Does using your phone as your magic band work okay?

[kanickie]

I haven’t been back since they stopped giving magic bands for free and I don’t want to pay extra for one..

Is it fairly easy to use your phone as your room key, park key, payment card etc? I’m loathe to spend even more money on a magic band..!

 

[erionm]

If you still have any MagicBands from previous trips, they will still work for most functions as long as they are flagged as Active in MDE. Functions where you have to physically touch a MagicBand to a reader (room entry, park entry, room charge, etc.) will continue for work for virtually forever. The one function that eventually will stop is automatic linking of ride photos.

 

[carlyle688]

I haven’t been back since they stopped giving magic bands for free and I don’t want to pay extra for one..

Is it fairly easy to use your phone as your room key, park key, payment card etc? I’m loathe to spend even more money on a magic band..!

If you have an old Magic Band it will work for all the things you mentioned. The only thing it might not work for is ride photos.

 

[cjlong88]

Honestly, I'm not a fan of magic mobile. Most of the time someone uses it, they are from a large party and everyone's ticket is on one person's phone. So scanning in seems to take longer in general because they don't know where to place their phone on the scanner and they have to scroll through all of the passes. God forbid they accidentally scan the wrong one for the wrong person or scan the same pass twice. I've seen it really hold up some lines more than it should. Even when the CM's try to help, so many guests couldn't figure out the right spot or getting their party in the right order so the passes can be scanned quickly. Back in June we would be at the front entrance or at a LL entry and the line would stall for awhile. Sure enough, I'd pop by head out of line and see that the guests holding up the line were using magic mobile. Not saying that's how it is for everyone or it is now, but that was just our experience on our most recent visit six months ago.

 

[subtchr]

For one person, it works fine for all purposes except opening your resort room door. That can be done on a phone, but it's through the MDE app, not MagicMobile (and did not work at all for me a couple weeks ago at POR, but I had a MagicBand as backup, so I was okay. You could also get a card to use for the door.)

My husband exclusively used his Apple Watch in the parks a couple of weeks ago. It's exactly the same as scanning a MagicBand, as long as you have express mode set up for your park ticket or pass in your digital wallet. Maybe literally a half second extra for the scan to prompt the device to pull the ticket from the digital wallet.

As @cjlong88 mentioned, when a guest has multiple family members' tickets in his wallet, it's annoying to have to wait for them to unlock the phone, open the digital wallet, and scroll through and scan each ticket.

 

[HopperFan]

It will do as you need but I always share that on a big family trip two of us had MB, one used a hard media card and three used their phones. MB worked in a flash, hard ticket was not much different and the phones all took much longer to get them to work. Honestly not having to pull anything out and then have that take so much longer made my MB worth it. As others said, old ones can work.

 

[HopperFan]

If you have an old Magic Band it will work for all the things you mentioned. The only thing it might not work for is ride photos.

But if you have an iPhone (what we have) or whatever with your MDE, it will pick up the ride photos. DS#2 does not wear a MB and all his ride photos picked up via his phone.

 

[RoseGold]

It didn't work for ride photos for GOTG, which was a real bummer. I even checked my setting and had the app open and everything. I bought a new rechargeable Magic Band just for that.

It was also a total pain for after hours, when every line/land has to scan you.

It would be fine for park admission, room, payment, IMO.

 

[lovethattink]

It’s a pain to be behind someone tapping in with their phone. Seems to always take longer than someone using a magic band.

 

[2Lunds]

Phone seems to work mostly ok, with exception of using it for room access. Seems to fail 80% of the time. You can still get a free card "ticket" upon check in - that will work in the event the phone is spotty.

 

[kanerf]

I much prefer the simplicity of the Magic Band. The Magic Mobile has come in handy a few times when I walked out of the room without my band, so I keep both.

 

[thanxfornoticin]

If you often used the MBs in the past for different parts of your vacation - like park entry, FP/LL entry, charging purchases, room key, photo pass, etc - it's worth considering the purchase of a new one that will likely last for years into the future. Or as others have mentioned, take your old ones with you and verify they still work for most things - use your phone for the rest. With all the changes and complexities of Disney vacations these days, I wouldn't let a MB purchase interfere!

 

[Anna131517]

It will work. It’s not as convenient. Make sure you have a back up charger for your phone.

 

[loves to dive]

I still use most of my old ones and I have one that was actually when they were experimental and only giving them to deluxe guests, it even still works on ride photos. I do also have a new one just because I wanted the design on it. I used my phone for a room key at CS once because I left my room without my MB, forgot it since I was just running to get something to eat, thankfully I did have my phone and it opened the door no problem. My son's SO does not have a MB and she just uses a good old fashioned hard ticket to scan into the parks, he has multiple MBs so those capture the rides, he does not have a new one and his old ones work fine. I think his newest old one is about 4 years old.

 

[Muskrat191]

My phone and the readers did not work well together. It was always a challenge to get it to read. However, my husband's worked fine. I have a bulkier case, which may have been the culprit. I gave up and used one of the plastic cards.

 

[Wood Nymph]

Our iPhones worked great for opening the resort room door. We've had to use our phones for the last three resorts we stayed at because our MB's haven't been working to unlock the door.

 

[reddog21]

Everyone is different but my wife and I always use our apple watch which works flawless and is just as fast as a magic band. My kids use their phones(iphones) which we have never had issues with and work just slightly slower than a magic band or apple watch but not by much.

I would agree with everyone's opinion that it does slow down the line when you have multiple passes using one phone.

 

[Jason2015]

I haven’t been back since they stopped giving magic bands for free and I don’t want to pay extra for one..

Is it fairly easy to use your phone as your room key, park key, payment card etc? I’m loathe to spend even more money on a magic band..!

If you have an IPhone just place your ticket in the wallet. Double clicking the side button twice brings up the wallet and it is then simple to scan into the rides and/or park. My wife and son did this method this week and it worked well.

Also, the first time you scan into a park you can ask for a card. The card is free. I used the card instead of my phone for rides and park entrance and it worked well.

 

[kanickie]

Thanks everyone.

I have set up my ticket on my iPhone wallet as suggested.

I have a magic band that’s still activated from 2019. Do I need to do anything else with it? I’ll try and use it, hopefully it will still work but can use my iPhone as a backup.

 

[CarolynFH]

Thanks everyone.

I have set up my ticket on my iPhone wallet as suggested.

I have a magic band that’s still activated from 2019. Do I need to do anything else with it? I’ll try and use it, hopefully it will still work but can use my iPhone as a backup.

As long as your 2019 MB is listed in your MDE account as Active, you're good to go. Have fun!