MyDisneyExperience App and FastPass +

[mesaboy2]

Hi All
I have been off the Disboards for awhile, so I am out-of-the-loop on this whole FP+ system. Is there a link or post that describes it really well, and what it is all about? I am really not understanding it, with the bits and pieces that I am coming across.

(One thing that does cross my mind, is the possibility of chaos in the parks over this..... I am considered a "Disney expert" amongst my friends due to my love of WDW/DIS, you probably all are, too. So, what happens to all the thousands/millions of people who come to the parks that are not as knowledgeable as we DIS-ers are...?)

Thank you for any explanations or directions to posts.

Bits and pieces is all we have at the moment.

 

[bcrook]

I linked up my DVC reservations to the new Disney Web Site (My Disney Experience is an adventure! It takes perserverence ). BUT, before I could do anything I had to set up "accounts" for all my guests so that we can "share our Disney Experience". It wouldn't let me skip this stage, and the instructions are not very clear. Then it wants me to send emails to all my guests. I am traveling with 12 other people so it is cumbersome, and odd.

Once I got everything in the new web page on my computer (using firefox). I went to the app. My room reservations don't show up - but maybe they will when I get to 60 days out. BUT, all my friends show up on the App.

I spent about 15 minutes changing all my friends avatars. That is a nice perk! For the record, chose Buzz Lightyear. There aren't a lot of choices.

I have two different trips, and two different sets of guests going with me. BUT, I don't know how to manage that. Or how to pick and choose which friends get shared which events. This is going to make people crazy.

My son is excited about the possibility of there being a limited number of FP available, and then buying them one at a time with his phone. He says this of course, because his app will be connected to MY credit card.

 

[mousermerf]

I linked up my DVC reservations to the new Disney Web Site (My Disney Experience is an adventure! It takes perserverence ). BUT, before I could do anything I had to set up "accounts" for all my guests so that we can "share our Disney Experience". It wouldn't let me skip this stage, and the instructions are not very clear. Then it wants me to send emails to all my guests. I am traveling with 12 other people so it is cumbersome, and odd.

Once I got everything in the new web page on my computer (using firefox). I went to the app. My room reservations don't show up - but maybe they will when I get to 60 days out. BUT, all my friends show up on the App.

I spent about 15 minutes changing all my friends avatars. That is a nice perk! For the record, chose Buzz Lightyear. There aren't a lot of choices.

I have two different trips, and two different sets of guests going with me. BUT, I don't know how to manage that. Or how to pick and choose which friends get shared which events. This is going to make people crazy.

My son is excited about the possibility of there being a limited number of FP available, and then buying them one at a time with his phone. He says this of course, because his app will be connected to MY credit card.

The events you can schedule right now are fireworks/parades and dining - the rest don't work yet or aren't active.

When you schedule dining reservations now, it asks for a person from your "friends" to fill each spot at the table. You can skip that, but that's how it assigns people.

Fireworks/parades work the same way. When you add it to the itinerary, it'll ask for how many people.. then you fill in the people in the slots.

I forget the exact verbiage, but once your friends "confirm" their accounts as real-people accounts having their own Disney.com settings and such, they'll need to allow you to make plans for them by clicking an acknowledgement and acceptance thing. That will allow you to assign them FP+ as part of your itin in the future. Since FP+ is based on the ticket linked to their "for reals" Disney.com account. You can have pseudo-accounts under you for kids and family members without "for reals" individual Disney.com accounts though. When the time comes, you'll have to assign them tickets before you can assign them FP+.

 

[bcrook]

The events you can schedule right now are fireworks/parades and dining - the rest don't work yet or aren't active.

When you schedule dining reservations now, it asks for a person from your "friends" to fill each spot at the table. You can skip that, but that's how it assigns people.

Fireworks/parades work the same way. When you add it to the itinerary, it'll ask for how many people.. then you fill in the people in the slots.

I forget the exact verbiage, but once your friends "confirm" their accounts as real-people accounts having their own Disney.com settings and such, they'll need to allow you to make plans for them by clicking an acknowledgement and acceptance thing. That will allow you to assign them FP+ as part of your itin in the future. Since FP+ is based on the ticket linked to their "for reals" Disney.com account. You can have pseudo-accounts under you for kids and family members without "for reals" individual Disney.com accounts though. When the time comes, you'll have to assign them tickets before you can assign them FP+.

I am going to need a full time assistant for this.

 

[mousermerf]

I am going to need a full time assistant for this.

So will Disney apparently.. just chatted with them and it appears several "assigned tickets" (aka: passholders) accounts are showing the wrong information for whatever reason (wrong expiration date, wrong ap level, etc..) so it's problematic with the existing accounts.. before they roll out the ability for folks to add in other tickets

 

[Backstage_Gal]

The events you can schedule right now are fireworks/parades and dining - the rest don't work yet or aren't active.

When you schedule dining reservations now, it asks for a person from your "friends" to fill each spot at the table. You can skip that, but that's how it assigns people.

Fireworks/parades work the same way. When you add it to the itinerary, it'll ask for how many people.. then you fill in the people in the slots.

I forget the exact verbiage, but once your friends "confirm" their accounts as real-people accounts having their own Disney.com settings and such, they'll need to allow you to make plans for them by clicking an acknowledgement and acceptance thing. That will allow you to assign them FP+ as part of your itin in the future. Since FP+ is based on the ticket linked to their "for reals" Disney.com account. You can have pseudo-accounts under you for kids and family members without "for reals" individual Disney.com accounts though. When the time comes, you'll have to assign them tickets before you can assign them FP+.

That sounds WAYYYYY to cumbersome and frustrating for the average person and also requires Grandma to accept her existence onine? YIKES!!!

 

[bcrook]

That sounds WAYYYYY to cumbersome and frustrating for the average person and also requires Grandma to accept her existence onine? YIKES!!!

and Aunt Pat and Dad who is still rocking the 2005 flip phone.

 

[mousermerf]

That sounds WAYYYYY to cumbersome and frustrating for the average person and also requires Grandma to accept her existence onine? YIKES!!!

Grandma can be a pseudo-account under your account. The "I'm a real person with a Disney.com account" confirmtion/linking/friending/privilage-giving moreso applies to people who a) want to access and see the plans themselves and b) have existing tickets outside the reservation (passholders.)

 

[mousermerf]

I guess I can explain it a little better..

I have my Disney.com account. I add some "friends" by just typing in names and various details that Disney wants to make them pseudo-accounts under mine.

Ta-da! They pseudo exist!

Me
Grandma
Sig-O
Kid

"Me" at this point is the only real Disney.com account. None of the others can login, see what i've planned, etc..

At this point I can plan dining and assign people to dining reservations. Grandma and Me can go to Le Cellier. Sig-O and Me can go to Coral Reef. However, Sig-O and Kid can't go to Garden Grill through the system because it'd b in my name and assigned to my itinerary - so one of them would need a for-reals Disney.com account for that to happen. People under 18 aren't allowed to be the for-reals account on a dining reservation.

So, with that in mind and considering that Sig-O wants to see the plans I'm making and possibly make some plans of his/her own, Sig-O signs up for a for-reals Disney.com account - logging in with email address, etc..

I have to send a request to add Sig-O as a for-reals account linked to mine - essentially assigning "Sig-O" (in name as the pseduo-account) on my account to "Sig-O" (for-reals) and Disney.com now knowing it's the same person.

Sig-O from his/her account has to confirm me as the right person.. and then if he/she wants me to make plans, assign tickets, FP+ etc... allow me the ability to do so through their account.

I can also, from my side, allow Sig-O to make plans for the people in my friends/party group once it's confirmed as a for-reals account.

Grandma doesn't want to touch the computer. I can assign a ticket from my hotel reservation to Grandma. That ticket is now "Grandma's" and thus will have whatever the FP+ privileges are that come with it and the resort reservation. Having a ticket on "Grandma" allows me to schedule FP+ for that pseudo-person.

Turns out Kid is from a second marriage, yadda yadda, the other spouse purchased Kid an AP - therefor there's no ticket for Kid in my reservation and thus nothing to assign to Kid in the account. So Kid needs a Disney.com account with AP information in it. Confirmed, linked, assignments allowed, Kid can now be assigned along with the rest of my party to FP+ reservations.. however those are allowed for an AP. Similarly, Kid could be assigned a pre-purchased ticket I have on-hand by entering in the barcode info.

Long story short, Disney needs names and tickets assigned to people to allow FP+ reservations. You can't decide to book FP+ for every Thursday of the month on the off chance you'd go on a Thursday when it's convenient. No, you need each person to have a verifiable ticket with the right allotment of FP+ availability. What those exact rules are for what tickets remains to be seen.

 

[Backstage_Gal]

Holy cow, what percentage of the population is going to be able to figure this out without pulling all their hair out?

 

[mom2rtk]

Holy cow, what percentage of the population is going to be able to figure this out without pulling all their hair out?

There's a fair number of people who didn't understand the OLD system.

Gonna be interesting to see how this goes with the new one........

 

[hvanes]

I just downloaded the my disney experience app for iPad. I signed in with wdw name and password. The terms and conditions pop up. Those terms look official to me. I feel like I have opened Pandora's box.

Yes - exactly how I felt last night after I had played on the new site.

 

[LoveToDisney]

Wow, I had no idea things were going to be so difficult and Disney was going to climb into my privacy in such a huge way, creating accounts with tickets attached in order to do anything. Thanks Mousermerf for your description. I'm a smart person but this is just so much of a hassle...not sure it's worth the trouble. We are AP holders and usually have paper tickets for guests we bring. It all sounds very complicated. I'm quite disappointed and hope this doesn't mean goodbye for the regular fastpasses.

 

[dkbnyc]

I still can't get logged in to the app. I get an error message each time . Maybe I will uninstall/reinstall.
While the app sounds interesting,I don't want to be tied to my smart phone, the battery won't last a full day at the park of I keep checking ressies, wait times, show times, maps....


I'm on android, not an iPhone

 

[Hunclemarco]

Now, coming with our mickey mail will be a thick handbook on how to make a reservation.
While this is an interesting concept, it's becoming too much work to enjoy a relaxing vacation.

I'm still trying to get my head around adding people to my "friend list" much less adding them to dining reservations, then FP+ reservations.

 

[Hunclemarco]

.....and still thinking on this, trying to decide if i'm going to keep the 10 day park hopper tickets, or go to annual passes like we normally did.

On top of that, we're spending the first 3 days with a Disney reservation at AoA LM, then the rest of our stay using rented DVC points...How will this whole FP+ work then?

Again, why couldn't they just keep things simple?

Trying to be positive on this, but we are not receivng enough information on the workings of this new system, and they can spring all of this upon us at anytime....thus confusing either myself or another Disney Attender with limited or no time to figure these things out before or during our vacations.
Can't you tell i hate uncertianty? LOL

 

[chamonix]

I can choose to link up a credit card to the app. It says in the terms and agreement so that I can purchase tickets, make room reservations, and make ADRs (for restaurants that need them). I wonder if at some point I would be able to purchase "extra" e-ticket FP+ slots just by clicking a button on my app?

Hmm, I can't find where to add a card, my lodging reservations, or my APs. Frustrating, to say the least.

 

[Pete W.]

Long story short, Disney needs names and tickets assigned to people to allow FP+ reservations. You can't decide to book FP+ for every Thursday of the month on the off chance you'd go on a Thursday when it's convenient. No, you need each person to have a verifiable ticket with the right allotment of FP+ availability. What those exact rules are for what tickets remains to be seen.

So does this mean that non-AP holders will need to purchase park tickets at least 60 days before their trip if they want to reserve FP+ that far ahead?

 

[bcrook]

I still can't get logged in to the app. I get an error message each time . Maybe I will uninstall/reinstall.
While the app sounds interesting,I don't want to be tied to my smart phone, the battery won't last a full day at the park of I keep checking ressies, wait times, show times, maps....


I'm on android, not an iPhone

I'm on iPad, and I can use the app for dining reservations and see maps. I can change avatars of all my friends ! . A lot of good that does. My daughter has a windows phone, no app yet. My son has an android but isn't interested in this game right now. He says the app is there.

Hmm, I can't find where to add a card, my lodging reservations, or my APs. Frustrating, to say the least.

From the app, I can't do any of that yet either. From the web page I can link reservations (some anyway), add a card (I haven't), and I do not know what to do with a ticket.

So does this mean that non-AP holders will need to purchase park tickets at least 60 days before their trip if they want to reserve FP+ that far ahead?

I am guessing yes! Grrrr.

 

[bcrook]

.....and still thinking on this, trying to decide if i'm going to keep the 10 day park hopper tickets, or go to annual passes like we normally did.

On top of that, we're spending the first 3 days with a Disney reservation at AoA LM, then the rest of our stay using rented DVC points...How will this whole FP+ work then?

Again, why couldn't they just keep things simple?

Trying to be positive on this, but we are not receivng enough information on the workings of this new system, and they can spring all of this upon us at anytime....thus confusing either myself or another Disney Attender with limited or no time to figure these things out before or during our vacations.
Can't you tell i hate uncertianty? LOL

The rented points would be the tricky problem. I have a DVC reservation in my name and one in my parents name. I can link the one in my name to my account, but not the one in my parents name. But some how their names automatically appeared in my friends list. That would be weird for me if I was renting the points to someone I don't know. I do have the option to delete friends from my list though.