Rewinding all the way back to 2016 with this blog post!

Planning your first trip to Walt Disney World can be a bit…overwhelming. Disney has a lot of it’s own terminology. Fast passes, magic bands, park hopping, etc. When we were planning our honeymoon all of these new terms, phrases and things to do freaked me out. I felt like I was never going to be able to understand it all. Brandon had visited Walt Disney World while he was in high school. So he had a little bit of background with Disney already but there were still some new things that both of us were going to be experiencing together.

Since this is an introductory blog, let’s go over some of Disney’s terminology that is used in the parks. I promise this isn’t as complicated as it may sound. You’ve got this, just hang in there!

Fast Passes: Fast passes allow you to surpass the standby line for rides and some select shows. Fast Passes are also FREE!! There have been multiple times that Brandon and I have been in the parks and heard families say that they are not paying extra for fast passes, but good news - you don’t have to! There are three different ways that you can make your Fast Pass selections:

Online using the My Disney Experience Page on the Disney website
On your phone by using the My Disney Experience App
At a physical kiosk in the parks

You are given three Fast pass selections to use throughout your day. Once you have used all three fast passes, you can select three more! You can go down a theoretical rabbit hole with Fast Passes so for now we will just graze the surface and we will get into the nitty gritty of things a little later!

Magic Bands: Magic Bands are your best friend. A magic band resembles the size and shape of a FitBit or fitness tracker (I have included a photo of mine below.) Magic Bands store your park tickets, fast passes and dining reservations. If you are staying on Disney property, Magic Bands will also be your room key and you can add your debit or credit card information for payment processing at the parks. All of this information (park tickets, fast passes, etc) can be managed through the My Disney Experience App on your phone. When you first purchase your Magic Band you will need to download the My Disney Experience App, if you don’t already have it, and sync your Magic Band to your account. If you’re in the park and you’re stumped on how to do this find a Cast Member and they can show you step by step on how to master this. That’s what we did!

Park Hopping: Park hopping allows you to visit multiple parks in one day. So say you start your day in Magic Kingdom but you want to “hop” over to Epcot to the Italy Pavilion for lunch at Via Napoli. With the park hopper option you are able to do this! There are two ways of being able to utilize the park hopper option. The first way is to select this as an add on when purchasing your Disney park tickets. The second way is to be a Disney Annual Pass holder. When you purchase your Disney Annual Pass you will be able to park hop to your heart’s content! Side note - being a Disney Annual Pass holder is addicting. You’ve been warned.

Memory Maker: Disney offers a professional photo service while you are in the parks known as the Memory Maker. Speaking specifically about Magic Kingdom - we enter Magic Kingdom and begin our stroll down Main Street U.S.A. There are several photo pass photographers in the middle of the street taking photos of guests in front of Cinderella’s castle. Let’s get in line! We step up, get our photo made in front of the castle and the photo pass photographer scans our MAGIC BAND. We wait a few minutes, check our My Disney Experience App on our phone and there are the photos that we had made in front of the castle! On the app you are given the option to download your image IF you have purchased the Memory Maker or if you are a Disney Annual Pass holder. If you have chosen not to purchase the Memory Maker, you can still view your photos on the app but they will have a copyright over them. We highly suggest adding the Memory Maker to your tickets if you are not an annual pass holder. Some of our favorite photos from our trips have come from the Photo Pass photographers in the parks (featured below.)

I don’t want you to feel overwhelmed or stressed with the terminology so we are going to stop here for now. I hope this helps you out in learning the ropes for visiting the parks. I’m still learning how to blog and explain details from our trip so bear with me. I hope to be able to go over more terminology with you, take you through each park and show you some of our favorite places and things to do while visiting Walt Disney World.

Until next time,

Brittney

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