Category — k. Special Circumstances at Walt Disney World

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 →]

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

• Military Families at Walt Disney World
• Deals and Discounts
  • Military Discounts and Deals
  • Other Walt Disney World Discounts and Deals
• Shades of Green
  • Review of Shades of Green
  • Splitting Your Stay Between Shades of Green and Another Resort
  • Overflow Rates at Shades of Green
  • Shades of Green website
• Other Resources for Military Families
  • DisneyMilitarySales.com
  • Disneyworld.com/military
  • MilitaryDisneyTips.com

VETERANS DAY 2011

Thanks so much to all of you who have risked harm’s way to keep this great country free, and thanks to your families for helping you do so.

Happy Veteran’s Day!!

LINKS FOR MILITARY FAMILIES AT WALT DISNEY WORLD

• Military Families at Walt Disney World
• Deals and Discounts
  • Military Discounts and Deals
  • Other Walt Disney World Discounts and Deals
• Shades of Green
  • Review of Shades of Green
  • Splitting Your Stay Between Shades of Green and Another Resort
  • Overflow Rates at Shades of Green
  • Shades of Green website
• Other Resources for Military Families
  • DisneyMilitarySales.com
  • Disneyworld.com/military
  • MilitaryDisneyTips.com

DISNEY MILITARY DISCOUNT 2012

The military discount for Disney World in 2012 is up and detailed on Disney’s special offers page.

The Disney Military Discount for 2012 is in effect an extension and doubling of Disney’s military discount for 2011.

Eligible personnel may buy and activate a total of twelve 4-day tickets for $138 each over the period from the beginning of the 2011 program to the end of the 2012 program.

The 2012 program ends September 30, 2012.  There’s a different program that begins October 1 2012 and extends into September 2013.  Click here for more on the FY13 military salute.

ONE MILITARY DISCOUNT PROGRAM FOR 2011 AND 2012

There is in effect just one military discount program that covers the period ending September 30 2012.

So families that already bought some military discount Disney World tickets in 2011 can now buy more, up to a total of 12 including those already bought; families that have not yet bought any can buy, activate and use up to twelve between now and September 30, 2012.

However, only 6 tickets can be activated or used in any 7 day period.

The price is a savings of ~$100 per ticket compared to Disney’s normal 4-day ticket prices.

Those eligible to purchase these Disney Military Salute tickets include active and (career) retired members of the US Military, including the National Guard, Reservists, and the Coast Guard, and their spouses.

My friend Steve of MilitaryDisneyTips.com notes that permanently disabled veterans with military ID with a DAVPRM status are also eligible for this offer.

Valid military ID is required at the parks themselves to activate the tickets.

For more, see this page.

DISNEY MILITARY ROOM RATE DISCOUNTS

Disney World is also offering discounted room rates to service families.  See this page for more.

ANSWERS TO COMMON QUESTIONS

Steve’s MilitaryDisneyTips.com is a great resource for military families.  He answers frequently asked questions about these programs on this page.

LINKS FOR MILITARY FAMILIES AT WALT DISNEY WORLD

• Military Families at Walt Disney World
• Deals and Discounts
  • Military Discounts and Deals
  • Other Walt Disney World Discounts and Deals
• Shades of Green
  • Review of Shades of Green
  • Splitting Your Stay Between Shades of Green and Another Resort
  • Overflow Rates at Shades of Green
  • Shades of Green website
• Other Resources for Military Families
  • DisneyMilitarySales.com
  • Disneyworld.com/military
  • MilitaryDisneyTips.com

TWELVE TICKETS IN TOTAL AVAILABLE FOR DISNEY MILITARY SALUTE

Steve at MilitaryDisneyTips has posted here that the discounted Disney World Military tickets are not unlimited, as we previously thought, but limited to a total of 12.

Only 6 can be “purchased/activated/utilized” per day for the life of the deal, which ends September 30 2012.

I apologize for causing more than my usual confusion on prior posts about how many total tickets are available!  (I probably should have a separate category on this site called “apologies.”)

Disney World’s military discounts site still does not have details of 2012 up, but Steve’s got all the core stuff on this page and its links.

Lots of important news over the last few days…

DISNEY WEBSITE OPEN FOR BOOKING 2012

You can now book most 2012 dates on Disney’s website.

This is a couple of months earlier than Disney has made this possible in past years.

You still can’t book Disney World more than 500 days ahead, so the website only lets you book (as of today) through late October 2012.

This means that most 2012 Disney World prices are out as well–I’ll update this site over the next few weeks based on these prices. You can see the new Disney World 2011/2012 ticket prices here.

YOU CAN BOOK THE ART OF ANIMATION RESORT

Disney’s Art of Animation Resort is open for booking, for arrival dates beginning May 31, 2012.

See this on MousePlanet.com for more details.

DISNEY MILITARY SALUTE TICKETS: UNLIMITED USE?

Update 7/7: only a total of 12 tickets can be used over the 2011-2012 period, wth no more than 6 activated at a time.

Steve at MilitaryDisneyTips.com is reporting here, based on new instructions to Disney ticket window staff that he has seen, that the discounted Military Disney ticket offer can be used multiple times–“unlimited” times–so long as no more than 6 tickets are purchased each time.

The details of the extension of this deal to 2012 are still not on Disney’s website; MilitaryDisneyTips.com has a lot of the specifics of them here.