Help me help the helpless!

[DrummerAlly]

My parents in law are going with my sister in law and her family to Disney in mid-November. They are booking separately and probably staying at different hotels. My SIL has already booked, my MIL and FIL have not yet. My parents in law haven't been to Disney since the early 90's, don't own smart phones, and are technological idiots. They've asked me to help them, while my SIL does not want (though probably needs) any advice. Unfortunately, because my daughter is special needs, we aren't going back for a few years so I haven't been following all of the FP+ things too closely. I really apologize if these questions have been answered earlier:

1. MIL and FIL will get magic bands in the mail and 90 (or is it 180?) days out from their arrival can make FP+ reservations from their 2003 relic of a computer. All reservations are "held" on the magic band, so as long as they know where and when they have reservations for, they don't need a smart phone. Do I have this correct? If they forget, can they look them up at a park kiosk? If they need to change them on the fly, can they do so from a park kiosk?

2. Whats the best way to ensure that they get the same FP+ time slots as my SIL and her family? I'm assuming that they just have to find out what she booked and then try to find the same? Is there anyway for one person to make FP+ reservations for both parties to ensure that they can ride together?

3. Out of curiosity (and I don't foresee this happening), lets say my MIL wants to get a FP+ for Splash Mountain and my FIL wants to get a FP+ for Haunted Mansion at the same time. Is this possible or do all people on the reservation need to have the same FP+ rides?

Thanks so much everyone!

 

[ninjaprincesst]

They will get them about 30 days before the trip. At 180 days they can make ADR for 180days plus 10. They can make their fastpass plus at midnight 60 days out. They will need to set up a My Disney Experience account, they can link their magic bands with your SIL MDE account and one person can make the fastpasses for the whole group. For each fastpass attraction you can choose the guest you want to book for it, so yes it is possible for them to each have a separate fastpass at the same time. Yes they can use the kiosks to manage their fastpasses, and if the do link them your SIL can manage the fastpasses from her smart phone. This is all assuming that they will be staying on property.

 

[cw1982]

To add to what @ninjaprincesst said, if anyone in the group is staying offsite, they will not automatically get magic bands and their FP+ booking window would be 30 days instead of 60. For dining, if they are not staying onsite they lose the "plus 10" part of the booking but can still book each day's worth of dining 180 days from the date they are trying to book.

Best thing to do is for each person to set up their own MDE account and link a ticket number to their account. They can then connect to each other in the MDE system and share plans, and copy fastpasses to each other. This would be the best way to get everything planned whether everyone is staying onsite, offsite, or a mix of both.

 

[Rob562]

To piggyback on what @cw1982 posted, have your MIL and FIL set up their MDE profiles *before* they book their trip. They can either both set up their own profiles with their own email addresses, or have one person be the "master" profile and create a "managed by them" profile for the other one. If they set up individual ones, have one send an invite to the other via the "Invite to Plan and Share" button.

They should also connect to the other people on the trip if you want one person to be able to make or change FP+ for everyone. This will also allow them to see everyone else in the party when they scan their Bands at a kiosk in the park.

Trust me. A little time spent setting up and inter-connecting the profiles goes a LONG way in making things easier down the road.

If you want to help them plan a bit, or perhaps so you can play "over-the-phone tech support" when they're on their trip, you can connect your own MDE profile to theirs. Even though you don't have tickets and aren't going on the trip, you'll have access to view, make and change their FP+ selections. (Right now I don't have valid tickets myself, but I can go into the MDE site and make selections for two friends that I'm connected to who have valid AP's if I wanted)

To answer a couple other points:
1) Yes, once they have their times set up, they don't need a smartphone of any kind. An index card with the times written down works, or they can check and change them via the in-park kiosks.

3) The easiest way to handle people who want the same FP+ for some things but not all of them is to make the same FP+ for everyone in the group so that you have the same for what you *do* want. After that, go in and "change the experience" to edit those who want to do something different.

-Rob

 

[DrummerAlly]

To piggyback on what @cw1982 posted, have your MIL and FIL set up their MDE profiles *before* they book their trip. They can either both set up their own profiles with their own email addresses, or have one person be the "master" profile and create a "managed by them" profile for the other one. If they set up individual ones, have one send an invite to the other via the "Invite to Plan and Share" button.

They should also connect to the other people on the trip if you want one person to be able to make or change FP+ for everyone. This will also allow them to see everyone else in the party when they scan their Bands at a kiosk in the park.

Trust me. A little time spent setting up and inter-connecting the profiles goes a LONG way in making things easier down the road.

If you want to help them plan a bit, or perhaps so you can play "over-the-phone tech support" when they're on their trip, you can connect your own MDE profile to theirs. Even though you don't have tickets and aren't going on the trip, you'll have access to view, make and change their FP+ selections. (Right now I don't have valid tickets myself, but I can go into the MDE site and make selections for two friends that I'm connected to who have valid AP's if I wanted)

To answer a couple other points:
1) Yes, once they have their times set up, they don't need a smartphone of any kind. An index card with the times written down works, or they can check and change them via the in-park kiosks.

3) The easiest way to handle people who want the same FP+ for some things but not all of them is to make the same FP+ for everyone in the group so that you have the same for what you *do* want. After that, go in and "change the experience" to edit those who want to do something different.

-Rob

Fantastic, everyone! Thanks so much! Everyone is staying onsite. I think in going to have to make them a MDE account and just link it up to my SILs and let her deal with it. Thanks!!

 

[Nemo14]

*sigh*
Remember how simple life used to be?

 

[DrummerAlly]

*sigh*
Remember how simple life used to be?

Seriously. For someone like me, 30, tech savy, Disney savy, the new system is manageable and learnable and will probably be fine. Considering my daughters special needs (sensory processing disorder and anxiety), the new system with a DAC will probably work well once she's able to handle a trip - hopefully a few years down the road according to her occupational therapist.

For my parents in law, this is ludicrous. They're not Disney people to begin with. I'm hoping that if I prep them and take care of the leg work for them they'll atleast enjoy themselves enough to not bash us every time we go down there.

 

[MadMax11]

Went with older family and family that didn't buy tickets until they got there...my wife and I bought tickets for us and for our 2 kids well before we left and had everything planned out. It was as if we went on 2 separate trips entirely. We spent nearly all our time in the park....the others ended up giving up and spent their time by the pool for the most part.

Planning for these trips is entirely different now than it used to be. That's not bad or good or anything..it's just different. And older people who aren't as tech savvy have a much more difficult time navigating all that now. It's a little sad, because my parents are DVC owners, and they feel like it's all passed them by now.

 

[DisneyJoe]

Those staying on site can make FP+ at 60 days

 

[MadMax11]

Those staying on site can make FP+ at 60 days

Provided they buy their tickets way out ahead of time.

I used to wait to buy my tickets when I checked in. Can't do that anymore. My parents and other parts of my family waited, not knowing better...it burned them. Lesson learned, but an expensive lesson regardless.

I spend lots of time planning...but honestly, but for this message board, I don't know that I would have known to plan as well as I did. Very grateful for it.

 

[erasure fan1]

*sigh*
Remember how simple life used to be?

No joke. I just set up my in-laws MDE with their fastpasses and I really don't like it. Its not all that hard but it is just SO unnecessary. I will take the old system any day over this billion dollar joke. Heck, give me the pre-fastpass days over this.