Should I be considering purchasing magic bands or should my phone suffice? What are the advantages? Memory Maker ride photos I believe. Other? If I should bite the bullet, what is the best time to purchase for a Nov trip?
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Do you already have old magic bands for your group? They will still work for everything except on-ride photos.
Your phone might suffice. You can set it up to be able to get the ride photos (I don’t know the details). I don’t know how many are in your group, but it can be challenging to swiftly scan each person in (admission and LL/VQ) without making a traffic jam - if you have to scan for each person in your group.
You can get a hard card to use for things you have to tap, as a backup in case your phone gets lost/damaged/runs out of battery.
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If you have an on-site stay you can order magic bands at a slight discount.
You phone can do almost everything but you would need a room key for the pool area (at some resorts) and your room door (I have never got my to unlock the door).
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No. We’ve only been to WDW once in 2015 for an offsite stay. Just used the OG key cards (I had bought everyone lanyards). In DLR and Disney Paris I just used my phone and swiped for each rider. I got pretty darn good at it.
Ride photos would be a deal breaker, but if I can set up my phone to ensure photos, I’d be ok.
MBs are just so darn expensive, like $40 each in the shop Disney store. $160 seems like we can use our phones, lol or get the OG hard key cards. It’s not like Universal where you often have to check your phones.
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Either way is fine. You don’t need to use MB+s. The methods used in DLR will work just fine in WDW.
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Having 1 MB+ to play the Bounty Hunter game in GE might be worth it.
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I logged into MDE to see what my options were with a discounted band with onsite stay, and for the life of me, can’t figure out how to find any discounted bands. I of course can see bands from any online store, and hoo boy, are they pricey at $45-ish dollars.
Another decision…I’ve made so many this week.
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I used a MB from 2017 when I went this past December and got all my ride photos. I think I might have enabled location services for MDE?
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For photos it is nice to have a few MB+ per party so it registers each pair of riders. It’s a pain to not have it capture everyone and then you have to use chat or GS to find your photos. That’s the main benefit, other than convenience for admission and LLs.
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We use our older Magic Bands…although we also each have a MB+. We could never get either of our phones to work as a room key, so we relied on our MBs.
We did figure out how to use the phone for on ride photos when we were wearing our old MBs that no longer have battery power…but the trick is that the MDE app needs to be actively running when you get on the ride. So make sure you open up MDE while in line for the ride just before you get on or it might not work for photos.
To choose your MB+ discounted for your hotel stay, open up your hotel reservation in the MDE app and scroll down a bit to here…
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Another thing with MB )and someone correct me if there’s another way) is I prefer charging on my MB because then it’s itemized in MDE. If you use a cc to charge everything just shows as WDW resort which is very difficult when trying to track expenses.
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You all are awesome. Thanks. My MDE on my MAC is super wonky, so am going to try the app on my phone.
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We did lanyards with our key cards this trip. Still got most ride photos. Think they missed one group on Buzz and one on Haunted Mansion.
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Once you go shopping, it’s amazing how you can talk yourself into buying, lol.
I have four bands in my cart, but I am going to think about it. Our trip isn’t for awhile, so I can check back later during a lower demand timeframe.
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I’ve gone without magic bands and just my phone and it’s worked great. The only problem I’ve run into is having it think I was scanning in when I was trying to scan in my son (who was under 13 and couldn’t have his own MDE account). As a solo traveler, it was fantastic.
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@coloradoresident Thanks for bringing up MB+… reminded me that I have to find mine, and of course, they were hiding in a deep dark corner of the basement. But found 'em, eventually 
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@DWJoe fid you do the update? I found the update really increased the battery life.
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Ours stays in my jewelry box along with the small bag with the MB charger, the 2 neck fan chargers and 2 phone chargers. It’s a “Here for the Snacks” Disney pouch. So we’re always ready to go!
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Over the day they have now? I’ll have to charge and update mine then! That was my biggest gripe. If I forgot to charge one night it wouldn’t last the next full day. Do you know approximately how long they last after the update?
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