Reviews of My Disney Experience
Reviewed by alwill Review Date: 01/16/2013
Rating: (9) Recommended
Not sure if we truly experienced MyMagic+ or just a prelude to its features. However, during our stay in December, I was asked at check-in if I'd be interested in participating the new program with our room key, which we were also putting our park tickets on. The guest services member said we'd be able to use our room key by merely waving or tapping on a device at select stores within the test park, EPCOT. So, we agreed. We added a 4 digit pin to each card, in the event we were to use it on a purchase of $50 or more.
A couple of days later, when we were approaching the gates at the park, a lady (not in the usual Cast Member attire) saw us pulling out our room keys and asked if we'd like to participate in a test experience, and naturally, we agreed. She led us down the way from the other gates and ushered us to a entry point that had a waist-high T-bar with a ball adorned with a Disney "D" and on the other end of the T-bar, a finger reader.
We waved our card in front of the "D" and a green light twirled around the D and then lit up in a solid ring around the D. Then the index finger was inserted on the reader, which also twirled a green light, ending in a solid green color and voila, you were in. There were a lot of upper level types standing around observing this, taking notes on tablets and thanking us for participating. I asked if I could take a picture of the gate device and after a little checking, a gentleman in what I'd call casual business attire stepped over and asked a few questions, then declined my request, saying it was still in testing and they would rather wait for the official Disney announcement. He was very nice about it.
Then while in EPCOT, and making purchases at various checkouts, we saw the same Disney "D" emblem ball as part of the credit card reader. When we asked if we could do the tapping technique, almost every place said it wasn't working (one member took the card and wiped it across the D-ball a few times like she was under surveillance and then said, "See, it doesn't work.") However, when in one of the shops in the China pavilion, we asked the cast member at the checkout if we should we tap our card, she had no idea what we were talking about. And when we tried, it worked! She was as surprised as we were.
The next day, as we were about to enter the Animal Kingdom, we were again approached by some nicely dressed cast members to participate in the new entry test, and we went through like old pros (they were impressed we knew what to do and so quickly) The only difference in the AK device is that it had a patina look, like it had been weathered, keeping with the jungle explorer theme of the park.
Overall, it seems to be very cool technology and so much faster than the usual entry method. I can't tell you how many times our tickets would not go through the regular readers and you'd have to run it through several times before you could enter. I'm also looking forward to the FastPass+ features that are being touted.
The only concern with the card tap method in purchasing from the stores would be if you lost your card and the finder was to take advantage of its easy buying ability. Even though when purchasing something over $50, you had to enter your pin, a lot of damage can be done buying food and beverages. But I'm sure Disney has thought about that!
Pros:
Very cool technologyCons:
A little buggyReviewed by mgilmore Review Date: 03/21/2013
Rating: (10) Recommended
I had the opportunity during my 7 day trip to use the RFID on my KTTW card this month from March 6-12, 2013.
I stayed on Property at Pop Century.
At check-in they had me choose a passcode for my card, and taught me how to use the card.
What was really nice was my resort room had the RFID feature too! When going to unlock my resort room door, all I had to do was hold my KTTW card up to the RFID on the door and it unlocked instantly! Very nice!
I also had the opportunity to use the RFID gates at ALL of the parks, and it made entry so quick and easy! You hold your card up to the RFID, then put your finger on the machine and it turns green and you are in.
I like the new system.
I also had the chance to use it in Epcot when I made a couple of purchases to charge back to my room. You hold your card up to the reader then enter your passcode. It was so easy.
Pros:
Easy to useCons:
None that I experienced.Reviewed by bethcode Review Date: 03/28/2013
Rating: (4) Not Recommended
We traveled to Disney in February 2013 and stayed at the AK Kidani Village. We went to the parks and didn't get back to the resort until after 9pm, at which time discovered that none of our room keys worked. The front desk fixed mine, and everyone else went down to get theirs replaced the next morning. To make a long story short, my husband had to get his replaced 4 times before it worked!!! We kept trying to charge things in the parks back to our room, but the little gold mouse you were supposed to tap never worked. If the cast member ran our cards through the cash register it worked every time. Some cast members wouldn't believe that it didn't work for us, and quickly tap it before we could stop them. It did something funny to their register and they'd have to void out the whole thing while we waited a long time for them to figure it out. We'd tell them to void it, but they'd say oh no, we just have to back out and change the method of payment, then they'd call a manager over, and end up voiding it out. I think this will be a great system once they get the kinks out, but it was a major pain for us, mainly because no one believed it wasn't working properly!
Pros:
good conceptCons:
never worked for usReviewed by bellebookworm9 Review Date: 05/16/2013
Rating: (0) Recommended
I am glad to see they seem to have worked out the kinks with the "Touch to Pay" system. They installed it literally the day we arrived last December and everyone (cast and guests) were clueless as how to use it.
This time around it was so much easier, particularly with the pre-selected pin. There were only a couple of places I still had to sign after entering the pin, though I'm not sure why.
I also love the My Magic app for iPhone simply for it's ease of making and changing dining reservations.
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—Reviewed by rhart4god Review Date: 10/08/2013
Rating: (5) Not Recommended
My family stayed at Pop Century 09/23-30/2013 and we used the mydisneyexperience app with fast passes and the magic bands. We've been to Disney many times with never any lasting negative experiences! This time, however, well, it was just un-Disneylike. MyDisneyExperience is a great concept, but while it accepted the links for my sons' and sister's reservations, it never let me do anything with it, saying it needed to be linked and when I tried to link it, it said it was already linked (frustrating!) It doesn't show any non-dining reservations (Pirate's League, Bibbidy Bobbidy Boutique, etc.) Once at the resort, our rooms were not in the same buildings, our dining credits were continually messed up (at the end of the week, we had 6 full table service credits for our grandson, who ate at all the same meals as the rest of us! Now, that was to our credit, but the rest of the mistakes were not beneficial at all! Having to wait at the restaurants after meals to have the manager call our resort and correct over the phone or pay for the meal with our credit card and hope to correct it later.) Fastpasses were booked through mydisneyexperience app ahead of time. And, as is often the case, we spent days at different parks than originally planned but the kiosk at the park to book fastpasses, wouldn't let us change it there, we had to find a computer or do it on our smartphone. Kind of a hassle. To add insult to injury, my grandson's beloved Woody doll went missing. We have pictures (on our phones) of him in our room, he was never allowed to go to the Parks, he's just missing. (Good report: told Grandson I called Mickey and arranged to have him mailed to our local Disney Store, who prepared a new Woody doll without tags in a box taped shut and marked Special Delivery and included a note from Mickey himself. That was great!!) Now that we're home, I went online to order our pictures through the Photopass Plus...computer showed 99 pictures, called the photopass help (on hold for almost an hour), she was helpful and linked all the photos back into my account, showing 300 pictures. So i placed my order and the account immediately showed only 83 pictures. What!?! Now i don't know if I ordered 83, 99 or 300 pictures. Is Photopass worth it? I can't tell you. The helpline is only available during business hours during the week, so I have to wait till Saturday to call again - when I have all day to wait. I am still a Disney fan. Love it. This experience is an exception, I know that, but if it were my first visit (as is the case with my son's stepchildren), I wouldn't want to come back.
Pros:
good concept, parts of it worked great and as expectedCons:
computer related messes, hard to straighten outReviewed by NJDzneMom Review Date: 11/11/2013
Rating: (7) Recommended
Love this app! We used it constantly during our trip to see our daily plan (fast pass and reservation times), check wait times and find out where characters were. Making changes during the day was a little tricky...instructions were not overly clear. And there were some technical issues such as delays in opening or changing screens and error messages.
As a suggestion, I wish Disney would add functionality to change dining reservation times like you can with fastpasses. Maybe a future enhancement??
I think this will be an even better tool as Disney continues to work out the kinks.
Pros:
Easy and ConvenientCons:
Server and Error MessagesReviewed by dianamagoon Review Date: 11/13/2013
Rating: (6) Recommended
I am planning a family trip (husband, 2 kids, and in-laws) to WDW in Feb and decided to use My Disney Experience to organize the trip. I'm an event planner by nature (and I also have a degree in event management) plus I did a TON of research before starting to plan the trip. I had already started a huge, multi-tab spreadsheet for this trip before I got onto the site.
What I don't like:
> When I'm on the site and try to change ADR, I have to delete the existing one and then make a new one (even if I just want to add someone). Also, the site will make me log back in frequently when trying to navigate back to (my) home page.
> When you go to the "Find Things To Do" section, I was able to click on items but couldn't not get them added to my main page. The only things you seem to be able to add are ones that have a time assigned (parades, ADR, etc.) This could have been user error but I'm usually pretty good about figuring this stuff out and have not been able to do so. I do not want to spend my time in the parks navigating between different pages on my cell phone and would just like it all in one place.
What I do like:
> Our first night in town we are having dinner @ Raglan Road with friends who live in Orlando. I was able to add them to my "friends & family" section and assign each person a Disney Character. I don't know if it's something ADR has always offered but I loved the ability to make my father-in-law Goofy and my best friend Ariel.
> It is nice to see all of my (timed) plans on one page. I can log in and see what day we have reservations and where so it's easier to plan the day around that.
Overall, I think it's a good site but could use a little more tweaking. We are staying a POP Century and have not been invited to use the MagicBands yet. I am hoping that they will be available for our trip.
The FastPass+ system does concern me a bit. It just seems so restrictive. I'm travelling with my children (5 & 7/boys) and I don't want to have to plan our rides weeks in advance. As another post mentioned, what happens if it rains and we have to adjust our park plans for the day? I am making a park plan for each day but trying to leave it flexible in case we want to make changes, for any reason. I'm actually hoping we can't use the FastPass+ system and then it won't be an issue.
Pros:
Easy to NavigateCons:
Always have to sign back in, not easy to change ADRReviewed by MouseDaddy Review Date: 01/04/2014
Rating: (7) Recommended
Great concept and we utilized MDE and MagicBands on our latest trip. I had downloaded the MDE phone app quite a while ago. Was excited to setup MBs, park tickets, dining res etc. Encountered site issue immediately with Family/Friends list. Somehow all identified as "Family" got duplicated as "Friends". Once I got that straightened out system was relatively easy to use to set up itinerary, link info to MBs etc.
So I get my family established and system advises me to invite them all. But each individual has to set up their own MDE account in order to link/share with me and system will not allow my 12 yo twins to build their own account. So I can't share any info with them, then can't participate in the sharing/planning aspect of app.
System also wouldn't allow me to establish FP+ for my wife or kids. Party of 6 but I could only secure FP+ for three of us. We had been given a number of complimentary 1 day park tickets and I linked those to MB's. Was advised by cast member that paper, comp tickets won't link to MB correctly. Probably explains why I could establish FP+ for those individuals of my party. But it would have been nice if the MDE site advised me of those comp tix limitations so I could have addressed the issue prior to our trip.
Finally, once I got F&F list established, all ticket & res info linked etc., when I would try to add a res or activity to the itinerary, the system would prompt me to log in and establish my F&F list. So I had to resave all my F&F info before I could make each change/addition. Very aggravating to have to repeat steps over & over.
I like the idea...I'd be willing to try it again...but they need to work out the kinks.
Pros:
Phone app; MagicBandsCons:
Family/Friends; Kids can't share;site glitchesReviewed by Fitzboyzmom Review Date: 01/08/2014
Rating: (4) Recommended
I really do not like this application. At home it is OK, but I often have to log on multiple times and it does not seem to take you back to where you were. It could be me, but I find that I have to keep going back to the beginning and selecting a topic instead of just being able to do all my dining or fastpass, etc., at one time.
The worst though is at the parks. There is often not enough of a signal to do anything and you get errors trying to reschedule things. I tried really hard to cancel some fast passes that we were not going to use, but just gave up. Too much time staring at my phone instead of participating with my family. This needs to be fixed.
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—Reviewed by BacksideOfWater1971 Review Date: 01/26/2014
Rating: (5) Not Recommended
At home the system worked perfect linking reservations and booking Fastpasses. At the parks not so much. If you want to make a change you have to log on to the Disney wi-fi that is full of other people doing the same thing. I come on vacation to unplug from the world, not bury my face in a phone for a week.
