Hey Howdy Hey, Corey!
Welcome to planDisney and thank you so much for stopping by with your question! Corey, how generous of you to bring so much magic by purchasing a Disney vacation for another family. Tinker Bell says, "Leave a little sparkle wherever you go," and oh boy, you sure will be gifting quite a lot of pixie dust!
Corey, there are a few options here. If you are a
Disney Vacation Club Member, you can gift a stay using your Disney Vacation Club Points. To do this, you would log into your DVC account the same way you would if you were booking your own vacation, select the Resort, and when it comes to Guest Information, you would input the person(s) name of who is receiving the vacation. Once the reservation is confirmed, you would share the reservation number with them and the reservation would be theirs. If any changes had to be made to the reservation, only the Member would be able to do that, but once they check in to the hotel, the room reservation is all theirs for the duration of the trip. Then, you would want to
purchase theme park tickets for them and make theme park reservations (or they can make the reservation when they decide on which parks they want to visit,) but when you get to the Guest Information for the theme park tickets at check out you can check the box that says "this is a gift." For dining, you could give them Disney gift cards.
If you are NOT a Disney Vacation Club Member, you could book the
Disney Resort Hotel in the family's name and then pay with your credit card. For tickets and dining, you can follow the same steps above.
Another option is to call the
Disney Reservations team and have them help you book a Vacation Package for which you would pay on behalf of the family. If you know the specific dates for when they would travel, the Cast Members should be able to help you make the hotel and ticket bookings and advise you on adding gift cards for dining. Advance Dining Reservations can only be made 60 days out from the date of check-in so depending on when you book the other pieces, it may not be possible yet to book the dining. But providing gift cards for all of the delicious Disney dining options and any other Disney add ons is a great alternative.
Finally, you could purchase
Disney Gift Cards for your recipient to use toward booking their own vacation. They can be used online up to $1000 to pay for the Disney Resort Hotel or theme park tickets, and it's another way to gift the magic to your family.
I hope this helps you, Corey! If you have any further Disney planning questions, stop back and see me and I'll be so happy to help you. I'm right here, just the second star to the right and straight on til morning!
Magically Yours,
Keri