Walt Disney World will officially begin accepting Apple Pay starting this Wednesday, December 24, reports WDWMagic (via iMore). The inclusion of Apple Pay will allow users to make purchases at the theme park with an iPhone 6 or an iPhone 6 Plus, and is a part of Disney's initiative to accept more contactless payment methods rolled out with its MyMagic+ program. 
Leveraging the RFID infrastructure deployed as part of MyMagic+, Walt Disney World will also accept other contactless payments, such as Google Wallet and contactless RFID credit cards.
Initially, most stores, quick service restaurants, bars and ticket sales booths will be included. Any locations that use portable payment terminals, such as table service restaurants, will be added later.
Walt Disney World was listed as one of the first partners for Apple Pay alongside retailers like Macy's, Walgreens, Subway, McDonalds, and Whole Foods. The report also states that Disneyland will begin accepting contactless payment methods like Apple Pay in 2015. Apple Pay has seen impressive early adoption numbers since launching in October, making up 1% of all digital payment dollars in November with Whole Foods being the most popular location for the payment method.
Top Rated Comments
You should take it with you. Their app is great. Being able to see quickly see what characters are where, for how long, and how long the wait for them is. Wait times for rides, fast pass management. As wel as GPS enabled maps, no more fumbling with a map that you have to fold a dozen times to get it back into your pocket. I can understand wanting to leave home at home. But just disable your email accounts during the day, and have some self control to keep from playing on the web.
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I feel your point. Even for big names we have to hear them one by one. What about the normal places I go to? Places that I shop at much more frequently than Disney. Or maybe I want to be adventurous and go somewhere new. There's only so many times you can eat McDonald's crap or walk into the same Wholefoods. Don't want some alternate payment option to control my shopping habits so that I can say I used a phone to make payments.
As a passholder for a few years now I have been eagerly waiting for this to get enabled. We learned very quick to either bring stuff with us or eat/snack on the way there and back due to prices. However, we almost always buy something in a store for my youngest or get s drink/snack throughout the day. Not having to pull out my credit card during these visits will be really nice. I love the magic bands but I wish they would have enabled use of credit cards for passholders and not just resort guests. I also wish they would tie in the discount card as well. Big improvements though that have been well received on my side.
This was posted in the IOS Blog and not even on the Front Page. So I don't understand the complaints.
Disneyworld is the iconic location of a huge US company and a very important travel destination for US and foreign visitors. When you couple this with the Orlando Magic announcement and I am sure Sea World and Universal Orlando are going to pay attention.
Paying with Apple Pay or contactless is so much more than paying on the phone. With the news coming out that 45% of people had a credit card compromised in some fashion last year. The biggest thing about Apple Pay is security in my opinion. We have Point of Sale (POS) terminals that can be affected remotely with malware and the information harvested can be used to manufacture credit cards or used online. This is a deterrent for some foreign visitors that our credit card security is so crappy. Every country in the world, even N. Korea, has more secure Chip and Pin technology and there is higher usage of contactless overseas. So yes this is a big deal.
BJ's, Whole Foods, Winn Dixie along with the other Apple Pay supporting merchants are in Orlando. So Orlando becomes one of the easier places to get around with using Contactless.
The App Store Disney Store App is great and I used it to get two of my Christmas gifts with Apple Pay and I didn't give them my credit card. They received acknowledgement of my funds, I got my merchandise and my credit card info was not available to be compromised as it should be.
I am going to Disneyland in the spring with my son and I hope they can propagate it to there soon.
It's a process, dude. It won't happen overnight, but the train has left the station. Momentum will build as it chugs down the track. Hopefully things will pick up speed as merchants are forced to update their readers in preparation for the Fall of 2015 deadline on chip based readers, and they'll opt for spending a few extra bucks to include NFC. All of this publicity and the commercials about Apple Pay are only going to help with that process.
We usually use Disney Dollars, helps budget easier. Convert $100 American dollars to $100 Disney dollars a day at the hotel in the morning, and I'll keep in my budget for the family that day.
There are already just as easy options, like show your hotel key and pay for stuff that way. I guess it improves the use case where people are pulling credit cards out to pay for the Tiki Room pineapple dole whips, something that can't be charged to the hotel room key.