MyDisneyExperience is web portal with all the information and planning details for your Walt Disney World vacation. From the brand new Park Pass, to dining reservations, to online check-in, to attraction wait times, to the new Disney Genie Service and Lightning Lanes, it’s all here. 

MyDisneyExperience is enormous and informative, but it’s also confusing and a bit overwhelming. Here are the most important things to know.

TWO DISTINCT VERSIONS OF MY DISNEY EXPERIENCE

It’s essential to realize that there are two distinct versions of MyDisneyExperience, and you cannot perform all the various tasks on each version. Let’s guide you through each version by reviewing the tasks that you’ll need to perform before your vacation — followed by essential tasks that you’ll perform during your vacation.

THE WEB VERSION | MyDisneyExperience.com

Do not begin with the app. Instead, before your vacation, you’ll want to access the website version, from any computer or mobile phone with a web browser (Chrome, Safari, Firefox. etc). Most of these tasks are much easier to perform on a computer than on the mobile web version. The web version has numerous features that you must complete before you use the app.

After we’ve confirmed your vacation, follow the steps below — in the order that they’re listed. WARNING: Performing these tasks out of order can trigger major glitches.

Visit MyDisneyExperience on the web, and then perform the tasks below:

• STEP 1 | Create or edit your own profile | Please take note of something important: Disney profiles aren’t registered to names — they’re registered to email addresses. Therefore, as soon as you’re ready to link a new Disney vacation, log into (or create) your Disney account and take note of what email address you’re using to log in.

If you’ve got a Disney+ streaming account in your own name, that’s the same email address and password that you’ll use to sign in. If, however, your household uses someone else’s email address to sign in to Disney+ — like a spouse –their Disney account needs to remain in their name.

Under the main MyDisneyExpeience menu, click the very top section — your Profile. You may want to update your password, and then update all the information in your profile — including your birthdate, street address, phone number, communications preferences, etc.

It’s crucial that your profile information is complete & up to date.

Be sure your mobile number is listed & verified. If you lose a wallet, a purse — or a kid — Disney will call your cell. Be sure your street address is correct; it’ll auto-populate into every dining reservation you make so you don’t have to type your address every time. Same goes for a stored form of payment. Save your credit card number within, and you’ll save a whole lot of time. When you call Disney’s tech team for help, they’ll ask you to verify this info to verify your identity — so be sure it’s accurate. 

• STEP 2 | Create profiles for any guests in your party who are younger than 13 or who do not use a smartphone. Under the main MyDisneyExperience menu, click on Family & Friends. If members of your travel party are younger than 13 — or do not use a smartphone — check to see if their names are already listed under your Family & Friends list. For those who are not, click “Add a Guest,” indicate that you’ll enter their name and age, and then select that you’ll be managing all their plans.  (Do NOT select the option which says “Import from a Walt Disney World Resort Reservation.”)

• STEP 3 | Instruct your remaining guests to create / update their own profiles. | Every member of your traveling party who is 13 years of age or older and has their own smartphone must have their own Disney account.  Instruct them to follow the steps above, making sure to complete their profile with their birthdates, street address, phone number, etc. Be sure to have them select a character avatar; you may need it later. Most importantly, they need to know exactly what email address is affiliated with their Disney account. 

Why do they all need their own log-in? Because they’ll need their own phone accounts to view wait times, navigate the park maps, scan into the park entrances, place mobile orders, and reserve attractions. For any guests who do not use a smartphone — whether they’re young kids, grandparents, etc. — they’ll be able to use a traditional plastic key card to enter a hotel room / enter the theme parks. Learn more ▸ 

Why can’t my friends / family simply log into my Disney account on their own smartphones? Because this triggers Disney security alerts; Disney will email you a secret code and lock the access to your app. Not fun. 

• STEP 4 | Make a list of the login email addresses  & character avatars of your family / friends. If any guests are under 18 you’ll also need to know their age — i.e., 14 — but you won’t need to know their actual date of birth. Also take note of the character avatar that each guest has chosen.

• STEP 5 | Link to your family / friends | From the main menu of MyDisneyExperience, the Lead Guest (or ticket buyer) should navigate to the Family & Friends section. Next to your own name, click Update — then click Share My List. Then, build your list by clicking Add a Guest. Select the option that says “I’ll enter their name and age.”  Select  “Invite this guest to connect,” and enter the exact email address that they’re using to sign in.

(Again, do not select the “Import from a Hotel Reservation” option. It leads to common glitches which can take hours to fix.)

If any family / friends are already listed, verify that the avatar next to their name is the one they’ve chosen. If there’s ANY DOUBT AT ALL that you might be viewing an old-out-of-date profile that they registered under an old email address, ask them to modify their character avatar just to guarantee that you’re connected to their most up-to-date digital profile.

• STEP 6 | Instruct your family / friends to log in and accept your invitation to link | Under the Family & Friends section, everyone should accept your invitation to connect. After doing so, they should then click Add Guest to add all the other guests. They can do so by clicking “Find through my connected family / friends.”  After they’ve sent their own link invites to all other members of your party, this is very important: everyone must log in on a COMPUTER and accept everyone’s invitations to connect. Frustratingly, these invitations do not appear in the smartphone app or the mobile version of the website.

• STEP 7 |  Share plans & with all Family & Friends  | Click the word Update alongside each guest. The screen will say “Choose Which Plans and Photos (Guest Name) Can See.” It’s best to give all your friends & family permission to see and all your plans. And then on the settings of Family & Friends, it’s best to share your Family & Friends list. 

Why does this matter so much? You can only book a Lightning Lane or Boarding Group for those who are in your Family & Friends list. So if you want to ride together then, you’ll need to take care of these things now. Scroll down this page to learn more about Virtual Queues, Lightning Lane & Boarding Groups.

EVERYONE IN YOUR PARTY SHOULD SET UP THEIR PROFILES BEFORE YOU COMPLETE THE STEPS BELOW. To avoid linking to the wrong ‘version’ of someone — which screws up everything — everyone should complete those steps before you link any tickets or reservations. Avoid this warning at your peril.

• STEP 8 | Link your vacation or ticket reservation | After the Lead Guest has purchased a vacation package, hotel stay, or tickets, the Lead Guest should visit the main menu, then click My Plans. From this page, hover over the planning circles.

RESORT GUESTS | If you’ve got a hotel reservation — either in a Disney resort hotel or in a Good Neighbor Hotel booked via Disney — begin by hovering over Resort Hotel then click to link your reservation confirmation number. If you have a hotel + tickets package, the system will link both your hotel room AND your tickets. You don’t need to separately link your tickets. 

NON-RESORT GUESTS |  However, if you’ve got Park Tickets without a Disney / Good Neighbor hotel stay, hover over Park Tickets and click to link your ticket purchase confirmation number.

After linking, you’ll assign the booking to each of your family / friends. Line up the names of each guest with those in your guest room(s) / ticket order.

If you’ve got a hotel reservation, begin by hovering over Resort Hotel then click to link your reservation confirmation number. (NOTE: If you have a hotel + tickets package, the system will also link your tickets). However, if you’ve got Park Tickets without a hotel stay — or if you’re staying off property — hover over Park Tickets and click to link your ticket purchase confirmation number. After linking, you’ll assign the booking to each of your family / friends.

Hopefully, now you understand why it’s so crucial that you wait to link a reservation until you’ve taken all the steps above. Otherwise, you may unknowingly link a ticket or hotel reservation to an old out-of-date profile that’s registered to an old email address for one of the guests in your party. If you make that mistake, they won’t be able to use their park tickets, enter their hotel room, etc. This happens at Walt Disney World literally every morning; at the Guest Services window, while everyone else gets in line for their favorite rides,  guests wait for help, trying to figure out why they can’t scan into the park.  That’s why we’re taking the time now to avoid a very common problem.

• Step 9 | For guests traveling through January 8, 2024: Reserve your Park Pass – Theme Park Reservations |  Disney restricts the capacity for all their parks. For guests who are traveling in 2023 through January 8 of 2024, an advance reservation is required in order to visit any theme park. This Park Pass system happens exclusively on the MyDisneyExperience website — not on the app. You should book your Park Pass -Theme Park Reservations now,  so click the link below to learn how to reserve which park you’ll enter each day. We’ve also got helpful tips on how to plan your schedule:

Learn how to book a Park Pass Theme Park reservations▸ 

Disney is discontinuing its Park Pass reservation system for all guests from January 9, 2024 onward. 

ONLY THE WEB VERSION SUPPORTS FOREIGN LANGUAGES 

Foreign language Walt Disney World information |  The app, detailed below, only functions in English. The MyDisneyExperience website, however, is fully navigable in Spanish, French, Japanese, and Portuguese. This is especially valuable for reading restaurant menus, attraction information, showtimes, and transportation details. However,  because many vital skills are only available on the smartphone app — like Lightning Lane reservations, Boarding Groups, and Mobile Order for meals– many international guests hop back and forth between the mobile web version and the app versions during their vacations. If English isn’t your primary language, you’ll probably want to spend some extra time familiarizing yourself with the app below.

THE WALT DISNEY WORLD APP

The app is what you’ll rely on DURING your vacation. Countless features — like guest room door unlock, mobile restaurant ordering, table service check-in, attraction wait times, Disney Genie Service and Lightning Lane reservations — are only available via the app, and not on the web version. 

Download the App

Well before your vacation begins, everyone in your party should download the app to their iOS or Android device. 

Turn on notifications

You’re going to want pop-up notifications from Disney during your stay. The app notifies you when your table is ready at a restaurant, when a mobile food order is ready for pickup, when your Boarding Group has been called, and countless other items. You won’t want to miss those notifications.

Link your tickets to your digital wallet via MagicMobile

It’s very helpful to download your Disney theme park ticket / annual pass to the digital wallet of your smartphone. Learn more▸

Explore the app’s features

In the days leading up to your vacation, take time to explore the app and note many of the features which are only available on the app version.

Begin by tapping each of the five main icons along the bottom row of the app, and note the numerous features that appear under each icon. The map marker icon is especially adept; be sure to explore all the new categories that appear within the top-center dropdown menu. 

Before your vacation, you’ll want to make sure you know how to view / perform all the following tasks:

• Attractions | View current wait times (during park opening hours). Note how you can filter based on each park, and select to view a list of wait times. Also note that when you click to view a specific attraction, you can click Get Directions to find out the best walking route.

• My Genie Day | Disney’s new intuitive organizer for your day is divided into two organizing tabs: the Tip Board and My Day. Learn more about Disney Genie Service ▸

• Lightning Lane reservations | The app is where you’ll make your selections for Lightning Lane and Individual Lightning Lane reservations. To do so, search for / click on a specific attraction and then add a reservation. You can only book Lightning Lane reservations on the day of your visit.  Learn more ▸

• Boarding Groups | The app is where you’ll obtain Boarding Groups for very popular attractions like Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind and TRON Lightcyle / Run. See our tips below.

• Dining reservations | To make a new reservation, click the + button along the bottom row, then click Check Dining Availability, and enter your party size, date, and time. Be sure to click the filter funnel icon in the bottom right to filter the available tables to your preferred dining location. 

• Future plans | From the bottom right ‘sandwich’ menu, click Future Plans to see all that’s ahead for your Walt Disney World vacation.

• Maps |  Locate yourself on a map in real-time, get walking directions within a park, and get transportation directions —including buses, monorails, and water taxis — all throughout the Disney World Resort. Begin by clicking the map marker icon on the bottom row.

• Mobile food ordering | Pre-order and prepay for your food at nearly every quick-service restaurant — in the theme parks, resort hotels, and Disney Springs — and simply pick it up when you arrive, without having to wait in a queue. Begin a mobile order by pressing the + icon along the bottom row and then clicking Order Food.

• Walk-Up Dining Reservations | The app uses geolocation to identify when you’re within a short distance of a table service restaurant. If you are, you’re able to check the real-time availability and join the walk-up wait list for a table. To join a walk-up list, click the + button along the bottom row, then click Check Dining Availability, select today’s date, and select Now under the time. Or, search for the name of a specific restaurant and click Join Walk-Up List.

• Resort Hotel exclusive features | During your stay, be sure to click the sandwich menu icon on the bottom row and then click Resort Hotel. You’ll see an entire set of features here that aren’t available on the web version. You can unlock your guest room door, view your hotel charges, see the bus times for your resort’s transportation, call the front desk, and review the hours of operation for the resort’s dining, shopping and recreation. Under the dining tab, you may have exclusive resort guest access to mobile order windows or walk-up lists for your resort’s restaurants.

• Guest Services | You may be surprised to see all the services that Disney provides to its guests, from first aid and baby care centers to in-park refrigerators for medications and special access for those with disabilities. Click the map marker icon on the bottom row, then select Guest Services in the top center menu. Scroll through the list; this is where you’ll find a map for ATM locations, ECV / wheelchair rentals, locker locations, laundry services, and more.

• PhotoPass Images | View and download the images captured by Disney’s professional PhotoPass photographers in addition to any action shots captured while aboard a theme park or water park attraction. If you add Disney Genie+, you can enjoy PhotoPass lenses, which add fun Snapchat-esque filters to selfies that you can take throughout Walt Disney World.

COMMON BUGS & WORKAROUNDS

Unfortunately, it’s fairly common to bump into Stitch, informing you that MyDisneyExperience is glitching. Here are quick fixes if you’re getting error messages.

• If the website is glitching | On the Web, open a new incognito / private browser window. This will essentially allow you to navigate a fresh connection without any saved cookies.

• If the app is glitching | The most common glitches happen when your day’s full plans don’t display.  Often, the issue is a disconnect between the app and your device’s WiFi connection. To fix this, close the app, navigate to the settings of your phone, manually turn off your WiFi, then relaunch the app while relying on cellular data. If that doesn’t work, remember that you can always open a web browser (like Safari or Chrome) and then log in to view your day’s plans. 

Need some assistance with MyDisneyExperience? Chat with us here ▸