Armed Forces salute tickets using fingerscanners?

[nuc79]

I'm planning on packing up the family for a week of WDW in September to take advantage of the special military offer. I need to buy all 5 of the companion tickets for my wife, 2 daughters, mom & dad. My son is 22 months, so thankfully he doesn't need one). The problem is that my parents will be flying down and meeting us midweek, while we'll be there the whole week.

I called WDW, and they said all members of the party have to be present when the tickets are purchased, and there is a one-time purchase restriction. It looks like somebody will have to do some schedule-changing.

Anyway, I was wondering (for anyone servicemembers that have gone yet) if they are making us use the fingerscanners at the gate for this ticket, like the season ticketholders. I figured that's why they want us to all be there when they're bought. Prevents transfer or sale of the tickets to people that shouldn't be using them.

 

[jeankeri]

I have seen this posted before, and here it goes: (We will also be down in Dec for the Armed Forces Salute- so I have been paying very close attention to this!!). Military familiies who have returned have posted that their experience has been that all member of the party have NOT been present when they purchased tickets, but they were asked their names and birthdates (SSI's maybe too) when the tickets were purchased. Also, the finger scan is done at the turnstile, not ticket window, the first time the ticket is used to match it to the ticket on future visits. I believe this has only been done on adult ticket holders, not children. I know CM's have given many different answers regarding how these tickets are purchased, so I have been going by what the CM's at the ticket windows have actually been doing. I know Universal Orlando has a very strict (and clearly worded) policy that states exactly what the WDW CM told you concerning IOA tickets (they have a similar military promotion at this time!). Unless WDW has reworded their policy, it does not state this.
Anyone have other info out there?

 

[mbethel]

My husband got his complimentary ticket plus 4 friends and family tickets on July 3rd. I was the only one there with him. All he had to do was provide full names and birthdays (including the year) to the CM along with his ID. We did have to do the finger scan to actually get into the park, but not at the time we bought the tickets. I was really surprised how easy it was to take care of. The CM seemed to know exactly what to do. We answered his questions and left in just a few minutes. He didn't question that the rest of our party wasn't there (good thing since they weren't even in FL )

 

[HappyMommy2]

Just got back from a vacation on the military passes. Everything worked out great. DH purchased the tickets himself (the rest of us were present but not up at the window, and they never asked him if we were there or not, just needed our names and birthdates).

There was some confusion about the fingerscanning. The first time you go through the turnstiles they are supposed to scan your fingerprints to "set the biometrics." The first time we went through they didn't scan DH's or DS's (age 3) but they did mine. Of course the next time we went through the turnstiles they couldn't get a match for fingerprints for DH or DS (since they had never been scanned) and for some reason mine didn't match. The CM just waved us through. Same thing happened the next day, only the CM re-scanned all of us to try to get all of our fingerprints re-set. This helped a little; sometimes later in the week we'd get through the fingerprint scanners okay and sometimes the thing would still say "access denied"--in nearly every case, the CM would just wave us on through. One time a CM checked out photo ID's. I don't know if this was a problem with the military passes or just a fingerprint scanner problem in general. It was really no big deal, though. BTW, after the second day they never asked for the 3-year-old's fingerprints again.

Have a fun trip!

 

[Brodiecat]

When you were issued the passes. What type of passes were they.
5 day hopper
or
5 day hopper plus

Am I right that the hooper plus gives you 2 days in the waterparks in addition to the 5 days of theme park admissions. So the days you spend in the waterparks do not count as a theme park admission. I'm so confused. We really don't want to waste a day on our pass just doing the waterpark.

 

[B'rer Karen]

Actually, they're neither. The back of the ticket media states something to the effect of "5 day Miltiary Salute Ticket." What you get with this ticket is 5 days unlimited use to the 4 parks, 2 water parks, PI, and I believe Disney Qwest. My understanding is that it is not like a Park Hopper Plus, where you could go to the parks 5 days and then a water park on day 6 and a water park on day 7, but an ultimate hopper where for 5 days you can do any or all of those items. I also believe that they do not need to be used 5 consecutive days, like the ulitmate park hoppers do.

 

[ToriLammy]

Originally posted by Brodiecat
When you were issued the passes. What type of passes were they.
5 day hopper
or
5 day hopper plus

Am I right that the hooper plus gives you 2 days in the waterparks in addition to the 5 days of theme park admissions. So the days you spend in the waterparks do not count as a theme park admission. I'm so confused. We really don't want to waste a day on our pass just doing the waterpark.

Think of them as Length of Stay or Stars and Stripes passes instead of park hopper or park hopper plus. They have the benefits of LOS without having to stay on property BUT they are only good for 5 days regardless of where you use them. If you go to a water park it counts against one of those five days.

 

[mbethel]

These tickets do not have to be used on consecutive days. They are valid any five days until December 19, 2003.