First time AP holder -- how does it work?

[StyledSugar]

We are getting to the park around 7-7:30pm on December 24th. Not positive if we will be entering the park that night or not but would like to know if we'll be able to activate an AP that night. What is the procedure when activating a new AP? Does a ticket booth need to be open? What time are they open until? Do we have a picture taken for it? Any advice would be appreciated!

 

[ArchOwl]

We are getting to the park around 7-7:30pm on December 24th. Not positive if we will be entering the park that night or not but would like to know if we'll be able to activate an AP that night. What is the procedure when activating a new AP? Does a ticket booth need to be open? What time are they open until? Do we have a picture taken for it? Any advice would be appreciated!

Yes you can activate an AP that night at any ticket booth. There is normally at least one ticket booth open as long as the parks are open. You need to bring your AP voucher and ID. You do need to take a picture and they do tell you to do it the same day. You enter either park and have your picture taken by a PhotoPass photographer. It is very easy.

If you decide not to activate that night, you may also take the AP voucher directly to the turnstiles the next morning. They give you a temporary ticket and sometime during the day you must go to the ticket booth to get your permanent AP. this allows you to skip the long lines at the ticket booth in the morning and capitalize on precious morning time in the parks.

Have fun!

 

[StyledSugar]

Thank you for the info! Much appreciated!

 

[dana278]

Just FYI, the AP activation takes a bit of time at the ticket booth. I think we were there for about 15 minutes doing 2 passes.

When you enter the parks and have a Photopass photographer take your picture it won't be in the system immediately, maybe not even the same day. Until it is in the system you'll need to show your ID at the turnstiles, so it helps to have that out and ready. I still don't know how long it should take for your photo to be ready to go, every CM seemed to have a different answer. One person said 3-4 days, another person said 3-4 hours. We had to have ours taken a second time because the first didn't go through. (Don't go to the camera shop inside DCA. It's on the little brochure as a Photopass location but the girls there didn't really seem to know what they were doing.)

 

[ten6mom]

I upgraded a park hopper on day one of a three day trip and never did manage to get my photo taken. Some places asked for photo id in the meantime and some did not. And it did take longer than I anticipated. Ticket booths are not known for their speed apparently.

 

[onederland]

We did ours in the evening too last December it was less crowded and we went in the park for a few hours after they were activated...that way we did not have to deal with it on our full day and instead went right into the park the next morning..