Magic Band - worth buying when staying at the Dolphin?

[YawningDodo]

I'm heading to WDW in a little over a month to spend a week there with my mom. We ended up splurging a bit on a room at the Dolphin when Costco was offering a good deal on it, and while I'm looking forward to jumping several tiers upward and being able to walk to two of the parks (we were previously planning to stay at POP) I'm just a little bit bummed out that our room doesn't come with magic bands.

I know that our park tickets work for FP+ and all that jazz, but is there anything the Magic Bands do that flat tickets don't? I'm currently under the impression that the MB will automatically tell the system when you're on a ride with a photo op and automatically tie the ride photo to your Photopass, but if you have a flat ticket you have to remember to touch it to an RFID reader in the gift shop if you want the option of buying the photo later. Is that true or did I just get things confused? And are there any other advantages to having the MB other than the "shiny new wearable technology" syndrome?

 

[happymommy]

In my opinion, there is no real need to purchase them at all. So, don't worry!

 

[YawningDodo]

In my opinion, there is no real need to purchase them at all. So, don't worry!

Thanks, but it's not that I'm worried -- it's really more that I'm looking for an excuse to buy them but I'm having a hard time finding that tipping point in my decision-making when there isn't an indication that there's an actual advantage to having them.

 

[kj2mom]

It really is just that little bit of convenience. We stayed off site and got the bands. We found ourselves tapping for the pics even though we probably did not have to. We wanted to see our pic anyway so it was simple (and kind of fun) to scan our bands once we found it. I say if you want them go for it, it is a tad bit easier than getting the card out to scan and it is an extra souvenir. We had family who went earlier in the year so we asked them to bring back our bands. I just had to have the Tink one and I don't regret spending the $20. We had the character on our band sign them so I have Tink, my son got Stitch and my daughter got Buzz and Woody to sign.

 

[YawningDodo]

I'm probably going to go ahead and buy one, dunno if my mom will. I keep hoping that there'll be something I can point to and go "yes, this was totally worthwhile to buy!" but it sounds like I need to just pony up and admit that I just want it because I think it's cool.

 

[EdgeOfGlory]

I'm in the same boat, staying in a hotel off site and had similar questions as you last week. We ordered ours from the Disney Store online for $13 each. I really love the idea of it turning into a way to pay for everything in the park and never having to worry about losing tickets. It's the convenience factor that convinced me to get them, along with the fairly tiny price, at least when compared to everything else you need to buy.

 

[kj2mom]

Off site can not pay with the band, only onsite can use it for charging purposes.

 

[YawningDodo]

Off site can not pay with the band, only onsite can use it for charging purposes.

Because you don't have a room account you can link it to for charges, right? But can you load a gift card onto it?

 

[kj2mom]

Right and no, I am not aware of any way to load a gift card onto the band info.

 

[pkdof]

You can link Dolphin reservation on MDE, so I believe you can pay with the band.

 

[hsmamato2]

enjoy your stay at the dolphin- it's great! If you want a MB, buy one. I don't care much about them,having tried them out...they're ok, but nothing I would spend extra on.....

 

[AlexsMom29]

We stayed off site and got magic bands, we enjoyed having them, a couple in our party didn't get them at first but went back and got later. We enjoyed the convenience of using them to scan for park entrance, fastpass, and photopass photgraphers without having to dig out a card, I believe it's still the only to get the ride videos off of the mine train ride too, someone can correct me if I'm wrong!

 

[toni nicole]

I will be at the Dolphin in January! Super excited, we have 3 magic bands from previous trips so we will be using those. I kind of wish I didn't have the free ones, so I could justify getting the awesome ones in the park! If I were you I would be all over getting them! You should be able to charge on your band, since you are indeed an onsite guest, I would look into it. Overall, the magic band is just cool cause it looks cool and you never have to worry about pulling out your ticket for anything or forgetting it in the room. It's very convenient.

 

[luvallprincesses]

No charging to the band when staying at the Dolphin. They cannot put a credit card on file in the Disney system.

 

[toni nicole]

No charging to the band when staying at the Dolphin. They cannot put a credit card on file in the Disney system.

Thank you for the clarification on this!