The Walt Disney World app is an application you can download on your phone. You can download it onto any smart phone. Things that the Disney World app will help you with are: park operating hours, genie plus, virtual queues, maps with wait times, dining reservations, DAS, memory maker/ride photos, and setting up your magic bands.
When you first open up the application, you will be at the Home Screen. At the bottom of the app you will see a small house. If you click on the house, it will always bring you back to this screen. On this screen you can log into your Disney account (if you have one). If you don’t have one, it will set one up for you. When you log in, it will pull up any tickets and resort/dining reservations that you have already booked. If your resort reservation does not show or your tickets do not show up, no need to stress. I will show you how to link those up below. Right below your name, you will see Disney Genie+ Service and Disney Genie Service. (Note, this will likely change to lightning lane multiples and lightning lane later in the month as they are doing away with Genie+.). Disney Genie Service is free. You simply tell the system who is in your party and what attractions are important to you. I suggest setting it up even if you will not be buying Genie+. Genie+ costs money. It is the Disney skip the line service that you pay for per person per day. At its peak it is usually around $25 per person. It is not necessary to buy Genie+, but it can allow you to experience more in the parks. To learn more about Genie+ see my post Do I need Genie+?
Also on the Home Screen is where you can see the hours for each of the parks. It will automatically give you the park hours for today. There are four pictures in the center of the Home Screen. These pictures represent each of the parks: Cinderella’s castle for Magic Kingdom, Spaceship Earth (the big ball) for Epcot, the theater for Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and the Tree of Life for Magic Kingdom. Click on each of these and you will see that park’s hours for today. To look at all of the hours, click where it says “All hours” and it will bring up a calendar that gives you all the park hours for any day. This is also a good resource to figure out when the extended evening hours are being held during the week if you are staying at a Deluxe resort. Extended evening hours are the extra hours in the evening after the parks are closed for Magic Kingdom and Epcot that only Deluxe resort guests can be in the park.
If you scroll down past he park hours on the Home Screen, you will see the spot to join the virtual queue. If you are going to a park with a ride that has a virtual queue (such as Tron LightCycle Run in Magic Kingdom or Guardians of the Galaxy in Epcot) and you want to ride one of these rides, then just before 7am you will want to click on this “Join Virtual Queue.” At exactly 7am you will click to join the queue and hopefully get a boarding group. You can also join the virtual queue at 1pm. Note, you must have a Disney World ticket and be going to that park in order to be able to ride the specific ride.
At the bottom of the screen, next to the house that represents the Home Screen, you will see a location marker (it looks almost like an upside down teardrop). This is the map in the Disney World application. It is a map for each of the parks as well as for Disney Springs. It will show you where you are, how to get to any location, and what the wait times are. To only look at a specific park or Disney Spring, go to the top where it says Filter. This will bring up all the parks. Pick the park you want to see the map for. At the top of the screen it automatically shows Wait Times. This shows you the wait times for each of the attractions. This can be helpful to know what attraction you want to head to next. This is not the only option though. If you click on wait times, it will show you a list, including attractions, characters, dining, restrooms, photo pass, guest services, shops, and transportation. If you want to know where the closest bathroom is in Magic Kingdom, filter for Magic Kingdom and then click on restrooms. Boom, now you know. You can click on the closest restroom and then click on where it says Directions, and it will show you where to walk. In the top right corner of the map there is a List link. This will list all of the possibilities in the specification you selected. For instance, if you are interested in seeing all of the characters available in Magic Kingdom, filter for Magic Kingdom, click on characters, and then click on list. You will see all of the characters. Click on the character you are interested in. It will show you the location of the character and then give you directions. I use the map tool every time I’m at Disney World. It’s incredibly handy.
Just a note, the map is completely dependent upon the time of day you are looking at it. If you are looking at the map at 10pm at night, it is not going to show any characters. This is because there are no characters out at 10pm at night.
At the bottom of the screen, next to the map, is a plus sign with a circle around it. If you clock on this, it will allow you to check dining availability, order food at quick service restaurants, do merchandise mobile checkout, and view your My Genie Day and Tip Board. I mostly use this button to make dining reservations or order quick service food. There are two types of dining at Disney World- sit down dining and quick service. For the sit down dining, you will need a reservation. This includes restaurants in the parks, at the resorts, and at Disney Springs. For quick service, no reservation is required. You can order at the counter for your food, or you can use the Order Food link to order and then pick up at the quick service location. If you are not staying at a Disney resort, you can make dining reservations 60 days prior to your first day of your visit. If you are booked at a Disney World Resort, you can make dining reservations at the sit down restaurants 60 days prior to your first day of your visit + the number of days you are staying. So, if you are staying for 7 days, you can book your dining 67 days before your first day at your resort.
At the bottom of the screen on the right side is a magnifying glass. This allows you to search for anything you want to find. For instance, if you want to find out where Pluto is in the parks, search Pluto and Pluto’s meet and greets will show up.
At the bottom of the screen on the very right, you will see three horizontal lines. This takes you to a list of things available in the app. This includes a lot of the things already found in previous parts of the app, including reserving dining, doing merchandise checkout, and ordering quick service. This is also the spot where you can access your tickets, see your hotel reservations, set up your magic bands, use DAS, view your plans for today and future plans, view your photo gallery, and give cast compliments. If you click on “My tickets and passes” your tickets will show up. You can also add them to your mobile wallet- in my opinion, this is easier to access quickly. Both the LL and the Today’s plans will take you to the Tip Board where you can make Genie+ ride selections. If you have purchased Magic Bands for your trip, then you can set them up by clicking on this link. For information on Magic Bands see my post on “What is a Magic Band? Do I need one?”. If you have a disability and have signed up for Disability Access Services (DAS), then you can click on this link to set up your next ride. If you click on future plans, it will show you all of your dining reservations for your Disney vacation. If you click on “Photo Gallery” it will show you all the pictures you have taken during your vacation with he Disney photographers. Note, you will not be able to see the photos unobstructed unless you pay for Memory Maker. For information on Memory Maker see my post “What is Memory Maker? Is it Worth it?”. Lastly, if a cast member (ie someone that works at Disney) has gone out of their way to be kind to you, you can give them a cast compliment here. You can also see your car locator- in case you forget where you parked.