Hello all…Countdown is on for our March visit (coming from the UK). Some advice from the forum is possible…
Is there a good reason for us to buy Magic Bands…from what I have read it might work more reliably than your phone in capturing ride photos that are linked to a Memory Maker, maybe it will speed up scanning in and out of lightening lanes…..but I am mindful buring 5 bands for this will likely be more expensive than the value we will get from them. Is it still worth purchasing 1 for myself for the Memory Maker element? Or does this seem like a pointless expense? How much are they at the moment?
They are NOT necessary, and you CAN use your phone…HOWEVER, I have found that you need to make sure that before you get on whatever ride you want pictures for, make sure you have opened up the MDE app most recently. If you have gone to any other app, your phone MAY have caused it to no longer be running in the background and it won’t work. But if you open MDE, and then ride, it should work just fine.
If you want to be extra sure, then sure, making sure at least ONCE person has a MB+ will work…but it won’t be enough if, say, you want photos of everyone on Tron, since the photos ONLY work for the two rides who are side-by-side. With 5 guests, you would really need 3…one MB+ for each row. But, again, you can just use your phone.
They are kind of pricey. I think they are on the order of $40 now, with no on-site pre-purchase discounts available.
When we visited last year we fully intended to buy and use Magic Bands, we used them before and they were great. We spent the 1st couple days looking for ones we wanted but, the longer we looked, the more we realized that our phones and key cards worked fine so we just decided not to buy any.
Thanks, but if we are limited to 1 for our group I am guessing you have to pull out your phone for the members who do not have one that are booked to a LL (all kids so it will all be on my phone).
That’s what we did back in 2022 but didn’t know if that was a thing. Is it as simple as going to Customer Relations at the turnstiles and requesting cards?
we’ve been using only keycards ever since they got rid of the complimentary gen 1 magic bands (like 5-6 years ago)
The only down side is that ride photos seem to work for me (my phone being the only one with MDE) about half the time. So I usually have to write in missing photo requests if I want them. I’ve been lucky with this and they’ve found my photos every time though.
Yea I try to always do this, and have bluetooth and NFC and everything on.
Two weeks ago in Epcot we did get a photo on all 4 occasions it was possible, but on both of our two times on GotG it was the wrong photo. We got correct photos on Frozen and Test Track though.
A year ago, and I’d say about half was missing. As an example we rode GotG 3 times and got a photo once, but got both missing ones through a missing photo request. Could’ve just been my phone, not sure.
The MB+ is expensive. If you know you’re coming back, may be worth considering to justify the cost over multiple visits as they are rechargable now. Otherwise go without as the Liners suggest. Original MBs will work but much older than 2yrs and you risk not working on Photopass - which is what you want them for.