Walt Disney World just changed its Military Theme Park Tickets in a Big Way!
This change affects the Regular Walt Disney World Military Tickets, not the Disney Armed Forces Salute Tickets.
The Disney Armed Forces Salute Tickets are highly discounted Military Tickets that come with many eligibility, purchase, and use restrictions, which have not changed at all.
What has changed is the Regular Military Discounted Magic Your Way Tickets. These slightly discounted tickets have been offered with minimal changes.
I’ve been expecting this change for over five years! In October of 2018, Walt Disney World began selling its general public tickets on a date-based basis. Meaning that guests had to purchase their tickets for a specific vacation start date and prices varied depending on the start date. The Regular Military Discounted Magic Your Way Tickets did not convert to this date-based scheme… Until now!
What are The Changes
There are a few very important changes to the Regular Military Tickets, those being:
- The Name of the Tickets
- They are Now Date-Based Tickets
- Their Prices Vary
- Expiration Dates
- Theme Park Reservations are not Required
Name Change
The Regular Military Discounted Magic Your Way Tickets have change their name to Walt Disney World Military Theme Park Tickets. This alligns with the general public name, Walt Disney World Theme Park Tickets.
Date-Based Tickets
Where the old Military Magic Your Way Tickets could be used on any start date that you desired after purchase. When you purchase the new Walt Disney World Military Theme Park Tickets, you must select a start date on which you will begin to use them.
Variable Prices
The old tickets were the same price every day, with the exception of 1-Day tickets during Christmas, which were higher. The new version has a variable price per day that changes by day of use and can be dynamically increased or decreased prior to purchase based on Disney’s projected attendance. Your price is not locked until you purchase!
These prices are a discounted percentage off of the general public gate price for the start date in question.
Expiration Dates
The old tickets expired 14 days after the first day that you used them. The new versions have a variable expiration from 4 to 14 days, depending on the length of ticket that you buy.
The old tickets became unusable if you did not use them by the end of the year after purchase. Because the new versions are date based this is not applicable.
Theme Park Reservations
Disney had no idea when you would use the old tickets, so they required you to make theme park reservations in order to let them gauge attendance. Since the new versions are date based (like the general public ones) they know when you will be using them.
Note the Disney Armed Forces Salute Tickets are non-date based and do still require Theme Park Reservations as do all Disneyland Military Tickets!
What Didn’t Change?
Some things did not change during this significant change, here’s the list:
- Eligibility remains the same
- You still buy these from Base Ticket Offices, Disney does not sell these tickets
- There is no sales tax charges at Base Ticket Offices (extra savings)
- The length of the tickets – 1 to 10 Days
- The Ticket Options – Park Hopper, Water Park and Sports, Park Hopper Plus
Wrap Up
This announcement Post covers the big picture of the changes, for full details see: Walt Disney World Military Theme Park Tickets
Feel Free to ask questions in the comment section below!
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This MDT Post By: Steve Bell Steve is the Military Disney Tips Founder. He is a retired U.S. Military Member who's been touring the Disney Parks since 1971! He has been writing about Disney for the US Military Community here for 18 years. Steve's mission is to help military families with their Disney vacations in every way possible. See Steve and His Family's Content |
Planning a Disney Trip? Want to get the best military discounts that are available? Feeling a little confused? See Our Great Disney Discount and Planning Info:
- Back to Basics Posts - A great place to start, offering basic topics!
- Disney Veteran & Military Discount Eligibility Guide
- The Military Family’s Walt Disney World Comprehensive Vacation Planning and Preparation GuideÂ
- Military Disney Tips Disney Packing ChecklistÂ
- Disney Military Tickets – Your Start-to-Finish Guide
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- Shades of Green, WDW’s Military-Only Resort
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After rereading this article several times I have a few things I’m curious about. Now that Magic your way tickets are now “Disneyworld Military Tickets” and are now date based with prices that vary everyday my question is if I go through Shades of Green to purchase a 7 day base tickets how am I to know what the total is when placing my order? On the price sheet I was given by Shades of Green (expires 12/31/25) a 7 day base ticket is $529 for adults (Dec 6-13) and with this new Disneyworld Military Tickets everyday is a different price *$110+ – $114+. That’s a huge price increase and I’m wondering where’s the discount that the Military were given since these tickets were first offered to us? If you could please explain this to me it would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you for your help and I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Best regards
Linda Duffy
Hi there Linda,
Glad to help!
First, this post is just the announcement post with limited details, there is a link at the end of the post to the very detailed, permanent page that gives full details on these tickets, including how to estimate prices. But let’s delve into it a little here.
Using your 7-day base example from the old, superseded pricelist. I’ll price a couple of trips through the year.
Note – looking at Disney’s site for the remainder of the year (all that is currently published), the 7-day general public price range is $80 to $118 before tax, you would take the 20% military discount off the pre-tax price.
Your start date sets the price that is the same for all days of your ticket, it does not vary every day. Prices vary by start date.
Remember the military community has avoided this date-based pricing for the last 7 years. With those old Military Magic Your Way tickets (7-day at $529) there were times of the year when the general public paid more, and days when they paid less than that price due to their price fluctuations. Granted the days when the military MYW were more expensive were very limited, just during the very low attendance periods.
Lets say I walk into Shades of Green’s ticket office tomorrow morning (3/2/25) and ask to buy two tickets, one a 7-day Base Ticket starting that morning, and the other a 7-day Base Ticket starting on September 7th. They will quote me the price for each at that moment (prices could change as days go by if I don’t buy them then).
For tomorrow, the general public 7-day Base price is roughly $105.48 per day plus tax. The total before tax is $738.32. With this number we can get both the general public and military prices. Add $47.99 tax for a total of $786.31 for the general public, or multiply by .8 to get a total of $590.66 for the military. Savings $195.65.
For September, the general public 7-day Base price is roughly $83.37 per day plus tax. The total before tax is $569.53. That makes the general public price $606.65, and the military price $455.63. Savings $150.02.
The new Military Theme Park Tickets are 20% off the general public pre-tax price, and 24.88% off the GP taxed price.
In the old days (pre 2018) before date based pricing the Military MYW only offered 8% to 12% off based on the ticket length.
The page I mentioned above shows you how to compute this using Disney’s site, but here is the link.
I hope this helps!