Military Rate

[disnewbie108]

So excited. Was able to change the reservation we made a while back for our March 2012 dates to the Military Salute rate. We had our dates booked at rack rate. Per this board keep calling back in case AAA rates or military rates were released. And today, we were able to get the Military Salute rate Yeah! The rates may have been out for a while, I am not sure. I have only been calling 1x per month since June.

FYI: We are also AAA members and they did not have the discounts yet for March 2012. I think the Military Salute rate may be slightly better. We are saving close to $250 off the rack on a 2Q Club room at RPR for 2 nights.

Hope this helps someone out there. Thank you to this board for all the great info. I would not have known to keep calling back to see if I would be able to save off the rack rate. We would gladly pay rack rate BTW...FOTL, WWOHP early entry and staying onsite are all worth the price IMHO.

 

[ttree]

Is the military rate only for active duty? We are retired. How good is the discount? I got the SMPM rate for RPR club Dec 16 to 22 for 239 night, Did you buy tickets on base? BTW I was told by cutomer service I could get 10% discount on tickets at gate with id but I will be upgrading 1 day tickets I have and discount not available on upgrades. Have a great trip!

 

[disnewbie108]

Is the military rate only for active duty? We are retired. How good is the discount? I got the SMPM rate for RPR club Dec 16 to 22 for 239 night, Did you buy tickets on base? BTW I was told by cutomer service I could get 10% discount on tickets at gate with id but I will be upgrading 1 day tickets I have and discount not available on upgrades. Have a great trip!

I am not sure about active duty vs. retired. We are AD. You may be getting a better deal with your SMPM deal. It would not hurt to call. I seem to remember in 2009 my parents (dad, retired AF) was able to get the discount. As far as how good it is, I think it depends on your room/resort. For us, 2 nts in 2Q Club level at RPR went from the $394 rack rate we booked to hold our reservation to $282 Military Salute we asked for once the discount was available and could be applied to our reservation. So, depending on your room/resort,YMMV. We can only go for 2nts due to school for DS. Otherwise we would try the SMPM rate to see if there would be more savings that way.

I do not get my passes from ITT right now. My last 2 trips I got my tickets from Costco. For us a better deal since they were 3 day, park to park, not consecutive days expiring Dec. 2013. We only use 2 days because we zip through everything with our FOTL access. We will try to use the 3rd day on a quick trip either after our cruise in 2012 or a planned trip to the motherland (WDW) in 2013.

I may be off a little on the details here. If I am, some one will chime in.

I think you should call to see if you can get the MS being retired. It is worth it to call. But your SMPM rate may end up being better.


HTH

 

[marylandteachergirl]

I called today and tried to reserve the military rate (Hero Salute) for July, 2012. I was told it was only for active duty. I am sad because Disney and Busch Gardens both offer retiree discounts. The next best is the AAA discount - but it's about $50 more for a standard room compared to a water view room at the discounted military rate.

 

[dclfun]

Do they release all of 2012 for military or is it month-by-month? My son is AD Navy and is now stationed in Jacksonville while we live in Orlando. I know he'd love to stay onsite for the benefits of express pass, etc. before he is deployed elsewhere. I'm thinking of next spring in early May or late fall in early Nov.

 

[disnewbie108]

Do they release all of 2012 for military or is it month-by-month? My son is AD Navy and is now stationed in Jacksonville while we live in Orlando. I know he'd love to stay onsite for the benefits of express pass, etc. before he is deployed elsewhere. I'm thinking of next spring in early May or late fall in early Nov.

I am not sure. You could call. I would recommened at the very least making a rack room reservation for the dates you are interested and if the MS rate is not available yet for those dates, you could call back once it is. Depending on when you go, your preferred accomodation may fill up quickly. For me, getting the room first was a priority, any discount I got on it after the fact was a bonus. The onsite benefits are well worth it for our family based on how we tour the parks. Since we have limited time this trip, we need to do everything relatively quickly. Early access and especially FOTL access helps us do that.

Good luck. HTH. Thank you to your son and your family for the sacrafice and the service he provides serving in the armed forces.

 

[disnewbie108]

I called today and tried to reserve the military rate (Hero Salute) for July, 2012. I was told it was only for active duty. I am sad because Disney and Busch Gardens both offer retiree discounts. The next best is the AAA discount - but it's about $50 more for a standard room compared to a water view room at the discounted military rate.

Bummer..Sorry to hear the discount did not work out for you...

 

[DaleKJackson]

Hard to compare all of the prices, deals, specials, etc

 

[marylandteachergirl]

AAA discount is good though, and who knows, a pin code or other offer could come! We will still have a great time and will have a water view from the cruise afterwards. Kids are so excited.

We loved Travis AFB area too. Miss the area!
I saw RPR on lastminutetravel but price was the same, so I thought booking direct was easiest.

Only 9 months to go!

 

[elovell]

About what % off would you say this discount gave you? We won't be going until the 1st week of June & I'm just trying to compare prices on whether to stay at Universal fo part of our trip or shuttle over from SOG. We've never done Universal before, but 15 year old son thinks the rides aren't exciting enough at Disney anymore. So, we're going to try both parks on this trip.

 

[elovell]

Do they release all of 2012 for military or is it month-by-month? My son is AD Navy and is now stationed in Jacksonville while we live in Orlando. I know he'd love to stay onsite for the benefits of express pass, etc. before he is deployed elsewhere. I'm thinking of next spring in early May or late fall in early Nov.

We are planning on going in June also. I called the Universal vacation line & they quoted me very high rates. Obviously not discounted; however, I found out you can go to the Loews website directly & enter code MIL to see the discounted rates. It was so nice to be able to put in different dates & play around to see when we'd like to go. They were all 30% off the rack rate. You can then just buy your discounted tickets on base.