I prefer this because I like wearing my Apple Watch instead of the useless magic band or doing a combo Apple Watch / Useless Magic band.
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Disney World MagicBand Support Coming to iPhone and Apple Watch
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Yes there is that, you can manually add the picture to your account, but there is also automatic addition for some rides. If you are paying for the Memory Maker package as part of your trip ride pictures can show up automatically which I assumed were because of the magic band.
"Long-range read technology will automatically associate a guest’s attraction photos (given that they have purchased Memory Maker), to that guest’s My Disney Experience account via the RFID-chip found inside that guest’s MagicBand. This means that guests who have purchased Memory Maker will no longer need to stop at the attraction’s photo sales center to have the images associated with their account."
I'm assuming that this won't apply if you don't have a magic band so you'll have to make sure you get to the photo section at the end of the ride and tape your phone or watch before the pic disappears.
Was just about to post you lose the benefit of the 2nd feature. Loved the fact it automatically saved photos and videos on some of the rides last time I was there.
We've been to Disney a few times and those Magic Bands worked about 50% of the time getting into the parks and about 80% of the time for the actual rides/attractions. Last time we were there was 2019. I certainly hope the iOS integration has a lot better success! However, I'm not a fan of always having to take out my phone (and likely swipe it open and then open an app) rather than just flash my Magic Band. I'm also not sure how this helps with kids...Disney is designed for kids...what 2-10 year old has an iPhone? I guess/hope the Magic Bands will still be available.
I think they made a smart choice about canceling the annual pass. Disneyland/Disney World is already way overcrowded. Annual pass holders are only making them worse. And if you go there (with the same person) for the third time in a year, it's not that magical anymore. Speaking as a formal annual pass holder who made an enormous effort to go there at least three times a year.
Yes, I don't think it would be a concern at all. During festivals at Epcot I can easily use Apple Pay on my watch to pay at eight different booths. Barely a blip on my battery usage. I never have more than 2-3 fast passes during a day (when they had fast pass).
Hell, I'd still buy a cool one if I liked the design. Annual Passholders got one free every year also.
Thank you for saving me some typing.
Shutup. Really? I swear it wasn’t an option for me when mine expired at the end of October after our 2 month extension. That’ll be so disappointing. It’s actually cheaper than a week long park hopper.
It’s a trade off to be able to use just the watch, but to me it’s worth it. We never had an issue saving our pics to memory maker with the card. Off topic but Memory Maker is awesome and worked as advertised. To me it was way easier than the system they used at Universal.
That seems like hyperbole. The Magic Bands are great as a water resistant thing that serves as a park pass, Disney resort room key, pool gate key, way to make payments at any Disney location to buy something, and way to associate photos to your Disney account. Being able to use an Apple Watch as a Magic Band is even better.
I don't see any downsides to this other than the long-range photo attachment and ride queue long-range interactive things. As others mentioned, they won't have the powered rf to map crowd densities that trigger opening extra pathways and deploying their live action comedy/performers to declump crowds, but they can detect that with cameras too. I have a feeling that was a secondary goal with the Magic Bands anyway. First was lost child location, but that got shut down hard by public opinion (not that your location privacy is any more protected though).
For anyone that is curious, you can read the contents of the Magic Bands using an NFC reader. It just holds a single number that's linked to your Disney account in a database.
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Disney Parks were never more popular, obviously before they got hit with the virus mess.
Yes Memory Maker is great! We come home with a ton of pictures + the ones we took on our phones. It is just so convenient I highly recommend it. Last Feb into March right before pandemic was declared and the parks closed we did a 9 night Disney World trip followed up immediately by a 7 night disney cruise. Did memory maker for the park (awesome), and paid for the photo package on the cruise. The cruise package is not so great. The photographers are NOT disney employees, and you just don't get as many pictures so that was not worth the cost. On a side note, we were on the cruise when the pandemic was declared and stuff in the US was shutting down. That was a weird experience, not knowing if we were heading back immediately, what things would look like when we got back, etc. We were the last cruise on the Disney Fantasy. A really really fun trip, and very fortunate that we were able to get our whole trip in.
Hopefully these don't fully replace MagicBands. I like the idea of having a cheap bracelet on my wrist and keeping all my important items secured while walking around the park. The nice thing about the MagicBand is that I don't have to get anything out, and I don't need to have an expensive Apple Watch.
