My Disney Experience

My Disney Experience (MDE) launched in 2012, anyone with a smart phone, can download the app and use it in and out of the parks.

The MDE app is available to anyone staying on and off property, which means anyone can use the app to book dining, fast passes or check attraction wait times. Over the years the app has considerable improved, yes it has glitches and sometimes crashes, it is by no means perfect, however, I recommend any guest visiting the Disney parks download and use the app in the run up to a trip and also whilst on your trip. I recommend guests download around a year or so before your trip to familiarise yourself with it before you have to start booking dining and fast passes.

All of the Disney parks, water parks, Disney Springs and resorts offer free Wifi, so there is no need for international guests to worry they will not be able to use the app on property. There will be no issues.

I recommend creating an account, without one you can access the app but no bookings can be made without an active account.

The main page will show you a map of the Disney parks, (I often check this a few times a day just to see how busy the parks are). Within the map, you can zoom in and out on the parks and resorts, you can see wait times, see where photo pass photographers are and even where characters and meeting. The quality of the map has got better over time.

Also on the main page is where you can,

• See show times, the 4 parks night time spectaculars, parades and showtimes are all here. It will only show ‘todays’ showtimes
• Parks hours, here you can see up to 6 months ahead for park hours, Extra Magic Hours, attraction closures and Annual Pass block out dates, everything here is subject to change
• My tickets, if you have an upcoming trip booked here is where your linked tickets will be and why I recommend creating an account, you can link your tickets with your reservation number. Once your tickets are linked and your window opens, you are able to book fast passes

My plans, here is where (if you have one booked), your trip will show, so it will hold all of your resort reservation information, dining reservations, fast passes and special events tickets. With or without a reservation, you are able to book dining reservations. Please note, even though you can book dining reservation you need a valid park ticket to enter a park to gain access to an in park restaurant.

• Get fast passes, here you can book fast passes with a valid park ticket linked to your account, if you are staying on property you can book fast passes 60 days in advance plus 10 days, if you are staying off property you can only book at 30 days only so would have to log on each day to book each day 30 days ahead. On the day, after your three fast passes have been used, you can book more fast passes (if available) one and a time, and also existing fast passes can be modified
• Reserve dining, as I previously said dining can be booked without a resort reservation and without valid tickets, however if you book an in park dining reservation you must have valid theme park admission to dine. Dining can be booked at the 180 day mark, if you are staying on property you can book at 180 days plus 10 days and if you are staying off property you can book at 180 days only so like fast passes you have to log on each day and book a day at a time
• Order food, or mobile ordering, certain quick service restaurants or snack locations allow you to order ahead of time and pick up at your choice of time, this is growing in popularity and growing in the amount of locations offered. A valid credit card will need to be linked to your MDE account to allow your purchase to be charged
• Link dining/ link resort, have you booked a dining reservation over the phone? No problem, just add the reservation here and it will link to your ‘my plans’. Have your booked a trip online, over the phone? Again no problem, simply add the the reservation number and this will also link to your ‘my plans’ please note it can take up to 30 days to show in your ‘my plans’

My photos, Photopass photos will show up after a couple of minutes of the photographs being taken, magicshots can take a day or two to show. In this section you can edit your photos, add boarders, amend colour and other photo edits. Ride photos add automatically. Photos stay available on the app 45 days after being taken, they can immediate be downloaded to your smart photo in high or low definition. If you decide to purchase memory maker after you have arrived you can link a pass via the ‘my photo’ section.

Domestic guests are also able to purchase in park merchandise from home and have it shipped to them. This is a very new feature that is around 9 months old.

Was this post helpful, do you use the MDE app? What are your thoughts on the features? Would you add anything to the app to make it better? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.