MagicMobile vs. Magic Bands

[hankt10k]

Hi all, Will be visiting WDW in a few weeks with my family (including 4 grandkids under 6). Was about to grudgingly (now that there's a cost for them) order MBs for everyone but now wondering about using MagicMobile at least for the adults. Just wondering what the experience has been for those that have tried using MagicMobile. Has it been convenient? Seamless? Can you use it as your room key? Said another way, is there anything you couldn't do with MagicMobile that had you thinking "sure wish I had my Magic Band"? Thanks for any advice and guidance you can provide.

 

[Nordic4tKnight]

We find that magic mobile works the best if you have an Apple Watch. We use it and never had any issues. Our kids still have magic bands so we don't have to swipe to their passes.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Hi all, Will be visiting WDW in a few weeks with my family (including 4 grandkids under 6). Was about to grudgingly (now that there's a cost for them) order MBs for everyone but now wondering about using MagicMobile at least for the adults. Just wondering what the experience has been for those that have tried using MagicMobile. Has it been convenient? Seamless? Can you use it as your room key? Said another way, is there anything you couldn't do with MagicMobile that had you thinking "sure wish I had my Magic Band"? Thanks for any advice and guidance you can provide.

No major malfunctions, but just general suckiness. Everything is several seconds slower than it needs to be. MagicBand is boop-green-go. MagicMobile is "dig through your pocket, wife put her phone in the backpack while changing a diaper, open the phone, find the app, finger scan is acting up because you have sunscreen on your hands, nope that's the Amex not the Disney passes, is Junior's ticket the Pixar ball or the elephant?"

 

[ltalley1]

We tried Magic Mobile in the fall- but also have magic bands. Our experience was not good. It was too slow when using for park entry and LL, making us hold up the line. Drained our batteries and was just not as convenient for us to have to pull out our phone when we could just tap our magic bands. We prefer the Magic bands but as the other poster said, it probably works better for those with Apple watches. Whichever you choose- have a great time!

 

[DizMagic]

I prefer MagicMobile but couldnt get it to work on my applewatch. i just swiped my iphone. didnt even need to open the app - it worked in incognito mode. Really a personal preference - my wife prefers the band, though she has apple phone and watch as well.

 

[erionm]

I prefer MagicMobile but couldnt get it to work on my applewatch.

What series is your Apple Watch? It needs to be running the latest WatchOS (currently 8.5) to support MagicMobile, so it would have to be a series 3 or later.

 

[reddog21]

I didn't mind magic mobile on my phone it worked just fine but it's definitely not as convenient as a magic band. My son used it all the time since it took him all of 2 days to loose his magic band. Once he got the hang of getting the phone ready and where to place the phone on the turnstile it was just as fast as our magic bands.

 

[GollyGadget]

You can always ask for a free plastic card. I have a few older magicbands that I still use but have gone the plastic card route when I'm forgetful. I don't want to have to dig out my phone or find the right app when going through a line.

 

[reddog21]

You can always ask for a free plastic card. I have a few older magicbands that I still use but have gone the plastic card route when I'm forgetful. I don't want to have to dig out my phone or find the right app when going through a line.

You don't need need to open any apps for magic mobile to work, you just load your passes to whatever pay app you have(GPAY in my case). When you get to the turnstile you just unlock your phone, tap mickey(hold for a couple of seconds) and off you go.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

You don't need need to open any apps for magic mobile to work, you just load your passes to whatever pay app you have(GPAY in my case). When you get to the turnstile you just unlock your phone, tap mickey(hold for a couple of seconds) and off you go.

This doesn't work if you're an adult managing kids who don't have devices of their own.

 

[erionm]

You don't need need to open any apps for magic mobile to work, you just load your passes to whatever pay app you have(GPAY in my case). When you get to the turnstile you just unlock your phone, tap mickey(hold for a couple of seconds) and off you go.

If using an iPhone or Apple Watch, you don't need to unlock the device as long as "Express Mode" is enabled (default is enabled).

 

[erionm]

This doesn't work if you're an adult managing kids who don't have devices of their own.

IMHO, MagicMoble should only be used for one individual. For other people in the family/group, MagicBands or RFID Enabled Cards.

 

[reddog21]

This doesn't work if you're an adult managing kids who don't have devices of their own.

Correct, if you have multiple passes to scan you have to open your phone and swipe one pass at a time at least with an android you do not sure if that's the same on an Apple. GPAY stores all the passes and with the shortcut key it's not terrible to go thru each pass.

If your children are old enough for magic bands AND don't mind wearing them then I would recommend getting those instead of using magic mobile it's much easier.
When my kids were younger the "lets see how many times we can pick up the magic band off the ground game" or the "where did my magic band do game" got old quick so in that case I would have used the app if it was available.

 

[erionm]

if you have multiple passes to scan you have to open your phone and swipe one pass at a time at least with an android you do not sure if that's the same on an Apple.

Same with Apple devices.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Correct, if you have multiple passes to scan you have to open your phone and swipe one pass at a time at least with an android you do not sure if that's the same on an Apple. GPAY stores all the passes and with the shortcut key it's not terrible to go thru each pass.

If your children are old enough for magic bands AND don't mind wearing them then I would recommend getting those instead of using magic mobile it's much easier.
When my kids were younger the "lets see how many times we can pick up the magic band off the ground game" or the "where did my magic band do game" got old quick so in that case I would have used the app if it was available.

Where's the shortcut key (not that it matters for me, because I do have small kids)?

I need to do these things:

Unlock phone (finger scan)
Open GPay app
Enter PIN or finger scan again
Click on my Citi Double Cash credit card icon
Click on Walt Disney World
Swipe to my own pass
Tap to touchpoint

If I don't do all of these things, my phone thinks I'm trying to scan into the park with my Citi Double Cash card.

 

[nancipants]

I'm an AP and I never bring a Magic Band anymore. I use my iPhone. Just tap it to the turnstile, press my finger, and I'm in. Same amount of time as when I used a Magic Band, and it's one less thing for me to keep track of. My phone is always in my pocket or in the stroller pocket so it's always close at hand.

We stayed at Fort Wilderness twice prior to Magic Mobile and had issues using MDE to unlock the cabin door, but eventually it worked. I don't know if you can use Magic Mobile to open a hotel room door.

 

[erionm]

We stayed at Fort Wilderness twice prior to Magic Mobile and had issues using MDE to unlock the cabin door, but eventually it worked. I don't know if you can use Magic Mobile to open a hotel room door.

You can't use MobileMagic to unlock hotel doors.

Apple has added a new feature to iOS 15 called Hotel Keys which Disney was announced as an upcoming participating partner. Once supported by Disney, you would be able to add a separate reservation specific card to your Apple Wallet which will allow you to unlock the hotel door just by holding your iPhone or Apple Watch up to the door lock.

 

[reddog21]

Where's the shortcut key (not that it matters for me, because I do have small kids)?

I need to do these things:

Unlock phone (finger scan)
Open GPay app
Enter PIN or finger scan again
Click on my Citi Double Cash credit card icon
Click on Walt Disney World
Swipe to my own pass
Tap to touchpoint

If I don't do all of these things, my phone thinks I'm trying to scan into the park with my Citi Double Cash card.

press the power button twice it brings you right into GPAY. I don't remember if I had to make the park pass the default card or not.

 

[pens4821]

We were there a couple weeks ago and used magic mobile and thought it was very easy/convenient. Just pull it out of your pocket and put it to the scanner for entrance and LLs. No need to turn on the phone or anything like that. We always have our phones in our pockets though. I’d actually prefer the magic mobile to the magic band.

The downfalls are as someone else said. With kids it would be more of a pain to have to open the phone and scroll through, but I’m sure it wouldn’t add much time. Your idea of magic bands for the younger ones and anyone responsible enough for a phone could use that is a good plan id say.

And the other downfall is that it doesn’t open your room. You have to go in the Disney app, and hit unlock door, then hold it to the scanner and it works. However, we found that it would take what seemed like forever to load/quit spinning (but it was probably no more than 10-20 seconds haha), so we ended up just going and getting key cards after a couple times entering the room.

we had the key cards on us and our phones so we could use either in the parks. We used the phone in the parks, and the key card to open the room door.