Update on Military Discounts

[LuvMySoldier07]

I have a question I am hoping someone can answer.... Does all members of your party have to be present when purchasing the 6 military tickets?
For instance, can we purchase all tickets on a Thursday, even though the rest of our group isn't arriving until Saturday

TIA

 

[kirrrby]

I have a question I am hoping someone can answer.... Does all members of your party have to be present when purchasing the 6 military tickets?
For instance, can we purchase all tickets on a Thursday, even though the rest of our group isn't arriving until Saturday

TIA

Purchasing no. Activating yes and the active duty or spouse has to be there when activating tickets.

 

[LuvMySoldier07]

Purchasing no. Activating yes and the active duty or spouse has to be there when activating tickets.

Thank you.
We usually purchase the tickets at one of the parks, so aren't all of them activated at the time of purchase? Can we start using them right away, and then rest of our group use them later in the week?

 

[Steve TLT]

If you want to see Disney's press release I Have a copy here...

 

[Steve TLT]

Thank you.
We usually purchase the tickets at one of the parks, so aren't all of them activated at the time of purchase? Can we start using them right away, and then rest of our group use them later in the week?

If you purchase them at Shades of Green or a Base ITT Office, they are not activated. You need to take them by a Disney ticket booth or Guest Relations office to get them activated.

This offer announcement didn't mention it but in the past all members of the party had to be present to activate the tickets.

BTW you are paying sales tax when you buy from Disney. There is none with Shades or ITT.

 

[jce2]

It would appear that if you are staying for a longer period your best best is to take advantge of the room-only discount, ignore the Armed forces salute tickets and get the normal Stars & Stripes tickets from SoG.

 

[crostorfer]

It would appear that if you are staying for a longer period your best best is to take advantge of the room-only discount, ignore the Armed forces salute tickets and get the normal Stars & Stripes tickets from SoG.

Or you get creative. We enjoy going to the water parks when we visit. We get the Water Park and More option and spend three days visiting Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach, as well as a day at DTD with a visit to DisneyQuest. Those 4 day water park and more tickets give you up to 8 days of access to WDW parks if you play your cards right.

 

[jce2]

The new offers are on the official Disneyworld special offers page: http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/special-offers/

 

[SouthernBelles]

Can someone please make sure I'm getting this correct!!! We are going 12/8-12/15. It will be my father (Ret. AF) my mother, me, DH, DD (4) & DS (3). We will need 6 tickets each and we will not be park hopping. So is it better to just get all the tickets on base or is it cheaper to get the promotional tickets and then the rest on base??

We are currently booked at AoA in a suite with the free dining but I wonder if it would be better to take the 30% room discount? We have the following ADR's.

12/8 TRex Cafe
12/9 50's Prime Time & Sci-Fi
12/10 Tusker House & HDDR
12/11 Crystal Palace
12/12 CRT & 1900 Park Fare
12/13 Akershus & San Angel
12/14 Chef Mickey's

We have a lot of ADR's b/c my kids are the only two grandchildren and Dad wants to do as much as possible. He has extremely aggressive Stage 4 Prostate cancer due to Agent Orange exposure and this may be our only trip all together. I really want to get the best possible deal and make this trip great for Dad, so any help/advise you can give is GREATLY appreciated!!!

 

[SgtsWifeandmommyof4]

WooHoo!!! Just applied my discount! Removed my 1 day base tickets and only owe a tiny bit! Saved $900.

All that is left is to get our 4 day tickets, pack our bags and GO!!!

I cannot believe we have actually made this happen. I have tried for 5 years to take my kids. Either we couldn't afford it or my husband was deployed and now, we are actually going!

 

[BridgetBordeaux]

Yippee..............just got off the phone and made our May/June reservation for 2013 at POP.

 

[crostorfer]

Can someone please make sure I'm getting this correct!!! We are going 12/8-12/15. It will be my father (Ret. AF) my mother, me, DH, DD (4) & DS (3). We will need 6 tickets each and we will not be park hopping. So is it better to just get all the tickets on base or is it cheaper to get the promotional tickets and then the rest on base??

We are currently booked at AoA in a suite with the free dining but I wonder if it would be better to take the 30% room discount? We have the following ADR's.

12/8 TRex Cafe
12/9 50's Prime Time & Sci-Fi
12/10 Tusker House & HDDR
12/11 Crystal Palace
12/12 CRT & 1900 Park Fare
12/13 Akershus & San Angel
12/14 Chef Mickey's

We have a lot of ADR's b/c my kids are the only two grandchildren and Dad wants to do as much as possible. He has extremely aggressive Stage 4 Prostate cancer due to Agent Orange exposure and this may be our only trip all together. I really want to get the best possible deal and make this trip great for Dad, so any help/advise you can give is GREATLY appreciated!!!

I normally tell people that you are better off with the room discount than free dining staying anywhere but a value, however, in your case with so many character meals you are better off keeping the free dining as its going to save you money in the end. Have you upgraded your free dining to deluxe so that all of that is covered? Also, with free dining you have to pay for full price tickets, so you don't need tickets at this point? I'm confused as to how your military ticket question fits here.

 

[SouthernBelles]

No, we didn't upgrade to deluxe. We were just going to pay OOP for a couple meals. The bad part is that the kids really never eat and will share every meal unless we they are buffets and we have to purchase two meals for them. Also, my Mom and I don't eat a lot and we'll share where we can as well.

For the free dining, I had to purchase two tickets per person, so that's all I did thinking we would just get the rest on base at cheaper price or had fingers crossed for FL resident ticket discount. Here's a breakdown of the park tickets that we need for each day.

12/8 DTD all day...no ticket needed
12/9 ticket
12/10 ticket
12/11 MVMCP tickets already purchased (no need for regular ticket b/c we'll get there at 4pm)
12/12 ticket
12/13 ticket
12/14 ticket
12/15 ticket

Thanks so much for your reply!

 

[DCTooTall]

Can someone please make sure I'm getting this correct!!! We are going 12/8-12/15. It will be my father (Ret. AF) my mother, me, DH, DD (4) & DS (3). We will need 6 tickets each and we will not be park hopping. So is it better to just get all the tickets on base or is it cheaper to get the promotional tickets and then the rest on base??

We are currently booked at AoA in a suite with the free dining but I wonder if it would be better to take the 30% room discount? We have the following ADR's.

12/8 TRex Cafe
12/9 50's Prime Time & Sci-Fi
12/10 Tusker House & HDDR
12/11 Crystal Palace
12/12 CRT & 1900 Park Fare
12/13 Akershus & San Angel
12/14 Chef Mickey's

We have a lot of ADR's b/c my kids are the only two grandchildren and Dad wants to do as much as possible. He has extremely aggressive Stage 4 Prostate cancer due to Agent Orange exposure and this may be our only trip all together. I really want to get the best possible deal and make this trip great for Dad, so any help/advise you can give is GREATLY appreciated!!!

Well first off.... Looks like 12/8 is a Free Dining blackout day according to the Disneyworld Website. Arrival would need to be 11/23 -29 or 12/10-20 to Qualify for Free Dining during your stay. (Since they just announced the FLE opening on 12/6, That would explain the large early-Dec blackout). I Also don't know if AoA would be a resort offering Free Dining rooms to begin with since it's usually used to fill rooms that would otherwise be empty, and as a new resort, they may figure there would be high enough demand to not have the offer available this round at the AoA.

and 2nd... As a previous posted mentioned, ANY dining plan requires a complete package booking, meaning tickets, room, and Dining plan all under the same package reservation... So if you are thinking of separating any of those 3 items from your package (using the room discount, or getting tickets separately), You won't be able to get Free Dining.


With all those TS meals, Something you MAY want to consider depending upon your budget, and what you plan on doing during this trip.... as well as if you are thinking of going again sometime in the next year.... Would be to get at least 1 AP so that you can then get the Tables In Wonderland Card. The TiW would provide a 20% discount on up to 10 people in your party at all tableservice meals, including any adult beverages you may decide to purchase. One advantage over the DDP with the TiW (besides the ability to have your discount also include a glass of wine, a beer, etc during your meal), is that you will have a bit more freedom in your dining since you won't be locked into the Entree/Dessert routine for every meal, and can instead easily get a single Entree at some meals to split... or an Appetizer and Dessert.... or basically whatever and however much you decide you are in the mood to eat at that meal. From a purely meal standpoint, You might find (especially with a 3&4yr old who may not always be hungry for a full meal on your double TS days) that you can come out ahead with the TiW discount vs. paying for everyone's Deluxe Disney Dining. [for those who lke the idea of pre-paying for their meals, the usually advice is to just put the money on Disney GiftCards which you can use to pay for the meals].

The biggest question at that point would be if the additional cost of the AP over whatever tickets you are thinking of getting currently would be justified.

 

[DCTooTall]

No, we didn't upgrade to deluxe. We were just going to pay OOP for a couple meals. The bad part is that the kids really never eat and will share every meal unless we they are buffets and we have to purchase two meals for them. Also, my Mom and I don't eat a lot and we'll share where we can as well.

For the free dining, I had to purchase two tickets per person, so that's all I did thinking we would just get the rest on base at cheaper price or had fingers crossed for FL resident ticket discount. Here's a breakdown of the park tickets that we need for each day.

12/8 DTD all day...no ticket needed
12/9 ticket
12/10 ticket
12/11 MVMCP tickets already purchased (no need for regular ticket b/c we'll get there at 4pm)
12/12 ticket
12/13 ticket
12/14 ticket
12/15 ticket

Thanks so much for your reply!

Silly me! I didn't realize you are a Florida Resident!

Since you are a Florida Resident, You wouldn't need the AP in order to get the Tables in Wonderland card.

With the way you describe your eating habits, I'm thinking that the TiW may be the best bet for you. [And since it's good for a year, If you decided on a day or weekend trip to the area, you could easily use it if you decided to hop over to DTD or a resort to have a nice meal, giving you use of the card/discount beyond this one trip]

 

[megandbrooke]

WooHoo!!! Just booked my CS stay at 35% off. Was actually more than 35% off from what the advertised price is on Disney's website. Thank you to everyone for keeping me updated. Thank you Disney for supporting your military. It really makes our day to know that people support what we do!

 

[Cheshire Figment]

For Ticketing, it is a new program, not an extension of the current one. See This Post http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2972608 for detailed information.

 

[SouthernBelles]

I am already booked at AoA in a suite for free dining. So for sure it is something that can be done. I think the confusion is that the Little Mermaid rooms are not included in the free dining. I have two reservations and two reservation numbers. The first is a room only reservation, the second reservation is for the 10th-15th which will include free dining and in order to get that I had to purchase tickets for 2 days.

I wondered about the TIW card and was trying to figure out if the $100 cost of the card would be worth it since it only saves 20% per meal. I'm just not familiar with it. I live in Jax, so we are close enough to go back on any weekend, but I know we would not go back at any time when it is hot!! Just cooler months so I figure Dec-March. We are also waiting to hear if my DH is going to get a job that will move us back to Panama City, FL. If we move back to PC I know we will probably not be back in a year.

As for the ADR's that I've made I'm thinking about cancelling HDDR and San Angel. I do need to cut them down a bit b/c I just think the cost will get out of hand!!

Thanks so much for all of the help/advise. Now I need to read up more on the TIW!!

 

[mmtska]

Hi, mmtska!

lol hi darlin'!! Next month!!!!

 

[fitzy819]

YAY!!!

I was finally able to apply the discount this afternoon. We are saving about $2000 with the discount. I'm so excited!