A Magicband is a colorful souvenir guests can use to navigate around the parks. It opens your resort hotel door, gets you into the parks, signifies if you have a fastpass and even more. Soon, Disney will debut a way to do all that and more using your smartphone via the Disney MobileMagic service.
When Disney MobileMagic launches later this year, you’ll be able to use your smartphone mobile device as a Magic Band at Walt Disney World.
Guests will be able to create a Disney MobileMagic pass via the My Disney Experience app and add it to their smart devices digital wallet.
Then all you have to do is hold your smart device up to the access point, just like you would have done with your MagicBand, to trigger the action you want to take.
Improvements incorporating what Disney called MyMagic+ technology into the guest’s cell phone was always in the cards.
Smart devices like the iPhone and MagicBand use what’s called Near Field Communication (NFC) to enable devices within a few centimeters of each other to exchange information without requiring a physical connection.
Magicbands also have additional communication abilities that allow Disney to track you at a distance of a few meters. This is how you get on-ride photos in Photopass even when you don’t scan your MagicBand.
It’s also how Disney knows which stores you visited during your trip and for how long. That’s the exchange, guests get ease of use for entering the parks, attractions, and photopass and Disney gets a ton of data for its analysis purposes.
As you may have figured out if you have a smartphones, these fun new technologies always roll out to the Apple devices first. That will be true with Disney MobileMagic too. Owners of iOS devices like iPhones and Apple Watches will get to enjoy the new toys first.
If you love the MagicBand, don’t worry. Disney also plans to continue creating fun new MagicBands with trendy new colors and fun Disney-themed designs.
If you don’t like the MyDisneyExperience, you can still do it the old fashioned way with a Key to the World card or hard plastic ticket, but it’s less fun and efficient.
We expect to learn more about the timing and details of this rollout in the upcoming months and will keep you in the loop as we hear more.
Do you think you’ll ditch the MagicBand for Disney MobileMagic?
I really liked the Magic Band. It worked and it was handy. I didn’t have to pull it out of my pocket or my purse and I didn’t have to worry about the battery dying throughout the day.
Not all changes are an improvement.
I’ve been hoping for this for a few years and looking forward to using an Apple Watch rather than having a Magic Band on my other wrist. The Magic Band seemed exciting in the beginning, but I opted for the Key to the World card last month which was more pleasant considering I was already carrying a wallet. Not having a Magic Band is one less thing on me and a better experience. The biggest positive to the Magic Band is resort pool areas because you can go to the pool without needing to carry anything for payment at pool bars.
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