Hello, Justina! I love seeing a fellow North Carolinian ask a question here at planDisney.
The
Walt Disney World availability calendar is broken down into three categories - Guests staying at a Walt Disney World Resort Hotel, Guests with tickets only and Annual Passholders. Each category has its own availability at the Walt Disney World Theme Parks. If you are linked with your friends, who are Annual Passholders, via the friends and family list on
MyDisneyExperience and you have valid theme park admission they will be able to make a
park pass reservation for you. However, when they make park pass reservations, it will pull from the availability that each person qualifies for. So if something is not available to everyone except Annual Passholders, only they would be able to secure a park pass reservation for it. It does not lump everyone into the same category when someone is making those park pass reservations for a group.
If you are visiting Walt Disney World with friends and some are able to secure a park pass reservation for a certain park and others are not, I suggest upgrading your standard theme park tickets to include the
park hopper option. Park hopping is when you can visit multiple Walt Disney World Theme Parks in one day. Park hopping just recently returned to Walt Disney World, at the start of this year, and does look a little bit different than it did before. If you want to park hop, you must have standard theme park admission with the park hopping option. Then, you'll need to make park pass reservations for the first Walt Disney World Theme Park you'd like to visit each day. On that day, you'll need to scan in and enter that theme park with the park pass reservation first before continuing on to park hop. Park hopping hours start at 2:00 p.m. each day and last until park closing. It is not necessary to make additional park pass reservations each day for park hopping, just the initial one. So if the park your group really wants to visit on a certain day is only available to some of your friends, you could always park hop over there starting at 2:00 p.m. and spend the rest of the day with them. It's a great option and actually the way that I prefer to spend a day at Walt Disney World.
Justina, I hope this helps clear up any confusion about the park pass reservation system. If you have any other questions before your trip, please feel free to come back and
ask me. Have fun!