Hi all!
Big long post for my first. Just looking to get some input from the experts 
I’m looking to see if there are any things that I’m not thinking about as far as planning a trip with some people staying on property and some people staying off.
My normal preference is to stay on property, but my husband and I have an RCI time share that no longer has access to DVC. We don’t want to do a trip like this and not use the timeshare when we have it. So we are staying at Wyndham Bonnet Creek with a 2bdrm suite. We have 2 kids that will be 4 and 6 when we go in August.
My parents are invited to stay with us, but do not want to stay off property, so they are staying at French Quarter. In order to get the most out of this, we have added the kids to their room. Especially with the kids eat free dining plan out there, this seemed like the best option.
My dad is very nervous about this, but we are experienced Disney goers (25ish trips for me and my dad), so I think we will be fine. My last trip was in 2022 and my parents went in 2024, so we have at least some experience with the lightning lane strategies. Also, this is my kids’ second trip and we will certainly be taking them more in the future, so nothing is truly MUST DO. We will be going the third week in August, so we don’t expect massive crowds, but also are aware that Disney has been getting better at evening out crowd levels over the year.
Some things we have thought about:
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Dining at 60 days for whole trip - If memory serves from having guests eat with us before, my parents should be able to book 6 person dining reservations for their length of stay even though there are only 4 on their reservation. I don’t see this being an issue at all. Please correct me if I am wrong about this
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Lightning Lane Single / Multi Pass at 7 days out vs 3 days out - Honestly this is probably what I think has the most potential for going wrong, but I think we can work around it. We can have 4 out of 6 of us at the 7 days, and I’m hoping I can just get close enough for the other 2. I’m pretty good at refreshing day of to move things around if we have to. Plus, I think between rider switch for the little ones and adults just not caring about a particular ride, we can make it work. My biggest worry is Slinky Dog here, which I know is hard to get and I think all 6 of us actually want to ride. Worst case is that my parents can ride things with the kids and my husband and I can just sit things out. I’m also considering using Wait Magic to help after that 3 day mark to bring our lightning lanes together.
My one thought that I’m not sure if it will work or not - assuming we are all in the park (and therefore have activated our Magic Bands for that park), can we use each others? For example, I know my parents do not want to ride Guardians, but they can get the LL at 7 days out. Can we use their MBs to go on with my kids? I know the last time I went there was a finger print scan at the park entrance, but I don’t see how they would tell or why they would really care if I were using a different MB at the ride entrance.
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Transportation – My dad is really gung-ho about riding the bus together. And honestly, I don’t love the idea of using the shuttle from our hotel or driving to the parks. My parents will be driving down and therefore will have a car registered to their room. My thought is that we can use their car to go back to our resort at night and drive it back in the mornings to French Quarter. This is probably not a typical use of their parking, but I can’t see why they would have an issue with it. As long as we can give the name and room number for my parents. Or would we have to be scanning a MB? And if we have to scan an MB, can we just take a spare from my parent’s room? Or do they also check ID with the scanned MB?
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Early Entry – This is one I know we can do nothing about. My plan would be to get to the park together, my parents can go in and do a few rides with the kids, and my husband and I can just wait to go in at regular opening. That is if my parents get up early enough to actually take advantage of it.
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Dining Plan – We normally find the dining plans to be too much food, but free dining for kids is hard to resist. Plus, I know in the past I have heard that the best way to use a dining plan is when you have multiple rooms of people and one room gets it and the other doesn’t and you just share meals. So since we will have 6 park days, 2 adults and 2 children in one room – we essentially will have 12 adult meals and 12 kids meals to split between the 6 of us. I’m not so worried about having extra kids meals, especially since that part is free. But my assumption is that we can use those 12 adult meals for 4 of us at 3 meals instead of having to use 2 of them over 6 meals. Again, I don’t see why Disney would have a problem with this, but want to see if anyone has any experience that contradicts my assumption.
Am I missing anything that I should be planning for? Does anyone have an experience to confirm or deny any of my assumptions?
Thanks for all of your help!