Just got thrown a curveball

[Heckah]

So my Mom "surprised" me this morning and told me that her and my Dad will be joining us at Disney is October. She was so thrilled she kept it a secret for so long.

So I asked her, "did you book fastpasses?"
"No, what's that?"

"You do realize you aren't going to be able to eat with us right?"
"No, we know we'll just have to pay because we don't have the free dining"

"Do you think I chose dinner at CRT at 8:20PM with a 5 and 3 year old for fun?"

So now I have to scramble. Is it best to link them to my account and try to match things up as best I can or should I use their login info? If I link them to my account, will that have any effect on my current fast passes?

 

[RachaelA]

I'm don't let people crash my Disney trips....

I would try to add them to what you can but then they are on their own. Linking them would probably make it easier to copy what fast passes you can. If you cant get new dining reservations, check at the podium and then if the restaurant says no they are on their own for the meal.

 

[jcano]

Ugh!
I wouldn't link them.
Any way you could sit down with them and explain reservations and see if they could join you next time? . I know - probably not
Family...gotta love'em!

 

[NinaBella]

At least she didn't greet you at the airport for an even better "surprise".

 

[ldymcbth]

Oh gosh, it's so sweet of them to want to join you but man, what a mess! Can you sit down with her and log into MDE and try to link what you can? In this case, I might even call and hope that an especially kind CM could maybe work some magic and get a few things set together.

 

[Kristallc]

I would call Disney. They may be able to help with your ADRs more than possible on the website

 

[jcano]

At least she didn't greet you at the airport for an even better "surprise".

LOL!!!
So true!

 

[Heckah]

Don't get me wrong...I'm absolutely THRILLED they are coming.

I just want them to be able to join us as much as possible. I also know I have a much better chance of scoring them fastpasses for certain things.

I can already see my mom's head exploding when I say, "all you have to do is join the Disboards and subscribe to cancellation threads and you should be able to get some of them" so I'm the go to guy to make it happen. I was just curious about how to make it most convenient.

 

[leebee]

It probably won't be possible with CRT but I'd look into rescheduling some ADRs so you can all eat together. Might not be possible, but if shifting your eating time or finding a different restaurant makes it possible to have dinner together, that's probably what I'd choose. I really hate to think about messing with FP+… it's already Glitch-City, so if you have anything you really don't want to lose (A&E, for example), I wouldn't link them to my account- TOTALLY afraid you'd lose the important stuff! Instead, I'd consider opening their own account and trying to get overlapping FP+ times for as much as possible.

 

[Heckah]

At least she didn't greet you at the airport for an even better "surprise".

This was actually her original plan...she just couldn't wait any longer to tell me...

 

[jcano]

I would call Disney. They may be able to help with your ADRs more than possible on the website

This.

And just think...one day you will look back at this and have a great story to tell and laugh and laugh.
That will be years down the road though.

 

[kiramay]

I'd call and try to add them were possible, and then help them make other plans when you can't meet up. I think it's sweet they wanted to surprise you, but they'll have to understand that YOU'VE been making plans for 6 months, and you can't/won't rearrange the whole trip.

 

[Disneylover99]

I was just in a similar situation. Family who have never been to Disney and weren't interested in planning decided to join us a few months before our trip. (After all of our hard to get ADR's were made) We decided against the linking, I just told them our fp's so that they made some of there own with overlapping times.

Things were great until two days before the trip, my husband decided to add memory maker, so we linked everyone. That was a disaster. My husband became unlinked from me and he was checked out on a different day from a different resort. His dining credits stopped working and his refillable mug wouldn't refill. (It sounds funny now)

The biggest problem is trying to find someone who knows what they are doing to fix it for you. So many cm's are friendly and go out of there way to help you and insist that everything is okay and all the problems are solved, when they are not solved, or their solution causes a different problem.

We finally found someone who figured it all out, but this took hours of waiting in Guest Relations at different parks.

Sorry for being so ranty....the bottom line is......don't link if you don't absolutely have to.

 

[innoculation]

If you call Guest relations, they may be able to modify your dining plans. I had a very similar experience in the past two weeks. A friend of my son is joining us - leaving next week. We were able to modify all of our Dining reservations. We were very lucky.

 

[Kristina4109]

This would have driven me nuts. My parents have decided to come along to DisneyLAND trips at the last minute, but that is so much easier to manage, no FP+, and dining is just not as big a deal there - we were basically able to get them on our all ADR's just by changing the times by 10 minutes or so.

We had family (whom I adore, don't get me wrong) wanting to meet up with us at our WDW trip in June. I very nicely told them, "Great! Here is where we will be on each day, here are all our FP+ times, and here are our dining times." They were kind of shocked and didn't realize that so many things need to be pre-planned - they opted not to go.

Good luck - I hope that Disney is able to help you get your family all on board. I can't imagine that this is the first time this has happened and it most certainly won't be the last. Maybe CRT won't work but I'll bet they can help with most everything else.

 

[jcano]

Becoming more and more thankful for parents who have no desire to go to WDW.

Good luck!! Hope you find phone CM with a big bag of pixie dust!

 

[MommyMK]

FWIW, we've had my local SIL and BIL join us at the parks last minute lots of times. When we check in for our dining reservation we tell them we have 2 more people and we've never been turned away. Probably won't work for CRT, but should on your other ADRs. Also search for an ADR for 2 at the same restaurant vs one for a bigger party and ask if you can be seated together once you check in.

 

[lizard1]

While linking would seem to make things easier (because then you could copy the FP instead of arranging them on your own), I wouldn't link because I'd be afraid that your existing FP would get screwed up and you don't want to risk losing some of them I'm sure!

I would try to find overlapping FP times.

For dining, I would call to see if they could be added or if you can find a table for a party of 2 that is close to your time. If unable to add, I would keep checking dining up to the day before because people do cancel 24 hours in advance. If all else fails, you can always try to show up with them, as long as they know it may not be possible to be seated at all.

 

[Figment Mom]

My mom was going to join us but didn't know if she could or not until just a few weeks before the trip. I explained FP+ and all that but she said it was okay if she couldn't ride all the rides with us - that she'd be content to sit on a bench.

Fortunately I knew that her going was a possibility so I made all of our dining reservations to include her, except for the prepaid ones (such as HDDR).

Still, it stressed me to try to figure out how to add her to things - such as DME.

 

[smokeyblue]

I have no helpful advice; I've barely managed getting my trip for two people together! I just wanted to say good luck. I hope you can manage to get the stars to align on your on and with a little help with Disney.