WDW Info for Military Family

[tinkcollector]

Hi everyone on the WDW side. I am a Disneyland nut and need your help. My Son is in the Army and his buddy wants to take his Family to WDW in late June early July. We need tips and help with discounts. They tell me that the military is blocked out for discounts at this time. I hope you can tell me this is no true. As these guys only get blocks of time off from serving our country and I don't understand blocking them ever. They have been serving under a GRF (which means they cannot be more than 2 hours from base, and ready to leave if something happens in the world, this duty lasts for a long time, so getting selected time off is not possible for these men and women serving our country.). Any and all knowledge you can assist me with so I can pass this on to this deserving Family is so much appreciated.

 

[lilmissdisney216]

My fiance and I just booked our trip for June 22nd-28th around the same dates he's looking for,with a military rate (he's Army Reserves) and it ended up being a pretty good deal (6 nights at POP=1642 before our deposit). For our park tickets we can either purchase them when we arrive there or from our local military base that sells park tickets (for us its Detroit Arsenal).

If you have him call the reservation hotline they should be able to help him find some rates for the dates he's searching for, that's how we booked.

I hope I was able to help a bit.

 

[SCruz409]

My husband is Air Force and we almost always use the military discounts. The website says the blackout dates for the military discounted rooms are in March-April. I know that they only allocate a certain number of rooms for each type of discount so it's possible they could be sold out of the military discounted rooms already since it's peak season. I would definitely check again though. There is also the option of staying at Shades of Green http://shadesofgreen.org/. I've personally never stayed there but it's only because when we were actually paying for rooms (we're DVC members as of recently) I never realized how close it is to MK. It is very close and I've heard good things about it! The rates are based on pay grade. I don't think you can get the Disney dining plan at SoG though because they have their own type of dining plan but it is only for restaurants on SoG property.

As far as tickets go, I know in past years Military Salute tickets were blacked out on the 4th of July. It looks like Disney has done away with that so there shouldn't be any problems. I recommend getting the tickets in advance from the local base ticket office rather than upon arrival. Military tickets are considered "an old style ticket" and can be linked to MDE which means they can make their FP+ reservations. If they wait to get the tickets obviously they won't have as many FP+ options.

I hope this helps!

 

[tinkcollector]

Thank you lilmissdisney216 and SCruz409, you both have helped alot.

 

[Hootch]

Look into Shades of Green. The rate is based on rank. I have a friend that stayed at there recently and really enjoyed it. They will have to call to see availability and rates for the standard Disney resorts.

Disneyworld currently has four day park hopper passes for $177 for qualified military personnel. You can add the waterparks for just $30. That's about 40% of what I paid for our five day park hoppers.

These all run through early October and June/July are not blacked out.

 

[Quellman]

Disney Military Tips [website] is a great resource. They can also get the military salute tickets if they qualify. They will need their ID and the tickets must be activated at a ticket window prior to park entrance. All guests who are using the tickets must be present at the time of activation, and if an adult have valid ID.

 

[tinkcollector]

You all are really coming through with some great advice. Thank you so very much!

 

[verleniahall]

call the wdw reservations line and they should be able to give you what the current discount is

Good Luck and Have Fun!

 

[Sweeney1996]

Yes, purchase your Military Salute tickets at his local MWR(ITT for Air Force), they should have several options available, depending on what price point they want to pay. We purchased 4 day park hopper with water park option, they threw in free Disney Quest and rounds of Golf, for $202 and change per person(3 of us). For room reservations, we call WDW direct, and received 40% off a standard room at the POLY. We like staying at the deluxe resorts, and no offense at all to Shades of Green, but when vacationing and my spouse coming off a 6 month deployment, we like to mingle with everyone else , and also, since Shades of Green charges by rank, due to my spouses rank, we are in the highest paying bracket, so with the discount of 40%, financially, makes more sense for us to stay at a resort. I would suggest looking at all the options available, before committing. By staying on property, we were able to link our military salute tickets to our magic bands.

We are headed to WDW second week in August.

Good luck!

 

[biim85]

Definitely try Shades of Green. I've stayed there a few times and would rank their rooms above some of the Disney Value resorts. They also offer transportation to the Ticket and Transporation center where you're able to take the Disney buses. It can be a little hard to get a reservation on short notice so try to call as soon as possible. Like someone else mentioned their rooms are priced by rank so it may be cheaper to stay a Disney resort even without a military discount.