To get you all set up and help you avoid glitches, we’re going to take you step-by-step below. Pay extra attention to anything in bold red text.

Two warnings to begin:

• Do NOT BEGIN WITH THE DISNEY WORLD APP. Remember, the app is for use DURING your vacation. Disney’s websites are where you prepare everything before your vacation.
• DO NOT SKIP OVER THESE STEPS; major havoc can ensue. Trust us.

STEP 1 | PREPARE ALL THE MYDISNEY ACCOUNTS

A MyDisney account is a centralized online account that you use to sign into any Disney website or app — whether it’s Walt Disney World, Hulu, Disney+ streaming service, Disneyland, ESPN.com, etc.

Every Walt Disney World guest who is over 13 years of age — and uses a smartphone — will need to have their OWN MyDisney account. 

Why the designation for those who use a smartphone? Because of the Disney World app, which we’ll cover below. You need your very own account to use the app. 

MyDisney accounts are not linked to a name or a phone number — rather, each account is linked to a distinct email address. For this reason, many people have multiple Disney accounts without realizing it. (One under a work email, another under Gmail., etc.) To avoid major problems (as we’ll outline below), it’s crucial that everyone in your travel party knows exactly which email address / Disney account they’re going to use for this trip.

If multiple people tend to share the same email address — or, say, an entire household uses the same email to log into Disney+ streaming service — that’s not gonna work at Walt Disney World. Each person needs their own email address and their own account.

Have everyone in your travel party — if they’re over 13 and have a smartphone — begin by visiting:

mydisneyaccount.com ▸ 

Once you’re in your account, make sure to add:

• Date of birth
• Shipping address & billing address
• Cell phone number
• Language preference

It’s crucial that your profile information is complete & up to date. When you call Disney’s tech team for help, they’ll ask you to verify this info to verify your identity.

Then, the lead guest / main organizer of your travel party should compile a list of all the Disney-linked email addresses for everyone in your party. It’s crucial to have this information in hand BEFORE you complete ANY of the steps below.

As we’ve established, to use the Walt Disney World smartphone app, a guest must sign in with their own specific MyDisney account in their own name. Wondering why?

WARNING!!! | WARNING!!! | WARNING!!!

Let’s answer common questions so you’ll know WHY everyone needs their own individual MyDisney account and login.

• At Walt Disney World, what do guests actually use the smartphone app to do? Get into the theme parks, unlock your hotel room door, prove that you’re a Disney resort guest for Early Park Entry, reserve rides, get on the rides you’ve reserved, purchase food at quick service restaurants, check-in to be sat at the restaurants you’ve reserved, view the attraction current wait times, navigate the maps with real-time walking directions, make purchases in the gift shops, view the photos captured on board attractions, and much more.
• If people can share a Disney account to stream Disney+ movies, why can’t guests share an account (or just use my account to log in to the app)? Because unlike Disney+ streaming movies, guests use the Disney World app to buy things and unlock hotel room doors — so the privacy protections are much stricter. When multiple devices log in on the same account, it triggers security alerts; the system will fear that your account’s been compromised. As a result, Disney’s systems will lock you out of your account, then email you a secret code before you can get back in.
• So what’s the worst that could happen? Repeated log-ins from multiple devices will require you to change your password — or worse, disable your account completely. You will not want this to happen during your trip. Your group could get locked out of the app at an especially inopportune time — like when you’re all trying to get in to the Magic Kingdom together. Or when your teenagers need to prove that they’re a Disney resort hotel guest to gain access to the pool. Or late at night when you’re trying to unlock your hotel room door and you really don’t feel like taking a 10 minute walk to talk to the Front Desk.

Picture this: you’ve woken everyone up early to take advantage of Early Park Entry benefit at a theme park — excited to beat the crowds and enter the gates before thousands of others! But when you all open the app to enter the park, you’re all locked out. You can’t access your tickets. You stand at the park entrance unable to get in, so you call tech support (which has a 20 minute hold time), or join the physical line for Guest Services — who, by the time it’s your turn — then need to unlink everyone’s tickets, create new profiles for every member of your party, and perform all the steps that we’re outlining in this guide. Meanwhile, hundreds of others get in lines for the popular rides while you’re all stuck for an hour unable to get in.

This literally happens every morning at Walt Disney World theme parks.

Or, you’re trying to get a coveted free Boarding Group reservation so you can all ride TRON Lightcycle / Run together, only to discover that some members of your group aren’t viewable in your travel party — so they can’t ride. They can’t ride at all without sinking extra $$$ per guest on an Individual Lightning Lane or pleading for help from Guest Services.

Other terrible scenarios include missing your Genie+ Lightning Lane windows, or getting charged a $50 fee because you were a no-show for the restaurant that your spouse reserved two months ago — because you couldn’t view their your table reservations and you didn’t cancel on time.

Again, all of these things happen every day. Go hang out sometime in the Guest Services queue and you shall see.

Now do you understand why we’re carefully taking all these steps one-by-one? Terrific!

But before we begin using the smartphone app, first we have to set everyone up via the WEBSITE. So let’s continue on:

• STEP 2 | PREPARE EVERYONE’S WALT DISNEY WORLD PROFILE

Important distinction: a Walt Disney World profile is different from a MyDisney account;

• Every single guest to Walt Disney World — even children and babies — has a profile.
• Only those who are 13 years of age or older may have a MyDisney account. Only those who intend to use their smartphone need an account.
• So if you’ve got young ones in your party — or teens / adults who don’t have phones, all good — it’s time to make sure everyone has their own profile.

To get started, set up your own Walt Disney World profile. On a computer (or a mobile browser like Safari or Chrome), log in here:

disneyworld.com ▸

Tap the MyDisneyExperience logo | That’s where you’ll find your own Profile (tap the link right beside your first name).

• Tap List & Search settings | Toggle to Share your Family & Friends list, and also toggle to Allow others to search for you. These steps make it possible for the other members of your travel party to ‘see’ you and connect with one another. (Traveling on a solo trip? These toggles won’t matter.)
• Pick a character avatar | Begin by selecting a character for your avatar; it’ll streamline many things later on (and it’s fun!).
• Add a payment method | Tap and save a credit card to your profile; it’ll be a major time saver later once you’re booking dining reservations or ordering meals in the app. The same credit card can be saved to more than one profile, and you can also link multiple cards. if you like.
• Under your Account Settings, make sure your mobile number is listed & verified | While you’re at Walt Disney World, if you lose a wallet, a purse, or a kid — or if your hotel needs to contact you for any reason — Disney will call your cell. Also, if you’ve verified your phone number, it’s easier to link to other members of your travel party.

Very good! We’re ready to begin connecting with others. If you’re a solo traveler, you can skip to Step 9, below. Otherwise, read on!

• STEP 3 | CREATE PROFILES FOR KIDS / TEENS / ADULTS WHO DO NOT USE SMARTPHONES

As we cover below, guests who do not use a smartphone can use a MagicBand or pick up a free plastic key card to scan into everything like the theme park entrances and attractions. We’ll get into that later. 

So identify and list all the guests in your travel party who are younger than 13 — or teens / adults who won’t use the app. One of their primary caregivers should create profiles for them. (Only one parent / caregiver should do this.) From the main menu, tap on Family & Friends. Begin by checking to see if their names are already listed under your Family & Friends list. If they’re not, then:

Create new profiles by tapping Add a Guest | On the next screen, tap the small link that says “Add a guest who does not have a MyDisney Account.” On the next screen, tap the selector that says “Create a new profile that you will manage.” You’ll enter their first and last name along with their age (their actual age if they’re under 18, simply ’18+’ if they’re an adult). It’s also wise to select a character avatar for each Guest.

(IMPORTANT: Do NOT tap the link which says “Find a Guest from a Walt Disney World Resort Reservation.” Teacherous glitches await!)

(As you’ll see, this screen also lets you invite new Guests to create their own MyDisney accounts — this can be helpful if someone new joins your vacation after you’ve already set everything up.)

• STEP 4 | HAVE THOSE IN YOUR PARTY WHO DO HAVE SMARTPHONES UPDATE THEIR PROFILES

Begin by inviting everyone to log into their MyDisney account at disneyworld.com — on a computer / browser — and do all the same things you did within their profile:

• Under List & Search settings, toggle to share their family & friends list, and make their profile viewable in search
• Select a character avatar
• Add a payment method
• Verify that their cell phones are linked / authenticated

If you’ve got a very large party, it’s really not a bad idea to update your list of everyone’s email addresses to also note the character avatar they’ve chosen. It’ll help (as you’ll see below).

• STEP 6 | LINK TO YOUR OWN FAMILY / FRIENDS IN YOUR TRAVEL PARTY

Again, within the Disney World website, from the main menu of MyDisneyExperience, the trip’s main organizer / Lead Guest should navigate to the Family & Friends section. Then, look through your Family & Friends list.

If any family / friends are already listed, verify that the character avatar next to their name is the one they’ve chosen. If there’s ANY DOUBT AT ALL that you might be viewing an old-out-of-date profile that they used via an old/alternate email address, ask them to log in to disneyworld.com and modify their character avatar just to guarantee that you’re connected to their most up-to-date digital profile. It’s extremely common for users to be connected to someone’s OLD account / profile — and if that’s the case, it can trigger MASSIVE glitches once your trip begins — so make doubly extra sure that you’re linked to the right profiles!

Once you’ve done so, if anyone’s joining this trip and they’re not listed, tap Add a Guest. On this screen, you’ll enter the first name, last name, and email address (or verified phone number) of any member of your party who isn’t listed.

The site also lists “Guests you may know” among those who have chosen to make their profiles searchable. That feature is going to make it easier for all the other members of your party to link to one another after you’ve taken these initial steps.

• STEP 7 | INSTRUCT EVERYONE IN YOUR PARTY TO ACCEPT YOUR LINK REQUESTS

After you’ve got you’ve got every member of your travel party listed, it’s time for the smartphone users to log in and accept your invitation to link. (For privacy reasons, Disney doesn’t automatically let you link to everyone — they have to log in and grant permission.)

Under the Family & Friends section, everyone should tap your invitation to connect. After doing so, they should then click Add Guest one by one to add all the other guests in the travel party. They can do so by clicking “Find through my connected family / friends.” 

After everyone’s added everyone else in the party, one last time, everyone has to log in and accept everyone’s invitations to connect. 

Why does EVERYONE need to be able to see EVERYONE ELSE in the travel party?

Disney’s most popular attractions require reservations — you literally can’t get on the ride without them.  When you’re booking those reservations —  Virtual Queues, Lightning Lanes, and Boarding Groups — you can only reserve an attraction for those who are visible in your Family & Friends list. So if you want to ride together then, you’ll need to take care of these things now. If you’ve got a large party, double check to make sure that everyone can see everyone else. You really won’t want someone to get left out and force a lengthy, time-consuming detour to Guest Services.

• STEP 8 |  SHARE PLANS / PHOTOS WITH YOUR FAMILY & FRIENDS

After adding everyone, that same Family & Friends list, have everyone tap Settings alongside each guest.

You will get to choose whether that Guest can see all your plans or only the plans you share. If everyone’s pretty much following the same itinerary (as in, you’re a smaller group who will always dine together, etc.), it’s best to go ahead and share all plans. If you’re a multi-family / multi-group travel party and you anticipate splitting up quite a bit, it’s probably best to only view the plans that you share, to avoid confusion about who’s dining where.

You’ll notice that Disney’s toggles are extra strict about whether someone else can see the profiles that you’re managing — like your kids. They’re going to need to see them if you intend to ride attractions together. 

WARNING!!! EVERYONE IN YOUR PARTY SHOULD SET UP & LINK THEIR PROFILES BEFORE YOU COMPLETE THE STEPS BELOW.

We cannot say this strongly enough. To avoid linking an important component — like a ticket or hotel room — the wrong ‘version’ of someone — which screws up everything — everyone should complete ALL those steps above before you link any tickets or reservations. Avoid this warning at your peril!!!

• STEP 9 | LINK YOUR CONFIRMATION NUMBER(S) 

Reminder, we’re still doing all these things on the Disney World website, not the app.

After the Lead Guest has purchased a vacation package, hotel stay, or tickets, the Lead Guest should visit the main menu, then click My Plans. From this page, hover over the planning circles.

• Disney Resort Guests & Good Neighbor Hotel Guests | If you’ve got a hotel reservation — either in a Disney resort hotel or in a Good Neighbor Hotel booked via Disney — begin by hovering over Resort Hotel then click to link your reservation confirmation number. If you have a hotel + tickets package, the system will link both your hotel room AND your tickets. You don’t need to separately link your tickets. 
• Park ticket holders who are NOT Disney / Good Neighbor Hotel guests | If you’ve got Park Tickets without a Disney / Good Neighbor hotel stay, hover over Park Tickets and click to link your ticket purchase confirmation number. This is also where you can link any holiday party tickets. 

After linking, you’ll assign the booking to each of your family / friends’ profiles. Line up the names of each guest with those in your guest room(s) / ticket order.

Hopefully, now you understand why it’s so crucial that you WAIT to link a reservation until after you’ve taken all the steps above. If you unknowingly link a ticket or hotel reservation to an old out-of-date incorrect profile, all the terrible scenarios we detailed above could happen to you. That’s why we took all these steps — it helps you avoid this extremely common problem.

• STEP 10 | EXPLORE THE WEBSITE FOR PARK HOURS, RESTAURANT HOURS, SHOW TIMES, ETC.

For all hours — whether it’s to learn when the fireworks will be, Fantasmic! show times, character availability or a restaurant’s hours — the website is the place to go.

Why? Because the app only displays TODAY’S schedules.

Although the search field on disneyworld.com is useful, sometimes it’s easiest to simply Google search for what you’re after. For example, if you’re wondering when you can enjoy cocktails at Nomad Lounge in Animal Kingdom during your visit, you could Google search “Nomad Lounge Animal Kingdom.” Next to the calendar icon, tap the date to see future dates’ operating hours. 

You might also want to take time to view the parks’ operating hours, which also display when the fireworks / evening spectaculars will be held. Disney publishes its theme park hours up to 60 days into the future, but note they are subject to change. (Historically, Disney will only add more opening hours to the theme parks within 60 days, rather than reduce them.)

NOTE: ONLY THE WEB VERSION SUPPORTS FOREIGN LANGUAGES 

Foreign language Walt Disney World information |  The MyDisneyExperience website is fully navigable in Spanish, French, Japanese, and Portuguese. This is especially valuable for reading restaurant menus, attraction information, showtimes, and transportation details.

However, because many vital skills are only available on the smartphone app — like Lightning Lane reservations, Boarding Groups, and Mobile Order for meals– many international guests hop back and forth between the mobile web version and the app versions during their vacations. If English isn’t your primary language, you’ll probably want to spend some extra time familiarizing yourself with the app below.

COMMON BUGS & WORKAROUNDS

Unfortunately, it’s fairly common to bump into Stitch, informing you that MyDisneyExperience is glitching. Here are quick fixes if you’re getting error messages.

• If the website is glitching | On the Web, open a new incognito / private browser window. This will essentially allow you to navigate a fresh connection without any saved cookies. That typically solves most issues. 

For tech support, scroll down — we’ve got the phone numbers to call and the folks to talk to inside the parks.