Disney MagicBand+ Review – is the upgrade worth it?

This past year Disney rolled out an update to their MagicBand – the MagicBand+. Like many others, you’re probably wondering if it’s worth it to get the upgraded bands. Well, I won’t make you read the whole article…it’s not.

We are big fans of MagicBands. They are a great combination of convenience and Disney bling. Compared to cards or the flaky at best MagicMobile, MagicBands are reliable, easy to use, and work great with kids. We were excited about the update and were impressed with the designs that Disney released. However, when we experienced them in the parks we were suitably underwhelmed. From what I’ve seen, MagicBand+ currently has four main interactions at the parks: flashing and vibrating at special locations, flashing and vibrating with shows, activating statues, and Batuu Bounty Hunting.

Special Locations

As we walked around Disney, our bands would occasionally vibrate and light up with colors. For example, when we entered the France pavilion at Epcot it flashed white, red, and blue to signify the French flag. These interactions were pretty random as not everywhere had them and while interesting didn’t add much to our Disney World experience. They were also inconsistent as one of us would have our MagicBand+ activated and the other would not.

Shows

The show interactions were very underwhelming. If you ever purchased “glow with the show” merchandise like ear hats or wands you’ve seen this technology before – at key moments in the show your band will flash colors and vibrate. The timing isn’t quite right and you will discover that your band will often lag behind the performance. Also, it’s pretty awkward to hold your wrist up during a show just to see what the band is doing. If you’re holding your child so they can see the performance, it’s even more difficult to look at your wrist. Just like the special locations, this feature is interesting but not spectacular.

Statue Interactions

There are three pieces to this feature: first the band vibrates when you are near a 50th Anniversary statue to alert you, second you wave at the statue with your band so it will activate and say something, and third a game in the Play Disney app will mark the statue off as collected. The first feature works fine but can quickly become annoying. The first time you see a statue having it vibrate is no big deal, but when you’re hanging out in an area or walking through someplace like the hub with a dozen statues, the vibrations just keep going off.

The statue waving worked well for statues that were by themselves, but in many cases statues were positioned in clusters near each other. In those cases it was random which would activate. On one occasion I couldn’t get the statue in front of me to respond, but one across the street kept responding. The last feature, the interaction with the Play Disney app to collect the statues, didn’t work at all. You’d wave and wave, the statue would activate but the app would never update. I found this particularly annoying because there’s no reason the app needed the MagicBand+. Disney could have just built the app so that you could collect the statues with your phone, but instead chose to put the feature behind the MagicBand+ paywall.

Batuu Bounty Hunting

Guests head to a bounty board in Batuu to receive a task. From there, your band plays hot and cold by flashing red and green. This will lead you to a closed door of some sort where you need to fire up the Play Disney app on your phone to scan the door and catch the bounty. Finally, you visit a door next to the bounty board to collect your bounty. This is easily the best of the MagicBand+ interactions, but it still has a few flaws. First, the colored lights on the band are not bright enough to make them discernible in bright sunlight…like what’s found in Florida. Secondly, once you start the game you can’t pause it. I stopped to grab a Ronto wrap and got to enjoy my band flashing and vibrating every 10 seconds.

Lastly, the need to use your phone to collect the bounty really highlights that the band doesn’t add anything to the game. It could have done just as easily, and probably better, if it was just done completely in the Play Disney app. If I compare bounty hunting to similar experiences like the pirate scavenger hunt in Magic Kingdom, the DuckTales World Showcase Adventure in Epcot, or even the Star Wars Datapad at Hollywood Studios – it is quite lacking. We did a few bounties and there were people lining up to do the full 20 needed to join the guild, but as the best reason to buy a MagicBand+, it still comes up short.

 

So, in conclusion, if you already have a MagicBand, getting a MagicBand+ for the interactions is not worth it in my opinion. However, if you’re interested in the designs (there’s some great ones) or it’s your first MagicBand purchase it could be worth it. Disney seems to be phasing out the sale of regular MagicBands and the cost between the two model options can be similar. Pretty soon, MagicBand+ might be your only option.

— Dave

 

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