Brian,
Hello from Indiana, and thanks for asking your question to planDisney!
If you have an existing MagicBand, or
MagicBand+ from a past trip, you can pair it to your upcoming plans. All you want to do is to hover over
"My Disney Experience" on the Walt Disney World website and click on
"My Magic Bands and Cards" on the pop-up menu. You should see all your bands there, and you can make sure the one you want to use is activated. You do this one guest at a time. If you have more than one old band for a given guest, I recommend deactivating the ones you don't plan to use, to simplify things.
WARNING
A MagicBand from 2018 technically would still be a valid band to use in Walt Disney World. But I want to warn you that while these versions of MagicBands were great in terms of their battery power, ones that are more than 2 years old can often be drained of power and no longer working. Sadly, I know of no way to test that out at home, and you can't replace the batteries.
You can still try with these bands. If you get to Walt Disney World and they don't work, you can either buy new bands, or you can just work from your smartphone.
BONUS TIP
With many Disney vacation packages you can purchase MagicBand+ bands ahead of your trip at a discount, via your
My Disney Experience account. You would also be able to play some of the great new interactive adventures, like the
Batuu Bounty Hunters quest.
Please feel free to
write me back directly if you have any follow-up questions.
Have a Magical Vacation!
Doug