Hi Brenda!
Welcome to planDisney! We often travel with extended family and friends, so vacationing with large groups is my specialty! I even helped make plans for 135 marching band kids at Walt Disney World. Let me see if I can help you get your vacation set up on My Disney Experience!
First, if you have a Travel Planner that booked for you, I would contact them and ask them to assist you one-on-one over the phone. It can be a bit confusing for first-timers and having someone you can talk to as you do it may be helpful. If they are not willing or able to do that, hopefully, the following instructions will help.
For four families traveling together, I highly recommend you begin by having each separate family make their own
My Disney Experience Accounts. To begin, I recommend doing this on a desktop, and not the Mobile App, but use the Mobile App later once everything is set up. Have at least one adult from each family create an account. If they wish, the other adults can also create one. My husband and I each have accounts, but for my parents, only my mom has an account and she manages plans for my dad. One adult from each family should add any children in that family and manage the children’s plans. Once everyone has an account or is accounted for in their family’s account, you will all want to connect using the Family & Friends tool.
Use the
Family & Friends tool to send invitations to share plans with each adult account, and through those accounts the children. This will allow everyone with an account to control their reservations, and see and share plans with the rest of the family. To be upfront Brenda, sometimes when trying to link a lot of Family & Friends at once, the system likes to glitch. Go ahead and try to link everyone. You may find that only some connect and some do not. Wait 24 to 48 hours and then resend an invitation to share with anyone that didn’t link the first time. Usually waiting and retrying works. If you are still struggling, the friendly Cast Members at
Tech Support can be a big help!
Once you have accounts, enter your reservation numbers. You can enter them all on your account, and then match each family member to their room, or you can have each family their own reservation number. I recommend the latter method.
There is an alternative method to all of this, Brenda. You can add each person in your party to your account as someone you manage, then add all the resort reservations. While this is doable, I discourage it. What usually happens, is that as the trip approaches family members now want to have access to make plans on their own accounts. Also, since it is difficult to get dining reservations for parties that large, having multiple family members with accounts allows you to book multiple smaller tables and increases the chances of getting that tough-to-book restaurant. So, know that this method is an option, but I don’t recommend it. It seems easier at first, but causes more frustration in the long run.
Once your resort reservation is linked in My Disney Experience, you'll be able to see it under "My Plans," and from there make payments.
I hope this helps get you started, Brenda. Another unconventional suggestion that I often employ, if you have teenagers in your family, they tend to be tech-savvy and can be a good helper when trying to navigate these types of systems. Please let us know what additional questions we can help with as you plan, Brenda! We are here to help!
- Kate