Will Disney ever charge guest for Magic Bands?

[SL6827]

Do you think that Disney will ever start charging resort guest for the complimentary Magic Bands that they currently receive for free with a resort reservation? And if they were too, I wonder how they would go about doing it. Could they possibly charge for them based on the resort tier? Free for the Deluxe and discounted on the moderates, and full price on the values?

I know some people who have in the past made a resort reservation, got the bands in the mail and then cancelled the room. Essentially getting them for free, so it made me think if Disney would ever do such as this?

 

[hakepb]

Considering Disney has stated in quarterly earnings reports that guests charge more to their room via Magic Band, I doubt they would want fewer guests wearing Magic Bands.

I suppose they could tie free MB to setting up room charging, but I doubt they ever stop "free bands" if it means more charging to the room.

 

[LYSE]

The cost of each magic band is pretty much nothing...the rubber/plastic is worth more than the RFID chip inside of it..those chips can be had for less than 1 cent each.

On top of this the long range scanning ability of the magic bands gives them valuable information about how guests spend their day, charging for them and having less people use them would cost them money and more importantly data.

 

[SL6827]

Great points!

 

[HopperFan]

Agree with other posters.

- Cost them nickels in the volume they buy.
- Will costs them pennies if they add them to other parks.
- To replace they have to up the key cards and photopass cards.
- They stated early on these have increased guest spending.
- They want them on every arm not just for $$ but to track to make adjustments in lots of areas.
- They can track for crowds/CM needs, marketing hits/miss etc.
- Long term usage they can make them do more.
- Folks (like us) like them (and have bought the specialized one and am sure at huge profit.)
- They more than cover the cost for them in their overpriced rooms.

 

[RangerPooh]

They could always go with the basic issue of grey and offer the colors as an upsale the way that they do the printed bands or the colored bands to non resort guests.

 

[CAS239]

With the cost of Disney hotels, everyone has been paying for their bands for years now

 

[bryanb]

The MagicBands themselves might not cost that much to make, but the biggest cost is in the logistics. Having a fulfillment center pull the bands from inventory, scan them, link them to the account, personalize them on the back, box them, and then ship them is a non-trivial cost. There are some people who get free bands by making reservations and cancelling them. For now, Disney doesn't charge back the cost of the bands to guests who cancel. However, if too many people try to game the system then it could become a problem.

I don't think they'd charge resort guests for the reasons that have been laid out here. But if they start to see a lot of abuse, perhaps they could limit the number of bands per person in a given year.

 

[LYSE]

The MagicBands themselves might not cost that much to make, but the biggest cost is in the logistics. Having a fulfillment center pull the bands from inventory, scan them, link them to the account, personalize them on the back, box them, and then ship them is a non-trivial cost. There are some people who get free bands by making reservations and cancelling them. For now, Disney doesn't charge back the cost of the bands to guests who cancel. However, if too many people try to game the system then it could become a problem.

I don't think they'd charge resort guests for the reasons that have been laid out here. But if they start to see a lot of abuse, perhaps they could limit the number of bands per person in a given year.

While the logistics is probably more than the manufacturing, I don't think it really even bothers them if someone abuses the system to get a free magic band....they are making money off the data so who cares..those that actually pay for magic bands are just icing on the cake for Disney.

In the future if they wanted to cut costs I could see it go to where you pick it up on check in.

 

[HopperFan]

With the cost of Disney hotels, everyone has been paying for their bands for years now

We were paying for them before they even had them.

 

[KimBean]

With the cost of Disney hotels, everyone has been paying for their bands for years now

Agree!! That's like saying utensils are free at quick service. No you pay for them with your meal.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Could they possibly charge for them based on the resort tier? Free for the Deluxe and discounted on the moderates, and full price on the values?

Personal opinion here but it's one thing to offer different resorts for different price points it's another thing to snub or give preferential treatment based on the different price points. Same answer for the question that has come up before in regards to # of FPs given (i.e. 3 at this time but offer more for higher-priced resorts).

I know some people who have in the past made a resort reservation, got the bands in the mail and then cancelled the room. Essentially getting them for free, so it made me think if Disney would ever do such as this?

The one thing I have learned from the DIS is people do have this opinion that a large enough group of people are doing things that Disney views as negative. Of course some people do make a resort reservation and then cancel but is that # actually large enough to make a difference to Disney? If it got high enough Disney would figure out a way to adjust things to curb or eliminate issues.

But as others have noted if their statistics support that more $ is spent with MBs then more than likely the spending revenue outweighs the operating costs at least at this time.

It probably helped Disney out maybe even just a little in regards to operational costs when they allowed people to decline MBs. That way they didn't have to send out new ones each and every trip but allowed the guest the option if they wanted to use previous MBs or what I'll dub the "fancier" MBs.