So by now you’ve heard that Disney finally entered in the streaming subscription service last Tuesday with it being call Disney+ or Disney Plus. If you haven’t yet taken the leap into its free 7-day trial yet, or looking to get a dad’s opinion on the service then keep on reading.
So with me having 4 kids, 12, 10, 3 and 17 months, having a dedicated Disney subscription seems like a no brainer for our family. I mean Disney has a lot of popular properties such as Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar and of course their own Disney branded content so for me, getting the trial was a must. My youngest daughters love Mickey Mouse Clubhouse which now has been moved from Disney Now to Disney +.
So lets get down to the experience of how the menu layout works. Once you sign up and get logged in, you have a left navigation bar and a center layout of trending shows based in certain categories. So right in front you will see large selectable screens for Disney, Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar and National Geographic (pretty much who they have under their belt). Then below that will be Disney original content. This includes the The Mandalorian, Lady and the Tramp, Highschool Musical the Series, Encore, Pixar in Real life, The Imagineering Story and more (This content is similar to Netflix’s originals or Prime Video). Next up will be the Recommended area based on shows or movies. Then Hit Movies like Avatar, Frozen, Avengers Endgame, The Force Awakens and many more blockbuster Disney hits. Then comes Trending, which as you know are what people are watching most. What is one of my personal favorites is the Out of the Vault. Me being an 80’s baby, my parents always bought the latest Disney movie in that hard white case. Yes you know you had them as well. As DVDs took over, these were a thing of the past. Disney would announce they would no longer sell those titles and they would go into their “vault”. They then would come out years later for a re-release. This will be similar in a sense that Disney + launched classic titles like The Little Mermaid, The Lion King, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Sleeping Beauty, Bambi, 101 Dalmatians, Pinocchio, Dumbo and more. They will be rotating these out I believe on a monthly basis with other favorite “vault” classics. Below that will be Inspired by True Stories. Films such as Remember the Titans, Saving Mr. Banks, The Rookie, Invincible and even The Sound of Music will be here. For those families with super high def tvs. You have your very own 4K and Ultra HDR movie and tv show versions. These are followed by Disney Channel Favorites, Musicals, Beasts and Monsters, Nostalgic Movies, Disney Junior Series, Feel Good Sports Movies, Mickey Mouse Through the Years, Documentaries, Shorts, Best Friends, Fun Mysteries, Action and Adventure, Animals and Nature. There is one more that I forgot that you will love. Get ready to go back in time with the Throw Back selections. Here you find titles like Boy Meets World, That’s So Raven, X-Men (90’s classic cartoon show), Darkwing Duck, Zenon, Gargoyles, Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers and a few others. If you have kids, you can now show them what real shows were growing up. Overall a good layout. They may merge some categories together but right now, this is what we have.
On the navigation panel you have your standards. Search, Home, Watchlist, Originals, Movies, Series, and Settings. This menu is mostly hidden by icons but once clicked on, they will expand out. Pretty standard among streaming services.
Overall, there is plenty of old, new and original content for everyone in your family.
Here’s my thoughts on the streaming service after using it for more then a week. I thought by posting common questions with answers might help.
On launch day yes, there was that small hiccup where it displayed try again, or server busy. By afternoon that was gone. Other than that, there have been no streaming issues what so ever, no buffering, no dead spots.
Well at launch, yes. Disney piled on many movies and tv shows for everyone of any age to watch and keep busy. Disney will only be adding more content just like Netflix, more movies, more original content.
Its tough to compare because Netflix has been around so long and with Disney + being the new kid, we will have to wait and see. I know for one, Netflix has perfected the continued watching feature, or the feature that if you already watched it, you will know. I do know that Disney will be putting this feature on shortly as its been much needed and in demand.
It all depends. If you have kids, its a great addition because it has a lot of new and old shows and hundreds of Disney movies which include those from Marvel, Star Wars and Pixar. You really have to see what you watch to justify. I mean if you have Hulu, you might as well bundle it for even more savings. Currently this is the only stand alone service we pay for. Our Spotify membership includes Showtime. We already pay for Amazon Prime for our shipping needs, so we get Prime Video included. You get a free 7 day, so take it for a test drive
Yes you can download for viewing content offline, perfect for car rides
You can have up to 7 profiles and stream to 4 devices at once
By itself its $6.99 a month or $69.99 for the year paid at once. You can bundle with Hulu, Disney + and Espn + for $12.99
Yes and no, currently Disney + has a kids mode button under the profile. This will filter out to just display kid oriented material. The no being, it doesn’t tell us what age it limits are set for kids
Overall, at the moment, I like Disney + and will be keeping it. For being a little less then 8 days old, it needs to add some missing features to be perfect but lets give it some time. Those features are the “continue playing” or “resume” so you don’t have to start over. It also needs a watched section or some type of indicator on shows that you watched it. Those should be added to the app within the month. For $6.99, and with the starting content, it’s definitely a service to try out.
