Disney+ day is officially here. Everyone has the chance to size up the massive catalog of Disney+ content with a free seven-day trial (don’t forget to unsubscribe if you don’t want to keep the service). But if you’re a Verizon customer, you can get an entire year of Disney+ for free—if you have the right type of service plan.
First, a couple of things to know. A Verizon spokesperson told Gizmodo in October that the free year of the service applies exclusively to Disney+ and does not extend to its $13 bundle that includes ESPN+ and ad-supported Hulu. But with the Verizon deal, you will get all of the access and perks that you’d get with the standard $7 subscription plan, so it’s still a steal. (And you can, of course, still subscribe to Hulu and ESPN+ independent of Disney+.)
The service is available to all new and existing 4G LTE and 5G unlimited wireless customers as well as any incoming Verizon Fios Home Internet and 5G Home Internet customers. If that’s you, head to Verizon’s Disney+ landing page right here and scroll to the bottom of the page, where you’ll be prompted to “Get Disney+.”
After you enter your Verizon username and password, one of two things will likely happen: you’ll either be prompted to confirm you want Disney+ added to your account at the $7 per month after your free year, or you’ll run into a permissions issue (more on that in a second).
If you were able to set up your Disney+ subscription without issue, congrats! You can now start streaming on just about every platform. Accessing service may be a little bumpy at first, though. Downdector logged thousands of complaints about service interruptions the morning of its release, likely due to the sheer number of people attempting to access the platform. Here’s what you’ll probably see on desktop if that’s the case:
Bugs are to be expected at launch, and it appeared as though access to the service went in and out over the course of the morning. In response to the outages, Disney+ said in a statement per the Hollywood Reporter that “consumer demand for Disney+ has exceeded our high expectations. We are working to quickly resolve the current user issue. We appreciate your patience.”
If you hit a snag in adding Disney+, you may be on a shared Verizon plan and lack the permissions to add the service to your account. Contact your account holder and request access—you can do so by clicking the red link on the page thwarting your Star Wars binge—and see if you can be added as an account manager for the service.
If you’re on a shared plan, a Verizon spokesperson told Gizmodo that the offer only allows for one Disney+ subscription per plan, meaning you’ll have to share. But for many people, that may not matter, as Disney+ allows for up to seven user profiles and simultaneous streaming on up to four devices at once.
Beyond the service disruption on desktop, we did get Disney+ to work on Roku, but it took a couple of tries to get it up and running. Also note that if you signed up for Disney+ ahead of time but try to activate your free year, Verizon may tell you that you’re already a customer your membership will be paused.
Are you having any issues? Was your log in a seamless success? Do you love it? Hate it? Plan to keep it? Let us know your first impressions in the comments below.
Updated with comment from Verizon.