Maximum number of active magic bands?

[freshmanjs]

This came up in another thread...is there a maximum number of magic bands that can be active for one person? Is it necessary to deactivate old bands at any point as you accumulate new ones?

Thanks!

 

[HopperFan]

DISNEY SAYS -
"Yes. If you have multiple MagicBands or cards linked to your Disney account, you can continue to use as many as your wrists and pockets can carry."

- Some people claim there is a maximum.

- Have never seen Disney say there is a maximum.

- On Disney website "Multiple MagicBands or cards can be assigned to a single person, so activating a new MagicBand or card does not mean that you must deactivate an existing MagicBand or card. All active MagicBands or cards assigned to a person have access to the benefits and entitlements for that person. Adding a new MagicBand or card does not add new entitlements, such as additional theme park admissions."

- I have 15 ACTIVE MagicBands and have never had issues with using different ones.

- DS has 13 ACTIVE MagicBands and never had any issues with using different ones.

 

[cdnSpinalTap]

I asked a similar question on a chat session with a Cast member on disneyworld.com yesterday. One thing she did say is that magic bands "usually last around 2 years before they don't work anymore". I found that a little strange - not sure if that proves true in the real world or not.

 

[Accident]

someone once posted that they had issues with a new band and disney had to remove some of the old ones.. They said there was something like 20 per person in the account. I just deactivate old ones when i'm not at property and enable the one(s) I bring with me.. I have a rather large collection and it's been ok so far.

 

[DOOM1001]

I've been wondering when my oldest magic band's battery will poop out and stop working,obviously they last a long time as I haven't heard of anyone's batteries dying on these boards but eventually they all have to wear out,I guess.

 

[PSUGuy]

I read some place that the 'life' of a MB is 3 years, we just received our 4th set.

Bill From PA

 

[ars0525]

I have heard the "2 year life span" also so am curious when it may actually die. I have 3 already & a 4th waiting to order. The oldest one is now approaching the 2 year mark so I'll bring with others just in case.

 

[wilkeliza]

There isn't really a maximum that I've heard of.

Now to the battery dying issue most people won't realize their band has died. The passive RFID will still work and for the most part could work forever. That means you can enter, use FP, use dinning plan, use memory maker/photopass with a dead band. The only thing you won't be able to use is auto photo upload and any marketing/development studies that may be in use that specific day (i.e. the readers at Disney Spring in the marketplace that track how popular or unpopular a particular offering is). Most people don't even realize the marketing/development studies are going on because the idea is that you don't realize you are being counted and with photopass there are very few rides that don't have touch points but take photos.

 

[Accident]

I've been wondering when my oldest magic band's battery will poop out and stop working,obviously they last a long time as I haven't heard of anyone's batteries dying on these boards but eventually they all have to wear out,I guess.

We've been told 2 years by disney staff however we've found about 1 year they start to be quirky. unfortunately the problem is you don't know the battery doesn't work until your ride photos stop appearing in photopass.

 

[msb578]

They'll work without the battery, too. The only major feature that requires battery power is MM ride photos. Most of what the bands do use passive RFID.

 

[Robo]

There isn't really a maximum that I've heard of.

Now to the battery dying issue most people won't realize their band has died. The passive RFID will still work and for the most part could work forever. That means you can enter, use FP, use dinning plan, use memory maker/photopass with a dead band. The only thing you won't be able to use is auto photo upload and any marketing/development studies that may be in use that specific day...

They'll work without the battery, too. The only major feature that requires battery power is MM ride photos. Most of what the bands do use passive RFID.

Agreed.
They will operate for the most important and most-used functions forever.

 

[Robo]

There were plans announced early-on for the MBs to activate a multitude of "interactive" and "custom" effects on attractions.

A couple of these effects were actually installed.
Then, even before the actual implementation of these early effects, Disney abandoned those plans and the idea of active attraction interactivity was dropped.

 

[loves to dive]

I have around 20 and in May I was doing a split stay, AKV was the first leg of the stay. When I was checking in they had all sorts of issues with mine and my sons and daughter-in-laws bands. It took us around a hour to get checked in (which we did not mind at all and had a great time chatting with CM at the front desk) and finally we were told by 3 different people there, one of whom was a supervisor back in the back room of the resort that the problem was because I had too many active bands. When I got home I de-activated my oldest 3, turned down more bands for the next trip which was in Sept. (another split stay) and while they still had a problem at the second resort, it wasn't because of the number of bands. They had my room ready but just couldn't seem to get the band synced to it. I had to be escorted to my room by a CM who let me in and about 5 min. later they brought me my band, which worked fine. I'm not sure if it was really true that it was the number of bands or not but it's really easy to de-activate and then activate them again so I just keep 3 or 4 active (the latest). To tell you the truth, I think I may have "misplaced" about 5 of them, I'm sure they are somewhere in my house but I couldn't lay my hands on them right now.

 

[wilkeliza]

There were plans announced early-on for the MBs to activate a multitude of "interactive" and "custom" effects on attractions.

A couple of these effects were actually installed.
Then, even before the actual implementation of these early effects, Disney abandoned those plans and the idea of active attraction interactivity was dropped.

I was shocked when the Animation building went away because they poured money into new interactive features there that only CMs ever saw functioning. I guess they got a lot of negative feedback about only onsite guests getting the "free" things like special secret videos from Mickey or IASW characters you designed telling you goodbye. The screens at IASW were there the last time i rode it and I always hopped it would get turned on but then it never went further that the screen being put into place.

 

[Robo]

I have around 20 and in May I was doing a split stay, AKV was the first leg of the stay. When I was checking in they had all sorts of issues with mine and my sons and daughter-in-laws bands... I'm not sure if it was really true that it was the number of bands or not...

The system is glitchy.
Extra MBs in an MDE account is an excuse that has taken on a life of its own.

 

[bumbershoot]

someone once posted that they had issues with a new band and disney had to remove some of the old ones.. They said there was something like 20 per person in the account. I just deactivate old ones when i'm not at property and enable the one(s) I bring with me.. I have a rather large collection and it's been ok so far.

It's what they say. Sometimes the person has twenty. Sometimes the person has 3.

IMO it's a bit of jiggling the handle so to speak. Go into the account and change something to unglitch it. Could do other things but this is the least likely to cause probems I imagine.

Some people never glitch. Like Hopper.

 

[epcotty]

We don't have them yet but I scanned a ticket for us before going on Test Track this past time, and then in the account it has the WRONG PHOTO! I don't know how that happens

 

[Momtomouselover]

We had 20+ and never had a glitch until I deactivated some of them. I still think it is coincidental.

 

[cluvsdisney]

We have about 8 and had an issue when we checked in at the Boardwalk last month. It took about 15 minutes to resolve. They didn't deactivate older ones nor did they suggest that we do either. Just to avoid possible issues while we were there, we only used the current bands we presented at check in.

 

[HopperFan]

I have around 20 and in May I was doing a split stay, AKV was the first leg of the stay. When I was checking in they had all sorts of issues with mine and my sons and daughter-in-laws bands. It took us around a hour to get checked in (which we did not mind at all and had a great time chatting with CM at the front desk) and finally we were told by 3 different people there, one of whom was a supervisor back in the back room of the resort that the problem was because I had too many active bands. When I got home I de-activated my oldest 3, turned down more bands for the next trip which was in Sept. (another split stay) and while they still had a problem at the second resort, it wasn't because of the number of bands. They had my room ready but just couldn't seem to get the band synced to it. I had to be escorted to my room by a CM who let me in and about 5 min. later they brought me my band, which worked fine. I'm not sure if it was really true that it was the number of bands or not but it's really easy to de-activate and then activate them again so I just keep 3 or 4 active (the latest). To tell you the truth, I think I may have "misplaced" about 5 of them, I'm sure they are somewhere in my house but I couldn't lay my hands on them right now.

It's the go to excuse of the CMs that can't get things working. They are trained to never say "I don't know" so too often they have some excuse why .....

The fact that you deactivated and still had problems the next trip really reinforced that sometimes folks have issues and sometimes they don't, some CMs can fix the issues, some can not. It's easy to blame an issue to something like your old MagicBands - that is out of their hands. If it really were the fact that there were too many all they would do is set it up that you could only have so many activated.