Everything you need to know about MagicBands.

[princess33]

I know this question must be here but I'm still confused after reading many pages.

We have bands from 2 years ago. Assuming these work, how and where do I set them up? Last time we bought them at the Disney store in the airport and had them connect our tickets to bands in the store.

Will they still do that if not making a new purchase? We are just going for a short trip staying off site. I will use MDE for booking FP. We won't buy new ones this trip as we are only going for two park days.

 

[erionm]

I know this question must be here but I'm still confused after reading many pages.

We have bands from 2 years ago. Assuming these work, how and where do I set them up? Last time we bought them at the Disney store in the airport and had them connect our tickets to bands in the store.

Will they still do that if not making a new purchase? We are just going for a short trip staying off site. I will use MDE for booking FP. We won't buy new ones this trip as we are only going for two park days.

If you go to the MagicBands & Cards page of MDE, you should see them listed there. They just need to be listed as 'Active' in order to use them.

 

[Accident]

I know this question must be here but I'm still confused after reading many pages.

We have bands from 2 years ago. Assuming these work, how and where do I set them up? Last time we bought them at the Disney store in the airport and had them connect our tickets to bands in the store.

Will they still do that if not making a new purchase? We are just going for a short trip staying off site. I will use MDE for booking FP. We won't buy new ones this trip as we are only going for two park days.

If you go to the MagicBands & Cards page of MDE, you should see them listed there. They just need to be listed as 'Active' in order to use them.

To add a tiny bit more, the confusion is they aren't linked to tickets or entitlements, they are just an id tag that disney computers use to look into mde. Once you link a band, it's that persons band forever and you can make any mde changes for the person and there is nothing extra to do for the band to work with them.

 

[ThistleMae]

I have a two year old band, it is active in MDE. The only thing they said about it not working was for those pics they take when you are on the rides.

 

[Accident]

I have a two year old band, it is active in MDE. The only thing they said about it not working was for those pics they take when you are on the rides.

That is a possibility. It's hard to say when it'll die as there is many factors like how many days you've been on property with it, how long it sat on the shelf before you got it. It's the battery in it that dies but it's only the wireless functions of the band that get impacted which right now means ride photos automatically linking to your account.

you only need 1 person in your traveling group per ride car to work and what I generally recommend if budget is tight is to buy the kids a keep sake of the trip and let them get new bands which will have newer batteries in them. the other features like fastpass, tickets, meal plan, charging to room, opening the room door will work with a dead battery.

 

[chelynnah]

Has anyone ever noticed that the "plastic" of Magic Bands breaks down over time/exposure?

I had my old ones (from 2014 and 2015) stored fireproof lockbox in my attic (in a VERY hot climate). I took them out the other day to compare to the Magic Band 2.0s and they were covered in a white/grey dust.

I am guessing that the attic heat broke down the plastic a bit. I wonder if they are still functional too. Not an issue (as I got new MBs for my next trip) . .just curious.

Mine had the kind of white 'tarnishing' after 16 months. I just washed them off and they looked good as new. Even the long range rfid still worked. I know because I carried the new one in my purse just in case, wore my old one, and mother in law wore hers and we ended up with 3 photos/videos of each ride that takes them (i.e. 7 Dwarves mine train).

But seriously the white just washed right off.

 

[emmakatbaby]

We have a 2 week trip in June, one week is with family with a room/ticket/dining package. Myself, son and daughter are staying when they leave for a school trip/convention. That trip is with a youth group so we won't have park tickets until we get there. Will we be able to link those tickets to our same magicbands or will I need to purchase a new set?

 

[erionm]

We have a 2 week trip in June, one week is with family with a room/ticket/dining package. Myself, son and daughter are staying when they leave for a school trip/convention. That trip is with a youth group so we won't have park tickets until we get there. Will we be able to link those tickets to our same magicbands or will I need to purchase a new set?

As long as you link the tickets to your existing MDE profile, you can use any MagicBand that's associated with the same MDE profile.

 

[emmakatbaby]

As long as you link the tickets to your existing MDE profile, you can use any MagicBand that's associated with the same MDE profile.

So more than one ticket can be linked to same magic bands?

 

[Accident]

So more than one ticket can be linked to same magic bands?

Magicbands are linked to a person. Tickets, dining, fastpass, rooms also link to a person. the magicband is just an electronic id bracelet to look up what you have setup in mde for that person.

In otherwords, if MDE shows that person has a ticket, they can use any magicband or cards that are also linked to them to access it.

 

[amyj1024]

Is there an issue with the new magic bands falling off?? I just read another group where people are loosing bands because they fall off? Anyone have this experience?

 

[Accident]

Is there an issue with the new magic bands falling off?? I just read another group where people are loosing bands because they fall off? Anyone have this experience?

I actually feels like it's clasping down better than the previous 1.0 bands to me. people catch them on things, restraints, safety bars, clothing. it's not a watch band that is more securely fastened. it's disney, they aren't really paying attention to anything except looking around. yes you will overhear someone saying they lost their band somewhere during your trip, but its not a widespread epidemic with them randomly popping off, there is usually a reason it came off.

 

[megs1313]

QUESTION: This is my second trip with my AP...How do I link it to my new magic band for this new reservation? Or should I link it to the old one? I'm so confused. on my last trip, they sent me my magic band for my room and then a separate band with my ap. I ended up using just the ap band the whole time. It worked on my resort room. Now I go into my MDE account to customize my band this time (because I'd like to go ahead and get a different color) and it's telling me to customize a band for my room and another one for my ap 'affiliation'. what do i do?

 

[siskaren]

QUESTION: This is my second trip with my AP...How do I link it to my new magic band for this new reservation? Or should I link it to the old one? I'm so confused. on my last trip, they sent me my magic band for my room and then a separate band with my ap. I ended up using just the ap band the whole time. It worked on my resort room. Now I go into my MDE account to customize my band this time (because I'd like to go ahead and get a different color) and it's telling me to customize a band for my room and another one for my ap 'affiliation'. what do i do?

You don't link your AP to your magic band - as long as your AP is in your MDE account, any and every magic band you have can access it.

 

[megs1313]

You don't link your AP to your magic band - as long as your AP is in your MDE account, any and every magic band you have can access it.

that makes much more sense, thank you!

 

[ThistleMae]

Is anyone "gaga" over the new bands?

 

[TigerLilly's Mom]

I tried to thoroughly read this info, but I still didn't see this answer. On my online check in on MDE, it says this:

Opting out of your new MagicBand may allow you to go directly to your room upon arrival. Just remember to bring an active MagicBand with you.

What does this mean? Also, what would be the reason to deactivate an older band and where would you do it? I see you can do it on MDE, but where exactly?

 

[Accident]

Is anyone "gaga" over the new bands?

I am, especially moved into a magickeeper for a keychain.

 

[Accident]

I tried to thoroughly read this info, but I still didn't see this answer. On my online check in on MDE, it says this:

Opting out of your new MagicBand may allow you to go directly to your room upon arrival. Just remember to bring an active MagicBand with you.

What does this mean?

Your magicband is your room key. It's more saying if you opt out, you may have to visit the front desk to get one or a card to get into your room if you do not have other bands in your mde already.

Also, what would be the reason to deactivate an older band and where would you do it? I see you can do it on MDE, but where exactly?

It's under magicbands and cards in your profile.

There is a glitch in the system that happens if you ever get up to 20ish bands. Deactivating old ones will stop the glitch and the system actually looks for this, once you have too many it forces you to deactivate some old ones..

It's piece of mind for me, it does attach to a credit card, it's the room key and they theoretically work forever. I also generally distrust everyone so it makes me happier to know the band is useless if I'm not using it. When we traveled to WDW, we would disable them on our way home. Now that I live here, we generally only have our AP cards and MB we usually use enabled.

 

[FlashFlash100YardDash]

I want to buy 4 plain bands and get them shipped to the UK so that I can get everything set up before our trip. I managed to get the Shop Disney Parks App installed on my iPAD - not easy as it is not officially available outside the states - but found that some of the colours are only available 'in store'. Is this likely to be a short term stock issue? Is it worth waiting another couple of weeks to see if purple and blue become available?