If you are currently preparing for a Walt Disney World vacation, it’s safe to say that your planning experience is probably unlike any planning you’ve done before.
Entering Walt Disney World Resort
There are lots of new aspects of your vacation to consider and even new safety measures and health protocols that you can expect to see in place from each experience of your vacation from your Resort stay to dining and beyond — even including a new advance Theme Park reservation system to enter the parks.
Disney is currently reaching out to guests who have upcoming stays with a flyer advising on steps they can take now to make sure the updated park and Resort experience will go as smooth as possible.
Walt Disney World Informational Flyer screenshot
And it all starts with My Disney Experience.
Sign in to My Disney Experience
First and foremost, it’s encouraged that guests sign in using their Disney Account on the My Disney Experience website.
My Disney Experience app screenshot
If you don’t currently have an account, you may register for one by clicking here.
Walt Disney World Informational Flyer screenshot
From here, you’ll create your list of Family and Friends that make up your travel group.
Link Your Resort Reservation
Next, you’ll link your Resort reservation to your My Disney Experience account.
My Disney Experience Linking Options
This happens by providing your Resort Confirmation number.
My Disney Experience screenshot
Be certain to verify the names of everybody on the reservation! Any changes? You’ll want to contact your travel professional (or Disney, if you booked on your own).
And next is a step that will be more crucial than ever before.
Link Your Walt Disney World Theme Park Tickets
When the Walt Disney World theme parks reopen, they will debut a new Theme Park reservation system, which will require guests to make an advance reservation to enter. Even if you purchased tickets already, you cannot — at least upon the initial reopening of the parks — simply show up to the ticket touchpoints as we have in the past.
Monorail Station at Walt Disney World Ticket and Transportation Center
Again, all guests will be required to have a Theme Park Reservation (made in advance) AND valid admission to enter.
Now, at press time, the reservation system is NOT yet live, and Disney has only stated that details on the new system will be coming “soon.” But THIS is what you can do to be as prepared as possible RIGHT NOW for when the new system goes live:
Link Your Tickets or Pass on My Disney Experience
You can link your valid Walt Disney World ticket (or Pass) through My Disney Experience. Each guest in the travel party must have a valid ticket linked for each day you wish to visit a Disney park. The prompts in My Disney Experience (as seen above) will walk you through the steps when you’re signed in.
HERE’S AN IMPORTANT NOTE: If you purchased a vacation package that includes room and tickets, your tickets will be automatically included and you can skip this step!
What’s Next?
According to Disney, “Once the Theme Park reservation system is available, return to My Disney Experience to make Theme Park reservations.”
Walt Disney World Informational Flyer
And we will be sure to keep you posted here when any new information regarding the new Theme Park reservation system is revealed! We hope you’ll stay tuned with us. In the meantime, you can visit any of the links below to catch up on all the latest about the reopening of Walt Disney World theme parks which will begin with Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom on July 11th, followed by EPCOT and Disney’s Hollywood Studios on July 15th.
Disney Park Reopening Details and Info
Click HERE for the All Latest Updates
Click HERE To See FULL LISTS of the Rides, Attractions, Shopping, Entertainment, and Restaurants Opening in Disney World!
TUTORIAL: How To Use Disney World's NEW Park Pass Reservation System
ALL Disney World Reopening Procedures
Disney World Hotel and Ticket Booking Information
We’re Visiting ALL the Reopened Disney World Hotels and Have All the Need-to-Know Details
We’re LIVE in Disney World's Magic Kingdom For the FIRST Time Since the Closures
We’re LIVE in Disney’s Animal Kingdom For the FIRST Time Since the Closures
We Got a FIRST LOOK at Disney World’s New Character Cavalcades and Entertainment!
Everything You NEED To Know About Wearing Masks in Disney World
Join the DFB Newsletter To get all the latest Disney Park Closure News Delivered Right to Your Inbox Click here to Subscribe
Do you have an upcoming Walt Disney World vacation planned? Please let us know with a comment!
Our handy (and portable!) ebook guides make sure you get the best deals and can plan a vacation of a lifetime.
I am still so confused about if I will get to make an advanced reservation. We have hotel reservation at the Boardwalk for July 22-27, but we hadn’t purchased tickets yet. Nothing has has been clear about if we are included or not.
Mel, we don’t have anything definitive from Disney on this yet. It may be that a confirmed ticket is needed for reservations, or it may be that a Resort reservation will allow you to purchase a ticket and therefore get a reservation. Hopefully you’ll get some clarity soon.
I’m staying at Poly on DVC points July 21-26, but don’t have theme park tickets yet. Considering buying DVC Gold AP. I’ve never had AP before…would I be able to immediately link the AP to the reservation upon purchase via MDE?
Bri, from what I have been told, you can use your confirmation number to link to MDE for the purposes of planning, but you need to activate the AP in person. We reached out to Disney about this yesterday to see if an AP could be remotely activated given the state of the world, and the answer was no.
What happens with children under 3 who do not need a ticket? Are they still required to have a theme park reservation? Will the system recognize why they don’t have a ticket?
I have reservations at WL July 11-17 and have everything linked. But, my tickets are Military Salute tickets. Which really are vouchers that have to be activated in person. I am worried about being able to access the new park reservation system when it comes online. The “vouchers” aren’t date specific but are linked to my reservation on MDE. I’ve called and the CM’s have been great but they don’t know. I’d hate to make the trip and not be able to get into any parks.
We’ve tried to use My DisneyWorld Experience but we unable to do what we needed because our party is 13 people & there’s a 10 person limit on app reservations. Any tips on what we can do to ensure everyone in our group is able to have the same reservation times for rides & meals?
Liv, you may need to call Disney to make your reservations. Reach out and see what they say about that.
Dan, hopefully you’ll get confirmation sooner rather than later! We will update when we know the system is live.
Ang, we would expect that to be ironed out since it’s such a long-standing policy. We’ll update if something wonky happens with this.
>> First and foremost, it’s encouraged that guests sign in using their Disney Account on the My Disney Experience website. <<
Question regarding the above statement: I have a Disney Account on the My Disney Experience website and have added everyone in our travel group (7 total). Does each person in the group need to register for an account separately? For example, my wife and I each have the app on our smartphones. Do we need separate accounts (logins) or should we both login using the same account?
Tom, as long as you’ve added the others in your group in your MDE account and linked reservations, tickets, etc., you should be fine. You’ll be the one making the plans in the system in this arrangement. Others could use the app and log in as you if they wanted access to the app whilst on vacation, but I don’t think everyone needs an account.
I have had My Disney Experience ever since it was offered years ago. The app has performed perfectly until the latest updates, which reviewers have said is terrible, doesn’t work right, doesn’t recognize their sign-ins’, loses reservations etc., etc. So I’ve held off hoping that Disney would perfect their MDE. Instead they now have an update that requires you to have IOS 13. My devices are all updated to IOS 12.5.2. I can’t update. I spoke with WDW Technical support to see if there was a way I could continue to my MDE without the update. Their answer is ” they no longer provide support that app.” So the app I loved to use is now useless and I have no hope of being able to use MDE. I’ve been a Passholder ever since moving to FL in 71 and they started the program in the early 70’s and an AP as soon as they started that program in the late 70’s. Since moving to NC in 2015 I have continued my AP as an out of state Annual Passholder making 4-5 trips a year. Now I’m left high and dry with no help from Disney….. How can this be??