Hey there, Cynthia!
Thanks for coming back to visit us at planDisney! I see that you're planning to visit the resort with a large party, how exciting! I'm no stranger to helping a big group navigate the
Disneyland Resort and I'm happy to give you some ideas on how to lead your crew on their adventure.
I'm so glad that you already know about
Disney Genie+ Service and
Lightning Lane reservations! For a large group like yours, there are two main ways to make and manage Lightning Lane reservations.
Your first option is to link everyone's tickets to a single Disneyland account. You can do this by signing into the
Disneyland Mobile App, tapping the three horizontal bars in the bottom right corner, selecting "Tickets & Passes" and then tapping on the "+" symbol to "Link Tickets & Passes" by either scanning the barcode of the ticket or entering the ID number. I prefer to do this when we are all together, so I can just scan the digital ticket and add it to my account. Once you've linked all of your tickets to one account, you'll be able to make Lightning Lane reservations for every eligible member of your group at once.
Some people find it a little confusing to have so many tickets linked to a single account, especially if some people want to purchase Individual Lightning Lanes or use their account to mobile order but not everyone is participating in those activities. So just be aware of the other members of your party if you link all your tickets together. A ticket can be linked to more than one Disneyland account, so you can still have everyone logged in on their own Disneyland accounts if you would like to keep purchases separate.
The second option is to coordinate with your group over phone calls and text messages. When we have multiple families traveling together, this is usually the option we choose. We will create a group text, and then when one group makes a Lightning Lane reservation they text everyone their return time so that others in our party have the option to make their own Lightning Lane reservation. Usually, our reservations are within 5-10 minutes of each other if we're paying attention!
A major advantage to having everyone link their tickets to one account is being able to join
virtual queues together.
Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway is currently using a virtual queue and the best way to keep your party together is to join the queue as one group. Another helpful thing for our group is to use
MagicBand+ because it allows each individual to quickly scan their bands at Lightning Lane attractions instead of one person having to show 10 barcodes on their phone.
Disneyland Park with a big group is the definition of a "party" in my world! Don't forget to take lots of group photos with Disney PhotoPass photographers; you can download them all when you purchase Genie+ for the day! Happy travels to you, Cynthia!
Keep moving forward!
Amanda