Annual passholder magic bands???

[jlkhorn]

So I just purchased annual passes for our family (new Florida residents). How/when do I get customized magic bands? I've been all over the website and the app and I can't figure it out. My order confirmation email didn't really have clear instructions either. Do we have to "activate" our passes at the park first? Also, does the pass expire 1 year from today (date of purchase) or 1 year from activation or first use?

Thanks,
Jen

 

[Fangorn]

You have to activate your bands first. Once you activate them, you will immediately see a link to customize your magic bands in your MDE account. They will be shipped to you after you customize them and say you're finished. You'll get then in about 10 days.

APs expire 1 year from the day they are ACTIVATED. So if you activate them on say, 9/1/17, they will be good through 9/1/18. and yes, you'll be able to use them on 9/1/18. In the example above, even if you don't actually go into a park until 9/3/17, they will still expire on 9/1/18.

Steve

 

[jlkhorn]

Thank you. Now how do we activate them?

 

[CAS239]

You have to activate your AP at wdw and then the magic bands to customize will pop up. You can activate it at any park or at Disney springs.

The bands don't pop up prior to activating the AP because technically right now you don't have an AP. It's only once you activate it in person that the system reads you have an active AP. So this means unless you want to purchase a plain or limited edition band at the park, your first trip will be without a magic band

 

[North of Mouse]

So I just purchased annual passes for our family (new Florida residents). How/when do I get customized magic bands? I've been all over the website and the app and I can't figure it out. My order confirmation email didn't really have clear instructions either. Do we have to "activate" our passes at the park first? Also, does the pass expire 1 year from today (date of purchase) or 1 year from activation or first use?

Thanks,
Jen

If you have ressies onsite, you will receive MB's before your trip. We received that set, then received another after we were home - (the CM that activated our MB's set up the other set). They are no different, but we did receive a green slider with them - big deal!

 

[jlkhorn]

Thank you so much!

 

[scrapquitler]

So I just purchased annual passes for our family (new Florida residents). How/when do I get customized magic bands? I've been all over the website and the app and I can't figure it out. My order confirmation email didn't really have clear instructions either. Do we have to "activate" our passes at the park first? Also, does the pass expire 1 year from today (date of purchase) or 1 year from activation or first use?

Thanks,
Jen

You can customize them as soon as you activate your AP (which really doesn't help for the trip when you first use your AP, but...)

You AP expires one year from the day you activate it (your first use).

 

[kagmypts]

We decided to customize our kids bands on the same day as we activated their APs. We were so excited to customize them, and it was fun having a surprise from Disney waiting for us when we returned from our trip. As it turned out, that was a bad decision! We were at Disney for over a week, and the system did not recognize a single FP that we booked for any of our kids (blue Mickey every time they tried to enter the FP line with their AP cards). Guest Relations could not figure it out. They later conceded that having a physical card can confuse the system if a band is also tied to that user. In the end, all of our FPs were honored, but we spent a lot of time explaining the situation the situation to the CMs who were manning the FP entrance.