My Disney Experience has taken over Walt Disney World. Totally and completely. You can’t go anywhere at WDW without  “experiencing” it. So just what is this My Disney Experience thing?

My Disney Experience is the biggest, most pervasive program that Disney has ever undertaken.

Using My Disney Experience to enter the park – Photo by Cliff Wang

A few years ago, Disney launched a massive project which was at the time called the Next Generation Experience or NextGen. The idea was to find a way to maximize the guest experience so they would spend more time in the parks.

My Disney Experience

The NextGen program has grown through the years and is now called My Disney Experience (MDE) and it’s everywhere at Walt Disney World.

Find out more about My Disney Experience in this month’s issue of WDW Magazine

Even before you arrive at WDW, you will be hip deep in MDE. MDE begins when you start making reservations. Your reservations are stored in MDE. One of the first things you’ll want to do is to sign up for the My Disney Experience app. It’s totally free and pretty easy to use. This is where all of your reservations are stored. All of them.

So, when you make a room reservation, it shows up on your MDE app. When you buy tickets, they are on your MDE app. When you make dining reservations or FastPass+ reservations they go on your app. Everything you do at WDW is controlled by MDE. Even getting into your Disney Hotel room is controlled by MDE.

Once you get all of your reservations made, if you are staying in a Disney hotel, you will get a Magic Band. These little babies are just cool and very smart. Inside that Magic Band is a little chip that talks to the MDE computer and knows everything about your trip. Check out what’s on your Magic Band.

• Room Reservations (it even opens the door to your room)
• Ticket information
• Dining Reservations
• Dining Plan
• FastPass+ information that can be changed in real time with the app or at a kiosk
• PhotoPass
• Charging privileges

The app is pretty cool too. On it you can plan your trip and see a daily itinerary. You can make and change reservations. You can see wait times for the different attractions. You can even find the nearest restroom and lots, lots more.

The March 2016 WDW Magazine takes an in depth look at the whole My Disney Experience program. We look at the history and future, the top 10 ways to use at and we have a step-by-step look at how to set up your MDE app.

This is one of our most important issues yet.

Take a look at the preview of the 2016 issue of WDW Magazine