Our family bought online, which allowed us to print the tickets. We gave the printed tickets to the CM at the gate and got a regular sized ticket, took that to the AP processing center at the end of Main Street and they take your photo and print it right there. (We've had AP's in the past and this is the way we've always done it. Very convenient!)
Can you order them like an e-ticket? Then it would be immediate. You can buy AP's at the Disney store, or at the ticket booth, also immediate. With any of the above scenario's you still have to 'activate' them and stand in line at the AP processing center and have your picture taken during your first visit.
Are you talking about an AP renewal, where they send you a new AP with your pic already on it?
Our family bought online, which allowed us to print the tickets. We gave the printed tickets to the CM at the gate and got a regular sized ticket, took that to the AP processing center at the end of Main Street and they take your photo and print it right there. (We've had AP's in the past and this is the way we've always done it. Very convenient!)
Its currently (or at least was in Feb) over by Monsters Inc, however when we went midweek(the week of President's Day) it wasn't open. There was not a line at the Disneyland center both times we went.