Hiya, Julie!
Oh boy! How exciting that you are planning a surprise Disney vacation for your family and friends. What an exciting moment it will be when they discover the magic that awaits them!
Julie, when you make your
Disney Vacation Club Resort reservation, you can call Member Services to book the Resort. In my experience, when you call Member Services, the Resort reservation is not automatically linked to your My Disney Experience account. I recently had to manually link my reservation and add my Guests, as I did not give their names when I booked the room. Only when you add the Guests' names to the reservation will it be linked (and show) on their account. If you make the reservation through the Disney Vacation Club website, you can choose to only add your name when booking and add the other Guests' names at a later time.
Now, Julie, you would be able to make Dining Reservations 60 days out from your check-in date for the entirety of your stay as part of your surprise. You can select the number of Guests, the date, time, and location of the reservation, and you don't need to assign this to the Guests on your reservation. The dining reservation will be under your name.
What I was unable to do through the My Disney Experience app is purchase theme park tickets without assigning them to members of my party. For this, I would recommend contacting Guest Services as they may have a way to do this, depending on when you plan to reveal your surprise. The one thing to note, however, is that in order for Guests to be able to purchase the
Lightning Lane Multi Pass seven days in advance of check-in for onsite Resort Guests, I believe your Guests would need to have a ticket assigned to their account.
What I would recommend, Julie is to contact
Member Services about your plans so they can advise you per your specific dates and plans. Member Services Cast Members are like Fairy Godparents - all-knowing and able to make your dreams come true! They will be able to assist you with booking your Disney Vacation Club room, and any additional plans you are dreaming of!
I hope this helps you, Julie! If you have any further Disney Vacation Club questions, soar back here to see me and I'll be so happy to help you.
Magically Yours,
Keri