The Walt Disney Company should start a third-party software developer program. There are plenty of hobbyists and small developers that would like to have official access to some of the data available for the theme parks, Disney Plus, and other data available from the company.

If done with an approval process, and perhaps even incentives, it could be an effective way for Disney to improve guest experiences by effectively letting others innovate on the guests’ behalf. Instead of Disney having a development bottleneck of their own development teams, it would allow others to create tools that compete with each other for the best experiences.

There’s already some of this using unofficial data sources. By bringing it under an official Developer Program they could enforce things they’d like to have available but don’t have time to develop themselves.

API’s that I’d like to see and could see immediate use for:

  • Theme Park Basics Get a list of Resorts, Parks, Attractions, operating hours, and ticket prices
  • Ride Wait Times Current wait times that are posted in-app. This would make possible a new way of planning apps instead of using unofficial sources
  • Dining Availability See when restaurants have availability and ideally be able to make a reservation on behalf of a user
  • Disney Plus Media Be able to view what’s currently available for viewing on Disney+. Maybe even a users’s watch history, wishlist, etc
  • Disney Photopass Photos Be able to retrieve a users photos

What other Disney API’s would you like to see offered?