My dad is retired military, and we took a family trip to WDW in Feb 2019 using Military Salute tickets. There were 6 of us total. 4 of us are considering a trip back in September, and when my mom called their local base to ask about regular military tickets, the woman told her that they sell more than 6 Salute tickets per year to people all the time, and have never heard of Disney refusing to activate them. Does anyone have experience with this? Everything I’m seeing online says that the 6 Salute tickets per year is a strict rule.
I don’t know the answer, but I am following along because this would be a major development for us. I have never tried to get more than 6 tickets in a year.
Me too!
1 Like
Seems like not many have tried this before! I’m wondering if we chance it and buy the Salute tickets, then get there and Disney won’t activate because they see we’ve already used 6 this year, if they’ll let us pay the difference to get what we need or if they’ll say those vouchers are useless and we have to buy all new tickets. They’re non-refundable so seems like a gamble, but the lady at the base seemed like people do it all the time and is no biggie!
I truly am fascinated by this. Have you checked out www.militarydisneytips.com? It’s a good website for military Disney issues. Maybe they have the answer?
I use Military Salute tix all the time, but I’ve never needed more than 3 in a year…
1 Like
I have! I didn’t do a ton of searching, but I couldn’t find anywhere that said it was doable, only a lot of places stating that 6 was the max per eligible person, per year. Maybe the woman my mom spoke to was confused?? Who knows. I’m feeling uneasy about trying it, though.
The more I think about it though I would think that buying the tickets on post would be the biggest hurdle. If they sell you more, I don’t necessarily think Disney would know that (since you aren’t trying to use more than 6 at once).
That’s what I wondered - does Disney keep my dad’s name and info and check his ID against their database each time we go? It sounds like we’d have no issues actually buying as many vouchers as we like on post.
1 Like
It’s a really good question. I would be surprised if Disney said no to a voucher you paid for already. Wish I had the nerve to try this.
1 Like
My understanding is that you can get more than 6 for immediate family, like if a family has more than 4 kids. That’s the only exception I’ve seen on the Military Disney Tips site.
It used to be my husband could buy 6 as the retiree and I could buy 5 as the spouse. That’s changed. Now it’s 6 only. You can buy as, many regular military discount tickets as you want. They’d be discounted about 10 per cent. The Armed Forces Salute tickets require activation by Disney with ID card of the military person. The regular military discount tickets don’t require activation or the military person to be present at the gate. I kinda think the lady was confused between the two ticket types.
Related question - has anyone used the military salute room discount? Specifically wondering about the savings at deluxe resorts. We stayed off property in Feb.
I recommend staying at the Shades of Green. It is still considered a Disney property hotel and the price is based on rank. Can’t beat the room size for the price. We stayed at the All Star Sports resort once and regretted not going to the usual Shades of Green.
When you “activate” the Military Salute tickets, Disney does keep all the info on the person who activated the tickets. (DOD ID number, name, etc). I think that they would catch that you have already exceeded the number of allowed tickets for the year. The military sales office on post will not know this and will probably sell more vouchers than allowed. I would not recommend testing this theory especially how Disney is cracking down on FPP loopholes and such. I would hate to be out all that money!
I have used the Salute room discount twice (once at WL and once at POR), but that was before they changed the discount to a sliding scale based on availability. I think the only way to know now what price you’d get is to call Disney reservations and ask for the rate for the specific resort and dates that you want. We are going back to Shades next time since you can now do the 60 day FPP with them.
We just used it in March for my birthday to stay at the GF. It was a huge savings.
1 Like
I love SoG; it is absolutely the best “value” - even at $150/night (my rate as a retiree) for some of the largest rooms in WDW (not counting suites and multi-room villas). I haven’t used it in a while, but it used to be a flat 30% off for all resorts. I stayed at POP for $85/night when I was on a tight budget. Back then SoG did not qualify for 60 day FPPs; it might be different now. They were having an even better deal at DLR, where I stayed at PP for $200/night.
Good to know! We were actually considering BWI or Beach Club because we’ll have all adults and like the quick access to Epcot and HS (if we even decide to brave HS the first week of Sept). What’s the transportation like from SoG? Do they have decent restaurants on property?
I’ll preface this by saying it’s been at least 7 years since I’ve stayed there, so things may have changed…
The restaurants are probably the biggest down-side of SoG. They have buffets for breakfast and dinner; I don’t care for buffets and typically avoid them. The plus side is that they are 1/3 the price of a Disney buffet. There is a TS Italian restaurant that was OK, in an Olive Garden sort of way. There is a pizza place that was mediocre, and an ice cream shop that was better than average. The “hidden gem” is the sports bar at the far end of one of the wings (sometimes known as the “old” wing; the one with the pool). It’s the only “bar” at the resort and serves a reasonable “pub grub” sort of menu. The down-side is the location. SoG is all one building, but it’s a very spread out sort of building and the walk from the “new” wing to the bar is quite a hike (as is the pool).
A lot of people complain about the bus service, but I rather liked it. Instead of a “dispatch” control. the buses run on a time schedule (e.g. every half hour a bus runs to the TTC, once every hour a bus goes to AK, etc. If there are more than can fit on a bus, they’ll have another one there in a matter of minutes. And they are ALWAYS on time. They were typically less crowded than the regular Disney buses (one time I had a “private” bus to EP) and are very clean.You’re also only a 10 minute (very pleasant) walk from the Poly, so you can walk there and take the mono. And I’m sure Uber and Lyft would be available, but I’ve never used them.
1 Like