My Disney Experience is a massive part of the Walt Disney World experience, and with all the restrictions in place due to COVID-19 Disney’s tech team has been hard at work making changes and improvements to the app to help guests have a great trip to the parks even with all of the restrictions, regulations, and new policy changes in place. Over the past few weeks, several changes have come to the app that you’ll definitely want to know about if you are hitting the theme parks any time soon!
Walk-up dining wait list now available
Though last-minute reservations for Walt Disney World’s table service dining locations can be a little hit or miss, guests have had some success walking up to in demand dining establishments and enquiring about walk-up availability for the day. Sometimes guests get lucky with a last minute cancellation or schedule change, but this strategy doesn’t always work and if you cross the theme park looking for a lunch reservation at Be Our Guest and they have no availability, you may feel a bit disappointed that you crossed the park for nothing.
However, thanks to a new feature inside My Disney Experience guests don’t have to walk around the park inquiring about last minute seating as they can now check walk-up availability at a table-service restaurant inside the app. After launching the app guests can select “Check Dining Availability” choose the current date and party size, and then select “Now” as the timeframe. A list of restaurants with walk-up availability will be displayed and guests can “Join Walk-Up List” for restaurants with space to accomodate additional guests.
Right now this feature is a little buggy and most users who have tried to access it haven’t been able to use it yet, but hopefully this new feature will be fully ready in the coming days for hungry last-minute diners at the parks and resorts.
Not only is this a great tool for guests looking to grab something to eat, but it also helps reduce contact further for Cast Members working at these restaurants, so this new addition seems like a real win-win for everyone!
Virtual queueing system changes for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance
As attendance has grown at Disney’s Hollywood Studios over the past few weeks, demand has been on the rise for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, with boarding passes being fully dispersed within seconds of dropping during both the morning and evening virtual queue opening times. Unfortunately this puts those with a large party at a disadvantage as guests have to manually check every member of their party before joining the queue, costing them precious seconds during the process.
However, with the new My Disney Experience update, all members of the guest’s Friends and Family group on My Disney Experience that are currently in the park will automatically be selected as part of your Boarding Group party, meaning guests with large parties can just automatically click through the prompts the same way someone riding alone would, saving valuable time.
As a reminder, instead of releasing all boarding passes for the day right at park opening guests now have two different opportunities to grab a boarding pass: 10:00 AM, and 2:00 PM. Once a boarding group is available a push notification will be sent to your phone, and guests will have an hour from the time of the alert to arrive at the entrance of this attraction.
Though we expect things to continue to change as Disney adapts to the “new normal” inside its theme parks, both the addition of the walk-up availability and waitlist feature inside My Disney Experience and the further streamlining of the virtual queueing system for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance are welcome changes that should help keep guests’ visits in the coming months as stress free as possible!
As always, while this situation is evolving, all travelers should check out the CDC’s official site here, which has information on the virus and how to prevent its spread.
Theme Park Tourist COVID-19 Complete Coverage: Universal Orlando Resort Cuts Ticket Prices for Several Dates With New Variable Ticket Pricing Policy I 5 Additional Policy Changes at Walt Disney World Now in Effect I Will Disneyland Open at all in 2020? There Still May be a Chance I 2 Universal Hotels Closing Indefinitely Starting Next Week I Walt Disney World Adds On-Site COVID Testing, Live Shows to Return Soon I The 23 Major Theme Park Projects Now Officially Cancelled, Delayed or Slimmed Down (August 12, 2020) I Walt Disney World Annual Passholders Face Low Availability as Parks Remain Empty I SeaWorld San Antonio and Aquatica Park are Extending Days Due To Demand I Survey Reveals Guests Don’t Really Want to Go to Theme Parks in 2020, Masks Continue to Be Divisive I Disney Slashes Park Hours for Fall
