Military Ticket Offer - Questions and Latest Info

[erinlees_mommie]

Universal Orlando has extended their Military Salute promotion through December 18, 2009. All Military Salute tickets must be used by December 18, 2009. These are 7 consecutive day tickets. Unlimited use of both parks and free admission to venues at City Walk. All visits must be in the same week. Last day to purchase for full benefit is 12 December.

All Active Duty get a free ticket. Family and Friends tickets may be purchased by anyone with a military ID card, with not limit on the number of tickets.

 

[Montog]

Universal Orlando has extended their Military Salute promotion through December 18, 2009. All Military Salute tickets must be used by December 18, 2009. These are 7 consecutive day tickets. Unlimited use of both parks and free admission to venues at City Walk. All visits must be in the same week. Last day to purchase for full benefit is 12 December.

All Active Duty get a free ticket. Family and Friends tickets may be purchased by anyone with a military ID card, with not limit on the number of tickets.

Just curious, how much are the friends and family tickets?

 

[pilesoflaundry]

Starters - welcome to the Disboards....

I can tell you from my activation process - we could have very easily used multiple tickets per person for either a repeat trip later in the year or a longer consecutive one. There were not even interested in WHO these tickets were for, except for the 3 I had to upgrade to include hoppers. The other 2 were left as is, as the generic credit cards with no identification or signatures. NOW if you are upgrading them during the activation where they will replace these credit card type tickets with the paper stock tickets, they print the names on them and then they could tell you no.

We bought ours at shades of green and activated them at epcot will call and I got a royal pain lady that did care. Since I was the finger attached to all the kids tickets I just scribbled names on them and she got mad at me. She told me I had to write actual names on them or she wouldn't activate them. Then I had my niece's ticket and I didn't want to sign for her. She got mad again.

My husband told her that's how he signs his name and that's what he was putting. She said no signature, put a name. We were not upgrading them at all at the window but they were the plastic tickets because they were all PH and 2 had water parks on them.

I do know that is not the norm though because I see them on ebay with just a scrawled name or no signature at all.

 

[bouncycat]

WOW, we just handed all 5 over at the MK window on the park side, the guy took them all, swiped them, and that was it!

 

[dolphinmus]

Dh went yesterday to try and buy our tickets at the MWR here on post. Apparently they don't keep the tickets on post, they buy them from Shades of Green. We are leaving Saturday morning, and will get to Orlando late Sunday night. Should we go to SOG on Monday morning and buy the tickets, or just pay the taxes and get them at the gate? Which would be easier?

 

[reagan75]

Newbie on this thread. What does it mean to activate tickets? When we buy them can they be activated at that time or do we do that elsewhere? TIA!

 

[mdrob214]

Dh went yesterday to try and buy our tickets at the MWR here on post. Apparently they don't keep the tickets on post, they buy them from Shades of Green. We are leaving Saturday morning, and will get to Orlando late Sunday night. Should we go to SOG on Monday morning and buy the tickets, or just pay the taxes and get them at the gate? Which would be easier?

If it meant time out of my park touring I'd go to the gate and pay taxes. Our ITT office did have to order the tickets. We have our arrival day open--no parks--so we'll activate them at DTD, that way we'll be ready at Rope Drop the next morning a@ MK. I don't like to wait!

Newbie on this thread. What does it mean to activate tickets? When we buy them can they be activated at that time or do we do that elsewhere? TIA!

You can buy the tickets at your base, at Shades or at the gate. But they are not active until you take them to a ticket window and have them "activated". (If you get them at the gate, you can buy and activate all in one step) At that time the sponsor (or spouse if the sponsor is not available) is supposed to show id and tell name/s, base/post assigment, etc. Some ticketing CMs seem to gather more information than others, according to reports here. After the tickets are activated you are good to go--you only have ot have the sponsor there that first time (so your party can split up and go to different parks, etc)

 

[GetGlowing]

Has anyone had luck getting more than 5 companion tickets? We are a party of 7 and are budgeting to pay full price for one of our tickets, but it would be nice to get it for $99 as well.

 

[jillianjewels]

We were going on a trip this December with the MIL. We already bought the tix, but now she doesn't want to go. I know we can't activate them, but will they give us a credit for the purchase and pay the difference for regular tickets?
On top of everything we have one ticket that won't even be used.

 

[pilesoflaundry]

Has anyone had luck getting more than 5 companion tickets? We are a party of 7 and are budgeting to pay full price for one of our tickets, but it would be nice to get it for $99 as well.

If the other people in your party are your dependent children, they will make an exception. They will not allow more just for friends and other family members. Good luck.

As for the question of paying the tax, how much extra time is worth the tax bill to you? My dh went down there early in the morning before the lines got bad at sog and got the tickets within 10 minutes. I've seen horrific lines the rest of the time. We saved about $33 in taxes so it was worth it to us.

 

[JoanneNC]

Has anyone had luck getting more than 5 companion tickets? We are a party of 7 and are budgeting to pay full price for one of our tickets, but it would be nice to get it for $99 as well.

Party of 7 or immediate family of 7, meaning 5 kids? If the later, Disney will sell you a 6th one at $99 but if its for a friend or sister or grandparent, no

 

[JoanneNC]

We were going on a trip this December with the MIL. We already bought the tix, but now she doesn't want to go. I know we can't activate them, but will they give us a credit for the purchase and pay the difference for regular tickets?
On top of everything we have one ticket that won't even be used.

yikes that stinks.. I know when we bought ours from our local ITT it was very clear these were non refundable so unless your ITT makes an exception you might be out of luck...

 

[reagan75]

If it meant time out of my park touring I'd go to the gate and pay taxes. Our ITT office did have to order the tickets. We have our arrival day open--no parks--so we'll activate them at DTD, that way we'll be ready at Rope Drop the next morning a@ MK. I don't like to wait!

You can buy the tickets at your base, at Shades or at the gate. But they are not active until you take them to a ticket window and have them "activated". (If you get them at the gate, you can buy and activate all in one step) At that time the sponsor (or spouse if the sponsor is not available) is supposed to show id and tell name/s, base/post assigment, etc. Some ticketing CMs seem to gather more information than others, according to reports here. After the tickets are activated you are good to go--you only have ot have the sponsor there that first time (so your party can split up and go to different parks, etc)

Thanks so much!

 

[MiJo]

Hi,
We currently have ressies for SoG for 6 nights in October. However, we now see our son can get a 40% discount on a Disney Moderate, our favorite places to stay at WDW! Since SoG reviews seem to vary greatly, we are now considering trying to get ressies for a Moderate for our time in October and cancelling SoG. So far, it appears too early to book Disney resorts in October using the 35% (the current 35% discount seems to end October 3). Can the 40% military discount be done on the Web or do we have to phone Disney? Are they available now for October? Also, I've read on another site that a Dining Plan can be added to a room only ressie for military personnel since their park ticket is free. How do we go about doing that and is it worth it?
Thanks for any info!

 

[tiggerlover]

You can buy the tickets at your base, at Shades or at the gate. But they are not active until you take them to a ticket window and have them "activated". (If you get them at the gate, you can buy and activate all in one step) At that time the sponsor (or spouse if the sponsor is not available) is supposed to show id and tell name/s, base/post assigment, etc. Some ticketing CMs seem to gather more information than others, according to reports here. After the tickets are activated you are good to go--you only have ot have the sponsor there that first time (so your party can split up and go to different parks, etc)

I was told if you bought the tickets at Shades of Green there was no tax, but if you buy them at the gate there is tax....does anyone know if there is any truth to this? Any time savings advantage of getting the tix at SOG as opposed to at the park the first afternoon we arrive?

 

[bouncycat]

I was told if you bought the tickets at Shades of Green there was no tax, but if you buy them at the gate there is tax....does anyone know if there is any truth to this? Any time savings advantage of getting the tix at SOG as opposed to at the park the first afternoon we arrive?

There is no tax at SOG, just like buying the tix at the base, there is at the ticket booth. There's a HUGE time saving advantage to going and buying them at the parks, it's all up to you. SOG has a little PX in it too that has SOME disney stuff, and no tax, so there's small advantages there too. It's a BEAUTIFUL hotel. The only experience I've had there was when we had to evacuate the FL keys for Hurricane Wilma, we went there, and there was a very long line, we waited for about 45 minutes, but, the $ it saved in the mean time was well worth it!

 

[BridgetBordeaux]

Here is what I know............
We bought several companian tickets about 2 weeks ago from SOG. No tax. That afternoon we went to Blizzard Beach and it took us about 3 or 4 minutes to activate all our tickets.

 

[Disneyfalcon]

Hi,
We currently have ressies for SoG for 6 nights in October. However, we now see our son can get a 40% discount on a Disney Moderate, our favorite places to stay at WDW! Since SoG reviews seem to vary greatly, we are now considering trying to get ressies for a Moderate for our time in October and cancelling SoG. So far, it appears too early to book Disney resorts in October using the 35% (the current 35% discount seems to end October 3). Can the 40% military discount be done on the Web or do we have to phone Disney? Are they available now for October? Also, I've read on another site that a Dining Plan can be added to a room only ressie for military personnel since their park ticket is free. How do we go about doing that and is it worth it?
Thanks for any info!

You do need to call for the 40% off. They are available for the rest of the year. You can add the dining plan, in fact the agent will probably ask if you want it.

 

[MiJo]

Thanks, Disneyfalcon!
We'll look into it today!

 

[bouncycat]

MIJO, Dreams Unlimited can get you the military 40% off too...I booked both of my trips thru them this year, and haven't had ANY problems, they call for ADR's also. She also keeps looking for more discounts, periodically I get emails saying there's a new special, but it's not better then the one I have sorta thing...I use Marla and I can PM you her email address if you want it!! Our deal we have now is for 4 people, 4 nights WITH the dining plan for $1300. That plan with the tickets is almost $3000 priced out. I already have tickets, and just need to get MNSSHP tickets, so HUGE savings!! Oh, we're at the FW cabins.