Hi Marilyn!
Welcome to planDisney!
Autumn is a wonderful time to visit the Walt Disney World Resort! You’ll find the Magic Kingdom decked out and ready for Halloween, while over at Epcot you can stroll, sip, and savor your way around the
Epcot International Food & Wine Festival. Both of these are fan favorites so make sure to leave yourself time to enjoy both of these seasonal specialties.
MagicBands are no longer complimentary, but Guests of
Disney Resort Collection Hotels can still pre-order MagicBands for their trip and receive a discounted price. Even though MagicBands aren’t required, we still love them, and picking them out in advance is part of the fun and anticipation of our trips!
If you have older MagicBands you can reuse them for your upcoming visit. The official timeline is that the battery is still good for approximately 2 years, though other Guests report being able to use them for longer than that. MagicBands are associated to Guests, not to a specific trip or hotel reservation. Any Guest with an old band associated with them can use that same band for an upcoming trip as long as they are still the same person in My Disney Experience.
If you’d like to not purchase MagicBands, and don’t have old ones to reuse, you have two options. You can use the Key to the World Card issued to you at your Resort Hotel, or your ticket card. But if you like to get high-tech, check out the new
MagicMobile service! MagicMobile was introduced this spring and it allows you to access your Disney Theme Park Tickets from your smartphone or smartwatch! This allows you to
use your mobile device in place of a MagicBand for park tickets, and your mobile phone will allow you to access your room door within the My Disney Experience App.
I hope one of these options will work for you, Marilyn. Please let me know if you have any additional questions before your visit!
Have a Magical Day!
- Kate