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

[homerdance]

Children won't need to use anything now.

How will kids get into the parks? One of the nicest things was not having to keep track of the younger ones tickets.

If you have a full battery at the start of the day and it dies before the end of your day, consider putting your phone down for a couple of hours while enjoying family time, or investing in a newer better phone.

Unless you turn your phone off, battery still gets drained. Also, with fewer and fewer Photo Pass photographers, using your phone to take pictures it a need.

I like the magic bands, it is a fun event when they come in the mail, and we are getting ready to leave in the morning we put them on to head to Disney, as a family.

I have no problem with them charging for them, assuming it is a nominal charge. The magic band readers are much better now then when they first were introduced. Its a cool effect to have some of the magic band features they turned on working.


Also, the MDE (at least for iOS) sucks. I can't remember how many times i had to delete the app and re-install it because it wasn't functioning correctly during our last vacation. There were at least 5 days on my last trip that it couldn't figure out what resort I was staying at so I couldn't see the bus times. It is not ready for this kind of important role in the Disney eco system yet.

 

[disneygeek90]

I enjoy collecting magicbands. I don’t do pin trading so magicbands are my thing. Even though they’re not all that useful when not staying on site I still think the designs and special editions are fun, I probably have around 20.

 

[aaronml]

We were sold the idea that they'd use them to improve guest experiences - things like pop-up meet-and-greets to handle crowded areas of the park and other such things. My assumption was that it was more likely used to figure out where to have merchandise/food carts open and where they could reduce staffing during certain times, etc. - not necessarily things that would improve guest experiences but things that might be saving/making them money.

Would be interesting if they were effectively getting no benefit for anyone at all from the bands in this regard.

I’m not actually aware of them doing much with the Long Range RFID aside from newer ride photos and apparently as a replacement / augmentation for FLIK cards.

 

[Nottamus]

Figures! I put off buying a watch band puck holder for a couple of years...JUST got it last trip , used for one week! Haha

well...it was somewhat uncomfortable

if my watch opens doors, pays for food, gets me on rides, keeps the Florida sun off of that tiny strip on my wrist ...then I’m all in.

 

[M:SpilotISTC12]

I mean this really won't affect us since every single user on here probably has a least 10 just sitting around that they got for making a reservation.

 

[denyuntilcaught]

I mean this really won't affect us since every single user on here probably has a least 10 just sitting around that they got for making a reservation.

That's exactly what I was thinking. I have three in a box sitting somewhere, and even if I had to pay for them, after dropping a couple thousand on a WDW trip, I'm not going to complain about $10 more.

 

[FerretAfros]

We were sold the idea that they'd use them to improve guest experiences - things like pop-up meet-and-greets to handle crowded areas of the park and other such things. My assumption was that it was more likely used to figure out where to have merchandise/food carts open and where they could reduce staffing during certain times, etc. - not necessarily things that would improve guest experiences but things that might be saving/making them money.

Would be interesting if they were effectively getting no benefit for anyone at all from the bands in this regard.

Disney operated theme parks for 58 years before the Magic Bands were introduced. You can't run a business for that long without already knowing when and where crowds congregate, how much food and merchandise they want to purchase, and what levels of staffing are acceptable to accomplish it. These things were well documented for decades by operations teams who were already studying those exact questions.

That senior management said the technology would reveal these things, as though they were some great unknown, simply shows how detached they were (are?) both from the daily operations of their parks and the limitations of the technology they were developing. That they were convinced to spend such a large sum to reveal that data is even more embarrassing.

 

[Clamman73]

Thought it was annoying to have an Apple Watch on one arm and a magic band on the other.

Here’s to the future and you!

 

[Lilofan]

Magic Bands are both enjoyable and painful. Enjoyable to improve the guest experience and purchasing products and painful when one gets home and gets the credit card bill.

 

[kevlightyear]

I'm wondering when they will cut off Annual Passholders from getting their free magic band.

 

[Lilofan]

I'm wondering when they will cut off Annual Passholders from getting their free magic band.

They might start cutting off AP perks like the after park closing parties etc.

 

[Touchdown]

I’m curious what the replacement choice will be for room keys, surely they won’t force someone without a smartphone to buy a MB just to access their room?

 

[DisneyOutsider]

Been using the same Magicband for over 5 years now and I always refuse the new complimentary bands for each reservation. It was a massive waste of plastic for guests to get a new set of magic bands for ever reservation. One of the least eco-friendly practices at WDW considering how easily avoidable it is.

Happy to see this change being made.

 

[MrPromey]

...after dropping a couple thousand on a WDW trip, I'm not going to complain about $10 more.

Unfortunately, I think this is how TDO views everything they do that nudges up prices or removes things previously bundled that they want to start charging extra for... The question is, how many $10-$25 extras will you obsorb along with annual price increases before it hits a point you aren't comfortable with?

 

[Tom P.]

I don't care about paying for MagicBands. Fine with doing that. I am disappointed in any change that pushes guests to use their phones even more. So much of the Disney experience is now being tied to your phones. I stay glued to my phone all day, every day in "real life." I'd rather not have to bother with it unless I choose to while on vacation.

 

[DisneyDreamerxyz]

Been using the same Magicband for over 5 years now and I always refuse the new complimentary bands for each reservation. It was a massive waste of plastic for guests to get a new set of magic bands for ever reservation. One of the least eco-friendly practices at WDW considering how easily avoidable it is.

Happy to see this change being made.

I'm a front desk castmember and we do recycle the bands that get made that people don't want at check-in (like if they have older bands they'd rather use instead). Alot of times newbies will come to the front desk at the end of their stay and try to turn them in to us and we encourage them to use them again on their next visit and tell them there is a way when making the reservation to ensure that your old bands are linked to the reservation so we do not make new ones.

 

[MrPromey]

Disney operated theme parks for 58 years before the Magic Bands were introduced. You can't run a business for that long without already knowing when and where crowds congregate, how much food and merchandise they want to purchase, and what levels of staffing are acceptable to accomplish it. These things were well documented for decades by operations teams who were already studying those exact questions.

That senior management said the technology would reveal these things, as though they were some great unknown, simply shows how detached they were (are?) both from the daily operations of their parks and the limitations of the technology they were developing. That they were convinced to spend such a large sum to reveal that data is even more embarrassing.

And all this time, reduction in staffing, starting to run certain attractions at half capacity during less busy times of the day, keeping wait times high, regardless of crowd levels, etc. have been attributed to the MDP program. Maybe they were talking about cutting costs to support it and not information revealed by it?

 

[DisneyOutsider]

I'm a front desk castmember and we do recycle the bands that get made that people don't want at check-in (like if they have older bands they'd rather use instead). Alot of times newbies will come to the front desk at the end of their stay and try to turn them in to us and we encourage them to use them again on their next visit and tell them there is a way when making the reservation to ensure that your old bands are linked to the reservation so we do not make new ones.

Well, I'd expect for unused magic bands to still be used.. that would be absolutely egregious if they were just thrown away.

It's great that cast members encourage re-use.. it really is.. but the policy itself of giving guests new free magic bands for every single resort stay pretty much ensures that it doesn't happen. It's not a knock on cast members. But it was an incredibly wasteful program. Google "Magicband Garland" to get to get a glimpse into what I'm talking about.

 

[Raineman]

Thought it was annoying to have an Apple Watch on one arm and a magic band on the other.

Here’s to the future and you!

Before I had an Apple watch, I'd wear my MB on my left wrist where I would normally wear a watch. Now that I have an Apple watch on my left wrist, my MB goes on my right wrist, and my first trip to WDW after I got my watch, the first couple of days I was tapping my watch on the left hand MB touchpoints. After that, even when I broke myself of that habit, it still felt weird to tap the right handed MB touchpoints. If I can use my watch as a MB, I would absolutely welcome that.

 

[ppete1975]

I really don't like this
a) magicbands are really convenient (id rather leave my phone in my pocket
B) I don't trust Disney not gathering data off my cellphone
c) they aren't "complementary" you are paying for it with that high roomrate (are rooms going down in price to offset this)

im tired of Disney acting they are removing something that they were providing for free (street performers, magic bands, working monorails) we are paying for all of these things... with ticket prices and room rates