First use of MyMagic+ long-range MagicBand capabilities begins tomorrow at all four parks

Jun 02, 2014 in "MyMagic+"

Posted: Monday June 2, 2014 11:23am EDT by WDWMAGIC Staff

The first application of the long-range RFID capabilities of the MyMagic+ Magic Band is set to rollout tomorrow at all four Walt Disney World theme parks.

Until now, only the low powered short range RFID readers are used in the Magic Bands, for applications such as touch-to-enter and touch-to-pay. Much of the expected benefits of the MyMagic+ come from the long range abilities of the MagicBand, and these are expected to drive revenue for Disney with increased sales, and provide a greater experience integration for the guests.

Beginning June 3 2014, select attractions will automatically link the on-ride guest photos to the My Disney Experience account of the rider. The attractions offering this will be:

Dinosaur
Expedition Everest
Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin
Space Mountain
Splash Mountain
Test Track
Rock n Roller Coaster
Tower of Terror

Initially, the automatic linking of on ride photos to the My Disney Experience account will only be available to guests who have purchased the Memory Maker package. A Magic Band is also required for there service to function, it cannot be done with an RFID card. Limited testing of the automatic photo linking has been ongoing since last 2013.

It is important to note that only the MagicBand can provide long range capabilities that this photo service requires, which is the first time that functionality in the park is now dependent on wearing a MagicBand. Until now, the MagicBand has only provided a convenience factor over the RFID cards.

MagicBand

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asialeighOct 18, 2014

There was system challenges at some point last weekend so it's possible the system was down and they just went by the honor system assuming you were are resort guest and/or annual passholder.

dstrawn9889Oct 17, 2014

for an experiment, get one of those bags a new hard drive comes in, and place all ticket media in it... then see how it goes

cmoliver68Oct 17, 2014

Was not staying on property last week so that's not it. Will probably be back this weekend so I will try again.

Mouse_TrapOct 17, 2014

No idea but, technically even a passive rfid has a range of up to 1m when using an active scanner, assuming you had the band on your left wrist it could have read it. Another possible alternative is that they could be using ANPR to check your number plate and identify that it's been registered to an hotel guest.

cmoliver68Oct 17, 2014

I did a quick search for other long range use of the magic bands and couldn't find anything so I will post here. Does anyone know if they have started using long range readers for parking? I went to 3 parks last weekend and was waived through just by showing my magic band. Three weeks earlier they either scanned my band or checked my orange card. I tried asking a parking attendant if they were doing this and the only answer I received was "you are good." All three times were during regular hours (not near end of day) and parking was not backed up so it seemed a little strange.

DwarfulJun 08, 2014

I don't think they did it on purpose...but they had some technical issues and we lost some of our FP's and had to make trips back to the Magic Band stations (not the FP section, but the actual MB stations). Thankfully, I had printed hard copies of my screens for each day....esp. on Sunday when 7DMT kept breaking down. It was broken down during our FP time and the CM told us to come back and check and when it was running again we could get in the FP line. But when we did the new CM told us we didn't have FPs. Took a bit of time but finally got it straightened out.

DSMDGAJun 08, 2014

My daughter and I are on one resevation with room, tickets, etc. Our magic bands are ordered, and will be linked to each other. My son and daughter-in-law have decided to join us for the week. They have annual passes which are already linked to their own magic bands, and they will make their own hotel reservation. If I purchase a Memory Maker package for our trip, would we be able to link all four magic bands to it? Would their ride photos show up if I'm not with them? I think I was told that with the old system, as the "owner" of the Memory Maker" package, I would have had to go to the ride photo booth with their ride photo number to have it scanned to my magic band.

WDWDad13Jun 08, 2014

I can confirm this is working....and working well. Ex. My family road buzz lightyear ....came off the rides and showed them our memory maker card as they tell us it is no longer needed if it's linked to our magic band....we check the mydisneyphotopass site that evening and sure enough our picture was there. Very cool

cspencer96Jun 07, 2014

Does anyone know if they will still check if it linked automatically at the counter, or if it is even possible for them to now?

Kevin_WJun 07, 2014

Yes, I have experienced auto-linking on Everest, Tower of Terror, Buzz Lightyear, Space Mountain, and Splash Mountain. No problems any time. I have checked and they uploaded just fine, although taking a backup photo of the screen would have been a good idea!

TomJun 07, 2014

So you have personally experienced the auto-linking of ride photos? Which rides so far, and did you ever check to see if it worked, or taken a backup photo of the screens after the ride?

Kevin_WJun 07, 2014

Just wanted to say that we are down here this week and so far, so good. I actually really love the convenience of the magic band and not having to fish out out photopass cards for the photographers, and the auto-linking of ride photos is a nice convenience. (Everything else about the bands has been great for us too. It's a small thing, but perhaps my favorite is not having to go through a turnstile to exit the park.)

BadTiggerJun 07, 2014

Yes I know that, I'm saying if people are concerned about RFID tracking then I hope they don't have cellphones since those devices can be tracked much more precisely.