You have booked your vacation with a Pure Magic Vacations travel agent, now what? As much as our agents do their best to prepare you for your vacation, once you arrive you are going to want to be familiar with some additional tools to help navigate your days during your trip! The number one tool you will need is the My Disney Experience app.

The My Disney Experience app is available for both IOS and Android devices. It also has a desktop experience however, once you are in the parks the app will be much more user friendly!

To begin, you will need to create an account if you do not already have one (TIP: it will be the same login as your Disney+ account if you are a subscriber!). Once created, it will allow you to link your resort reservation and off you go! Your Pure Magic Vacations Travel Agent will be able to assist you in all the pre-arrival aspects of the app but there is one important step we don’t want you to miss - picking your avatar!  Choose from a variety of Disney, Pixar, Marvel and Star Wars characters! Are you more of a Mickey Mouse or a Darth Vader kind of vibe? Maybe one day you’re feeling like Mr. or Mrs. Incredible but the next more of a Hei Hei - well don’t worry you can change your avatar at any time!

The different components of My Disney Experience that you will see on your main menu are: Tip Board, Disney Photopass Lenses, My Disney Genie Day, Tickets & Passes, Future Plans, Disney MagicMobile, Virtual Queues, Mobile Food Orders, Photos, Resort Hotel, Parks Hours & Info, Merchandise Mobile Checkout, Play Disney Parks, MagicBands & More, shopDisney, Chat With Us and Transportation.

Follow along as we dive into which aspects we feel are most important to know about before you head out on your adventures!

Tip Board & My Disney Genie Day
The tip board is probably the feature you will use the most while you are in the parks. Here you will be directed to choose “Tip Board” or “My Day.” When you choose to view the Tip Board you will see a list of the rides, attractions and shows for the park you've chosen to visit that day (you can change the park at the top of the screen). Rides and attractions will show the current wait time for the standby line as well as the next available Genie+ reservation Lightning Lane or Individual Lightning Lane time slot. If you have purchased Genie+ for your day in the park then this screen will be your guide to your entire day! If you choose to view “My Day” it will pull up any plans you have coming up for your day in the park such as dining reservations, lightning lane reservations or any enchanted extras you've got booked!
Another tab you will notice on the tip board is for dining. When you open this portion it will show all of the available in park dining options for that day. Table service restaurants will be listed as “accepting reservation” or “walk-up list available/not available” and quick service dining will provide the next available time for a mobile order to be picked up or indicate if it is not currently accepting mobile orders.

When you choose the Tip Board you will see a list of  attraction and rides and their current wait time. 

Tickets and Passes
This is where you will be able to access your park tickets once they have been purchased, whether they are stand alone tickets or part of a Walt Disney World Vacation package! For the rest of 2023 as well as with select ticket types in 2024 - this is also where you will be able to make park pass reservations using the Park Pass System. Over the last few years Walt Disney World has been operating on a reservation system which simply means you must make a reservation for your desired park on your desired date in order to enter. However, come 2024 those tickets that have been purchased within a Walt Disney World vacation package will no longer require reservations.

Future Plans
In this section of the app you will be able to see all of your upcoming plans! This portion can help families stay organized before they arrive or during their vacation. It will show your hotel reservation, future park pass reservations, dining reservations as well as any reservations that were made for enchanting extras such as the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique or Savi’s Workshop (Lightsaber Building). Additionally, you can add select entertainment offerings to this portion of the app for your must do’s such as Disney’s Festival of Fantasy Parade or Fantasmic!

Disney MagicMobile
Disney MagicMobile is the newest technological advancement for the guest experience at Walt Disney World. This portion of the app will allow you to add your park ticket to your Apple or Google wallet. Once there, it will be a breeze to just pull out your phone and tap to enter the park, redeem your lightning lane reservations and link your recently taken Disney Photopass photos!

Virtual Queues
There are currently two rides at Walt Disney World that utilize a virtual queue -- Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind & TRON Lightcycle/Run. At 7am you will be able to use your app to join the virtual queue if you have a park reservation for that specific park. Although you can only join beginning at 7am, we recommend hopping on the app and choosing your travel party slightly earlier so it is a quick and easy refresh once 7am hits. Anyone with a park reservation will have access to the virtual queue so boarding groups tend to go quickly. If you miss your chance at 7am you can try again at 1pm! Throughout the day boarding groups will be called back to ride - you will get a notification to your phone from the My Disney Experience app when it is time to ride. It is extremely important to note that without a board group or a purchased individual lightning lane you will not be able to experience these rides.

Mobile Food Orders
Mobile food ordering is the absolute best way to save time while you are in the parks! Simply open the Tip Board and check out where you’d like to dine and use the Mobile Food Order option to place it! This will save you time of waiting in line to order and instead allow you to order for a future window while you are waiting in line for a ride, watching a parade or on the opposite side of the park!

When it's time to think about your meals, all the info you need is at your fingertips.

Photos
Under this portion of the app you will find all of your Disney Photopass & on-ride photos. After riding a ride or visiting a Disney Photopass Cast Member just provide your QR Code, park ticket or magic band to have the photos linked to your account! The photos will show up with a Disney watermark on it, however, if you have purchased Memory Maker with your travel agent before arriving then you will just have to activate it on your first photo to remove the watermarks.

Resort Hotel
When you tap the “Resort Hotel” icon you will be able to see a few different things in there. In our opinion the best feature is the online check-in that allows you to go straight to your room when it is ready! Simply check-in before you arrive and indicate what time you expect to be at your resort and when the room is ready you will receive a notification. When you open the app up to the “Resort Hotel” option you can choose to show your room number and unlock the door. This means you can skip waiting in lines at the front desk all together! However, if you would prefer a physical key card or have ordered MagicBands to pick up then you will need to make a stop in the main lobby.  Also within the Resort Hotel button is where you can find any charges you have made to your credit card on file as well as the  resort bus times! The bus times are a great tool for planning when you need to leave your room when getting ready on those early park mornings.

Park Hours & Info
Of course under the “Park Hours & Info” tab you will find the park hours for each park for the day you visit and for the upcoming weeks. However, also in this tab under “Today” you will find the showtimes for each park including parades, fireworks, cavalcades, entertainment & more! This way you won’t miss out on a thing!

Merchandise Mobile Checkout
It is very hard to visit Walt Disney World and not have some form of merchandise catch your eye. Many of the larger gift shops will be quite busy throughout the day (most specifically in the evenings) so Disney has implemented the merchandise mobile checkout where you can scan the barcode of the items you are purchasing onto the app and it will add the items to your cart and prompt you to proceed to payment. To exit the store, visit a mobile checkout kiosk and provide them with your QR code!

It's so easy to use the My Disney Experience app to purchase merchandise via the mobile checkout feature!

Play Disney Parks
If visiting the Walt Disney World theme parks, it is more than likely you are going to encounter a line or two. Although the Play Disney Parks app is a separate app to download from your App Store - there is a link to it directly from the My Disney Experience app. The app offers games and interactive experiences all throughout the park but specifically you will find that the app offers Disney mobile games for the following attractions:

Tree of Life
Slinky Dog Dash
Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail
Peter Pan’s Flight
Rafiki’s Planet Watch at Conservation Station
Space Mountain
Toy Story Mania!
Maharajah Jungle Trek

The Play Disney Parks app is such a fun way to enhance your theme park experience.

Additionally, the app offers interactive experiences such as the DuckTales Showcase Adventure at EPCOT that brings a new level of fun to the World Showcase.

With all of its functions the My Disney Experience app will be your best friend which is why it is important to become familiar with it and all it has to offer before you arrive! Reach out to your Pure Magic Vacations travel agent if you have any additional questions about the My Disney Experience app! 

Our Pure Magic Vacations agents are ready to help make your next vacation magical and memorable. The magic is calling you, so reach out to an agent today  for a no-obligation quote to get started on booking your dream vacation! 

Planning magical vacations for families since 2011, Pure Magic Vacations is an Authorized Disney Vacation Planner Travel Agency - EarMarked Gold Producer.