Have Magic Bands made your WDW experience better or worst?

[Sparkly]

I like both MBs and FP+! Both have made it easier to enjoy a day at the parks

 

[BuckeyeBama]

They do. They can automatically capture ride photos. KTTW cards could not do that. And at 7DMT it's the only way to get a ride photo.

Sure they could - and you can still do that today with a card. Scan the band at the touch point at the end of the ride and your picture shows up in MDE. 7DMT is the anomaly, and if they only had cards, they would have installed touch points.

 

[CAS239]

I hate not having to go in my pocket every time I need to use a FP or enter the park. I also hate that the bands are so lightweight you forget you're wearing them

...magicbands are great and a big improvement over using the regular cards

 

[hakepb]

I hate not having to go in my pocket every time I need to use a FP or enter the park. I also hate that the bands are so lightweight you forget you're wearing them

...magicbands are great and a big improvement over using the regular cards

After a Disney trip, other hotels always feel so uncivilized, when I have to dig into my pockets for a room card/key.

Keyless cars do the same thing to me, too.

And, I don't miss being the designated FP- runner, either.

 

[AngiTN]

Sure they could - and you can still do that today with a card. Scan the band at the touch point at the end of the ride and your picture shows up in MDE. 7DMT is the anomaly, and if they only had cards, they would have installed touch points.

I did not know KTTW cards could get ride photos.

 

[avic77]

Much easier IMO. I dont have to fumble with all those cards for 4 people. I used to have to keep track of 4 room cards, 4 ticket cards, 4 MNSSHP ticket cards, paper fast passes, plus credit card, IDs, medical cards, etc. Oh i forgot about Photopass cards too... and i always ended up with 2 or three of those!
With the wrist bands everything is in one tidy wrist band. How can that be worse?

 

[MaryLovesPoohBear]

After a Disney trip, other hotels always feel so uncivilized, when I have to dig into my pockets for a room card/key.

Keyless cars do the same thing to me, too.

And, I don't miss being the designated FP- runner, either.

My husband and I were on a road trip last month, and we both commented about having to find the key card. And how much better magic bands are.

 

[PolyRob]

The only Disney World I know is with MyMagic+. I think the MagicBand is extremely convenient and I prefer having all of my information accessed on my wrist rather than on something I have to wear around my next, put in my pocket, or can get wet/blow away.

However, the technology is only great when it works! I always have an issue with my MagicBand and resort reservations. I book the rooms under my profile and my band never works on the reservation. The first time I found out was when I was declined charging privileges. I shrugged it off and went to concierge. Thought it was fixed. Next trip, check-in, warn concierge what happened last time, they tell me its ok. Go to enter room after coming back late from the parks, no go. IT is closed. Wait 60+ minutes, concierge is unable to help and issues me a card. I have to stop back the next day, it gets fixed. Check-in to another resort, room not ready, they "fix" my band. Go to park. I get a text to see the front desk. Front desk informed me I got this text because my room was ready and I did not have a band (which I was wearing)... They've removed bands, disabled bands, etc. I will see if it happens again in 18 days.

 

[caliope]

We love everything about the magic bands. Everything.

 

[AngiTN]

The only Disney World I know is with MyMagic+. I think the MagicBand is extremely convenient and I prefer having all of my information accessed on my wrist rather than on something I have to wear around my next, put in my pocket, or can get wet/blow away.

However, the technology is only great when it works! I always have an issue with my MagicBand and resort reservations. I book the rooms under my profile and my band never works on the reservation. The first time I found out was when I was declined charging privileges. I shrugged it off and went to concierge. Thought it was fixed. Next trip, check-in, warn concierge what happened last time, they tell me its ok. Go to enter room after coming back late from the parks, no go. IT is closed. Wait 60+ minutes, concierge is unable to help and issues me a card. I have to stop back the next day, it gets fixed. Check-in to another resort, room not ready, they "fix" my band. Go to park. I get a text to see the front desk. Front desk informed me I got this text because my room was ready and I did not have a band (which I was wearing)... They've removed bands, disabled bands, etc. I will see if it happens again in 18 days.

It's ironic that once 1 thing goes wrong, it never goes right and it always seems to mushroom to more things going wrong. Never have quite been able to figure it out. It's like some MDE accounts get a glitch in them and can never get it out, no matter what. Others go chugging along blissfully glitch free.

 

[Heather1101]

I like not having to dig around in my bag for fast passes, credit cards, and room keys. I wish they would make them smaller or at least go back to the previous style. The new bands were not an improvement for us. All three of us found them more uncomfortable (more surface area to trap sweat) and they kept popping off randomly. DH's popped off and flew across the hot tub one day, mine came off when I was just standing in the room, and DS had his pop off a few times, so he just quit wearing it and kept it in his bag and pulled it out for fast passes. Maybe we got a dud batch or something?

 

[TiffanyA]

The only negative for magic bands that I can think of would be the whole big brother aspect - Disney keeping track of your movements with it. But obviously (since I voted positively), that wasn't enough to stop me from utilizing magic bands.

 

[DaisyJ]

I did not know KTTW cards could get ride photos.

Yep. All you have to do is touch the mickey head under the photos.

 

[prprincess]

Definitely easier! Especially when I went solo with the kids in August. No keys, tickets, paper FPs, to fumble with while trying to keep an eye on them. I get a bit flustered in certain situations which causes me to lose/misplace things, and the band helped!

 

[PolyRob]

It's ironic that once 1 thing goes wrong, it never goes right and it always seems to mushroom to more things going wrong. Never have quite been able to figure it out. It's like some MDE accounts get a glitch in them and can never get it out, no matter what. Others go chugging along blissfully glitch free.

That is so true! I've learned to deal with it. I always check every band on the room or try charging something before I leave the resort for the first time. Live and learn! Maybe WL was able to help me out back in March. They seemed pretty confident when handing me my band that they "resolved" it

 

[StraightToDumbo]

The only thing I don't like about MB is that there is no way to articulate merchandise discounts from a Disney Visa card. You still have to lug it around if you want the discount. Other than that, they da bomb!

 

[Penguinempress]

I've never actually had one (we stay offsite) but I wouldn't wear one purely for aesthetic reasons. I don't wear my fitness tracker on vacation because I don't want a bulky rubber thing on me in all my photos. Same thing for Magic Bands. But that's the only downside I can see.

 

[ucfknight]

I've never actually had one (we stay offsite) but I wouldn't wear one purely for aesthetic reasons. I don't wear my fitness tracker on vacation because I don't want a bulky rubber thing on me in all my photos. Same thing for Magic Bands. But that's the only downside I can see.

On the other hand, if you have a Magic Band on you can pretty much look at any picture and be able to tell you were at WDW.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

I chose so-so because there are a few things I like along with things I don't like. I tend to lump them together with FP+ because I feel like they really wouldn't need to have magic bands if it wasn't for them doing FP+.

What I like: easy charging, easy room door opening when it works, for photopass instead of digging out a card.

I hate the band part but now have a fob which also has it's drawbacks - need to lift a shirt if you put it on a belt loop, it can get caught when getting off some rides and come off if you attach it to a bag(had it happen on TSMM but realized it in time to get it off the floor)

When the system goes down, it's a mess. Have had that happen 3 times already - most people probably won't encounter it as often but I go several times a year. But I do carry what I need to have with me in case it happens after the first time.

I also hate the tracking part - I feel like they can track me everywhere in the parks. And having your name up on screens? Nope, don't like, totally unnecessary. My 21 year old thought it was cool so I guess that's just my thing. LOL

When the band decides not to work, oh do I hate that. It works fine for 2 days and then the next won't let you in your room. So I had to walk all the way to the front desk, get it reset and then walk all the way back to my room for it to work. Getting really, really tired of this one. It happens a lot to me. Happened twice on a 4 day trip over Memorial Weekend. At least that time I had someone else with me whose band was working since both times was after midnight but I had to stop at concierge the next morning both times and get mine taken care of.
My husband said it's just because I have bad luck.

 

[zebrastreyepz]

I didn't think I'd like them, but I really really do.