Teens and MDE

[TwinMomEsq]

I will be traveling with my teen daughters around Presidents Day. I imagine it will be pretty busy so we definitely want to take advantage of Genie+ while we're there. We have not been to the parks since Genie+ began so we're very new to this. In the past, I always just managed everyone via my MDE account (which lists the kids as members of the party). For this trip, the girls have declared that they want to be pretty independent (e.g., they will not be joining me at rope drop) and want to do their own thing most of the time. We are staying on site and have park hoppers. I am a planner but the girls hate that and want to just see where the wind takes them.

My question is does it make more sense to leave things as-is and have them log into my MDE and manage their plans from there, or would it be better to have them create their own accounts? I would want them to be able to use their magic bands to get into our hotel room and make food purchases while out and about. They would also need to be able to purchase Genie+ on days that we want to use it and then book the lightning lanes throughout the day.

We have a while before we travel so I want to work with them to get familiar with the system since this is new to all of us.

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

I've got teen girls too and asked them this before we went this last time and they've not wanted to mess with MDE and we made this last trip a girls trip so we stuck together. I looked at this prior to our trip too and what made the most sense to me is I'd have them use MDE, login as me and book any LL's they wanted. This way they had my payment info already in MDE and I could see their plans and vice versa. Before you book your LL, you need to confirm your party, so they could easily select themselves and not anyone else, that's really the most important part and if you already have other G+ LL's selected, you wouldn't be eligible to join anyway. So it's sort of an error proof system in that regard. If you have an idea of which parks you'll be in or want to buy your multiple park G+ since you will hop, you can do so before the day gets away from you and just let them handle their G+ selections. The other positive, is that if you can have them up early if you have any hard to get VQ/LLs, they can do so on their phones. You can all be logged into the same account with no issue. I tried to think what the benefit would be to have them have their own account and really, there was no reason they needed it.

It's not really that confusing once you use G+ but until you do it, it's definitely daunting and sounds hard to use.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

I had DD16 create her own account to help me get LL, ILL and VQs. We stuck together the whole trip so it was just for her to help me in the mornings. It was pretty easy.

We did have issues with ILL. The system would not allow her to purchase any fancy rides because she wasn’t over 18. I found they weird since she had full charging privileges on her MB. Everything else ran smoothly.

 

[Psymonds]

I gave DS14 his own account but in the end it was easier to log his phone into my account as well, keep us all linked so when we wanted to manage everyone we could and when he wanted to go it alone, he could as well. I'm positive this isn't how it's supposed to work, but it worked for us.

 

[Psymonds]

(e.g., they will not be joining me at rope drop)

we had the other issue, DS14 was frustrated that we weren't getting to rope drop earlier... last day at universal he was two people back from the turnstiles at opening...

 

[TwinMomEsq]

we had the other issue, DS14 was frustrated that we weren't getting to rope drop earlier... last day at universal he was two people back from the turnstiles at opening...

Good for him! In the past I have resorted to everything short of physically dragging their carcasses out of bed to get them ready to go in the morning. I am actually really looking forward to just having to worry about getting myself over to the parks this time. They can join me (or not) when they decide to emerge. Hopefully we'll be able to take advantage of the extra evening hours as they are night owls and are really hoping that those will be scheduled while we're there.

 

[holden]

I have everyone (2 DDs and one DH) log into my account for everything.

 

[Psymonds]

Good for him! In the past I have resorted to everything short of physically dragging their carcasses out of bed to get them ready to go in the morning. I am actually really looking forward to just having to worry about getting myself over to the parks this time. They can join me (or not) when they decide to emerge. Hopefully we'll be able to take advantage of the extra evening hours as they are night owls and are really hoping that those will be scheduled while we're there.

since we have a big spread (from 14 to 6) it's nice for him to be able to go open to close and for us to take DS6 back at a reasonable hour, or chill inside out of the heat. He did make good use of the single rider lines. we got 17 pictures of him on expedition Everest on our app one day.

 

[elvispursley]

I Made sure that my two teen boys got their own MDE acct in case they wanted to zelerete and mobile order food, book ILLs, etc. They were 15 and 17 when we did this. Turns out they stuck with us the whole time

 

[Disney Spaz]

This past year when DD was still 16 we created her own MDE. It made a huge difference in getting VQ’s and ILL and booking Genie+. She was a little nervous about having the access at first but in the end she did a better job than I did of getting Mobile Orders completed and maximizing Genie+ and VQ’s. Now she is comfortable with MDE and as a senior this year wants to go with a friend to WDW for her senior trip and I feel much better knowing if she goes with friends she already knows how to navigate the MDE system.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

This past year when DD was still 16 we created her own MDE. It made a huge difference in getting VQ’s and ILL and booking Genie+. She was a little nervous about having the access at first but in the end she did a better job than I did of getting Mobile Orders completed and maximizing Genie+ and VQ’s. Now she is comfortable with MDE and as a senior this year wants to go with a friend to WDW for her senior trip and I feel much better knowing if she goes with friends she already knows how to navigate the MDE system.

DDs senior trip to Disney was another reason I wanted her to get MDE. Now she’s a bit more familiar with the system in time for her trip.

 

[jeneric997]

I have found my now adult kids were always so much faster with the app and booking things. They had accounts as soon as they could. One was way more reluctant and she kind of regretted it when she went by herself with a friend because she wasn't 100% familiar with the app. To me being familiar is way more important than which account you are under. I think teens pick it up much faster, my bigger problem is adults who don't want to be bothered with the app. I would far rather manage the adults plans and remove them from the process!

ETA: we are AP and DVC, at some point everyone had to have their own account for discounts etc.... DH who is very tech savy was the last one to get his own account, he just always went in under me!