Question about the 2022 WDW Armed Forces Salute Tickets

[WDW Traveler]

2022 WDW Armed Forces Salute Tickets - I know how they generally work. I know that a military (retired/active) has to purchase them (up to 6 tickets). And I know a military member has to be traveling with you to activate the tickets.

Here is my question: Does the same military member that buys the ticket, have to activate it?

Hear me out - my FIL is retired military and is going in May 2022 with my MIL. We are going in Sept 2022 with me, my husband, daughter and her boyfriend (active National Guard). Can my FIL buy 6 tickets at our local base and use 2 for himself and MIL and then we can use the other 4 with my daughters boyfriend to activate? Or does my daughters boyfriend have to be the one to buy them to activate them? Just wondering if we could combine things and make it easier as my daughters boyfriend doesn't think his base sells the tickets so we would need to find out where he could get them or we would need to order them.

Thanks for any comments.

 

[brockash]

2022 WDW Armed Forces Salute Tickets - I know how they generally work. I know that a military (retired/active) has to purchase them (up to 6 tickets). And I know a military member has to be traveling with you to activate the tickets.

Here is my question: Does the same military member that buys the ticket, have to activate it?

Hear me out - my FIL is a retired military and is going in May 2022 with my MIL. We are going in Sept 2022 with me, my husband, daughter and her boyfriend (active National Guard). Can my FIL buy 6 tickets at our local base and use 2 for himself and MIL and then we can use the other 4 with my daughters boyfriend to activate? Or does my daughters boyfriend have to be the one to buy them to activate them? Just wondering if we could combine things and make it easier as my daughters boyfriend doesn't think his base sells the tickets so we would need to find out where he could get them or we would need to order them.

Thanks for any comments.

Yes that will work. It doesn't matter who buys them; you just need someone with a military id to activate them at guest services...unless you buy the through Shades of Green and in that situation they've been sending them activated so you wouldn't need to activate them again once you got there (your Fil could just buy them through SoG and then they'd already be activated once he receives them in the mail.)

Obviously, all is subject to change, like anything else, but this is how it's been for years.

 

[WDW Traveler]

Yes that will work. It doesn't matter who buys them; you just need someone with a military id to activate them at guest services...unless you buy the through Shades of Green and in that situation they've been sending them activated so you wouldn't need to activate them again once you got there (your Fil could just buy them through SoG and then they'd already be activated once he receives them in the mail.)

Obviously, all is subject to change, like anything else, but this is how it's been for years.

Thank you for your response. This makes things a bit easier for us. I will for sure double check everything before purchase, but this would be super helpful!

 

[Camonkeygirl]

When I have bought the Salute ticket, both at my local base and Shades of Green, they had either my name or my DH on them and we were told Disney would check for ID and the name on the tickets

 

[brockash]

When I have bought the Salute ticket, both at my local base and Shades of Green, they had either my name or my DH on them and we were told Disney would check for ID and the name on the tickets

Lol...I have never seen that happen and we've been using Salute tix for years and years. When you entered the parks; are you saying Disney stopped you and asked for your ids? I just cannot imagine that happening at WDW as we have never seen or even heard of it. Now at Disneyland, yes, they will ask you the 1st time you enter the park because that's when they activate them and exchange them for real tix. (and I'm 99% sure it was just me, the military spouse with id that had to show it,) but never have we encountered anything like that at WDW.
Also, the OP knows who's going, so they would have no issue with Dad, who's purchasing them giving the names of the others that are using them, so I'm not sure what you think the issue with that would be for them??? If they needed to put names on them, they could and show them their matching id/drivers license etc. if they had to, again I can't imagine it, but that really wouldn't be an issue in their situation unless I'm missing something.

 

[Camonkeygirl]

Lol...I have never seen that happen and we've been using Salute tix for years and years. When you entered the parks; are you saying Disney stopped you and asked for your ids? I just cannot imagine that happening at WDW as we have never seen or even heard of it. Now at Disneyland, yes, they will ask you the 1st time you enter the park because that's when they activate them and exchange them for real tix. (and I'm 99% sure it was just me, the military spouse with id that had to show it,) but never have we encountered anything like that at WDW.
Also, the OP knows who's going, so they would have no issue with Dad, who's purchasing them giving the names of the others that are using them, so I'm not sure what you think the issue with that would be for them??? If they needed to put names on them, they could and show them their matching id/drivers license etc. if they had to, again I can't imagine it, but that really wouldn't be an issue in their situation unless I'm missing something.

maybe it was because I had vouchers for the base in San Diego to use at WDW, but I hadto hop to the Guest Services window and, yes had to show military ID. It has happened 3 separate times

 

[brockash]

maybe it was because I had vouchers for the base in San Diego to use at WDW, but I hadto hop to the Guest Services window and, yes had to show military ID. It has happened 3 separate times

Ok, so that sounds like they weren't activated yet, which is why you had to go to guest services and get them activated and show the military Id. Once they were activated; you didn't have to show your id any longer correct?

Generally all Salute tix need to be activated until recently when Shades of Green will send them activated when they verify the military ID. No one else should have to show ID...although in OPs case it wouldn't matter, because Father in Law already knows who is getting the tix and they'll have the other military member with them if they end up needing to activate them. The purchaser does not need to be with them.

 

[WDW Traveler]

I'm going to throw a loop into all of this with a different question.

How many tickets can one military member actually "activate" at the gate? Is it still the same 6 they can purchase?

Here is my new possible scenario. We are not positive my daughter and her boyfriend (active reserves) will be able to go (long story short - he was supposed to be attending police academy May-Aug 2022, now they are telling him they are not doing the summer class and he will most likely be going Aug-Nov 2022. Our trip is Sept 2022. )

Soooo, we still have one veteran traveling with us who can buy 6 tickets, but we will now have 7 people. If my FIL (retired) purchases us 2 tickets, can that 1 veteran traveling with us activate all 7 tickets or only the 6 they were able to purchase? I would consider buying from SOG if everyone is positive they are already activated and we didn't need the military member with us if worse came to worse, but if our 1 veteran can activate any amount, I would feel better.

Sorry for all the questions. This is the first time I had even heard of these types of tickets since they were introduced and we have never used them, even though we have traveled several times with my FIL.

Thanks for your expertise!

 

[brockash]

I'm going to throw a loop into all of this with a different question.

How many tickets can one military member actually "activate" at the gate? Is it still the same 6 they can purchase?

Here is my new possible scenario. We are not positive my daughter and her boyfriend (active reserves) will be able to go (long story short - he was supposed to be attending police academy May-Aug 2022, now they are telling him they are not doing the summer class and he will most likely be going Aug-Nov 2022. Our trip is Sept 2022. )

Soooo, we still have one veteran traveling with us who can buy 6 tickets, but we will now have 7 people. If my FIL (retired) purchases us 2 tickets, can that 1 veteran traveling with us activate all 7 tickets or only the 6 they were able to purchase? I would consider buying from SOG if everyone is positive they are already activated and we didn't need the military member with us if worse came to worse, but if our 1 veteran can activate any amount, I would feel better.

Sorry for all the questions. This is the first time I had even heard of these types of tickets since they were introduced and we have never used them, even though we have traveled several times with my FIL.

Thanks for your expertise!

I would buy through Shades at this point and not have to hassle with the activation. Technically they are only supposed to be able to activate 6, so while I feel you might have a small chance of getting around it if you tried hard enough; I don't feel it's a great chance and definitely not worth the hassle.

 

[WDW Traveler]

I would buy through Shades at this point and not have to hassle with the activation. Technically they are only supposed to be able to activate 6, so while I feel you might have a small chance of getting around it if you tried hard enough; I don't feel it's a great chance and definitely not worth the hassle.

Thank you for your insight. We will most likely go this route if my DD and her boyfriend can't go. (The uber planner in me is having heart palpitations since I would never wait until 6 months out to buy tickets and make park reservations at this point, but you do what you have to do lol and I don't think we are going at a super busy time (end of Sept) so hopefully we will be good with park reservations.)