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New Details about Disney’s Magic Bands

Rikki Niblett
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For those who are unaware, earlier this year Disney announced details about its NextGen project entitled MyMagic+. One of the major pieces of this new plan is known as the MagicBand.

We already knew a little information about the MagicBand: it is a hypo-allergenic rubber bracelet that will serve as your room key, park tickets, FastPass+ reservation identification, PhotoPass card. It also will allow you to make payments in the parks and resorts.

Recently, we have learned that MagicBands will be waterproof. (Perfect for use at the Disney water parks or even in the event of one of the oh-so-prevalent Florida afternoon downpours.) They will also be ventilated, to release heat. (No sweaty wrists here.)

The MagicBands will come in a single size; however, they can be adjusted to fit, and there is a removable layer that will be useful for child guests. They can also be reused, so guest who come back year after year may bring their MagicBands back with them. Guests who do not wish to wear the bracelet are not required to do so; they will be able to use an RFID chipped card similar to the Key to the World card that is already in use.

Guests will also be able to customize the MagicBands. Seven possible colors will be available to guests to choose from: red, black, blue, green, pink, orange, and yellow. Names can also be included on the underside of the MagicBand; if a guest wishes, this can be requested in advance using the My Disney Experience website or app. If a guest does not choose a specific band before arrival, a gray band will be given to the guest at check-in.

MagicBands will be included without any additional charge for resort guests and Annual Passholders when the system launches. Other guests will have the option to buy a MagicBand when arriving at the parks.

Specialty Bands will also be available for purchase. These will likely include Disney characters, as well as the ability to purchase charms.

Please keep in mind, the MagicBands are not being used yet in the parks.

Stay tuned for more details as we continue to learn about all what MyMagic+ has in store for park guests!

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Rikki Niblett

I am a co-host of the Be Our Guest Podcast and do lots of other fun Disney stuff all around the interwebs! You can follow me on Twitter or Instagram at @RikkiNibs or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/rikkinibs

32 thoughts on “New Details about Disney’s Magic Bands”

  • Im goon to disney on sunday and i get to be a test person ao far they look cool

  • We go Sep 2 and just got our Magic Bands in the mail. Can’t wait to experiment with this new technology!

  • Hi Sabrina- that’s fantastic you must be so excited! We’re visiting the World in October and can’t wait – how did you order your bands?

    • You cannot order them yet. Disney is still doing testing with the bands. I do know that the upcoming weeks are another large testing round with many guests. (I actually know quite a few personally.) This is only being done on a resort by resort basis to help iron out all the kinks. There is no official word on when they will be rolled out park wide as of yet.

      • We were booked for POR for the end of August(24-1st of Sept.). We received no word on the bands. On, 7/31 however, we decided to change to the Yacht Club and the next day were told we had access to FP+ and were asked to pick a color for the bands. Everything I have read so far leads me to believe that Yacht Club has moved on from their June trial to now giving all resort guests bands. Hope this helps.

  • We Just got ours in the mail! We each picked a color and they shipped out on July 23–We are going the end of August and look forward to trying them out. My daughter (9) is excited to decorate hers!

  • We are going to Disney July 3-7, 2013. Are the magicbands available yet? I ws told that they were by our AAA rep but wanted to confirm.

  • Does anyone know who developed or who worked with Disney to create this product? Any information will be much appreciated, and a significant reward will be given for any verifiable information.

    The Scientist

    • I believe Apple

  • Oh, WHEN, WHEN, WHEN is the question?! This sounds like a phenomenal option, especially for the kids.

  • So I’m excited about the new technology too and getting a personalized magicBand, but I am not happy about the changes to the Fastpass system that are coming with it. Though the system is not up and running yet, you can read details under “Park terms and conditions” on Disneyworld.com. Granted, choosing three or four fastpasses before you arrive sounds great, assuming you can get them for the times you want. But there will be limitations – only being able to use fp for one park each day, only being allowed one fp per person per ride each day, not being able to use traditional system if you opt into the new My Magic+ system. Maybe if they reduce the number of fp’s given in a day, the stand-by lines will move quicker, but my fear is that for those of us who visit regularly and have benefited from knowing how to use the fp system, we will find ourselves waiting in a lot more stand-by lines.

    • I don’t see anywhere that says that if you use the fastpass+ system that you can not use the regular fastpass system as well. To me it just looks like you can set up a reservation for a ride before you get to the park which sounds great. And you can continue to use the fastpass system to adjust to all of the crazyness in the park.

      • If you scroll down to “Converting To Paperless tickets” under “Park Terms and Conditions” you will read that those with paper tickets who would like to participate in the FastPass+ system can convet to a RF device, but once you do, you can no longer use the tradition FastPass system. Though this information is addressing those who have purchased paper tickets, it makes sense that if Disney is pushing everyone to go paperless and replace park passes with rubber wrist bands, we will have nothing to put into the FP machines, so we won’t be able to use the old system.

      • I didn’t notice that. Seems like you are correct. This just turned from something that sounds really neat into something that sounds horrible in about 2 sentences.

      • It could be some consolation that we still will have the option of sticking with the old FP system (at least for now), but with people snatching up FP’s before they arrive, how many will even be available in the parks?

  • How would you get your bands if you bought your tickets through something like Undercover Tourist?

  • @Carol, are you using a Mac computer? All of our Apple products still bring up the old site. If not, Im not sure why you dont see the new site.

    • Hi Rhonda – many thanks for that. I have been using a Mac so will give it a try on my laptop at home.

  • I would hope that the use of the bands might also help with locating the parents of a lost child by having info available to the CMs on the band.

  • Love the thought that if you aren’t organised enough to chose a colour for your band in advance you have to wear grey – the colour of shame!! Here in the UK I haven’t even been able to get onto the My Disney Experience website to start adding things to my booking (we are coming to the World in Oct). I just get sent to the Disney.go.com site – am I doing something wrong?

  • I just don’t know what to think about all of this. I guess we’ll just sit back and wait!

  • We have used our paper annual passes at the new entry stations – you just need your resort key or photo ID with you. They have CMs with large pictures of the “keys to the kingdom” pointing you to the correct entry point after bag check and if you’ve got the plastic keys you can use those at the new Mickey head kiosks, or you can let the CM know you have a paper ticket, but are a resort guest and they will point you to someone who’s got a different barcode scanner who scans you in – much faster than the standard entry areas – at this point, anyway. 🙂

    • Do you know if this applies to the paper tickets (the non RFID version)? Would be nice to have the ability to go to the old card-insert turnstiles or the mickey head.

  • I’m here now and someone told me this summer

  • How do you choose the color you want? I can’t find anything in the My Disney Experiance website. Am I just over looking it.

  • So far I’m loving the idea of the Magic Bands. I really, really hope Disney will let us put unused admissions from past trips on them.

  • We will be there this summer also. I’m hoping it is available by then.

  • I just received our Disney ticket cards. I ordered them through Disney, rather than saving a few bucks using Undercover Tourist, in the hopes that we might be able to convert to bands before the summer. I had read that the ticket cards from Disney could be used at the RFID scanners — slightly quicker entry — whereas paper tickets from outside vendors could not. I guess I’ll eventually find out. 🙂

  • Do you know if we’re able to get these yet? I’m down here with my husband for the week and when we asked at check-in, the CM didn’t know anything about guests being able to get the band and directed us to the concierge. The lines were really long and we wanted to get into the parks, so we haven’t checked with them yet.

    • No. This is not in effect yet. No word on when Magic Bands will actually be in use, but I keep hearing rumors of “soon.”

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