. Our most recent trip, the Small World function where it said Good-bye based on our names was broken, and the kids were heartbroken. Now that we’ve used the same bands for 3 trips, I feel like the expense was completely worth it. Especially when watching other families standing for several minutes trying to swipe on their phones or watches to get the whole family scanned into a ride.
Say, what does OG stand for in a OG Magic Band? I can’t find that anywhere.
Anyway, we have our magic bands from our first trip in 2018 and we also have the magic band+. We will continue to use them because we still like the convenience of having them on our wrists. It’s easy. But when they’re gone, they’re gone. I like your comment Tom on the apple wrist watch and that’s when I’ll probably start pricing them. Like other comments I’ve read it seems to be easier putting your band up to get in a park or a ride than pulling out my phone. And like you said previously, this is nothing compared to the DME.
Original or old school.
Even that isn’t completely accurate, because the MagicBands that Walt Disney World has retired are the MagicBand 2.0. As is probably obviously from the name, those were not the original MagicBands. But the second generation was very similar to the first, and both are “dumb” devices whereas the MB+ has effects, needs to be charged, etc.