Declining Magic Band

[Figgy1]

Add me to the over 40 and no standards

or sense of humor

 

[Mr Ferret 75]

or sense of humor

Oi Joisey i resemble that remark

 

[Figgy1]

Oi Joisey i resemble that remark

Good moining I resemble that roimark!

 

[LuvtheGoof]

I'm a 46 yr old man; I am not going to wear a silly colored plastic bracelet. As noted previously, I have something called standards and self-respect. Some people get a bolt stuck through their nose or tongue, but that doesn't mean I need one.

I guess count me into the no standards or respect then, since I am in my mid 50's, and love the bands. So much more convenient for everything to me. I wear a watch as well, so have something on both of my wrists while I am there. You are at Disney for goodness sakes. You're not at work wearing it. Lighten up!

 

[s8film40]

I prefer to use a card mainly because I just don't like wearing something on my wrist. I don't mind having my location tracked as long as there is a benefit to it, I know who is tracking me, how they are tracking me and I have the ability to turn it off and on. To me the Magic Bands fail on two of those points. Once you put the band on there is no off switch if you want to stop being tracked the only real solution is to throw it in the trash. There is also no real benefit to it, just about everything it does could be done with an old fashioned paper ticket. I doubt that even Disney is really fully utilizing the benefit of having the ability to track all their guests.

 

[Mr Ferret 75]

I prefer to use a card mainly because I just don't like wearing something on my wrist. I don't mind having my location tracked as long as there is a benefit to it, I know who is tracking me, how they are tracking me and I have the ability to turn it off and on. To me the Magic Bands fail on two of those points. Once you put the band on there is no off switch if you want to stop being tracked the only real solution is to throw it in the trash. There is also no real benefit to it, just about everything it does could be done with an old fashioned paper ticket. I doubt that even Disney is really fully utilizing the benefit of having the ability to track all their guests.

You could wrap it in tin foil when not wearing it

 

[s8film40]

You could wrap it in tin foil when not wearing it

Yeah that might work, but wouldn't be worth the trouble. Besides that doesn't solve my problem, I don't want to wear anything on my wrist and it needs to fit in my wallet.

 

[Andrew C]

I am one of the worst. I still use my Halloween party magic band so I can hear Mickey yell "happy Halloween!" and flash a bunch of colors when I use FP at MK. This proves my previous statement.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

For those of you whose primary concern is tracking... Disney isn't tracking you. They can generally see things like "there's a bottleneck in Fantasyland" or "Joe rode Space Mountain at 10:00 this morning," but they can't "see" you meandering through gift shops or changing a diaper in Adventureland. They simply don't have the bandwidth to track the precise location of every guest.

 

[s8film40]

For those of you whose primary concern is tracking... Disney isn't tracking you. They can generally see things like "there's a bottleneck in Fantasyland" or "Joe rode Space Mountain at 10:00 this morning," but they can't "see" you meandering through gift shops or changing a diaper in Adventureland. They simply don't have the bandwidth to track the precise location of every guest.

I think the concern that (only a few) people have is that this system has the ability so that they COULD do that without anyone knowing. I don't think they have enough transponders throughout the park to completely track someone but they very well could if they wanted to.

 

[Mr Ferret 75]

Yeah that might work, but wouldn't be worth the trouble. Besides that doesn't solve my problem, I don't want to wear anything on my wrist and it needs to fit in my wallet.

I understand the whole nothing on my wrist issue as i am very much like that.I do wonder why they haven't moved on from just the wristband to other things like lanyard style tag etc

 

[s8film40]

I understand the whole nothing on my wrist issue as i am very much like that.I do wonder why they haven't moved on from just the wristband to other things like lanyard style tag etc

The hotel industry is already leap frogging the Magic Band technology and going to phone and watch based apps. I expect WDW will catch up in a few years and Magic Bands will become a thing of the past. They were necessary at the time to enable the system to work but they cost money and are virtually unnecessary at this point.

 

[Andrew C]

The hotel industry is already leap frogging the Magic Band technology and going to phone and watch based apps. I expect WDW will catch up in a few years and Magic Bands will become a thing of the past. They were necessary at the time to enable the system to work but they cost money and are virtually unnecessary at this point.

Except not everyone has a smart phone. So the bands still have a place at the moment.

 

[G00fyDad]

Except not everyone has a smart phone. So the bands still have a place at the moment.

That's why he said in a few years..

 

[CaptainAmerica]

I think the concern that (only a few) people have is that this system has the ability so that they COULD do that without anyone knowing. I don't think they have enough transponders throughout the park to completely track someone but they very well could if they wanted to.

Nah. The broadcast range on the band is pretty small. They'd need an obscene amount of transponders. Not impossible, but implausible beyond all reason.

The hotel industry is already leap frogging the Magic Band technology and going to phone and watch based apps. I expect WDW will catch up in a few years and Magic Bands will become a thing of the past. They were necessary at the time to enable the system to work but they cost money and are virtually unnecessary at this point.

The problem with that is that user devices are wildly insecure.

 

[s8film40]

Nah. The broadcast range on the band is pretty small. They'd need an obscene amount of transponders. Not impossible, but implausible beyond all reason.

I've heard the range is between 30-50 meters and possibly more. That's more than enough. And yes with enough you can track motion and pinpoint precisely where someone is.

The problem with that is that user devices are wildly insecure.

I guess it depends on the phone your using and this is probably correct in some cases. I use my phone for far more important things than a Magic Band, and I think a lot of other people do too. In any case it's irrelevant as the industry is already shifting to this, it's a matter of time not if they will switch to this.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

I've heard the range is between 30-50 meters and possibly more.

I'm pretty sure it's like 15 feet.

I guess it depends on the phone your using and this is probably correct in some cases. I use my phone for far more important things than a Magic Band, and I think a lot of other people do too. In any case it's irrelevant as the industry is already shifting to this, it's a matter of time not if they will switch to this.

It's not the device that's unsecure, it's the user. Most people don't even have any kind of password on their phone, let alone encryption or anything else.

 

[MagicHappens1971]

I didn't use FP on a few rides and I didn't have memory maker. When I came home there were photos from rides in my MDE account for rides I didn't use FP on.

You don't have to use FP+ for the pic to be attached to MDE, just be wearing a band.

 

[MagicHappens1971]

As another person said, they can't track your precise location, just were there is a lot of congestion. Which is great for crowd control

 

[s8film40]

I'm pretty sure it's like 15 feet.


It's not the device that's unsecure, it's the user. Most people don't even have any kind of password on their phone, let alone encryption or anything else.

The presentation I was shown prior to Magic Bands being introduced showed examples of them being used with greater distances than that. I don't know the exact range, but if you find out let me know.

I don't see how the RFID functionality in a phone would be less secure, it essentially works exactly the same as the band. All of the security is on the back end with Disney.