Disney Officials have confirmed to me that the current Disney Armed Forces Salute will definitely end on 30 September 2012!
Disney’s Armed Forces Salutes History
The current Armed Forces Salute began on 24 October 2010 and it was originally scheduled to run through 1 October 2011. Then on 18 April 2011 Disney announced that it would be extended through 30 September 2012, with very little change. The ticket prices and room discounts remained the same, what changed was the number of discount tickets that military members were eligible for (12 for the 2-year period vs. the original 6).
This was the first time in the history of Disney’s Armed Forces Salutes that they had tried an extension. Previously the offers had ended and then a new offer would start, hopefully with no break. There was a 23-day break in October 2010.
Why This Offer Has To End
As mentioned above this was the first extension of a Disney Military Salute. The extension locked Disney into two years of offering the theme park tickets at the same price. Regular gate prices have been increased 2 times since October 2010. The AFS tickets are still at the 2010 rate.
Each time the Salute offers have ended and then been renewed in the past Disney had been able to evaluate and change as necessary the offer details. Details such as the number of days offered on the AFS tickets and the price.
Salute Offers Only Recent
Many military families have only experienced these great discounts the last couple of years and are under the impression that this is a constant offer by the Disney Company. But the Armed Forces Salutes are a somewhat recent benefit, which started in January 2009. Disney did also offer an Armed Forces Salute in 2002 during the post September 11, 2001 travel downturn. Other than this brief period the military has had to be satisfied with the regular Disney Military Discounts.
What Now?
Recently a reader told me that the Disney Call Center said that they “have no plans at this time to make another Military Salute Offer.”
Don’t Despair!
All is not lost.
The same Disney Official has in the past assured me that they are working towards making a new offer. In my most recent communication with him he said that he expects that we will have an answer one way or another “well in advance” of this offer’s end date.
While what the call center said is true at this time, I am hopeful that Disney will make another offer.
It takes time to work through making an offer like this. Disney has to evaluate their reservations into the coming year, decide if there is a need to attract more people to their resorts, the room discounts to offer, the length and price point for theme park tickets, and then they need to enter into negotiations with the military on the resale policies for Base ITT Offices and Shades of Green. This process is what caused the 23-day gap back in 2010, the contracts hadn’t been signed.
Look at the general public discounts being offered, they haven’t stopped. Disney is on record as saying that they want to wean the public off of the steep discounts that they’ve had to offer during this economic downturn, but they’ve yet to start…
If general public discounts were ending I’d be worried about the Armed Forces Salute too.
So, continue to be patient, I think we’ll know by the end of the month or the first week in August.
What if there is no renewal?
Well then unfortunately it’s back to the way thing used to be…
Shades of Green suddenly becomes way more attractive, hopefully they’ll bring back their overflow rates at Disney Hotels, and we’ll have to get up to speed on all the general public discounts.
I recently did a couple of blog posts on this topic, check them out:
What If Disney Discontinues The Armed Forces Salute?
When to expect Disney’s Armed Forces Salute Renewal for dates after 30 September 2012
Regular Disney Military Discount for Walt Disney World and Disneyland Tickets
Share your thoughts on the Armed Forces Salute in the comments below!
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When I booked my upcoming November trip (in June), I requested the Free Dining Package at Pop Century, which of course requires at least a two-day Magic-Your-Way Park Ticket. The Cast Member asked if I was sure I only wanted two-day tickets for my week long trip. I told her that I wanted to wait to see if the military ticket offer would be extended or wait on a new offer to be released. She told me not to worry, that the “military salute” type tickets would definitely be available. Now I realize that not all Cast Members know for sure what they were talking about, but this at least gave me a little hope
FYI: in 2009 and 2011, my family and I upgraded our MYW tickets to Military Salute ones upon check-in/first park day. All we had to do is request/insist that our tickets be seperated from our rooms (which had free dining, yay!) and take them to the park our fist day to be upgraded to the military salute tickets. SWEET! That meant Free Dining + Military Salute ticket prices!!! The Cast Members at Pop put up a fuss both times, but asked management for help and pulled it off each time. Apparently not a task that they were used to doing. They really don’t like to remove tickets from your “Key to the World” in fear of messing up the free dining.
Hey Kellie,
Thanks so much for this outstanding tip!!!
Did you have the front desk or concierge separate the park tickets from the room key? I’ve heard that you should have the concierge do it as they are more “skilled” with park tickets.
I think I might try this in the fall, Disney announced new free dining dates in the fall.
Last go around I heard a recommendation for those staying at Shades to get a Disney campsite for the free dining, but I like your technique better!
Thanks for sharing!
I have a trip booked with Disney for December. I called yesterday about the free dining and the kind lady on the phone did all the math for me and figured out that the current military deal, if extended would save me a little more money. In order to take advantage of the free dining deal I’d have to either move my reservation dates (we are supposed to be there for my birthday and wouldn’t be if we changed dates) or make two separate reservations. In the past couple months I’ve spoken to three cast members about my reservations and they all seemed to think the offer would be extended, however they also said they didn’t know for sure just that history has show it would be. Sadly, military pay isn’t increasing so being able to afford a Disney vacation isn’t getting any easier for the military community. I really hope Disney continues the discount so we can afford to go. We are scrimping and saving as best we can just in case, but it would be nice to know for sure soon! Both the free dining and the current military offer expire around the same day so there is a little time to make decisions, although it limits room availability. Is there any place we can write about the issue do you know?
Hi Gretchen, you can certainly write to Disney to express thanks and your desire for a renewal, but you wont get any answers until they make an announcement.
I talk to the Disney Military Sales Dept, who create these offers and WDW media relations, and then have no info right now…
Hi! Did you mean you’d try that idea in the fall using the MYW tickets since the Salute will end after Sept 30? Just wondered if there would be a way to overlap free dining and Salute tickets that I may not be realizing? We are traveling before Sept 30 so we don’t risk losing out on the Salute deep discount along with the current promo for discounted rooms. That option outweighs free dining with regular room rates and regular military discount tickets…at least that’s what I was told. Thanks!
Hey Danielle,
I might. I’m of course hoping there will be a new AFS offer after 30 Sept.
But I’m thinking I might reserve now with the rack room rates and the free dining, then given there is a new offer I’ll compare the rack rate/free dining/AFS ticket to whatever the room rate would be with the new AFS discount/AFS tickets/and paying for food.
There are many hazards to doing this as well as benefits. We cannot advise our clients to do this as you may get an overzealous management person who looks at what rate you are on and sees you are not on a milititary promotion, wants to put you on it and is not able to. These rates are only available to a certain percentage of the room inventory, once that percentage is gone, the militatry discount is gone.
So, you could request the tickets be pulled because you are doing a miltitary ticket, they want to put you on a military promotion, it is not availbale, they look at the farecode you are under now, it is free dine, you are stuck. Or they put you on a rack rate instead. I am speaking from experience from what clietns have tried to do. It might work but it might not.
Amy, thanks for tagging in!
I was wondering what You’d think about this idea.
I just wanted to say that I will be so disappointed if they decide that they will not be doing any kind of promotion. While many people out there have been fortunate enough to take advantage of such a wonderful offer, we have not. My husband has literally been deployed so much that there was no time to have any type of vacation. For 2 years straight! His MOS is such that if he isn’t deployed, he is off training somewhere. This is the first time in the past 6 years that we have had a chance to plan a Disney trip. I hope they would take into consideration those that haven’t been available to use their previous promos. While I am so thankful that they have even given military special money saving discounts, it just kind of stinks that the 1st (and probably only time for quite a while as we face yet another deployment coming up) vacation we have even actually had time to go, that there won’t be one available. I will try to keep my hopes up and think positive though that maybe they will do something, anything, if a promo isn’t offered.
Stephanie,
First and foremost, thanks so much for your husband’s service and your family’s support and sacrifice!
I believe that Disney will end up renewing this fantastic offer in some form, they do need to update their 2010 AFS ticket prices.
I just wish that they had been able to announce it in the January-March timeframe so that military families could plan around deployments.
Take care, Steve
Shades of Green offers some great value…and our last few trips, we have found the dining much improved. Only the Contemp, Poly, and Grand Floridian are more convenient for the Magic Kingdom, and with a little planning, the other parks are not a problem…the SoG bus to the Transportation and Ticket Center runs every 20 minutes, and the Disney Bus stops for Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios are just steps away from where the SoG bus stops. The rooms are much larger (and always clean, in our experience) than any of the moderate or value hotels. Our last two trips were affordable for our kids and grandkids, only because we chose Shades of Green. Hope there is an extension, but even without it, Shades of Green is a great deal.
Hi Hank,
All great points! It has been a while since I’ve tried the buffets at Shades, we weren’t impressed the last time. But we really did like Manginos.