To link or not to link our teenager's MDE account

[mouse in my house]

Hi Everyone,
I have searched and searched and haven't seen anyone discuss this exactly. I have reservations beginning May 28th for my husband, three teenagers and myself. We have on-site hotel, tickets and ADR's all on my account. I completely forgot that we had made my oldest son (19) an account a few years ago for some reason. I called today and got the birthday corrected for him so now it seems we are "kind of " linked. The Disney customer service person didn't offer to link my account to his and she seemed tired. But his avatar changed on my account to the one he has after she corrected his birthday.
My questions are this:
Should I try to link him or not? There are only two reasons I thought about doing it but I sure don't want to mess anything up.
1. I couldn't get an ADR for BOG for 5 people for lunch, only 2. But there was also a 3 person reservation available for 5 minutes later. It wouldn't let me reserve it as I already had one. I thought in those situations, I could use his account to get the other 3. (It would be o.k. if the teenagers sat separately but I don't think we would have to worry abou that with BOG at lunch.)
2. We will be there on a Saturday that MK is open until 2 a.m. If the teenagers wanted to go around by themselves at night,for example, would he need his own account so that he could make them fastpasses at night? (I looked at tonight's MK attractions and some indeed had FP+ open after 9 p.m. since they were open until 3 a.m.) Or...can he download an app to his phone and sign into my account the same time I am signed into it on my phone when we are at the park and us each add a fastpass separately?

He doesn't want to have to get extra emails from Disney and we prefer that I handle reserving our fastpasses next week and any ADR changes. So essentially, does he need to use a separate account at the park if we separate and if I did link him, will he have to handle everything under his own account from that point forward instead of through my account?
Privacy, credit cards, passwords aren't any issue between us. I will let them have charging priveleges on their bands. They manage their own cards at college. (And yes I understand about the only 3 FP+ ahead of time rule)
Thanks so much for advice or related experience!!

 

[Rob562]

I'll start by saying that as long as a child/teen/person is responsible enough not to go into MDE and start messing around with FP+ choices, etc. then as long as they're 13 or older (the minimum age to have a Disney account of their own) there's no real reason *not* to let them have their own MDE account.

To see if he's properly linked, look on your account and see if his listing still has the "connect through a Disney account" next to his name. If it doesn't then he's linked. (It'll be replaced with the listing for your privacy setting of how much of your info he can see)
You could also go into your son's account and see if the hotel and dining reservations show up on *his* account. If they do, then you're linked properly.

If not, then go into *your* account, click on the "Connect through a Disney account" link next to his name and fill in his email.

If he wants to be able to make FP+ choices for anyone else in the group, he'll have to link to them, even if they're listed under *your* MDE profile. At the top of his Friends and Family list there's an "Add Guest" link. The default that comes up is a list of "friends of friends" (assuming your friends list is visible because your privacy settings are set to allow it). He can then check off the boxes and connect to anyone he needs to.

As for Dining and the initial FP+ choices, each dining and hotel reservation is "owned" by someone who is listed as the lead Guest. The other people can be "managed by the parent" profiles, separate profiles that each person controls, or a mix of both. You just choose the people you want to list on each reservation folrm your Friends list. Same thing with FP+ choices. Simply by being friends, you have access to make FP+ choices for him.

Lastly, going forward, when Magic Bands are shipped to you his will be "owned" by him. You won't see it under your account anymore, it'll be "his" Magic Band. Same thing with his park ticket.

-Rob

 

[iYazmo]

If your teenagers are responsible enough, go ahead and link their accounts. It honestly is such a time-saver and I wouldn't have known what to do without it. While our family does tend to stay together, sometimes we need some alone time to experience attractions that the others may not necessarily want to do. When you are split up, MDE offers a central location to keep all information. This lets everyone know what time everyone needs to meet up again for an ADR or FP+, for instance. MDE also allows you to make reservations for one person to the entire group if all the accounts are linked. It's a life-saver if an emergency happens and you need to reschedule immediately.

Also, the FP+ kiosks always have long lines and if his account was linked with MDE, he wouldn't have to wait and change it, allowing him to more time to experience the parks.

 

[mouse in my house]

Thanks so much iYazmo and Rob562! We are not linked yet. It still has "connect through a Disney account" listed. I remembered after I wrote that we all still have to go to a kiosk for the 4th and later fastpass but can use apps for changes only. I just want to make sure I understand two things:
You are saying that there is no way for two people to have the app on their phones yet sign in with the same account for changes at the park? That would be the easiest and less worrisome scenario to me.

When you say, he will "own his magic band and park tickets-you won't see it under your account anymore", does that mean if I want to check to make sure everything is still listed correctly, like fastpasses, I would have to start signing into two accounts every time? I am just wondering if that doubles the chances of problems or more work to get them fixed etc. If we had a scenario in which the magic band didn't work or fastpasses were mysteriously deleted like some people have had happened, etc. is that doubling my work?

 

[Rob562]

Thanks so much iYazmo and Rob562! We are not linked yet. It still has "connect through a Disney account" listed. I remembered after I wrote that we all still have to go to a kiosk for the 4th and later fastpass but can use apps for changes only. I just want to make sure I understand two things:
You are saying that there is no way for two people to have the app on their phones yet sign in with the same account for changes at the park? That would be the easiest and less worrisome scenario to me.

When you say, he will "own his magic band and park tickets-you won't see it under your account anymore", does that mean if I want to check to make sure everything is still listed correctly, like fastpasses, I would have to start signing into two accounts every time? I am just wondering if that doubles the chances of problems or more work to get them fixed etc. If we had a scenario in which the magic band didn't work or fastpasses were mysteriously deleted like some people have had happened, etc. is that doubling my work?

I suppose you could have two people log in on two devices with the same account info. It'd be no different than me signing into my account on both my laptop and my phone. Unless you're trying to work with the same timeslots at the same time, I don't think there'd be a problem. But the system is probably intended for each person logging in to have their own account.

And sorry if I confused you on the "owning" thing. You will still see everything on your own account. You can make, change and cancel FP+ and dining reservations for everyone in your group (both those whose profiles you control and those who have their own accounts). My comment was strictly about who would "own" the physical items, not reservations. Here's a (rather drawn-out) example:

On my trip last year, we had five people. Initially I set things up with three of the other four people as sub-profiles on my account, while the fourth was a friend who already had his own account that I linked to. I was responsible for customizing our Magic Band order since it was part of the hotel reservation I controlled. But the day that the Bands actually shipped, control of the Band for the friend with his own account went to him. Under my account, I could only see *my* Band and the Bands for the three people with profiles under me when looking under the list of "Magic Bands that you control". If my friend with his own account lost his Band and wanted to deactivate it, he'd have to go in through his account.
Later, two other of the friends made their own accounts. When they linked to me they "took ownership" of the Bands linked to them, so their Bands also disappeared from under my account. Now I only see Bands for myself and the one remaining friend without his own account, despite being linked to the others and they still having active Bands.

I hope I didn't confuse things more.

-Rob

 

[cspencer96]

Link the teen's account fully. There is no reason not to, and if they have a smartphone, you'll appreciate it when you're there. Trust me.

 

[mouse in my house]

Thanks Rob and cspencer96!

 

[cspencer96]

Have an awesome time!