Effectively Using The My Disney Experience App

The gal who ordered our tickets for us mentioned the My Disney Experience section at the Disney website when she was giving me a few suggestions, but honestly, I blew her off. I just didn't want to bother and I didn't want another app on my phone. I'm not a huge fan of apps, especially one I'm only going to use for a week.

Flash forward to our first day at Walt Disney World and Fred kept telling me about the time for this ride, the time for that ride. And just so we're on the same page, I just rolled my eyes at him and went along my merry way. I can't even tell you at which point I finally gave in and downloaded the app.

Alleluia! So maybe they were both right about how much I would want to have it handy! There are so many uses it for it, some of which we didn't realize until Day 3 at Hollywood Studios. So, let's go through the many and amazing uses of the My Disney Experience App (you can also use the website).

First, you can check ride & character wait times! What I love about that is you can determine a plan of action while you're at each park. If you're in Tomorrowland and it shows short ride times for Pirates of the Caribbean and Magic Carpets of Aladdin, you can make a b-line to Adventureland. If you have some free time, but don't want to ride anything, you could see how long the wait is for the characters.

FastPass+ organization! You can check what time your FastPass+ is as well as set up new ones. You can go into the day you're planning, see how many FastPass+ you have available for you and the group, and then see what's available. You can remove a FastPass+ that anyone in your family has and switch it to another one if you need to.

How do you get where you want to go? If you're at Animal Kingdom's Flight of Passage and want to get to Kilimanjaro Safaris, you can click on the ride and it'll give you the option of looking at a map to see how to get there! It's awesome!

If you're trying to figure out something at one of the parks you can click on the icon, it'll open up in the app and tell you:

• What park it's in, which area, and the specific location
• Find it on the map
• Get directions
• Times
• A little synopsis
• Wait times
• If a FastPass+ is available
• If it's a ride & the type of ride such as "Thrill Type"

You can order food without standing in line! On our 3rd day at Walt Disney World, we were at the ABC Commissary walking into the order line when the gal standing at the front asked us if we wanted to order our food at the table using our MDE app. We were all, "Say what?! That's a thing?!" We went to a table, talked about the menu, and then Fred ordered for us through the app. There's a special pick up space for people who order using the app so when they called our name, we just headed over and grabbed it. Wish we'd know about this feature on day 1! lol

And one of my favorite features is the My Photos section. You can buy a Memory Maker so that you can download photos and videos captured during a 30 day window. Then for each park you can find out where the official Disney photographers are. AND, every time you get your photo taken with a character, they can scan your wristband or the QR code on the app. It was really fun to go through the photos after I found that part in the app. I loved seeing the quick clip of Fred and Buddy at the top of The Tower of Terror.

No matter how you look at it, this is the app to have! I thought I'd have it for a week and here we are at the end of September and I still have it. I just love going in and looking at it to see what the wait times are, which characters are available that day, etc. When you go, be sure you download it!