Question for someone who has knowledge about military discount park tickets

[Momtwofour]

We are traveling to Disney in June and using a military discount. I have been looking at SOG for ticket prices and I have a few questions. We are staying 9 nights w 7- 8 park days.
If we buy 6 Salute tickets for 3 people to use how does that work w fp? Can you load them all at once and still book at 60 days out?
And Stars and Stripes tickets. If says length of stay. So if we are staying 9 nights we have to buy for 9 days??
Trying to find the best savings for a family of 5.
Also, our break day is mid trip. If we decide not to hit a park this day we could get by with 7 days of tickets. Can you skip a day or do they need to be in a row? Thanks!!!!

 

[Robo]

-our break day is mid trip. If we decide not to hit a park this day we could get by with 7 days of tickets.
1. Can you skip a day
2. or do they need to be in a row?

1. Yes (or more.)
2. Nope.

 

[sharonabe]

We are traveling to Disney in June and using a military discount. I have been looking at SOG for ticket prices and I have a few questions. We are staying 9 nights w 7- 8 park days.
If we buy 6 Salute tickets for 3 people to use how does that work w fp? Can you load them all at once and still book at 60 days out?
And Stars and Stripes tickets. If says length of stay. So if we are staying 9 nights we have to buy for 9 days??
Trying to find the best savings for a family of 5.
Also, our break day is mid trip. If we decide not to hit a park this day we could get by with 7 days of tickets. Can you skip a day or do they need to be in a row? Thanks!!!!

Salute tickets...yes you load them to those 3 people, but for some reason I'm thinking SoG is 30 days and not 60 days.
Stars and Stripes have to be length of stay. They do discount regular tickets. It's not much, but better than nothing.

 

[Lynne G]

First, if you are staying at SOG, you are considered not staying at a Disney hotel, so you get 30 days advance not 60. If you are staying at a WDW resort, you do get 60, regardless of which ticket you have entered in your account.


Second, for Stars and Stripes, yes, they must be for the number of days of your stay, plus one. SO if staying 7 nights and 8 days, you can get get a 7 day Stars and Stripes, that's good for 7 of 8 consecutive days. That's because some can use it the first day they arrive, then 6 days after that, and some can't use it the first day, so then they use it 7 days after the day they check in.

Also nice, since not that long ago it wasn't true, if you buy your tickets from SOG, no need to activate the Salute tickets.

I've done the math, sometimes the three of us use the Salutes back to back, and this last time, we used the Stars and Stripes, because it actually was a few dollars cheaper. But, we go to the parks every day we are staying at WDW. And, we like that the Stars and Stripes are park hoppers and include the water parks. They don't include the mini golf, like the water fun and more tickets though, but the mini golf courses don't interest us.

The nice thing about Salute tickets are they are good until December 19, 2017. So, you can use them any of the days between now and then. They do have blackout dates though, April 9 to 23, 2017.

Have an awesome time. And thank you for your service.

 

[Momtwofour]

Thank you!! Your information answered all of my questions!
We will be staying at a Disney resort and in the past we have stayed fewer days so I wasn't having to watch my pennies as much. This trip we are staying longer w more resort time. So I don't think the Stars and Stripes will be our best deal. But being able to buy the Salute and using them back to back helps a lot!

 

[thepicklebee]

You can also consider buying the 5 day salutes with waterparks- then you get 5 park days plus 5 "fun day" options like waterparks, and miniature golf.

Also, order your tickets early from Shades of Green. They fed ex them to you, then you can link them to your MDE for your fastpasses. They are active tickets and you won't have to waste time activating the vouchers at the ticket window.

 

[Momtwofour]

You can also consider buying the 5 day salutes with waterparks- then you get 5 park days plus 5 "fun day" options like waterparks, and miniature golf.

Also, order your tickets early from Shades of Green. They fed ex them to you, then you can link them to your MDE for your fastpasses. They are active tickets and you won't have to waste time activating the vouchers at the ticket window.

Ya I was debating on which one to purchase. The last time we bought the Stars and Stripes we ended up not going to a water park but we are going to have more free time this trip.
I was SO happy when they started activating tickets at SOG!! A few years ago we had to make a trip to DTD to get the activated. We are going to take advantage of the discounted PhotoPass so we will have to make a trip for that. I was really excited to see that come available. We always get PhotoPass so its nice to be able to save a few dollars on that also!

 

[thepicklebee]

Well a 9 day Stars and Stripes is about $450.

If you bought the 5 day Park Hoppers with WP it's $261. If you decided when you were there that you wanted more than 5 days in the park you could buy 3 of the 4 Day Salutes for $209 each. If you ended up getting both you'd only have paid about $20 more, but if you don't end up needing to buy them that's a substantial savings.

 

[Momtwofour]

Well a 9 day Stars and Stripes is about $450.

If you bought the 5 day Park Hoppers with WP it's $261. If you decided when you were there that you wanted more than 5 days in the park you could buy 3 of the 4 Day Salutes for $209 each. If you ended up getting both you'd only have paid about $20 more, but if you don't end up needing to buy them that's a substantial savings.

I know for sure we are wanting tickets for 8 days max. Which is why I didn't think the Stars and Stripes would work for us. And the 9 day is actually $482. Not 100% sure we would go to a waterpark. I wonder if we could buy the salute 4 day hopper and a salute 4 day hopper w water park and use those back to back??

 

[thepicklebee]

Are you looking at the SOG price lists? I just got the updated one and ordered our tickets last week and that was the price of the S+S tickets.


Regardless, you can absolutely can use them back to back. I went a week before my family last year and used them that way.

 

[Momtwofour]

Are you looking at the SOG price lists? I just got the updated one and ordered our tickets last week and that was the price of the S+S tickets.


Regardless, you can absolutely can use them back to back. I went a week before my family last year and used them that way.

I was looking on the SOG website. Hoping you are right!! That price is a lot better!! My price list from them is for the fall so I'm sure it's outdated. Maybe I should email them?

 

[Momtwofour]

The price on my list from the fall is $450 but park tickets just went up so that is probably why they are higher now. I should have been more on the ball and ordered earlier I guess

 

[sharonabe]

I know for sure we are wanting tickets for 8 days max. Which is why I didn't think the Stars and Stripes would work for us. And the 9 day is actually $482. Not 100% sure we would go to a waterpark. I wonder if we could buy the salute 4 day hopper and a salute 4 day hopper w water park and use those back to back??

You can. I would start with the water park ticket because then you could spread out your water park days over the entire 8 days. At least I think you could do it that way. Not sure what happens when you start your second ticket. You might want to go ask Steve over at Disney Military tips: http://www.militarydisneytips.com/

 

[Momtwofour]

You can. I would start with the water park ticket because then you could spread out your water park days over the entire 8 days. At least I think you could do it that way. Not sure what happens when you start your second ticket. You might want to go ask Steve over at Disney Military tips: http://www.militarydisneytips.com/

OK thanks! Thats a good idea!!! He is always so helpful

 

[momto2js]

You can use the Salute tickets back to back, but you can only buy 6 per sponsor per year. So unless you have 2 military members in your family you will not be able to buy 10 tickets. You can do back to backs for 3 and then stars and strips for the other 2 potentially, or the slightly discounted option. But you can not buy 10 Salute tickets in one year.

 

[Momtwofour]

You can use the Salute tickets back to back, but you can only buy 6 per sponsor per year. So unless you have to military members in your family you will not be able to buy 10 tickets. You can do back to backs for 3 and then stars and strips for the other 2 potentially, or the slightly discounted option. But you can not buy 10 Salute tickets in one year.

Yes I understand that We have used them many times. I have just never used them back to back or taken a break day mid trip.

 

[jen7233]

Hi, yes you can skip a day if you want, it doesn't have to be consecutive.

I just bought our 4 day park hopper tickets from our local ITR. They also had 5 day park hopper tickets available. We plan to skip a day also in our vacation plan. We are staying at SOG, it'll be our fourth time there. Last visit, I was able to load FP at 60 days but it was due to our split stay at the Wilderness first. From what I understand, for non-property resorts it's 30 days to book FPs and Disney properties are 60 days. We booked our FPs using the ITR Salute ticket no problem on My Disney Experience and associated our magic bands, the voucher number is on the back. We had no issues with the Salute tickets, but we had to go up to the kiosk at the front gate at first. This was two years ago, so I'll see this year in May if it'll be the same.

We haven't had the need, but you can get up to 6 Salute tickets (large families may have an exception), and should be able to use back to back. Unfortunately, I'm not that well versed in research on the difference of Stars and Stripes and Salute tickets.

 

[WestieCrazy]

You can also consider buying the 5 day salutes with waterparks- then you get 5 park days plus 5 "fun day" options like waterparks, and miniature golf.

Also, order your tickets early from Shades of Green. They fed ex them to you, then you can link them to your MDE for your fastpasses. They are active tickets and you won't have to waste time activating the vouchers at the ticket window.

How do you order the tickets in advance? I cannot seem to find how on the Shades of Green website. Thanks.

 

[TygerHawks]

To piggyback on this thread, just for verification. The vouchers bought at ITR, are they linkable to MDE for FP+ and then you just have to redeem them?

 

[capegirl]

How do you order the tickets in advance? I cannot seem to find how on the Shades of Green website. Thanks.

Call SOG and follow the prompts for attractions/tickets. As a rule, they do not answer the phone, but if you leave them a voice mail they will get back to you.
They will then send you an email with the ticket prices and an order form to fill out. I have always faxed the form back to them, and I have received a confirmation call to verify my order and payment method.
If you are staying at SOG they will automatically send you this email 45 days prior to arrival, but you will need to contact them to pre-order tickets if you are staying at a Disney resort, or elsewhere.