Official 2013/2014 Disney Military Promotion

[baloo's girl]

You can do this?! Book with free dining and upgrade to military tix? Are you sure this will work? I sure wish I had known about this option before I decided to stay offsite next month

Someone mentioned doing this and CF confirmed in it an earlier post. I wish I had known last year too, since we paid for regular 4 day tickets to get free dining in 2012.

Basically, as long as the military ticket is more than the 2 day base ticket you get from Disney, you can upgrade. This means that after we use one park day, we can upgrade the ticket to a salute ticket, with water parks and more (since this is more than a base ticket). We'll have to pay the tax, since we'll upgrade at the Disney ticket window. The cost difference to upgrade from a 2 day base ticket to a 4 day water parks and more salute ticket is $14 plus tax per adult, and $26 plus tax per kid.

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong about this upgrade.

 

[kimber11]

Is there any discounts at all for Canadian military members and their families?

 

[Cheshire Figment]

Is there any discounts at all for Canadian military members and their families?

Only if you are stationed in the US and have a CAC.

 

[auralia]

fast pass + with miltiary salute tickets. Can the vouchers you purchase on base be used to make fast pass plus reservations? or do you have to wait until you exchange the tickets at the ticket window at disney . What I read said while you can use the vouchers to reserve times it will do you no good because the ticket you get from the ticket window will have a different bar code/number so your fast pass plus selections will not actually work and will have to be re made when you change out the tickets on the app.

 

[Steve TLT]

fast pass + with miltiary salute tickets. Can the vouchers you purchase on base be used to make fast pass plus reservations? or do you have to wait until you exchange the tickets at the ticket window at disney . What I read said while you can use the vouchers to reserve times it will do you no good because the ticket you get from the ticket window will have a different bar code/number so your fast pass plus selections will not actually work and will have to be re made when you change out the tickets on the app.

auralia, that is the big question! I've had no reports on this.

I was there the beginning of the month but I had to buy my tickets once I arrived as my base ITT didn't have the new offer tickets before I departed.

CF confirmed to me that you do still exchange the "exchange voucher" purchased on base for a live ticket during the activation process.

I'll be going back mid Nov. for the Heroes University event and If I haven't heard from anyone I'll see if I can coordinate a test with WDW.

Steve

 

[auralia]

auralia, that is the big question! I've had no reports on this. I was there the beginning of the month but I had to buy my tickets once I arrived as my base ITT didn't have the new offer tickets before I departed. CF confirmed to me that you do still exchange the "exchange voucher" purchased on base for a live ticket during the activation process. I'll be going back mid Nov. for the Heroes University event and If I haven't heard from anyone I'll see if I can coordinate a test with WDW. Steve

I am going mid November. I plan to call the fast pass hotline tonight after the kiddos go to bed to try to get some answers and will post anything I learn.

 

[auralia]

The man i spoke with tonight said he gives it a 90% chance the fast pass reservations WIlL NOT transfer when I exchange, but that I will lose nothing by trying because I will be able to link the new ticket ask well and just make new (possible not as good as what I had) reservations under the new ticket is they don't transfer.

 

[Steve TLT]

The man i spoke with tonight said he gives it a 90% chance the fast pass reservations WIlL NOT transfer when I exchange, but that I will lose nothing by trying because I will be able to link the new ticket ask well and just make new (possible not as good as what I had) reservations under the new ticket is they don't transfer.

I think he was right on with the percentage...

I have been querying WDW on this for about 4 or 5 months, though I laid off this last month while I went on our vacation to give it a test drive.

Disney has told me that they do not want to exclude military members from these services including FP+ but they are still testing and no solutions yet. I also heard through my travel agent who makes the largest volume of Disney’s military reservations, that she’d been told through her channels that they were aware of the problem and searching for a solution.

The solution I think will probably involve some sort of verification of military status by the Disney reservation staff and a click by them in the system which opens up the new tech to us.

I’m heading back to WDW for the Heroes University event in a few weeks, I’ll be engaging via email prior and talking their ears off there.

 

[cd0219]

Ok, trying to wrap my mind around this Auralia.

Questions:
1) If the fast pass+ don't transfer to the validated tickets, will I still be able to use them because they are linked to my account with the paper voucher?
2) Can I make new fast passes with the validated tickets and still keep the old fast passes because I will have two tickets linked?

We have 10 people on this trip (2 children under 5 and 2 infants) and have worked our fast passes around dining reservations and nap times. I would be losing a lot if I can't keep my original fast passes. Thanks for any info.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

I have heard a very good explanation concerning all of NextGen, which includes MagicBands, Fastpass Plus, My Disney Experience, RFID tickets and everything related.

The description is from a friend who is a very high-level Technical Specialist in Disney's IT department: "This is a railroad claimed to be in full operation while they are still building the locomotive".

Everything is in testing and development. There is nobody who can give any accurate answer about any of these, or their interactions.

Everything is still subject to change on a daily basis.

And nobody has any idea when when everything will work. My personal opinion, also, is that Bob Iger's public statements are prepared by the PR department and not by knowledgeable people.

 

[Steve TLT]

I have heard a very good explanation concerning all of NextGen, which includes MagicBands, Fastpass Plus, My Disney Experience, RFID tickets and everything related.

The description is from a friend who is a very high-level Technical Specialist in Disney's IT department: "This is a railroad claimed to be in full operation while they are still building the locomotive".

Everything is in testing and development. There is nobody who can give any accurate answer about any of these, or their interactions.

Everything is still subject to change on a daily basis.

And nobody has any idea when when everything will work. My personal opinion, also, is that Bob Iger's public statements are prepared by the PR department and not by knowledgeable people.

A lot of putting the cart before the horse CF...

We had a fantastic experience earlier this month with the bands and FP+, but as you said it is still in testing and only a limited amount of people were using them.

I made our FP+ reservations each night for the next day and adjusted on the fly if needed with my app.

I had to wait till we arrived to link tickets as my base didn't have any in stock prior to our end of Sept departure.

The carryover of FP+ made against the exchange voucher will be crucial once the system is fully implemented.

 

[P'colaBeachBum]

A lot of putting the cart before the horse CF...

We had a fantastic experience earlier this month with the bands and FP+, but as you said it is still in testing and only a limited amount of people were using them.

I made our FP+ reservations each night for the next day and adjusted on the fly if needed with my app.

I had to wait till we arrived to link tickets as my base didn't have any in stock prior to our end of Sept departure.

The carryover of FP+ made against the exchange voucher will be crucial once the system is fully implemented.

Steve, Good to hear that you had no problem linking your ticket. Base didn't have the regular tickets just the paper voucher. Hoping to get at least 1 FP+ the day after we arrive.

 

[mama2mickeyfans]

Sorry if this is a stupid question, I'm trying to understand how fp+ works. We are staying at SOG (party of 7) and using a combination of salute tickets and regular myw tickets we have purchased for a 2 day park visit. Main question, will we be eligible for fp+? What determines that?

As I understand from above posrs, if we are eligible, we will buy our salute vouchers then get the actual tickets at a ticket window. At this time I can enter those tickets in the MyExperience site and hopefully get fastpasses? Is that correct?

What about the two tickets we have which aren't salute. I entered them on the site but not able to do anything with fp+ yet. Am I missing something or maybe not understanding the process correctly? Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[mickeyhereicome]

auralia, that is the big question! I've had no reports on this.

I was there the beginning of the month but I had to buy my tickets once I arrived as my base ITT didn't have the new offer tickets before I departed.

CF confirmed to me that you do still exchange the "exchange voucher" purchased on base for a live ticket during the activation process.

I'll be going back mid Nov. for the Heroes University event and If I haven't heard from anyone I'll see if I can coordinate a test with WDW.

Steve

What is the Heroes University event?

 

[Steve TLT]

What is the Heroes University event?

HI mickeyhereicome,

It is Disney's follow-on to the Heroes Work Here Program during this round Disney will be educating small to mid sized businesses on how to improve their hiring of veterans.

WDW Media Relations asked me to come down to cover it.

 

[Angel Ariel]

Sorry if this is a stupid question, I'm trying to understand how fp+ works. We are staying at SOG (party of 7) and using a combination of salute tickets and regular myw tickets we have purchased for a 2 day park visit. Main question, will we be eligible for fp+? What determines that?

As I understand from above posrs, if we are eligible, we will buy our salute vouchers then get the actual tickets at a ticket window. At this time I can enter those tickets in the MyExperience site and hopefully get fastpasses? Is that correct?

What about the two tickets we have which aren't salute. I entered them on the site but not able to do anything with fp+ yet. Am I missing something or maybe not understanding the process correctly? Thanks in advance for any help!

Currently only those staying at a Disney resort (which SOG isn't, for the sake of FP+) are able to use FP+. FP+ will be rolled out to offsite guests at some point (Disney has stated this officially), but we do not know when that will be, or what kind of pre-booking window (if any) off site guests will get.

 

[mama2mickeyfans]

Ah ok thank you for the clarification! I have had such difficulty finding information on it. Oh well regular fast passes for us then

 

[Angel Ariel]

You're welcome! Just as a heads up, now that all of the Disney resorts are testing FP+ there are reports that regular paper FPs for the popular attractions (TSM/Soarin/TT) are running out by 9:30-10am.

I hope you have a great trip!

 

[mama2mickeyfans]

Ok thanks I have heard that may be the case. If we don't get to ride tsm and soarin I guess we will just have to plan another visit

 

[pajamasam]

Am I able to buy an AP at SOG for someone else in my family?