For those of you who have used military discount...

[bella77]

We have a trip planned for early October (booked months ago to make sure we could get CRT). It was booked through a travel agent (a first for us- I usually plan everything). She told us that we could possibly apply military discount if it became available before the trip. Now, I'm trying to figure out if that's really a good idea. It would be nice to get the hotel discount, but not if it's going to affect other parts of the trip.

First- if you book rooms w/ military discount, do you have to order tickets from a base or SoG?

Second- if you get tickets from base or SoG, can you get FP+ in advance? From searching the boards, it looks like we could get FP+ 30 days in advance rather than 60 IF we go ahead and order our tickets? So no waiting until we get there to stop by SoG.

Can anyone help me clarify before we decide what to do? We've done the military tickets and discount before, but it was before FP+. So appreciative of Disney's Military Salute, but not sure if it's the right move for this trip. TIA!

 

[jms]

You do not have to go to SOG to get the salute tickets. You can order them from camp Pendleton and they will fedex them to you. Then you just have to activate them at any park with a military id. This enables you to book FP 30 days out.

 

[momofmaz]

You can buy normal tickets as well, not just military salute ones, even if you use the military discount on the room. One thing is if you had room/ticket/dining plan prepackaged that package will go to room only and you would have to go back in and ask for the dining plan again.

 

[Nicoleinwi]

On our upcoming trip I chose not to do the military tix. Even though there was a savings it was not worth it for the risk of screwing up the FP+. So that is something you may want to consider.

Last year with traditional FP I needed 8 days tix and just did 2 of the military salutes no issues at all. In all my research I did for our upcoming trip if you are just using one 4-day tix per person you might be fine. You are able to link your military tix (with the voucher #) in the My Disney Experience. But some people reported that when they exchanged the voucher or activated the tix (I can't remember what we had to do I just recall going to gues services) it erased all their FP+ stuff. Also I have read that you aren't able to link 2 tix to one band. So for all those issues I chose not to risk the savings.

 

[bella77]

Thanks! Good to know we could stick with the regular tickets. I don't like the idea of waiting til 30 days out for the fastpasses- I'm a planner! It would be nice to get a bit of a discount on the room rates if it's available. The travel agent told us we had to do both tickets and room with the military salute, which seemed odd to me. We have to do something soon, as our 60 mark is next week! Decisions, decisions!

 

[safetymom]

Disney's Armed Forces Salute tickets can be obtained only at participating U.S. military base ticket offices (including at the Shades of Green Resort at the Walt Disney World® Resort), or at main entrance theme park ticket windows. Tickets are not valid until activated at the main entrance theme park ticket windows.*They are not available online or by phone or at the resorts. If you need more information about this, visit www.disneymilitarysales.com


You would need to have a room only or room with dining plan. You can't add the tickets to a military discounted room.

 

[LeeLee'sMom]

We are using the military discount, staying at POR and have already purchased the Mil park tix. As long as you are staying on disney property you can book the FP+ at 60 days out as we did. We did purchase our tickets from our local base or you could order them online like PP said but it was simple enough. FP+ are all set to go at the 60 day mark. NOW when we go to activate them at the window on our first day...that will be the test. But I am going to have a print out or screen shot on my phone of all our FP+ times just to be safe.

 

[bella77]

<We are using the military discount, staying at POR and have already purchased the Mil park tix. As long as you are staying on disney property you can book the FP+ at 60 days out as we did. We did purchase our tickets from our local base or you could order them online like PP said but it was simple enough. FP+ are all set to go at the 60 day mark. NOW when we go to activate them at the window on our first day...that will be the test. But I am going to have a print out or screen shot on my phone of all our FP+ times just to be safe>

Thanks! I didn't know if FP+ was connected to hotel or tickets or both, but it makes sense when I think about how onsite guests get to reserve earlier. I've already been screen-shooting our ADRs, as I've seen so many people who have had issues with them disappearing, so I'll do that with FP+ too.

 

[Claire&TheBoys]

Thanks! Good to know we could stick with the regular tickets. I don't like the idea of waiting til 30 days out for the fastpasses- I'm a planner! It would be nice to get a bit of a discount on the room rates if it's available. The travel agent told us we had to do both tickets and room with the military salute, which seemed odd to me. We have to do something soon, as our 60 mark is next week! Decisions, decisions!

That is not right. You can just get the room-only military discount. We have used the military discount numerous times - sometimes we have APs, sometimes we use the MS tickets, just depends on what we have at the time.

 

[POOHsie]

Thanks! Good to know we could stick with the regular tickets. I don't like the idea of waiting til 30 days out for the fastpasses- I'm a planner! It would be nice to get a bit of a discount on the room rates if it's available. The travel agent told us we had to do both tickets and room with the military salute, which seemed odd to me. We have to do something soon, as our 60 mark is next week! Decisions, decisions!

The Military Salute program has two items: AFS 4-day tickets, and military discount rate at WDW resorts. But they aren't tied together and you aren't required to get both. Many people just buy AFS tickets. Many people just reserve a WDW resort with military discount.

I wanted to add that there is another thing available for the military discount resort offer. You can add paid Dining Plan to the military discount resort stay, and it becomes a ticketless package called "Military Dine." You don't get any discount on the dining, but based on the room discount, you may find it affordable to add dining, maybe just break-even compared to a higher priced room. With the Military Dine package, you get the military discount on a WDW resort room, and full-price Disney Dining (your choice of level). No tickets are required to be purchased, as it's noted you can access AFS tickets (or any Disney park ticket) separately. We have a Military Dine package coming up, with Undercover Tourist tickets b/c we need more than 8 days/pp.