Mrs Geek
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Mar 11, 2017
- Messages
- 132
...alternate thread title: "Old People and Technology"
So I'm using a travel agent for a trip this fall, and I gave her access to my MDE account to book our ADRs. My Mother-in-law and her hubby are joining us for this trip, but only a portion of it. They used the same travel agent to book their trip.
Things our two reservations have in common:
-check in date
-resort
-type of package (we're both MYW + dining)
-ADRs for the dates that both parties are in town
Things our two reservations do not have in common:
-check out date (and therefore number of days in the resort / number of tickets)
-they're flying, so they're probably going to want to use Magical Express
-obviously the people physically in each room / on each reservation
-our physical addresses- we live in different states; it doesn't necessarily make sense to have all Magic Bands mailed to one person or the other before the trip, as we run the risk of not being able to get everyone their MB's before the trip begins.
In her introductory email, our agent told my MiL to set up an MDE account (though of course she claims she never received such instructions). Then, a couple of days before it was time to book ADRs, the agent reminded her again, and when MiL never responded with account creds, she (the agent) asked me if it would be okay to just link both reservations to my single MDE account. I said sure, why not, if it made it easier for her to book us ADRs as a single party (6 people total- 4 adults + 1 child + 1 infant). So she did so, and made our ADRs, and we're good to go.
When I log in to my MDE, I see both reservations listed separately- and hers denotes that it was made by her, not me. When I look in the ADR section, I see all of my ADRs and it lists how many people are booked for each (and spells out exactly who they are). When I look at my friends and family section, I see all 6 of us listed (not separated by party, either- it's just a list of all of us jumbled together). Also, since it's just my profile, the mailing address listed is mine. The Magic Band section (which I haven't touched yet) shows 2 "orders" of Magic Bands- there may be a place there to specify where to mail each set, I haven't looked yet.
Well, it appears that last night my MiL got it into her head that she needed to create an MDE. So she did, and I guess she linked her reservation # to it because I got a whole bunch of "friend requests" from her to formally link our MDE accounts together. I have NOT ACCEPTED ANY OF THESE REQUESTS; my friends and family list still shows my husband and children's names as being "managed by me", and whereas she and her husband used to say the same thing in that list, it now says "invitation pending". The email from Disney stated that accepting this sharing invitation would allow her to make changes to things like FPs and ADRs on behalf of both parties. Which sounds harmless, except...
EDIT: After doing more clicking around in MDE, it looks like I could, in fact, change her husband's name back to his name and not hers, so that problem is solvable. But it also already shows that she has access to the reservations for me and my husband and kids AND I NEVER ACCEPTED THE INVITATION. *** Disney? And there's seemingly no way to say "don't share that power at all", just choose which reservations to share- which is limited to "this one" or "all of them". Not "none of them".
One of the first things it seems she did is remove her husband from the reservation. Well, sorta. Whereas they used to both be listed, by name, she seems to have changed her husband's name to her own name so now her name shows up twice, as two separate people, and his name is not there at all. And she doesn't know how to fix it. And neither does our poor agent, who has just given me the Disney IT Support hotline and said "good luck".
This is the woman who, when she couldn't remember her Facebook password, just created a brand new account and sent friend requests to everyone again. (There are now 3 of her on Facebook and 2 on Instagram. Each account has its password "remembered" on a different device, so if she's on her phone, she's one version of herself, but if she's on her tablet, she's another. Anyway, I digress.)
You can see why maybe I don't want to give her the power to screw with our ADRs or FPs (I'm assuming she won't be able to screw with the actual ticket/resort package reservations? Is that a safe assumption?)
TL;DR, here are my questions:
1. Is it enough to just not accept this link invitation? She still shows up in my Friends and Family list and is listed by name (both of her, lol) on all my ADRs; presumably I'll be able to make FP+ reservations for all of us as well.
2. If I don't accept it and leave the invitation in limbo, will she have the power to change anything about the already-booked ADRs, as her name is listed on them?
3. Do ADRs actually have to be linked to named people / MDE accounts? I had assumed that we could just ask for a table for 6 and leave my name (and only my name + cc #) as the primary POC for the reservation; was it actually necessary for our agent to list out all 6 people, tied to our actual package reservation numbers? At this point there's nothing I can do about it- I will NOT run the risk of losing these ADRs by changing anything about them- but I kind of wonder if the agent is the one who screwed this up initially...
4. Is there a way to un-link what has thus far been linked? Is there a way to just have her reservation put on her own MDE, to include her package information, Magic Band details, etc? If we do that, does that put our ADRs in jeopardy? Would they go from being reservations for 6 to reservations for 4? Would they cease to exist? Or could we keep a reservation for 6 on my MDE if she and her husband were no longer "friends and family" on my account? I understand keeping them linked means I can also make FP+ reservations for all of us, but at this point I don't think it's worth the risk of her being able to potentially screw everything up for us.
Help. I am a meticulous planner, this is only my third-ever WDW trip, hubby and I have planned to do these trips only once every five years- I want to get this right and I don't want it to be screwed up. I would almost prefer to tell her to delete her account, make sure she doesn't download the app, and just control everything from my account if I have to if it means she won't be able to screw anything else up, and we can figure out a way to work around the MB mailing awkwardness.
What would the DISers do?
So I'm using a travel agent for a trip this fall, and I gave her access to my MDE account to book our ADRs. My Mother-in-law and her hubby are joining us for this trip, but only a portion of it. They used the same travel agent to book their trip.
Things our two reservations have in common:
-check in date
-resort
-type of package (we're both MYW + dining)
-ADRs for the dates that both parties are in town
Things our two reservations do not have in common:
-check out date (and therefore number of days in the resort / number of tickets)
-they're flying, so they're probably going to want to use Magical Express
-obviously the people physically in each room / on each reservation
-our physical addresses- we live in different states; it doesn't necessarily make sense to have all Magic Bands mailed to one person or the other before the trip, as we run the risk of not being able to get everyone their MB's before the trip begins.
In her introductory email, our agent told my MiL to set up an MDE account (though of course she claims she never received such instructions). Then, a couple of days before it was time to book ADRs, the agent reminded her again, and when MiL never responded with account creds, she (the agent) asked me if it would be okay to just link both reservations to my single MDE account. I said sure, why not, if it made it easier for her to book us ADRs as a single party (6 people total- 4 adults + 1 child + 1 infant). So she did so, and made our ADRs, and we're good to go.
When I log in to my MDE, I see both reservations listed separately- and hers denotes that it was made by her, not me. When I look in the ADR section, I see all of my ADRs and it lists how many people are booked for each (and spells out exactly who they are). When I look at my friends and family section, I see all 6 of us listed (not separated by party, either- it's just a list of all of us jumbled together). Also, since it's just my profile, the mailing address listed is mine. The Magic Band section (which I haven't touched yet) shows 2 "orders" of Magic Bands- there may be a place there to specify where to mail each set, I haven't looked yet.
Well, it appears that last night my MiL got it into her head that she needed to create an MDE. So she did, and I guess she linked her reservation # to it because I got a whole bunch of "friend requests" from her to formally link our MDE accounts together. I have NOT ACCEPTED ANY OF THESE REQUESTS; my friends and family list still shows my husband and children's names as being "managed by me", and whereas she and her husband used to say the same thing in that list, it now says "invitation pending". The email from Disney stated that accepting this sharing invitation would allow her to make changes to things like FPs and ADRs on behalf of both parties. Which sounds harmless, except...
EDIT: After doing more clicking around in MDE, it looks like I could, in fact, change her husband's name back to his name and not hers, so that problem is solvable. But it also already shows that she has access to the reservations for me and my husband and kids AND I NEVER ACCEPTED THE INVITATION. *** Disney? And there's seemingly no way to say "don't share that power at all", just choose which reservations to share- which is limited to "this one" or "all of them". Not "none of them".
One of the first things it seems she did is remove her husband from the reservation. Well, sorta. Whereas they used to both be listed, by name, she seems to have changed her husband's name to her own name so now her name shows up twice, as two separate people, and his name is not there at all. And she doesn't know how to fix it. And neither does our poor agent, who has just given me the Disney IT Support hotline and said "good luck".
This is the woman who, when she couldn't remember her Facebook password, just created a brand new account and sent friend requests to everyone again. (There are now 3 of her on Facebook and 2 on Instagram. Each account has its password "remembered" on a different device, so if she's on her phone, she's one version of herself, but if she's on her tablet, she's another. Anyway, I digress.)
You can see why maybe I don't want to give her the power to screw with our ADRs or FPs (I'm assuming she won't be able to screw with the actual ticket/resort package reservations? Is that a safe assumption?)
TL;DR, here are my questions:
1. Is it enough to just not accept this link invitation? She still shows up in my Friends and Family list and is listed by name (both of her, lol) on all my ADRs; presumably I'll be able to make FP+ reservations for all of us as well.
2. If I don't accept it and leave the invitation in limbo, will she have the power to change anything about the already-booked ADRs, as her name is listed on them?
3. Do ADRs actually have to be linked to named people / MDE accounts? I had assumed that we could just ask for a table for 6 and leave my name (and only my name + cc #) as the primary POC for the reservation; was it actually necessary for our agent to list out all 6 people, tied to our actual package reservation numbers? At this point there's nothing I can do about it- I will NOT run the risk of losing these ADRs by changing anything about them- but I kind of wonder if the agent is the one who screwed this up initially...
4. Is there a way to un-link what has thus far been linked? Is there a way to just have her reservation put on her own MDE, to include her package information, Magic Band details, etc? If we do that, does that put our ADRs in jeopardy? Would they go from being reservations for 6 to reservations for 4? Would they cease to exist? Or could we keep a reservation for 6 on my MDE if she and her husband were no longer "friends and family" on my account? I understand keeping them linked means I can also make FP+ reservations for all of us, but at this point I don't think it's worth the risk of her being able to potentially screw everything up for us.
Help. I am a meticulous planner, this is only my third-ever WDW trip, hubby and I have planned to do these trips only once every five years- I want to get this right and I don't want it to be screwed up. I would almost prefer to tell her to delete her account, make sure she doesn't download the app, and just control everything from my account if I have to if it means she won't be able to screw anything else up, and we can figure out a way to work around the MB mailing awkwardness.
What would the DISers do?
Last edited: