FYI on buying Mario Power Up Bands

[GoofyforDisney3]

Just wanted to let people who are planning on buying the bands at city walk before hitting the early entry the next day, they DO NOT sell them outside of the park on the weekends. You can see the display at the Mario store, but they will not have them to buy. We went on Sunday 5/14 to buy the bands before our early entry on Monday 5/15 and learned this. Thankfully it only took a few minutes to buy after going in on Monday and its seconds to set up the bands so not major issue. Just wanted people to know.

 

[jonahsmommy]

Thank you so much for this information. We have reservations for Thursday, June 1st and we were planning on making a special trip the night before to buy the bands and get them set up before. I wonder why they don’t sell them on weekends?

 

[GoofyforDisney3]

Thank you so much for this information. We have reservations for Thursday, June 1st and we were planning on making a special trip the night before to buy the bands and get them set up before. I wonder why they don’t sell them on weekends?

I couldn’t figure out a good reason but they must have had an issue for them to make that policy. You should be fine though. Have fun! It’s a cool area and the ride is really neat but it is a little stimulation overload after a while.

 

[poohj80]

Are buying bands required to experience the land/ride?

 

[Nike4000]

Are buying bands required to experience the land/ride?

They're not required, but you'll miss out on some of the fun parts of the area. There are coin blocks and "secret" things that interact with the bands. Plus, I don't think you can take on Bowser Junior if you don't have Power-Up bands. You need to acquire 3 keys via challenges in Super Nintendo World in order to be able to challenge Bowser Jr. The challenges require the Power Up bands.

As for the Mario Kart ride, the only benefit from having the bands is that your score from the ride is saved to the band. If you do well, you'll unlock certain stickers. There are hourly competitions for points that unlock other stickers.

All the stuff that gets unlocked on the Power Up bands can be transferred to your Nintendo Switch because the bands are essentially Amiibos. How they're used from there, I have no clue.

 

[DLgal]

Are buying bands required to experience the land/ride?

Pretty much, if you want to actually DO anything. They are required to play the mini games (there are 5 of them-at least one person in your party has to have a band to get in line) as well as to get a score on the Mario Kart ride. The whole point of the land is that its a real life video game. Smashing blocks, for example, only gives you the sound and light effects if you have a band. There is a section in the app for the land and it keeps track of your score, rankings, and shows you which stamps you have collected. There are challenges to get more stamps.

 

[DLgal]

They're not required, but you'll miss out on some of the fun parts of the area. There are coin blocks and "secret" things that interact with the bands. Plus, I don't think you can take on Bowser Junior if you don't have Power-Up bands. You need to acquire 3 keys via challenges in Super Nintendo World in order to be able to challenge Bowser Jr. The challenges require the Power Up bands.

As for the Mario Kart ride, the only benefit from having the bands is that your score from the ride is saved to the band. If you do well, you'll unlock certain stickers. There are hourly competitions for points that unlock other stickers.

All the stuff that gets unlocked on the Power Up bands can be transferred to your Nintendo Switch because the bands are essentially Amiibos. How they're used from there, I have no clue.

Yes, good point on the Amiibo. My husband used his band on the new Zelda game and it unlocked a whole bunch of extra items that there is no other way to get. It also unlocked a new racing suit in Mario Kart for my son.