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On October 26th, 2022, the Disneyland Resort will be debuting a service long enjoyed by Walt Disney World park-goers; Magic Bands. Specifically, Magic Band Plus.

These watch-like bands are intended to make your visit to Disneyland easier by removing the need to use your phone seemingly at every turn during your park visit.

In this post, we’re going to discuss topics such as; the purpose of Magic Bands, how to use them, our thoughts on them and more.

Let’s get into it!

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What Are Magic Bands For?

Magic Bands were originally launched at Walt Disney World in 2013 and now, nine years later, Disneyland park-goers will have to chance to purchase and use them at their home park.

Magic Bands+, the most recent version, is what now serves Walt Disney World and is what we’ll be getting as well (we’ll cover the differences below).

Essentially, Magic Bands are wearables and are reminiscent of a watch. They’re adjustable, water-proof, and contain a small radio frequency (RF) chip inside of them.

Magic Bands+ Coming This Fall To The Disneyland Resort

This chip, when aligned with your Disney account, will contain nearly every aspect of your vacation, right there on your wrist. Some examples of they’re use include:

Stores your park ticket or Magic Key to make entry faster
Stores your Genie Plus and Lightening Lane selections
Stores your credit/debit card to make purchases faster and easier
Can be used as your hotel room key
Stores Disney PhotoPass photos
Play virtual games at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge
And more

Now that Magic Band+ is live, we know that these bands light up during certain parades and shows, respond to such shows through haptic vibrations and even have gesture recognition.

Using them is simple. At the entrances to the gate and Lightening Lanes, simply hold your band up to the Mickey Mouse shaped scanner. If it lights up green, you’re good to go.

Magic Band vs. Magic Band+

People watching Disneyland fireworks while wearing Magic Bands.

Though nearly the exact same in appearence and how you wear them, Magic Band Plus does have a few key differences from its predecessor.

Let’s begin with the similarities. They both:

Are waterproof
Unlock hotel room door
Have tap to pay for purchases
Link theme park ticket/Magic Key, Lightening Lane selections and PhotoPass photos

Halloween time at the Disneyland Resort.

The biggest distinctions between the two are that Magic Bands+ have interactive elements built into the device and also, they come with a built-in, rechargeable battery.

Aside from those two things, they both look identical and (nearly) have all the same features.

Where You Can Purchase Magic Bands

At their initial launch, Magic Bands were free to those staying on Walt Disney World property and who booked their vacation through Disney.

You would receive a basic, fairly plain Magic Band with the option to purchase bands with better designs or limited editions. Those not staying on property paid, no matter what.

As of a few years ago, though, Disney did away with the freebies. Now, no matter where you’re staying or who you booked through, Magic Bands now have a cost attached to them.

You can purchase your Magic Band through ShopDisney or at one of the theme parks at Disneyland and Disney World. You could also check sites like Amazon, Ebay and others for second hand bands.

There are dozens of band designs to choose from with many different characters represented from Disney, Pixar, Marvel and Star Wars.

The average price seems to be set at around $45 per band. However, we did find some for as low as $19.99 and some as high as $75.

Our Thoughts On Magic Bands

Honestly, the jury is still out as it pertains to how we feel about it. We get how these can be useful on the east coast, but we have to question their desirebility here.

The difference between Disneyland and Disney World is night and day. The World sees mostly out of state/international guests while Disneyland is largely a local’s park.

While you can use these bands at Disneyland for everything you can use them for at Disney World, we can’t help but wonder whether or not locals will take to them and if they’ll just over-complicate an arguably already complicated park experience.

Additionally, for the longest time, Disney seemed hell bent on getting all of us to use the Disneyland app for everything under the sun. Now, they’re trying to steer us away from it. Why, you ask?

It’s simple, really. These bands were designed for one thing and one thing only, to make it easier for us to part with our money. That’s it. Every other feature is a diversion from that fact.

That $100 jersey is easier to buy when you just tap your band and go. Holding and swiping your credit/debit card, at minimum, makes you cognizant of what you’re doing. By eliminating this step, you don’t think too much about it.

Or at least, that’s what Disney hopes will happen. Admittedly, they’re probably correct in that prognosis. They poses nine years of data from its run at Disney World to base their decisions on.

That said, we’ll give it a fair shake. It seems as though we’ll be able to use them during our upcoming visit. So we’ll more than likely pick up a band and take it for a test-run.

Once we’ve done that, we’ll be able to give a more experienced opinion on it. Until then, we’ll just have to wait and see.

Your Thoughts…

Are you an east coaster with experience using Magic Bands? How do/did you like them? If you’re Disneylander, what’re your thoughts on them? Let us know in the comments below. We love hearing from our readers!

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