There is nothing more exciting than planning a Disney vacation and when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March 2020 quashing much looked forward to vacation plans, Adam Bellow and his two sons Reid (10) and Hunter (12) took it upon themselves to use their time to build the ultimate Disney Theme Park Planning tool.
“We wanted to build the ultimate park planning tool that allows families to get the most magic out of the parks.” “The magic of having the app redirect you throughout the day to optimize the ride waiting time or allowing a user to choose to optimize your day based on the rides you selected using the map is something that our users love!” – Reid (age 10)
Named ‘Best Disney Day (MyBDD)’, this app aims to help families plan the best days in the park for their individual needs. It offers a number of features including:
- TODAY’S PLAN – Experience all the Disney Parks have to offer with adaptive plans that direct you to all your planned activities in a way that will automatically save time along the way or help you plan the most efficient walking plans for the parks. Be informed when a ride on your list has an unusually low wait time and see which rides have PhotoPass and where the cameras are before you ride.
- MY PLANS – this section allows you to plan your trip either before you arrive at the park on the website or on the app at the parks. You can add the rides, attractions, and food that you’d like to experience during your trip to the park. You can create a group of family and friends and invite them to see the plans in advance. It gives you information about ride selections based on user’s ride preferences, height, or mobility choices.
- FOOD – See all the great restaurants in the parks and add them to your plans. This includes a dynamic search tool which helps you find the perfect snack or meal for your whole group.
- WEATHER – Get weather alerts that come up when the weather gets rainy or too hot or cold and view recommendations that will help you stay cool or dry with wait times and directions to all those attractions.
- FUN and GAMES – this section of the App includes Disney-themed Jokes, Riddles, and even information on where to find some of the great “Hidden Mickeys” throughout the park.
- RIDE TRACKER – you can record what you thought of the ride and add it to the automatic ride tracker that will keep track of all the things you got to experience on your trip to the park.
- CHECKLIST – You can use the checklist tool or create your own to make sure you’re bringing all the things you need to the parks with you.
“My brother and I love different rides and we wanted a tool that allowed us to set our preferences and create a day that was tailored to what we each loved to do. One of the features that I am most proud of is the weather alert tool. We connect to a weather API and use it to warn park-goers when the weather is going to get “goofy” and share a list of indoor rides they can escape to or even a list of places nearby that they can buy a poncho or other rain gear.” – Hunter (age 12)
When I questioned Adam Bellow about when the app is updated and plans for future development of the App he said, “The app is automatically updated with the latest ride openings, wait times, etc. We also are already working on additional features like a vacation countdown, an easier way to integrate restaurant reservations, enhanced map features, enhancements to our group planning tool, and more!”
The MyBDD app is now available and is free to download from Google Play and Apple App. There is a one-time upgrade fee of $4.99 which unlocks all the features and allows you to use the planning tools whilst inside the parks. This $4.99 fee includes both Walt Disney World and Disneyland with 25 percent of the proceeds being donated to support Make-A-Wish Foundation and March of Dimes charities. For further information visit app.bestdisneyday.com.
If you are planning a Disney vacation you can also check out our Park Guides to Walt Disney World Resort and Disneyland Resort.
