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The new MagicBand upgrade called MagicBand+ has already come to Walt Disney World Resort, and now it’s coming to Disneyland Resort across the country — and Disneyland president Ken Potrock had a lot to say on the matter, as well as how the new MagicBand update will add to Guests’ Disney experience!
In an interview with Disney’s Official Fan Club on the D23 podcast, Ken Potrock said that he thinks MagicBand+ is going to “have a lot of similarities but I think it’s gonna have a lot of differences as well”.
The primary purpose of the technology used in Disney Resorts, Ken Potrock explained, is to “help embellish a story or help enhance an experience”. That’s also something that Potrock said Disneyland’s team has “learned a great deal about” as they begin to “apply [technology] even more”.
A Disneyland Magic Band Credit: Disney
“The idea of Magic Bands [and] the idea of making those bands interactive in different parts of the Park or in different lands in a variety of different ways, and really novel ways done in zones” is an approach that Potrock called “very very fun and different”.
Even though Disney World already has MagicBand+ (including a special 50th anniversary edition), it was clear from Potrock’s interview that the Disneyland president wants to make sure that Disneyland’s version is distinct. “We’ve worked really hard on the creative of it,” he added. “How do we sort of ‘Disneyland-relevant’ those bands?…How will they be relevant to Disneyland specifically?”
Disneyland Magic Band Credit: Disney
Disneyland’s president also mentioned that he wanted Disneyland MagicBand+ bands to be valued collectibles and that they would be successful “both for the interactivity but also for the fashion statement”!
Potrock also spoke to D23 about the importance of technological advancements to the Walt Disney Company. “Technology has just played such an important role for us,” he remarked. “We don’t do technology for technology’s sake. we do technology to accomplish something [such as] enhance a story [or] engage the Guests [or] make the experience more seamless [or] to educate.”
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“We have a lot of purposes for technology,” he continued. “It begins right now with the technology that we’re using to manage capacity. The reservation system is something that originally we looked at and said ‘we need to do this because the state is telling us’…[but] that has turned into a really positive scenario because we’re able to understand exactly who’s coming [and] we’re able to… balance out the demand on any particular day, which is what we’re doing very effectively”.
Aside from addressing Disneyland Guests’ questions about the changes coming to the Tarzan treehouse and ToonTown, too, Ken Potrock also spoke a bit about the upcoming Hey Disney Smart Speaker that will be in all Disneyland hotel rooms. Aside from being a “great new service”, he pointed out that “they’re as cute as cute can be”!
Are you a Disney Guest who has used a Disney Magic Band before and who is excited to see how Disney Magic Bands have evolved into MagicBand+ for Disneyland?
