Trip Preparation: My Disney Experience

There are many things to be done while planning a Disney Vacation. Deciding what time of year to go, what resort to stay in, booking your flights. Before you book anything with Walt Disney World directly, start by creating a My Disney Experience account. This allows you to keep all of your reservations in one place; from your resort, to your restaurants and your FastPasses. This account is it’s own entity. So it will be there before and after your trip and you’ll be able to use it for vacations in the future. You need this account to be able to make your own reservations for restaurants and FastPasses.

You can create your own account by heading to WaltDisneyWorld.com. On the right hand side of the screen is a create account link. Provide your email address and create a password. Then fill in the information required. Once that step is completed you will be returned to the Walt Disney World website. On the right hand side of the heading you will see My Disney Experience, click this and you will be prompted to link up any reservations you already have. By doing this you’ll have all your information in one place. My Disney Experience will take this information and create a template for each day of your vacation. If you’re staying at the Animal Kingdom Lodge – Kidani Village it will show the day you check in and the day you check out. If you already have a reservation at Crystal Palace it will show up on the date in your itinerary.

There’s a My Disney Experience app you can get for your phone or your tablet. This will enable you to have all your reservations in hand while you’re on vacation without having to carry around a list of all your reservation numbers. Now the app and the link on the website are very different. My Disney Experience app is made for making your vacation smooth and as easy as possible. It’s not the best for trip planning. If you’re looking to get last minute reservations then you can use this app. For Trip Preparation, the website link is a better option.

Once you’re logged in you can make reservations for restaurants (180 days before your trip) and FastPasses (60 days before your trip). This is assuming you are staying at a Walt Disney World Resort. If you’re making a restaurant reservation on a day you already have plans for, there will be convenient link to follow that will give you the information of your existing reservation. Making sure you don’t double book. The same will happen with your FastPasses. You will not be able to book a fast pass that overlaps with a previous reservation. When booking your FastPasses you’ll need to make sure your tickets have already been purchased and are linked up to your My Disney Experience.

When you’re exploring the website and coming up with ideas of what you’d like your days to look like use the Show In My Plans button. This will place the experience you have chosen onto your itinerary. That way you’ll remember all the things you would like to do. This only applies to meet and greets, stage shows and parades. Once you do this, these plans will show up in My Disney Experience. On the day you were planning on going to Magic Kingdom you’ll see on your app the list of things you don’t want to miss.

If you’re planning ahead of the reservation window use the heart shape button found on every activity, ride, restaurant, you name it. This will allow you to go in to My Wish List and pick and choose your Must Do’s for your trip and then shape your park days and non-park days around these priorities. There are so many things on the Walt Disney World website and sometimes it can be hard to find some of the unique experiences, like Harmony’s Barber Shop. By using the Wish List you can ensure the link is in My Disney Experience and you’ll be able to get the information you’ll need to plan.

So whether you’re planning a trip for a year from now, next month or way down the line, signing up for My Disney Experience is a great place to start. It’s free and a lot of fun to use. I know I’ve spent countless hours getting information on park hours, restaurants reservations, parade times and having a place that those details can get saved is handy.

Happy Planning.