Hey there, Bernadette! Welcome to planDisney! You've brought us a great question about navigating the parks with teenagers and I'd be happy to share some of my insight with you!
I know it seems odd not having paper tickets to enter the parks, but I assure you, it actually works out quite well to have everything conveniently located within the
Disneyland app. However, if you prefer having a paper ticket, the last time I checked they still give you a paper ticket when you can into the parks for the first time. Just ask the Cast Member scanning your tickets. This should be helpful for your teenagers when they want to go off into the parks without you.
My other suggestion would be to have them download and sign in to your Disney account if they have their own phones. This will also give them access to their tickets, as well as the park map for wait times, and
Disney Genie+, if you are going to be summoning Genie to get you into Lightning Lanes. The other upside to giving them access to your account on the app is that you can
mobile order a snack or food for them and they can access the pick-up information and pick it up. This has always worked out well for our family to have extra runners to pick up food when it's meal time and we all get things from different locations. We've never had a problem having multiple phones logged in to the same Disney account. This will also give you extra chances of getting a spot in the virtual queue for
World of Color if you are all logged in and trying at noon!
Bonus Tip: If you are not comfortable giving your children access to your Disney account, you can always take a screenshot of their ticket and send it to them. Have them make it their screensaver for the day and they won't even need to open their phones every time to scan their ticket. Easy peasy!
Bernadette, I hope this eases your worry about how to navigate the parks with teens who may want to do some exploring of their own. Be sure to stop by again with any other questions you might have! See you real soon!
Carrie