MagicBand Upgrades Now Available (Back in Stock: Star Wars Land, Figment & More!)

Premium MagicBand upgrades are now available for pre-arrival Walt Disney World resort hotel guests and Annual Passholders. In this post, we’ll walk you through the process via the My Disney Experience app and DisneyWorld.com with screenshots–and show you all of the 40+ themed designs that are available when the inventory is restocked. (Last updated August 7, 2019.)

The new upgrade process just appeared in My Disney Experience, and gives guests the option to upgrade from a complimentary solid-color MagicBand to one of more than 30 new choices featuring favorite Disney characters and designs at a discounted price.

Walt Disney World started with a total of 43 paid options, but new options have been added to the inventory since then, while others have seemingly vanished. Most of these cost $10, while others are $15 or more. We’ve now updated this post a few times with screenshots of the new MagicBands, plus info, and troubleshooting tips for what has proven to be a frustrating process…

August 7, 2019 Update: After every single upgrade option sold out within a day of this upgrade option going live, many options are starting to return to the inventory, with a range of new choices also being added on a regular basis.

Recent additions include a couple of new Halloween designs, Toy Story Land, Figment, Spaceship Earth, and various movies. There’s also Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, which originally debuted with a non-discounted price of $29.99, but has since been corrected to reflect the $15 price. Not bad, given that you’re likely to pay double that and deal with a line in the gift shops for a Star Wars Land MagicBand on opening day.

In addition to these designs, we’ve seen a variety of other options coming in and out of stock the last couple weeks. These include it’s a small world, Disney Vacation Club, Haunted Mansion, and a variety of other movie and attraction designs. Here’s a look at everything that’s currently available, as of August 7, 2019 at 9:20 am:

TROUBLESHOOTING: We cannot stress enough that this system is still having a tremendous amount of problems, as you’ll see if you read the comments to this post. If you’re having trouble completing the selection process, or getting this to work, we’d recommend using the desktop site instead of the My Disney Experience app or mobile site.

Additionally, if the desktop version of DisneyWorld.com won’t work for you, try private browsing, incognito mode, or a different browser entirely. We’ve found that this process gets hung up on several different pages (including the selection and checkout process) and having a ‘clean’ browser will often resolve these issues. It’s not foolproof, but if you’re finding that things become unavailable right after you select them, that’s one explanation as to why.

If you’re having issues with inventory…there’s no great solution to that. We’d recommend watching the site, checking each morning for the day’s restocks, and ordering your MagicBands when you see a ‘good enough’ selection of MagicBands that appeal to you. Additionally, people are reporting issues with their orders actually shipping, but this seems to be a sporadic problem.

Judging by the response on all corners of the internet, the MagicBand update offer was incredibly popular, and likely exceeded Disney’s internal projections for demand. (And obviously, the inventory on hand.)

If your Walt Disney World vacation is not in the near future, we’d recommend being patient and waiting for a design you actually want. Now that Disney has a more accurate understanding of demand, they are (hopefully) more likely to increase the inventory to an adequate level to satisfy the incredible demand.

This could take some time, but anyone traveling in Fall 2019 or later should be fine to wait and save yourself the headache. We’ll keep you posted as more options come back in stock.

While we aren’t huge into Magic Bands, this will undoubtedly have collectors and character fans excited, as it means acquiring a new design for what amounts to $15 off. If you liked unique designs and already have a drawer full of the ‘standard’ colors from past Walt Disney World trips, jumping at the up-charge certainly makes sense.

Personally, I’ll probably just stick to the single, solid blue MagicBand that I’ve been using for the past several years…which itself replaced a different blue one that had to be “retired” because it was too dirty.

Not that you care about that. Anyway, here’s how the process works…

After clicking the “My MagicBands and Cards” link below the My Disney Experience drop-down on DisneyWorld.com or the “Choose MagicBands” button on your resort reservation, you’ll see the above screen.

As you can see, there’s a message on the screen indicating that the new upgrade options can be shipped to guests’ homes (U.S. addresses only) if ordered 11 or more days ahead of arrival. They can be personalized if done so at least 6 or more days ahead of arrival.

Once you click the “Choose My MagicBands” button, the above screen appears…once. I started this on my phone and continued via desktop (where I didn’t see it again), which is why it’s the only mobile screenshot here.

This is what appears next, and once you hit “Select” the screen scrolls down on the same page, revealing all of this: 

Through the magic of Photoshop, I combined every single page into a single view, so you could see each character and attraction-themed MagicBand.

Above is closer look at a single page, along with what you see when you hover over the MagicBand you want to select.

No Figment or Country Bear Jamboree, but ya can’t win ’em all. Hopefully, over time new designs will be added as part of special promotions, seasonal events, and that sort of thing. (I presume the ‘best’ designs that Walt Disney World believes will sell to collectors and enthusiasts will remain exclusive to stores, where they can be sold at full price.)

If I were going to order anything, it’d be this Spaceship Earth design. It goes nicely with my collection of ~372 grey Magic Bands.

Once selected, you arrive at this complete purchase screen where you can change your name. I didn’t buy this as I don’t really want it, but that’s the process!

It’s hard to believe that the MagicBand has been around for five years, and even the MagicBand 2.0 version has now been around for a few years. I still remember years ago, hearing rumors about the devices being tested and debating on forums whether the whole thing was a good idea.

Now, they feel like a normal, established part of the Walt Disney World experience. (It’s also interesting to see how Disneyland has iterated on the whole concept of My Disney Experience and its technology, but that’s another topic for another post!)

As a heads up, this process was not without its share of hiccups. Walt Disney World’s app and site both crashed several times on me at various stages, and it ended up taking about 15 minutes to get through to the final screen. As with any discount release day or other times when there’s high demand on Disney’s servers, errors are to be expected.

We assume there’s a ton of pent-up demand for these Magic Band upgrades, and people are racing to order them all at once. None of these are going to “sell out” anytime soon (they’re all open editions), so if your Walt Disney World trip is not coming up in the immediate future, you might want to hold off on ordering for a few days.

Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help.

For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know! For Walt Disney World news, tips, discount info, and free eBook downloads sign up for our free Disney news, rumors, and planning updates newsletter.

YOUR THOUGHTS

What do you think of the new MagicBand upgrade options? Will you be paying the $10 premium for one of these themed designs? Any specific design catch your eye? Do you cynically think this is just a lame cash-grab? 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!