Just a warning: Disney may be sharing your PRIVATE Plans with "Friends & Family" that you have explicitly told them NOT to share with!

[JohnGypsy]

I just wanted to pass this along to warn others. There is currently a bug affecting SOME users where Disney is sharing your Plans (Resort Reservations, FastPasses, and so on) with your "Family & Friends" people even if they are not part of those plans and your settings are set to share "Only Our Shared Plans."

Unfortunately, I discovered this over Mother's Day. We had decided to surprise my mother with a surprise visit. (We're from Michigan -- she lives in Orlando.) We showed up at the door unannounced and knocked -- hoping to have a great surprise for her -- and she opened the door and went "Hey! I wondered when you'd be here -- I saw that you were coming!" I have to say that I was really disappointed with the surprise being ruined. (It worked out fine in the end -- still a good visit -- but just very frustration to have that happen.) I asked her how she knew -- and she said that our Resort reservation showed up in her Disney account.

I then had her log back in to show me and, sure enough, there was our resort reservation, our FastPasses, and so on! All shown on her account.

I then logged into my account and double-checked that I had set all of our stuff to share "Only Our Shared Plans" and confirmed that she, of course, was not somehow accidentally a part of any of our plans. She was not. It was showing her our private reservation even though everything in my settings clearly said to NOT do that.

When we got back to the resort later, I called Disney and, after doing some checking, they CONFIRMED that this is a KNOWN ISSUE that they are "working on." Basically, it appears that if you've EVER had any shared plans with a member of your Family & Friends list, then, for some accounts, they can still see ALL of your existing and future plans -- even if you've got those set to Private and they are not at all a part of those plans!

Disney apologized for the mixup, but this is a huge deal to me. In this case, sure, it just ruined a Mother's Day surprise. But, I can see it being even more of an issue in other cases where you simply do not want people to know of your plans.

(Note that you can apparently remove them from your Friends list completely and then they won't see it, but these are people that, on SOME trips, I do want them added in so that we can share FastPass status and such -- and, in some cases, even resort reservations. So, permanently removing them is not a good option.)

Disney says that they are working on it, but still aren't quite sure why it is happening. I just wanted to post to warn others that might THINK that they have private reservations, but might be having them shared -- without their permission -- with others.

 

[mrsap]

I noticed this a couple weeks ago. My cousin and her husband, aunt and uncle will be meeting us in Disney during the second week of our stay this summer. Since I picked my fast passes first, she asked if we could be friends on MDE so she can see what times I picked (so she could get the same). They travel to Disney frequently, as they like to do long weekend getaways, so literally anything and everything they have planned for this year popped up, including fast passes, ADRs, etc. I knew this was going to happen since we share plans with our friends, but it was so overwhelming that I didn’t know which were my plans and which were hers. I politely asked her to click on ‘Only shared plans’ for me, however they never actually disappeared off my account. I waited a few days and then just deleted her. I feel bad, but I want to be able to see my own stuff. I did not call them because I didn’t think it was a big deal (in this particular case), but I hope that they get it fixed to avoid this issue in the future.

 

[truetink]

I'm so sorry that happened to you. I have been having issues with that for years too and it has created some uncomfortable moments with some family members for us as well (ones that shouldn't have known we were going did, etc.)

 

[yesdnil]

Maybe I'm the odd one out here, but when getting ready to plan a trip, I remove all of my existing friends and family except those that are going on this trip and make sure that I'm linked to the correct profiles for everyone. It makes it a lot easier when I don't have to check which profiles I'm looking to every single FP and ADR

 

[foodiddiedoo]

I actually had the ability to manage other people's FPs even though I wasn't part of their plans at all. I found that a bit surprising.

 

[anne60]

Regarding the removal of friends completely, I've been trying unsuccessfully for over 10 months to get two people removed from my "friend and family" list. I've called a minimum of 4 times and each time I'm told that they will be removed and I should see that in X hours. They are still there. It was particularly frustrating when I was trying to book fastpasses for our family trip (of 8 people). These two kept showing up and I would have to consciously "skip' over them to get the right people.

 

[bryanb]

This is very disappointing, but thanks for giving the heads up. I have had several bugs happen with Friends & Family.

When I upgraded to an annual pass, I suddenly stopped receiving all Disney marketing communications. (Keep in mind, this is one of the few companies where I really value their "spam" -- especially discount offers, newsletters, and AP announcements.) I later found out that one of my friends has been getting all my Disney marketing email, including AP newsletters, which are being sent to his email address with my name! I tried calling the Disney help desk several times, but they only solution they have is for me to opt-in to receive emails, but I can't because the system already shows I'm opted in under my correct email. They can't tell why my mail is going to him, and think it's something else happening in a part of the system they can't access. It's been over 9 months and no fix. I'm sure the reason this happened must be incredibly complex, but from a user perspective it is frustrating. I removed all friends/family from my account and it hasn't fixed anything.

As for seeing each other's plans, I wonder if Disney has reworded the site to reflect the fact that your itinerary might be revealed? I don't necessarily want to broadcast my trip details to all of my F&F either, for various reasons.

 

[KenHutch]

Bummer of a day for you. I discovered this when my daughters mother took the plans to her employer to get her last vacation where we stayed at AKL approved. The plan did not show who paid for it (I do) just that it was paid and when they saw the (at the time) 15K cost they gave her the time off. I had a long talk with Disney and had that locked down.

 

[mckennarose]

I've known about this for a few years, as my son-in-law's mother can see ALL my plans and ALL my photos ALL the time, even though we have never traveled to WDW together. I have never made plans directly with her but I share plans with my daughter and somehow through that "friend of a friend" thing, she has always been able to see my plans and I can see all of hers. Her whole family shows up on my friends list, even though I've never added any one of them.

My daughter removed her MIL a few weeks ago as a "family and friends", and I haven't seen her MIL's plans since. I don't know if she can still see mine, but I hope not. We are not close at all, (not enemies either) and it was strange to hear from my daughter "oh yeah, my MIL said she saw your park photos from today", when I had not even shared any photos with my close family!

 

[bryanb]

Is there still a setting that lets you share only plans that you make together? It looks like that setting has been removed.

As a test, I tried adding a dummy friend to my account. At first, the fake account couldn't see any of my plans.

Then I made a dining reservation with the fake account for next week, and suddenly the fake account could see all of my plans in June. After cancelling that dining reservation, the fake account went back to not being able to see anything.

 

[sndral]

This is very disappointing, but thanks for giving the heads up. I have had several bugs happen with Friends & Family.

When I upgraded to an annual pass, I suddenly stopped receiving all Disney marketing communications. (Keep in mind, this is one of the few companies where I really value their "spam" -- especially discount offers, newsletters, and AP announcements.) I later found out that one of my friends has been getting all my Disney marketing email, including AP newsletters, which are being sent to his email address with my name! I tried calling the Disney help desk several times, but they only solution they have is for me to opt-in to receive emails, but I can't because the system already shows I'm opted in under my correct email. They can't tell why my mail is going to him, and think it's something else happening in a part of the system they can't access. It's been over 9 months...

Once upon a time, a long time ago (circa 2005 - 2008 or thereabouts) I took my son’s then gf w/ us to WDW 3X. Right after trip #3 they broke up, shortly thereafter I started getting email with her name at my email address, WDW never was able to fix the issue & ultimately the only solution they offered was to block my getting any email at all from them. You’d think in the last decade they’d have fixed the problem, but apparently not.

 

[Brett Wyman]

So your mom just refreshes the Disney app daily even when she's not on a trip? I like it!

 

[georgina]

I guess it's a good thing I am the only person in my family with a login to MDE. DH, our 3 kids, and son-in-law are on my friends and family list but they never bothered to set up their own accounts, as I do all the planning.

 

[focusondisney]

When I upgraded to an annual pass, I suddenly stopped receiving all Disney marketing communications. (Keep in mind, this is one of the few companies where I really value their "spam" -- especially discount offers, newsletters, and AP announcements.) I later found out that one of my friends has been getting all my Disney marketing email, including AP newsletters, which are being sent to his email address with my name! I tried calling the Disney help desk several times, but they only solution they have is for me to opt-in to receive emails, but I can't because the system already shows I'm opted in under my correct email. They can't tell why my mail is going to him, and think it's something else happening in a part of the system they can't access. It's been over 9 months and no fix. I'm sure the reason this happened must be incredibly complex, but from a user perspective it is frustrating. I removed all friends/family from my account and it hasn't fixed anything.

The email thing has has annoyed me for years. I traveled with my DD & her then husband in 2010. I started getting PINs for her to my email with her married name several months later. The PINS continued to come under her married name but have the address she moved to after she got a divorce & resumed using her maiden name. I tried calling Disney several times & was told they would remove her from my email address to no avail. And of course, since I am not at the same address, they wouldn’t let me use them. So annoying.

 

[focusondisney]

I've known about this for a few years, as my son-in-law's mother can see ALL my plans and ALL my photos ALL the time, even though we have never traveled to WDW together. I have never made plans directly with her but I share plans with my daughter and somehow through that "friend of a friend" thing, she has always been able to see my plans and I can see all of hers. Her whole family shows up on my friends list, even though I've never added any one of them.

My daughter removed her MIL a few weeks ago as a "family and friends", and I haven't seen her MIL's plans since. I don't know if she can still see mine, but I hope not. We are not close at all, (not enemies either) and it was strange to hear from my daughter "oh yeah, my MIL said she saw your park photos from today", when I had not even shared any photos with my close family!

Now that is weird. Has you SIL tried asking his mother to delete you from her friends list?

 

[mckennarose]

Now that is weird. Has you SIL tried asking his mother to delete you from her friends list?

That's the weird thing.....while I can see her on my friends list (along with everyone she has traveled with to WDW over the past 5 years!) She and I never connected as friends. The only connection we have is that both she and I are connected to my daughter's MDE. I'm hoping that when my daughter deleted her MIL from her friend and family list that we are now not connected. I can't see the MIL or any of the other 9 people she had on her MDE account.

I could ask my SIL to ask his mother if she can still see me.

 

[karrit2000]

Their system has always been messed up, long before MDE, FP & MB's. Many years ago (late 90's) I attended a special event where one item I purchased was for a friend so I had them ship the item directly to her. For many years after that whenever I attended any special events they automatically tried to ship everything to her address. I always had to make them go into the system to override the default to her address. Considering I lived in NY & she was in WA it was a big pain to have to continually verify & change the shipping address whenever I made any purchases. Over the years whenever a pin code was sent to my address it was always for one of several friends that I occasionally traveled with but never did I receive one actually addressed to me.

 

[Eastern]

I removed a friend from friends and family due to this issue. The first time they asked about our future trip I was thinking, 'how did they see that?' Awkward.

 

[JohnGypsy]

Maybe I'm the odd one out here, but when getting ready to plan a trip, I remove all of my existing friends and family except those that are going on this trip and make sure that I'm linked to the correct profiles for everyone. It makes it a lot easier when I don't have to check which profiles I'm looking to every single FP and ADR

The problem with that is that I do trip with them fairly often too. So, I'd need to add them all back again if we want to coordinate FastPasses in the future and such. Just a royal pain.

I'm a bit surprised to see that, for some people, it appears this has been going on for YEARS. I mean, Disney is leaking private information to others without permission. Heck, it's probably a borderline GDPR violation for those in covered countries. Just sad that it isn't a "Sorry! One time fluke! We're fixing it now!" situation. It appears now to be a known, ongoing issue.

 

[JohnGypsy]

So your mom just refreshes the Disney app daily even when she's not on a trip? I like it!

She likely does! But, in this case, she was actually booking a stay for herself coming up in a few months.