Car Finder App Feature Coming to Disney World
How many of us “fondly” remember embarking upon a series of odd events while trying to retrace our steps and find our lost car in a Walt Disney World or Disneyland Resort parking lot? Well, say goodbye to that!
In what I can only assume is a synergy play to promote the classic film Dude, Where’s My Car on Hulu or Disney+ (depending upon your region), the company is adding a new car locator feature to the My Disney Experience and Disneyland apps. The feature will first launch at Walt Disney World this summer and will be available at Disneyland Resort later this year, presumably in time for Disney+ Day!
The (dude) where’s my car locator is a free feature that uses location technology to find and save your parking details in the My Disney Experience app for Walt Disney World and the Disneyland app. The feature functions best when you enable Location Services, Bluetooth, and Notifications on your iPhone or other mobile device.
At Walt Disney World, the (dude) where’s my car feature will be available at all four theme parks, Disney Springs, water parks, and the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex. All you have to do is open the My Disney Experience app and tap the car locator card on your home screen—or you can use the hamburger menu (☰) for access.
After that, follow the prompts to enter your parking information. If you choose to enable location permissions on your device, (dude) where’s my car locator can help fill in the details for you. When you’re ready to leave, return to (dude) where’s my car locator for your parking information.
In addition to helping you find your car at the end of the day, you can tap into the app for a variety of other convenient features to make your visit to Walt Disney World easier. From mobile merchandise checkout and mobile food ordering to the direct-to-room service at Disney Resort hotels, the My Disney Experience app helps free up more time for you to enjoy attractions and experiences.
If you haven’t already, be sure to check out the MagicMobile service, which is a great contactless way to enter the theme parks and enjoy other helpful features like linking your Disney PhotoPass photos. (We’ve been using that more in the last several months, and it’s been working flawlessly.)
The (dude) where’s my car locator feature coming to My Disney Experience and the Disneyland app is just one of a growing number of ways to find your car.
First, there’s the tried and true way of making a note of the section where you parked or, as I prefer, sending that info to Sarah (regardless of whether she’s with me) via text message. You can also share via social media for the ultimate humblebrag that you’re at the parks.
Alternatively, other apps–like Google Maps–now have this as a built in feature. This is only practical if you use that app to navigate to the parks, which is probably overkill for most. As mentioned in our Ultimate Packing List for Walt Disney World, we use AirTags.
Not that you care, but we originally bought them for Yossarian the Cat, a prolific escape artist despite being terrified of pretty much everything outdoors. We had extras so we put them in the car and our luggage. For those keeping score at home, we’ve already used AirTags several times to find our vehicle, a couple times to monitor checked bags, and once when Yossarian decided to be a free range wild cat. (Which, meant breaking out, running down the street, immediately getting scared of something, and hiding under a bush until we rescued him.)
I’m most curious about how well the feature will work at Disneyland in the enormous Mickey & Friends and Pixar Pals parking structures. There have been a couple of occasions we’ve spent a long time trying to find our car, wandering aimlessly up, down, and all around. While we’ve mostly learned our lesson there…mistakes still happen from time to time.
Those gigantic structures and the Transportation and Ticket Center at Walt Disney World are definitely the worst places to lose your car. Disney Springs would also rank pretty high on the list, but we typically park in the same spot (or close to it) there, so we’ve never had issues.
On a list ranking the “difficulty” of locating our car, we’d say EPCOT and Animal Kingdom are about the same, and Hollywood Studios is easiest. Obviously, your mileage may vary with all of this.
With that said, it’s hard to see how this feature will be significantly better than any of the aforementioned techniques for car finding. It doesn’t appear that this will be automated or use any technology exclusive to Disney. To the contrary, it sort of just feels like a way for the company to plug a sponsorship. On that note…
State Farm is sponsoring the new car locator feature. The insurance company is also sponsoring the brand-new planDisney Podcast that offers tips, suggestions, and info for guests preparing for an upcoming Disney Parks vacation as ways to help Disney introduce more magical experiences to its guests.
If the nonstop television commercials I see with Jake and famous athletes are any indication, here’s hoping State Farm becomes the sponsor for Journey into Imagination. Not because insurance is in any way imaginative (except perhaps the claims denial process), but because the company has a limitless marketing budget. If that’s what it takes to restore Figment and Dreamfinder to their former glory, I’ll happily jump aboard the good neighbor train.
Be sure to have the latest update of the My Disney Experience app so you’re ready when the (dude) where’s my car locator launches this summer. Later this year, the feature will also debut at Disneyland Resort. Stay tuned for more updates, as we’re hopeful more changes are coming to the MDX app soon.
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
Your Thoughts
Will you use the new (dude) where’s my car locator in the My Disney Experience app? Do you have another method for finding your vehicle at the parks? Or, do you not drive at Walt Disney World or Disneyland, making this irrelevant to you? Any other features you’d like Disney to add to the apps? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback—even when you disagree with us—is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
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Ni idea where the body text went. Let’s try again:
On our very first visit to EPCOT on honeymoon in 2000, we had the fun of finding a rental silver Dodge Neon under artificial lights at night (with no remote fob to flash the indicators in those days). I discovered how all light-coloured cars look the same, and how many park-goers were driving rental Dodge Neons. We tried our key in half a dozen doors, waiting for Disney security to challenge us, before finding our car.
Since then, and since the advent of phones with cameras, we just snap a photo of the space number, and the garage identifier, when walking away. This also adds the GPS coordinates to the photo. At the end of the day I delete the photos.
This “free” app add-on will help very few, requires more work than a couple of photos, and encourages users to enable location services, giving the app even more opportunity for Disney to track users both in their parks and everywhere else. They will track whether you shop at Aldi or Publix and use that info to work out how much upcharge you will tolerate.
I work in IT and love useful technology, but I also recognise technology used to provide an unnecessary solution. I also recognise how all free features pay for themselves in other ways.
Tom, you mean to tell me that even as a seasoned pro, you’ve made the rookie mistake of not remembering which level of Mickey & Friends you parked on?? I expected better! Kidding aside, that structure is a nightmare to navigate if you’ve lost track of your car, especially if it’s still full.
DUDE great news. Now I can buy a post 90’s car without an outside antenna and retire my Sorcerer Mickey antenna topper.
What about the trams?
I have an unusual and nerdy way of remembering where I parked at theme parks. My favorite TV show of all time is “The Monkees”, and I’ve memorized the titles of each episode, from 1-58. I play number/word association games to remember, and it’s never failed me. For example, I remember once parking in Daisy row 30, and episode 30 of “The Monkees” is “Monkees Manhattan Style”, so I envisioned Daisy Duck going shopping in Manhattan. If the number is over 58, I may divide it up into two numbers and remember thinking of a connecting trope/feature in those two episodes. I’m not suggesting anyone else use this method; I doubt any of you out there are as big of Monkees fans. But maybe if you are crazy enough for another TV show to memorize its episode titles by number in the order they originally aired, you can make it work for you.
Apple Maps automatically marks your car’s location on its map when you turn your car off if you have your iPhone connected to the car’s Bluetooth. Nothing to remember to do, and it works in any parking lot anywhere.
Please enlighten me on this wonderous technology. While there’s nothing I enjoy more that walking up and down the car park after 12 hours of standing in lines, with one tyke knocked out in the stroller in dire need of a fresh nappy, and another that refuses to walk by clinging to your hips while stepping on my painfully swollen feet. How, Mr. Merlin do you recall the cars location without using your sorcery?
Crush the turtle approves of the many uses of dude in this post! Speaking of state farm, I’d recommend the recent Planet Money episode on Geico and insurance mascots. It helps explain why probably 50 percent of the TV ads you see are for insurance companies.
I think this will be great for a lot of people. When we park our car, I make a note in my Notes App of our car location and then still use the Find My App to help me find my car at the end of the day. This is really just doing that but on the MDE app. This will have everything in one, central location. I’m hoping this will be better than my ad hoc way of doing it.
Since phones got cameras I’ve always just taken a picture of where my car is. The parking post, the spot number, whatever identifying feature it has.
We love Yossarian
I am… underwhelmed. Many car parks have license plate recognition technology to track you around and identify where you parked.
This feature needs you to 1) have the app, and 2) know to enable it; it won’t help the type of visitor who needs it most, who didn’t do any research and didn’t foresee spending that evening wandering a sea of cars.
And among the savvy users, how many will trust MDX enough to not keep their own notes of where they parked their car? There’s a venn diagram with no overlap…
After the backlash to last year’s facial recognition park admission test at Magic Kingdom (technology Disney has long had and used), I cannot imagine that Walt Disney World wants to broadcast having that kind of capability. (I don’t know if they do–but if so, there’s no way that they’d make that info public.)