Military families - how do you DIS?

[SnowBelleAlice]

WDW, DLR seems swell, three days is plenty.
I'm new to the Air Force Reserve
Armed Forces Salute - 5 days max!?
Stay at SOG, take advantage of the room discounts, or pay rack rate when FD is available?

 

[LongLiveRafiki]

You'll have to price it out and it will depend on your dates, how many people and the ages of everyone. You may get a better rate at a Disney hotel with the military discount than what you can get at shades of green. Also the discount tickets will be a huge savings. The discounts on tickets and room savings may be a greater value than free dining. With free dining, you will have to pay rack rate at a Disney resort (not shades of green) and buy at least 2 day park hopper tickets at full price for everyone in your party.

Without knowing details about your group size, dates, ages, etc, it's hard to know for sure which would be a better value but my hunch is you'd be better off with the military discount. You can get the 5 day salute tickets for $224 each and the military discount for the hotels is 30% off values, 35% off moderates, and 40% off deluxe studios.

If you let us know approx dates, how many people will be travelling, their ages, and how many days worth of tickets you would buy (both for the salute as they offer 4 and 5 day options & if you were to pay full price for the tickets to get free dining would you get the same number of days?), then we could possibly help you out more.

 

[SnowBelleAlice]

Thanks, we'll be four guests max, all Disney adults.
Five days is too few, we'd spend at least 8 days in the parks.
I'm hoping for a November or December visit, depends on when I leave for BMT, and tech school - 15 weeks total.

 

[lindsayjs]

Free dining never seems to work out as a better deal than the mil room discount for us. The first year we went we used the room discount and bought tickets at undercover tourist because for more days it was cheaper. I'd check Shades of Green prices if you want more than the 5 days. We are Disney bubble people so I haven't stayed at SOG yet but it's definitely a great option.

 

[LongLiveRafiki]

Well you can only purchase armed force salute tickets for 4 or 5 days. You can get the water parks add on which would allow you the number of visits to the water parks equivalent to the number of park days (so 4 water park visits on the 4 day ticket, 5 for the 5 day).
4 day salute with hopper OR water park: $209/ person
5 day salute with hopper OR water park: $224/ person
* For both hopper and water park, add $37 to each ticket
Since these water park visits can be used on different days than your park days, a 5 day ticket with the water park add on could give you 10 days worth of stuff to do. If you really want to spend 8 days in the theme parks only, you can't do that with the salute tickets.

Shades of green offers discounted military tickets (you can stay at any Disney resort) and for 8 days with park hopper and water parks, it is $473/ person.

A full price 8 day PH ticket through Disney would be $527.18/ person.

A standard room at Shades of Green would be around $805 for 7 nights.

A standard full price room at one of the All Star resorts would be around $846 for 7 nights late nov- early Dec. With military discount, it would be $673.40.

So just throwing some hypotheticals out there, if you stayed at an All Star resort for 7 nights with military discount and the military tickets, it would be $673.40 (room)+ [473 x 4 (tickets)]= $2565.40.
Paying full price there for everything and getting free quick service dining, it would be $846 (room) + [527.18 x 4 (tickets)]= 2954.72. So if you think your family would eat $409.32 worth of quick service food in the week, free dining would be better than the military discount. You can't get free dining at Shades of Green and their room price is more than a discounted room at an All Star resort.

For the record, the cost of the dining plans if paid oop are $48.19/ night/ person for quick service (includes 2 quick service meals + 2 snacks each night, plus resort refillable mug for length of stay). For regular dining plan, the cost is $69.35/ night/ person (includes 1 table service meal + 1 quick service meal + 2 snacks each night + refillable mug).

There are so many different factors that go into pricing. If you were were okay with only doing 5 days in the theme parks and the rest as pool/ water park days, then a discounted Disney room and the salute tickets with paying for meals oop might be a better value. You need to look at what sort of room category, type of beds, and hotel amenities you are looking for. You also have to look at whether you are planning on all quick service meals or some table service too as that will affect out of pocket costs as well as where you can get free dining if you elect to go that route. In the past, value resorts have qualified for quick service and moderates and deluxes have received the regular dining plan. Since Disney has not yet released free dining info for this year, nobody even knows for sure IF it will be offered, let alone what dates and resorts it will be available for. That promo does book quickly though, so if it's something you want to take advantage of, you're going to want to book immediately after it's released.

If you stay at shades of green, remember that you will not qualify for the Magical Express shuttle from the airport to your resort and back. You will have to pay for your own transportation. Also, buses from SoG to the parks don't run as frequently as the buses at Disney resorts. Buses to and from AK, HS, water parks and DS run once per hour and every 20 mins to the TTC where you have to catch the monorail to Epcot and MK.

It's really hard to say what routes will be a better deal for you overall since you don't have exact dates, free dining has not yet been announced, we don't know your eating habits, etc. This is all info you will have to look into, but hopefully this has been some help.

 

[Mousemommy1]

We typically use the Disney resort room discount (40%) deluxe.

We usually buy annual passes, which are a bit cheaper if you buy them through the military.

 

[thepicklebee]

The military discount pricing is almost always the better discount offer, but it does make sense to price out all your different options depending on time of year, duration of trip, etc.

The one limitation in planning a Disney trip as a military family is the uncertainty about the military discounting year to year. We are ALWAYS grateful when Disney extends the Salute promotions and Resort discounts and certainly know that it is not guaranteed... but they don't announce the actual promos until later in the year, so they can't actually release Resort discounts until then, so you can't book your resort reservation until the following years military offers are released. This can be frustrating for planning purposes, although if it matters that much you can always book rack rate or using another promo and be done with it.