Ten Reasons Your Phone Is Your Best Friend at Disney
Your phone is already your most trusted device. You take it everywhere and cannot imagine life without it.
What you may not realize is how much you’ll need it during a Disney vacation.
Here are ten ways your phone is your best friend at Walt Disney World.
Ride Wait-Times
When you’re at Walt Disney World, you need to plan a bit.
Anytime you’re waiting in line or sitting down for a meal, you should keep an eye on estimated wait-times for attractions.
By doing so, you’ll spend the least amount of time experiencing all the rides you desire.
Thanks to My Disney Experience, your phone will display wait-times, saving you the trouble of finding a Disney sign somewhere or eyeballing the line yourself.
Mobile Ordering
Are you hankering for some food? My Disney Experience has you covered!
Back in 2017, Disney introduced Mobile Ordering, an online ordering system that works similarly to your favorite fast-food restaurant.
You load the app, pick the restaurant where you want to eat, and then start a mobile order.
You can even add special food requests, guaranteeing that you’re getting the order right.
In fact, when you use Mobile Ordering, you eliminate the risk of being misheard and thereby receiving the wrong food.
Contactless Payment
You may read this later. However, when I wrote it, society was suffering through a pandemic.
Even in the best of times, cash transactions should gross people out. Money’s a staggeringly high source of bacteria.
With Coronavirus concerns everywhere, even a credit card transaction seems risky.
You touch your card, a stranger touches your card, and then you touch it again.
Before you leave for your trip, you should set up contactless payment on your phone, presuming you haven’t already done so.
If you plan to use Mobile Ordering or your Magic Band, you technically don’t need this step.
Personally, I prefer it to using anything else at stores.
Scanning QR Codes
At most Table Service restaurants, Disney has changed the rules during the pandemic.
You won’t check in at the Host Station. Instead, you scan a QR code to check-in online.
This method is substantially safer and more efficient to boot.
Your phone can do something else, too. Many restaurants (including Quick Service establishments) use QR codes instead of menus.
You’ll sit down at your table, scan the code on your phone, and look at the menu.
This process saves you from touching the same menu as everyone who has eaten at the table before you.
Play Disney Games
Disney officials know that lines grow tiresome after a while.
Yes, Imagineers theme the queues to maximize entertainment while you’re waiting.
However, once you’ve stood in the same line a few times, you’ve seen it all.
So, Disney introduced Play Disney Parks as a standalone gaming app.
When you play this series of games, you can hack droids at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge or prove your trivia knowledge.
Some attractions feature unique games that you can only play while you’re waiting in line, too.
I’ve walked straight into a wall while focusing too much on Play Disney Parks. And I didn’t even get a good score.
View Photos
Here’s a favorite. When you add PhotoPass to your account, your pictures upload within minutes.
One moment, you’ll ask a Disney photographer to take your picture in front of a landmark.
You’ll then roam to the next attraction and forget about what happened, only to be reminded of it when you pull out your phone.
Your images will populate, giving you a chance to know how well your scrapbook or Instagram update is going.
When you’re traveling in a large party, you can also follow what your friends are doing during their park visits.
As long as you’re friends on My Disney Experience, their photos will display, too. And it’s remarkable how much this feature has brightened our days.
Maps
Look, at some point, you’ll need to know where the nearest bathroom is.
Similarly, you’ll want to know the best path to a ride or restaurant.
The mapping functionality on My Disney Experience will save the day.
You can minimize or maximize the image to determine the closest place and the fastest path to get there.
In the earliest days of My Disney Experience, the mapping wasn’t anything special, but it’s a lifesaver now.
Opening Hotel Room Doors
Yes, on My Disney Experience, you can use your phone as a room key that unlocks the door.
When Disney introduced this functionality last year, many people wondered what the point was.
During the pandemic, nobody asks that now. In fact, this feature appears prescient with the benefit of hindsight.
As you approach your room, you load the app and then your digital key. You point it at the door…and voila! Open sesame!
You don’t have to touch a doorknob and thereby avoid the risk of germs. It’s pure Disney magic.
Walk-Up Waitlist
For many years now, Disney fans have vented about the problems with restaurant availability.
A few years ago, Disney moved toward the Advanced Dining Reservation system to maximize revenue.
With a solid headcount, restaurant managers knew how many guests they would serve each day.
For non-planners, this decision meant that they got shut out of some of Disney’s best dining options.
Recently, Disney introduced a new feature that solves that longstanding problem.
When you’re ready to eat, take out your phone and load My Disney Experience. Then, choose Check Dining Availability.
If you find something you like, you can add your name to the waiting list, just as if you were at the restaurant.
Disney calls this feature Mobile Dine Walk-up Waitlist, and it’s a game-changer for those who prefer spontaneity at the parks.
Pass Time in Line
The other nine features here are great, but let’s not forget the obvious. Your phone connects you to the rest of the world.
Even when you’re in the Disney Bubble, you’ll want to keep up with what your friends are doing as well as the news of the day.
While you’re waiting in line or sitting down at a restaurant, you’ll only scan the ride wait-times for a minute.
Afterward, you’ll have plenty of downtime to catch up, and your phone will provide every possible distraction.
In the days before My Disney Experience, guests were already obsessed with their phones and, before that, Blackberries and T-Mobile Sidekicks (remember them?).
Phones help pass the time when you’re waiting in line, along with all the other remarkable stuff I’ve listed here.
Seriously, how did we get by in life before smartphones?