Is there another reason for Magic Bands?

[TheLittles]

I said in a previous post that i am purchasing 3 days park hopper passes for 2 of my family members who are not staying for the entire trip and are not on our room reservation. I am guessing they will get paper tickets? Is there a reason to get them magic bands? Or will they be alright since they will have their paper tickets?

 

[UncleMike101]

I said in a previous post that i am purchasing 3 days park hopper passes for 2 of my family members who are not staying for the entire trip and are not on our room reservation. I am guessing they will get paper tickets? Is there a reason to get them magic bands? Or will they be alright since they will have their paper tickets?

We've done the same thing.
Our friends who are only staying three days got Magic Bands just like the rest of us.

 

[Disney_Alli]

If they're staying off site there's no reason to get MB for them as long as IF you want your Mine Train photos you either all ride it together or give them a band to carry. Other than that the tickets are EXACTLY the same as having MBs.

 

[CAS239]

No one needs Magic Bands, it's just more of a conveince to not have to always take out the plastic card to swipe for park entrance, fast pass, and ride photos.

With the magic band all your ride photos (and videos from 7dmt and ToT) are automatically uploaded to your MDE without having to scan anything. Some rides don't have scan points for the photos, so without a magic band you won't get those.

The others in your party don't need magic bands, but their nice to have. I'd just let them know that and if they decide when you're in the parks that they want a magic band, they can buy one from the many shops. They start out at $12.95 and go up in price depending on limited editions, characters, etc. And their super easy to link to a MDE account

 

[jamesez]

Is there a reason to get them magic bands?

A consideration is that if they have little ones, the magic bands double as ID / locators for the CMs if they get lost.

That and it's a relatively cheap souvenir.

 

[Jadyreen1282]

If you get memory maker I'd get the bands and link them up.

 

[tjmw2727]

No need for a MB they can just use the park pass for entrance and fp+. If they decide they want magic bands they can purchase them anytime during the trip.

 

[minnie mum]

A consideration is that if they have little ones, the magic bands double as ID / locators for the CMs if they get lost.

Since when?

 

[MakiraMarlena]

Paper tickets cannot be used. Any previously purchased paper ticket must be traded in for an RFID card if the ticketholder doesn't have a magic band. Holders of newly purchased tickets will get RFID cards. RFID cards can be used at touchpoints just like magic bands. They don't have the long distance scanner, so they won't upload ride photos or work with the Storymaker installations.

Magic bands don't contain a GPS are are not locators. They would serve as identifiers only if the CM can scan the band and access the holder's MDX account. Not all CMs can do this.

 

[jamesez]

Since when?

I'm assuming the kids might not have their RFID hard tickets with them, but are more likely to keep their bands on their wrists.

Disney does have the ability to read Magic Bands - check the FCC user manual for the XBRv4: https://fccid.io/document.php?id=1984528 - I imagine these readers are actually all over the parks for crowd data, but that information might not be available except in an emergency.

 

[quagmire0]

A consideration is that if they have little ones, the magic bands double as ID / locators for the CMs if they get lost.

That and it's a relatively cheap souvenir.

I actually did some research on this because I was trying to weigh the pros and cons of buying bands for my family who are staying offsite. The overwhelming consensus from both customers and former Disney staff is that these bands are in no way used for tracking down lost kids. Most everyone I saw post about it said that Disney has a particular system for identifying and taking care of lost children and trying to track them via magic band is not part of the process. Most CMs won't have access to a scanner to pull the data and those that do wouldn't be able to pull the specific contact info they would need to get a hold of you.

So, I would not purchase Magic Bands with child retrieval in mind. The sole benefits for off-siters is for convenience at park and ride entry and for taking full advantage of the Disney photo system.

 

[Skywise]

It's not like they have a mind-control chip embedded in them -ZZZZZZTTT

they are great.

i like them.

they are better than Cats.

("You never took yours off?" "Er... no." )

 

[scrapquitler]

I said in a previous post that i am purchasing 3 days park hopper passes for 2 of my family members who are not staying for the entire trip and are not on our room reservation. I am guessing they will get paper tickets? Is there a reason to get them magic bands? Or will they be alright since they will have their paper tickets?

Where are they staying? If they are staying at the resort with you, they need to be on the reservation. The part nobody has mentioned is that magic bands also serve as a room key.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

they might have the ability to READ magic bands (actually read MDX account information that is accessible via the code that is stored on the magic band) if they can scan them. the only way this could be useful is if they have the child with the band and could possibly locate contact information for the parents via MDX by scanning the child's band. But it would take someone who had a scanner that gave specific access to this information to be able to retrieve it. Your average park CM wouldn't have a scanner that could do this.

But the bands are not locators. They can't turn on a machine and target a child's specific magic band wherever the kid is in the park.

 

[Disneymom1126]

I would say the bands are not necessary, but they are convenient. If you're on a tight budget and don't want to make the extra purchase, I would say you will 100% be fine without them. The thing I like most about them is I don't have to worry as much about misplacing them or digging around to get out the cards when we are entering the park, having pictures taken (a different card is still used I think) and using our FP+ (and since we stay on site...also when we get back to our room, etc.). I also remember prior to FP+ having to carry around the photopass cards, ticket cards, and paper FP+ and always feeling like I was going to lose something. So for the convenience factor...I'm pro-buy the magic bands. The less I have to worry about losing (either altogether or in the depths of the backpack) on vacation the better...in fact today (off topic) I was just looking into different types of portable cell phone chargers and am thinking of spending a few extra $$ to get one that everything is already built in (plugs into the wall to charge itself, the connection to charge the phone is already integrated without needing another cord, etc.) because last trip I either brought the wrong cord or forgot the cord altogether on multiple days

 

[GPC0321]

Interesting discussion about MBs being used to help get lost kids back to their families. It may not be an official function of the band, and I'm sure Disney has the lost kid thing down to a science, but your MDX account does have some pertinent information, and I know my cell number was included since I had to enter it for ADRs and I got texts about the room being ready and sometimes other announcements for when we were at the park. It'd be nice to be able to send a "Your lost child is at X location" text to parents. Seems like that should be easy to hook up.

 

[Moushe]

I purchased them for my parents and mil because it would be more convenient for them than having to use their paper ticket for FP, I was worried one of them would lose their ticket.

 

[book_junkie]

Even if Disney were to acknowledge they have the capability to track you and/or your kid, they will never do so.
It'd open them up to lawsuits to the nth degree- can you imagine how open they'd be liable if they'd agree to a tracking your kid agreement?

RFID is general- compare it to what stores use to tell inventory. How many times have you called a store to see if they have something or checked their site, then gone there and oops, the site is wrong, we're out? How would you like that applied to kids- oops, you WERE tracking them via the MDE but man, it crashed.

 

[jamesez]

My underlying point is that any form of ID on a child is better than none, and that it would be better for a child to have a thing that could be read by high-level CMs to get contact information. GR staff carry iPads that can read MagicBands, I imagine they (or park security) can get those details.

A few years ago we were driving to the airport at 4 AM and a shoeless kid, about 10, in pajamas, on the corner of the street, in 30 degree weather flagged us down. He was so distraught that he couldn't give us OR the police his name or address or anything, other than he was cold. It was a let's all calmly freak out moment. Fortunately the people he was staying with had also contacted the police. He apparently was sleepwalked out of his aunt/uncle's house in the middle of the night.

I can further imagine that if the kid decided to find a way to hide in the park, it is plausible that Disney could get a breadcrumb trail of any medium-range readers the child walked near.

I am not suggesting Find My Friends type functionality in MDE.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

It's been mentioned that the WDW protocol for dealing with "lost parents" does not include any sort of use of Magic Bands. as noted, even if they could use the bands to specifically track a particular person on WDW property, they won't. Guests probably shouldn't consider Magic Bands as any form of a child tracking, location or identification device.