If you've never been to Walt Disney World, this article might be helpful in preparing you for some of the stuff that you're going to encounter. But if you're like me and have been to Disney World about a million and one times--just kidding, but this past spring break was my eighth or ninth trip--then you know the drill. You can probably navigate all the parks pretty well, you know pretty much what to expect from character interactions, and you don't even mind waiting in long lines--as long as they don't mess up your FastPasses--because who knows how long the next wait time may be. Trying to do all of that in a rapidly advancing park was very confusing for a Disney pro such as myself.

First, let's talk about how you get into the park now, the first thing you interact with. MagicBands. If you haven't seen them, they look like this:

They are bracelets, essentially, that you wear around the park that has your ticket, your FastPasses, your MyDisneyExperience account, basically your life, connected to them. This is, for the most part, pretty convenient, all in all, but it is something that takes a little getting used to. MagicBands have only been around for about four years now, so they're relatively new, but I had one experience with them before spring break. Now, though, Disney Imagineers have definitely taken advantage of the radio waves that make them work to the point that my big, little, and I were all slightly worried. On at least two of the rides--there may be more, but I didn't get to do everything--in the Magic Kingdom, they get small personal information from your MagicBand. On it's a small world, at the end where there was always goodbye signs, there are now a few screens that as your float by, will say "goodbye" with your names and the names of those with you, in the order that you're sitting, by the way. In the Haunted Mentioned, at the part with the hitchhiking ghosts, in the last mirror, the ghost who'd found a spot in my cart held up a sign that read, "Indiana, here we come!" I was slightly creeped out, to say the least.

Do you remember going up to the FastPass kiosks and getting your three FastPasses for the day? Yea, that experience is pretty much gone now. To get a halfway decent time for FastPasses, you have to get on the MyDisneyExperience app, log in with your Disney account, and book them at least a day in advance. They're then connected with your MagicBand so you can go up, touch your band, and go on in. I do have to give Disney some props with this app, though. It will show you almost all the wait times for the rides, and some of the character meet-n-greets, in the park of your choice.

Now, it's time for one of everybody's favorite past times: meeting characters! Especially if you've got children--or are still a child at heart, like me--or have first-time visitors with you, meeting characters and getting autographs is a must. I had my big who'd never been and my little who hadn't been since she was about seven. Mostly, nothing has changed on that front with the exception of the added characters from new movies.

The thing that really got me though is that Mickey in Town Square Theater in the Magic Kingdom now really talks and interacts with those who come to visit him in his dressing room. This was really shocking to me. I wish that someone had gotten a video of my terrified reaction. Ever since the characters were able to blink, I was slightly frightened, but this was just a bit too much for me at first. I softened up, though, when Mickey spoke Spanish to a little boy and his mother who were visiting from Argentina. I think if that is your only interaction with Mickey, it's phenomenal, but as someone who's seen Mickey more times than she can count, it's kind of scary. As of right now, it seems that Mickey only has the magic to talk, as Cinderella would put it, at that venue, but it seemed to me that Disney Imagineers are probably in the works of getting the magic for Mickey, and probably Minnie, to be able to talk anywhere.

There are probably about a million changes that Walt Disney World has made and are making that I noticed that I could talk about, but these were the three that struck me somewhere deep in my Disney soul as frustrating/terrifying, but really progressive. I honestly can't wait to go back.