We don't need magic bands, right??

[PSUamanda]

First trip to Disneyland is less than 2 weeks away! And now I started getting FB ads for magic bands on shopdisney.

We used magic bands (and loved it!) in WDW in January 2020.

When I started planning this trip I thought I read that everything is on phones now instead of magic bands?

Do we need magic bands for this trip? (Feb 25th-28th) If so, do we try to find our WDW ones? Or do we have to get new ones?

Our 4yo loved using his magic band to link photos every time we did the photopass pictures in WDW but I've read the photographers aren't around now and it's just ride photos?

 

[Steven G]

No magic bands at Disneyland yet.

There are photographers around for photopass.

 

[BadPinkTink]

Our 4yo loved using his magic band to link photos every time we did the photopass pictures in WDW but I've read the photographers aren't around now and it's just ride photos?

Photographers are around, they are listed on the App in both the Main Park and DCA. Photopass is included in Genie+ at Disneyland and I got lots of photos 2 weeks ago.

Once the photographer is finished taking the photos, you open the App on your phone, click into Photos, then Link Photos and you will get a bar code. Screencap this bar code. The photographer will scan your barcode on your phone. Then about 10 or 15 minutes later , you go into your photos on the App and they are all there.

Each night when I got back to my hotel, I logged in to the Photopass Website and downloaded them onto my laptop

 

[PSUamanda]

Awesome! Thank you both for the info!

Were the photographers near the characters? My 1 (almost 2) year old daughter and 4 yo son are so excited about the characters. I'm imaging that every pic will be of the back of my daughter's head lol. I'm thinking she's going to be looking at the characters, not the camera. But distance character greetings will probably be less intimidating for her. We'll miss the autograph books though.

We did get Genie+ so we'll have the photopass.

 

[BadPinkTink]

Awesome! Thank you both for the info!

Were the photographers near the characters? My 1 (almost 2) year old daughter and 4 yo son are so excited about the characters. I'm imaging that every pic will be of the back of my daughter's head lol. I'm thinking she's going to be looking at the characters, not the camera. But distance character greetings will probably be less intimidating for her. We'll miss the autograph books though.

We did get Genie+ so we'll have the photopass.

No, not near the characters but scattered around the park

The ones I did were

Disneyland Main Park
Just Inside the turnstiles, in front of the train station
In front of The Castle
The Hub at Partners Statue
Fantasyland Sword In The Stone
Galaxys Edge in front of The Millennium Falcon

California Adventures
Carthy Circle
Avengers Campus Main Entrance
Waterfall

There could have been more, but I missed them. Just check on the App, you can filter it to show the photopass locations.

 

[PSUamanda]

Awesome, thank you!

 

[Kit Jackson]

I don't know if this is still true, but pre-pandemic there was a photographer at the entrance to CarsLand and some inside CarsLand. They took some great pictures of me (and I don't normally photograph well).

MagicBands are coming to Disneyland, but there is no date for it yet. Everything you can do in the park with a MagicBand can be done using the Disneyland app on your phone. If you don't already have one, some kind of portable phone charger (that doesn't require an outlet) may be something to think about purchasing and bringing to the parks with you.