Magic Key Discount without Pulling Out Phone?

[nesboy43]

Is there any way to use my Magic Key discount without needing to keep pulling out my phone? For the record I have a Magic Band but don't believe it works for getting discounts.

It gets tiresome to keep having to reach for my phone. I heard when Magic Keys became a thing, people printed barcodes but Disney stopped allowing scanning of them. Any suggestions?

 

[Lisa24jks]

That is the only way. Disneyland retail is not set up for Magic Bands as of now (and no idea when/if that will ever happen.)

You may be able to screenshot your pass and make it your lock screen to eliminate the steps of opening up the DL app, but I've heard it's hit or miss on whether CMs will accept that or not. Either way, you still have to use your phone.

 

[DLandgirlie]

I think screenshots work? But I lately have been using my Magic Key Paper pass (received @ticket booth)

 

[nesboy43]

I think screenshots work? But I lately have been using my Magic Key Paper pass (received @ticket booth)

Oh I did not know this was an option, do you just ask at the booth?

 

[Nonsuch]

Is there any way to use my Magic Key discount without needing to keep pulling out my phone?...

There has been a big push to use phones for Mobile Checkout, skipping the regular check-out lines.
Disney seems to want guests to use their phones more, not less.

 

[foolish_mortals]

Oh I did not know this was an option, do you just ask at the booth?

You ask and pay $20 at the booth for a paper pass. It’s not free, though sometimes they will waive the fee.

 

[JerrodDragon89]

lol

The fact that Magic Band's don't work at the shops.....Disney why? Upgrade your system you made the band let people use it

 

[dina444444]

Even at WDW with pay by magic band you still have to show your pass on the app to get the discounts.

 

[Pamela M]

I take a snapshot of my pass then save it as my locked screen saver. That way I’m fumbling to pull it up. Only once was I told they needed to see it in the app.

 

[JerrodDragon89]

Even at WDW with pay by magic band you still have to show your pass on the app to get the discounts.

The entire point of the band is so you don't have to pull your phone out

It just annoys me they made this tech and it's not new its been around for 5ish years and it seems they have zero plans with it

 

[dina444444]

The entire point of the band is so you don't have to pull your phone out

It just annoys me they made this tech and it's not new its been around for 5ish years and it seems they have zero plans with it

MB tech has been around for a little over 10 years now actually.

 

[nesboy43]

You ask and pay $20 at the booth for a paper pass. It’s not free, though sometimes they will waive the fee.

Thank you. I'll pay 20 dollars to not have to pull out my phone in shops/stores LOL.

 

[JerrodDragon89]

MB tech has been around for a little over 10 years now actually.

lol

In 10 years...they don't have a way for you to use a discount with a device they made and make you pay for....

 

[brightlined]

It's hard to see so many people here misunderstand how MagicBand actually works - ie, what it can actually do at WDW.

WDW spent $1 billion implementing it ten years ago. DLR clearly can't afford to implement those features - most of them were justified by the number of resort hotel guests - and some of the features mentioned here are things WDW doesn't have.

The only thing MB does at shops at WDW is charge to the room. That's it. It doesn't check for AP status, and you can't use it to charge to your credit card.

"Just make it happen" is nuts. Disney spending potentially tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of dollars to add MB features that they may never financially recoup - all because "I don't want to pull out my phone" - is crazy. Just adding a so-called "MK check" to shops would mean replacing the POS (credit card reader) devices - or adding a separate MB reader - at every shop and changing the software to handle it. That's a tremendous expense - not something that they can just flip a switch on.

The worst part is that it won't work all that well. Remember - at DLR, MBs are attached to a ticket, not a person. If, for example, someone points their MB to an event ticket (ie, OBB), they would have to point it back to their MK pass in the app for it to work in the store. That would require them to... wait for it... pull out their phone.

The legitimate irritant here is that DLR didn't want to spend money sending out MK cards. To a degree, there's an argument that they're doing that for security reasons - making sure that the person really does have access to the MK and isn't trying to use someone else's. But that's a complaint I'm fine with.

Didn't we all grow up pulling a credit card out of a wallet? Don't people still do that? What's the difference between doing that and pulling out your phone?

 

[JerrodDragon89]

It's hard to see so many people here misunderstand how MagicBand actually works - ie, what it can actually do at WDW.

WDW spent $1 billion implementing it ten years ago. DLR clearly can't afford to implement those features - most of them were justified by the number of resort hotel guests - and some of the features mentioned here are things WDW doesn't have.

The only thing MB does at shops at WDW is charge to the room. That's it. It doesn't check for AP status, and you can't use it to charge to your credit card.

"Just make it happen" is nuts. Disney spending potentially tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of dollars to add MB features that they may never financially recoup - all because "I don't want to pull out my phone" - is crazy. Just adding a so-called "MK check" to shops would mean replacing the POS (credit card readers) devices at every shop and changing the software to handle it. That's a tremendous expense - not something that they can just flip a switch on.

The worst part is that it won't work all that well. Remember - at DLR, MBs are attached to a ticket, not a person. If, for example, someone points their MB to an event ticket (ie, OBB), they would have to point it back to their MK pass in the app for it to work in the store. That would require them to... wait for it... pull out their phone.

The legitimate irritant here is that DLR didn't want to spend money sending out MK cards. To a degree, there's an argument that they're doing that for security reasons - making sure that the person really does have access to the MK and isn't trying to use someone else's. But that's a complaint I'm fine with.

Didn't we all grow up pulling a credit card out of a wallet? Don't people still do that? What's the difference between doing that and pulling out your phone?

The Disney Parks are the most profitable things they have

So they could do it and if they didn't plan on it being used for literally a discount by linking a band to a AP/Magic Key that's on them for wasting somehow a Billion dollars
Your MK is just a code, that code should be able to be linked to a band and you scan it and bam discount if Disney can't figure that out...hire people who can.

It's really not rocket science here, if Universal can have a band that links you the App and keeps your score at Nintendo then Disney can make the devices hold data with your MK bar code on it

 

[brightlined]

The Disney Parks are the most profitable things they have

So they could do it and if they didn't plan on it being used for literally a discount by linking a band to a AP/Magic Key that's on them for wasting somehow a Billion dollars
Your MK is just a code, that code should be able to be linked to a band and you scan it and bam discount if Disney can't figure that out...hire people who can.

It's really not rocket science here, if Universal can have a band that links you the App and keeps your score at Nintendo then Disney can make the devices hold data with your MK bar code on it

WDW "wasted a billion dollars" because they didn't implement AP taps into MB? Like... what?

I've spent half an hour trying to respond to this - this is ridiculous. This isn't how tech and business work. You can't just wave tech out of thin air. Projects have to be justified financially - within the division asking for the feature. Food and Gate profits aren't going to a project that "might" help Merchandise/Sales and/or Ticketing. And "might" is being generous here - very few people would benefit in any meaningful way from the overhaul of hardware and software that would be necessary to implement that feature.

I mean, if Universal's bands can track Nintendo points, why don't they also get people into the park? I mean, MBs do that, right? The bands were justifed as a part of the Super Nintendo World experience - that's all. The features that MBs have at DLR are the ones they could financially justify doing.

The MB feature most likely to happen at this point is the room key stuff. Resort guests have long been asking for it, it's the original justification for MBs at WDW, and it's something that would be centrally handled - something that might be justified the next time there's a tech/software upgrade at the hotels. But if the hotels can't justify it on paper, it won't happen.

 

[JerrodDragon89]

WDW "wasted a billion dollars" because they didn't implement AP taps into MB? Like... what?

I've spent half an hour trying to respond to this - this is ridiculous. This isn't how tech and business work. You can't just wave tech out of thin air. Projects have to be justified financially - within the division asking for the feature. Food and Gate profits aren't going to a project that "might" help Merchandise/Sales and/or Ticketing. And "might" is being generous here - very few people would benefit in any meaningful way from the overhaul of hardware and software that would be necessary to implement that feature.

I mean, if Universal's bands can track Nintendo points, why don't they also get people into the park? I mean, MBs do that, right? The bands were justifed as a part of the Super Nintendo World experience - that's all. The features that MBs have at DLR are the ones they could financially justify doing.

The MB feature most likely to happen at this point is the room key stuff. Resort guests have long been asking for it, it's the original justification for MBs at WDW, and it's something that would be centrally handled - something that might be justified the next time there's a tech/software upgrade at the hotels. But if the hotels can't justify it on paper, it won't happen.

We just disagree

Disney can easily make this apart of the bands, its been 10 years and they just don't want to do it.

It makes perfect business sense to me to make it where you tap and your discount is applied, especially when this is not a FREE device you are paying 40-60 bucks for it.

 

[brightlined]

Jerrod: "Why is it taking so long to put a man on the moon again? It's easy. My refrigerator has more processing power than the computers they used in 1969."

Me: "The amount of funding that went in the lunar program in the 60s was exorbitant - it was essentially a combo foreign policy and military program, spare no expense or measure. We simply can't justify that level of funding now. Most of the rocket tech consisted of handmade one-offs that weren't documented - there was no way to do that then - and the methods have been extremely difficult to reverse engineer from the couple of rockets that remain. Plus, those rockets were resource hogs that were themselves expensive to operate. We're also less tolerant of loss of life after the shuttle disasters - there's more of a focus on safety now and getting it right the first time. And people expect the private sector to do more of this now, which means that the public and private sectors don't play as well together as they did then, given different priorities. It's hard, but they're getting there."

Jerrod: "Nah, it's easy, they just don't want to do it fast."

 

[gelatoni fan]

It's hard to see so many people here misunderstand how MagicBand actually works - ie, what it can actually do at WDW.

WDW spent $1 billion implementing it ten years ago. DLR clearly can't afford to implement those features - most of them were justified by the number of resort hotel guests - and some of the features mentioned here are things WDW doesn't have.

The only thing MB does at shops at WDW is charge to the room. That's it. It doesn't check for AP status, and you can't use it to charge to your credit card.

"Just make it happen" is nuts. Disney spending potentially tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of dollars to add MB features that they may never financially recoup - all because "I don't want to pull out my phone" - is crazy. Just adding a so-called "MK check" to shops would mean replacing the POS (credit card reader) devices - or adding a separate MB reader - at every shop and changing the software to handle it. That's a tremendous expense - not something that they can just flip a switch on.

The worst part is that it won't work all that well. Remember - at DLR, MBs are attached to a ticket, not a person. If, for example, someone points their MB to an event ticket (ie, OBB), they would have to point it back to their MK pass in the app for it to work in the store. That would require them to... wait for it... pull out their phone.

The legitimate irritant here is that DLR didn't want to spend money sending out MK cards. To a degree, there's an argument that they're doing that for security reasons - making sure that the person really does have access to the MK and isn't trying to use someone else's. But that's a complaint I'm fine with.

Didn't we all grow up pulling a credit card out of a wallet? Don't people still do that? What's the difference between doing that and pulling out your phone?

At table service restaurants, waiters will often take your phone to the back to apply the discount which is something I felt very uncomfortable about. CMs would be able to see my private data and while waiting for them to return, I'd be left without my phone.

Taking out a phone to get a discount can also be a lot more friction than taking out a credit card. With a credit card, I reach into a wallet and pull it out. With a phone, I have extra steps to unlock it and load the app. In some cases, the app has errors and won't even load the Magic Key properly. You may also have problems if your phone runs out of battery, overheats or you have a limited data plan.

I actually find the current system less secure than physical cards in preventing unauthorized people from using a discount. Disney Plus already incentivizes sharing your Disney password with your friends and family who can then log in on their phones in the park to see your Magic Key. Or you could even send a screenshot to everyone. With a physical card, you only have one card which you are unlikely to pass on to a bunch of different people. If security was a concern, they'd actually require a physical card with your photo on it to get a discount.

My stance is that the physical cards should be offered and the app can be an option for people who like that. At least for me, being able to use Magic Bands for discounts would be cool but still wouldn't convince me to buy one.

 

[foolish_mortals]

Most table service restaurants have switched to just looking at the phone and applying the discount.