I have not visited WDW since the introduction of Magic Bands. 
Our family will be staying off-site, and I would like to know the opinions and experiences of others here: would you (or have you) bought Magic Bands because you were staying off-site? Would you do it again? If you thought it was worthwhile, why? 
Thanks, as always, for your help!
If I was visiting, and staying off site, several times in the next 3 or 4 years, I would by one. But, back before MBs, the Key to the World card worked fine. I assume they use something similar now. I carried mine in a holder hanging around my neck. Almost as convenient as a MB.
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We stayed at the Swan and bought Magic Bands. We did EMHs every day, of course used FPs and had Memory Maker. It felt like we were constantly scanning our bands. I imagine we could have done without them but I was very glad we had them.
I bought MBs for all my group when staying offsite because I loved the characters on them and didn’t want the mess of keeping up with everyone’s magic card. I would have had to take out, hand out, scan, collect, put away for every entrance, FPP, park hop… ugh! No thanks. MB you can slap on their wrist and it stays there. And they can scan themselves. It seemed like a great idea at a small cost and I still wear my HM MB to this day! It’s a nice souvenir.
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Staying outside the world i would say you can pass on it. Maybe get a lanyard to hold all of the cards.
As a guest it covers all. Key. Pass. Fastpass charge to room. so it is needed and makes sense.
Thanks! Do Magic Bands work as room keys at the Swan and Dolphin?
No, they don’t.
100% buy the magic bands. It’s so worth it to not have the hassle of digging around for and keeping track of the cards and which one belongs to which guest, and collecting them after every tap. Especially if you get the ones that are only $12.99, totally worth it. We used the magic bands even when we were staying offsite, and kept the magic cards in the backpack just in case. We did end up diving in for my 7yo’s card at one point…he had left his magicband in the car, and we didn’t want to go back for it. That afternoon we had to pull out his card at each tapstile, and it was a little bit of a hassle. So…I say worth it. 
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I’ve only stayed onsite, but with kids, I would much rather have magic bands for FPP, then getting out tickets. We went to DL a lot before maxpass, and I hated the lanyards and fumbling with tickets all the time. (side note, maxpass is worth it to us just for that, let alone the no more running around)
I agree they are worth it! Since they have come out I have only stayed on-site, however my sisters went on a trip last summer off site and they got MBs for all of them. 3 adults & 5 kids, they don’t stay on site and LOVED how much easier it was. Especially since they spit up a lot in the parks and had different FPPs for different “teams” (because of the kids ages they split up with each having a different adult) The couldn’t let the kids have their own cards and having to pass them out, collect them & figure out who they belonged to all day - is just a pain, plus the kids really liked being able to have their own band
they also had the memory maker and even though they could have merged them all at the end, they didn’t have to worry about it.
When they went it was right when they were changing from MB 1 to MB 2, so they ended up getting a great deal on themed MB1’s, but you can the plain colors for $12.95
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I would and I did. I currently have five: three from hotel stays and two “premium” ones.
They’re fun to wear, they make tapping in much easier, and ride photos automatically appear in Memory Maker because it knows where you are.
It’s part of the whole experience. The basic ones aren’t massively expensive. They’re like souvenirs. And they’re reusable.
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We’re going in December and staying off-site and I bought them for the 5 of us. 5 of us x 8 park days x 3 FPP each (at least) = more times than I care to dig out tickets and try to keep track of who has which one when.
Wow! Thanks for all the great feedback everyone! I really appreciate all the help. Any tips on where to buy?
Our last trip, we did not have Magic Bands. It is doable, but admittedly a little inconvenient at times.
Part of it is that I don’t trust some of my kids to not lose the ticket. As a result, I kept ALL the tickets for everyone in my wallet. When it was time to “tap in” for a Fast Pass, I would just take out all the tickets and scan my family through, not worrying which applied to whom. The only time that mattered was when entering the parks.
There was a point, however, where having the magic bands would have been fine.
So, at Test Track, they have this feature where you go and design a vehicle in groups. This wasn’t at all clear that when we scanned our cards to design our vehicle that this would play a role later in the ride. When we got to the ride itself, there was no wait. We were supposed to “tap in” with our same bands or tickets. Since I had all the tickets, and we just kind of randomly scanned them, we didn’t know whose tickets got scanned for which design. As a result, we were standing there not knowing what to do. The CMs just looked at us like we were crazy, waiting for us to scan our tickets. I told them we don’t know which applied to who. But they needed us to board, so we didn’t scan anything and rode the ride. The result was that part of the “experience” on the ride where they could rate how your vehicle designed did in the testing was just blank.
In hindsight, this is where Magic Bands would have been helpful. Everyone could have easily scanned themselves in. Because even with the tickets, they would have had to scan them in and hand them back to me to put in my wallet AS we were boarding the ride. I partly blame the CMs for this, as they didn’t explain how this was to work ahead of time adequately enough for us to even knew it mattered.
In all other situations, having tickets instead of Magic Bands was simply a minor inconvenience in comparison…and I wouldn’t have considered it an inconvenience at all were there not Magic Bands to compare it to.
Would I PAY for Magic Bands? Probably not. I’m a cheapskate. For 6 of us, the amount we would pay in Magic Bands would have paid for a meal or extra snacks. They just aren’t NECESSARY. But if you aren’t so concerned about their cost, they are MORE convenient, for sure.
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This^^ You’ll scan the band/card once to enter, and then only for FPPs. Unless you need a souvenir, I wouldn’t waste the money.
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I would definitely buy them, at least for kids. Really convenient, and our DD loves her “Mickey bracelet”. You can get them in all the parks (including Disney Springs) and the resort shops. Linking them takes less than a minute, so can easily be done on the go in a park. If you decide to buy from a non-official source such as eBay, please make sure that the listing definitely states that the Magic Band is unlinked, as a previously used one can never be reassigned to someone else.
I’m another “pro” bands.
Disney Store online.
You can link your bands to mde in about 3 seconds each.
You can also buy them in stores at disney parks and resorts.
I think there’s a place inside mco if you are flying in as well.
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We stayed on site, but man were they convenient. No so convenient for our bank accounts, but because of my band I didn’t bring a purse with me!
We didn’t get bands that were decorated, we got the plain colors and I found some stickers on Etsy that I applied so mine was Up themed, and his was Star Wars. Great thing is we can pick new stickers next time!
This raises a good point. Disney found that people using Magic Bands spend something like 30% more in the parks. That’s really the driving factor behind their use, actually. Raises their revenue! But I understand the science behind it.
They have found that if you pay for something with cash, it actually triggers the same part of the brain that sense pain. If you pay with a credit card, that part of the brain is not impacted nearly as much, which is why people who use credit cards a lot tend to go into debt! Magic Bands takes that even a step further. You have any and all sense of money (unlike with cash) and will find yourself spending money when you wouldn’t otherwise.
So, something to keep in mind if budget matters!
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If you are staying off-site you can’t use your magic band to pay with.