Hi there, Matthew. Thanks for bringing your questions to planDisney! These are great questions, and I am happy to share exactly how my ‘ohana manages it, as we too have a tween and teen who like to break off on their own for a few attractions!
~ First, each of you should
create a Disney account on the
Disneyland website. You can create one with a valid email address. (The main thing you can’t do with an account for a minor is associate a credit card with the account, but there are other ways to manage this, which I will explain later.)
~ Next, download the
Disneyland mobile app. Each person should log in with their own account.
~ Each of you can link all the tickets for your party in your own
Disneyland mobile app. Go to Tickets and Passes, click the “+” in the upper right corner, and click Link Tickets & Passes. Here you can either scan the barcode of each ticket (from paper to phone, or phone to phone) or you can enter the ticket ID manually. At the end of this, all of you should have all five tickets linked to your own accounts. This will give you flexibility to break off into different groups.
~ When you make
Disney Genie+ Lightning Lane selections, you can select certain members of your party. For instance, you could make selections just for your tweens, and because they will have the app on their own phones, they will be able to access the
Lightning Lane passes from their own phones to scan into the attraction.
Since the kids can't associate a credit card within the app, the workaround we have used is a Disney Gift Card. You can purchase one at any gift shop when you arrive or purchase it online at
shopDisney. We download the gift cards to their Apple Wallets on their phones, which they can use in person or within the app. To use the gift card for in-app purchases, they select Disney Gift Card as the payment method and manually enter the gift card number (currently there is no way to save the Disney Gift Card within the app.)
I hope this helps you manage the logistics for your visit. You’re going to have an incredible time.
Enjoy your visit to infinity and beyond!
Kamini