Ticket Window waits

For our first day at Disney (May 2020), I have to activate my annual pass. Originally, we hadn’t planned to go to a park first, but Disney Springs. That has since changed. So, I’ll have to activate at the park. Most likely Magic Kingdom.

I don’t know if I’ve EVER waited at a Ticket Window at Disney before, so I have no idea what kind of line that would be around rope drop timeframe. Anyone have any ideas what type of line to expect…and how long it actually takes for them to perform the activation?

When my family was there in Jan 2019, we had to go through the line at guest services MK to get some cast member tickets activated. The line was lengthy and probably took about 45 minutes. I think this could have been better if we had arrived earlier, instead of about 30 min before rope drop (my parents hadn’t realized they should believe my suggestions on timing yet!), OR if we had done it at a ticket window at the TTC (which had little to no lines pre-RD) instead of waiting for guest services at the park entrance itself.

Similarly, in May, we were tapping into turnstiles at Epcot pre-RD, ran into issues with an AP so had to go over to guest services to activate an AP and it only took about 15 min total including waiting and the activation process.

So, rather than using the ticket window, it sounds like using Guest Services is a faster/better option? Although, everything I read says you have to do it at a Ticket window OR Guest Relations at Disney Springs.

I activated my AP at Guest Services outside EP before the park opened. I waited about 15-20 min.

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Actually, I think for MK the best approach is a ticket window at the TTC. We went for Guest Services at the MK gate…mistake, although it wasn’t for an AP.
Weird about that verbiage, because we definitely activated the AP at Guest Services at Epcot.

When I had to activate some military tickets, I went to TTC the evening before when lines were short.

Last two times I activated my APs, I was staying at the boardwalk/BC area. Used the ticket windows at Epcot’s back entrance. At the window, still took about 15minutes, and that was per person. My wife had purchased park tickets during a spring sale with a will call number, essentially same process.

Originally, we planned to go to Disney Springs before we ever hit a park. So, then I could activate there. But now we are going to MK first thing on Sunday morning, but we don’t arrive to our rental until Saturday evening (driving down from Chattanooga). So, I need to plan in a reasonable time to activate my AP Sunday morning now, unfortunately.

Wow. 15 minutes, eh? Well, at least I’m the only one with an AP to activate. Everyone else already will have their tickets linked to their MBs.

Last month was the first time DH and I had AP to activate. Although we did it at GS at DS, not at a park, I would think the process would be similar. When it was our turn, it took less than 5 minutes. We had done as much online ahead of time as we could, we had our ID and magic bands, and possibly the printout of the confirmation email. Easy!

While waiting, we watched a few groups ahead of us take much longer, maybe they were not as prepared or had complicated situations.

We arrived on Sunday, aug 18 at our off site hotel. First park day was Monday. I insisted that my friend get her ticket on Sunday. There was no lone at around 5pm at Animal Kingdom ticket window. On Monday the ticket line at MK was horrendous and Inwas fled we did it prior. Last year I went to Disney Springs and had no wait.

Hmm. Maybe I’ll just try to stop by Disney Springs on our way. We will literally be driving right past Disney Springs on our way to our rental, but it isn’t just a matter of getting off, hopping out, taking care of it, and hopping back. It is finding a parking spot, walking from parking garage to the Guest Services, and then back. That probably, all said, will take longer than waiting at the Ticket Window at MK.

Add to it the time waiting at GS. For us, the wait at GS at DS (mid-day) was long, even though it was just a couple groups ahead of us (most took a long time to process). But once it was our turn, we were quick. Hopefully you will have far less wait.