Ticket Dilemma

[squeaky_penguin]

We are heading to WDW on May 18-26th. It will be me, DH, DD4, DS2 and DSis. My DH is active Army and can get the military tickets for $138. My dilemma is that I would like to go to the parks for more than 4 days.

Would you spend the extra money and get 7 day park hopper tickets (via Shades of Green) for $317 adult and $298 child? We can afford it, but should we spend that extra money. I just don't want to be rushed at each park. We planned on not doing HS this time and spending more time at MK and Epcot, but if we do the 7 days we can do all four parks and take our time.

 

[siskaren]

Can you buy 2 tickets for each person at the military price or are you limited to one per person? Because even if you only use 7 days on 8 days' worth of tickets, you'd still be paying a lot less than the cost of 7 day park hoppers.

 

[WsPrincess]

I think I would spend the extra money and get the 7 day tickets. For us, I know 4 park days would not be enough for that long of a trip!

 

[JavArmy]

I believe you can get 6 of the military tickets at a time. Maybe buy 6, have 3 of you use them for 4 days then at the end of the 4 days use the other 3 (if that makes sense), then buy the 7 day park hopper for the other person/people. I didn't check the numbers, but this may be cheaper. Good luck!!

 

[JessHS]

I would buy 2 $138 4 day tickets for each person. You can only buy 6 at a time, and only 12 total over the life of the promotion. If you've never bought any before, you are good to buy up to 12 before the end of Sept. The other rule is that you can only buy or activate 6 in a week. So one week go to the base ticket office and buy 5. Go back another week and buy 5 more. If base ticket won't let you, then wait and buy at Shades of Green. Both base tickets and SOG will not charge you tax. Then activate the first five when you first get to Disney, and wait until after Sunday to activate the next 5. We are doing this plan, except there are only 4 of us.

 

[squeaky_penguin]

Can you buy 2 tickets for each person at the military price or are you limited to one per person? Because even if you only use 7 days on 8 days' worth of tickets, you'd still be paying a lot less than the cost of 7 day park hoppers.

Unfortunately we had used 3 this past Feb and 4 tickets Aug 2011.

 

[heyitsmejosh]

your still good the august tickets were on last years promotion so having used 3 already this year and needing 8 more thats 11.. you just need to make sure you activate the first 4 before a sunday and the other 4 after the sunday so its two different weeks.

 

[squeaky_penguin]

your still good the august tickets were on last years promotion so having used 3 already this year and needing 8 more thats 11.. you just need to make sure you activate the first 4 before a sunday and the other 4 after the sunday so its two different weeks.

I thought it was 12 for the life of the promotion? Otherwise that is good news and that's what I will do

Thanks.

 

[heyitsmejosh]

I thought it was 12 for the life of the promotion? Otherwise that is good news and that's what I will do

Thanks.

yeah thats what i was saying that it would only put you at 11, you just wont be able to buy more than 1 until after sept if/when they refresh the promo. the only issue that people run into is that 2 of the 12 have to be for the service member but since hes going it will work perfect for you.

 

[appleorchard]

It sounds like you've used 7 tickets, so you have 5 left to use. That would give two of you 8 days worth of tickets, at least. You could buy the SoG tickets for the others--you don't all have to match. Or you could add the water parks fun and more to the 4 day military tickets and do a day or two at the water parks, which would give you 6 "park" days altogether.

 

[heyitsmejosh]

It sounds like you've used 7 tickets, so you have 5 left to use. That would give two of you 8 days worth of tickets, at least. You could buy the SoG tickets for the others--you don't all have to match. Or you could add the water parks fun and more to the 4 day military tickets and do a day or two at the water parks, which would give you 6 "park" days altogether.

no the ones in August of last year only count towards last years promotion not this years thats what i was told anyway..

either way this is from the ticket FAQ
"Disney has added (on June 8, 2011) to the internal rules: "Guests may participate in this offer as often as they wish as long as no more than six (6) tickets are sold in each transaction." But it still limits activation by a spouse to five tickets; to activate six tickets the service member must be present."

so either way it should still be fine

 

[JavArmy]

no the ones in August of last year only count towards last years promotion not this years thats what i was told anyway..

either way this is from the ticket FAQ
"Disney has added (on June 8, 2011) to the internal rules: "Guests may participate in this offer as often as they wish as long as no more than six (6) tickets are sold in each transaction." But it still limits activation by a spouse to five tickets; to activate six tickets the service member must be present."

so either way it should still be fine

There is debate about the spouse only being able to activate 5. I believe from the wording they should be able to do all of them. Where did you find the info about only five? From what I have read in the boards, it mostly seems like a rumor that has taken hold. Here is the link to another board that has this discussion going on, as well as other info about military tickets.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2582642

The last few pages have the debate about the 5 vs. 6 activation debate

 

[heyitsmejosh]

There is debate about the spouse only being able to activate 5. I believe from the wording they should be able to do all of them. Where did you find the info about only five? From what I have read in the boards, it mostly seems like a rumor that has taken hold. Here is the link to another board that has this discussion going on, as well as other info about military tickets.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2582642

The last few pages have the debate about the 5 vs. 6 activation debate

its in the ticket faq i believe the sticky at the top of the page.

 

[appleorchard]

You can activate only 12 during the time period from Sept 2010-Sept 12. She's activated 7 so she has 5 left to use. The August 2011 activated tickets fall well into that time frame. Her DH will be there anyway, so the whole 5vs 6 ticket question is moot.

 

[heyitsmejosh]

You can activate only 12 during the time period from Sept 2010-Sept 12. She's activated 7 so she has 5 left to use. The August 2011 activated tickets fall well into that time frame. Her DH will be there anyway, so the whole 5vs 6 ticket question is moot.

thats true.. because i was able to buy 12 tickets in 2011 6 in feb and 6 in july then i just activated 6 more last week.. the CM said i could get 12 per year. last year there wasnt even a limit of 12, you just couldnt have more than 6 active at the same time or something like that.

 

[appleorchard]

It's not SUPPOSED to work like that-- there is supposed to be a 12 ticket limit for the two years. That said, I don't know how closely these tickets are being tracked in the system. Cheshire Figment might know. I wasn't sure how many tickets I still had left over the 2-year period and was allowed to buy two more when we were at Disney last month, but two is all I asked for, because my DD and I added on another trip in August.

I specifically bought them at Disney because I wasn't sure how many I could still buy. Would they have let me buy 6 more? I don't know--I didn't try! I would hate to count on being allowed to activate tickets I'd bought and paid for at the base, so if you want to try to activate more than 12 in the two year period, I'd definitely buy them at Disney. When you buy them there, they're activated at the time of sale.

 

[JessHS]

Awesome if Josh was able to get 12 per year rather than 12 over the whole course of the promotion, which is what I thought was the rule. Not that I have used my tickets yet (will in June!) or tested it out.

Here are two options if you can only get 5 of the special tickets:

1. Get the water park option. That gets all of you 4 days in the main parks, and another 4 days in the water parks/disney quest. As long as you don't go to the water parks on the same day as a main park, that gets you 8 days admission somewhere for $690 total.

2. The cheapest way (I think) to add on so that you all have 7 days in the park is the following:
2 adults use 2 Salute tickets each $552
1 adult (Dsis is an adult?) use 1 4 day Salute ticket ($138) and 1 3 day pass ($228) total= $366
2 kids get 7 day passes $486
Grand Total is $1404, or $714 more than just the 5 salute tickets

 

[appleorchard]

Awesome if Josh was able to get 12 per year rather than 12 over the whole course of the promotion, which is what I thought was the rule. Not that I have used my tickets yet (will in June!) or tested it out.

12 tickets over two years IS the rule--the unlimited ticket info Josh quoted in the June memo was later rescinded according to Cheshire Figment, our resident ticket guru. However--it's possible that they're not enforcing it. I'm hoping CF will weigh in on this. I would LOVE if they didn't enforce it, although it won't help me further for this year, since I've already bought all the tickets I need! Well, I could buy one instead of activating my AP in August, but then I couldn't buy a Tables in Wonderland card, and that alone saves a fortune on all our character dinners!

 

[heyitsmejosh]

Awesome if Josh was able to get 12 per year rather than 12 over the whole course of the promotion, which is what I thought was the rule. Not that I have used my tickets yet (will in June!) or tested it out.

12 tickets over two years IS the rule--the unlimited ticket info Josh quoted in the June memo was later rescinded according to Cheshire Figment, our resident ticket guru. However--it's possible that they're not enforcing it. I'm hoping CF will weigh in on this. I would LOVE if they didn't enforce it, although it won't help me further for this year, since I've already bought all the tickets I need! Well, I could buy one instead of activating my AP in August, but then I couldn't buy a Tables in Wonderland card, and that alone saves a fortune on all our character dinners!

haha well im just saying what i was told last week, when i activated my 18th one lol and none of them were used by me (the service member) either because i have an annual pass. disney not being clear and giving mixed responses does not help people plan.

 

[appleorchard]

You're right about that! I wish now I'd asked in April if I could buy one more for my sister's grandson to use in June. I won't be there when they first get there, so it will be too late to do them any good to ask when I get there. Consistency would be wonderful but I'm just more upset for all the people who DIDN'T ask if they could buy more and ended up paying more than they would have.