According to Disney, free MagicBands will be discontinued for guests with new hotels reservations starting January 1st, 2021.
Up until now, guests at Disney World Resort hotels were given a complimentary MagicBand along with their stay that they could link to their My Disney Experience account to use for their trip. However, due to health and safety precautions, Disney announced it will be discontinuing this offering.
Will Old Bands Still Work?
Yes! Magic bands will continue to work just as before. The underlying technology that powers magic bands will not be going away anytime soon, so you can continue to use your favorite magic band as you have before.
Can You Still Buy A Magic Band?
Yes, you will still be able to purchase new MagicBands at a discount, with even more colors and designs than before! You’ll still be able to find bands at retail locations, and online at shopDisney.
What Will Replace Magic Bands?
Guests can also begin using the My Disney Experience app or a Key to the World card instead of a MagicBand.
Please let us know how you feel about this transition away from Magic Bands. Will you continue to use your Magic Bands?
David Van Norman
DVC Shop Editorial Team
Will definitely use my magic band! Thought that was the best thing they ever did! Oh well.
I know how you feel! Checking into Animal Kingdom for the first time, and getting our magic bands presented to us made the check-in process really novel. Thankfully the underlying tech that powers the bands will continue to be used, so our bands will continue to work for the foreseeable future. They’ll have to pry it off my wrist to get mine!
I love the magic bands! You put it on and forget about it. It is always with you! I don’t bring my phone to the pool, or dinner or family activities.
We are long time DVC members and feel that we should have been informed of this change long ago. We had many bands from the past that we did not save. Had we known, we would have!! We are definitely NOT happy about this.
We agree, it would have been great to know earlier. With so many changes happening at Disney World it’s likely Disney didn’t know until recently as well. Be sure to visit DVCShop.com/promotions because we give magic bands away for different promotions periodically!