Hi Tanya!
Welcome to the Moms Panel and thanks for stopping by. With Memory Maker being such a new service, there are a lot of questions about it right now. As of now, yes, the Magic Bands are only available to guests that are staying at one of the Walt Disney World Resorts. However, even though you are staying off property you will in no way be missing out on the flexibility and ease of using the Memory Maker service. Instead of swiping your Magic Bands to add the photo to your account, you will simply be able to swipe the Memory Maker photo card or any of the PhotoPass photo cards you can receive at the parks, to save your photos to your account.
I had the pleasure of using Memory Maker on our last vacation and loved it. If you are a picture person and plan on using the PhotoPass photographers to capture your memories and special moments, I highly recommend it.
There is a great wealth of information and some great tips about the Memory Maker service on the
Frequently Asked Questions page of the Walt Disney World website.
I hope that this information answers your question and helps you with any concerns you may have about the Memory Maker service. If there is anything else I can assist you with, please come back and ask me a question.
Have a wonderful vacation!
-Lauren