Old Magic Bands

[bdm@pga]

Just want to make sure I have this straight. In the past, we have stayed on site and got magic bands. This time, we are staying with friends off site and we received "cards" for admittance. As long as my magic bands are active in MY DISNEY EXPERIENCE, and the new passes are linked, the old magic bands will be connected to the cards and work for admission and memory maker?

[cer]

It is my understanding that as long as the magic bands are active in the account and then you link the passes, all linked bands and/or cards should work for park entry. However, I'd bring the card along just in case.

Have a great trip!

[Imalismom]

As soon as I purchased my annual pass voucher, it showed up linked to my old magic bands when I typed the number into My Disney Experience.

[VWL Mom]

Depending on the age of the band, you may want to check after the first applicable ride that the Ride Photos on MM are registering. This was a concern I've read about previously that while the older bands allow park entry, FP, etc the MM ride options wasn't working.

[LVT]

I thought that bands tended to wear out the long range reader battery at about 2 years. That would affect ride photos.

[Fangorn]

Just want to make sure I have this straight. In the past, we have stayed on site and got magic bands. This time, we are staying with friends off site and we received "cards" for admittance. As long as my magic bands are active in MY DISNEY EXPERIENCE, and the new passes are linked, the old magic bands will be connected to the cards and work for admission and memory maker?

Short answer: yes.

As long as your MDE account shows the tickets and the old bands show active (which they will unless you specifically deactivated them), the old bands will work just fine for park entry and FP+. Just like the card.

The thing that might not work with your older bands is getting ride pictures automatically sent to your account. That piece of magic uses the long range transceiver in the band, which has a battery. The batteries should last about 3 years. There is no battery needed for the RFID chip that is used for any function where you have to touch the band to the MickeyHead, so those should work forever (or until they change the underlying technology).

Steve