What exactly is My Disney Experience, MagicBands, Advanced Dining Reservations and FastPass+ that you keep hearing about?

I-4 Travel Company will help you understand this new experience and help ensure a stress-free Disney vacation.  If you have any questions, we are here to help you and we can also make your My Disney Experience selections for you with our complimentary Concierge service.

My Disney Experience

My Disney Experience is a tool for registered Guests to view and plan their Disney Vacation. This is a website and mobile app for iPhones and Android phones that is your complete planning tool for your magical vacation.  There are several reasons why you will want to use this app. First you can reserve your FastPass+ experiences and dining in advanced. You can view the restaurant’s menu, location, and prices all from the app. Secondly, you can find wait times for attractions, find character locations and event schedules. Staying organized with the reservation tab is great.  From here you can view plans, access passes, dining reservations, FastPass+ selections, and your resort stay. Add and connect family and friends to your account to help you plan and see your itinerary.

If you haven’t already created a Disney account, you will need to create one to access My Disney Experience.  Creating an account is fast and easy!

What is FastPass+?

Disney FastPass+ service allows you to reserve a time for a Walt Disney World theme park attraction, entertainment, and Character Greetings in advance. There is no additional cost to use FastPass+ service―it is included with your theme park admission.   Guests staying at a Walt Disney Resort can make their FastPass+ selections 60 days in advance (or 30 days for those not staying at a Disney Resort).
You can make up to 3 selections per day at a single theme park.  Once you have used a FastPass, you can make another selection for the same day and so on until the park closes.

What is a MagicBand?

What is a MagicBand?  MagicBands are a colorful wristband that connects all your Disney Vacation choices you made with My Disney Experience, plus more.  Your Magic Band is your resort room key, ticket for the theme parks, ticket for your FastPass+ selections, and lets you pay for meals and souvenirs.  You can customize your magic band up to 10 days prior to arrival. Your bands will arrive at the address you put into My Disney Experience.  By selecting to receive your MagicBands at home, you can use online check-in service to check into your Disney resort.  You can also request an email or text with your room number when it becomes available.  I-4 Travel Company recommends this option as you can go right to the parks even earlier. All you do is touch your MagicBand against a sensor in the shape of Mickey Mouse and that’s it!  In addition to touching a sensor, you will be required to enter a PIN code unique to you when making purchases.  You can go into the pool and shower with these, there is no need to take them off if you don’t want to. If you do take them off, please remember to place them back on your wrist before heading to the park as this is your only way ticket.  You can reuse MagicBands each time you revisit WDW.

What is an ADR?

ADR stands for Advanced Dining Reservations.  With an ADR, Disney guarantees that you will be seated at the first available table after checking in.  Dining is a big part of your Disney experience as  some of our best family memories were made at a character meal.  Disney recommends that you arrive about 15 minutes early to your ADR.  Making an ADR in advance is your best way at getting a Table Service, Character Dining, or Dinner Show that you want. We highly recommend you make ADRs for table service restaurants and character meals regardless of having a meal plan or not. You are able to start making reservations 180 days prior to your vacation start date. If you are staying on Disney Property, you will be able to make reservations for the next 10 days of your vacation.  There are several ways to get an ADR.

Starting at 6 am you can go into My Disney Experience and book your ADRs. Also you can call 407-WDW-DINE starting at 7 am to book your ADRs by phone.  We have found that it is best to plan your reservations in order of difficulty for getting into restaurants.  Please note that Disney requires a credit card to secure any table service restaurant. There is a $10 charge per person if you fail to show up for your reservation or don’t cancel in time. This is good in that it discourages people from making ADRs they don’t intend to keep.

 Also some restaurants require full pre-payment using a credit card to secure your ADR.  Those restaurants are:

          Cinderella’s Royal Table
Hoop Dee Doo Musical Revue
Spirit of Aloha Luau
Mickey’s Backyard BBQ

If you find yourself not getting into a restaurant you want, keep trying and don’t give up. People do cancel and a cancellation may come up. You can always try to walk up to get a table and your chances can be good, but there are some that you can’t count on to walk up and get in like Be Our Guest, Hoop Dee Doo and Mickey’s Backyard BBQ.

Let I-4 Travel Company help guide you through this process to make it painless and gain our insight on what we have found to work the best.