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!
we love magic bands at Disneyland! we actually use them differently and not as a wearable, so convenient for lighting lane and park hopping!
we take out the token from the band and 3d printed holders that we have on a retractable keychain
works like a charm for our family and my four year old
instead of her having a cumbersome band that doesn’t fit and may fall off, we kept the key chain on our belt loop or fanny pack and it was amazing!! don’t take magic bands away! we don’t use them like the way intended but it makes our trip so smooth without being held up each scanning barcodes
I know this article ended up being more about magic hands being useless at DL. But as a WDW pass holder I love these things. I enjoy the variety and collecting them. but beyond that, like others have said, they are just convenient. So much simpler and easier than using my phone and draining it’s battery. it’s fun walking around the park knowing you just have the lightweight band to tap. And they are fun to throw on. Not to mention the hotel room door opening perk.
This is why I think at WDW they are here to stay for some time. I don’t agree they will get chased out at all.
The reason these are most likely dead at DL is the same reason I like WDW more to begin with. It so much larger with lots more to explore and thus the bands go further.
I’m not a backpack guy and have to wear “cheaters” to look at my phone. MBs are very convenient for me, especially at the water parks.
MagicBand 2 was cool. WAY more convenient than having to keep track of a hotel room key. I’ll definitely miss THAT if it goes away. I don’t mind just using the app for everything else.
I am very glad we purchased 2.0 Magic Bands for our kids in 2022, and that I did not purchase one for myself. They’re very handy for kids, especially when you want them to manage their own passes and not really on you swiping through your digital wallet.
Maybe that’s a Cool Kids Summer 2027 idea Tom can push for: MagicBand giveaway with a kid’s ticket. Ideally 2.0, but MagicBand+ is better than nothing.
Actually more of a question. I have a number of the original magic bands, the non-chargeable ones, and love using them when we go to WDW. My question is, can anyone tell me how long these things will last? When I look on the app I can see that some of my bands are “deactivated” which would imply that the others still should work.
Anything short range they should still work on. Tapping in at touch points, opening your room, photopass scanning. I still have MB 2.0s from 2018-19 that still work for that. It’s the long range functions like on board ride photos they stop working on after a couple of years.
Dale,
Your original magic bands should last a very long time. We have a few of the originals and can still use them. if they show deactivated on the app you can honestly just take them to guest services and they can usually reactivate them for you. The originals (I believe) are passive, which means they interact with radio signals sent to them, without sending signals out at all, so they last a very long time. have fun!
Hi Dale,
Piggybacking on Thomas suggestion- you can also call Disney IT and they can reactivate them as well.
Lastly you can reactivate them yourself in the Disney website but it’s tricky till you get the hang of it.
Your analysis makes sense but I’m disappointed by their impending demise.
I like being able to tap into parks and Lighting Lanes without having to grab my phone, load a Disney app, and tap through several layers to do a simple action.
Google Wallet works fine for me at Kennywood and Six Flags parks, so if the Mouse supports that and Apple Wallet it should be viable at least.
I’ve worn a MagicBand year round since a few months after their debut despite living in Ohio and enjoy it as a rotating fashion item, using buying between 3 and 6 new ones per year depending on my travel schedule and what they are releasing.
I get why this is happening, I really do.
But…BOOOOOO.
The best part about MagicBand is that it’s not my phone. I don’t want to be on my phone on vacation, accidentally doomscrolling or absent mindedly clicking my inbox and seeing responsibilities.
MB+ is bad, mostly because they break a LOT. I’d be happiest if they just released OG MB again. Those things last for years and years. No silly tech or charging required.
Using the Magic Band at WDW is far superior than using a phone. The big reason being is spotty Wi-Fi and cellular connections in the parks. Many times inside the show buildings reception is garbage for both cell and Wi-Fi. We always use bands when we go to the parks. As long as you remember to charge the band if you have the newer ones, you should have no issues.
I can see them trying to phase Magic Bands out but it not going well. Or, alternately, reworking them instead of getting rid of them. Points in favor of bands:
– A phone isn’t a great replacement for a band, as you have to take it in and out of a bag and unlock it. Not to mention the hassle and logistical problems if you’re a parent with tickets for one child or more on your phone. A wrist tap is 10 times easier.
– My hunch is that there will be a push for some kind of gamification at the parks, to see if it can become a source of profit. This would likely involve some kind of interactive digital element, although I suppose it could be a new one, like a wand or trading cards.
– Other hotspots for families have kept bands. Great Wolf Lodge – that other, smaller Camelot for children – has bands. Nintendo World utilizes interactive bands.
If I had to guess I would say odds are in favor of Magic Bands being reworked and not entirely abandoned.
I prefer MBs too especially bc of room charging and opening but you don’t actually have to unlock your phone to use MagicMobile passes if you have an iPhone. They work with Express Transit so all you need to do is go into Wallet and turn it on for the pass. After that all you have to do is just tap and go. I’m an Apple Watch user and there’s no functional difference when tapping into the park or at LL touch points with it vs a MB with Express Transit active. It even works if your phone is dead.
Not sure if Androids have an equivalent mode though.
Along with this, Express Transit Mode continues to work even after your phone is dead. Shouldn’t be issues with screen time or batteries.
I love my magicbands. It”s so much more convenient than scanning a digital pass on my phone. the most frustrating thing I encounter entering a park or using lightning lane is a family/party having all their passes on one person’s phone and one person is scanning everyone’s pass. It holds up the line and is much less efficient for everyone involved. Wearing a band on your wrist makes everything smoother.
This! It’s always a first time family of 6-8 people too. Whether it’s at entry to the park or a Lightning Lane, it holds the line up as they find the pass, scan it, and that person goes through. Magic Bands are so much more convenient and faster!
I have been a Magic Band wearer since 2016 and have loved it. I don’t bring my phone with me to the parks and use it to pay for everything. My husband will bring his phone in case there is an emergency and will keep a card with him, but otherwise we rely on the band 100%. I just bought new + bands for a cruise next month and I am excited to use them. Yes they are pricey, but the convenience is worth the price. Like someone else said, I’ve never had luck opening doors with my phone and would be forced to bring my phone for entry, which is a hassle to carry around with no pockets.
Same with our family. Such a convenience for onsite stays, plus a nice flex when wearing them onboard the flight to Orlando lol.
I’ve got to agree unlocking rooms and charging purchases using the MagicBand are resort-only privileges that most DL guests couldn’t use even if Disney had set them up on the west coast.
I don’t think WDW or DCL will stop having MBs until you can do those things with facial technology. (I think entering the parks/LL and synchronizing photos should be easier lifts, if only because you can use larger hardware at those locations than at cash registers and room doors.) Again, they’re just different guest mixes than at DL, and the only thing more convenient using the MB would be using “nothing.”
I mean I’ve had an Apple Watch for years and years and I still wear MBs, old 2.0 style and all, because I always stay on property and Magic Mobile still doesn’t support opening your room. And I have NEVER gotten that dang app to open my room door, ever. Not once has it ever worked, ever since they introduced the feature, across years of various resort stays from Gran Destino to the Grand Floridian. Even if it did work it’s clunky and annoying having to open an app and navigate to a screen to open a door vs just tapping and going. I support a mobile app at work and it’s terrible UX.
Also no one’s talking about DCL—that’s the main reason I keep using MB+ despite it being largely a downgrade from MB 2.0 (my last of those have dead batteries for long range functions anyway). MB+ is a godsend on the cruise ships for the same reason as at the resorts, I don’t have to dig my sea pass or w/e out of the lanyard to open my cabin. That’s the main reason I don’t see MB+ dying in FL any time soon, the cruise industry in general is hit with wearables now and with the big DCL push a lot more parks people are doing cruises, leveraging tech they already have and having 1 wearable that’s good for everything land & sea is just too convenient to give up.
I just got my MB+ for the cruise. I’m excited to use them. I have them for DW, but for some reason I couldn’t use them when I registered for the cruise, despite using same account for DW and DCL. I needed to buy more anyway for people that haven’t been to DW so it gave me an excuse to buy a new one.
Kristin—I had a similar issue when trying to use the same band for a cruise on the Wish that I’d been using in the parks (we had a land & sea trip). At PC check in the guy did something and fixed it, had no issues after that and I was able to use the same one at MK upon debarkation. But he did mention it’s an issue at times. I have another land & sea coming up in August so we’ll see if I have the same problems.
Aurora,
I agree completely. we live in FL and are both Passholders and DCL cruisers, and there’s nothing more convenient than the MB+ for both. at WDW right now with the Waterparks being so active, you really need something that you can wear in the water and still scan when you need to, so they’re still great here! We didn’t plan it, but we have a land and sea coming up in August and will be wearing our magic bands the whole time.
Magicband is consistent for opening resort doors. The app on the phone rarely works. Glad they’re keeping MB support for a while.
Magicbands are too convenient – we have a kid who doesn’t have a phone, and the fact that they have a magic band to get rides and other stuff is so convenient. I would be lost if they discontinued them.
My wife and I got MagicBand+ at Disneyland in April 2023 and enjoyed them. We then went to World in December 2025 and found both of them had permanently dead batteries. To be fair to Disney they did give us vouchers for new ones for free, so perhaps we were both unlucky, but the options available were much slimmer so it wasn’t as fun getting the new one.
It’s a shame as we both really enjoy having them, but given it’s a tourist destination to have a battery that dies so quickly is just unacceptable.
I love the convenience of magic bands. I own a lot of the old style which I wear all the time depending on the color that matches my outfit for the day, lol. I also own 3 of the Magic band+ which I purchased with a discount, solely due to the design. I have never charged any of them. I only used them as I would the old magic bands, don’t use the interactive capabilities.
I remember the first visit to WDW ,and reception gave us our magic bands,that was where the magic started,it made everything so easy as I don’t like carrying a phone,I know have a magic band+ and I still love it and hope they don’t get rid of them at WDW
My preference for use while at WDW is the MagicBand+. I can go swimming, buy lunch, and open my hotel room without having to worry about my iPhone getting wet or misplaced.