Walt Disney World Travel Planning for First-Timers (or Those Who Haven’t Been in a Few Years) – Part 1: Setting Up My Disney Experience

Going to Walt Disney World as often as I do, I take it for granted that I simply know what needs done when. This fall, though, I am fortunate to be traveling to Walt Disney World with a large group of my family and friends, many of whom have either never been to Walt Disney World (how tragic!!!) or who haven’t been in a long time so are not familiar with things like My Disney Experience or FastPass+. As I was typing up basic information on how to get started planning their Walt Disney World vacation, it occurred to me that there are lots of other people who could use this information as well, so I’m sharing it here, too. I hope it helps someone in their planning!

Before making any plans, you’re going to want to set up an account on My Disney Experience. It will make your life a lot easier in the long run.

STEP ONE – Setting up a main account on the Walt Disney World website.

The person who is going to be doing the planning, i.e. making the dining reservations, reserving FastPass+ times (more about that later), needs to set up an account at DisneyWorld.com if he or she hasn’t already. It’s quite possible that an account already exists. Anyone who has a login for nearly any Disney website can use the same login at DisneyWorld.com.

STEP TWO – Connecting with family and friends so that you can make reservations and other plans together.

Who is traveling with you? They need to be added as Family & Friends under the “planner’s” account.  To do this, log in to DisneyWorld.com. Hover the mouse over (do not click) My Disney Experience near the upper right corner. In the menu that appears, click on My Family & Friends List. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on Add a Guest. Now, this is where things get slightly complicated.

If the “planner” is going to be making all the reservations for the person being added (in my case, I make all the plans for my husband and son), select I’ll enter their name and age. After typing in their information, select I want to manage all plans for this guest, and then click Done. You will be connected and will be able to make plans for them.

If the person being added may already have their own account or may be making some plans separately (in my case, my sister who will also be making plans for her own spouse and kids), select I’ll enter their name and age. After typing in their information, select Invite this guest to connect, enter their email address, and then click Done. Once they have accepted the invite that the website automatically sends, you’ll be connected.

If the person being added is already a friend of a friend (in my case, my sister added her husband and kids under her account), on the Add a Guest screen select Find through my connected Guests. Select the checkbox next to the name or names of the people you’d like to connect with and then click Done. Once your mutual connection accepts the invitation that the website automatically emailed to them, you’ll be connected to these new additions.

If all those to be connected are on the same reservation for a stay at a Disney resort, select Import from a Walt Disney World Resort hotel reservation. Once the reservation information is submitted, the other guests can be added to the Family & Friends list.

WHY DO WE NEED TO DO THIS?

In reality, you don’t NEED to do this… unless you want to make plans in advance of your trip, which I highly advise. If you do want to make plans in advance, then you’ll need your Family & Friends List to include your traveling companions in order to make dining reservations and reserve attraction times using FastPass+. I’ll have more about that in my upcoming posts.

Check out:

Part 2 – Making Dining Reservations
Part 3 – FastPass+