Upgraded magic bands

[jovanst]

Hi all
Excuse my ignorance. I keep reading about people trying to obtain upgraded magic bands?
We are staying at the All Stars next March. Would it be worth getting upgraded bands? How much does this cost and what are the benefits? Many thanks

[Nimbus]

Originally Posted by jovanst

Hi all
Excuse my ignorance. I keep reading about people trying to obtain upgraded magic bands?
We are staying at the All Stars next March. Would it be worth getting upgraded bands? How much does this cost and what are the benefits? Many thanks

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Assuming you have linked your reservation to your MyDisneyExperience account, you can go online and "personalise" the MagicBands you'll get when you check in. As well as adding your name on the back, this used to mean selecting a solid colour of your MagicBand from a selection of about half a dozen different colours.

Now, Disney also allows you to also select from a limited (and constantly changing) selection of patterned and decorated MagicBands. This is what is meant by "upgrading" your MagicBand. If you do select one of these decorated bands it will generally cost $10 - although the price can vary with the design and I have seen one or two cost $15.

Is it worth it? It depends on whether you want a patterned or decorated MagicBand or are happy with a solid coloured one. If you want a MagicBand with, say, Mickey Mouse on it then the $10 upgrade cost isn't much and is cheaper than buying it in the shops when in Disneyworld. So you might think it's worth it.

However, all of the MagicBands do exactly the same thing so you don't get any functional benefit from the upgraded ones; they just look 'nicer'.

To give you an idea, in the image below the MagicBand in the top left is a standard MagicBand you can get for "free" whereas the other three are examples of upgraded MagicBands that you can pay to get:

The designs seem to change on a daily basis. The ones shown above may not be available when you look.

[jovanst]

That's fantastic. Thanks so much for explaining.

[Guest]

Originally Posted by jovanst

That's fantastic. Thanks so much for explaining.

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It was a good explanation, but in practice it is extremely difficult to upgrade a magic band. People have been trying with no luck or months. I managed to get some the day they were first released but then I added another reservation and tried again, I don't know ten times a day for six weeks, have finally decided to give up.

[Nimbus]

Originally Posted by Claudette

It was a good explanation, but in practice it is extremely difficult to upgrade a magic band. People have been trying with no luck or months. I managed to get some the day they were first released but then I added another reservation and tried again, I don't know ten times a day for six weeks, have finally decided to give up.

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I thought I might mention that but didn’t want to complicate things.

Also, they’re going next March so perhaps in the next 6 months Disney will have sorted things out. We can but hope.

[EmmaBolan]

Just a tip, if it doesn't work first time (i.e. you actually getting to the payment page) keep trying! It has taken us months to actually get that far and finally at nearly 60 days to go we managed it

I prefer to have a patterned/picture one rather than plain! I got this one, only cost me $10 to upgrade whereas it would have cost me $25 in the parks

[MinnieMermaid]

Upgrading, or attempting to, is doing my head in.
Anytime I go to add the ones my party want they’re out of stock.

Does anyone know if you can modify the choices after you’ve made it actually?
For example, instead of waiting for all four of ours to come up at the same time, could we instead set three peoples to a solid colour, buy one patterned then do that again when the next persons became available?
Hopefully I explained that okay 😅

[Guest]

Originally Posted by MinnieMermaid

Upgrading, or attempting to, is doing my head in.
Anytime I go to add the ones my party want they’re out of stock.

Does anyone know if you can modify the choices after you’ve made it actually?
For example, instead of waiting for all four of ours to come up at the same time, could we instead set three peoples to a solid colour, buy one patterned then do that again when the next persons became available?
Hopefully I explained that okay 😅

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No you can’t do that, it will lock your choices in.

I recently selected two solid colours as “back up” for our first stay in September and even those seem to be locked in now. I plan to waste no further time on it. The process is a shambles.

[MinnieMermaid]

Originally Posted by Claudette

No you can’t do that, it will lock your choices in.

I recently selected two solid colours as “back up” for our first stay in September and even those seem to be locked in now. I plan to waste no further time on it. The process is a shambles.

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Ah dammit, I was fearing that.

Well, I'll continue to try - I've only got 10 days left to try so might as well continue

[amarooney]

Originally Posted by Claudette

No you can’t do that, it will lock your choices in.

I recently selected two solid colours as “back up” for our first stay in September and even those seem to be locked in now. I plan to waste no further time on it. The process is a shambles.

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I think you are over rating Disney's performance here when you rate it as a shambles