By the co-author of The easy Guide to Your Walt Disney World Visit 2020, the best-reviewed Disney World guidebook series ever.

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Category — Military Families at Disney World

Memorial Day 2012

by Dave

disney-world-military-familiesPaula Broadwell and Vernon Loeb quoted David Petraeus in their recent biography, All In: The Education of General David Petraeus:

“I strongly believe that our young men and women in uniform in places like Afghanistan and Iraq and other places around the world have more than earned the title ‘new greatest generation.'”

Petraeus continues in a different quote:

“I think about all of you [in uniform] every moment of every day.  I feel your hardship and your sacrifice and your burden more than you can possibly imagine, and that of your families as well.  I think you’re the best America has to offer.  My admiration and affection for you is without limit, and each and every one of you will be in my prayers every day for the rest of my life.  Thank you.”

There’s nothing to add to this…yes, yes and yes…and thank you.

To this new greatest generation–to all the soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, and coasties: thank you, and thank God for you and your families.  It is you who preserve the freedom and safety of the rest of us, by your willingness to go into harm’s way and to make the ultimate sacrifice to protect your country.

And for those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for their buddies, for freedom, and for the rest of us, God bless, and rest in the peace you have earned.

LINKS FOR MILITARY FAMILIES AT WALT DISNEY WORLD

May 28, 2012   No Comments

News on Disney World Armed Forces Salute Extension in “Early Summer”?

by Dave

ARMED FORCES SALUTE CONTINUES AT WALT DISNEY WORLD INTO 2013?

Steve at MilitaryDisneyTips.com notes in his blog here that a Disney spokesman has said that, regarding Disney’s Armed Forces salute, “hopefully we’ll have something to announce by early this summer.”

Don’t view that Disney statement as a promise–it’s not a promise about another continuation of this great program, nor even an exact date of when it might be announced. Depending on how you define it, “early summer” can stretch into the beginning of August…and negotiations between Disney and DOD have stretched out before…and Disney is trying to cut back discounts…

But that’s still really cool news, and makes me put my personal odds that there’ll be another program after the current one ends in late September 2012 to 75%…

LINKS FOR MILITARY FAMILIES AT WALT DISNEY WORLD

 

May 17, 2012   No Comments

Celebrating Military Disney Tips

by Dave

MilitaryDisneyTips.com (and its blog) is celebrating its fourth birthday today!

If you are a military family, related to a military family, friends with a military family, or could be friends if you realized what great deals they and their friends are sometimes offered, you need to check out this site. [Read more →]

May 2, 2012   No Comments

Who is Eligible for Which Military Discount at Walt Disney World?

by Dave

IS YOUR FAMILY ELIGIBLE FOR A DISNEY MILITARY DISCOUNT?

Steve at DisneyMilitaryTips.com has posted on his blog a great chart that helps sort out who is eligible for which among the various Disney World (and other central Florida) offers available to military families.

It includes the various deal possibilities (e.g.  Armed Forces Salute, Shades of Green) across the top of the chart, and various populations (e.g. guard/reserve, non-retired honorably discharged, etc.) down the side, and indicates in the intersection whether or not the population is eligible for the offer.

This is a stupendously helpful summary of complex information!  Great work, Steve.  Check it out.

LINKS FOR MILITARY FAMILIES AT WALT DISNEY WORLD

April 15, 2012   No Comments

Free Disney World Dining and Military Families

by Dave

FREE WALT DISNEY WORLD DINING: A GOOD DEAL FOR MILITARY FAMILIES?

(Updated to reflect Shades of Green’s new 40% discount.)

Inspired by this post on MilitaryDisneyTips.com, what follows tries to guide military families intending to travel to Walt Disney World to the best deal possible during the period that free dining is available.

It’s a tricky question because there’s a bunch of other deals also available during this period, some of which can be combined

  • Disney’s offer of heavily discounted Military Salute 4 day tickets
  • Its Military Salute offer of discounts of 30-40% off of Disney World resort hotels
  • Shades of Green, which is always a deal compared to Disney deluxe resorts, and usually one compared to its moderates (and where you can combine lower-cost hotel rooms with the discounted Military Salute tickets). Shades now has discounts of 40% off during the free dining period, making it an even better deal

Here’s the basics:

  • The discounted tickets are $138/person for 4 days.  That’s almost half price.  But they can’t have days added to them, so for longer trips, there quickly becomes no savings. The discounted tickets plus a regularly priced day is still a small bargain, but a normal Disney 6 day ticket is cheaper than a military salute ticket plus 2 regular days.  So longer trips yield less or no savings
  • The room rate discount percentage is higher for deluxes (40%) than for moderates (35%), and higher for moderates than for values (30%).  Since deluxe prices are much higher, savings are much greater the more expensive the room.  A $400 a night deluxe room saves $160 a night at 40%, while a $125 a night value saves only $38 a night at 30%.  These savings occur for every night of your trip, so longer trips increase savings
  • Dining plan savings also happen for every night of your trip, and are the same if you stay in a deluxe or a moderate.  They are less if you stay in a value, as what you get for free in a value is the “quick service” plan, not the regular dining plan. You save more per night with a larger family, and less the more of your family is under 10.
  • Shades of Green gives you value for money every night, but is dull compared to alternatives.  At its 40% discount, it is a remarkable deal

Sadly, you really do have to do the math for your own family, because of savings differences in both the ticket deal and the dining plan based on how large your family is and how many are younger than ten at the time of your visit, differences in the length of your stay, and the specific prices of the resort types you are aimed at. 

But if your family looks like my example family of two adults and two kids, one younger than ten and one older, and is taking either a three night or an eight night trip, I can give you an exact answer:

  • For shorter trips, staying at Shades of Green and using the salute tickets is the cheapest option.  If you don’t want to stay at Shades, answers vary.
  • For longer trips, Shades is the cheapest option if you’d otherwise stay at a deluxe resort, but free dining is the better deal if values or moderates is your alternative

[Read more →]

March 11, 2012   No Comments

Military Disney Tips’ Blog Available on Kindle!

by Dave

If you are a military or retired military family, are related to one, or are friends with one, and have a Kindle, sign up for the Military Disney Tips blog right away.  The link to sign up for it on Amazon is here.

MilitaryDisneyTips.com and its blog focuses on Disney World and other central Florida opportunities for military families. All the material on it has some military connection, but much is of interest to the general Disney fan community as well.  It is particularly strong on military discounts and Shades of Green.

New discounts and such typically come out first on the site’s blog.  These discounts can save military families hundreds of dollars, and almost all can be shared by military families with their extended family and friends.

Long-time readers of this site know that Steve, the author of MilitaryDisneyTips.com and its blog, and I collaborate all the time.  My site focuses on first time visitors, some of which are military families; his site focuses on military families, some of which are first time visitors.  So we work together to help our shared audiences.

Subscribing to the MilitaryDisneyTips.com blog on Kindle is like signing up for any other blog with a kindle feed–the first 14 days are free, and after that you pay a 99 cent monthly charge.  You can cancel anytime.

Why Kindle it when you can get RSS or just go to his site for free? 

Well, different people will choose the web vs. RSS vs. Kindle for blogs for different reasons. 

I signed up for Steve’s blog on my Kindle because first,  he doesn’t post that often, and I don’t want to miss anything, and second, his stuff is so potentially  important and money-saving for my military visitors that I want it pushed to and waiting on my Kindle, and thus readable anywhere and anytime.

Most of the great Disney blogs don’t have a Kindle version (use the comment form below to highlight those that do!) and I think it’s great that Steve’s blog is available on Kindle.

LINKS FOR MILITARY FAMILIES AT WALT DISNEY WORLD

January 8, 2012   No Comments

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