How to activate annual pass?

[jlnten17]

We are considering annual passes as we are going to Disney 2-3 times per year. With the savings on rooms, photopass, park hopper it just makes sense. However our next trip is scheduled for September and I want to at least try and make a few fastpass reservations. It looks like I need to physically pick up and activate the passes prior to getting our magic bands or linking the passes to MDE for fastpasses. When I spoke with the disney agent it sounded as if they would be good to go and our annual pass magic bands would be in the mail but from what I read on the website this doesnt sound correct. We are a plane ride away so we will not be able to visit the park to activate passes prior to our trip.

 

[cbean12]

You can link it to MDE at any time and make fastpass reservations in advance, typical 60 days of on-site or 30 days offsite up to 7 days. Once you go there for the first time stop at a ticket booth and get the pass activated and then you can go into MDE and customize your magic bands. So you won't have your magic bands for that first trip but everything else should be all set

 

[jlnten17]

Thank you cbean! We will have magic bands from our hotel stay so hopefully I can just figure out how to link those to work at the park as well.

 

[mattmommy]

My TA wasn't able to link my AP's to our room ressies but was able to make all our FP and Dining ressies and we just received our bands. I am also looking at TiW as we will be visiting WDW three times during the AP activation year. One trip is two weeks and one is business.

 

[ravenclawtrekkie]

If your resort reservation, and therefore your resort MagicBands, are linked to MDE, and your AP certificates are linked to MDE, your activated APs should be linked to your resort MagicBands. You should be able to use them interchangeably with your AP MagicBands after you receive those.

 

[loves to dive]

You are going to get a MB for your resort stay, if you have already entered the AP information into MDE it is linked. All you have to do is go to a GS or ticket booth at any park to activate the AP and get your discount card. You have to show the card and an ID any time you want to use the discount. Your AP band is just like any other band, it just has a little AP slider you can put on it with the year on it. It isn't even necessary to have one if you already have a MB from a resort stay. All MBs are interchangeable.

 

[Disney_Princess83]

We are considering annual passes as we are going to Disney 2-3 times per year. With the savings on rooms, photopass, park hopper it just makes sense. However our next trip is scheduled for September and I want to at least try and make a few fastpass reservations. It looks like I need to physically pick up and activate the passes prior to getting our magic bands or linking the passes to MDE for fastpasses. When I spoke with the disney agent it sounded as if they would be good to go and our annual pass magic bands would be in the mail but from what I read on the website this doesnt sound correct. We are a plane ride away so we will not be able to visit the park to activate passes prior to our trip.

You do not need to activate your AP's before making FP reservations. I bought AP's one morning and that afternoon was making FP reservations. As long as your AP's are linked to your MDE account, you can make FP reservations. How many days are you going on your first trip? There is a limit to how many days worth of FP you can hold on an AP at any one time. It's 7 days without a Disney World Resort Reservation or 14 days maximum with a Disney World Resort Reservation, even if your resort reservation is longer.

 

[StlJoe]

I can confirm that you don't need to activate your AP's before making FP reservations. I just bought my first AP a couple of weeks ago and we haven't activated them yet. Our trip is next month and I already have my FP's made for the trip. When I bought our AP and made our first room reservation I was able to go online and customize our magic bands and they just arrived yesterday. They are already linked on MDE as is my pass even though it's not activated yet.

Hope that helps...

 

[Tearbear]

[QUOTE=" It's 7 days without a Disney World Resort Reservation or 14 days maximum with a Disney World Resort Reservation, even if your resort reservation is longer.[/QUOTE]

The 14 day maximum part is not true. I currently have 19 days of fastpasses for my Sept trip. I was able to make all fastpass selections using the app with no issues.

 

[Disney_Princess83]

[QUOTE=" It's 7 days without a Disney World Resort Reservation or 14 days maximum with a Disney World Resort Reservation, even if your resort reservation is longer.

The 14 day maximum part is not true. I currently have 19 days of fastpasses for my Sept trip. I was able to make all fastpass selections using the app with no issues.[/QUOTE]

That's good to know. We stayed at WDW for 6 weeks last year and could only hold 7 days at that time, regardless of our length of stay. The website still states 14 days of FP maximum even with a resort reservation so I'm pleased to hear that's not the case. It's incredibly frustrating when you're there for an extended trip.

 

[jlnten17]

Thanks everyone! We are going for 5 days in September and probably another 10 or so early next year. Once I actually purchased the AP it was quite easy but I wanted to make sure it was going to be that easy before I forked over all that $$$! We are super excited for our AP, now I will be stalking cheap airfare for the next year!