The Writing is On the Wall for MagicBands at Disney.
It’s the end of yet another era for MagicBands, which have been slowly fading away at Walt Disney World for a few years despite still being pretty popular (comparatively). It’s a different story at Disneyland, where the MagicBand+ is as good as dead. This discusses the device’s decline on both coasts, what led to this, and more.
Let’s start with the latest development for Walt Disney World, which is really non-news. During a recent media briefing, leadership from the WDW Product Management, Guest Experience, and Commercial Strategy departments discussed what to expect from upcoming digital product changes. They covered an upcoming overhaul to the My Disney Experience app and updates to Disneyworld.com, the most consequential of which we cover in detail here: Walt Disney World is Making Major App Changes.
MagicBands were not mentioned once. That’s not necessarily conclusive of anything; we don’t expect nonstop MagicBand news. But if there were a time to discuss developments to the wearable or its future, it would’ve been at this briefing. Instead, there was a reference to Apple Wallet in the new trip checklist feature, and that was it.
If there is a new MagicBand coming, 2026 would be the time to announce it. The original MagicBand was introduced in 2013 at Walt Disney World, with the iterative MagicBand 2.0 being announced three years later and launching in 2017. Fast-forward past COVID, and the MagicBand+ was announced for the 50th Anniversary in 2021 and released one year later.
Assuming a similar cadence, the next generation wearable should be announced any time now and launch in 2027. Which is why it was a conspicuous omission for MagicBands to not even be mentioned during that briefing on app and website updates. If MagicBands have a place as a marquee product offering, you’d think they’d come up.
Our strong suspicion for a while has been that MagicBands have no such future. That they are slowly being phased out in favor of better support for digital wallets, along with the likely introduction of facial recognition technology at park entrances and Lightning Lanes. That to the extent something tangible is necessary, physical ticket media or room keys will fill the gap.
The writing has been on the wall for a while, and was reinforced at the start of the last fiscal year with the End of Discount MagicBand+ for Walt Disney World Guests. That alone was a massive blow to guest utilization of MagicBands at Walt Disney World, but even before that, it was increasingly clear that the wearable was on its way out.
While ending the pre-arrival discount program was disappointing, it sadly made sense. There are only so many upcharges that guests will purchase prior to their trips, and it behooves Disney to emphasize those that will improve satisfaction.
This is yet another way that the switch from free FastPass to paid Lightning Lanes has had second order consequences on other aspects of Walt Disney World trips, but it’s not just that. Guest satisfaction is likely higher among those who purchase After Hours or Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party tickets versus MagicBands, and with the ‘plus’ devices skyrocketing in cost, it absolutely is one or the other.
If I had to bet right now on whether three years from now I’ll be able to wear a new generation of MagicBand or ride Disney’s Magical Express (a service that does not currently exist), I’d pick the latter. Neither strike me as overwhelmingly likely, but of the two, the odds of a Disney’s Magical Express comeback are higher than a MagicBand renaissance.
Future of MagicBands
Before we get going, the silver lining is that MagicBands are still being supported at Walt Disney World and Disneyland. That is not expected to change anytime soon, so if you’re one of the Disney diehards who already owns a MagicBand or twenty, you’ll still be able to use it for the foreseeable future.
There’s no officially announced or even rumored sunset date for support of the MagicBand+ on either coast. My gut is that it’ll continue to work so long as major changes aren’t made to legacy systems, but I wouldn’t expect future features to roll out, entertainment enhancements, mini-games, or that sort of thing (especially at Disneyland).
Basically, to the extent that Disney doesn’t have to invest significantly more money into MagicBands, they’ll work. Keeping in mind that the interactive Pal Mickey (anyone else remember that, or am I the oldest Walt Disney World fan still standing?!) plus from the early aughts still works in limited capacity roughly 20 years after the product was discontinued, MagicBands are likely “safe” from a guest perspective for a while.
Given that the MagicBand user base is exponentially larger than that of Pal Mickey, I wouldn’t be surprised by ongoing maintenance and support for the wearables for a long time to come. Meaning that, for example, MagicBand tapstiles are likely at Lightning Lanes in Villains Land in Magic Kingdom and Pandora in Disney California Adventure, even if the devices are technically ‘dead’ by that time. In other words, the good news is that you’ll likely be able to use your MagicBands into the 2030s. Maybe even the 2040s.
MagicBands Already Dead or Dying at Disneyland
As for the MagicBand+ being dead at Disneyland, there have been rumors of this for a while now. It’s likewise been fairly obvious to anyone who visited a Disneyland gift shop, as there have been virtually no MagicBands anywhere.
At Disneyland, the MagicBand+ connects to park tickets or Magic Key Annual Passes to enter parks or Lightning Lanes. Additionally, you can connect your PhotoPass and use MagicBand+ for interactive activities around the park, such as the Disneyland 70th Anniversary touchpoints that are scattered throughout the park.
Unlike at Walt Disney World, the MagicBand+ will not unlock your hotel room, nor does it have resort charging privileges. A doppelganger device, known as DisneyBand+ (presumably for international IP purposes), is available aboard Disney Cruise Line as a stateroom key and for payment onboard and on the private islands.
Although I don’t pay super close attention, I can’t recall the last time I saw MagicBands on store shelves, period. Probably around New Year’s when a lot of 70th stuff being clearanced out at deep discounts. Speaking of the 70th, the beginning of that event is probably the last time I spotted any new designs.
Disneyland has officially confirmed as much, stating that the resort is ending on-property sales of MagicBand+ devices, but not support for them. Since that statement was made about one month ago, I’ve checked each of the three shops where MagicBands were last available, and have found no traces of MagicBands.
Along with this, I should note that I’ve heard unsubstantiated reports from Cast Members that the reason for the lack of MagicBand+ inventory is because a new generation of the device is going to roll out. I do not believe this for the reasons discussed above.
My gut is that this is chatter trying to make sense or come to terms with the MagicBand+ ending sales at Disneyland. Investing in yet another generation of the wearable feels like the ultimate example of throwing good money after bad. (Okay, when framed like that, it sounds like exactly the type of thing Disney would do!)
As you might recall, the MagicBand+ launched at Disneyland Resort in October 2022 to great excitement among a subset of Disney fans. The device had been anxiously awaited by diehards, who had been asking when the California parks would finally get MagicBands for years.
Less than one year later (September 2023), Disneyland announced a special offer: Magic Key Annual Passholders could receive a FREE MagicBand+ with any purchase at select Disneyland Resort gift shops. That was a free MagicBand+ with any purchase, not just with a purchase over a certain amount.
You could buy a bag of candy, magnet, or whatever the cheapest item was at participating locations and get a free MagicBand Plus. And in fact, when we went to take advantage of this deal, we actually had a harder time finding cheap products in stock than we did MagicBands, because Annual Passholders were spending as little as possible to score the freebie.
Prior to that promo, we had heard credible rumors that Disneyland over-ordered MagicBands to a staggering degree. I don’t recall exact numbers, but it was a comically large number ordered versus sold at full price (a single-digit percentage of units had sold, if I recall correctly). Giving away MagicBands succeeded at clearing that out, though.
At the risk of stating the obvious, MagicBand+ has been a massive flop at Disneyland Resort. The sluggish sales at launch and that giveaway less than one year later told me the MagicBand+ had no future at Disneyland.
Even after the giveaway, we still rarely see anyone wearing the devices. It’s amazing that Disneyland seeded tens of thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) for free, and yet, you still seldom see them. Maybe they’re like that E.T. Atari game, and decades from now, we’ll find out they were all buried in New Mexico or something. If you were to play a “count the…” game with MagicBands and Monsters University hats, the latter would win!
Between its limited uses at Disneyland and the reality that most guests are locals, it’s not a huge surprise that MagicBand+ hasn’t really caught on in the California parks. We expected it wouldn’t be a huge hit, but even we were caught off-guard by just how quickly it was forgotten and how few fans wear them out west.
What has surprised me is just how long the MagicBand+ has been allowed to remain on life support at Disneyland. Just last year, Disneyland added a bunch of shockingly well-done touchpoints for the Disneyland 70th Anniversary, complete with working effects and fun free keepsakes.
I can’t imagine how much that cost to deploy–money that probably could’ve been better spent. It felt oddly reminiscent of how Wish keeps ending up in new entertainment despite being a flop; either an example of Disney trying to make fetch happen or an example of the development pipeline taking way too long.
To the best of my recollection, that was the last big interactive initiative with MagicBand+ at Disneyland. With new turnstiles and a shift towards facial recognition, it seems that MagicBands will soon see their utility reduced even further, so it makes sense that Disneyland isn’t ordering more of them for the stores.
Maybe Disneyland is finally going to get around to supporting Disney MagicMobile or digital wallets, which would likewise reduce the utility of MagicBands. (That’s what I would personally love to see, as both the digital wallet and MagicBands are more efficient at touchpoints than barcodes.)
Earlier this spring, I attended a media roundtable with Thomas Mazloum, who was Disneyland President at the time but has since been promoted to Disney Experiences Chair. Mazloum and other leadership from the resort shared plans for the future, along with changes they’ve made over the last year to measurably improve the guest experience.
Mazloum also fielded questions from media, with one of my peers asking whether MagicBands might roll out additional features, as the device is a ‘useful tool’ at Walt Disney World, whereas it’s a ‘glorified toy’ at Disneyland. Mazloum didn’t sugarcoat the future of the device in his response.
He explained that, from his previous role overseeing Walt Disney World resort hotels, he knew that a majority of guests using MagicBands in Florida were staying in the resorts. He also explained that Walt Disney World has a ton of hotel inventory, giving the MagicBand actual utility.
This wasn’t really news to me. In discussing the sustainability (or lack thereof) of Early Entry at Disneyland vs. Walt Disney World, we pointed to hotel inventory. There are under 3,000 on-site resort rooms at Disneyland Resort (hotel inventory plus DVC), whereas there’s over 10 times that number at Walt Disney World.
Mazloum then discussed demographics, touching on familiar topics such as Annual Passholders vs. tourists, off-site vs. on-site stays, and more. The usual suspects that come up when discussing how Disneyland and Walt Disney World differ. Or rather, how Walt Disney World is the outlier when it comes to the parks, and everywhere else is more like the California parks (except arguably Disneyland Paris).
Putting a finer point on it, Mazloum explained that the theoretical audience for MagicBand+ at Disneyland is 7% of guests, whereas it was closer to 50% at Walt Disney World. He questioned the wisdom of spending on something that has a ceiling of 7% of guests, as opposed to investments that’ll benefit all park guests.
Frankly, I would argue that 7% actually overstates the audience for MagicBands at Disneyland; that the only way of reaching that number is giving away MagicBands to hotel guests, which Disneyland does not do.
I’ve always wondered why Disney bothered with MagicBand+ at Disneyland. From the very beginning in 2022, it felt like throwing good money after bad, and a project that was doomed to fail.
My strong belief is that the device was DOA at Disneyland, and that had nothing to do with its functionality or lack thereof. It seemed like Disneyland had MagicBand+ forced on them, possibly as a way to spread development costs. If not that, I’m not really sure what.
Nothing Mazloum said during that roundtable was remotely surprising. The only surprising thing would be if the leadership before him didn’t reach this exact same conclusion with anything more than like 30 minutes of analysis. It’s the patently obvious conclusion.
This might rub some fans the wrong way, and I’m aware that MagicBands have a passionate fan following. Many of those enthusiasts will argue that the device would’ve been a success at Disneyland had the company done X or Y differently, investing more in MagicBand+ infrastructure or whatever.
To each their own, but I strongly disagree. The device flopped even after liquidating inventory by giving them away. Disneyland couldn’t achieve meaningful uptake even after giving a ton of MagicBands away for free, so it was never going to work as a paid device.
About the only outcome-determinative change that I could see changing the equation would be time-traveling and launching them a decade earlier, back before smartphones were quite as ubiquitous and the wearable had more novelty. In the here and now? There’s nothing Disneyland could do to change the outcome.
The DisneyBand+ Difference
Beyond the parks, the MagicBand+ started rolling out aboard the Disney Cruise Line fleet as the DisneyBand+ in Summer 2023. It has since rolled out to every ship save for the Adventure (different beast).
By all reasonable accounts, the DisneyBand+ has been a popular product offering aboard DCL. This is probably because the ships are more akin to Walt Disney World than the aforementioned locals’ parks, and also because there are so many water-centric activities that makes the waterproof wearable more desirable.
We love the DisneyBand+ on DCL, as it’s convenient, not likely to get lost, and makes it possible to leave the phone back in the room. While the ‘plus’ version has many of the same problems plaguing MagicBand+ at Walt Disney World, it’s dissimilar from Disneyland. If anything, the DisneyBand+ is arguably the best implementation of the wearable anywhere.
Glow with the Show 2.0
Since it launched, MagicBand+ has felt like the Glow with the Show 2.0 to me. It’s pretty amazing that Disney learned exactly zero lessons with that flop when choosing to develop the pricier wearable, and then to import the MB+ from Walt Disney World to Disneyland.
For those who don’t remember Glow with the Show, it was a then next-gen product (like Pal Mickey before it and MagicBand+ after) that consisted of color-changing and “magical” Mickey Ear Hats that interacted with World of Color and Fantasmic!
Glow with the Show was a huge push for a few years (~2012 to ~2014) in the parks, with the ears being given prime real estate in just about every major gift shop at Disneyland Resort, despite sluggish (at best) sales.
In the end, Glow with the Show was a colossal flop. Even with those prominent in-store displays, multiple giveaways to “seed” some truly cool PR photos, very few guests purchased Glow with the Show ears.
The problem was that they were bulky, cumbersome, and–critically–the person spending the money on Glow with the Show ears could not benefit from how they interacted with shows and changed colors, since you cannot see the top of your own head.
MagicBand+ solved that problem, as most people can see their own wrists. (If you can’t, close this tab and seek medical attention immediately.) However, the MagicBand+ introduced a number of new issues, including poor battery life and higher costs. Its “interactivity” with the nighttime spectaculars is also worse than the technology released a decade ago.
When the original MagicBand was released back in 2013, wearable technology wasn’t really a thing. In the years since, all sorts of smart watches and other devices have been released, raising the technical bar every single year.
By contrast, MagicBands have only seen one major redesign, and at least from a tech perspective, now feel archaic as compared to other wearables. I realize that for many people, that’s the appeal of MagicBands–having technology that doesn’t require looking at a screen but still makes life more convenient.
This is precisely why MagicBands still “work” well enough at Walt Disney World where guests are in vacation mode and the devices have more utility. At the same time, MagicBands are dying out in Florida despite the value they add because of their cost and no longer being pushed pre-arrival. The MagicBand+ is in this no man’s land where it’s not good by wearable standards nor is it cheap enough to justify as a no-brainer add-on for the sake of convenience.
All of this is a lot to overcome, especially at Disneyland where the dynamic is different. By disproportionate numbers, guests are not staying in on-site hotel rooms. Those who are out of state tourists are largely staying off-site and incorporating Disneyland into bigger picture Southern California trips. MagicBands don’t have the same value for them since it’s not a lengthy ‘Disney Bubble’ vacation with an emphasis on escapism.
For locals, the overwhelming majority of Disneyland’s audience, there’s no such thing as the ‘Disney Bubble’ in the first place. Screen time isn’t viewed as negatively, and there’s not as much of a market for MagicBands. Consequently, it all comes down to the interactivity and utility for the MagicBand+ at Disneyland. Neither of those things are sufficiently compelling to justify the cost of the wearable. The MagicBand is already as good as dead, and will be replaced by digital wallets or your face in the future.
Planning a Southern California vacation? For park admission deals, read Tips for Saving Money on Disneyland Tickets. Learn about on-site and off-site hotels in our Anaheim Hotel Reviews & Rankings. For where to eat, check out our Disneyland Restaurant Reviews. For unique ideas of things that’ll improve your trip, check out What to Pack for Disney. For comprehensive advice, consult our Disneyland Vacation Planning Guide. Finally, for guides beyond Disney, check out our Southern California Itineraries for day trips to Los Angeles, Laguna Beach, and tons of other places!
Your Thoughts
What do you think of the MagicBand+ slowly dying out? Do you regularly use the interactive wearable devices at Disneyland? Surprised it took so long for the MagicBand+ to fade away at Disneyland, especially given the liquidation back in September 2023? 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!
What’s interesting, is that Disney isn’t even pretending they are making them anymore, Amazon is. If you buy one of the new ones (or get one shipped), it’s got Amazon branding engraved on the back of the band itself.
Now, it seems with some of the new light-up toys (like the Fun Wheel popcorn bucket), MB+ HAS become Glow with the Show 2.0 – as it’s using the same BTLE receiver for glow functions. Same with the Starlight bubble wand, it’s MB+ tech in there to interact with the parade.
My biggest feel is that the switch from FP to LL really just killed them (at both coasts), and there was a hope that locals at DLR would engage with them, but there was basically no point to without free FP. Not to mention there were plenty of touchpoints (pun greatly intended) where they were never supported. Hotel rooms, parking, AP discounts, etc. Holding one up at parking is my favorite thing at WDW (keeping a spare old MB1.0 in the rental car) is my favorite use of them, and I never got to do that at Disneyland with even a MB+.
Still interesting to me that Universal still moves a ton of specific-land Power-Up bands, and now light-up interactive 2.0 wands – and Disney just can’t get a universal (pun also intended) interactive device off the ground at their parks.
We saw plenty of new bands for sale last month in WDW. The three of us, all adults ranging in age from 50 to 80, used ours all trip. They’re light, convenient, we pay for merch and food with ’em, and while on property you can leave you phone in the room, where it belongs, while you’re on vacation.
Considering their recent push for “profit uber alles”, maybe Disney isn’t giving bands away any more because, like the Msgical Express and the Fast Passes of yore, they’d rather charge for ’em and make a few bucks than continue a free guest convenience perk. Look what other freebees they’ve dropped. When we used to come down n the long-defunct Grand Plan we used to get gifts in our room. Now we’re lucky to get functional paper towels an toilet paper. Lat visit I got charged 6 bucks for the front desk to “handle” a one pound Amazon package. All they did was take it from the driver. Not only was it not delivered to my room, but I was never even notified that it had arrived.
As for people not buying the bands, if you’ve paid 5k to the mouse already, you can certainly afford another fifty bucks for convenience, or are we that married to our smart phones that we now consider them an extension of our bodies and are happy lug them around as reflex?
Anyway, as Colonel Kilgore might have said “I love the sound of speculation in the morning!”
I’m keeping my Magic Band(s) in use until the day they’re rendered nonfunctional.
I am able to get a photo on Tron using my MagicBand. I have heard that other family members who do not have a MagicBand do not get photos as they put their cell phones in a locker for safe keeping so have nothing to trigger a photo.
Does anyone else have this happen? Is there a work around?
There’s no reason to put your phone in the lockers on Tron. Unless you have a crazy huge phablet style one it will fit in the little compartment on the ride vehicle. I always put my glasses in there and keep my phone in my shorts pocket but tons of people use it for phones.
I think the problem with MagicBand+ is the “+”. They added a bunch of cost for functionality that people largely didn’t want. A $5 device that opens my hotel room door, is my park key and fastpass/lightning lane key, tracks photopass, and I can use it to buy lunch is a great device. Plus it’s waterproof and I can wear it in the pool; while not ever having to charge it like my phone. A $35 device that does all that plus lights up and makes me charge it is not a good device.
While I am sad about the demise of MagicBand, I have always been happy that Glow with the Show never took off. so aerial shots of the crowd look great – I don’t care since I’m not a drone. I’m a short guy trying to see the nighttime spectacular over your hear, which is now 6″ taller and glows.
Magicbands is a tech that has been subsumed by larger macro development. The big advantages of Magicbands, even in WDW, was that it was a wireless tech, that could be used for controlled entry access (parks, fastpass lines, hotel rooms, hotel pools) with no disposable aspect and small labor footprint (at least at the point of entry itself- don’t get me started on the hidden IT costs associated with all these things), and could also be used for cashless payment by multiple individuals, that was also all-weather / submersible. Ever since waterproof smartwatches with digital wallets (be it Apple or Google) became omnipresent and affordable, Magicbands are on borrowed time. Now that the RF frequencies and digital wallet payment protocols have become standardized, Disney now passes all that IT development and maintenance costs onto to watch and wallet app developers, only having to update the turnstiles and digital locks to the latest app protocols for Bluetooth / tap technology. Frankly it’d be a corporate malfeasance to continue to invest in a commodity technology that has surpassed your internal boutique technology. And I’m not a smartwatch wearer, but these is the facts, kids.
Putting on my Magic Band feels like the trip has started Especially like using it for photo pass photographers. I imagine guys like Tom have their phone in their pocket so easy to get it out. Women’s clothes don’t always lend themselves to carrying much of anything so a Magicband saves me from opening my purse or unzipping my backpack I will miss them when they are gone 🙁
I agree with the general sentiments here – MagicBands in their original form, especially, have been joyful additions to my family’s Disney experiences. From young ages and even now into their teens, my kids have been thrilled to engage in “adult” tasks like unlocking the hotel room door and paying for their own snacks. My family’s favorite use case for our MagicBands is at Aulani, where a 6-hour time zone difference from our offices makes it easier to leave our phones in the room while we genuinely disconnect and enjoy the pools, the lagoon, spa, etc. without having to worry about room keys or credit cards.
I cannot disagree, however, with the trajectory of the current product. Magicband+ felt to me like one of the worst offenders in the cycle of cynically plumping upcharges across WDW. The fit is bulkier than the original, the price point is offensive, and I have yet to find anyone who enjoys the vibrating or flashing elements. I’ll adjust when it goes, but I hope that we never lose that magical tapstile chime that MagicBands brought to the parks. There is a special sort of seratonin hit that follows that sound! lol
My original Magic Band broke a few years ago, and I refused to replace it with the MagicBand+ that needed charging. I am now back to using my AP card, which I just carry in my pocket. I actually see a minority of guests wearing the MagicBand+ at WDW. As the bands break or people get tired of charging them, I doubt they are replacing them. I never see people interacting with the statues that WDW added for its 50th anniversary. I am not sure whether they even still work with the MagicBand+. There are so many more fun things to spend your money on than Magic Bands. Facial recognition is the way of the future, at least for park entry and line skipping. Universal is already using this technology, and it works quite well.
But don’t you have to keep charging your phone?? Charging a Magic Band+ is usually done overnight and the charge lasts several days!!
HI CT, Remember you only have to recharge the MB+ to use their pretty much useless additions. If you don’t charge them they still work perfectly well as a magic band 2.0 which gives you all that easy access that we love.
AND if your old magic band puck still works you can go on eBay buy a cheap used mb and replace the puck in that one with yours.
Just returned from Disneyland. Entry required either a barcode on your phone or a magic band alongside facial recognition, which seems to replace that fingerprint or thumbprint. I used a magic band. The magic band worked fast and easy on entry and on lightning lanes. Observing phone barcodes? They didn’t read as readily and had to delay lines for second and third tries. My beefs with the phase out of magic bands? (1) I have small hands that find all cell phones hard to hang onto. (2) Stowing phones and pulling them out frequently are pain. (3) With magic bands, I can hold other things in my hands, including the hands of others, such as a spouse and a child — especially when parks are busy. With phones for everything — not so. (4) Our grandkid loved the magic band ability to open her hotel room door. She doesn’t have a phone and won’t until teen years, especially now that we know the ill effects psychologically and cognitively of child phone use. So, I’m sad and frustrated to think of the effects.
Clarification: Grandkid was at WDW entering hotel room etc with her magic band.
We too are a big magic band family.
We were a beta test family in 2013 and thought we were all that and a bag of chips!!
There was a learning curve for Disney, and when we went, there were no limitations on what you could book, there were no tiers and we were riding everything we wanted.
To this day I still prefer using them over pulling my phone out, though I am not adverse to using my Disney experience app frequently as needed.
I think they are particularly helpful for people with children of an age that they can go on rides themselves and not have to worry about losing tickets, etc.
I had avoided the magic band plus, but since I’ve recently added several Disneyland trips, I bought one because we can’t use the old bands there, it was annoying to pay the price, but I still did like the convenience.
I will be sad if they discontinue the ability to use these.
I hope they continue !
As adult I really prefer having them rather than using the phone… but beyond its use I love the meaning, the brand, the belonging.. you are using your character/color/Disney favorite thing..
And for new visitors and specially kids, receiving them in advance to the trip creates such excitement!! My 10yr old niece uses it with so much property and proud, when entering the park and it glows is like she smiles as if has won the lottery… which is totally different from having an adult giving access with the phone…
The level of excitement my kids had when the box of MagicBands arrived a few weeks before our trips was priceless (but also I’m glad they were free at the time).
I love magic bands. Wearing them makes me feel connected to Disney more than the MDE app on my phone.
I wear one on each wrist when we’re visiting and I choose the different bands by what we’re doing that day.
I know this will sound crazy but on rare occasions I wear them when not at Disney just for a smile.
They are the most onvenient way to take care of the simple things like opening the door, paying bills (though I rarely use them for that), entering parks and checking in at rides.
I won’t delve into the what and why I believe WDW should do but people still wear watches don’t they?
The truly scary element in your story is not the demise of magic bands but the rise of facial recognition.
I actually love traditional watches. I own over 100 of them, including about 25 Disney watches.
I made the mistake of purchasing a MB+ and I’m glad I got it for a steep discount. Still a huge waste of money. We are frequent visitors to WDW parks and resorts and I enjoy the convenience of my older regular Magic Band. Slimmer profile, no need to charge it, etc. I would be disappointed if I was forced to use my phone even more, even though I see many guests using them to tap into rides, etc. Something about being on property and having the wearable on makes me feel like I’m in vacation mode.
“… having the wearable on makes me feel like I’m in vacation mode.”
THIS. I put mine on when waiting to board the plane to MCO as part of my vacation entry process.
Hi Zach, I agree totally but when it comes to the magic band+ I don’t even worry about charging it. It still works fine as a mb 2.0. I only buy the + if I really like the design.
Why did you say Disneyland Paris was the exception ? The Park doesn’t follow the pattern ?
There is no magicband and there’s hardly any use of Fastpass
I’m a big fan of the Magic Bands and I’m sure I’ll continue to wear one when we visit until it’s no longer supported. My kids also always enjoyed when the new ones would arrive in the mail before an upcoming trip.
We LOVED Pal Mickey! And for its time, it really was an advanced piece of tech that actually felt magical.
As a 30yr APH and ‘passionate fan’ of MagicBands, I would be very disappointed if we couldn’t use them at WDW. I have multiple personalized (original) MagicBands and LOVE wearing and using them. The convenience and ease of shopping, paying for food, opening Resort doors, etc. helps us enjoy the Parks even more!
We were lucky enough to be part of the Beta testing group of the original magic bands back in 2013, but never felt the need to fully upgrade to the interactive bands. It gives me peace of mind to know that my ticket, key, and charging capabilities are all in one place, and on my wrist where it’s difficult to lose. It used to be that you could theoretically enter the parks with just yourself and a band- no phone, wallet, or other cards. I miss this simplicity. I am someone who embraces technology, but in many ways, it seems like Disney is making it more complilcated than it needs to be.
I still enjoy using my MagicBand 2.0 when I’m in WDW. It adds to the “in the bubble” feel and (sadly for my wallet) I really enjoy just being able to tap and charge snacks or merch to my room. That way I can pay the balance when I check out with gift cards I have accrued prior to the trip.
We travel with our adult, autistic daughter. She doesn’t have a phone or digital wallet. Sometimes she enters the park with Mom, sometimes with me. Mom doesn’t carry her phone all the time. It would be no problem with all three of us entering the park at the same time. When arriving at different times, Magic Bands work extremely well. Personally, we would hate to see that option disappear.
I probably erred in buying four of these for myself, two for my son, and one for my wife in the span of a year after our first visit to WDW, but I really liked them. I don’t wear Disney merch in the parks much, unless it’s cool enough for me to skip linen or performance fabrics (and then I go to town with my cotton shirts or even hoodies, if it’s winter), so having the MagicBand is a way to add a little Disney fun on my person for the day. I do hope Disneyland continue to support park and LL entry for some time to come, and I’m bummed I won’t have the convenience of making charges with it or accessing our room later this month, but I’ll probably keep wearing them as a fun keepsake, regardless.