Military 3-Day Park Hoppers

[LisaT91403]

My in-laws are coming to visit from VA, and FIL is retired military. He wants to buy the $99 special offer military tickets, but I'm concerned they will have trouble getting the DLR tickets on the East Coast. Has anyone been able to purchase the DLR tickets at military bases on the East Coast? If not, then does anyone know what the options are?

 

[hawaii08]

My in-laws are coming to visit from VA, and FIL is retired military. He wants to buy the $99 special offer military tickets, but I'm concerned they will have trouble getting the DLR tickets on the East Coast. Has anyone been able to purchase the DLR tickets at military bases on the East Coast? If not, then does anyone know what the options are?

We don't live on the east coast, but they shouldn't have any problem getting the DLR tickets because they just print them off. We've bought Disneyworld tickets from the west coast military bases. Your FIL can call the ITT or MWR where he'll be purchasing the tickets, just to be sure.

 

[sonnyjane]

You can buy the tickets AT Disneyland ticket booths as well, guests have confirmed it on the boards.

 

[cathicool]

A friend of mine (retired military) just tried to purchase the DLR tix in NJ. The "cashier" would not sell him the tickets! Cashier insisted he had to purchase a ticket for himself, even though my friend (retired military) had other arrangements to get into DLR (annual pass). My friend was buying the tickets for my family to use, and he would just use his pass, but the cashier would not "allow it"! He asked to speak with a supervisor, but the cashier said he was the supervisor. So he did not get the tickets. Needless to say, my friend was super mad! The cashier insisted that DL would check for ID at the gate and if my friend didn't have a ticket, no one would be allowed in.

So to answer your question, the tickets were/are available on the east coast....

 

[DTDkettleCORNfan]

A friend of mine (retired military) just tried to purchase the DLR tix in NJ. The "cashier" would not sell him the tickets! Cashier insisted he had to purchase a ticket for himself, even though my friend (retired military) had other arrangements to get into DLR (annual pass). My friend was buying the tickets for my family to use, and he would just use his pass, but the cashier would not "allow it"! He asked to speak with a supervisor, but the cashier said he was the supervisor. So he did not get the tickets. Needless to say, my friend was super mad! The cashier insisted that DL would check for ID at the gate and if my friend didn't have a ticket, no one would be allowed in.

So to answer your question, the tickets were/are available on the east coast....

We have used these tickets before....and as far as I know, the military member has to buy one of the tickets for him/herself. I believe this was listed in the fine print when the $99 tickets first went on sale last year. The names are printed on the tickets at the time of purchase (at least according to the 2 DL CM's I called and spoke with, and that is what happened when my dad bought them). So I don't believe there is any getting around this....

 

[LisaT91403]

Thanks for the info. My FIL and MIL are the ones who would be both buying and using the tickets, so that part is no problem. I'd like to avoid having to go to the ticket booth the morning we arrive at DLR since we already have our AP's...I just don't want to lose time standing in line. Hopefully, it will all work out with buying the tickets on base in VA.

 

[MukilteoSailor]

Here is the website with the details. http://www.disneymilitarysales.com/

When we bought ours earlier this year the ITT cashier went to a website and registered our names and printed out a page for each of us. We then took the paper to the turnstile and they printed the 3 day park hopper pass at the gate. I had my ID ready can't remember if they checked it or not. So your FIL should easily be able to visit the ITT or MWR ticket office in VA and get the vouchers.

I have also read that you can also get them from the ticket booth at DLR with proper ID. Although so far I have seen you can get them about $2 cheaper at the ITT office.

 

[Padrepride]

I would think that you can buy DL military tickets back east. I have purchased military tickets to WDW from my MWR in the past. I assume it works both ways.

For buying tickets for non-military guests, I find that as long as the military member purchases them and uses the ticket the first time, CMs at the turnstiles don't check IDs after the first use.

 

[Angel Ariel]

You can buy them at the base in VA, but make sure you buy them far enough in advance of your trip. We went on a spontaneous trip to DL in April, and went on base to purchase our tickets and were told by the ITT worker that we couldn't purchase them there because they needed 2 weeks to process the order/get the tickets. We were leaving in 3 or 4 days.

We bought our tickets at the gate. We arrived on a Sunday night and didn't plan on going into the parks til Monday - so we stopped at the ticket booths Sunday night and purchased them then so we wouldn't have to wait in line the next morning. We went to DTD after that and just walked around/browsed to start getting into the Disney mood.

Regarding checking of the IDs: It didn't happen often, but we did have our IDs checked at the turnstiles once or twice after our first day.

 

[vettegirl]

I had to buy mine at DL as my base would have taken too long to get them in. It took me 2 minutes to buy my ticket DL and no tax.

 

[frijolefrito]

my experience active duty military can use these and no one is tracking the names.

 

[DisneyLovin]

For buying tickets for non-military guests, I find that as long as the military member purchases them and uses the ticket the first time, CMs at the turnstiles don't check IDs after the first use.

My friend's dad bought my friends and I passes one year and they didn't even check ID's. The military member didn't even have to be there but I guess that probably depends on who's checking tickets. It's usually not a problem though.

 

[alwaysmb20]

Just to post our experience....we bought our "tickets" at Travis AFB. The "tickets" were actually vouchers with dh's name on one, and mine on the other. When we presented our vouchers at the turnstiles, the CM asked for dh's military ID. The CM then thanked dh for his service and printed two regular tickets. While the tickets did not have our names on them, on the back it does say "3-day Military Hopper." We were never asked for ID's after that first time. Oh, and dh is retired, but I don't think that makes a difference.

 

[disneybride96]

Have they for sure extended this offer? We don't arrive until 10-5 and it originally expired before that. Glad to hear that you can purchase at the gate though as we no longer have a base within a reasonable distance.

Just answered my own question. Apparently they updated the website this week!!! Now extended throug Sept. 28, 2012 .

 

[DTDkettleCORNfan]

My friend's dad bought my friends and I passes one year and they didn't even check ID's. The military member didn't even have to be there but I guess that probably depends on who's checking tickets. It's usually not a problem though.

Military bases have been selling Disneyland park hoppers for years. We used some a couple of years ago (without names on them and no ID needed). However...the current special (that started in October 2010) for $99 3-day park hoppers has different rules than the regular park hopper tickets for sale on base (i.e. printing names, showing ID, limit of 6, etc). Not sure which kind of ticket you were referring to. But I completely agree with you that the need to show ID can easily depend on who is checking tickets.

 

[DisneyLovin]

Military bases have been selling Disneyland park hoppers for years. We used some a couple of years ago (without names on them and no ID needed). However...the current special (that started in October 2010) for $99 3-day park hoppers has different rules than the regular park hopper tickets for sale on base (i.e. printing names, showing ID, limit of 6, etc). Not sure which kind of ticket you were referring to. But I completely agree with you that the need to show ID can easily depend on who is checking tickets.

We went Dec 2010 so I think it was the same offer. It was also the $99 3day park hoppers but at the same time, my friend has a military ID from living on and off bases his whole life so either way it wouldn't have been an issue. Now that I think back, I also remember having some vouchers with my name or one of my friend's names on it that we turned in to get our actual tickets.

 

[hawaii08]

My hubby just picked up tickets for our upcoming trip. He had to give our full names for each park hopper and he received e-tickets.

 

[LisaT91403]

I was the OP, and thought I'd come back with an update in case anyone is interested. My in-laws had no problem buying the tickets for DLR in Virginia where they live. However, as some others have reported, they had to "order" the tickets for pick up about a week and a half later. When the tickets "arrive", they will have to go back to the base to pick them up...and they are going to be paper printouts rather than actual tickets. The print out will be exchanged at DLR for real ParkHoppers (although it's unclear to me at this point whether we can present it at the turnstile, or we actually have to go to a ticket booth for exchange).

It's puzzling to me that they can't figure out a way to do a computer print out when you are standing there rather than it taking over a week to do so. Is that our military bureaucracy in action?

 

[Angel Ariel]

I would think it probably has something to do with Disney needing to keep track of who has bought tickets and how many. ITT offices aren't going to be set up to input into the Disney system (and vice versa). A lot of it, I'd imagine, has to do with Communications security for the base.

 

[hawaii08]

I was the OP, and thought I'd come back with an update in case anyone is interested. My in-laws had no problem buying the tickets for DLR in Virginia where they live. However, as some others have reported, they had to "order" the tickets for pick up about a week and a half later. When the tickets "arrive", they will have to go back to the base to pick them up...and they are going to be paper printouts rather than actual tickets. The print out will be exchanged at DLR for real ParkHoppers (although it's unclear to me at this point whether we can present it at the turnstile, or we actually have to go to a ticket booth for exchange).

It's puzzling to me that they can't figure out a way to do a computer print out when you are standing there rather than it taking over a week to do so. Is that our military bureaucracy in action?

That does seem crazy. I think that there is a difference depending on whether the tickets were purchased at an ITT or MWR. We received e-tickets for the disneyland park hoppers. It states on the e-ticket to present it to any Disneyland resort turnstile. It'll be scanned and voided and we'll receive a standard disneyland resort ticket.