End of Discount MagicBand+ for Disney World Guests
Walt Disney World has discontinued the discount MagicBand+ program for pre-arrival Walt Disney World resort hotel guests and Annual Passholders. With this, it’s another end of an era for the popular wearables; what was once a fan-favorite on-site perk when it launched has declined in popularity in the years since and is now quietly being killed.
For newer fans who are unfamiliar with this program (or anyone who wants to take a stroll down memory lane), this program launched back in May 2019 in celebration of the MagicBand’s 5th Anniversary. At the time, the upgrade portal offered the ability to upgrade from a free solid-color MagicBand to one of more than 30 new premium MagicBand designs featuring favorite Disney characters and designs at a special price reflecting a $14.99 discount.
Even once the upgrade program launched, several free MagicBands were still available for guests who choose not to upgrade. The new designs could also be shipped to guests’ homes (U.S. addresses only) if ordered 11 or more days ahead of arrival and can be personalized if done so at least 6 or more days ahead of arrival. At the time, most MagicBands cost $5 to $15 after the discount.
The pre-arrival program launched on May 20, 2019 and, like so many things utilizing Disney IT, had a rocky rollout. I would estimate that that approximately one-third of the 953 comments on our Guide to Pre-Arrival Discount MagicBands at Walt Disney World involve some sort of troubleshooting help. (Hence that being a major section of the post!)
The upgrade program eventually worked (more or less) as intended and quickly became a Walt Disney World fan-favorite offering. We saw a ton of reader interest in this topic, and we ourselves boughts several MagicBands with the pre-arrival discount. (I still fondly remember the slow release of resort-specific MagicBand designs in late 2019, which were a personal favorite.) It was a no-brainer when it was only $10 for a premium design!
I would hazard a guess that another one-third or so of the comments on that post came when Walt Disney World announced the end of the ‘complimentary’ side of the MagicBand upgrade program, effective January 2021. That was one of the proverbial nails in the coffin for MagicBands at Walt Disney World, even if it didn’t seem like it at the time.
That announcement actually flew a bit under the radar, as the MagicBand news was one of several ‘soft resets’ to the guest experience that was announced in Summer 2020 before the parks even reopened. Walt Disney World retiring the free MagicBand program was announced in the same press release as the Disney Park Pass reservation system and other health policy initiatives. 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, bad news month for Walt Disney World fans, and the end of free MagicBands was among 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. (“Challenge accepted” said the most dedicated WDW diehards.)
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.
Around that same time, Walt Disney World announced the MagicBand+. The time from reveal to launch was a drawn out process, with the MagicBand+ first being announced long before it debuted, and a delay seemingly occurring somewhere along the way.
From the time it was announced, our fear with MagicBand+ was that it was going to be an expensive boondoggle. 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. Despite this, there has been no pivot back to the simpler days of the OG MagicBand.
There’s nothing necessarily wrong with the MagicBand+ when you boil the wearable down to its core functionality. It is fine. It can do all of the things that the OG MagicBand can do; it’s just a matter of ignoring the pointless bells and whistles, poor battery life, etc.
The problem is price. What was once free for everyone staying on-site changed to a charge. Not a huge issue at first, as there were still $5 to $15 options, which is minimal in the grand scheme of a Walt Disney World vacation. At least, when the OG MagicBand was still around.
That all changed once the MagicBand+ effectively replaced the OG MagicBand. The minimum cost shot up to $25 and there were upgrade options costing as much as $45 as of mid-2022. If you wanted anything other than a plain color, the price was at least $35. At that point, you were arguably better off just waiting for a sale at the Disney Store, which also has better selection.
And that right there is what doomed the discount MagicBand+ pre-arrival program.
It wasn’t the supply chain issues that plagued the program during the phased reopening, which Disney rebounded from nicely by last year (there were a record number of designs available at one point!). It wasn’t technology passing by the MagicBand, or the free MagicMobile service replacing the wearables.
If Disney continued to give away MagicBands, they’d still be a huge hit with guests. One of those “little things” that makes people feel good about the premium pricing that Walt Disney World charges, because they deliver a premium product and a commensurate guest experience.
Above all else, what led to the discount’s demise was the practical reality that the “discount” MagicBands stopped being a deal, and the cheapest MagicBand+ to get through the portal was routinely $35 or more.
This led to guest disinterest, which led to fewer updates from Walt Disney World, and so on and so forth. The writing was on the wall a long time ago, and it became patently obvious when Disney retained seasonal, annual, and celebratory inventory long after it was irrelevant.
Although some fans are going to categorize this as Walt Disney World wanting to increase revenue by charging more–a price increase by a different name–we’re not so certain that’s the correct characterization. If anything, I would hazard a guess that Walt Disney World is generating far, far less revenue from MagicBands than they were back in 2019. It’s a matter of volume, due to how they’ve bungled MagicBands over the last ~4 years. Decisions like this only exacerbate that, and are probably a net-negative, not positive, for revenue.
Walt Disney World has finally made it official with the sunsetting of the discount MagicBand program as of October 8, 2025. The order flow still exists to go through the motions and make a selection, there’s just no discount:
Updated MagicBand Order Process
This page mostly looks the same as before, save for the removal of verbiage referring to special discounted pricing being available for guests with an upcoming Disney Resort hotel reservation or Annual Passholders.
Above is the page we see for our first resort reservation. In typical Disney IT fashion, it actually took me a few times just to get this to display. Prior to this, I received an error message: “We are unable to display your MagicBands and cards at this time; please try again later.”
This happens about half the time, and it’s my understanding that this is a “me problem” because I have too many MagicBands and cards linked to my account. (Even though I’ve proactively removed them on my end, they still exist on the backend; every few years I have to have one of the “Avengers” Cast Members go through the backend and delete the dead weight so my whole account doesn’t constantly crash. But I digress.)
If you are wondering what the non-discounted pre-arrival MagicBand+ inventory looks like as of today, there’s your answer.
There are actually a few new additions since our last update on the designs in August, but that’s also not the purpose of this post. I’d estimate that at least 75% of these styles have not changed in the last year-plus. Over half are identical to what was here at MagicBand+ launch.
Most of these designs are now $44.99. There are about a half-dozen solid colors that are $34.99. There are a couple ‘color trends’ that are $49.99.
The best design is now $44.99.
I have screenshots from this exact same MagicBand when it was $34.99 after discount two months ago.
Now I regret not making the purchase, even though I maintain that this design is much better on a shirt, where it looks like Figment is bursting out of your stomach. It’s nice synergy with Alien: Earth, now playing on Hulu by Disney. (Subscribe now and save!)
The same MagicBand+ is the same price via DisneyStore.com.
Given how frequently DisneyStore runs deals, it makes very little sense to buy from My Disney Experience unless you’re doing so last minute and don’t care about the cost.
Honestly, even before today, this was pretty close to being the case. It’s just definitive now.
Are MagicBands Needed at Walt Disney World?
No. MagicBands are not required or even necessary at Walt Disney World. For room entry, park admission, Lightning Lanes, and charging privileges to the hotel room, Walt Disney World offers plastic Key To The World cards. This can be provided at the hotel front desk, and is how things worked prior to the debut of MagicBands several years ago. Alternatively, guests can receive standard ticket media and use that for park entry or using Lightning Lanes.
Additionally, MagicMobile service is available at Walt Disney World via the My Disney Experience app. This can be added to your Android, iPhone, or Apple Watch digital wallet once enabled. This works just like 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 Disney PhotoPass images to your account, enter Lightning Lanes, and more. Here’s how MagicMobile compares to MagicBands.
MagicMobile and Key to the World cards are two of four ways to access these features. The other options are the MagicBand+ and the regular ole MagicBand 2.0, as we’ll discuss below. Our brutally honest MagicBand+ Review: Good, Bad & Ugly should help you determine whether it’s for you.
MagicBand Discount Demise Final Thoughts
As suggested above, it was this chipping away at the pre-arrival MagicBand discount program that has led to its gradual downfall. Although the program is being officially retired today, Disney has been slowly letting it die for years. I guess to their “credit,” they’ve ensured that the backlash to this news wouldn’t be strong, as this one-time fan-favorite program long ago lost its luster.
For those who are curious, we do not view this change as a sign that Walt Disney World’s long-term goal is to gradually sunset the MagicBand+ device. There’s ample evidence that Disney is continuing to push the MB+ on both coasts and Disney Cruise Line. Just in the last 6 months, even Disneyland (where the device is incredibly unpopular) had a big interactive initiative for the 70th.
I do fear that Disney’s ongoing strategic bungling of MagicBands (and this is one example of that) will eventually lead to its abandonment. Not anytime soon, but perhaps within 5 years. I’ve written this elsewhere, but MagicBand+ reminds me a lot of Glow with the Show/Made with Magic. That was another wearable that Disney spent a ton of money developing and pushed hard–until they stopped. It was almost like flipping a switch, with it being deemed a failure and the decision made to pull the plug.
Like Glow with the Show, my suspicion is that there are internal advocates and critics of MagicBands within the company. A lot of fans act like Walt Disney World is one aligned entity with clear direction and consensus decisions. That couldn’t be further from the truth.
Walt Disney World is like a bunch of businesses competing with one another. More guest spending on product X means less on product Y, creating an incentive for the team behind Y to view X antagonistically. This applies right down to the land-level at each park; you wouldn’t believe some of the stories about tensions within Magic Kingdom or EPCOT.
I don’t have any inside info with regard to MagicBand, but just in watching the incoherent strategy from the outside, I’d hazard a guess that it’s a polarizing product and the subject of strong internal politics. (Keep in mind that MagicBand+ isn’t even a “local” product to Walt Disney World; it’s a global one, so it’s probably under higher-level purview.)
I’m sure some Walt Disney World diehards will still be disappointed by this development. I know I certainly am. But this is more akin to learning that a magazine you stopped reading years ago is finally going out of print. You moved on long ago, and maybe are even surprised to learn it was still limping along.
But it’s nevertheless disheartening as the end of an era. You’re mourning what once was, and how the times have changed. That’s how I feel with regard to this.
In a bit of a full circle moment, today is another day that Walt Disney World has flooded the zone with negative news. Just like the when free MagicBands ended, this is hardly the most consequential story of the day. And yet, it’s the change that hits hardest for me, because it’s yet another little way that we’re fully and finally closing a chapter on the circa 2019 Walt Disney World guest experience.
At the risk of stating the obvious, no one is a fan of price increases. But honestly, most of that news today bothers me a lot less than this. Even though it’s a policy choice by Disney, pricing is largely a product of the market; it is what it is. But as we’ve pointed out, it’s not just price increases that have been happening since 2019. 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. Walt Disney World has made a lot of positive decisions lately, and we don’t want to diminish any of that. In some ways, it really feels like Walt Disney World is turning a corner and getting back on track! But they still can’t help but get out of their own way when it comes to some of the “little things,” and as inconsequential as they might seem, they’re much more meaningful decisions than pricing policies.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you think of Walt Disney World ending the discount MagicBand upgrade program? Is it the end of an era for you, or do you not care? Will you be paying full price for one of these colors or themed designs? 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!
We are hooked on MBs ever since they arrived free with package purchase many years ago. Our last trip we stayed at Swan/Dolphin and couldn’t use MB at the resort — sort of a pain. But the biggest pain I see is the holdup at the park entrance turnstile from someone trying to enter with anything except a MB. Always a hold up. I will NEVER get in line behind anyone without a band. And I prefer the plain bands for functionality — do not need all the bells/whistles.
It has been a couple years since our family has done a Disney World trip, but last time we continued to use our previous Magic Bands. We have a trip coming up in a few months and thought of getting one for our grand daughter who has not had one. As I recall you can buy them in gift shops and at the Disney Store at Disney Springs. Is that correct? If it is, then there is not huge incentive for us to get it ahead of time and may let her pick one out in person.
I like the convenience of the magic bands, whether they are ‘plus’ or not. Unlike most of the guests I see in the parks nowadays I do NOT want to carry my phone around in my hands all day long. You can’t beat the ease of the magic bands whatever you’re doing.
I’m sad at ALL the changes… we have been DVC since 2011 and feel like today doesn’t even resemble the Disney we knew… very sad!!!! We will use our free magic Bands as long as they work.
Ironically I just purchased magic bands for our family for our upcoming cruise. I haven’t used a magic band in parks for awhile now, but given the kids are old enough to come and go from kids clubs to the room, I wanted to make sure they had an easy way to get around, that didn’t rely on an easily misplaced key card. Opted for plain colors given the price point.
Erika, that should work great for you. My family of six had a great, easy time using the bands included with our stay at Great Wolf Lodge (essentially a “land cruise”) for all the reasons you mentioned. We had a Disney park trip in 2024 and we were a split party: people old enough to have phones used their phones, but the younger members got bands. I just didn’t want to spend so much on bands that it equaled the cost of a park meal. The little ones loved being independent with swiping into LL and such, and the rest of us lived vicariously through them for all the light-up features on different rides.
As APs, we use our magic bands every time we come to a park. Ours are mostly the OGs with a couple of the next generation. I have thick wrists so only 2 are still wearable because of band separation. We love the tradition and convenience of wearing one for entry. We’ve looked at the new ones and at those prices, we’re not overly impressed. They are geared more for kids than adults. The wife says if they put a watch in it she’d be more likely to buy one. She likes the sparkly ones, but we’ve never seen a gold one. Only silver or raspberry (magenta?). She’d get a gold one. If they go away, we’ll miss them. But we’ll move on to whatever is next.
My first time to WDW was in 2016, we got the MagicBands free with our stay. I thought it was a genius play by Disney. Tying in Room Key, Park Ticket , Plus payment method. I loved not having to worry about carrying a wallet around, just tap my band and i’m done with purchases, etc.
I was shocked 9 years later when we took the kids, no more free magic bands, only magicband+. its a lot for very little actual addition. Yes, the light up part during shows and fireworks and some rides is neat. But having to fork over $25-$45 just to get the magic band is pretty annoying.
Love the idea of MagicBand, so i hope they don’t go away all together, but I understand why people will just use their phones/watches or keys to the world card over paying for the additional wearable.
Although I’ve been frequenting Disney for years I never got a magic band. That was until my 9 yr old grandson insisted on it when we went to Disneyland. Now I love it, parking scans, hotel entry, wear to pool, photo pass, LL entrance, park entrance. There something to be said about it whipping you phone out all the time.
I have mixed feelings about this.
I have a special edition OG magic band from Frozen back when they had an ice skating rink in Hollywood Studios. When you scan my magicband, OLAF sings “summer” and there is a special lighting sequence. BUT, the OG band was always uncomfortable, it only sang at Hollywood Studios, AND most of the time you couldn’t hear it much less would anybody else notice.
Eventually it came apart (it has a place to remove the gray part of the band for smaller wearers). So I retired it and bought another special edition Frozen one, this time the 2. It now just says “welcome home” due to DVC. But again, you can barely hear it.
My daughter has a SE magicband plus which she likes because it does stuff but I think the novelty wears off quickly.
The combination of the increasing technology of smartwatches with the poor implementation of special features (special scanning lights and words) makes me believe the bands cannot last long.
However, the view of a person who goes once ever year or few years will likely be different.
I know that you think otherwise, but this does feel like the first death knell of MagicBands. I know that the tap point technology will continue to be supported for likely at least the next decade or two, but it feels like Disney has given up on really pushing unique draws like Batuu Bounty Hunters and instead relegated MagicBand+ to just an annoying thing that lights up on your wrist every once in a while on rides and during shows. So they’ll continue to install tap points, they’ll continue to put in the bare minimum effort to have them light up, but I just don’t see them coming up with any more compelling reasons for anyone except the diehards with far too much disposable income to buy them.
My guess is that they’re very aware of the growing popularity of smartwatches and they see the writing on the wall for less versatile wrist-worn devices like fitness trackers and MagicBands. I’d imagine that that they’re currently working a standalone app suite for Apple Watch and Wear OS (Google/Samsung Watch) that is going to offer more features beyond the MagicMobile feature currently available on Apple Watch. Not that I want to give him any ideas, but I bet that Bob Iger is salivating at the idea of all of the targeted advertising possibilities that this would open up.
Even if they go to something much cheaper like the plastic wristbands of Great Wolf Lodge, I think Magic Bands are too functional to be entirely replaced. Can you imagine an entire standby line fishing out their phones to tap in, saying “Wait a minute” as the app didn’t load? Of even just fishing in wallets for a plastic key card. Strapping something to a guests wrist has a toooon of practical value, even when the executive is lacking.
Nic – I can imagine that because I’ve seen it at the Disney Parks! When we were there last year many, many more people were using phones instead of magicbands at the park entrance. And it did seem to slow down the lines. That said, I was just in Japan and they have people scanning QR codes on their phones. That should be even less efficient than NFC contact, but lines moved well. Perhaps because they don’t also have the fingerprint scanner.
Kevin – I think it could be even worse when you consider that right now there’s selection bias, and the people using their phones are the people who choose to use their phones, so presumably are a little more tech savvy. If there were no MagicBands available it might be a totally different ballgame.