Feature Article: Disney Tech Primer - Part 1 - All About MyDisneyExperience - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.
We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
That said, PassPorter is not going away. Most of the resources will remain online for as long as we can support them, and after that we will find ways to make whatever we can available. PassPorter means a great deal to us, and to many of you, and we will do our best to keep it alive in whatever way we can. Our server costs are high, and they'll need to come out of our pockets, so in the future you can expect some changes so we can bring those costs down.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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Feature Article: Disney Tech Primer - Part 1 - All About MyDisneyExperience
Disney Tech Primer - Part 1 - All About MyDisneyExperience by William J. Garmer, Jr.
Disney has always been willing to try new technologies to improve the guest experience and make their own operations more efficient.
And in 2013 they embarked on a new technological program that totally remade the guest experience at Walt Disney World (WDW), starting almost from the time you make your reservation. The program is generally called My Disney Experience (abbreviated as MDX), and in fact is more than just one program - it's a revamp of several existing technologies, and a linking of those technologies via an integrated computer system. The Disney guest accesses these new and revamped programs in four ways:
3) Via interactive kiosks scattered throughout Walt Disney World property, which access some of the same functions as the web site
4) Via RFID** media at the parks, namely Magic Bands and new Key to the World (KTTW) cards</p> All of this technology seems a little daunting at first, but much like any new technology, once it becomes commonplace, we'll wonder how we ever got along without it.
** RFID Stands for Radio Frequency Identification, an electronic tagging system that uses small microchips to identify objects. These chips can be embedded inside cards, keyfobs, and wristbands, and there are even RFID chips available that can be embedded beneath your pet's skin to identify him and help bring him safely home if he is lost. Lots of new Technology - How does it all fit together?
My Disney Experience (MDX) integrates a number of existing and new technological programs at WDW, allowing the guest to check and alter many aspects of their Walt Disney World stay remotely. The system replaces the old Key to the World card, which already integrated the room lock, park pass, dining plan, and room charging systems, and at the same time integrates several other systems that were not previously linked together. All together, these systems include:
* WDW resort reservations
* Disney's Magical Express
* WDW resort room locks
* WDW resort room charging
* WDW park passes (both Magic Your Way passes and Annual passes)
* FastPass+ (a new system replacing the legacy FASTPASS system)
* Disney Dining Plan
* Disney's PhotoPass
* WDW Resort Refillable mugs (future)
Additionally, interactive features can be added to in-park attractions which will use MDX to customize the attraction experience and perhaps even save preferences. Thus far, only Test Track in Epcot has such a feature, but more attractions with this capability could easily be added in the future.
Getting Started with My Disney Experience - Creating Your Account
All of these systems are tied together by Disney's computer system. Guests access the system by creating a free account on MyDisneyExperience.com. You don't need to have a Walt Disney World resort reservation to create an MDX account. Once you have created your account, you can link various features to it in preparation for your upcoming Walt Disney World vacation.
-> Link your family Start by linking your family's accounts to yours, so that the system will know you are traveling as a group.
-> Add your resort or package reservations Next, link your Walt Disney World resort reservations to the account. Once you link your reservations to your account, the MDX site will allow you to do additional things like on-line check-in and customizing Magic Bands.
-> Tickets If you have purchased tickets from the Disney Store, DisneyShopping.com, or an authorized ticket broker like Undercover Tourist (including Annual Passes), you can link them to the account, as well as the tickets included with a WDW resort package.
-> Arrange Your Dining Most Walt Disney World restaurants allow you to make Advance Dining Reservations (ADRs) up to 180 days in advance of your check-in date. If you have already made ADRs by phone or by some other means, you can link them to your MDX account with the confirmation numbers. If you have not, you can make dining reservations directly from the MDX site, and they will be linked to your account automatically. You can now use your MDX account to manage your ADRs, add new ones, look for duplicates, delete any which you don't need, or reschedule.
-> FastPass+ (FP+) FastPass+ is a reservation system for rides, shows, and attractions at Walt Disney World. By selecting an attraction, and a one-hour time window in which you'd like to experience the attraction, you make an appointment for the attraction. The number of people who can make such a choice in any given hour is limited, which means that FastPass queues for any attraction are virtually guaranteed to never be longer 20 minutes.
FastPass+ is a new system, replacing the older legacy FASTPASS system, which only allowed reservations for one attraction at a time, with no advance selection. Along with FastPass+'s new advance selection capability, however, come some new restrictions - each Guest is limited to 3 FP+ selections per day, and all three selections must be in the same park, even if you have a park-hopping ticket linked to your MDX account. Additionally, Disney is also experimenting with a "tiered" approach to attractions; at Epcot and Disney's Hollywood Studios, the guest can select one "headliner" attraction and 2 "minor" attractions. The tiered approach may or may not become standard at all parks once the FastPass+ testing phase is complete in early 2014.
In order to make your FastPass+ selections, you must first link a park pass and a Walt Disney World resort or package reservation to your MDX account. Once that is done, you will be able to make FP+ selections up to 60 days before your check-in date, for a stay of up to 7 days.
If you don't have a Walt Disney World resort or package reservation, but you are a WDW Annual Passholder, you can link your AP to your MDX account, and you will be able to make FP+ selections up to 7 days in advance, for one day at a time.
If you don't have a Walt Disney World resort or package reservation, and you are not an Annual Passholder, you will not be able to make FP+ selections in advance. You can still link a park pass to your MDX account, but you will be able to make FP+ selections only on and for the day of your visit, one day at a time.
-> PhotoPass Disney's PhotoPass is a system of roving photographers on WDW property who will take your picture with digital cameras. The pictures are stored on the PhotoPass computer system for 45 days after they are taken, and you can access them online through your PhotoPass account to order prints, digital downloads, and other products. The PhotoPass system is completely separate from the MDX system. However, there are links from MDX to take you to your PhotoPass account, where you can view, customize, and order your photos.
-> Walt Disney World Resort room charging Hotels have allowed guests to charge things to their rooms for decades, and Disney resorts are no exception. With the size and complexity of WDW, however, this becomes an extremely useful feature, since Disney allows resort guests to use room charge to pay for anything bought from any Disney venue on Walt Disney World property - meals, souvenirs, ticket add-ons, golf, tours... if you're buying it from a Disney-owned shop, store, restaurant, or cart, you can charge it to your Walt Disney World resort room.
In order to utilize this feature, the guest must put a credit card on file; the credit card on file is used to pay for anything charged to the room. In the past, putting a credit card on file was done at time of check-in, but now, you can do it in advance, using your MDX account. Note: If you don't want to put a credit card on file in your MDX account, you also have the option of using cash, travelers checks, or Disney Gift Cards to establish a credit for room charging. However, this must be done at time of check-in. Perhaps in the future, MDX will be amended to allow Disney Gift Cards to be put on file, instead of a credit card.
What do you think? Please add your own comments, experiences, or news related to this article in this thread! Reader feedback is welcomed and encouraged.
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