Though you probably aren’t thinking about Walt Disney World’s My Disney Experience app while all the parks and resorts are shut down, Disney’s tech team has actually been hard at work making changes and improvements to the app that you might not have noticed! From fun activities to complete while the COVID-19 shutdown is still in effect, and for when the parks reopen afterwards as well.
1. Disney Parks Art Studio quietly released on My Disney Experience
Several days ago a new section of the My Disney Experience app appeared called the “Disney Parks Artist Studio”. As you might expect, guests who tap this new section of the app (which is currently featured on the front page dashboard) where you can learn how to draw a number of favorite Disney characters. Currently, the first (and only) character available is Mickey Mouse, but more character drawing tutorials will be added in the near future.
2. Mickey and Minnie Trivia also now available for players at home
Earlier this month Disney released Mickey & Minnie’s Trivia Time – Mouse Rules Apply!, a new trivia game in the Play Disney Parks app to celebrate the openings of Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway attraction and “Vacation Fun” at Mickey Shorts Theater in Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
This trivia game includes five trivia packs containing hundreds of questions spanning from Mickey and Minnie’s debut in “Steamboat Willie” to today. And while initially some of the trivia packs could only be unlocked after experiencing Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway or “Vacation Fun” at Mickey Shorts Theater, this app-based game is now completely unlocked via the Disney Parks Play App.
3. Expansion of the virtual queue system
One of the biggest changes we could see when the parks reopen would be a wider rollout of the virtual queue system, which has thus far been used only for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. And now it looks like My Disney Experience has been quietly updated to potentially handle that possibility as a new “My Queues” menu has been added to the app. Though we won’t know exactly what this menu will do until the parks open back up, it seems more likely than not that we will see an expansion of the Boarding Group virtual queue system when the parks reopen, at some future date.
Though increasing virtual queues might seem like an extreme measure, it could be necessary if Walt Disney World wants to reopen while keeping social distancing practices in mind. Though most estimates seem to indicate that a closure later this spring could be possible, a lot will depend on the spread of the COVID-19 virus in the coming weeks.
As we’ve said previously, there is no way to know exactly how long theme parks will be dealing with the effects of Coronavirus, but while this situation is continuing, all travelers should check out the CDC’s official site here, which has information on the virus and how to prevent its spread.
