Annual Pass questions (not answered in ticket thread)

[ArielRae]

Plan to buy DS(4) his first Annual Pass this coming trip.

What benefits are there in purchasing an Annual Pass thru Disney website before arrival? Does it save time at Guest Services some how? Would we even have to exchange a prebought voucher at Guest services since it is for a minor and does not need to show ID? Can we just add it to our MY Disney Experience, assign it to him and have it show up on his magicband?

 

[Robo]

Plan to buy DS(4) his first Annual Pass this coming trip.

1- What benefits are there in purchasing an Annual Pass thru Disney website before arrival?

2- Does it save time at Guest Services some how?

3- Would we even have to exchange a prebought voucher at Guest services since it is for a minor and does not need to show ID?

4- Can we just add it to our MY Disney Experience, assign it to him and have it show up on his magicband?

1- For most guests, no tangible benefits.
EDIT- Accept, as LaurneT mentions, in being able to make advance FP+ choices.
(I was just talking about the (non)advantage at a ticket booth.)

2- Not enough to matter (if any at all.)
3- In this case, you may just use the MB. BUT, if the guest wants to
take advantage of any of the "perks" of AP (discounts, etc.) you need to
also have the plastic AP card for that.
4- See #3.

 

[LaurenT]

The main benefit is being able to link it to your MDE so that you can make your FP+ reservations.
My friend ran into a little problem because she bought a ten day pass and ten decided to stay for 14 days and wants to be able to make FPs for all of them ... But she can only make them for 10 days and will have to make the other 4 dad after she arrives and upgrades...

 

[jcvalenti]

Just did this for our trip coming up in 2 weeks.

We needed 4 Annual Passes. I bough 2 in May, and 2 in June. Reasons I bought early to pick up at will call were:

1. "Fixes" the price so I don't get socked with some last minute, Friday evening Disney ticket price increase.
2. Let me make FP+ 30 days out
3. Spread the cost of the trip out so the credit card bill I get when I get back from vacation doesn't knock me on my butt.

The most annoying thing about the whole transaction ? Finding out that even though you just spend $2500+ on park tickets, and plan to spend 25 days in the parks over the next year, Disney will not / can not send you your 4 AP magic bands until AFTER you activate them (ie, until you get to the park). At that time, they mail the magic bands to your house (which in my case will be about 1200 miles away). So for 14 out of our 25 days in the parks, we won't be able to use magic bands.

As far as "saving time", I've picked up tickets at will call and just bought them new at the gates, and it does not save you any time to pick the tickets up. In fact, I think it might take a little extra time.

 

[ArielRae]

Thanks everyone. I'll just wait to buy DS his pass when we get there.