Last week I had the opportunity to attend the Disneyland Social Media Moms Celebration “On the Road.”
Disney invited 50+ moms and dads to join them at California Disney to learn about the latest Disney offerings as well as provide speakers to help bloggers with their social media reach.
During the meeting, we met the directors of the new upcoming featurette, Olaf’s Frozen Adventure. It’s a heart-warming story of how Olaf searches the village to find family traditions to bring back to Anna & Elsa. It’s super cute and will accompany Disney’s new upcoming full-feature film, Coco.
One of the things I learned during the meeting that I couldn’t wait to share with you is the Disneyland app. It has some great features, I found myself checking the app often during my family’s adventures at Disneyland and California Disney after the meeting was over.
The Disneyland App
Knowing how long the wait time at for different rides is essential in planning your day at Disneyland and California Adventure. I have used several apps in the past that guesstimate the time. They weren’t always the most reliable.
Check Wait Times
The free Disneyland App, which came out 2 years ago, does a much better job at giving detailed estimates of ride wait time. I know because I looked at what the app said for a particular wait time and verified it in person, just to be sure.
You can see the ride wait times in the Disneyland app for both Disneyland and California Adventure, it’s so handy.
I kept an eye on Soaring Over the World in California Disney the whole afternoon, unfortunately, it never went under 75 minutes. The same with the Cars ride. We were bummed the lines never dwindled, but it was so nice to not have to go to the ride to check the ride times.
We could be much more strategic and time-conscious knowing where to spend the least time waiting in line. Knowing the best wait times was especially handy during the parades when many people would be watching them instead of waiting in line.
Schedule Fast Passes
What if you could set up a Fast Pass without having to go to a ride kiosk? Believe it or not, it is possible securing your fast passes for each of your family members straight from the app!
I tried it and it works great! However, there is an extra cost.
Within the Disneyland app you need to purchase the Disney MaxPass option. Disney has a limited amount of Fast Pass rides that you can access and secure tickets from the app, as subject to availability.
When we were using it, there were about 10 rides available. Unfortunately, both Cars and Soaring Over the World were not Fast Pass options.
The Fast Passes are digitized within your app. The Fast Pass rides have a scanner that scans your Fast Pass barcode within your app. It was fast and convenient scanning in all four Fast Pass tickets straight from the app to get us in.
The Disney MaxPass option is available currently for an introductory price of $10 per ticket per day.
See Your Disney PhotoPass Photos
If you purchase the Disney MaxPass or the Disney PhotoPass+ One Week plan, you can have all of your Disney PhotoPass pictures delivered straight to your Disneyland app. Yes, this means you can get all of the pictures of you and your family on the rides, posing with characters, dining photos, and more.
We loved this feature as a part of the Disney MaxPass and used the Disneyland app to look for photographers around the park to take pictures of us. For $10/ticket/day, this is a great deal. However, please note that this Disney MaxPass price is a special introductory price and will likely go up.
Make Dining Reservations
When we go to California Disney, our favorite sit down dinner is the Wine Country Trattoria. It has a great atmosphere and great food. However, we often don’t make it over to the restaurant in time to make our reservation. When we travel to other Disney parks, we make reservations ahead of time. But since Disneyland is only 1/2 hour away from our home, we don’t think about it.
With the Disneyland app, I was able to make a reservation for 7:30 pm later that evening…and I didn’t even have to go to the restaurant to do it.
Of course, you don’t have to be in the park to make the reservation. You can even make reservations ahead of time, outside of the park. And, if you’re still in line for a ride across at Disneyland and can’t make it, you can change or even cancel your reservation, all from the app!
Not sure where to eat? They Disneyland app includes restaurant menus for Disneyland, California Disney, Downtown Disney, and all 3 Disneyland hotels.
Where Are the Restrooms?
The Disneyland App includes GPS tracking so it can tell you where you are and how far away the bathrooms are on its map. You can also find your way to rides, Characters, places to eat, shops, PhotoPass spots, entertainment, events, tours, Guest Services, hotels, and more.
View All the Details
The Disneyland app has just about all of the important details you need to make your visit a great one. You can look up park hours, schedules, all the shows and parades, attraction descriptions, accessibility information, entertainment, and more. Even see the block out days for your Annual Passport.
Need to Buy Tickets?
Skip the ticket lines and buy them straight from the Disneyland app. Tickets are delivered straight to the app. All you need to do is show the e-tickets right on your phone….they are always with you. No more worrying about losing your park-hopper ticket.
Digitizing Your Tickets
Within the Disneyland app, next to the “Buy Tickets” option, is the option to Link tickets and passes. I took each of our four park-hopper tickets and scanned them into the app. Now, it didn’t matter if one of my kids lost their ticket, I had them all in my app.
As we walked through the entrance stalls into Disneyland or California Disney, I just showed the app with the four tickets to get everyone in. Digitizing the tickets also worked out great for my husband and daughter weren’t able to meet my son and me at Disneyland until the evening.
Rather than having to meet them at the gate, they simply used the Disneyland app with the scanned in tickets to enter the park and my son and I didn’t have to get out of line to help them. Sweet!
The Disneyland app is free and is an indispensable tool in helping you and your family make the most of your time at the Disney parks in California. I would highly recommend the MaxPass too, it’s a great time-saver and you can save a lot of money by having your PhotoPass pics sent to your Disneyland app to download at a later time.
The free Disneyland App is available free on both Google Play and Apple iTunes.
*I was given Disneyland entry as a result of attending the Disney Parks Social Media Celebration. All opinions are my own.
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