Walt Disney World has discontinued the low cost MagicBand+ program for pre-arrival Walt Disney World resort lodge friends and Annual Passholders. With this, it’s one other finish of an period for the favored wearables; what was as soon as a fan-favorite on-site perk when it launched has declined in reputation within the years since and is now quietly being killed.
For newer followers who’re unfamiliar with this program (or anybody who needs to take a stroll down reminiscence lane), this program launched again in Could 2019 in celebration of the MagicBand’s fifth Anniversary. On the time, the improve portal provided the power to improve from a free solid-color MagicBand to considered one of greater than 30 new premium MagicBand designs that includes favourite Disney characters and designs at a particular value reflecting a $14.99 low cost.
Even as soon as the improve program launched, a number of free MagicBands had been nonetheless accessible for friends who select to not improve. The brand new designs is also shipped to friends’ properties (U.S. addresses solely) if ordered 11 or extra days forward of arrival and could be personalised if achieved so no less than 6 or extra days forward of arrival. On the time, most MagicBands value $5 to $15 after the low cost.
The pre-arrival program launched on Could 20, 2019 and, like so many issues using Disney IT, had a rocky rollout. I might estimate that that roughly one-third of the 953 feedback on our Information to Pre-Arrival Low cost MagicBands at Walt Disney World contain some kind of troubleshooting assist. (Therefore that being a serious part of the put up!)
The improve program ultimately labored (roughly) as meant and rapidly turned a Walt Disney World fan-favorite providing. We noticed a ton of reader curiosity on this subject, and we ourselves boughts a number of MagicBands with the pre-arrival low cost. (I nonetheless fondly bear in mind the sluggish launch of resort-specific MagicBand designs in late 2019, which had been a private favourite.) It was a no brainer when it was solely $10 for a premium design!
I might hazard a guess that one other one-third or so of the feedback on that put up got here when Walt Disney World introduced the tip of the ‘complimentary’ facet of the MagicBand improve program, efficient January 2021. That was one of many proverbial nails within the coffin for MagicBands at Walt Disney World, even when it didn’t seem to be it on the time.
That announcement really flew a bit beneath the radar, because the MagicBand information was considered one of a number of ‘comfortable resets’ to the visitor expertise that was introduced in Summer season 2020 earlier than the parks even reopened. Walt Disney World retiring the free MagicBand program was introduced in the identical press launch because the Disney Park Move reservation system and different well being coverage initiatives. This bombshell got here solely a few weeks after the retirement of FastPass+ and Additional Magic Hours, in addition to the suspension of the Disney Eating Plan.
Suffice to say, it was a giant, unhealthy information month for Walt Disney World followers, and the tip of free MagicBands was among the many least consequential information. There have been loads of followers who had been–and nonetheless are–upset, however Disney flooded the zone with unfavorable information, and it was troublesome to be equally upset about all of it. (“Problem accepted” stated essentially the most devoted WDW diehards.)
The subsequent large blow to MagicBands was the introduction of the MagicMobile service at Walt Disney World through the My Disney Expertise app. This roughly coincided with the sunsetting of free MagicBands in early 2021.
Round that very same time, Walt Disney World introduced the MagicBand+. The time from disclose to launch was a drawn out course of, with the MagicBand+ first being introduced lengthy earlier than it debuted, and a delay seemingly occurring someplace alongside the way in which.
From the time it was introduced, our concern with MagicBand+ was that it was going to be an costly boondoggle. That Disney would make investments a ton of cash creating new wearable tech and push it as laborious as potential to recoup these prices, solely to see it flop with followers.
Judging by the 1000’s of MagicBand+ that got away to Disneyland followers and the way few of the gadgets we see within the WDW parks as in comparison with OG MagicBands solely ~5 years in the past, it’s protected to say that MagicBand+ has not been the success that Disney envisioned. Regardless of this, there was no pivot again to the less complicated days of the OG MagicBand.
There’s nothing essentially improper with the MagicBand+ if you boil the wearable right down to its core performance. It’s tremendous. It may possibly do the entire issues that the OG MagicBand can do; it’s only a matter of ignoring the pointless bells and whistles, poor battery life, and so forth.
The issue is value. What was as soon as free for everybody staying on-site modified to a cost. Not an enormous challenge at first, as there have been nonetheless $5 to $15 choices, which is minimal within the grand scheme of a Walt Disney World trip. Not less than, when the OG MagicBand was nonetheless round.
That each one modified as soon as the MagicBand+ successfully changed the OG MagicBand. The minimal value shot as much as $25 and there have been improve choices costing as a lot as $45 as of mid-2022. When you needed something apart from a plain coloration, the value was no less than $35. At that time, you had been arguably higher off simply ready for a sale on the Disney Retailer, which additionally has higher choice.
And that proper there’s what doomed the low cost MagicBand+ pre-arrival program.
It wasn’t the availability chain points that plagued this system in the course of the phased reopening, which Disney rebounded from properly by final yr (there have been a document variety of designs accessible at one level!). It wasn’t know-how passing by the MagicBand, or the free MagicMobile service changing the wearables.
If Disney continued to present away MagicBands, they’d nonetheless be an enormous hit with friends. A type of “little issues” that makes individuals be ok with the premium pricing that Walt Disney World costs, as a result of they ship a premium product and a commensurate visitor expertise.
Above all else, what led to the low cost’s demise was the sensible actuality that the “low cost” MagicBands stopped being a deal, and the most affordable MagicBand+ to get by means of the portal was routinely $35 or extra.
This led to visitor disinterest, which led to fewer updates from Walt Disney World, and so forth and so forth. The writing was on the wall a very long time in the past, and it turned patently apparent when Disney retained seasonal, annual, and celebratory stock lengthy after it was irrelevant.
Though some followers are going to categorize this as Walt Disney World wanting to extend income by charging extra–a value enhance by a special title–we’re not so sure that’s the proper characterization. If something, I might hazard a guess that Walt Disney World is producing far, far much less income from MagicBands than they had been again in 2019. It’s a matter of quantity, as a result of how they’ve bungled MagicBands during the last ~4 years.
Walt Disney World has lastly made it official with the sunsetting of the low cost MagicBand program as of October 8, 2025. The order move nonetheless exists to undergo the motions and select, there’s simply no low cost:
Up to date MagicBand Order Course of
This web page principally appears the identical as earlier than, save for the removing of verbiage referring to particular discounted pricing being accessible for friends with an upcoming Disney Resort lodge reservation or Annual Passholders.
Above is the web page we see for our first resort reservation. In typical Disney IT vogue, it really took me a couple of instances simply to get this to show. Previous to this, I acquired an error message: “We’re unable to show your MagicBands and playing cards presently; please attempt once more later.”
This occurs about half the time, and it’s my understanding that this can be a “me drawback” as a result of I’ve too many MagicBands and playing cards linked to my account. (Regardless that I’ve proactively eliminated them on my finish, they nonetheless exist on the backend; each few years I’ve to have one of many “Avengers” Forged Members undergo the backend and delete the lifeless weight so my complete account doesn’t consistently crash. However I digress.)
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