In January 2013, Walt Disney World began rolling out the components of what they call MyMagic+. This system was developed to make the guest experience smoother and utilize various forms of widely available technology, including smartphones and RFID technology. The various components, especially the introduction of FastPass+ (FP+), has not been welcomed by all guests (CHANGE IS HORRIBLE WALT IS ROLLING IN HIS GRAVE). Personally? I love it! But I also love technology and experiments to improve guest experience in any setting.
You don't need to be a tech geek to use this system by any means, but understanding the various components of MyMagic+ before you show up at Walt Disney World is definitley to your advantage.
Quick! Open a new tab in your browser right now and head to My Disney Experience. Or, if you are reading this on your smartphone or tablet, download the free app. Create a login while you're there or use your disneyworld.com login information. I'll wait while you go do that. Then meet me back here.
Yay! You're back!
(no, seriously, if you didn't do go RIGHT NOW AND DO IT. I'll still be here.)
My Disney Experience (MDE) is your control panel for your vacation. You can research things to do and places to eat, make dining reservations, create an itinierary, view real time wait times for most attractions, connect to your family and friends, view your PhotoPass photos, order food from select Quick Service locations, track your dining credits and room charges (if staying on-site), and, one you have linked park tickets, make your FP+ reservations (we'll get to that in a bit). Neato!
The two most important functions, in my mind, are My Reservations and Tickets and Family and Friends.
My Reservations and Tickets
In this section of MDE, you will be able to view all of your information that disney has connected to your name and vacation. I cannot stress this enough: MAKE SURE EVERYTHING IS CORRECT AFTER EACH CHANGE YOU MAKE. As you near your vacation, this will include any and all of the following:
If resort, tickets, or dining information is incorrect, call Disney (or contact your travel agent) immediately with your documentation handy to rectify the issue. Human errors happen - whether on their end, or yours - and the computer only knows what's in the computer (pesky artificial intelligence, still relying on the falliable human for data input).
True story: on our January 2016 vacation, we happened to be going at the same time as some friends of ours from home. We decided to meet for dinner together one evening, and at first both made reservations at the same time (us a party of five, them a party of two) at the same restaurant. Then I realized that might not be the way to do it, so we were instructed to just make one reservation for seven people. Which, no problem, happy to do it, and we just had to push our reservation back fifteen minutes to accommodate the party size. When the reservation showed up the next day it was coded as seven adults, even though it should have been six adults and one infant. I called back, and when I checked next it was coded for five adults and two infants. We decided my friend Mike was the other infant, but I'm not sure he could fit in a high chair! So I called back and they got it coded correctly for six adults, one infant. Nor harm, no foul. Mistakes happen, and it's okay.
This is a funny story with no serious consequences. Mike is an improv/sketch comedian and a heck of a writer, and we would have totally played along with it had they set out two high charis. It would have made for a hilarious story later. And the fact that this is the example story I have is a testament to the awesomeness of the Disney reservations system and its cast members. But what if your check-in date was listed incorrectly? Or you accidentally made your dining reservations for March instead of April? This is why this page is so important - check it after every. single. change. you. make. And know that sometimes it takes a few hours to update in the sytem.
Family and Friends
Making sure everyone is connected on your Family and Friends page allows just one person to make reservations for everyone and ensure that everyone's PhotoPAss photos show up. Sweet!
When you click on the page, it will ask you how you want to find people:
If you already have a resort reservation for just one room, everyone's names on the reservation will be listed as part of your party. But either a) each person will need to sign up for a MDE login, or b) you need to list their name and check that you will be in charge of making reservations for that person. Either option is totally cool. If you're going down at the same time as other friends (like Mike and Anna, with whom everyone should go to Disney World with at some point) or have more than one resort room full of your traveling party, you can also link to them by entering their reservation number.
A word of caution when linking outside of your immediate travel party: the other travel party's reservations will show up on your Reservations and Tickets page, so make sure you know what you're looking at and who you're making changes for!
Once everyone is linked on this page, when you go to make dining or FP+ reservations on MDE, it will bring up a list of people to choose who you are making the reservations for. Easy peasy!
MDE. It's your friend. Spend some time getting to know it!
So, what is it?
Like its predecessor, FastPass, FP+ allows guests to book a one-hour time window to visit an attraction and bypass the standby queue, thereby minimizing wait times.
Unlike the old FastPass system (which is still in use at other Disney parks), it is no longer a first-come, first-serve, who-can-sprint-the-fastest-to-the-attraction-kiosks system. Instead, it allows guests to reserve attractions well in advance, either 60 days before check-in (for on-site resort guests), or 30 days (those staying off-site). This is a little hard to explain, so stay with me:
Still with me? I know, it's kinda confusing until you actually do it.
Disney complicates things further at Epcot, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom, where FP+ attractions are separated into two tiers. When booking three of these in advance, you can choose one from Tier 1 and two from Tier 2, even if you don't want to go to those attractions. The tiered attractions list in these parts is relatively static, although from time to time they do change. The current lists can be found on the Parks pages for each park.
But this is vacation! I don't want every minute scheduled! And who knows if I'm going to want to do the thing I booked sixty days ago!
Admittedly, this is the largest complain about the system. Realistically, however, it is an untrue (and in my mind, unfair) reaction to the FP+ system. With very few exceptions - Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Toy Story Midway Mania, Soarin' Around The World, Frozen, Flight of Passage, and Na'vi River Journey, normally all other attractions still have FP+ availability the morning of, or at least the day before.
Even if you don't change your FP+ reservations: nothing will happen if you skip them. I'm having a hard time remembering a time when I actually used all of the original reservations I made. Sometimes I skipped something entirely, other times we waited longer for a bus than I was expecting so I jumped on MDE and pushed back our FP+ windo to thirty minutes later. There's no reason to feel like you have to schedule your entire vacation around these reservations.
EXCEPT: if you are lucky enough to snag a reservation for one of the aforementioned attractions, I would schdule around these if at all possible. Those attractions are hard to get an FP+ for, and the lines are often very, very long.
Five Star Mouse ProTip! I am a very big fan of only scheduling in advance the hard to get ones, or attractions I know I want to go on a few times and won't always want to wait in line, or time it around a short wait time window. As soon as you check in for your last reserved FP+ of the day, even before you're done with the attraction, you can jump on MDE and pick up another FP+. It's awesome!
Should I just FastPass+?
Absolutley. This is a free perk that's include in all types of Walt Disney World theme park admission tickets, and gives you a couple points throughout the day to have something scheduled, minimizing the So. Many. CHOICES! overwhelmed feeling that can happen on a Disney vacation, no matter how frequent of a visitor you are. Plus, why would you wait in a two hour line for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train when you could just wait five minutes?
People often ask me what I love most about Walt Disney World, and my answer is usually (and not fascetiously) MAGIC BANDS. These waterproof RFID-enabled bands were introduced in late 2013 work as your park entrance ticket as well as PhotoPass scanner and, if staying on-site, also act as your room key and give you room charging privileges. Gone are the days of paper tickets and carrying a full wallet of cash and credit cards. Everything is right there in a colorful fashion accessory.
Want to read a really geeky article about the development of and technology behind the bands? Here you go.
Some people get nervous about this wearable piece of technology taht carries all of their information, and that's understsandable. But there are a couple of safety measures in place to protect both you and your information:
If you are uneasy about using the Magic Band, you can elect to use the standard park tickets. But note: these are also RFID enabled and you must still use the biometric scanner upon entering the parks.
If you are staying in an on-site resort (with the exception of the Swan and Dolphin resorts), each member of your traveling party will receive a free solid-color Magic Band that you can customize (choose one of seven colors, and put your name inside it) up until roughly one month before your vacation. If you are staying off-site but still want a Magic Band, you can purchase them ahead of time online or in the parks while at Walt Disney World and link them to your account. The bands available for purchase are not only solid color, but also have nifty designs!
Magic Band batteries last anywhere from 2 to 3 years, and you can use the same band on multiple visits if you so choose. MagicBand 2, which were released spring 2017, have a removeable puck so that the bands are interchangeable and reuseable beyond the puck's battery life. Right now I have seven bands attached to my account, and I could use any of them. Because sometimes you have to color coordinate your outfits.
While not technically part of MyMagic+, it is accessed through the MDE app and this is my site so I'm putting it on this page.
So what is PhotoPass?
Simply put, PhotoPass is a network of khaki vest wearing cast members with very large cameras stationed or roaming throughout the parks and select other locations throughout Walt Disney World. ANYONE can ask for a photo from any of these photographers. After the pictures are taken you either scan your Magic Band or park ticket, and your photos will be available to view in the PhotoPass section of MDE. Often the pictures are there within a few minutes, but it can take up to 24 hours of when the photo was taken. If you elect not to use MDE, you can request a PhotoPass card and then enter that number into My Disney PhotoPass to view your pictures.
The photographers are all good, in strategic locations, and know what they're doing. It also gives your travel party the opportunity to ALL be in the pictures! They can also do Magic Shots, which superimpose Disney characters into the photos. Fun!
Once your photos show in your account, you have 45 days to edit your photos and make purchases. Options include individual prints, photo books, calendars, and more. Be warned: it is expensive. Individual prints run between $17 and $21.
So what is Memory Maker?
Memory Maker is a one time purchase of $199 ($169 if purchased at least three days in advance of when you will begin using it) that allows you unlimited digital downloads of all of your photos, plus full editing and decorating capabilityes on the PhotoPass site before downloading. Once you have downloaded the files, you can do anything you like with those photos (print them through your favorite photo printing service, upload them to social media sites, etc.) - they are all yours! If you're guessing that you might end up with more than ten good photos of your family that you will want to print and keep, it's a good deal. Plus you receive ride photos as well as ride videos on select attractions, which are super cool and funny.
On our January 2016 trip, my wife insisted that we get Memory Maker, even though I was balking at the price. I believe her exact words were, "THIS IS MY DISNEY." It's hard to say no to that.
And we loved it. I found myself not reaching for my camera every minute and just enjoying the moments, knowing that there was a photographer to catch the memories for us. On just a seven-day trip, we amassed over 800 PhotoPass photos.
The other advantage? Only one person in your travel party has to purchase it. If your party is connected through My Family and Friends on MDE, anyone of those people can scan their band and the photos will all be in the same place. Neat!