Help! Purchasing tickets for two families

[Hynuk]

Hello everyone! We are DVC members and will be bringing my sister's family with us to Disney World this June for a 1-week stay at BCR. There will be 8 of us in total (4 in my family + 4 in hers). I'm currently in the process of trying to buy Disney World park tickets (8 x 3-day Park Hoppers), but would love some advice on how to best approach this. We would like to give ourselves the flexibility to go on some rides together, but also plan things on our own if we want.

Here are a few questions I have:

1. Is it best to purchase them all together, or to purchase them separately for each family? Is there a major price difference? Group rate?
2. Should we have two separate My Disney Experience accounts for each family or one account that we link all 8 tickets to?
3. Is it better to have 2 separate MDE accounts while trying to snag Lightning Lane reservations?
4. Should we go straight through Disney for tickets, or use a third party like Undercover Tourist?
5. Can Genie+ be purchased on a per-day basis on the day of park visit, or does it need to be purchased in advance?
6. How do Park Hoppers work with the new reservation system? Do you need to specify which day and time you will be at a specific park, even if you have hoppers?

Thanks for any help. I'm still disoriented from all of the changes Disney has made since 2020. We were last there in 2019. I can't believe how confusing they've made everything.

 

[Disneyonthe5]

There is no group rate! I’m taking my family of five children and their families to Disney World this summerI Just got done getting tickets for the five families. Tried to book on line and totally screwed up one of my family’s reservation. I called Disney to book the others and after being on hold for long periods of time, I did get them booked. (Had to call three times and each operator told me different answers.) What a nightmare! It’s better if each family has their own confirmation number and their own Disney Experience account so they can make all their own reservations.Dinng reservations are a lot easier to get for tables of 4. We are all linked in Family and Friends so we can share the plans we’ve made. If you buy a multiple day package, and want Genie+, you will have to get for every day. You will need to make a park reservations for each day but if get park hoppers, you can hop to any other park at 2pm. No reservation needed for the park hopping to. Hope this helps!

 

[lostprincess_danie]

1. I would suggest separating the groups. There is not a price difference or discount and it will be easier to keep track of which ticket is linked to which party.
2. Separate, at least one per family. If you might split up at some point that will make setting up reservations and Genie+ times much easier.
3. Not really. Two people can be logged into the same MDE account and making simultaneous resvervations.
4. Go wherever you get the best deal if that’s your priority. UCT tickets less than 2 days are generally more expensive than direct from Disney. Anything over 2 days tends to be a savings. UCT has good customer service and once you link tickets in MDE, as long as they are valid Disney doesn’t care where they came from.
5. Can be purchased per day at midnight of the day you plan to use it. So you may end up making multiple transactions throughout the week. If you plan to use G+ everyday of your trip go ahead and add it before time. You can only add ahead of time to all days.
6. You must reserve your first park. After 2pm you can hop to any other park you like, no reservation required for the second park.