Everything You Need to Know about MagicMobile
Hello, phone lovers! Have I got some great news for you!
Walt Disney World recently introduced new technology that will make your life easier than ever during park visits.
Here’s everything you need to know about MagicMobile.
What’s MagicMobile?
At its core, MagicMobile is just a mobile phone app. In fact, it’s just part of an existing mobile phone app, My Disney Experience.
In 2013, Disney introduced its new MagicBand system. These wearables unlocked a world of potential for park visitors.
Think about all the items you need when you travel to Walt Disney World.
You have admission tickets, hotel room keys, credit cards, and the like.
MagicBands took care of most of these needs, as the RFID chip inside the band identified you as a customer.
All the information you had stored in the cloud on My Disney Experience was accessible via a bracelet.


MagicBands at Dumbo
Using MagicBands, you could tap a square pad on your hotel room door to unlock it. You could pay for meals and merchandise with it.
You could even walk up to the admission gate at a Walt Disney World theme park and use your MagicBand to enter the park. It was…magical.
Now, MagicBands still exist at Walt Disney World today, only there’s a catch.
Disney once gave them away for free to hotel guests. Now, the company charges for them, which is part of a tactic to move away from the technology.
Park officials know that they bet on the wrong horse. Right after MagicBands came out, smartphones became ubiquitous in society.
As Jimmy Buffett sings, everybody’s on the phone. So, while MagicBands remain convenient and user-friendly, we’d all prefer something different.
We want to use our phones to enter the parks, pay for meals/merch, and enter our hotel rooms.
Enter MagicMobile. This product allows you to do all that…without a MagicBand!


Image Credit: Disney
Why Disney Created MagicMobile
Disney accepted its miscalculation during the pandemic. One of the flaws with MagicBands is that the parks rely on fingerprints to verify your identity.
With COVID-19 concerns plentiful, people didn’t want to press their fingers on something that hundreds of other guests had that same week.


Photo:DisneyFanatic.com
The company fast-tracked MagicMobile to solve this problem. Think of it like a boarding pass for your flight.
You download a code onto your phone and then use it to prove that you’ve purchased park admission.
Disney has altered its entrance gate kiosks to recognize signals from your phone.
So, once you have the code on your phone, you will hold it against the kiosk in the same vicinity where you’ve previously used a MagicBand.
The system will recognize your code and light up, just as if you’d tapped your MagicBand instead.
Now, this technology remains in its infancy. Some features aren’t available yet, but they will be soon.
At that point, MagicBands will become superfluous. Don’t get me wrong, though.
I’m still going to wear one, and you’ll eventually have to cut it off my dead body. It’s just not necessary now.
The key difference is that MagicBands require touch to work. MagicMobile is entirely contactless.
You can understand why that premise appeals to park guests more in the wake of recent events.

Who Can Use MagicMobile?
Disney wants as many customers as possible utilizing the MagicMobile service.
As such, they’ve integrated the technology for Apple and Android users. You don’t even have to use your phone!
You can download an admission code to your Apple Watch and use it at the kiosk instead.
With smartphones, you don’t even need to unlock your phone! Once you add a MagicMobile pass, the system will recognize it immediately.
Disney started its MagicMobile rollout on Apple devices. You’ll find many examples of guests using them successfully on YouTube.
Android implementation is just around the corner, and Disney has promised several upcoming enhancements.
Soon, you will use MagicMobile to pay for your meals and shopping just like you’ve done with a MagicBand.
You may wonder about the necessity of this since Apple Pay and Google Pay can do that already.
That’s valid, but Disney wants an integrated app experience. You will maintain a hotel room folio like you always have.
Using MagicMobile, you can charge expenses to your room, and it’ll debit the credit card on file.
Remarkably, you can do something with this service that you never could with MagicBands.
Guests can create digital passes for other members of their parties. They can even add all the digital passes to one phone.
So, parents can keep all the park admission passes for their entire families on a single device!
MagicMobile allows you to select among several pass styles.
You can tell which member of your party’s pass you’re accessing by looking at the picture. Disney has thought of everything!

How to Use MagicMobile
Disney has made the MagicMobile process utterly painless for park guests.
All you need to do is pull up My Disney Experience on your phone. Look for the three bars at the bottom, aka the hamburger button.
When you tap that icon, you’ll access the main menu for My Disney Experience. On the right side, you’re looking for Disney MagicMobile Pass.
Tap this menu option and then choose Set Up Your Pass. You’re ready to begin!
The subsequent screens are all about fun. You can choose the style and design of your pass!
You can pick an Ear Hat, one of the Food Favorites, or an icon from one of the four theme parks. Everything’s adorable. So, you can’t go wrong.
At this point, you have the option to link family and friends to your Express Pass. There’s only one difference when you do this.
Your pass won’t require the phone to unlock. However, if you’re managing others, you will need to open the phone to access their passes.


Photo Source: Engadget
You will store these items in your digital wallet. I know it’s just an extra two seconds of effort. I don’t want you to feel surprised by anything, though.
Once you’ve completed these steps, you’ll reach a confirmation page that says Complete! You’re now good to go!
Your phone will do many of the same things as a MagicBand, and Disney has already promised more functionality coming soon.
MagicMobile makes visiting a Disney theme park easier than ever, and I say that as a MagicBand superfan!
