MAGIC? bands

[goofynut41]

Am I the only one who hates the magic bands and all this tech stuff? I have never been a tech person and grew up without it, not my generation. WE always love going to Disney but its got complicated to plan.. Where did the MAGIC go? Sorry I'm a dummy I guess...

 

[nilla]

My wife, daughter and I went to Dorney Park in Allentown, PA last night, and I was whining about how we had to use our annual pass cards instead of Magic Bands to get in.

To each his own, I guess

I absolutely love the bands, and wish they went even further. I want to rig my house and car to operate on them. Only problem is my lack of said technical knowledge.

 

[nilla]

Where did the MAGIC go?

On My Disney Experience, we were able to view our ride photos from Splash Mountain, Space Mountain, Test Track, 7DMT, etc. The ride cameras were able to link the photos directly to us by scanning the band while the shot is being taken, mid-ride.

If that's not "magic", I don't know what is.

 

[Lee & Kerry]

Magic bands are very cool, you can do everything at the park with them.

 

[BabyFu18]

It's an advancement for Disney with the magic bands, it might take getting used to but I love it! Even my mother uses MDE and likes it and the magic bands, even though she wasn't sure she'd be able,to figure out the app once I showed it to her and she played around with it, she's a pro!

I love the magic bands, no more getting the key cards or park passes out of my bag to go run for fast passes at park opening, that's a plus for me! I think it's still pretty magical and just a lot more convenient.

 

[IndyRnRfan]

We love them from the aspect they are great when working. Since we've been here last Friday mine has had issues. Day 1, it wasn't linked to my wife's for some reason so I couldn't charge anything or get the room to open. I could get into the park. The concierge did fix it but took mde 5.5 hrs to link it. Then on Monday my band quit working right before we left for the park. Luckily I went to get ice and I couldn't open the room door. We had to walk back to the front desk to get it reset. Hopefully no other problems. We were told since we have separate accounts this can cause a linking issue.

 

[JasonMouse]

Afraid of tech! You do realize you're on a XenForo BBS! Also, EPCOT is kinda techy. The bands are ISO 14443-4 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO/IEC_14443 I have mine launch MDE when I tap the band to my phone. I could make a video if it would be helpful to anyone.

 

[jtowntoflorida]

Magic bands are very cool, you can do everything at the park with them.

When they work.

ETA: Oh, and if you have an AP/DVC/TIW you still need to carry your cards and ID so you can get the applicable discounts.

OP, I do find the bands to be convenient, but I get frustrated with them because we have never had a stay with them where we didn't have at least one failure with using them. Commonly, it's opening doors, but we've also had the payment system not work. I also find them to be extremely awkward to use to open resort doors. Luckily, we've never had an issue with park admission.

 

[Figmentmommy]

Magic bands are very cool, you can do everything at the park with them.

Love them too!

 

[bryanb]

Its been a while since I've been back to Disney World, but hope to go sometime in the next twelve months. What percentage of guests would you say are using magic bands now? They're so bright and wide I guess it would be easy to see them across a sea of people.

 

[callmecal]

Afraid of tech! You do realize you're on a XenForo BBS! Also, EPCOT is kinda techy. The bands are ISO 14443-4 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO/IEC_14443 I have mine launch MDE when I tap the band to my phone. I could make a video if it would be helpful to anyone.

Yes, I would like to see this.

 

[jtowntoflorida]

Its been a while since I've been back to Disney World, but hope to go sometime in the next twelve months. What percentage of guests would you say are using magic bands now? They're so bright and wide I guess it would be easy to see them across a sea of people.

I'd say it's under 50%. Obviously everyone on the buses has them, since those people are all onsite guests, but in the parks it's much lower since so many park attendees stay offsite. In the summer, you see a much lower percentage of people with bands since there is a higher proportion of offsite guests then.

 

[CodeGoddess]

Afraid of tech! You do realize you're on a XenForo BBS! Also, EPCOT is kinda techy. The bands are ISO 14443-4 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO/IEC_14443 I have mine launch MDE when I tap the band to my phone. I could make a video if it would be helpful to anyone.

I'm a developer so I am very interested in how you did this. Mind sharing the details?

 

[nilla]

I'm a developer so I am very interested in how you did this. Mind sharing the details?

As a fellow developer, I second this

 

[jtowntoflorida]

I'm a developer so I am very interested in how you did this. Mind sharing the details?

I am not a developer, but I'm interested, too. As long as a layperson can follow the directions and figure out how to implement this.

BTW, if a random developer can figure this out, WHY can't Disney??? @JasonMouse , you should make a video and then send it to Disney so they can see what hiring someone with actual talent could do for them!

 

[goofynut41]

Afraid of tech! You do realize you're on a XenForo BBS! Also, EPCOT is kinda techy. The bands are ISO 14443-4 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO/IEC_14443 I have mine launch MDE when I tap the band to my phone. I could make a video if it would be helpful to anyone.

I don't understand anything you just said but OK...

 

[goofynut41]

Im one of them kicking and screaming kind of people who hate change... I don't even have a computer at home I use the one at work ...

 

[JasonMouse]

Do this at your own risk. My phone is a Nexus 5. It only works for Android with NFC. For Windows you're on your own. iPhone 6, sorry their NFC is locked down to only work with Apple Pay at the moment.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jwsoft.nfcactionlauncher
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tagstand.launcher.tagreuse&hl=en

Add a trigger -- for example, you might want to launch the camera or MDE. Or have it play a sound file of your favorite Disney character or freak out cast members when your phones speaks "100 fast passes have been added to your MDE account" or "access to the Cinderella suite granted" and demand to be escorted up!

 

[CodeGoddess]

I have a Samsung 6S so I am going to have to play with this over the weekend.

 

[scurvyfreedman]

We were part of a test of the MB and FP+ in the fall of 2013. I hadn't been to WDW since I was a child in the early 80s so it was all a new experience for me and I thought they were great. We did lose one of our FP+ but that was b/c a ride went down, not a problem with the MB themselves. It was also cool that they gave one to our under 2 1/2 year old daughter who didn't have a park ticket (bc she was under 3) so that she could feel included.