I am organizing a trip for my family, parents, and sister's family. In the past I have just used my own MDE for my self, hubby, kids, and mom. With my sister and her children joining us, is it best to just link all reservations on my own vs. creating her her own account that I will be the one logging into and arranging? Basically, I'll be doing the fast pass selections, dining, booking rooms etc. etc. so wondering if there would be any reason at all for her to have her own account.
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Use one MDE or two?
- Thread starter LindsayW
- Start date
Rob562
Well-Known Member
While it may be simpler for you now and on this trip, trust me when I say that down the road things will be MUCH easier for your sister and her family if they start with their own account up-front. It'll take a few minutes to get things set up, but it'll pay off if your sister and her family ever want to go to Disney without you and are wondering why their MagicBands from this trip don't work... (Or even on this trip, if they want to split off from the group and make their own FP+ choices)
While I always suggest that every adult on a trip should have their own accounts, at the very least have your sister make an account.
Then have her make "managed by her" profiles for her spouse and kids.
At that point, add just your sister to your friends-and-family list, making sure to fill in the email address she uses for her account.
After she accepts your friend request, you can go into your account and connect to each of her family members using the "people I may know" feature.
When all is said and done, you'll have her account controlled by her, your account controlled by you, but you'll still be able to make the hotel reservations and buy tickets and link them to their profiles, and then make FP+ and dining reservations for them. You'll also make their MagicBand customizations, but once they ship her family's Bands will move to appear under her account.
-Rob
Rob: I've spent the last 3 hours or so reading through the forums and you have certainly stood out as giving some of the most detailed and accurate responses. I'm curious to hear your thoughts on why each adult should have their own account, if you don't mind sharing!
correcaminos
Well-Known Member
If she ever goes by herself she will want her own. I would not put her on your account. You can link and make FP and dining for her as well.
We do not have separate accounts for adults though, but only one of us ever plans and if one of us goes alone, it is the same as the one who plans. Also with DVC there have been some issues with dual accounts so since we are a family unit and everything goes to me, we keep with one DME and one DVC account. So we are not in the each adult camp but definitely for each family unit.
Monty
Brilliant...and Canadian
- In the Parks
- No
Currently, I do all the planning and paying, but I fully expect that some day my son will go on his own. He has his own account now, so when he chooses to go it'll be simple for him. Having separate accounts doesn't change how I organise now, but helps him later on.
The downside to having multiple accounts is that while anyone with an account connected to yours can make FP+ for you, they can also CANCEL them. If someone is new to MDE, it is not always apparent which FP belongs to which person, and accidental cancellations happen. (Ask me how I know this 
)
)
CaptainAmerica
Premium Member
To be clear, you'd never have to log into someone else's account just because they have their own. My travel party (mom, dad, wife, sister, daughter) all have their own accounts except for my two year old. I've made all of the plans and none of it required logging in as anyone else.
I'm surprised that the rest of your party doesn't want their own account so they can see what's up.
I'm surprised that the rest of your party doesn't want their own account so they can see what's up.
Originally I was the only person in our household with a MDE account. Then right before one of our trips last year my husband decided to make his own so that he could download the app to his phone. He has zero interest in planning any aspect of our trips but wanted to be able to see the plans for each day himself without constantly asking me "what's next?" It turned out to be a nuisance because now with his own account, his account controls his Magic Bands (we have a lot of them), his ticket media for special events, and his annual pass. As I'm sure many of you know, it's recommended that only 6 Magic Bands or Cards be active for each person at a time. We like to switch them around each trip. So in order for me to organize everything before a trip I have to go into 2 different accounts. On our last trip, no ones Magic Bands were showing up in my account when it was time to personalize them. Even though I had made the resort reservation and done all ADRs and FPs for everyone using my account, for some reason the Magic Band order was sitting in his account waiting to be personalized. We'd actually prefer to close his account and go back to just using mine but we can't figure out how to do it.
Another thing- be careful who you add as a friend. I added my sister's boyfriend a while back. He's no longer a "friend" but the system will not let me delete him and it pains me to see his name everytime I'm using my list.
Another thing- be careful who you add as a friend. I added my sister's boyfriend a while back. He's no longer a "friend" but the system will not let me delete him and it pains me to see his name everytime I'm using my list.
CaptainAmerica
Premium Member
That's such a rare exception though. 99.8% of people aren't trying to manage 6+ MagicBands for each user.
You're right.
@CaptainAmerica , while we're on this subject, do you have any idea how I can delete my husband's account and get it back to him just being managed by me (without losing all of his bands)? We currently do not have any Disney plans on the books and our APs expire in 3 days. I imagine that if it's possible, it's easier while nothing is booked. I will be planning that OKW visit soon.
Also- any idea how to remove Bad Boyfriend from the friends list? When I try to remove him I get this message:
Guest Cannot Be Removed
Because @$%& has active admission or plans, they cannot be removed at this time.
Which isn't true. He has no active plans. Although we were all planning a December 2017 trip and I had made reservations at Copper Creek which I have since cancelled. Could that be why though? Could the system still be aware of that cancelled trip even though the reservation no longer shows and I had all of my deposits refunded?
Also- any idea how to remove Bad Boyfriend from the friends list? When I try to remove him I get this message:
Guest Cannot Be Removed
Because @$%& has active admission or plans, they cannot be removed at this time.
Which isn't true. He has no active plans. Although we were all planning a December 2017 trip and I had made reservations at Copper Creek which I have since cancelled. Could that be why though? Could the system still be aware of that cancelled trip even though the reservation no longer shows and I had all of my deposits refunded?
correcaminos
Well-Known Member
Might be lower than that. We are grateful to decline now. A lot of DVC owners have too many. With AP and 2 trips that would have been 3 in one year.
You might want to call to find out. Sometimes Disney IT glitches. Like you double accounts messed things up so they fixed a bunch for us.
Runway: I'd suggest calling Disney's Website Support at (407) 939-4357. They can usually figure out what seems to be holding up the delete.. In the worst case scenario, they can usually "hide" the profile so you don't have to look at it anymore while they open an IT ticket to have that person deleted "behind the scenes" for a more permanent solution.
OR if you prefer to take matters into your own hands, you can send an invitation to connect with that guest (as if that guest has his own MDE account.) Except in your case, send the email invitation to your own email. The system will merge him with your account (since there is essentially nothing on the profile it won't matter) and he will disappear. Basically you will absorb his profile onto yours.
But, I'd definitely recommend calling Disney. Good luck!
Rob562
Well-Known Member
I went through the same thing with my friend's now ex-wife. What I did was create a dummy account for her using 10minutemail.com After I got the email from that, I created an account and friend-requested it. After we were friends and the specifics carried over, I was able to un-friend her in MDE.
-Rob
Rob562
Well-Known Member
Sorry I just realized that you'd directed a question toward me but I never responded to it. (And thanks for the compliment, BTW)
Monty and helenabear pretty much answered it, but I figured I'd chime in too. I agree that at the minimum each "immediate family unit" should have their own account under one of the parents and the rest of their "unit" as managed-by-them profiles. Then each head-of-family links to each of the others they'll be going on trips with.
That works fine with people who travel with just their family, or with other family groups. But I don't have kids, and my trips tend to be combinations of myself, my bf and various friends. (So far not with any of the friends who have kids, though that may change next year) If I were to simply list each of the friends on my MDE account as a managed-by-me profile, and then that friend went on another trip without me next year, they'd have trouble getting their MagicBand from this trip to work with that new trip.
Or what if one family goes on a trip and brings along a nephew. They list the nephew under their own profile. Then nephew's family goes on their own trip, and list nephew under their account. Now nephew exists twice in the MDE system. When those families decide to vacation together, you get confusion as to which "nephew" is the real one in the system.
And lastly, as runway discovered earlier in this thread, if you want to *remove* a managed-by-you profile from your account and there are active things linked to it (typically it's a MagicBand that does it), the system will give you an error. If everyone has their own account, it's a simple matter to "clean up" you friends list by unfriending people if you don't plan on travelling with them again in the near future. You can always re-connect down the road if you have to.
-Rob