No ID required for military discount tix entrance?

[wrighter]

OP here. Not sure whether or not this acquaintance was/is aware that military tix should be used with the member present. What I do know is that when I mentioned I thought it odd that they would be able to use them without said member, she clearly didn't think it at all unusual or wrong. Just pleased to be getting such a deal.

I'm curious about the CT poster who mentioned a parent who can purchase tickets on base that do not need to be activated with an ID. What kind of discount are we talking here? I believe this acquaintance mentioned she got 4 day hoppers for around $130 . . . and I do know her brother purchased them on an AF base.

Personally, I do believe in Karma. What comes around goes around - hence, I try to do what I personally believe is right. (I know not everybody else will always agree with what I believe!) I will try to find a way to let her know what I have found out without offending her, and then the ball is in her court. Perhaps these tickets will not need activating - who knows? Maybe someone will question the age of her ticketless child. Maybe not. I'm sure people do it all the time. Doesn't mean I will!

Here's to our military, who absolutely deserve to experience the magic on those tix.

 

[Tiggerlover91]

When's she going? You'll have to let us know what happens when she returns.

 

[bouncycat]

If it is the 4 day salute tickets, a member has to be there to activate them at the ticket window. It is an awesome deal, and I have used it for the past couple of years, even the room discount. I have taken different family members and friends, and treated them to a disney trip, this year we're taking DH's niece and her husband and 2 kids, and his nephew (her brother) also, I'm getting them the 4 day salute tickets, but we will be there with them at all times. Once they're active, the military person doesn't have to be there, and she will have to pay a really high amount to get in for the 4 days. I think for our niece and family of 4, the regular price was almost $900 for 2 adults, and one child of 5, the other is 1. So the military deal is the best deal going, and it does make me mad when there are unauthorized people using it!! But, you see it all the time, people trying to get something for little, or nothing, even if they aren't entitled to it. As for the age of the child, I have never done that, I'd rather buy the ticket than be embarrassed that way!!! I hope karma does come back to bite this woman in the butt, cause it sounds like she deserves it! Let us know when she goes, or when you talk to her, and what happens. Ask her what the tickets look like, the military ones are white, hard plastic, and have a red, and blue design on the front. Good luck with dealing with someone like that!!

 

[Disney/Universal Fan]

Often we will look at the child and may ask the child.

A little over a year ago I had someone back a covered stroller through my gate. I asked to see the child. When the man tried to tell me the boy was under three, he very clearly said "No I'm not, I'm Five!" The man agreed that he had not told the truth.

I asked to see his ticket; it was a seven day hopper. I told him that the rest of his family could stay right where they were, and he could go out and buy a seven day child hopper, to match what the rest of the family had.

He said that they only had two more days on the trip and did not need a seven day ticket for him. I gave him the choice to buy the ticket and come back through my gate or to talk to Security about fraud.

He went and (unhappily) bought the ticket.

Cheshire, you said that often you will look at the child and ask the child. What is Disney's Policy on this? I'm sure they have a policy in place rather than just leaving it up to the individual.

 

[WDSearcher]

Cheshire, you said that often you will look at the child and ask the child. What is Disney's Policy on this? I'm sure they have a policy in place rather than just leaving it up to the individual.

Disney's policy is that children under 3 are free. How they enforce it is not written in stone. (Much like FP and height requirements and other things.)

It would be impossible to ask every single child in a stroller how old they are. And it would be viewed by some Guests (and their lawyers, I'm sure) as discriminatory. Because, of course, there are really big 2YOs and really small 4YOs and just because someone's in a stroller doesn't mean they're a baby, etc. Disney's overall belief is that they trust their Guests to tell the truth.

It is up to the ticket CM's discretion as to whether someone is asked about the age of their child or not. Different CMs ask differently.

 

[disnut8]

But as a "try to do the right thing" kind of person, feel that I should at least tell her to read the fine print. Then she's on her own!

Decisions, decisions.

What if you said something like - "Your situation with Disney World and the military tickets had me thinking so I put the question out to my discussion board. Now, there is one person [Cheshire] who seems to be an expert on the matter and the rest of these are opinions and personal experience. I thought you might like to read the thread". Then show her this thread. You can edit it and remove any of the comments about passing off the 4 year as a 3 year old because I don't think you can do anything about that at all.

If you do that, you have alerted her to potential problems but you haven't said "don't do it". You are leaving it up to her on how to proceed. It's her risk, it's her trip and if she encounters any problems, she has only herself to blame.

If she comes back and says everything went well, then say that maybe Disney should close that loophole and you'll be posting about her experience.

 

[lilosurf11]

My father is the air force and while he has an AP, he gets discount tickets for my brother and I. I believe you can activate them before you leave home (ours were).
Oh yeah, and if you have to activate them, all you do is show your ID at the stands where you buy tickets (before the park entrance). Other than that, you don't need your military ID for the rest of the trip (to get into the park, anyway).

 

[SKG123]

To the OP, I'm not 100% sure how much of a discount my Mother gets at the base. I know last year for Christmas she bought my BF a five day PH ticket. She went with us and she got herself, me and her friend the Salute tickets that we had to activate. She wanted my BF to have his ticket to open at Christmas. It sounds to me that your "friend" is going to try to use the salute ticket which will not work with out an ID card. All 3 of us had to be there when they activated the tickets. They wanted our names and DOB, on top of my Mom's ID. Again I don't think that getting the tickets at the base (not the salute) is a huge savings.

 

[CTmommyx3]

passing off 5 year old wow! my youngest turned 4 this past November and we went last feb so he was already over 3 at that point. I had the cm at the ticket window almost question me to make sure he was not under 3! he is smaller for his age and even now may pass for 3 if he never spoke! LOL
i would think i would be so stressed over trying to lie and get past the tickets and all i would be sick!
way to much to worry about than to lie!

 

[appleorchard]

My father is the air force and while he has an AP, he gets discount tickets for my brother and I. I believe you can activate them before you leave home (ours were).
Oh yeah, and if you have to activate them, all you do is show your ID at the stands where you buy tickets (before the park entrance). Other than that, you don't need your military ID for the rest of the trip (to get into the park, anyway).

You cannot activate the 4 day special $138 military passes before you leave home. They must be activated at the gate by the military member or spouse only; dependents cannot activate them even if they have an ID. You do not have to activate the military tickets normally available at the base, but they save only a small amount, usually the tax, off the regular ticket cost.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

Here is an easy way to do the comparison.

Here is a link to the Shades Of Green web site ticket page. It lists the costs for all the WDW tickets they sell. These prices are very similar to the prices you can get at a MWR/ITT Office. Each offic is actually allowed to set its own prices.

If you compare the ticket prices above with the prices on Post #18 of the Everything About WDW Tickets sticky in this forum you will see they charge mre for one and two day tickets and less, but not much less for anything else. A consideration to take into effect that the 6.5% sales tax, which is added to normal Disney tickets is not added to tickets sold by the military, so there is an additional savings.

To buy the reduced price MYW tickets at an installation and/or SoG you have to be an authorized user at that location. These tickets (other than Annual Pass Vouchers) are live tickets and may be used in the Park turnstiles woithout further action.

The Armed Forces Salute Tickets ($138/$165), if sold at a base or SoG, must be activated at a Park Ticket or Guest Relations Window before they will be accepted by a turnstile. And the service member, spouse or unremarried widow are the only person who may do the activation. If sold at a Park entrance they will be activatged at that time.

If you go to the locked sticky Everything About WDW Tickets in this Forum, especially Post #17, you can get a lot more information. An easy way to get to the sticky is by clicking on the link in my signature.

 

[cm8]

OP here. Not sure whether or not this acquaintance was/is aware that military tix should be used with the member present. What I do know is that when I mentioned I thought it odd that they would be able to use them without said member, she clearly didn't think it at all unusual or wrong. Just pleased to be getting such a deal.

I'm curious about the CT poster who mentioned a parent who can purchase tickets on base that do not need to be activated with an ID. What kind of discount are we talking here? I believe this acquaintance mentioned she got 4 day hoppers for around $130 . . . and I do know her brother purchased them on an AF base.

Personally, I do believe in Karma. What comes around goes around - hence, I try to do what I personally believe is right. (I know not everybody else will always agree with what I believe!) I will try to find a way to let her know what I have found out without offending her, and then the ball is in her court. Perhaps these tickets will not need activating - who knows? Maybe someone will question the age of her ticketless child. Maybe not. I'm sure people do it all the time. Doesn't mean I will!

Here's to our military, who absolutely deserve to experience the magic on those tix.

AT the local ITT, they offer Disney tickets at a discount that can be purchased for use by anyone. Those tickets are allowed to be given as gift or purchased for other peoples use and MIL ID is not required to activate or use. As far as the current promotion, MIL ID is required and she will be required to produce on upon entry. If that is the one she has, she will be when she realizes that she will have to pay more money to enjoy her stay

I can send you a link to our ITT if you'd like

 

[Claire&TheBoys]

AT the local ITT, they offer Disney tickets at a discount that can be purchased for use by anyone. Those tickets are allowed to be given as gift or purchased for other peoples use and MIL ID is not required to activate or use. As far as the current promotion, MIL ID is required and she will be required to produce on upon entry. If that is the one she has, she will be when she realizes that she will have to pay more money to enjoy her stay

I can send you a link to our ITT if you'd like

Agree and confirm this post. The 2 local bases we have (one AF, one Navy) both have ITT/MWR offices where we can buy Disney tickets at a discount. I always check prices at both because sometimes one has a better price than the other. They do carry the special Military Salute tickets (our Navy base has them for $133) but also regular MYW tickets of various lengths, and if they don't have what you want they will order it. We get our Florida resident seasonal pass vouchers at ITT for a discount - I saved about $30 per child ticket on the cost alone, plus the savings on sales tax. Those vouchers and tickets do not require military ID to use.

But, the prices are not as great a discount as the Military Salute tickets, so if she said $130/4 days she got the Military Salute tickets and will be unhappy at the gate.

ETA: I checked the ITT price on the 4-day tickets online: base tickets, $228A/$204C, hoppers, $282A/$258C.

 

[LadyZolt]

OP: I have one of the military salute tickets as we used them in January. Have your friend look at hers -- in smallish print on the back, it has all the details and then in larger print, it will say what it is, for example, mine says "4-Day Disney Military Promotion with Park Hopper® Option" and directly under that it says, "Military personnel or their spouse must be present at the time of purchase and activation"

Explain to her that this means the ticket is *not* activated until she presents it to a cast member at one of the gates and that it cannot be used for entry until it is activated, even if it has been paid for.

Since she has the ticket, it would be easy in conversation to ask to see it or to ask her to maybe check it to see if there's anything written on it.

 

[anlashokna]

When you activate the tickets your military member is in charge of doing that. Everyone who will have a ticket is present and they sign there cards. Then when you first use it you do the finger print scan which supposedly makes it your card. I would imagine the only time they need to see you ID is if there is a problem or you lose the card because you will have a receipt to return and get a card replacement.

 

[suemom2kay]

Often we will look at the child and may ask the child.

A little over a year ago I had someone back a covered stroller through my gate. I asked to see the child. When the man tried to tell me the boy was under three, he very clearly said "No I'm not, I'm Five!" The man agreed that he had not told the truth.

I asked to see his ticket; it was a seven day hopper. I told him that the rest of his family could stay right where they were, and he could go out and buy a seven day child hopper, to match what the rest of the family had.

He said that they only had two more days on the trip and did not need a seven day ticket for him. I gave him the choice to buy the ticket and come back through my gate or to talk to Security about fraud.

He went and (unhappily) bought the ticket.

Wow! Just Wow. Too bad he ran into you. He had gotten away with it for 5 days. I'm glad you made him purchase a ticket.

 

[BabyFu18]

I hope when this "acquaintance" gets to the parks, she doesn't throw a fit when the CM tells her she cannot use the tickets without the military member/spouse there to activate it. I hate to see people acting foolish because they fail to acknowledge when they are in the wrong.

I've been several times with the military tickets, and every time the CM activating our tickets has asked to see the military members ID, we'd expect nothing less.

 

[anlashokna]

Lilosurf- you can purchase on base or sog. Normally buying on base can save you afew more bucks. Activation however does have to occur physically at disney and there are specific locations in which you have to do it. IE downtown disney customer service, ticket windows at the parks. The service member has to be here with ID for activation. This is our third trip using these type of tickets now. Once they're activated then you can go freely with or without the servicemember.

But very simply yes the servicemember that purchased the tickets must be there to activate. I've never heard of anyone getting around this rule.

Btw lol on the 5year old. I'm afraid if I was working that gate my initial reaction would have been laughter over the kid ratting out the parent

 

[ScrappyRN]

If my sister purchases the tickets in April and activates all of them do they expire 14 days out? She is going with our parents in April and I can't go at that time, but hope to get there in Aug. and the special tickets have to be used by Oct.

 

[anlashokna]

As far as I know you have until the expiration date Oct 1, 2011 to use up the days on them. There are black out dates on the back listed.

We made two trip last year and split the tickets over the two trips. Doing the same this year as well.