Walt Disney World Tech News & Discussion- Magic Bands, Genie+, and more

[Mad Dog]

I'm actually a planner but I prefer to have the option of winging the daily stuff, like which park to go to, how many hours there, when & where to eat etc. I didn't hate the My Magic stuff, I just greatly prefer the Universal way of doing what I want as my mood at the time prefers....I think one of the largest objections to MY Magic/Next Gen, and why it's not heard in general tourist or local facebook people that are generally unaware of what's happening, is that all of that money spent could have been better used to upgrade the parks & increase capacity with new lands/attractions. Insiders are saying this cost around $2 billion dollars. They certainly didn't get a lot of bang for their buck. And a lot of Exec. heads did roll after this, so it evidently didn't do what they thought it would. They sold it as a revenue producer, with a Disney high level executive stating they were doing this to get more money out of their customer wallets. That didn't happen, and its probably a contributing factor to these staffing cuts now.

 

[Nick]

From the start, you've always been able to opt-out of the bands if one wanted to. Bob Iger actually made that clear himself in a statement, I believe.

 

[IzzyB]

I'm actually a planner but I prefer to have the option of winging the daily stuff, like which park to go to, how many hours there, when & where to eat etc. I didn't hate the My Magic stuff, I just greatly prefer the Universal way of doing what I want as my mood at the time prefers....I think one of the largest objections to MY Magic/Next Gen, and why it's not heard in general tourist or local facebook people that are generally unaware of what's happening, is that all of that money spent could have been better used to upgrade the parks & increase capacity with new lands/attractions. Insiders are saying this cost around $2 billion dollars. They certainly didn't get a lot of bang for their buck. And a lot of Exec. heads did roll after this, so it evidently didn't do what they thought it would. They sold it as a revenue producer, with a Disney high level executive stating they were doing this to get more money out of their customer wallets. That didn't happen, and its probably a contributing factor to these staffing cuts now.

It is funny I am also a planner and winger

But for me this system is better than the system of getting to the parks early or you don't get what you want. The minute you walk into the park you go running to that first station, then have to play around on other stuff, then walk back to that same location, then run to the next kiosk. That to me was always a pain in the rear end. So between paper passes and this system, I prefer this system. lol

 

[Brian G.]

From the start, you've always been able to opt-out of the bands if one wanted to. Bob Iger actually made that clear himself in a statement, I believe.

When I booked last year, I saw nothing online about using our existing MagicBand to be a room key and whatnot.

 

[Parkscope Joe]

From the start, you've always been able to opt-out of the bands if one wanted to. Bob Iger actually made that clear himself in a statement, I believe.

Booking a WDW hotel never had an option to opt out. Now you can attach an existing Magicband to the reservation instead of receiving a new one.

 

[IzzyB]

I think things are getting confused here. I believe if you are at the hotel you can request to opt out of the band and get a traditional key card. They will still send you the bands. The issue that Bri is talking about is on new reservations there is no way to use your old bands instead of receiving new bands.

 

[Scott W.]

I think things are getting confused here. I believe if you are at the hotel you can request to opt out of the band and get a traditional key card. They will still send you the bands. The issue that Bri is talking about is on new reservations there is no way to use your old bands instead of receiving new bands.

I thought you could reuse bands or is this just for hotel keys?


I've not been to WDW since FP+ was introduced. I'm not really sure how I feel about it. Part of me hates how organised I need to be before I go but another part of me is very open to it. I think I have a tendacy to get lazy as my holiday goes on and I think this may result in me doing more than I normally would.

 

[IzzyB]

I thought you could reuse bands or is this just for hotel keys?


I've not been to WDW since FP+ was introduced. I'm not really sure how I feel about it. Part of me hates how organised I need to be before I go but another part of me is very open to it. I think I have a tendacy to get lazy as my holiday goes on and I think this may result in me doing more than I normally would.

I think you can re-use your bands, because you can link them to tickets and reservations. I know one person who is not staying on property and is linking their new pass to their old bands. But it sounds like every hotel reservation gets you a new set of free bands. Which again, is a dumb business move by Disney. They should make you opt in to new bands if they have previously given you old bands.

 

[Nick]

When I booked last year, I saw nothing online about using our existing MagicBand to be a room key and whatnot.

Ah, you may be right. I know you've always been able to opt-out at check-in, but if I remember correctly, opting out online started sometime late 2015 (although I can't say with 100% certainty on timeline).

 

[LieutLaww]

You can manage any MB that has already been added to your account so you can swap them about and use whatever one you want for hotel/park access you just have to remember they have a 2 or 3 year battery life for the extended RFID stuff that deals with photos/videos etc

 

[Mad Dog]

Over at Magic some of the commentators stated that the comment was made at the Disney Shareholder Meeting today that they do not plan to extend the Magic Band capabilities. I didn't listen to the meeting myself though. I'm just mentioning what some of those said, that listened to the meeting.

 

[Nick]

Over at Magic some of the commentators stated that the comment was made at the Disney Shareholder Meeting today that they do not plan to extend the Magic Band capabilities.

They definitely mentioned not expanding it to the Cruise Ships.

 

[IzzyB]

They definitely mentioned not expanding it to the Cruise Ships.

Which of course that statement probably got blown out of proportion. Which the expense to extend it to cruise ships would be high for very little return.

 

[Scott W.]

Which of course that statement probably got blown out of proportion. Which the expense to extend it to cruise ships would be high for very little return.

I'd be curious to see what percentage of the final cost was spent on development and bug fixing than actually implementing the physical sensors.

 

[MrRoamer]

I booked through a conference website so not sure if there would have been an option to use existing band or not. I think the oddity here is that the default option is you will get a new band instead of the other way around.

 

[sjago13]

So I have a FP+ question that I'll ask here. Let's say I have 3 fast passes and use them. Let's say I have a friend that has an annual pass and isn't going to the parks. If I book 3 fast passes from his account can I then copy them to mine after using my 3 or will it lock me out since I have to use the kiosk?

 

[Brian G.]

So I have a FP+ question that I'll ask here. Let's say I have 3 fast passes and use them. Let's say I have a friend that has an annual pass and isn't going to the parks. If I book 3 fast passes from his account can I then copy them to mine after using my 3 or will it lock me out since I have to use the kiosk?

No, you have to use the kiosk.

 

[martymcflyy85]

You definitely CAN re-use the magic bands. And no they are not mandatory.

 

[SeventyOne]

I would just like to be able to add my credit card to my account so I don't need a credit card or an AP discount card.

Banks put the kibosh on that back in the planning stages.

 

[Scott W.]

Banks put the kibosh on that back in the planning stages.

Unless you're staying on site and they have your credit card info when you check in.