Have Magic Bands made your WDW experience better or worst?

[agame2323]

I was speaking with a few friends that are planning a visit in September and someone mentioned how the Magic Bands have made things worst. I don't know how that can be but figured I would take it to the board and get some accurate feedback.

 

[kaybird]

Love the Magic bands! So disappointed when I get home and holding up my wrist does not result in my door being unlocked, getting onto a fun ride, or being given a tasty snack!

 

[Zippa D Doodah]

Magic bands are great. They make a vacation much easier for us.

 

[JennaDeeDooDah]

The bands are easier. I'm not worried that I am going to lose my ticket or room key out of my pocket. I like being able to pay just by tapping my wrist. It was nice using them to get into the parks instead of using a ticket and then having to put it away while trying to get out of the way of others entering the parks. They are very convenient.

However, I do not like that they brought FP+ with them (got to re-experience legacy FP at Disneyland last month and was reminded of how much I prefer that system) and miss having the paper fast pass that reminds me of my return time. But, I still think that magic bands are more convenient than not having a magic band.

 

[luvmy2boyzz]

Magic bands have made things so much easier for us. We can now go bag-less to the parks so no bag check lines! I also like that I can go to the pool and not have to watch my chair with my key card or credit card ect while in the water! If someone wants my sunscreen so be it!

 

[Polydweller]

Better or worse than what? Worse in what way?

They make entry easy (no fumbling for tickets), easy payments (no carrying money or credit cards), easy room entry when hands are full, easy FP entry by just tapping. Find no nothing wrong with them.

So what are your people finding worse about them and worse than what alternative.

 

[ucfknight]

They make entry easy (no fumbling for tickets), easy payments (no carrying money or credit cards), easy room entry when hands are full, easy FP entry by just tapping. Find no nothing wrong with them.

They also allow automatic linking of ride photos to your account. Plus quick linking of shots taken by PhotoPass photographers without fumbling in your pocket for a card.

Other than a sweaty wrist I see no downside to them.
I guess if you are the tin-foil hat type you might not like the monitoring Disney could do of your movements using the technology.

 

[GreatLakes]

Better. I see no downside to them. The only possible negative would be Disney's ability to leverage them for tracking but you can just buy one of these if you don't want them to be able to ping your band when you aren't actively using it.

 

[Klayfish]

Love 'em.

I don't really care about all the tin-foil hat stuff, doesn't bother me one bit.

 

[StageTek]

I was speaking with a few friends that are planning a visit in September and someone mentioned how the Magic Bands have made things worst.

So now it's YOUR turn. Tell us what that someone doesn't like about the bands...

 

[AngiTN]

As one who goes to both Disney and Universal on a given trip I can say with 100% certainty that a MB makes every aspect of the trip easier. Everything about having to deal with multiple cards and a place to keep them, while at Universal, is more cumbersome. I can't fathom what about a MB makes anything harder.
Unless you have the misfortune of encountering one that doesn't work or a system outage. But those can impact credit cards or other things too. Outage are a different issue. We've even had issues with regular room keys at other hotels so even they aren't free from error.
But when comparing all things working, I can't see a single drawback.

 

[marcyleecorgan]

I gotta ask... what's the downside of MB?

Don't say 20,000 daily visitors, because that's not the right answer. It's GOOD that Disney has that much popularity! How on earth were they ever going to make it equitable otherwise?

 

[AngiTN]

I gotta ask... what's the downside of MB?

Don't say 20,000 daily visitors, because that's not the right answer. It's GOOD that Disney has that much popularity! How on earth were they ever going to make it equitable otherwise?

On the other hand, when you have 20,000, you are not going to please all of them, ever. No matter what you do. Someone isn't happy. So yeah, I'm not surprised to hear someone doesn't like MB, or anything for that matter. There's always 1

 

[mesaboy2]

I like Magic Bands fine, they are an improvement over the cards and room keys that came before.

I would argue the opposite for FP+.

 

[momimouse27]

I actually really like them. It makes it much easier to keep up with your room key/ticket. Last trip, I actually lost my physical tickets and two days before the trip I was looking everywhere for them and freaking out. But, since I had paired all my tickets to my MB as soon I got them, it didn't matter that I lost the physical ticket. Had that happened a decade ago, I would have been out thousands of dollars.

I have had glitches. In September, I got to my room after check in, and it wouldn't open. A couple of calls to Front Desk and it was working in about 10 minutes. All in all, we've had positive experiences with it.

 

[Boski]

I was speaking with a few friends that are planning a visit in September and someone mentioned how the Magic Bands have made things worst. I don't know how that can be but figured I would take it to the board and get some accurate feedback.

I can only assume, like a PP said, they might be grouping MB in with FP+. Which is a totally different debate.

I guess the only negative one could say is if someone doesn't like to wear it. Its probably more convenient to have a card in your pocket than a magic band. But thats all I really could come up with.

 

[AngiTN]

I like Magic Bands fine, they are an improvement over the cards and room keys that came before.

I would argue the opposite for FP+.

This may be where people are complaining, they are using MB as a term to complain about FP+, when they are in fact 2 different things. But to many I bet they lump them together as 1 entity.

 

[AngiTN]

Other than a sweaty wrist I see no downside to them.

I guess the only negative one could say is if someone doesn't like to wear it. Its probably more convenient to have a card in your pocket than a magic band. But thats all I really could come up with.

And the good thing is, you don't have to wear it. Even less now that you can take the puck out and put it anywhere in a bag or pocket. Don't even have to buy a key fob. And the older style can just hang on a belt loop.

 

[patrickpiteo]

They need to add you affiliations to it. Like DVC and AP where you don't have take out your cards to show.

 

[Newsies]

I adore everything about Magic Bands. I love getting them in the mail, I love using them to tap into the parks/into the FP+ lanes/to use a snack credit on a Dole Whip/to get into my room after a long day in the parks. Having all of the amenities MDE offers wrapped up into one band definitely made touring the parks easier. And I love customizing mine! So I would say that not only have they made touring WDW easier, they've made it more enjoyable.