4. Con – BUGS and battery drain!

So many bugs…

Bugs are already the worst part of dealing with technology, and Disney’s online system seems to have them in spades. Both websites like DisneyWorld.com and the My Disney Experience app remain replete with digital hiccups that can turn the vacation planning experience into a hair-pulling nightmare. Anyone who has been halfway through a task on DisneyWorld.com only to be met with Stitch’s drooling maw and the dreaded “Someone Ate The Page!” message knows this all too well.

An error here and there is one thing, but Disney has several systems known for extremely frustrating bugs. A good example is the Friends and Family feature of My Disney Experience. It is supposed to allow you to connect to other guest profiles so you can easily manage plans and parties for your trips. You send an invite to another guest, and if they approve, you are be able to include them in plans like Virtual Queues, dining reservations, etc. on upcoming trips.

The problem is it frequently bugs out.

Over years of taking family and teenage students to the parks, we’ve learned all too well that bugs with the Friends and Family system can eat up hours of time. The app frequently fails to actually add people after invites are accepted, and it seems to get particularly buggy when dealing with accounts managed by someone else (such as those for minors). We recently tried a dozen different tricks to connect to a pair of accounts managed by a friend, and nothing we did worked.

This is particularly problematic when Disney’s virtual queue system depends on Friends and Family being correctly connected by the time boarding groups become available. It’s the sort of thing that can prove a vacation wrecker in the worst of circumstances. Bugs have been known to wreak havoc with virtual queues, attempts to make high-demand reservations, and even with interactive elements in the Play Disney Parks app.

If bugs aren’t enough of an issue with My Disney Experience, battery drain is a whole other problem. Both Disney apps and their in-park Wi-Fi are notorious for sucking the life out of a cell phone before you even hit lunchtime. The extreme battery drain means guests either have to opt out of using Disney’s Wi-Fi or carry chargers and accessories like power blocks to keep phones going through a long Disney day.

5. Pro – Interactive elements have become mini-attractions

While bugs are definitely no fun, there is one area where Disney has found some pretty cool ways to turn smartphones into conduits for Disney magic—interactive elements throughout the parks.

Most of these hidden attractions are accessible through the Play Disney Parks app, though a few are integrated with special toys you can purchase like the droids built at the Droid Depot (which will respond to certain things in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, like if a stormtrooper is near). The app opens up a whole range of games, scavenger hunts, and special challenges that allow you to engage with special elements throughout Walt Disney World and Disneyland.

Our favorite example of this is the Star Wars Datapad game in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. The game turns your phone into an in-world Star Wars computer that can interact with locations throughout the Black Spire Outpost. Would-be Slicers can hack terminals, ships, speeders, and droids that may respond in real time. Your Datapad can intercept secret messages, translate Aurebesh text and alien languages, or reveal the contents of crates. Guests can also engage in special jobs and missions for Batuu locals, including partaking in missions designed for the queues of Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run and Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance.

Disney’s “digital attractions” aren’t necessary for the average guest, but they are a lot of fun if you enjoy free exploration activities at your own pace. For kids, it’s pure Disney magic, and for older guests, its like being in a living video game. We are particularly excited about the upcoming arrival of MagicBand+, which will add another layer to these interactive elements with new quests like bounty hunting missions on Batuu or scavenger hunts in other parts of Walt Disney World.

6. Con – The “staring at your phone” problem

This is one of the biggest complaints we see about the modern Disney experience—it seems like these days, the vast majority of people spend their vacations staring at a smartphone.

Some of this is voluntary and has more to do with culture than the parks—as someone who works with teens, I can attest to this. However, Disney’s push to integrate smartphone technology into every element of the parks experience has ended up forcing it on a larger audience, including those who would rather not spend their vacation glued to a phone.

The balancing act is a tricky one—it’s one thing to offer options and convenience through technology. The problem is it is often in Disney’s favor to require guests to use these tools, as is the case with Genie+ as well as virtual queues. These systems quickly move from being options to requirements, and that can definitely lead to more time spent on phones than may be ideal on a vacation.

I can agree that there is a need for us all to remember to look up from our devices while on vacation, particularly when personal connections are being lost in the midst of the technology shuffle.