Calling all Military

[Kupiecb]

Hello I really need your help with a question. My family is leaving for Disney World in May and recently I was told that Active Military receives discounted tickets for the parks. I was told we could purchase up to 5
4 day tickets for $99.00. When I looked into this on Disney.com it stated the offer was good for Activated members of the National Guard or Reservists and must present their orders in addition to a Military ID card to get the discount. My son is in the Reservists but we are not sure what orders he needs to present to get the tickets? He is not deployed so what orders are they talking about? If anyone has information about this and can help us I would really appreciate it.

 

[natenapril]

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2352579

Thread full of answers~

 

[LuLuO]

Editing my post because after reading the link above it appears I might me wrong.

 

[flick]

Is your son Active Reserves or does he do the one weekend a month, 2 weeks a year? If he is active he will have a set of orders. Hope this helps.

Tell yor son thanks for his service. My DH is 2 years away from retiring from active duty Air Force!!

Kim

 

[casndan]

Unless he's been activated he can't buy the tickets, active reserve is someone who goes to work for the reserves every single day.

 

[Kupiecb]

Yes is does the one weekend a month 2 weeks a year. So does that mean he does not qualify? I have read all the post but still dont know. Thanks for helping

 

[casndan]

Unless he comes down on orders for an activation he does not qualify. He would have to be activated either to work in the local unit (again everyday), a military installation (everyday) or get deployed...

I used the Salute to the Heroes program back in 2003 when DH and I got married and at the time I was a recruiter with the Army National Guard and because I worked there as my full time job I qualified. We're using it again this year but my DH is regular Army and is actually deployed at the moment.

 

[Charleston Zurg]

If your son is an active reserve, meaning that he drills one weekend a month and two weeks out of the year, the only thing that he will have proving that he is an active reservists is his enlistment papers.

I am currentley an National Guard member who is on active duty. A buddy of mine who is not on active duty, meaning that he does the once a month thing, just returned, when I say just returned, I mean about three hours ago, and he was able to take advantage of the ticket deal.

They took a chance and purchased the tickets before they went down from the local air force base. When they went to activate them at AK all that he was asked for was his military ID. He was not asked for orders. I had the same experience last Novemeber when I used my tickets. I did have my orders with me just in case though. Maybe we were just lucky that they did not ask for orders, IDK.

Now I am guessing that this is where it gets confusing. When he asked about the "Active Reserve" he was told by the cast member at the window that "Active Reserve" in Disney's view is any service member who is an active reservists. Not a reservists on "Active Duty." If you are on active duty Disney does not care what branch of the service that you are in just that you are on active duty according to this cast member. Now I am guessing that you could probley ask ten cast members and get five on one answer and five of a different answer.

 

[jsmith]

I would support what Charleston Zurg said-a co work of mine whe is a drilling Naval reservist was able to purchase and use these tickets with out deployment orders. We have also used the Hero Salute-twice-once in 91 when they did it the first time-hubby was not activated -and once last summer just before he departed for Iraq-he was active at that time. Most of the time by Active reservists it is meant that you are in a drilling status and NOT in the individual ready reserve. If you feel you need some kind of orders-his orders for his last Annual training should suffice. However for staying at Shades of Green and purchasing tickets there-which i am sure you could do with these tickets-his ID -or mine-have always been sufficient proof.

 

[LuLuO]

I hope Charleston Zurg and jsmith are right because it would be wonderful to be able to use the discount for our upcoming trip.

Thanks to OP for posting this question. I assumed that my husband would need deployment orders to qualify for the discount. I guess it is all in what the word 'active' means to Disney. If he buys these tickets from the base then I assume that he should bring the orders from the exercise he went on last month, just in case they ask for them?

I'd hate to spend $400 only to be denied access at the gate. That would stink. Would SOG be the best place to confirm this or ITT? Or would he get different answers no matter whom he asks? lol

 

[Kupiecb]

Well, I think we should take the chance and have him bring his military id and we can always just ask when we get there. No harm is asking, right? Thank you all for your wonderful insite on this. I can always count on my friends at DIS to help me out.

Thank you to all the Military families for all that you do.

 

[Claire&TheBoys]

All you have to have is a military ID. My husband is an Army Reservist; his ID looks exactly like an Active Duty ID - it's the same CAC card. We went twice last year in 2009 and got the Military Salute tickets with no problem. The only thing he was asked was what base he was assigned to and he told them the base that his Reserve unit is based out of and that was sufficient. We never had to show orders of any type.

 

[LuLuO]

All you have to have is a military ID. My husband is an Army Reservist; his ID looks exactly like an Active Duty ID - it's the same CAC card. We went twice last year in 2009 and got the Military Salute tickets with no problem. The only thing he was asked was what base he was assigned to and he told them the base that his Reserve unit is based out of and that was sufficient. We never had to show orders of any type.

This is what DH said too though I assured him that he was wrong about being able to get the discount...lol. Guess I'll have to eat my words. It won't be the first time.

 

[flick]

You can buy the tickets from Disney also. (double check me on that) This way you are not spending the money ahead of time just to be told that you can not activate them because you do not qualify for the discount. I think it is the luck of the draw in which CM you get if you wll need orders or not. Our ITT will not sell you the tickets if you are not on activated orders. I hope this makes sense.

 

[LuLuO]

You can buy the tickets from Disney also. (double check me on that) This way you are not spending the money ahead of time just to be told that you can not activate them because you do not qualify for the discount. I think it is the luck of the draw in which CM you get if you wll need orders or not. Our ITT will not sell you the tickets if you are not on activated orders. I hope this makes sense.

Ahh. Got it. lol. We are going in Sept so we'd have to purchase here before the deadline. I'll tell DH to check with ITT. Can't hurt to ask. Thanks!

 

[Claire&TheBoys]

Ahh. Got it. lol. We are going in Sept so we'd have to purchase here before the deadline. I'll tell DH to check with ITT. Can't hurt to ask. Thanks!

My husband got his free one and 3 of the companion tickets (2009 promotion) at the MWR/ITT office at the Navy base where he works civil service; he had no trouble. We took them to the DownTown Disney Guest Relations counter to have them activated and all they asked for was his ID and his base.

 

[louey]

A co-worker of mine was in the Coast Guard and does one weekend a month for reserves. He and his family went to Seaworld and when he was buying their tickets he asked about a military discount. They all got in Free, he had to show his military card as did his wife, his two children got in free too. I think that is pretty nice

 

[DisneyPolve]

All you have to have is a military ID. My husband is an Army Reservist; his ID looks exactly like an Active Duty ID - it's the same CAC card. We went twice last year in 2009 and got the Military Salute tickets with no problem. The only thing he was asked was what base he was assigned to and he told them the base that his Reserve unit is based out of and that was sufficient. We never had to show orders of any type.

Did you buy the tickets from Disney or Shades of Green? We had some friends (reservist) try and buy their tickets at Shades of Green and were unable to, but then went to Disney and had no problem at all. They there subject to the tax but that didn't bother them. People working at Shades of Green know how to tell the difference between a reservist id card and an active duty card, no matter how much they look the same.

When DH and I bought our tickets we were never asked anything except did we want to add water park or hopper to our tix. Maybe it is because DH is retired, but no questions about what base he is from or papers were asked for.

 

[pilesoflaundry]

A co-worker of mine was in the Coast Guard and does one weekend a month for reserves. He and his family went to Seaworld and when he was buying their tickets he asked about a military discount. They all got in Free, he had to show his military card as did his wife, his two children got in free too. I think that is pretty nice

Seaworld has been doing it for years, busch gardens does too. I remember last year there were people that qualified for the sea world promo that didn't qualify for the disney tickets.

 

[louey]

Seaworld has been doing it for years, busch gardens does too. I remember last year there were people that qualified for the sea world promo that didn't qualify for the disney tickets.

He had no clue and thought maybe they would just get their tickets discounted, he was so excited telling me about. I think its pretty awesome of Sea World!