Magic band plus- confirmed news from Disney.

[StormyCA]

I have never been to WDW and have no experience with Magic Bands. Can someone tell me what they are typically made of? I'm allergic to most metals and rubber. I can't wear most watches or jewelry. Just curious if these would even be feasible for me.

They're some kind of plastic and there is no metal on the surface of the ones I've had. But I think since you're dealing with an allergy you'd be better off talking to Disney directly. I've only dealt with Disney about dietary issues and they've always been super helpful and kind. I can't imagine they'd be any different in dealing with a skin allergy. But remember you don't have to use an MB. If you find you can't tolerate the material, you can use your smartphone or a ticket-card they give you on entry. Those won't have all the 'bells and whistles' of the upcoming MB+ but you'll be able to do all you need to do.

From the 'plan Disney' website (part of WDW's website)

https://plandisney.disney.go.com/question/latex-magic-bands-350527/

 

[Sjwillia]

I have never used a Magic Band. Last trip to WDW was too long ago. I usually don't stay at one of the Disneyland hotel so can't use it as a key. I understand we can scan into the parks and onto LL rides with the bands. Are there other things the band could do for me?

 

[brightlined]

The Apple page was updated December 10, 2021 so not super 'old'. Sounds as if 'MagicMobile' is for LL/ILLs to me and you'd still need to use the MB to scan into the parks and for photo pass and ride photos.

MagicMobile does park entry - that's one of the uses for the "MagicMobile Pass". The main difference between a MagicBand and MagicMobile - there are few features that MagicMobile itself doesn't specifically handle that are handled directly by the MDE app, but that's more semantics than anything else. MB and MM are intended to be interchangeable.

 

[DLgal]

I have never been to WDW and have no experience with Magic Bands. Can someone tell me what they are typically made of? I'm allergic to most metals and rubber. I can't wear most watches or jewelry. Just curious if these would even be feasible for me.

They're silicone and plastic, pretty sure.

 

[Obi-J Kenobi]

I have never used a Magic Band. Last trip to WDW was too long ago. I usually don't stay at one of the Disneyland hotel so can't use it as a key. I understand we can scan into the parks and onto LL rides with the bands. Are there other things the band could do for me?

Purchase merchandise if a credit card is attached to your account. The new MagicBand+ allows you to interact with various elements throughout the park and will interact with shows too.

 

[timidbibliophile]

Scanning multiple barcodes for LL on the phone is super fast. You can just leave the phone inserted and swipe right to scan in succession. Takes like 10 seconds to scan 4 tickets. We do it often since we use DAS. My son with the DAS actually does the scanning.

And at Disneyland, there is an additional security layer that WDW doesn't have...the entry photo. There is a problem at DLR with people trying to share tickets or sell partially used tickets, so now everyone using a multi day or hopper ticket has their photo taken on first use and then the CM at each entry gate has to verify the person entering matches the picture, so there will never be entry gates like WDW with only a few roaming CMs.

Sorry this may be a stupid question. Why would the fingerprint system at Disney World not work at Disneyland? The picture and fingerprint essentially do the same thing. They are both to stop people from sharing tickets or selling half used tickets. I guess if it was that simple they would have brought the magicband to Disneyland a lot sooner.

 

[brightlined]

Sorry this may be a stupid question. Why would the fingerprint system at Disney World not work at Disneyland? The picture and fingerprint essentially do the same thing. They are both to stop people from sharing tickets or selling half used tickets. I guess if it was that simple they would have brought the magicband to Disneyland a lot sooner.

It's not to say that it wouldn't work - it's just the historical difference between WDW and DLR. DLR has always favored less-costly options when it comes to technical hardware. DLR just doesn't have anything close to the revenue that WDW does.

Also, WDW has been using some form of biometric scanning since the 1990s. (It was a two-finger nub thing for a long time. Not sure when they switched to the "fingerprint" biometric scanner - possibly with the MagicBand installation.) DLR has never had any of that. Switching over would be more complicated than just installing the scanners - they'd have to rework the software. (With pictures, the CM is the one verifying the match - the software just displays the photo attached to the record. With biometrics, the system has to confirm the match.)

Btw - implementing MagicBand at WDW was reported to have cost a billion dollars, and there were questions for years as to whether WDW actually turned a profit off of it. (It definitely would have been cheaper at DLR, but it's likely been a lot harder to financially justify it.)

 

[kristensideaoffun]

Only the legacy rides are like that - anything that had PhotoPass prior to MB being implemented. They haven't built tap screens for any ride since then.

Everything else is automated. They've also added automated PhotoPass to a handful of rides that didn't have PhotoPass before.

Test Track has the legacy tap, but they added the automation as well. To be honest, I'm surprised they haven't done that with more of the legacy rides - especially RNR Coaster, where the tap screens are a little bit confusing. (The screens are oriented with the cars displaying in reverse visual order, which seems to throw people.)

If DLR implements automated PhotoPass, I'm hoping that's what they'll do instead of adding tap points to the existing screens.

I wonder if they would even be able to do an automated scan at DLR. I would think because of CA state privacy laws, you’d have to tap every time to “opt-in”. I’m not an expert of California privacy laws, but I did work with a client who wanted to do some sort of automated system like that for a large event and their attorneys determined they’d have to allow people to “opt-in” (by tapping/scanning) every time the bracelet was going to be used to collect or exchange information. There was no way to have people “opt-in” for the entire event.

 

[MouseEarsMom33]

I have never used a Magic Band. Last trip to WDW was too long ago. I usually don't stay at one of the Disneyland hotel so can't use it as a key. I understand we can scan into the parks and onto LL rides with the bands. Are there other things the band could do for me?

Pictures. Photographers scan the bands and pictures automatically load to the account. Some rides recognize the bands and will also automatically put the pictures to your account without you having to scan anything.

 

[brightlined]

I wonder if they would even be able to do an automated scan at DLR. I would think because of CA state privacy laws, you’d have to tap every time to “opt-in”. I’m not an expert of California privacy laws, but I did work with a client who wanted to do some sort of automated system like that for a large event and their attorneys determined they’d have to allow people to “opt-in” (by tapping/scanning) every time the bracelet was going to be used to collect or exchange information. There was no way to have people “opt-in” for the entire event.

I'm not familiar with the details of CA law, but I'm gently surprised that that would be a problem for that event, unless the identifying data for the tap/scan included some kind of personal information (ie, their name). I could definitely understand it - I know CA is really, really strict (frequently, in good ways). But I'd wonder what data would be collected/exchanged in that transaction.

(Hypothetically - if that were like a convention, and they were using the bracelet to provide information to/from the individual exhibitors at the event, I could definitely see that being an issue, since it would potentially be exchanging personal information between the attendee and the exhibitor.)

At face value, it doesn't feel like using a MagicBand would be much different than using an RFID card to get into a hotel room.

Most RFID cards, for example, don't carry any personal data on them. They just have the identifying mark of the card.

So, for example, in a hypothetical MagicBand situation - as you ride past the scanner, it would see your MagicBand, see that its ID is 8675309, and add picture123987456.jpg to the account connected to that ID. In theory, even if the picture itself is arguably an identifying object, there's no exchange of personal data. The MagicBand doesn't know who you are, and neither does the scanner - the system does that work in a closed one-party environment using data you've already provided. (And, honestly, the scanners at WDW frequently get it wrong - it occasionally asks you to pick from two or three photos to determine which one you want.)

But, honestly, I couldn't rule it out.

It's funny - when I saw your response, I initially thought you were responding to the fingerprint scan response above. That would definitely be more of an issue, and might also explain why DLR hasn't implemented the "fingerprint" scanners. When WDW implemented the biometric scan in the 90s, it was controversial, moreso when they switched to the "fingerprint" scanner. (For anyone wondering why I'm putting fingerprint in quotation marks - WDW is insistent that they don't actually collect fingerprints - they insist they're using biometric data from the finger as an identifying mark.) And biometric data (and especially a fingerprint) would almost certainly count as identifying data at a higher privacy level than a photograph.

 

[xipotec]

We LOVE MB…
It one of the big disappointment about DL.

Everything is so much easier, tap and go….

Tap for photos,
Tap for LL
Tap for Room
Tap for purchase…

Keeps your phone charged cause your bot taming it out all the time…

BUT

MB+ works via Bluetooth, so thats gonna drain battery again…

 

[kikismom]

Have I missed any announcements on this? We go in December and I am really hoping to have MagicBands for our trip.

 

[katyringo]

Have I missed any announcements on this? We go in December and I am really hoping to have MagicBands for our trip.

Nope. I think a lot of us were hoping for something at D23 but not a peep. D23 would have been a great chance for Disney to have a lot of influencer types trying it out so I'm gonna guess they aren't close.. we have 4 weeks to go and I was hoping for these.

 

[Angel141925]

I’ve seen a few bloggers say they were told they should be put by the end of the year (or before January I can’t remember the exact wording) but no specific date was given.

 

[kikismom]

My fingers are crossed they'll be here for our trip. My daughter and I both have MagicBands from our DW trip and want to use them again. I'm not super sure about the + ones only because I have enough stuff to charge each night.

 

[kristensideaoffun]

I'm not familiar with the details of CA law, but I'm gently surprised that that would be a problem for that event, unless the identifying data for the tap/scan included some kind of personal information (ie, their name). I could definitely understand it - I know CA is really, really strict (frequently, in good ways). But I'd wonder what data would be collected/exchanged in that transaction.

(Hypothetically - if that were like a convention, and they were using the bracelet to provide information to/from the individual exhibitors at the event, I could definitely see that being an issue, since it would potentially be exchanging personal information between the attendee and the exhibitor.)

At face value, it doesn't feel like using a MagicBand would be much different than using an RFID card to get into a hotel room.

Most RFID cards, for example, don't carry any personal data on them. They just have the identifying mark of the card.

So, for example, in a hypothetical MagicBand situation - as you ride past the scanner, it would see your MagicBand, see that its ID is 8675309, and add picture123987456.jpg to the account connected to that ID. In theory, even if the picture itself is arguably an identifying object, there's no exchange of personal data. The MagicBand doesn't know who you are, and neither does the scanner - the system does that work in a closed one-party environment using data you've already provided. (And, honestly, the scanners at WDW frequently get it wrong - it occasionally asks you to pick from two or three photos to determine which one you want.)

But, honestly, I couldn't rule it out.

It's funny - when I saw your response, I initially thought you were responding to the fingerprint scan response above. That would definitely be more of an issue, and might also explain why DLR hasn't implemented the "fingerprint" scanners. When WDW implemented the biometric scan in the 90s, it was controversial, moreso when they switched to the "fingerprint" scanner. (For anyone wondering why I'm putting fingerprint in quotation marks - WDW is insistent that they don't actually collect fingerprints - they insist they're using biometric data from the finger as an identifying mark.) And biometric data (and especially a fingerprint) would almost certainly count as identifying data at a higher privacy level than a photograph.

The issue for my client’s event was with the auto scanning, which is something that WDW Magic Bands do. Your band is connected to an account with personal data such as your name, credit card info, and pictures. Whether you want the MB to or not, it adds pictures of you to your account when the scanners sense your band after exiting a ride. While the scan may not log a location, the picture is a log of a location (because, and this is on assumption because I’ve never used WDW Magic Bands, the ride name is usually on the picture). Now the issue with the event I was planning (it’s hard to go into details because of privacy) was the client wanted wrist bands that would autoscan at certain locations (they even referenced Magic Bands as an example of what they wanted to do) and the scans would include a stored location marker for the band, but they also wanted people to be able to use the wristbands to get into the event and pay for things there, so the bands would also be storing personal identifying information and associating the location markers with specific bands. It was determined this couldn’t be done because of CA law that doesn’t allow tracking. I didn’t ask a ton of questions because I just relayed the information to the client and we moved on from that idea, but I honestly didn’t see how the auto scans were that much different from the trackers people wear for races. I’ve done races where my tracker was scanned at each mile, and then photos of me at the race are automatically sent to me without me having to tell them which ones were of me. Again, not an expert in this and am only conveying a conclusion attorneys came to for an event I was running, which they very well could have been wrong.

 

[brightlined]

They finally announced it - MagicBand+ features coming to Disneyland "this fall":

https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/b...ealed-for-disneyland-resort-coming-this-fall/

I'm pleasantly surprised by some of the features - particularly that they reference park entry and PhotoPass linking.

("MagicBand and MagicBand 2 will not be supported at Disneyland Resort at this time.")

 

[katyringo]

"this fall" is not helpful. Is fall October? November? Our trip is in 3 weeks. Should be buy some? I'm debating because we are also planning WDW for June so maybe we should just buy them.

 

[ghertz]

Will regular magic bands work as well?

 

[brightlined]

"this fall" is not helpful. Is fall October? November? Our trip is in 3 weeks. Should be buy some? I'm debating because we are also planning WDW for June so maybe we should just buy them.

Complete speculation by me - I think if this were that imminent, they wouldn't say "this fall" - they'd already be saying "October xth".

I doubt they'll launch before Batuu Bounty Hunters has been fully play-tested, and I don't believe that's happened yet - and I'll bet we'll see a few MB+s in the parks before the official release. (I'm assuming they'll announce an official on-sale date.)

Will regular magic bands work as well?

No. (It's in the fine print on the announcement.)