What is a Magic Band at Walt Disney World?

What Is a Magic Band? 

What exactly is this magical band you need to know about for your Walt Disney World vacation?  Well, it helps simplify your trip! There are quite a few times you will use your band and all you have to do is scan it at a touch point. You don’t have to pull out a card or ticket to scan each time, it’s right there on your wrist!

What Does a Magic Band Do?

•Unlock your room at a Disney Resort.
•Pay for food, drinks, and merchandise at resorts and theme parks if your card is linked and you have a PIN set up.
•Enter the parks with your tickets connected in your My Disney Experience account.
•Enter the Lightning Lane entrance, if using Genie+, for certain rides.
•Link Disney PhotoPass photos to your Memory Maker account.

Magic Band Options and Accessories

There are a ton of colors and designs, with new ones released often! I love to add sparkle to mine with a Swarovski Mickey sticker from my friend at The Sparkled Shell — check her out on Etsy!

Magic Band Tips

If you have a smaller wrist or need to fit a child, you can pop off the dark grey piece to get a better fit! 

Also, with this version of the Magic Band, you can use a small screwdriver to pop out the center piece (the “puck”) if you don’t want to wear it on your wrist.  There are a bunch of wearable options for the puck on ShopDisney and Etsy, like keyrings, slides for your smartwatch band, and more!

Edited to add: Magic Bands are no longer included for free with a Walt Disney World Resort stay as of 01/01/2021.

The new Magic Band Plus was released during the summer of 2022. Find out more about the fun features!