5 My Disney Experience Features You Can Practice at Home BEFORE Visiting Walt Disney World

There is nothing like the magic of stepping into a Walt Disney World theme park to enjoy a day with your family. But that magical moment doesn’t come to you without some prep work and planning ahead of time. Preparing for a trip to Walt Disney World can take some effort on your part as the traveler. While you may have an amazing travel advisor who shares ALL the best tips, you have read all the blogs, and you have a list of snacks, you still need to do a few things at home before you arrive at the theme parks.

There is nothing worse than fiddling with an app, trying to link reservations, not knowing where to find the wait times-oh, and your little one MUST see Stitch TODAY, but you have a day planned at Hollywood Studios and thought you could see him in any park. Nope! Taking time to practice a few things at home before you go to Walt Disney World will save you tons of time and stress so you can just enjoy your family and the magic! Today I am sharing my 5 favorite features of My Disney Experience that you can practice at home!

Know HOW to Use the My Disney Experience App

I can, and should, write an entire blog post about this alone. If you do not have a handle on using the My Disney Experience App, you are in for a stressful time at Walt Disney World. The app functions that I love are:

• Mobile Ordering Food
• Booking/Planning Lightning Lane Selections
• Checking Wait Times
• Finding Character Appearances
• Viewing Photopass Photos

The app is so functional, and a MUST for your trip. The more familiar you are with the app, the less you will be frustrated. I mean, you can even unlock your resort room door with the app!

When Walt Disney World first introduced Mobile Ordering, I knew this was going to be something I loved. Before I visited the park, I created a mobile order via the app-up until the point of payment and confirmation.

Mobile Ordering is one of the absolute best functions of My Disney Experience. Practicing this at home is wise. Just remember when you are in the theme parks to tap on “I’m Here, Prepare My Order” when you arrive at your dining location.

Practice Using Mobile Order

• Open your My Disney Experience App and tap on the “+” at the bottom of the screen.
• Choose “Order Food”.
• Choose a restaurant and an arrival time.
• Add items to your cart-but don’t confirm your order!

PRO TIPS: If paying with a Disney Gift Card, have your number stored in the Notes on your phone so you can just copy and paste it into the payment screen.

You can order well ahead of time! Some dining locations fill up with arrival times early in the day.

Checking Wait Times is Wise

Even if you are not at Walt Disney World currently, you can check the wait times in the theme parks! Why is this a good thing? Because it helps you see which attractions have a longer wait so you can plan your Lightning Lane selections. Also, it helps you know what to expect when you arrive.

For example, if you see that Aladdin’s Carpets, Dumbo, and Astro Orbiter are closed at Magic Kingdom at the same time, there’s a 99% chance there is a storm in the area. Using this data can help you have a Plan B to head to the Tiki Room, Mickey’s Philharmagic, or Monster’s Inc Laugh Floor before the storm arrives.

I prefer to sort my wait times by park, and then choose “Show List”. Below is the easiest way to check Wait Times:

• Open My Disney Experience.
• Tap the map pin icon at the bottom.
• Change the filter to show Wait Times instead of dining or shops.
• Click “Show List” in the bottom-right corner of the map to see all wait times in an easy-to-read format.

PRO TIP: Tapping the pin point icon and scrolling across the menu at the top will take you to lists such as Character Appearances, Restrooms, Dining Locations, etc. That little pin point icon is important!

View the Theme Park Maps BEFORE You Go.

It has taken me so many visits to the parks to get a lay of the land. My two best parks-that I know really well-are Magic Kingdom and Disney’s Hollywood Studios. But none of that comes without both experience and reading the maps before we go.

You can find these on the My Disney Experience app, and I include them with every guest’s itinerary. Just getting an idea of how the park flows, possible ways to get around from one attraction to the other, and knowing what is nearby to eat can be so helpful.

Another great map to get familiar with is your Walt Disney World Resort map. This gives you an idea of how the resort is laid out, where the pools are, and the best way to get to the transportation.

Finding Your Photopass Photos

If I get one text from guests on a regular basis, it’s asking where to find their PhotoPass photos! You want to see those-and finding them and removing the watermarks is super easy.

• Open the My Disney Experience App, and tap on the three little lines on the bottom left corner.
• On the next screen, scroll down until you see “Disney Photopass” in bold, blue letters.
• Tap on “Photo Gallery”, and you’ll see a grid of photos!
• To remove the watermark, and begin sharing them, tap on a photo and then choose “Activate My Photos” from the little pop up at the bottom of the screen.

Bonus Tip: Prepare Your Family for the Attractions.

This is one thing I wish I had done before our very first visit to Walt Disney World -which was almost 15 years ago. My children were 4 at the time, and obsessed with all things outer space. In my mom mind, I thought they’d LOVE Space Mountain, and they were tall enough-so why not? We hopped on Space Mountain on our first day of our trip, and from that point on, they needed serious bribing to go into any dark attraction. Yep. Mom fail.

Starting with a list of must do characters and attractions is the first step in this process. From there, start finding some POV videos on YouTube. These are AMAZING for getting an idea of the ride vehicles, movement, and overall experience.

While there are plenty of other things to prepare for-like making sure all your park stuff fits in your theme park bag-I think these are best to do at home before you visit. Obviously, so much is My Disney Experience app “heavy”, but knowing how to use your technology is going to help you have a seamless trip!

How do you like to prepare for a Walt Disney World vacation?