Attention active duty military - 40% discount on rooms!

[suevee]

If you are active duty military you might want to check this out -

From Parks and Rec office-
"Walt disney world is providing active duty military personnel a freee 5-day admission pass to Walt Disney World theme parks, plus redused admission for up to 5 friends and/or family members at a rate of $99 per person for a 5 day pass. Disney is also discounting hotel rooms 40% to military families in conjunction with the free admission offer. A similar discount is being offered for Disney Cruise bookings."

This discounted rooms are NOT offered through SoG. They may be less than the overflow room rates. You need to contact WDW directly and ask about them. They are limited and there are black out dates. Hope this helps someone!

 

[girlfriend]

Hi!

Just a note on this (there was a thread last week about this discount and many had questions about who this discount applied to). My boyfriend is in Air Force reserves but was not called to Active Duty this year. We are still able to get this discount. When making our reservations, the agent said all we needed was his military ID upon checking in. As well, I just recieved our receipt from the Disney reservation and on the bottom it says "must present valid military id at check-in".

Just thought I would post this note here.

 

[suevee]

According to the MWR (ItR) office-

"Active Duty personnel are defined as all personnel who are currently on active duty,including members of Reserve and National Guard units which have been called to active duty. Orders verifying activation will be required to qualify memebers of the Reserve Component for the free admission programs.

These offers apply to Active Duty only! Retired Military, Reserve Component Members who have not been activated in the past year and DOD Civilians are not eligible."

Just picked this up from our home base. So I am afraid your boyfriend is not eligible unless he has been recalled to active duty. Sorry

 

[BibbidiBobbidiBOO]

suevee, there have been LOTS of debates on this and other boards here about this. Check out the thread on the debate board about British soldiers not being eligible-it turns into a discussion about reservists too. I was told we were eligible if DH was an active reservists(meaning that he drills-he did his 2 weeks plus 30 extra days so far this year) and that the WDW wording was wrong. We have SP's and do not need tickets. But I got AKL for $119 over T'giving with this discount. I e-mailed WDW and have received 3 responses that they will get back to me. I guess someone will call. I will cancel and get an AP or FL resident discount if not eligible. We just want to know for sure so DH can tell some of his soldiers.
It looks like MWR just reworded it to their understanding. Does not mean they are the official response. Many reservists HAVE been told they are eligible by WDW.

 

[suevee]

I am sorry to be a bearer of sad tidings. My husband is also a military reservist with his weekends etc. I know about the debate board. I am not debating this. I went to Ft. Meade Army base parks and recs. and picked up the official documentation.

What I typed previously was taken word for word from the documentation given me at Ft. Meade Army base in Md. Basically, a reservist must have activation papers to take advantage of this offer. Regular reservists are not eligible. Active reserves means activated to full duty. The regular reserves who serve weekends and two weeks are not considered to be activated. They are the Reserve Component Members. Possibly the 2 weeks MAY be considered activated BUT you would have to go during his activation period (the 2 weeks he is working). But that would be a stretch.

I wish I was wrong, but .... this is the official documentation handed out on base. If you go to your MWR ITR office on base you could pick up the same info.

 

[AirForceRocks]

Is the information from MWR their interpretation, or is it the actual "last word" from WDW?

 

[suevee]

AirForce Rocks -

It is a handout available at all MRW/ITR offices. It starts with
"Following information is provided for the Orlando and Anaheim destinations." It then goes on for two pages with different offers. On the last page it states-

"Orders verifying activation will be required to qualify members of the Reserve Component for the free admission programs."

"These offers apply to Active Duty only! Retired Military, Reserve Component Members who have not been activated in the past year, and DOD Civilians are not eligible."

So I think it is official rules. Believe me, I would love to take advantage of this offer!!!!

 

[Disney Dude]

Isn't there different ID cards for active and reservists? I know my husband is active duty and has an active duty Id card. (used to be green) and I thought reservests had a different color Id card, and this also idenified who was active and who was not.
I would thingk that if you didn't have an active duty ID card, you would have had to bring something stating you were activated.
I know when we went the last time they offered the stars and stripes to the military, they asked my husband about the activation papers and all he had to do was show his ID card that proved he was active duty. We had no problems, but we were questioned at first.
So people should just be prepared, and bring copies of everything.
Better safe than sorry

 

[ToriLammy]

Originally posted by suevee
AirForce Rocks -

It is a handout available at all MRW/ITR offices. It starts with
"Following information is provided for the Orlando and Anaheim destinations." It then goes on for two pages with different offers. On the last page it states-

So I think it is official rules. Believe me, I would love to take advantage of this offer!!!!

The part about the handout being available at all MWR/ITR offices is not true. Our MWR has nothing on this program. Our ITR office is run by a contracted travel agent who isn't always forth coming with deals on Disney because he makes his living off what he sells. Unless the "Official" rule came from Disney I would not put much clout behind it. Every MWR office is run differently throughout all the branches of the services and as with anything else they are run by humans and who are subject to putting their own "spin" on what they read. If you are a Reservist or National Guard member you should call Disney yourself and get the word from the "Official" source.

Isn't there different ID cards for active and reservists? I know my husband is active duty and has an active duty Id card. (used to be green) and I thought reservests had a different color Id card, and this also idenified who was active and who was not.

[

I have actually only seen three colors of ID cards - green (active) blue (retired) and orange (dependent). I keep thinking I may have seen a Guard guy with a black ID card many years ago.. Anyone out there know for sure (I tried to look it up but the regulation doesn't have color pictures so all the ID cards looked black). They all do have the same form number though DD Form 2. It makes sense that Guard and Reserve would have a different color so the cashiers at the BX/Commissary could tell by site if they were authorized.

 

[suevee]

Reservist dependants have pink IDs (I have one). It is stated on the military holder's ID whether he/she is active or reserves. So as Disney Dude stated -

"I know when we went the last time they offered the stars and stripes to the military, they asked my husband about the activation papers and all he had to do was show his ID card that proved he was active duty. We had no problems, but we were questioned at first."

Be prepared!

 

[Mommy Poppins]

My husband and his National Guard unit were deployed to Bosnia from July, 02 thru March 03. Don't want to add any fuel to the fire, but when the offer came out myself and several other members of our family support group e-mailed Disney for clarification of this offer. This is word for word the response I received from Disney.

"Thank you for contacting WALT DISNEY WORLD!

In order to be eligible for this program, the military member must have been active for any length of time between September 1, 2002 and the end of this offer (December 19, 2003.) Based on the information you gave us it looks like
your family would be eligible as you said he was active from July 2002 to March 2003"

I have printed this e-mail and will take it with me when we go to Disney in December. Don't know if this helps anyone, but if all else fails, e-mail Disney and get a response that you can print and take with you.

 

[AirForceRocks]

I know of at least one other person that has gotten the same response Mommy Poppins, which leads me to believe that the MWR sheet being put out is not the word from Disney, but rather the interpretation of MWR. As ToriLammy pointed out, MWR folks are humans that may interpret it differently from the way in WDW meant it. Unless MWR actually contacts WDW for clarification, they could well be putting out incorrect information.

 

[suevee]

My MRW document stated (look at above post)-

"These offers apply to Active Duty only! Retired Military, Reserve Component Members who have not been activated in the past year, and DOD Civilians are not eligible."

"who have not been activated in the past year"

This confirms the Disney Email

"In order to be eligible for this program, the military member must have been active for any length of time between September 1, 2002 and the end of this offer (December 19, 2003.) Based on the information you gave us it looks like
your family would be eligible as you said he was active from July 2002 to March 2003"

Basically I read it to mean if you have been activated in the past year then you need to bring a copy of those activation papers. If you have not been activated then you are not able to take advantage of this offer. So I think my MRW is on target. Believe me I wish it wasn't!!! I would be happy to be wrong!!!

 

[BibbidiBobbidiBOO]

Here we go again!
suevee, please read the other thread on the resort board(I bumped it last night) and the debate board. What your MWR paper says and what Mommy Poppins and others have received from WDW are 2 entirely different things. WDW is saying your 2 week drill is considered "activated" in their terminology(on the other thread I believe). I know the official wording does NOT mean this, but many reservists were able to utilize the program last time WDW offered it and the wording was the same. No where does it say you have to be deployed(active duty don't have to be deployed to use it either). They just want to make sure you are "active" reserves. WDW may not understand the exact meaning of "activated" or else the ones that are enforcing the policy do not.
I will not use the resort discount unless we are eligible, glad we have SP's and I don't have to deal with that !

 

[suevee]

Thanks BibbidiBobbidiBoo. I understand now. I just didn't think anyone would use their 2 weeks to get this and thought I was helping - DUH!

 

[BibbidiBobbidiBOO]

No problem ! The whole thing is rather confusing! I thought we would not qualify at all until others said we did! It may well depend on what CM you get when you get there! That is why written confirmation OR the name of the CM you spoke to might be a good idea.