News Disney will be ending complimentary MagicBand distribution to Disney Resort hotel guests and moving to smart devices

[disney4life2008]

Are there any benefits left to staying onsite?

-Dining plan is a rip-off anyway.
-No Magic Bands.
-Extra Magic Hours are usually just one hour long and you end up being stuck in the most crowded park (or forced to park hop).

60 day Fastpass is still great, but you can stay at a Disney Springs Resort for that. I’m just having trouble figuring out why there’s so little additional benefit for those guests paying $500+ per night at Deluxe resorts.

Unless you believe the lies that mickey mouse is going to randomly show up at your room, no. Even the whole stay in the middle of the magic is a waste, did they take away the parking fee at the hotels?

And your right about emhs. Though, I prefer evening that is the only win. But to be fair, if you arrive at a park prior to closing you can likely get on the major rides (depending). But from the new guidelines are, we can't park hop anyway.

I honestly can't think of any reason to stay on property. I have to wear my mask on the Disney bus, which means from room to park and back, I'm suffocating. I'm good.

 

[21stamps]

Unless you believe the lies that mickey mouse is going to randomly show up at your room, no. Even the whole stay in the middle of the magic is a waste, did they take away the parking fee at the hotels?

And your right about emhs. Though, I prefer evening that is the only win. But to be fair, if you arrive at a park prior to closing you can likely get on the major rides (depending). But from the new guidelines are, we can't park hop anyway.

I honestly can't think of any reason to stay on property. I have to wear my mask on the Disney bus, which means from room to park and back, I'm suffocating. I'm good.

Convenience and immersion.

That has always been the number 1 reason for me.

 

[disney4life2008]

Convenience and immersion.

That has always been the number 1 reason for me.

This is true. But, over the last 10 years that immersion has slowly went away. I think one problem for me is that other non Disney hotels have started to outshine Disney (in Orlando and across the country). I can't say I feel any different staying at Disney outside of mickeys face being everywhere.

Convenience absolutely. But even still, I find driving my car is better because I can breathe my own air, and be free.

 

[NelleBelle]

Disney has been pushing DTR (Direct to Room), where people go directly to their room and enter for the first time using either the app or a MagicBand, for a while, and will continue to do so.

TDO’s plan is to push folks to use DTR (so fewer people need to stop at the front desk to check in / need to be staffed there), but instead of people using free MagicBands, they’d only use their phones.

Undoubtedly this will result in fewer people using DTR and/or more people stopping at the front desk to get KTTW cards.

The last few times we've stayed on property and tried using DTR, it was a disaster! Despite doing all the preregistration steps they have you do, having everything linked up in MDE, we never received the text giving us our room info and ended up at hotel registration in a long line to have them piddle around on their computer and then give us our room #. Really frustrating when we could've just gone straight to the room after being at the park. So IMO, they could do a little better there (their tech should be a great feature, but for our family, always ends up causing issues).

I think there’s a lot of kids who don’t have phones, and who’s parents don’t really care about the smartphone interactive elements in parks.
Luckily though, they can still purchase Magic Bands.

This! Even when my kids didn't have phones and used ours, they weren't interested in the interactive elements. This past fall, I started to use my phone while in line at DL's GE MR:SR and it was such a drain on my battery that I stopped after 10 minutes. My kids, who are teens now, still don't use their phones for interactive elements. And they certainly didn't have them when they were young enough to really appreciate the interactive line stuff...nor would we have encouraged the extra screen time as we are on a family vacation and don't need to all have our faces in a phone.

 

[WDWLOVER1957]

Agreed! Definitely the way to go and glad to see it happening.

More people staring at their phones instead of looking where there going real bad idea.

 

[aaronml]

Here's an app that can both read and write. From a small dev. Obviously possible.

‎Simply NFC - Tag Writer/Reader

‎Simply NFC is the most powerful, simple, and accessible NFC writer/reader available. Simply tap the “Read NFC” button to start scanning for NFC tags and then place the back of your phone to the tag. It’s that simple! No external hardware required! The tag content will be read, stored in your...

apps.apple.com

Here's Hilton using BT LE to unlock: https://hiltonhonors3.hilton.com/en/hhonors-mobile-app/digital-key.html
Here's Disney confirming they use BT LE already: https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/faq/star-wars-galaxys-edge/bluetooth-low-energy/

So yes, they can easily make an iPhone serve as a key/contactless device for anything that you can do with a MagicBand.

Re: NFC on iOS it has nothing to do with reading and writing, but rather Host Card Emulation (HCE) which iOS does not expose as a feature to developers.

Re: BLE yes I am aware that Disney is using it, and I posted about that earlier in this thread

 

[WDWLOVER1957]

Apple is working on system to allow unlocking in the event of a dead battery

Car Keys: A Feature That Lets You Unlock a Car With Your iPhone or Apple Watch

Apple's iPhones and Apple Watches have supported NFC for some time now, and now those NFC capabilities can be used to allow Apple users to lock,...

www.macrumors.com

Is it called going to reception and asking for kttw card.

 

[redsfan4life]

You will still be able to use one of your existing magic bands or a KTTW card.

How do you make FP or Dining reservations currently without a phone?

On website on my laptop before leaving on my trip and if I use my first 3 FP I use the kiosks to get additional . I either do reservations on laptop or call wdw dine

 

[peter11435]

On website on my laptop before leaving on my trip and if I use my first 3 FP I use the kiosks to get additional . I either do reservations on laptop or call wdw dine

So nothing will change for you. You can use an old magicband or KTTW card and still do everything else you used to.

 

[jaklgreen]

Umm, Children should have phones in the parks now so they can experience all the interactive elements. If you’re not giving your child a phone to play with in the park, your child is probably too young to have a phone (or an iPod) in the first place.

I don't agree with this statement at all. My kids have been going to WDW since they very young and they are now 18 &19. Our past few visits, they have decided to not even bring their phone into the parks with them. They don't want to worry about carrying them around and we do something crazy when on vacation, we TALK to each other. So I do not agree that kids "should" have a phone in the parks. Phones are expensive pieces of equipment and if a child is old enough to have one, then they are old enough to decide if they want to bring it into the park with them. I might be "old school" but we did not use technology to entertain our kids when they were growing up. We gave them normal toys to play with and had them develop an imagination. My SIL used a screen as a babysitter for her kids and they can't find their way out of a paper bag if any little issue comes up. We do not use Apple products, they are overpriced and I can't believe how many people pay for them. I also don't like the operating system in them. I think there are fewer people that own Apple watches then some of you think there are. I would also never attach a credit card to my phone.

 

[redsfan4life]

So nothing will change for you. You can use an old magicband or KTTW card and still do everything else you used to.

Ok I must have misread the OP I thought I saw it say that all reservations and FP were going to have to be done on smart devices .and no smart device no FP or reservations . TY for the explanation .

 

[MickeyLuv'r]

I don’t think you’ll find an overwhelming amount of parents who want to deal with carrying cards around for their children. Much easier, and less likely to lose, if they just have something on their wrist.

Huh? It isn't hard to carry a plastic card. People have done it at both WDW and Universal for years, especially Universal.

A very simple solution is to stick the card in a lanyard. The parks all sell them, but free/near-free lanyards are easy to find. Many companies give them out like candy at expos/trade show events. For a park touring, just look for lanyards with a zip-sleeve ID holder.

Mickeybands are easy to lose. They pop off easily. I have seen/found a number of lost bands in the parks.. I've nearly lost my own a number of times, especially while taking off a jacket or sweatshirt.

 

[Disney Analyst]

Again. You only need one phone to manage everyone’s tickets and such. So it’s really not a big deal. Don’t have a phone? Use a card and manage through that. Or buy a discounted band if you are a resort guest. Or bring an old band.

Life’s gonna be okay.

 

[lazyboy97o]

I don't agree with this statement at all. My kids have been going to WDW since they very young and they are now 18 &19. Our past few visits, they have decided to not even bring their phone into the parks with them. They don't want to worry about carrying them around and we do something crazy when on vacation, we TALK to each other. So I do not agree that kids "should" have a phone in the parks. Phones are expensive pieces of equipment and if a child is old enough to have one, then they are old enough to decide if they want to bring it into the park with them. I might be "old school" but we did not use technology to entertain our kids when they were growing up. We gave them normal toys to play with and had them develop an imagination. My SIL used a screen as a babysitter for her kids and they can't find their way out of a paper bag if any little issue comes up. We do not use Apple products, they are overpriced and I can't believe how many people pay for them. I also don't like the operating system in them. I think there are fewer people that own Apple watches then some of you think there are. I would also never attach a credit card to my phone.

Then don’t use your phone, problem solved. And once again, there is no requirement to use any Apple product.

 

[dreday3]

I don't know where to ask this question...now that 2021 packages are about to be released, were there any rumors of how much they are increasing hotel rates next year?

 

[ppete1975]

I assume you are already using the Disney app though to manage your reservation and fast passes?

Nope.

 

[21stamps]

Huh? It isn't hard to carry a plastic card. People have done it at both WDW and Universal for years, especially Universal.

A very simple solution is to stick the card in a lanyard. The parks all sell them, but free/near-free lanyards are easy to find. Many companies give them out like candy at expos/trade show events. For a park touring, just look for lanyards with a zip-sleeve ID holder.

Mickeybands are easy to lose. They pop off easily. I have seen/found a number of lost bands in the parks.. I've nearly lost my own a number of times, especially while taking off a jacket or sweatshirt.

I always try to limit what I carry.. I think Fitbit is a superior tracker especially battery life over Apple, but I have an Apple Watch instead of a Fitbit because I don’t need to carry my phone when I don’t want to.- that outweighs the battery and sleep tracking for me.
I use Apple Pay, from Watch or Phone for everything possible because I’d rather not carry cards, or even a handbag most times when running errands. Our Cedar Fair passes are also loaded on my phone and watch, so I never carry those with us when at the parks.
With Disney’s new policy, I would definitely much rather buy a magic band for a kid as opposed to carrying a card.

Maybe that’s a minority, but I thought it was pretty common over the past years.

ETA- or maybe Fitbit will finally allow children to have more options rather than only the Ace2, then the kids could just use their watch too. One can hope...

 

[Amused to Death]

and even if you did want to charge to your room account you can do it with the plastic card instead of the band.

Right. I just don't get the appeal of the bands. They look like tacky kiddie bracelets to me. Crocs, with all the stupid charms, but on your wrist instead of your feet. On the rare occasions where we've cared about on-ride photos, my wife has carried a puck in her purse.

 

[RememberWhen]

For fun, here is an old, non-RFID Key to the World card:

I don’t have any of the newer ones. Once the switched to magic bands we just went with that.

 

[MrPromey]

It was free in the first place so why would/should they?

It was? So just anybody could ask for free Magic Bands and Disney would provide them?

I assume you already know this but free-with-purchase is never actually free.

Those Magic Bands were “free“ the same way the toilet paper, beds, and doors with locks on them in the front of the room were.

Whether someone has a “drawer full” of old bands or not, whether someone has a smart phone or not, (whether Disney fixes their crappy app to not drain your battery and upgrades their servers so that it works consistently as their primary option or not), whether there are workarounds or not, the simple fact of the matter is another part of what guests were paying for when staying in an over-priced Disney resort is being removed as a benefit that was included in the price they already paid and being sold to them separately now.

If you can’t understand why that doesn’t please people, I don’t know what to tell you.