Magic band plus- confirmed news from Disney.

[Pluto468]

What exactly do Magic bands do? I keep hearing about them but have no idea what they are. Is it like you wear your ticket on your wrist....?

 

[DLgal]

What exactly do Magic bands do? I keep hearing about them but have no idea what they are. Is it like you wear your ticket on your wrist....?

If you aren't staying on property, they can basically only be used to enter the parks and tap into Lightning Lanes. That's it.

If you are a hotel guest, you can use it to open your room door, tap into any gates on property pool, gym, laundry room, etc), and pay for things that you are using "room charge" for.

 

[Pluto468]

If you aren't staying on property, they can basically only be used to enter the parks and tap into Lightning Lanes. That's it.

If you are a hotel guest, you can use it to open your room door, tap into any gates on property pool, gym, laundry room, etc), and pay for things that you are using "room charge" for.

Thanks!

 

[brightlined]

What exactly do Magic bands do? I keep hearing about them but have no idea what they are. Is it like you wear your ticket on your wrist....?

Assuming DLR implements the tech, the other big feature is that they can automatically attach PhotoPass photos to your account. (As you ride past the camera, it reads the band and adds the photo.) WDW uses tap points for their manual PhotoPass - that would also be possible if DLR decides to implement it (potentially replacing the PhotoPass codes).

Honestly, the big question is how much MB tech DLR decides to implement.

WDW is also implementing games/activities that use the MB+ - safe to say those (at least the Galaxy's Edge ones) will likely be brought over as well.

 

[RoseColored97]

Assuming DLR implements the tech, the other big feature is that they can automatically attach PhotoPass photos to your account. (As you ride past the camera, it reads the band and adds the photo.)

That's amazing! It would eliminate having to run right off the ride to see your photo in time.

 

[DLgal]

That's amazing! It would eliminate having to run right off the ride to see your photo in time.

No, you still have to run over and tap on a sensor under your photo. At least, you had to do that at several WDW rides like coasters.

 

[StormyCA]

Don’t forget your Apple Watch can basically be used as a Magic Band (minus opening your room at a Disney Resort).

I remember you giving information on how you did this and what it resulted in, but I forgot it! Would you mind detailing it again?

FWIW the WDW release blog info 'teased' that there will be a way to 'link' MDE to a smart watch but didn't provide any details. I'm assuming/hoping that means it'll give haptics/sounds for ADRs/LLs/ILLs directly from MDE. I doubt if it'll allow room opening capabilities. I wonder if the DL version of MB+ will provide a similar link to the DL app?

 

[elenex]

Have they confirmed or denied at any point whether traditional MB and MB2 will work once implemented? Can't imagine they wouldn't but you never know.

These are totally optionally and won't impact anyone who doesn't want to use them. We like them because if you're staying on property they do everything from opening your hotel door to charging to your room to being your tickets and genie+. While in DLR you can do most of this already on your phone, with a MB you won't have to pull out your phone, navigate the app, and scroll through your tickets/LLs to scan in, you'll simply tap the band. Any reduction in screentime is welcome these days at the parks for me, and it'll surprise MB virgins just how much screentime it saves each day.

 

[kikismom]

I can't wait for these to come to DL. We loved using Magic Bands on our WDW trip. We weren't staying on property and I'm sure they would have been even better if we could use them for that as well.

For the people who stayed on property in WDW with their band, could you open the pool door with it? Also can you pay at restaurants and shops with it for it to be charged to your room? Can we put charging authorization for our 9 year old on it? Or is there a certain age limit?

 

[brightlined]

No, you still have to run over and tap on a sensor under your photo. At least, you had to do that at several WDW rides like coasters.

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.

 

[elenex]

I can't wait for these to come to DL. We loved using Magic Bands on our WDW trip. We weren't staying on property and I'm sure they would have been even better if we could use them for that as well.

For the people who stayed on property in WDW with their band, could you open the pool door with it? Also can you pay at restaurants and shops with it for it to be charged to your room? Can we put charging authorization for our 9 year old on it? Or is there a certain age limit?

Yes to all of your questions.

 

[PalmettoPath]

These will last weeks with a full charge.

It says 1 to 3 days on a screen someone posted from the Disney app (someone who got a pre-test band). So best to charge daily/nightly.

 

[kikismom]

Yes to all of your questions.

Thanks! Now I really hope these are in place at DL by December.

 

[katyringo]

I just want to point out one flaw in paying with magic band at WDW that takes folks by surprise and is a reason why we don't use them to pay and that's the account holds. For every $100 they put a $100 hold on your credit card.. for some folks on a vacation that could create a large hold on your CC- to the point for some that it will max it out. We don't carry a credit card with a super large available credit so this doesn't work for us.

 

[algae]

We just came back from WDW. The last time we were there, the gen 1 (older) MB's were in use, but didn't work all that well. On this last trip I resisted getting the gen 2 MB (MB+ wasn't quite out yet) as long as I could and tried using the room key and an iPhone for everything. The rest of our travel party bought MB's right away (lot's of nice designs.) Well, being the only one in the group without a MB is a pain. Since they used MB's for LL's, they can't scan others in the group into ride like you can at DL using a phone. So I had to keep digging out the room key or phone and fire up the app. Major pain when juggling a backpack and cameras and purchases and drinks and popcorn and etc. I broke down after 1 day and got my own MB and life was good. Plus, the iPhone and Apple Watch never could open our room door for some reason. The MB was always where we needed it when we needed it. Some rides grab your photos for you without needing us to scan anything (like Slinky Dog and the Mine Train.)
I hope DL will start using MB's so I can get more use out of the ones we bought in WDW to get that per-use cost down. And, the MB's are easier to use for a lot of things than a phone is.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

No, you still have to run over and tap on a sensor under your photo. At least, you had to do that at several WDW rides like coasters.

Aside from random glitches where it doesn't pick it up it picks up the PhotoPass without any interference. Actually us manually tapping our MB in WDW only served to add a duplicate photo to the MDE account such that we got one time when we did it for Buzz.

You can also stop by the PhotoPass people if you have a ride photo that didn't automatically attach. We had to do that in DLR in 2019 and then we did that in WDW back this May for TestTrack when one of our rides through (the other time it worked just fine) it didn't pick it up, you just tell them the approximate time you were there and they pull up the photos on the screen and then once you find yours you tap it and it gets added to your account.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I don't know if DLR will get it but there are certain features existing on MB such as this on WDW's it's a small world

May 2022


Looks like it did glitch though because this was from 2017:


Both trips new MBs were used.

 

[DLgal]

Won't DL only work with Magic Band+ , not the other 2 generation bands? I'm pretty sure I read that.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Won't DL only work with Magic Band+ , not the other 2 generation bands? I'm pretty sure I read that.

I *think* the wording I saw was just to say that the original MB and the MB 2.0 had no usage at DLR which is true. Whether they install tappoints that can read the original MB and MB 2.0 as well as MB+ I'm not sure that's been clearly mentioned by Disney.

 

[bbeagle]

It says 1 to 3 days on a screen someone posted from the Disney app (someone who got a pre-test band). So best to charge daily/nightly.

It seems that you’re right, unfortunately.

These should have the battery life of a Fitbit, not an Apple Watch as what they do is more similar to a Fitbit,