Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hey there, Disney fans. You're listening to the Mouse Ears podcast. Your go to source for all things travel, but mostly Disney. Sponsored by Fairy Tale Journeys Travel. Whether you are a first time visitor or a seasoned Disney pro, we're here to bring you the latest news, insider secrets and fun stories from the happiest and most magical places on earth. Make sure you give us a like and follow on whichever platform you're listening to or watching our beautiful faces. And don't forget to check out Mouseier's blog where we dive even deeper into Disney tips, trip planning and all the park magic in one location. Now let's jump into today's episode where we talk about the magic of the magic bands. That's right, because the magic starts right now.
Welcome back, Mouse Ears fans. Thank you, Brooks, for that wonderful introduction. Might I say you are beautiful.
I am one of your wonderful hosts.
[00:01:14] Speaker B: I love this shirt, by the way.
[00:01:16] Speaker A: Wonderful host. Thank you. Kelsey is not a fan. It is the Goonies.
It's the Truffle Shuffle. She says I'm not allowed to wear it out of the house. I do wear it out of the house.
[00:01:28] Speaker B: Anyway, we are not Roosevelts.
[00:01:33] Speaker A: Thank you, Roosevelt. Please sponsor us. Anyway, we are not talking about Roosevelts as my past self was talking about in the beautiful intro. But before we get to that, I am one of your. One of our hosts, Brooks. And with me tonight, we have the face of the podcast, Stephanie. Stephanie, how are you doing tonight?
[00:01:54] Speaker B: Good. I am totally digging this intro.
We're talking about Roosevelt. Oh, we talk about very family friendly.
[00:02:04] Speaker A: Yes. We talk about train wrecks. I mean, we're only a minute in.
We. So as you can tell, we are missing two of our podcast hosts tonight because of this whole thing. Kelton and Jenny, we miss you and hope to have you back soon. Kelton should be back next week. Ginny is being her fantastic thespian self, her being a wonderful actress.
[00:02:39] Speaker B: Well, next week is March Madness and Kelton's gonna be on for that one. And no one wants to miss the second ever March Madness episode of the Mouse Ears podcast.
[00:02:50] Speaker A: I mean the. The confessions that we got from last season. Well, two seasons ago. Last year.
[00:02:58] Speaker B: Yeah, last year.
[00:02:59] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:03:00] Speaker B: That was fun. That was really fun. Anyways, on to tonight's show.
[00:03:05] Speaker A: Yes. So it feels like forever ago, but in that intro we did talk about. We are going to be talking about magic bands.
If you don't know what magic bands are, stay tuned for the episode. You will find out. But, but before we get into that, we're going to go to tonight's trivia master, Stephanie for the trivia question.
[00:03:29] Speaker B: Thank you, Brooks. Today's trivia question is brought to you by Fairytale Journeys Travel. Next time you want to book a Disney cruise, let the agents at Fairytale Journeys Travel take care of all the details for a stress free experience at no extra cost to you. When you book with them, not only do you get expert advice, but you can also receive up to $1,000 of onboard credit.
This offer is exclusive to bookings made with Fairytale Journeys Travel. So contact them today and let them know that the podcast sent you and enjoy a magical Disney cruise getaway.
Now, today's trivia question. I honestly, I think I've never done a Disney trivia question that I'm actually reading. This might be a first for the.
[00:04:16] Speaker A: First time in forever, truly.
[00:04:20] Speaker B: So tonight's trivia question obviously has to do with our topic. What year were Magic Bands officially introduced? There is no trick answer or trick question here.
[00:04:35] Speaker A: So anyways, yeah, I was just gonna say it seems like they've always been around.
[00:04:42] Speaker B: Yeah. Right. Long enough. Long enough.
But stay tuned to the end of the episode so you can find out what the answer is and maybe a little extra history. So anyways, back to you, Brooks.
[00:04:57] Speaker A: Well, thank you.
Sorry, Christian Brooks Runner came out for a second.
[00:05:02] Speaker B: I love it. We miss him. We miss new news. Does anyone else miss new news? I miss new news. Let us know if you also miss new news. And Christian Brooks Runner.
[00:05:12] Speaker A: Yes, because he runs for those new news.
So again, tonight's episode, we're talking about magic bands. So magic bands explained. Why do you need this Disney tech for your next vacation?
Short answer. Yes, you need it. All right, that's the end of today's episode. So. What? No, I'm kidding.
So, yeah. So magic bands, what are they and why do you need them? So we're just going to go to a very brief description of what a magic band is. This is a magic band, people.
What I'm showing right now, it is a.
It is a wearable, all in one device that enhances your Disney experience.
It truly is.
If you have not ever used one, it does definitely enhance your trip.
So are there different types of magic bands? Are we going. Steph, do you want to do a brief history?
[00:06:23] Speaker B: Brief history.
We won't tell you when MagicBands came out.
[00:06:29] Speaker A: Introducing.
[00:06:33] Speaker B: However, technically there's only one magicband that you can purchase currently and that's the MagicBand Plus. Is it, is it not?
[00:06:46] Speaker A: No, you can purchase the other ones too.
[00:06:49] Speaker B: Okay.
MagicBand 2.0 and MagicBand plus basically. Biggest difference between the MagicBand 2.0 and the MagicBand plus is that the MagicBand plus does have some interactive features, lights, vibrations and it makes for a much more fun and enhanced experience at the parks as well as Disney Cruise. You can only use the Disney Magic Band plus at are on some cruise ships. So that is basically the biggest difference.
And what's really Fun about the MagicBands is the different designs. I want to say that as far as like theme parks go, Disney was the first ever theme park to actually really offer this sort of technology for that interactive experience so that you don't need, you know, a physical paper ticket or a card of sorts, a plastic card. Right.
So Disney was the first to really bring this to the theme park experience.
Now you'll find some others might have their versions or variation. You may or may not have seen. Spoiler alert.
Super Nintendo World over at Epic Universe or you know, in Hollywood, they have like a power up band I think is what they're called. And you can interact within Super Nintendo World with their version.
So that's, you know, one version that has now expanded from what we know with the. The magic plan. Magic Bland. Oh my goodness. Magic band.
[00:08:42] Speaker A: And correct me if I'm wrong, Volcano Bay has something. It's like a.
[00:08:46] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:08:48] Speaker A: Something like that.
Something with a T. Yeah.
[00:08:52] Speaker B: Yes.
Yeah, I can't, I. The name escapes me, but yeah, I think it's like a Tampa. I'm gonna look this up. But anyways, please carry on.
[00:09:04] Speaker A: Yes. So one thing with the magic bands too. They are also a.
Just a. Again, a quick thing. They're a good souvenir, they're customizable. They have limited editions, they have character themed bands.
As we all know, I am a big fan of Figment and everything. Figment. So my magic band is the man himself.
I believe Dapper Danielle would have the orange bird for her son.
And just you can custom. You can have them customized. Well, you can buy them, they any type of event. They'll have a magic band for them. Yes.
[00:09:55] Speaker B: The Volcano Bay band is called the.
[00:09:58] Speaker A: Tapu Tapu Tapu Tapu. Okay. I never would have said tapu tapu in a million years.
[00:10:04] Speaker B: My mind was going, yeah, I was thinking, yeah. Tamu. Tamu Tapu. All right, sorry, totally off.
[00:10:12] Speaker A: Oh no, you're good. But well, it's on topic. So anyway, you may be wondering how you can get these bands. Well, you can purchase some in most gift shops and several places down on downtown in Disney Springs.
Purchase them online. Yeah. But one thing. If you have a trip book to Walt Disney World prior to your trip. If you're staying on Disney World property, you can actually order and customize your bands. If you do it at least 11 days prior to your trip, you can have them delivered to your house to in time for your trip, or if you do it six to 10 days before your trip. So if you get to five days or before, unfortunately you can't do this. But if you do it six to 10 days before your trip, you'll be able to pick them up at the front desk upon arrival at your resort.
If. If you can, I would suggest doing it the at least 11 days out because then it's also a cool little thing to get.
They'll have them with your name next to them and everything. So it's. It's just fun.
And usually too, that's when they'll send like, the Disney extras where you can get like the mini golf and usually luggage tags and all that. Those are always fun.
[00:11:56] Speaker B: So I have the magicband plus that I currently have, it's a black magicband with like the neon blues and greens, because green and blue are my favorite colors.
What's cool? So mine says Walt Disney World, but if you were to go to, like, Disneyland, they do have their version with Disneyland and their logo. Disney Cruise Lines, they have their excl. They also have exclusive magic bands for this different ship that you may or may not be on. So it's really cool. They do have a lot of different designs. They change the designs up.
So I don't want to say they always have new options, but they bring out a couple new options here and there. Some are obviously popular than others.
[00:12:45] Speaker A: They'll always be like festival exclusives.
[00:12:48] Speaker B: So I'm not going to show you this one because this one's on the older side. But this one, they also offer just solid colors, and they also have ones that are glitter. You don't have to have one that has a design like me and Brooks have. You can have solid color ones. And mine actually has an engraving in the back that you can actually put in to customize it, which is really nice too.
But yeah, there's. You can have fun with your magic band and everyone in the family can have different fun ones. I think it's a really cool thing. You know, you said it's like a souvenir, and I think kids absolutely love it because, you know, makes you.
Gives you a little extra Disney character to your attire. Right?
[00:13:33] Speaker A: Mm.
So moving right along.
So we've talked about what magic bands are. So we're now going. We're going to talk about why magic bands, why we feel like are a must have for your vacation.
When. When Steph was talking about the trivia question, I honestly had to rack my brain because I feel like I've always had a magic band every time I've gone to Disney, even though the first time I went, I didn't have one.
But I feel like they have become such a valuable addition to your experience that this last trip, Kelsey, actually, we accidentally left hers here at the house and we were just like, we almost kind of forgot. How do we navigate without having the magic band?
[00:14:35] Speaker B: Once you. Yeah. Once you go magic band, you never go back.
[00:14:39] Speaker A: Yeah.
So, but why do we say you need a magic band? Well, number one, convenience.
This thing we talk about is an all in one device. It can act as your park ticket, your room key.
You can even link a card to it and use it as a payment method, which say it is also secure because just like using a debit card, it then asks you for a PIN number.
So if you use it as a payment option. So it's not like someone can take it and then just go crazy using it. But it also reduces the need to carry multiple items.
[00:15:31] Speaker B: There is nothing I love more than going to pay for something and I don't have to go digging into my lounge fly for my wallet to pull out my card to hand it out to then put it back in into my wallet. Like, especially at a theme park, like, you don't you want things to be quick and easy and like moving? You know, the fact that I can just take it off, it's just a clip, take it off, hand it to the register or the waiter, or I can just tap and scan, there really doesn't be that, you know, anything more convenient than that. It's amazing.
[00:16:13] Speaker A: Just as, I mean, I would say basically using our phones for the virtual wallet, it's just as convenient as that become. Now you don't even have to pull out your phone. It's just beep.
[00:16:27] Speaker B: Exactly. It's so convenient. And I was doing that at one point before I was using my magicband because I was like, man, do I really want to have my card really linked to my magicband and use that for purchases? Is that really safe? Well, first of all, it's Disney.
Yes. But for those that are a little skeptical, I want you to know that when you do link a credit card to your magicband for purchasing purposes, whether it's you or a child. So let's talk about an adult. You have to create a pin. So you have to create a PIN in order to be able to use it without the pin, no transaction. So if you were to lose it, it's not like anyone can just scan and swipe your card. That's the first thing. I want you to know that there is safety measures so that it's not just gonna scan and start charging you left and right now. For kids, if you have a child in your party and they're given a magic and they have a magicband, and whether there's someone that goes off on their own or not, you can actually upon checkin, grant permission to their MagicBand whether or not they can use the magic band. And here's the kicker. Every person can create their own PIN for their own magicband. So it's not one pin for all the magic bands in your party. Everyone has their own, including the child.
[00:17:53] Speaker A: Mm.
[00:17:54] Speaker B: Added steps are taken for the safety, taking into consideration kids as well.
You know, I know when I've traveled with my cousins, I have a 16 year old and I have an 11 year old and or 12 year old. We don't really need the 12 year old to be making purchases. She's gonna be with us the whole time. But the 16 year old, hey, they might, you know, he might go off and go on a ride or he wants to go get popcorn while we're doing something else. That's totally fine. You know, we'll give him his access and you know, we know he's not gonna max.
But on that note, I just want people to know that there are steps in place to be able to utilize the quote unquote wallet aspect of a magicband. But it, once you use it, it's just fantastic. It is so, so fast. How it's just boop boop and that's it. You're good to go. Other than the pen, of course. Yeah, I'm passionate. Can you tell?
[00:18:58] Speaker A: More passion. More passion.
But it adds convenience. It saves time.
[00:19:05] Speaker B: I mean, oh my gosh.
[00:19:07] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:19:07] Speaker B: Let's talk about scanning into a park.
[00:19:11] Speaker A: Yep. And how magical it is with a magic band.
[00:19:15] Speaker B: No kidding. I'm sure. Listen, being able to go to Disney is a dream come true. For some, it's a once in a lifetime experience. For others, they are blessed, like myself, to go multiple times. For those of us that go multiple times, I'm sure I'm not alone. I say we've probably been behind a family or two who are a big group who have a leader and that leader is trying to scan every single person in has to find the cards. They don't know what the process is to scan in. They're trying to scan it. The fingerprint isn't going then the child and it just ends up holding the whole line. With the MagicBand it really speeds up that process because each person scanning in themselves boop finger, boop finger. And I love seeing the little lights turn on as well when you scan in. And it's it I've said it before and I'll say it again, it enhances the experience.
So like as soon as you scan in with your MagicBand you're already feeling the magic, you know, and not having to dig and find your card.
What happens too is unless you're doing like a special like a Florida resident special ticket, if you pre purchase your tickets and not go to Will call, you can sync your tickets with your account which your magicband is like is linked to.
So all of that's done beforehand so you don't have to go to Will call. That part just completely gets taken out and it's just again doesn't take time out of your trip.
[00:20:48] Speaker A: Right.
[00:20:49] Speaker B: Talk about convenience.
[00:20:51] Speaker A: And I will say too little plug to do the upsell which it is a tad bit more expensive to do the magicband plus as opposed to the regular magicband.
Some of the magicband pluses I would say like my Figment one actually lights up a different color upon check in.
So figment lights up purple instead of the blue and it also will light up itself as you're checking in.
But you can use it for check in. Not only that, you can use it for your FastPass plus and Lightning Lane access so you don't have to again pull out your phone. You can keep it nice and secure.
[00:21:48] Speaker B: Oh, here's one. Here's one.
What happens when you're at a regular hotel resort and you get a card key and you put it next to your phone? It deactivates.
Goodness knows I've been locked out quite a few different rooms because the key gets deactivated by accident. It just whether it's in the wallet, your pocket, just thrown in your purse, it happens.
That is not the case with the MagicBand. So if your MagicBand is linked to your My Disney Experience app where your hotel reservation is attached to, you can use your MagicBand to get into the room and you can touch your MagicBand to your phone to any magnet, anything like that. And obviously there are instances where the magic band can break and Disney is fairly good about helping remedy that if you ask nicely. But for the most part, like those MagicBands are able to withstand a lot. They're waterproof, they're.
I don't want to call them magnet proof, because that's not really a thing. But point is, you know, you can work. You can use them to get into your room and rely on that, which is amazing. And you don't have to link it every single time you have a new resort. It's attached to your your My Disney Experience account. The only thing that you have to do every time is link your new resort.
That's it.
Time saving.
[00:23:25] Speaker A: So.
And then also you can personalize it. So and we'll talk about a little more later, like how to set it up and sync it with your My Disney Experience account. But when you link your measureband to your My Disney Experience account, that's how you can use it for virtually everything.
And then also with PhotoPass, if you've purchased PhotoPass and you go to one of the Disney PhotoPass photographers, you take your picture. The first thing they ask, whose magicband am I scanning? Well, if you have, if you have your PhotoPass linked to your My Disney account and you have your magicband linked, which I know that sounds like a lot, having everything linked is very simple.
And one, once your MagicBand is linked, it's linked.
You just scan you. They scan your MagicBand, bam. Your pictures will show up in your My Disney Experience account within minutes.
If you don't, that's the thing. If you don't scan either a MagicBand or go into My Disney Experience and try to scan a card, or if you have a card, trying to scan that card, that can be somewhat of a hassle. Trying to get your pictures.
[00:24:54] Speaker B: Well, it's also like those little things that people don't realize can make a difference. And you said it like digging in, you take your picture, you have dropped your stuff on the ground. So you're not posing with your bag or your water bottle or something. And as soon as you're done, you're grabbing your stuff and trying to hurry out so that the next person in line can get in. You don't want to be scrambling and be there longer than you need to because a, you want to obviously get into the next ride or line or see the next show, but you also, you know, try to be considerate of the next person in line. And so just having to scramble, it's just like, ugh.
But having that, it's one of those things where you didn't know you needed until you had it.
How much. How convenient it is. So, yeah, huge fan.
[00:25:45] Speaker A: Yeah.
But then also, we've talked. We mentioned it before, but especially with the MagicBand plus, you have interactive experiences.
One thing that's great about the MagicBand plus, so, I mean, it has a sensor in the MagicBand, which.
The regular magic bands have them as well. But with the MagicBand Plus 2, they have a location so they can see where you are in the parks, which is honestly probably one of the things say let's. Disney introduced them to kind of track business in the parks, where people are going and how. It's another way of collecting data to improve.
But if you have a magicband and you're at, let's say, a fantastic fireworks show, like Happily Ever After, Fantasmic is a show that has fireworks. Happily Ever after is a fireworks show.
[00:26:52] Speaker B: Yes, you're right. You're right.
[00:26:55] Speaker A: Both are fantastic. Both, both, both.
[00:27:01] Speaker B: And both have fun features with the MagicBand.
[00:27:04] Speaker A: Yes. So your MagicBand will light up and enter, and so you have another extra piece of magic in your magic band.
If you've been to Disney lately and for the past couple of years, they have those 50th statues that they kept around. Yeah, that they kept. That they kept around.
When you go around, your magic band will interact with those statues, whether or not you're interacting.
[00:27:36] Speaker B: They'll light up and vibrate and speak. Yeah, it's not just light and vibration. They do speak. Like in Epcot, for instance, you're walking around and then all of a sudden you just hear and you're like, what just happened? He's like, oh, I just walked by the. The Coco statue. You weren't even. Migo. Yes. And you weren't even. But you can also interact and wave at them and trigger it as well. But it's just. It's like a cute little thing.
[00:28:05] Speaker A: I'm really sad that there's not a Heihei statue that goes ba ba.
[00:28:12] Speaker B: You know, that's a great suggestion.
[00:28:14] Speaker A: Yes, Disney. I take payment in popcorn buckets and annual passes.
But also, in the past few years, Disney has introduced the Disney Plays, which are interactive games that anyone can play using my Disney Experience app. But they enhance those games. Like, say you're in Hollywood Studios and you want to spend time on Batuu, and you see there's a bunch of bounty hunters around that are trying to collect these criminals, and you want to join in on the action. You want to be the Mandalorian. Well, you can. With a magic band, you can play enhanced experience. Right. So you can play the Star Wars Batuu Bounty hunters game and go around and try to collect the bounties of. I forgot how many people there are. I think it's like 20 or something.
[00:29:22] Speaker B: But I don't know.
I've seen Michael play them with the app.
[00:29:27] Speaker A: Mm.
[00:29:29] Speaker B: You know, you'll see, like, these. I don't even like. It looks like a little sign, but they're everywhere. And they're actually, you know, triggers for the game. And one time, I remember we were in line for Millennium Falcon. It was a long line, and he was playing it the whole time. But that was before we had the magicband plus didn't have that experience.
But it's really cool that Disney thinks about that as well.
[00:29:51] Speaker A: Yeah. And then also I talked about before, it's a suit. It's a cool souvenir.
[00:29:57] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:29:58] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:29:58] Speaker B: So it doesn't expire when your trip expires. You could use it, you know, for future trips, over and over and over again.
[00:30:08] Speaker A: I'll be honest with you. This stays on the gear shift of my car, so I see it every single day. And I think I wish I was at Disney.
[00:30:20] Speaker B: Yep, I hear that.
[00:30:21] Speaker A: So I literally had to go. I literally had to go and grab it and charge it up a little bit before. Because I will say the only drawback with the MagicBand plus, to use the interactive features, typically you need to charge them pretty much every night.
But one thing that is nice is they give you, when you purchase it, a charging cord that uses usb.
And all the resorts have USB outlets. You can just plug it into the wall at night, charge it up, and in the morning, you are good to go.
[00:31:05] Speaker B: And if you lose it or you forget it, you can purchase the MagicBand charging cords at the parks or any of the Disney. Official Disney stores.
[00:31:17] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:31:18] Speaker B: But, yeah, I agree it's a little frustrating, but you don't need to charge it to be able to use it. You only need to charge it for, like, the lighting up and the sounds and the vibration. Even if it's not charged, you can still get into your room. You can still get into the parks. You can still use your lightning lanes if you have it on you.
[00:31:40] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:31:41] Speaker B: So.
[00:31:42] Speaker A: And I can definitely attest to that because the last trip, I forgot the charging cord. We forgot because the charging cord was literally hooked up to Kelsey's magic band.
So I didn't. I didn't get to have it lighten up when I went past Journey into your imagination with Figment.
But it still got. Got me into the room, got Me into the parks. All that still works.
[00:32:16] Speaker B: Now, I did want to mention one other thing.
You slightly mentioned it, but didn't go more in detail. And I really want to emphasize this because it's something that is very important, I think, and something I do also mention this whole, you know, these past 10 or so minutes that we've been talking about why magic bands are a must have for your vacation. You know, we've touched upon some great topics, but one of the things, one of the big selling points that I can attest to for my clients is that the safety feature and Brooks, you mentioned it before as like a tracker for Disney to collect data. But for instance, or, you know, another reason is, let's say you actually do scan into your lightning lane or you're in a ride and the ride has pictures.
Somehow with the Disney magic technology from your magic band, for the most part, there are times where they don't get it right, but I'd say like 8 out of 10 times you're gonna get your picture from the ride directly linked to your account because of your magicband without having to scan in or anything, because it just tracks where you are.
But furthermore, even though that might sound a little creepy, I want you to think about it this way. If you have children and you're traveling to Walt Disney World, Walt Disney World's a very big park. And there's a lot of people that go. Having a magic band is an extra safety precaution because Disney can track where your children are at all times. God forbid. It's happened to me where I was very young with my sister and my cousin, and we went on the Barnstormer ride.
And after the ride, I was supposed to meet up with my mom and my aunt. Well, we didn't come up for. At least at the time, I couldn't remember where was our meeting point, because where they dropped me off was not where they were. So I panicked, couldn't find my guardians, and I ended up running into the store that's there. What used to be Toontown is now Circus Story, whatever. And a cast member called the managers. They kept me Safe, and within 10 minutes they were able to find my mom. And she was just down the ways a little bit. But, you know, as a kid, I still freaked out. I'm pretty sure I was 10. So pretty young. At the time, there was no magic bands. Now there are. So having that really, the first word that comes to mind is expedite, but really that's not the word. It. It'll make the process so much more quick for Disney to track where anyone is. If your child gets lost, they're able to find them in seconds. Yes, they have cameras everywhere, but nothing beats the tracker. Call it like the Disney airtag.
[00:35:23] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:35:26] Speaker B: And one of the other features that we didn't talk about is that the MagicBands, the old and the new. If you are watching us on YouTube, you'll see what I mean.
They have a perforation and this perforation allows you to basically cut out the extra piece and make it child size. And so you might think that they might be too big. Disney thought about everything. They made it where the magic bands are.
[00:35:59] Speaker A: Never noticed that.
Seriously, I never noticed that.
[00:36:03] Speaker B: Yeah, the perforation. You pop it out and you take out this extra bit so that it's child size.
[00:36:13] Speaker A: I never paid attention.
[00:36:16] Speaker B: You learn something new. So anyways, I think that honestly that's one of the most underrated features of the magic band is just the safety aspect of it. They can keep track of your kids. God forbid they get lost, they'll find them in an instant.
So I really wanted to highlight that point.
[00:36:38] Speaker A: Yeah, definitely.
So. Oh.
[00:36:43] Speaker B: So in conclusion to that, I think Magic man is a must have for anyone. Whether you're the lead of the group so you can scan into your PhotoPass or into the parks.
You know, whether you're just a child and need to have that extra safety precaution or just your regular Joe Schmo who's a Disney veteran and just wants the extra magic because you're going there all the time. And I know I'm someone with my magicbane. Plus I'm watching Happily Ever After. As soon as I start to see this light up, I'm getting emotional. I'm like, this is amazing. It's just magic everywhere. Everywhere. So I really think that this is something that everyone who travels to Disney can benefit. Especially if you're someone who plans to go to Disney regularly, even if it's once a year. Like I said, you can continue using this on every trip. If you. If it's your once in a lifetime trip, it might be your souvenir, you know, but it's really something that everyone can benefit from no matter what.
[00:38:02] Speaker A: Yep, I agree.
So we've talked about why magic bands are a must have. So let's go into how they work at Walt Disney World, Disneyland and the Disney Cruise Lines because we mentioned that they do work at all three.
[00:38:25] Speaker B: So I'll rip the bandage off. Magic bands at Walt Disney World and Disneyland Resort, they work pretty much the same way you can scan into the parks, you can scan into your Lightning Lanes, you can get your photos and you can scan into your Disney Resort.
Yep. In a nutshell, they work the same.
Nothing too crazy, but.
[00:38:53] Speaker A: But correct me if I'm wrong, because you've been to Disneyland. I have not.
The MagicBand plus, that's the only one that you can use at Disneyland, correct?
[00:39:06] Speaker B: Yes, yep.
[00:39:08] Speaker A: Yes.
So. And you can use that for PhotoPass and some of their interactive experiences as well.
[00:39:17] Speaker B: Yes. I'll say this, and I don't know why I remember using my phone for the Lightning Lane access and not my magicband, but it should work for all of it. Disneyland actually got the MagicBand's recently.
[00:39:34] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:39:35] Speaker B: Walt Disney World had it a longer time.
[00:39:38] Speaker A: I think it was 2022 for Disneyland.
[00:39:43] Speaker B: Sounds about right. So that's why you know, Magic Band plus or the MagicBand 2.0. I don't now I'm second guessing myself, but Disneyland just recently implemented this, so.
Yeah.
[00:40:02] Speaker A: Yeah. And then on the Disney Cruise Lines you can use it as your stateroom key and payment. And then also it does vary the Magic Band plus features. It varies depending on the ship, correct?
[00:40:20] Speaker B: Yes. So the MagicBand plus, up until very recently, like very recently within the past year, was only used for the Wish and the Treasure. Well, Treasure, because it's brand spanking new. But it just rolled out to a few the other ships, I'm not gonna mention which ones because I don't want to have them wrong. But it just recent and I don't want to say they're all them because I'm not entirely sure my memory is failing me. But all I can say is they got rolled out to some of the older ships recently.
I want to say as recent as last year. But again it brings that ease and convenience of just not having to have a car to just you scan in. And again, I personally, you know how like people I don't have, I have four magic bands and that's only because earlier, you know, in, not in recent years, more like 2021, 2020 and before when you would have a Disney Resort package, you could order Magic bands and they would ship you the basic magic bands for free. So I have a couple from then.
But the way that I see magicbands is the way that I see like an Apple Watch where people change their bands to combine their outfits. Right. To make sure it fits.
You know, people do that as well with their Magic bands where you have different colors or you know, different designs. People can buy accessories to Put in the little, you know, the little holes. Right. And so I just, I love being able to have that for my outfits, you know, whether I'm on a cruise ship or walking around at the parks. But it was very. I really enjoyed having it on the Disney Cruise Line because it's just not something that you would typically associate with having a magic band. But.
Yeah, you don't need it. But it's always fun.
Yeah.
[00:42:37] Speaker A: Yeah.
So we're going to go into how to set up and sync your magicband to your My Disney Experience app.
[00:42:50] Speaker B: So do you want to pull up your phone or do you want me to pull up your phone? Because we can talk about it while showing it. I think we did that with the My Disney Experience app episode, and it was really good. Or one of the episodes.
[00:43:02] Speaker A: Why don't you pull up your phone?
[00:43:04] Speaker B: You got it.
[00:43:07] Speaker A: So what you can do is first you would purchase your MagicBand either online at a Disney store or at the parks, and then you would.
To link it to your My Disney Experience app. You would open up the app and then you would go to My Magic Band and then go to Settings. So if you're. If you're not looking at.
On YouTube. So you would go to the.
On the bottom. It is the bottom right. Yeah, bottom right.
[00:43:43] Speaker B: Three lines that'll take you to the settings.
[00:43:46] Speaker A: So. And you'll scroll down and then Settings, you will scroll down to My Magic band and cards, so. Or Magic bands and Cards. And then. So then there's separate prompts that you would use.
[00:44:01] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm just making sure I don't show my clients names that are currently so here. So you would have the option.
[00:44:10] Speaker A: Yeah, you would. You would click on link. Link your magicband or card. So once you click that, then it.
[00:44:18] Speaker B: You'll have three options.
[00:44:19] Speaker A: Yeah, so you have three options of either you're linking.
So you link your magicband.
[00:44:28] Speaker B: You can use a camera.
[00:44:30] Speaker A: Yeah, you can tap it. You can use a camera because I believe there is a. Oh, wait, no.
[00:44:38] Speaker B: Yes, you can either use your camera. There's like a. There's a QR code on the back of your MagicBands. You can either scan that, you can tap your MagicBand to your camera or.
[00:44:52] Speaker A: Your phone, which I recommend. That's the easiest.
[00:44:55] Speaker B: Yeah. And then type the id. They all have a number that you can manually type it in. So once you do that, also if you don't click on the link your magic band or card portion of that setting, you can also click on your name specifically to link a card. A MagicBand specifically to the one person. And you'll basically go through the process one way or another. So when you scan it, after you scan it, it'll pop up. And I can't show you any anything more because I don't have a magicband that's not scanned to show what the process is. But once it pops up, then it'll tell you if you need to update your MagicBand or not.
It's like a hit or miss, whether it's, you know, your MagicBand's gonna need it or not. You could purchase three on the same day and two might tell you have to update and the other one doesn't. You'll want to charge it, you'll want to update it if it needs updating, and that's pretty much it, then you can just play with it. Like Brooks mentioned earlier about the different colors, if it's a magicband plus you can mess around with the different colors or not. If it's MagicBand 2.0, then there's obviously nothing more for you to do. But you can look at the different features, you can look at whether or not it's charged fully and if it's activated and you can have multiple magic bands activated under each person, it doesn't just have to be one, so. And then, you know, so under that person, like, let's say for me, I have four, I have three regulars and one magicband plus it'll show me like my magicband plus if it's charged or not, it'll show me if the other ones you know are active or not active. You can have them all active at the same time. So very, very simple. It's not difficult at all. Like you said, you go into the app, you go to the bottom right for the settings, the three bars on the right, you click on that, you scroll all the way down until you see MagicBand and cards, and then the whole app walks you through it. Super, super simple. And honestly, you don't even have to have tickets or anything to purchase it. As long as you have a My Disney Experience app, you can link a magicband in anticipation.
So pretty, pretty simple if you, if you think about it and you know, if you have your magicband linked to your account and then you have a hotel reservation, park tickets or dining plans linked and. Yeah, we didn't mention it. But with your MagicBand, like, let's say you're on the dining plan, you have credits. The MagicBand is something that you can hand to the waiter or waitress to use your dining credit. And you know, like again endless, endless applications. So it's all linked together under the wonderful my Disney Experience app. Very, very easy, Very, very simple. I think, I think the only thing that you really can't do with your magicband is like mobile, mobile order because obviously you can't, you know you do.
[00:48:17] Speaker A: Have to do that from your which that probably eventually magic bands will be. I imagine they'll eventually be like an Apple watch where they'll have a screen.
[00:48:28] Speaker B: You imagine? Yeah, you can't scan your phone for a mobile order or order from watch but you can purchase other things with the magicband anyways in a nutshell that's how you link it. Super simple, very easy, very user friendly even if you're not tech savvy.
And yeah that's pretty much it about how to set up and sync your MagicBand. And again that's for MagicBand no matter the generation.
Alright, so. So tips and tricks for using the magic band.
Well clearly my tip that Brooks didn't know is that you can customize the size for your littles or you know and that's just so that they don't have the extra flap just like curled in on them and it's just.
But that's definitely a tip slash trick is that you can customize the size for young ones.
[00:49:31] Speaker A: Yeah. And then also so you may ask, so I am a type of person that I have a Apple watch as well so or I typically wear a watch, it's a good one. And so you may ask yourself okay, I'm going to have a magic band and I'm going to have a watch on what do. So then you have to make the decision of are you going to be a two band like a one on each hand or you have both of them on one hand, what are you going to do? I am not a fan of having both my Apple watch and my magicband on the same arm.
I feel like it's too bulky so I typically I'm right handed. So I typically most of the time have my Apple watch on my left arm. I will switch it up while I'm at Disney. So it feels extremely weird to me to have my watch on my right arm but the convenience of just scanning it with my non dominant arm and because the way Disney is set up is set up for right handers basically it is. So if you're left handed at Disney it might feel a tad bit awkward with doing the scanning. So I would say typically wear it on your left hand. For most people that's their non Dominant hand for easy scanning.
And then also you can we talk about. You can't mobile.
You can't use it for.
To order your food from the My Disney Experience app ahead of time, but you can go to Quick Dining and use it for a payment option, purchase it there physically.
[00:51:33] Speaker B: You have to physically be at the register. You can't do it from your phone.
You can't tap your magic band to your phone is what I'm trying to say.
[00:51:41] Speaker A: I will say at that point it usually easier to just use the My Disney Experience app to mobile order and you can skip lines.
[00:51:51] Speaker B: You have your card on file that you can use. You don't actually need to tap in your MagicBand. Maybe that's like an obvious thing, but doesn't hurt to mention it.
But I do. I do feel that where like before I had my Apple watch, I always had it on my right hand. So I had scanning with my right and then my finger to scan on the.
Sorry. I always had it on my left and then I scanned it with my right finger. And now that I actually go with my Apple watch so I can close my rings, I have my Apple watch on my left hand and I have my magic band on my right hand and I scan with my right hand as well. So it's like doop, doop.
Yeah, but you can.
You can take out the puck.
[00:52:37] Speaker A: Yes. So I was. I was really meant to mention that. So that was one thing that my wife and I did for a while on some of our trips was we purchased these puck holders that you could put on your either Apple watch or if you had like Google Watch or Garmin or even with your backpack, they.
[00:53:02] Speaker B: Have another one that's like. Or like a. On a carabiner. Like if it was an apple, that one.
[00:53:09] Speaker A: So it's basically the. Is basically a puck holder. So you can put your magicband puck in there to do that. You do have to unscrew it from the MagicBand.
So you have to get one of those tiny screwdrivers they use for either the MagicBand Plus. Yeah.
[00:53:30] Speaker B: With the MagicBand 2.0.
Do you still have to do that?
[00:53:34] Speaker A: I believe you still. Yes, you still have to.
[00:53:37] Speaker B: I think you do. Yeah.
[00:53:39] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:53:39] Speaker B: I have not done it. I thought you could. There was a version. I feel like you could just pop it out, but I guess not. Sorry, continue.
[00:53:46] Speaker A: Oh, no, you're good.
So typically you're going to have to unscrew that and then yes, you will not have the fun band, but your puck, if it's charged, will still Interact and everything. Like, if it's a magicband plus, if it's magicband plus.
[00:54:03] Speaker B: And also if you have a magicband with a design, a lot of the times the actual puck has a design too.
[00:54:11] Speaker A: So like my figment one, the actual.
[00:54:17] Speaker B: Puck got the Epcot emblem.
[00:54:18] Speaker A: Yeah. Has the Epcot emblem.
Yours has the Walt Disney World.
[00:54:25] Speaker B: Mine's got the Walt Disney World. There's one that is like, you'll see like the Monsters University one or Simba.
[00:54:32] Speaker A: Yeah, I want them all. I want them. I know they're like Pokemon. I want to catch them all.
[00:54:39] Speaker B: Yeah. There's like. I think Jen has a fantasmic one and I think her puck is fireworks.
[00:54:43] Speaker A: So Kelsey has the pink Fantasy Land one with Chip and Dale on it. And hers is Cinderella's castle with fireworks behind it.
[00:54:54] Speaker B: I love that. I love that so much.
[00:54:57] Speaker A: But I will say one thing that we've talked about. MagicBand 2.0 and Magic Band plus, and there is a price difference. If you're wondering how much they are.
Magic Band plus, you can't.
And I'm looking on the Disney Store right now, there are some to just get a basic one.
[00:55:29] Speaker B: Basic meaning a solid color.
[00:55:31] Speaker A: Solid color, no design, no glitter, nothing. Yeah. They're $34.99.
[00:55:38] Speaker B: And I want people to know that this isn't like a fancy color too, because they have different prices for like non traditional colors. Like, and I would be like, like a silver or maybe not silver olive green or a military green, because I know Michael's always looked at that one. They have got a teal one. Like non traditional colors will have a slightly upcharge.
[00:56:04] Speaker A: Yes.
But I would say like the black, lilac cream, turquoise, light pink, olive green, orange, all the dark pink. All Those are the $34.99.
[00:56:21] Speaker B: So then you can delete my part where I say that that was enough charge because I was completely convinced. I was.
[00:56:28] Speaker A: Well. And then I'll say if you get glitter, those are like the glitter colors. Those are more expensive. Then it goes up to, I would say kind of the. The ones that are traditionally that they'll have though those designs, like spot. Like if they have a Spider man, Disney dad. Yeah. Ones that aren't like a limited edition. Those are typically 44.99.
And then it go. Then I'll say they'll go up to. If it's a limited release, I think those are the most expensive. Those are probably going to charge. Probably run you 54.99.
[00:57:14] Speaker B: They also have annual passholder ones or festival exclusives that they'll come and go.
[00:57:21] Speaker A: So yeah. And this is where, remember we talked about earlier, ordering them before your trip. One of the big advantages, ordering them before your trip for the magicband plus you get a $10 discount.
[00:57:40] Speaker B: Huge, huge tip.
[00:57:42] Speaker A: Say you were, you know, you weren't looking to spend more than $35, but you wanted one of those designs. Now those designs are $34.99. And then they'll also, if you order them ahead of time and they're linked with your reservation, they'll come with your name on them. Because mine says Brooks on it. Kelsey says Kelsey.
When we, when we get Ellie one, hers will say Ellie. Of course, then it would be. You have to keep it on, you cannot take it off.
But also if you're looking to save to. You still just want a plain color one. That $34.99 then becomes $24.99.
[00:58:26] Speaker B: That's a great tip.
[00:58:27] Speaker A: Yeah. So even we call it Disney math saving you money. So.
So I would say kind of going on.
I think we've pretty much. And then a lot of frequent questions people ask. We. I think we've can't. I think we've answered most of them. Do I need a MagicBand or can I use my phone? You can use your phone, but it is an enhancement and I feel like.
[00:58:57] Speaker B: And I will say this, easier to use a magic band with a magicband, whether you have the 2.0 or the plus, you don't need to charge your magicband. It's not gonna take away any experience or any necessity like getting into your room or getting into the parks with your phone. You're already using your phone a lot.
Your battery is draining. You're using all the fuel rods and external batteries. Why use your phone unnecessarily? For one more thing, because you'll still have to open it. You'll still have to wait for it to load. You'll still have to, you know, unless you have it on your wallet, which I always forget to do that. But like pulling up your annual pass and trying to have it like still much more of a hassle.
Your pass or your room or anything like that.
Take again, convenience and battery and all those other things. Yes, you can use phone, but you know, the implementations of a MagicBand are very far and worth it.
[01:00:10] Speaker A: Another question we have people ask us, can I share a MagicBand with someone else? You can reassign them to other people.
First you have to deactivate it from your.
So once it is assigned to someone, it's assigned to that person.
If you have say if you like you, Steph, you have several lying around and it's like, oh, you need a magicband. I have one. You can go into your My Disney Experience app.
Once you're there, it will show all the magic bands that have ever been linked to you.
Made me sad seeing some of the ones that I had. I'm like, oh, I wish I still, I wish I knew where that one was. But you can click on one and you can deactivate it. If you lost it, you can report it as lost. So if someone ever finds it and turns it in, they'll notify you that you have that, hey, we found your magic band. But you can, once you fully deactivate it from your account, then you can give it to someone and they can link it to their account.
[01:01:14] Speaker B: But you can't have more than one person linked to the single like website. It's for one person at a time.
[01:01:20] Speaker A: It's like you can't share. It's like you can't share your general mission tickets with someone. Someone can't then have your magic band and then go and use and use it as a general mission.
[01:01:33] Speaker B: If you think about it, if you're scanning in with your magic with someone else's magic band, your fingerprint is still attached to the magicband.
[01:01:44] Speaker A: Yeah, so. And then also what happens if I lose my magicband? You go into your account and deactivate it or report it as lost.
Steph already mentioned they are waterproof, which is very nice. So you don't.
Even though Apple watches say that they are waterproof.
I have jumped in a lake with an Apple watch before and it killed it. So it could be the force of the cannonball that I did, but it killed it.
But magicbands are waterproof and you can.
[01:02:25] Speaker B: Use them at the water parks.
[01:02:27] Speaker A: That's right. And then we also mention this too. Another question that we get. Can I use my magic band at other Disney parks worldwide? You can use it at Disneyland and on the Disney cruise lines that accept them.
[01:02:42] Speaker B: Yes, and same with Disneyland and Disney Cruise Line. Just like Brooks mentioned, pre ordering them before your trip, you can do that for those parks as well, not just Walt Disney World, so.
[01:02:58] Speaker A: All right. Well, Steph, do you have any final thoughts or recommendations for our wonderful magic?
[01:03:07] Speaker B: No, no. Like I said, who should buy a magic band? I think first timers, families, veterans, annual pass holders. Really? Even if you're doing one trip a year? I have clients who did one trip and they, you know, took advantage of The Bounce Back offer, like, we're gonna come back again next year. And they've been coming back with Bounce Back offer once a year. I'm like, well, you're gonna keep coming, so you might as well buy your magic band. You know, you love Disney. You want to enhance your experience and this is something that you can do that and it doesn't lose its value.
I mean, is Disney gonna bring out a new generation of magic band in the future? I'm sure we haven't heard anything, but.
[01:03:53] Speaker A: You know, because the magicband pluses are still pretty new.
[01:03:57] Speaker B: And I'll, I'll say this, we haven't revealed the trivia question, trivia question answer yet. But my magic band was my first magic band was when they. The year they first came out. And it still works. So it's not outdated technology.
Disney's pretty good, I guess, with keeping it so that people don't have to buy a new one every year or when a new generation comes out or anything like that. So I think that also speaks volumes as to, hey, it's a one time purchase. If you only want one at least and reuse it. And again, you know, when you talk about convenience and time saving and safety of children, again, just nothing beats being able to just tap for food. I love that. I love that.
So, yeah, I just, yeah, I think it's worth it for anyone.
[01:04:57] Speaker A: And to all of our Mouse Ears listeners in the Mouse Ears universe, if you have any stories or questions about magic bands, let us know. Go.
Go on either our discussion page on Facebook or go to Mouse here's blog on Instagram and ask us a question.
Go on Twitter. And also ask us, go into the comments on YouTube X, not Twitter.
[01:05:31] Speaker B: I know, I know. I still call it Twitter.
[01:05:34] Speaker A: Still Twitter tv.
[01:05:35] Speaker B: I know. I also say I just tweeted, it's so hard. But so people know we're on X.
[01:05:46] Speaker A: We'Re on Twitter. Listen, it just sounds so much better. Okay, I agree. Yeah. Anyway, I agree. Go on X.
I hate the name.
[01:05:56] Speaker B: I do.
[01:05:57] Speaker A: Mm.
So you mentioned the trivia question. Do you want to take us back?
[01:06:05] Speaker B: Sure. All right, so trivia question from earlier on in the episode was, what year were magic bands officially introduced?
And here's the answer.
They were officially introduced at Walt Disney world Resort in 2013, 12 years with the, with the MagicBand 1.0. To enhance the guest experience through technology, in 2016, Disney rolled out the MagicBand 2.0. And in 2021, 2022, Disney launched the next generation of magic bands with the MagicBand plus and as you said, also in Disneyland.
So what I have for you all today is three generations of magic bands that I. This was the very first. And the reason why this one got outdated is because you can't remove the puck.
[01:06:59] Speaker A: Yeah. So if something happens to it.
[01:07:01] Speaker B: And back in the day you used to be able to buy like little accessories for it, but you were able to also modify this one for the littles. So this was the first one. Second one. This was the second generation. So now you have a removable puck and you can start customizing. And then the third, which is the light up one, which mine's not charged, you can see there's a charger. This one's also to sync and all the different designs.
[01:07:35] Speaker A: I was trying to press the button to show it. Lights up. There we go.
Yeah, I will say I charged mine for this episode.
[01:07:44] Speaker B: Look, there is.
[01:07:45] Speaker A: There we go.
[01:07:46] Speaker B: It has some life to it. It's about to die.
Charge me, charge me, charge me. All right. So.
[01:07:54] Speaker A: So, yeah. And again, they have, I would say the technology in them hasn't really changed too much.
[01:08:05] Speaker B: Gotten better, but the concept is still the same and it's fantastic.
[01:08:11] Speaker A: So.
[01:08:12] Speaker B: So I think we can officially say that the Mouse Ears blog and podcast are fans and proponents and advocates for the magic band.
[01:08:20] Speaker A: Yes, in Disney. Eventually we will like a Mouse Ears blog and podcast magic band. How cool would that be?
[01:08:30] Speaker B: Can you imagine that? At least the colors we got, the red, the whites, the yellow.
[01:08:34] Speaker A: Maybe they'll eventually have it to where you could customize, like literally go in and customize your MagicBand like the CO.
[01:08:42] Speaker B: Op store at Disney Springs where you can customize your phone cases. That would be frickin cool.
[01:08:48] Speaker A: Disney accept payment in popcorn buckets and annual passes.
So. Well folks, that just about does it for this week's episode of the Mouse Ears Podcast. Don't forget to join our private Mouse Ears Podcast Facebook discussion page and also follow us on all of our other social media pages on TikTok, Facebook X and Instagram to stay up to date on all things travel, but mostly Disney. If you're interested in having a Fairy Tale Journeys agent booked your next trip, visit fairytalejourneys.com and let them know that the podcast sent you. Lastly, if you enjoy our weekly episodes of the now series podcast, we would love for you to leave us a review you wherever you listen to us or watch us until the next episode. Thanks everyone. Bye.
