Military Passes & Magic Bands

[ValarDisneyus]

Hi! I was wondering if there were any military families who could tell me what to expect regarding our 4- day passes and magic bands? I have a family of 3 and bought all 6 passes so we could do 8 days. I think I'll probably have to visit guest services at the start & middle of the trip to activate them, maybe. And I don't know if I'll have to carry them all the time or if once I activate them, they'll be linked to our magic bands.

 

[Bellanota]

I would like to know this answer too cause i am planning to use these tickets my next trip....

so far this is what i found

How ToDo It

Make your Disney resort reservation.
Create a My Disney Experience Account (if you don’t have one).
Link your resort reservation to your MDE Account using the conformation number (you will then see everyone on your reservation in your account).
Personalize Your Magic Bands in MDE, you may select the color and edit the name printed on each before they are mailed to you. More on how this works.
Purchase your Disney Armed Forces Salute Tickets at your local base Ticket Office.
Link your Salute Tickets in your MDE Account to each individual person (mark each ticket with the person’s name).
Make your FP+ Selections, individually (if you’ll split up) or as a group.
Upon Arrival, check in to your Disney Resort Hotel, they will activate your bands for your room key, charging (if desired) , and resort access (pool, parking). They will also give you a room keycard.
Activate your Salute Tickets. You are now all set. You may use either your tickets or bands at this point.
Check your FP+ reservations just to be sure they carried over.
Enjoy your trip!

But this doesn't explain what to when one person is using two sets of tickets....

 

[ellie05]

You can activate them all at once, no two trips needed. As soon as you get the tickets you can link them to you mde and make your FP+ reservations. Once you get there go to gs to activate them. You won't need the paper ticket if your tickets are linked to your MB. Although I would have them with me just in case of a glitch the day you activate then.

 

[BeerMe]

You can activate them all at once, no two trips needed.

Our experience has been different. We could only have one activated ticket per person at any time. It's been like that on the several occasions we have used multiple tickets. I hope they have changed that though. It makes things easier.

 

[ellie05]

We have been able to activate two tickets per person in one trip to gs.

 

[Kirby]

We (my daughter and I) were just there last week. On our arrival day at SOG, 11/29, we purchased two of the 4 day park hoppers for $177 each, two one day only Magic Kingdom tickets and two MVMCP tickets. We then went to customer service at DTD and activated all of our tickets and put them on our magic bands. No trouble at all and it worked perfectly all week.

 

[ValarDisneyus]

Well this is loads of good news. Thanks for the help everyone! I already linked them in MDE. We're not going until May, so I've got some time to pass. I know they let me do my dining 180 days out; so far so good!

 

[smscrapbooks]

So if I understand this correctly, then the only way to take advantage of Fast Pass Plus reservations (which are 60 days out of visit) is to make sure that you purchase your military discount passes from a base more than 60 days in advance and then link them up to My Disney Experience. If you wait till you arrive to try to make FP reservations, the best rides and times will be gone otherwise.

Has anyone done it this way and successfully made FP ressies 60 days in advance of their trip?

 

[rjnauroth]

Here is my experience from this past summer. I had booked a room only reservation using military discount. Purchased 4 military tickets from local base, husband and I were each using 2 tickets and linked in MDE. At 60 days, I was only able to schedule FP for each of us for 4 days. Then at 30 days, I was able to schedule the remaining 4 days. It was kinda a pain, but I scheduled what I really wanted at the 60 day mark. When we arrived, I was able to activate both sets of tickets on the first day and all of our FP were there, no problems.

 

[smscrapbooks]

Why do you think they do that with the two sets of tickets, not letting you do them all 60 days in advance? Did Disney tell you that you could only do 60 days on one set? The 60 day advantage is supposed to be a resort perk so it seems like you should have been able to do both sets.

 

[dmband]

I wish they had other options besides four day
More often then not the tix are not worth it to us because we go for say six days

 

[Capang]

Order tickets from your base at least a month before the 60 day reservation window. If the base does not have them they will likely have to be ordered and shipped.

 

[Kirby]

So if I understand this correctly, then the only way to take advantage of Fast Pass Plus reservations (which are 60 days out of visit) is to make sure that you purchase your military discount passes from a base more than 60 days in advance and then link them up to My Disney Experience. If you wait till you arrive to try to make FP reservations, the best rides and times will be gone otherwise.

Has anyone done it this way and successfully made FP ressies 60 days in advance of their trip?

We didn't book our FP until we arrived and purchased our tickets. We had no trouble getting the FPs that we wanted then. Even the coveted Toy Story and Anna and Elsa meet and greet. We didn't try for the Seven Dwarfs. You just have to play around with the times on MDE.

 

[SCDisneyfanatic]

We bought our tickets from Shades of Green...not from a Base. They provided the ticket vouchers (you don't actually get the tickets until you activate them...it's a voucher you use to do FP+). We also purchased MVMCP tickets from SOG as well. Since we are staying there, we could only do FP+ 30 days out. However, if you stay at SOG and do the Stars and Stripes Length of Stay passes, you can do all the days for your stay at one time. It's only the Special 4 day passes that need to be used sequentially (four days then 4 days).

 

[SCDisneyfanatic]

BTW: we were able to get all the FP+ we wanted except for 7DMT...10 adults, so we didn't have a desire for A&E...at DHS and EPCOT it came down to choosing 1 Tier 1 so we went with RnRC and Soarin'...TSMM and TT will have to work in to our plan using SB. Every other ride/attraction was available for 10 people at 30 days out!

 

[stampinmom]

We bought our tickets from Shades of Green...not from a Base. They provided the ticket vouchers (you don't actually get the tickets until you activate them...it's a voucher you use to do FP+). We also purchased MVMCP tickets from SOG as well. Since we are staying there, we could only do FP+ 30 days out. However, if you stay at SOG and do the Stars and Stripes Length of Stay passes, you can do all the days for your stay at one time. It's only the Special 4 day passes that need to be used sequentially (four days then 4 days).

You have to use the 4 days sequentially? We are going for 6 days but will use 4 days of passes. We were planning on a couple of resort days in-between the 6 days. Is that not possible?

 

[Angel Ariel]

So if I understand this correctly, then the only way to take advantage of Fast Pass Plus reservations (which are 60 days out of visit) is to make sure that you purchase your military discount passes from a base more than 60 days in advance and then link them up to My Disney Experience. If you wait till you arrive to try to make FP reservations, the best rides and times will be gone otherwise.

Has anyone done it this way and successfully made FP ressies 60 days in advance of their trip?

We purchased our Armed Forces Salute tx for our November trip as soon as they went on sale in late August/early September. I forget the actual date we bought them, but our FP+ date was September 8th and the tickets for 2014-15 went on sale shortly before that date. I remember that because I actually called NAS Jacksonville to try and order them there and have them shipped because my local base didn't have them in yet and NAS Jacksonville was supposed to get them first.

Now, it turned out that my local base ended up getting them first...just a couple of days before our 60 day mark, so I bought them at my local base and immediately linked them in MDE (and canceled my order with NAS Jacksonville). I was able to make FP+ reservations at 60 days without a problem.

When we bought our AFS tickets from the local base, we were given the RFID cards as tickets (our Magic Bands arrived later). As a tip, when you link the ticket in MDE I would immediately write the name or initials of the person whose ticket that is (who it was linked to in MDE) on the ticket itself, so that when those tickets are brought to guest services for activation, no one forgets/mixes up which ticket should get linked to which band.

 

[Angel Ariel]

You have to use the 4 days sequentially? We are going for 6 days but will use 4 days of passes. We were planning on a couple of resort days in-between the 6 days. Is that not possible?

You do not have to use the AFS tickets 4 days in a row.

Our first park day was Fri. Nov 7th. Sat Nov 8th we did not use our AFS tickets at all. I entered Epcot at night, but with a hard party ticket (finish line party for wine and dine 1/2 marathon). I had no problems using the AFS ticket for entry on Sunday, monday and Tuesday.

 

[stampinmom]

You do not have to use the AFS tickets 4 days in a row.

Our first park day was Fri. Nov 7th. Sat Nov 8th we did not use our AFS tickets at all. I entered Epcot at night, but with a hard party ticket (finish line party for wine and dine 1/2 marathon). I had no problems using the AFS ticket for entry on Sunday, monday and Tuesday.

Thank you!

 

[Angel Ariel]

You're welcome!