My Disney Experience

Disney is magical. We love it every time. It goes without saying—but I’ll say it anyway—Disney vacations are not easy to do on a budget. Super expensive—everything. Even if you are enjoying discounts, your bound to spend loads of cash while at Disney. I’ve always thought, “We only come once every 10 years—it’s worth it!” Except this year. We came twice this year—once in February and again in November. Our daughter did the Disney college program and we planned our second 2019 visit to Disney during her program, so we could see her half way through and enjoy her perks. The crowds almost ruined it for us in February. We left feeling like we spent a lot of money to stand in line. We couldn’t get fast passes—none available by the time we tried to reserve them. The crowds were not as oppressive in November, but it’s Disney and lots of people love it so still crowded. Disney does manage the crowds pretty well. However, if Disney could figure out a way to organize the walking crowd—walk on the right side? Maybe a slow lane and a fast lane—or a passing lane at the least? We walked single file almost everywhere—the easiest way to stay somewhat together. Still, I was constantly being separated from my party—or inadvertently cutting someone else apart from theirs. Oh, and the number of electric wheel chairs and amigo-type carts at the parks was impressive. I think Disney should put a performance improvement team together to figure out a better way to manage foot and wheel chair traffic. Crazy!

I usually don’t write reviews, but as an avid Disney fan and traveler I feel this is warranted. I love this app. I live in Texas and I go to Disney world every year with my family. I’m not usually a “planner” but I have found this app to be tremendously helpful. In perfect Disney style, this app makes everything convent and useful. These are the game changers this app addresses: 1. Hate hotel check-in? This has you covered. You can bypass all that hassle and walk directly to your room with the check in feature. 2. Don’t want to wait in long food lines in the parks? You can order food ahead and simply pick it up from the mobile station at the restaurant. No wait. Includes Dole Whip snack lines! 3. Makes fast passes, dinner reservations, check wait times, get a real time map of the park, check extra magic hours, bathroom locations, first aid, baby changing stations, parade times, and check out menus of every. Restaurant. In. Disneyworld. Whoa! Seriously, it does everything but pay for your family vacation. 4. My favorite perk of this app is the character meet and greets. Some characters who appear randomly in the parks and not at set stations, will pop up on the app (examples: Gaston or Cinderella’s step sisters) the map will tell you exactly where to find these characters and when. If you have children with autograph books this is a pretty awesome feature! If used correctly, this app can seamlessly plan your vacation with zero hassle and no pressure to rush through events. Enjoy!

I understand how complex it can be to create an app that everyone will love… part of the challenge is that the Disney programs need to be simplified …. Genie Plus, virtual queue, individual fast passes - come on how much money do you really need to gouge from families? Then expect an app to be able to explain all this come on! If you’re not tech savvy, you are really going to suffer. Sorry I digress…Considering all this the app is pretty amazing. Being a first time user, I thought I would share some feedback … it would be very helpful if the app was organized by each “land“ and showed ‘just rides’ or ‘just attractions”. Think about the user if I am a family going to one park for only that day - how can the app help me create a better itinerary for the day based upon my interests , and organize where to go first second third etc. and update based upon any additional purchases, I may have in place. I spent so much time going from the physical map to the app and I’m trying to figure out where to go next and when and how much time I had in between and then having to wait every 2 hours …it just takes the fun out of everything…. I have to plan every single second of my life and then to have to do it while on vacation too- It’s just a lot . As I’m doing this …It’s 100° and I got two kids that have absolutely no patience…. I think people expect so much from technology and it’s never going to be perfect- but considering what you have done so far …It’s pretty impressive.