Would magic bands from 2018 work?

[Kellina]

I’d really love to bring our old magic bands and not have to keep cards on us! Especially for my teens if they go by themselves for a bit. Then they could get in the room, have a snack, etc.

Would bands from 2018 still work or do you think the batteries will be dead?

 

[thanxfornoticin]

Even if the battery did die, you should technically still be able to use it for many functions like scanning into the park, scanning into a LL, charging.... You'll just miss out on some fancier features, like automatic ride photo detections. That being said, I just used a MB from 2018 on our trip last week and had no issues at all - worked for everything I needed it to do, included using it as my room key. The battery life seems to be very good in MBs.....

 

[Kellina]

Thanks! I posted this on the Aulani thread so I only need it for a room key, and charging would be really nice if that worked… I have one from 2019, but everyone else in the fam has 2018 ones. Can’t hurt to try!

 

[CarolynFH]

Thanks! I posted this on the Aulani thread so I only need it for a room key, and charging would be really nice if that worked… I have one from 2019, but everyone else in the fam has 2018 ones. Can’t hurt to try!

MBs don’t need battery power for opening resort rom doors or anything else that uses the Mickey to Mickey tap function. The power needed comes from the other device. So for Aulani your 2018 MBs should be fine.

 

[Kellina]

If anyone is interested, all 4 of our old bands worked fine!! It was really nice to use them for door keys and room charges. Didn’t have to bring a wallet down to the pool area!

 

[TPG0235]

Like most Disney fanatics, everyone in my family has numerous magicbands. I don't know which are from our last trip (sadly, 2019), but can we bring what we think are the most recent MBs on our upcoming March trip, and have those activated at the resort?? I only want them to open room doors, tap in at parks and pay for food & merchandise.

 

[gismo1554]

Like most Disney fanatics, everyone in my family has numerous magicbands. I don't know which are from our last trip (sadly, 2019), but can we bring what we think are the most recent MBs on our upcoming March trip, and have those activated at the resort?? I only want them to open room doors, tap in at parks and pay for food & merchandise.

Unless you have actually deactivated them they are always active so no need to "reactivate" at all they will just work. The only thing old bands can't do is long range photo pick up so the photos on rides like Tron etc wont automatically link to your account. You have to get the photopass people to search for them and find them usually but you can still get them if you remember the time you rode and what you were wearing (we do photos of the group to remember for any rides with photos on). Everything else (especially anything that scans) will work still so park entrance, door opening, charging etc

 

[AprilsZoo]

You have to get the photopass people to search for them and find them usually but you can still get them if you remember the time you rode and what you were wearing (we do photos of the group to remember for any rides with photos on).

That’s a good idea… we find it helpful to send a member of our party ahead to the preview screens to take a snap of the relevant preview.

For any we miss, we do something similar to you—
I take a selfie of us all in front of the ride, so that I remember what time we rode. It makes it easier when I want GS to find them if I can say, “here’s everyone who rode, and it was at x time…” which I can pinpoint from the timestamp on the selfie.

 

[Orsino]

I didn’t know magicbands work at Aulani. I guess I will bring ours. Thank you for the tip.

 

[nursejackie]

I took magic bands from previous years (no idea which year though, minimum 5 years old) when we returned post-pandemic in 2022 and both of ours worked no problem. I was secretly sorry they did as I fancied a new, more fancy band, but alas it worked

 

[MichelleCanada]

The Magicbands worked awesome for our room, parking garage and purchases! When I was in WDW earlier in 2023 no one could tell me if they would work at Aulani. It was because of this message board that I found out that they do work!

Having said that - we also used our phone for our room and the parking garage!