First Impressions of Disney+ Streaming Service

Disney+ launched on November 12. That’s just over a month ago, and I’m completely hooked. Perhaps that’s no surprise, since I write a Disney-based blog or at least I did more frequently before Disney+ consumed what’s left of my dwindling free time. Today’s post covers my first impressions of Disney+ and offers a few more details to those considering whether the new streaming service makes sense for you.

Let’s start with the good stuff.

Price

The first, and this is almost never true of Disney-related services is the LOW price. (SCORE!) Disney is currently offering its Disney+ streaming service for $6.99 a month. That’s less than the cost to see one Disney movie at the theater! It’s actually less than popcorn most of the time too. If you want to bundle Hulu and ESPN+ in the deal, the price goes up to the reasonable and Netflix-range price of $12.99.

Content

The great low price wouldn’t mean anything if you weren’t getting an amazing range of content for it too. Disney+ offers all of the animated classics you’d expect, along with many of the live-action family films from the last several decades. I watched Steamboat Willie (Mickey’s debut!), The Sandlot (“you’re killing me, Smalls!”), Pete’s Dragon (the new one, sniff sniff), Frozen (as a refresh before the sequel of course), Journey to the Center of the Earth (the original from the 1960s!) and the live action Lady and the Tramp all within the first week.

That’s really a lot now that I see it in print.

I somehow also manged to squeeze in a little live action series called The Mandalorian. This Star Wars-themed original series has already become one of the most popular streaming series ever, due in part to an adorable green creature with over-sized ears. If you love Star Wars, this series is worth the $6.99 alone. Really.

If Star Wars isn’t your thing there are tons of other options from Marvel, National Geographic, Disney Channel and 20th Century Fox too. I’m a fan of the quirky Jeff Goldbloom series and the in-depth Disney Imagineering show, just to name two. My kids have recently rediscovered the Dog Whisperer and Phineas and Ferb.

Family Friendly

Speaking of kids, another thing to like about Disney+ is that none of the content is rated over PG-13. This is a refreshing change from some of the competing streaming services which tend to lean toward (tip over from the massive weight of ?!?) adult content. Yes, most streaming services, including Disney+ let you set up profiles to limit programming for ages 7 and under. Unlike the competing streamers though, limiting to Young 7 still provides GOBS of great content.

Plus, if you set up multiple profiles you get to pick fun Disney character images or um, ICONS, for each profile too. Warning, the list of incredible icon options is so long is could take you much longer than you think it should to decide.

Less Than Great

So those are the good points so far: price, content and family friendly control. What about the less than great?

Layout

Well, for starters the portal for accessing all of that fabulous content is not quite on par with some of the other streaming services I’ve used. Although it’s easy to find content like Star Wars, Marvel, etc. by selecting various headings, it’s not quite as easy to find some of genre-defying content without using the search feature.

Disney+ also didn’t, at least when it launched, offer a “continue watching” section to let you easily revisit your choice later. I took too long to write this post, so Disney has already corrected this issue by now. I’m only mentioning it here in case you missed it too (shown above).

At least with Disney’s layout they are not yet trying to constantly sell you other content throughout the pages like some other unnamed streaming services do (AMAZON PRIME!).

Availability

There were some compatibility issues with Disney+ and certain smart TVs when the service first launched in November. Fortunately, many of these have now been resolved. Any Samsung smart TV from 2016 or later, for example, should now be able to stream Disney+. There are still some instances, however, that you may be limited on streaming Disney+ on a television.

We gave up on smart TVs keeping up with the streaming apps a while ago. (Or maybe I just gave up on buying new televisions so frequently?) I’ve been streaming through a Roku device and haven’t had any issues. If you’re using something similar or you’re mostly viewing on a handheld device, your odds of encountering an availability issue are noticeably smaller.

Delayed content release

Another thing that’s a little different about Disney+ than some of the competing streaming services is the release of original content. For some of the company’s original content, like The Mandalorian, Disney opted to release episodes of the series over a period of time rather than launching them all on the same day. I’ve heard some complain about this feature because it obviously reduces your ability to binge-watch shows, at least during initial releases.

I actually like the delayed release because it brings back some of that good ‘ole weekly anticipation that disappeared when on-demand took over and society lost what remained of its patience. Still, it’s a different approach, and the unsteady release schedule can be a little odd to navigate. Most shows release on Fridays, but there are exceptions that make it tricky to summarize quickly.

I’m wiling to bet Netflix, Amazon and others, however, are closely watching this little Disney release timing experiment to see if they should try it too. Delayed releases mean customers are less likely to sign up for one show, binge watch it, and cancel. We’ll see how this plays out, but for now it seems to be working for Disney.

Security

And finally, there have been some reports about crooks trying to steal Disney+ log-on IDs. It’s mostly died down by now, but I’m only mentioning it here to remind you to update your passwords on a regular basis. I know it’s a pain. Why do mean people have to make life more complicated? But it’s not really any different than modifying your other streaming services accounts or really any other password protected service these days (sigh).

Earlier this week I thought perhaps my account had been compromised because my log-in attempts failed. Turns out that Disney is already smart enough to sync your password across all Disney applications (shopDisney, MyDisneyExperience, etc.). So, if you happen to use a new password for Disney+ it will probably change your Disney passwords elsewhere too.

And that’s it. Three great things about Disney+ and a few other issues I thought I should share. Do you understand why I haven’t written much new content lately? Too busy watching Disney! Did I mention there’s a whole Holiday section?

One more week left to watch!

Happy Holidays friends. Add a little (streaming) magic to your world!