Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
Mouse Chat Disney podcast –
A special thanks to Jennifer from Disney babies blog for joining us to explain how to get Disney military discounts.
If you are or were in the military there are discounted Disney World tickets and also discounts at the Shades of Green resort at Walt Disney World. Now there is some debate as to the Disney experience you get at Shades of Green vs. staying a a Disney resort that has an immerse theme.
Chris shares some strategies for Military families to get Disney free dining offers and how to compare Disney discount offers to Disney military discount offers.
Also thanks for letting others know about Mouse Chat and for leaving those reviews for us on iTunes.
If you did not already know, you can subscribe to our MouseChat.net Podcast on iTunes. That way it will automatically be added to your iPhone or iTouch each week and be their waiting for you. There is an iTunes link at the bottom of these show notes.
You can email questions and comments to the show at: Comments@MouseChat.net
If you like our show, please let your friends know.
Please join us by listening to our show at MouseChat.net or by downloading and subscribing to Mouse Chat on
iTunes.
Hi,
I do a lot of web searching for the topic of Disney Military Discounts and happened across your podcast. I enjoyed listening and wanted to touch base to help you clarify a few things.
You talked quite a bit about Disney’s Armed Forces Salute, the specifics are
At WDW: 4-Day Hoppers or WP&M option for $135 or both options for $165, the Disney resort discounts are: value resorts 30% off, moderate and WL cabins 35% off, deluxe 40% off.
At Disneyland: 3-Day hoppers for $99 and resorts up to 40% off.
You can buy these tickets at base ticket offices, Shades of Green, or Disney ticket windows. You’ll pay sales tax if you buy them from Disney though.
Six of these tickets is the limit allowed to be active at any one time and the limit during the current offer is 12.
Reserve members are eligible for this promotion and all other Disney sponsored military discounts. No orders are required, just your ID.
You are correct that you need to be careful how many of these tickets you buy as you’ll reach the point where a different ticket option is more cost effective. These tickets can be upgraded for the cost difference to any annual pass (FL or non-FL) at the regular gate price. On a side note there are military discounted annual passes available at Shades of Green.
As far as Shades of Green it did begin life as a Disney deluxe resort and has the largest rooms on property. But as you mentioned there is NO Disney themeing. The resort could fit in anywhere else in the country. You wouldn’t know you were at WDW by the look of it. For that reason I too prefer Disney resorts. Shades is on average a very nice resort, EMH is available, great pools, the restaurants are OK, but it does lack some of the amenities we’ve come to expect from Disney.
Transportation is an issue at Shades like you mentioned it’s $5 a day to park at Shades plus if you want to drive to the Disney theme parks you will pay the $14 per day Disney parking fee. Shades’ busses do run on a regular, fairly timely schedule, but just to limited stops (theme parks, water parks, TTC). And as you said there is no Magical Express for those flying in.
Besides the AFS tickets the Shades ticket office offers regularly military discounted Disney tickets (like the base ticket offices) as well as military discounted tickets for many other Orlando attractions including SeaWorld and Universal.
For SeaWorld, Anheuser-Busch has officially announced the renewal of their Here’s to the Heroes offer which includes a free one-day admission to one of their parks for the military member (active and reserve only, not retired) plus up to 3 direct dependents.
While Universal only offers the standard military discount at base ticket offices and Shades of Green, they do offer a 3 night military room/ticket vacation packages, which they say saves up to 30%.
I hope this helps your listeners!
Steve