Trying to buy annual passes...

[tbia]

...and want to make sure I have ducks in a row.

Family of 5, who thru the wonderment of my wife's work conference schedule are going to make at least 3 trips in a 12 month period. We want to give the kids theirs for Christmas, but first trip not until May.

In addition, to maximize rewards cards savings we would like to stagger our purchase of Disney gift cards until some after New Years.

Question....if I buy their 3, what will I get, and when will their magic bands come, which is what I would like to wrap up.

I know I make things more complicated than they need to be.

 

[Ladyfish77]

You will only get a voucher for the AP. You won't get magic bands until the trip AFTER you activate your AP. So for example, you buy the AP now. You go on your first trip in January. In January you activate your AP (go to guest services at any park or DS to do this). Then after your AP is activated, you will get a notification on your My Disney Experience account to customize your AP magic band and have it sent to you. You could do this immediately (which will take about a week or so to get to your home) or before your next trip.

I know that doesn't help for wrapping up as a gift.

 

[PSUGuy]

Don't know if this will help but our strategy is to buy hoppers from Under Cover Tourist for as long as our first WDW trip will be, usually 9 days. We customize them quickly and they mail them fairly soon. We stay on site so we link the bands to the reservation and we're set, making FP+ choices 60 days plus the length of the trip in advance, usually 69 - 70 days. This way we save some $$ on the actual hoppers as UT tix cost less and we spread the cost out since we don't have to upgrade to APs until we arrive.

Bill From PA

 

[SaintsManiac]

...and want to make sure I have ducks in a row.

Family of 5, who thru the wonderment of my wife's work conference schedule are going to make at least 3 trips in a 12 month period. We want to give the kids theirs for Christmas, but first trip not until May.

In addition, to maximize rewards cards savings we would like to stagger our purchase of Disney gift cards until some after New Years.

Question....if I buy their 3, what will I get, and when will their magic bands come, which is what I would like to wrap up.

I know I make things more complicated than they need to be.

You can print out the email or make your own "certificate" to wrap up. Maybe do t-shirts or gift cards to open?

 

[tbia]

You will only get a voucher for the AP. You won't get magic bands until the trip AFTER you activate your AP. So for example, you buy the AP now. You go on your first trip in January. In January you activate your AP (go to guest services at any park or DS to do this). Then after your AP is activated, you will get a notification on your My Disney Experience account to customize your AP magic band and have it sent to you. You could do this immediately (which will take about a week or so to get to your home) or before your next trip.

I know that doesn't help for wrapping up as a gift.

OK, not a big problem. What do I use as a magicband on the first trip?

 

[erionm]

OK, not a big problem. What do I use as a magicband on the first trip?

When you activate the APs at either a Park Ticket Window or Guest Relations Location, the CM will issue AP Cards which are RFID enabled. Those AP Cards can then be used for park entry, FP+ queue entry, etc.

 

[Ladyfish77]

OK, not a big problem. What do I use as a magicband on the first trip?

If you are staying onsite, you will receive magic bands as part of the reservation otherwise as @erionm said, you can use the AP Card.

 

[SaintsManiac]

OK, not a big problem. What do I use as a magicband on the first trip?

If you're staying onsite you will be able to customize MBs through your resort reservation. Then you can choose whether to decline the AP bands or not.

 

[siren0119]

OK, not a big problem. What do I use as a magicband on the first trip?

Magicbands are only "necessary" if you are staying on property and are using them to charge to the hotel or open your room. Access to the parks and using fastpasses can be done with the AP card you get when you activate your passes. You can also buy magicbands and link them to your MDE account.

 

[danielocha30]

Disney won’t ship your magic bands for resort stays up to 30 days prior arrival. If you really want to present your kids with the bands you can always buy them and link the annual pass to them later. You will still get free custom from Disney after pass activation. I had bought Frozen and Mickey MB and have the regular plain MB with our names, we ordered red and green to be used at our christmas vacation.

 

[dzaharchuk]

I was just going to suggest buying special ones ahead of time as well! There are so many character specific and limited edition bands, they would be fun to give as gifts to announce trip!