Well, it’s certainly been a crazy 11 months in Disney history,
In the past year we’ve seen theme park closures, lack of information for the military community, partial theme park reopening, had to wonder when or if we would find out about 2021 military discounts, a 2020 ticket purchase extension, then a 2020 ticket purchase extension cancellation, and now confusing ticket rules for 2021.
Whew…
Originally Posted – 15 February 2021.
Updated – 5 March 2021 – Added Salute Ticket Upgrade Information.
Updated – 30 June 2021 – Added Disneyland Resort Information.
Updated – 30 June 2021 – Added Disneyland 2021-2022 Information.
Does not cover Walt Disney World’s New 2022 Disney Armed Forces Salute Offer as it is a standard offer.
In this post we will focus solely on the Disney Armed Forces Salute 2020 and 2021 ticket rules for use in 2021.
We will also discuss Walt Disney World and the Disneyland Resort separately.
These rules all apply to Walt Disney World’s Disney Armed Forces Salute Tickets only, as Disneyland has not even reopened yet.
Walt Disney World
2020 Disney Armed Forces Salute Tickets
This is the most confusing part!!!
The 2020 Disney Armed Forces Salute Tickets had 2 different purchase periods. When you purchased your 2020 tickets, could affect your 2021 ticket purchase limits!
The 2 different purchase periods:
- On or prior to 18 December 2020
- From 19 December 2020 through 14 February (this period was cut short by 2 weeks at most sales locations)
Use Period:
- All 2020 Disney Armed Forces Salute Tickets are valid for use through 26 September 2021
- At midnight on the 26th they become invalid for use
- Base Ticket Offices have been instructed to allow members to use 2020 Salute Tickets that they could not use by the 26 Sept. 2021 towards new tickets
Ticket Purchase Limits:
- On or prior to 18 December 2020 – Eligible members, or spouses in their place, could purchase up to 6 2020 Disney Armed Forces Salute Tickets
- From 19 December 2020 through 14 February – Eligible members, or spouses in their place, could again purchase up to 6 2020 Disney Armed Forces Salute Tickets
- 2020 Tickets purchased in this time period count against the 2021 Salute Ticket purchase limit of 6
Disney Armed Forces Salute Ticket Upgrade Information:
When WDW reopened, they did not start reselling the 2020 Park Hopper Plus version of the Disney Armed Forces Salute Tickets. With Typhoon Lagoon reopening next month will those who only had the option to buy the Park Hopper version but wanted the Park Hopper Plus version be able to upgrade to the 2020 Salute Park Hopper Plus at all? As of 15 March we have the answers!
2021 Disney Armed Forces Salute Tickets – As always, the 4-Day Salute Ticket with Park Hopper may be upgraded to a 5-Day Salute Ticket with Park Hopper, a 4-Day Salute Ticket with Park Hopper Plus, or a 5-Day Salute Ticket with Park Hopper Plus. You must do this in person at Disney World (alternately those who purchased from Shades of Green may upgrade there). To upgrade you’ll pay the price difference (with sales tax through Disney).
All 2020 Disney Armed Forces Salute Ticket Upgrades are to 2021 versions.
2020 Disney Armed Forces Salute Tickets – 2020 Salute Tickets may be upgraded to any 2021 version! This includes both length and Park Hopper Plus option. This can only be done through Disney! We have had a report of one longtime reader doing this over the phone, they upgraded their 2020 Salute Tickets with the 26 Sept 2021 expiration to 2021s with the 17 Dec 2021 expiration. They were told it would be for the price difference, but then the cost was waived!
The bad thing is that there are no 6-Day versions this year. So if you have a 6-Day and want to keep the length, then you wont want to upgrade.
2021 Disney Armed Forces Salute Tickets
Just 1 purchase period:
- 15 February to 17 December 2021
Use Period:
- All 2021 Disney Armed Forces Salute Tickets are valid for use through 17 December 2021
- At midnight on the 17th they become invalid for use and lose all value
Ticket Purchase Limits:
- From 19 December 2020 through 17 December 2021 – Eligible members, or spouses in their place may purchase up to a total of 6 tickets. The 6 can be 2020 and or 2021 Disney Armed Forces Salute Tickets
Disneyland Resort
2020 Disney Armed Forces Salute Tickets
Disneyland has extended the expiration of all 2020 Disney Armed Forces Salute Tickets through 16 December 2021.
2021 & 2022 Disney Armed Forces Salute Tickets
You may purchase 6 Disney Armed Forces Salute Tickets between 6 July 2021 and 12 December 2022 for use 6 July 2021 through December 16, 2022;
Blockout dates of 17 December 2021 through 31 December 2021 and 9 April 2022 through 17 April 2022 apply.
While the the 18 month long offer is great for planning purposes, this long offer period has effectively reduced the amount of tickets available for you to use. Normally you should have had 6 to use in 2021 and another 6 to use in 2022!
See our announcement post for more info on this brand new offer.
Wrap Up
I hope this helps clarify the confusing situation that Disney has created this year.
I’ll post any updates from Disney here.
Please see these other posts covering the Disney Armed Forces Salute
- Disney Armed Forces Salute Main Page
- 2021 Walt Disney World Armed Forces Salute Ticket Announcement
- 2021 Disney Armed Forces Salute Information – Rooms, Tickets, Memory Maker
- 2021 Disney Armed Forces Salute Room Package vs Room Only Reservation
Let me know if you have any questions in the comments section below!
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:
- Disney Veteran & Military Discount Eligibility Guide
- The Military Family’s Walt Disney World Comprehensive Vacation Planning and Preparation Guide
- Military Disney Tips Disney Packing Checklist
- Disney Military Tickets – Your Start to Finish Guide
- Resorts/Hotel Overview Page
- Dining Overview Page
- Transportation Overview Page
- Technology Overview Page
- Shades of Green, WDW’s Military Only Resort
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Military Disney Tips' Recommended Disney Travel Agent
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My family of 6 is going to Disney World, dad is retired navy. My brother army wants us to take his son with us. Can he buy his son a ticket and when we get to Disney world my dad activate all 7 salute tickets?
Hi Marc,
If I understand correctly, your brother who is in the army wants to send his son in addition to your party of 6 people including your dad who is retired military. Correct?
The book answer is no, your dad can only activate 6 Disney Armed Forces Salute Tickets.
Tickets purchased long distance through Shades of Green are pre-activated though…
https://www.militarydisneytips.com/blog/disney-military-discounts/buy-military-discounted-disney-tickets-by-phone/
I have 2 days remaining on a military pass from last year and we had to cancel our trip due to Covid. We would like to reschedule and use those tickets this December 2021 but this site says they are only good til September 2021.
Can you extend til the end of the year as we are waiting for Covid vaccines.
Thank you
Hi Ann,
1. I’m not Disney, just a passionate fan so I can’t extend anything.
2. I assume you have 2020 Disney Armed Forces Salute tickets, though you didn’t specify (there are several different military tickets for Disney). Yes these are valid through 26 Sept 2021. Base Ticket offices are supposed to let you use these towards new tickets if you can’t use them by 26 Sept.
So to clarify- If I purchased 3 2020 Walt Disney Military Salute 5 day park hopper tickets and was only able to use 3 days before they expire, I can take them to a military base and they will be able to help me purchase 3 new 4 or 5 day 2021 tickets and apply the unused portion of the 2020 tickets towards the purchase price of the 3 new tickets?
Thanks for your help.
Hi Susan,
As I mentioned in the post, upgrades to the 2021 versions can only be done through Disney, your base travel office will not help you with this.
You’ll need to call Disney World Guest Relations.
I have heard from one person, that Disney would not upgrade partially used tickets. If you run into that, be persistent and elevate to a supervisor or call back to see if they will agree to do it.
Steve, we are trying to figure out whether the Armed Forces Discount tickets still have to be validate at the Magic Kingdom booth. If so, if we purchase the tickets for 15-21 December,, if we check in and convert them at the booth on Dec 15, can be used after the 17th, or are there only two days that we can use them.?
Hi Blake,
Tickets purchased at your Base Ticket Office need to be activated once at WDW.
The 2021 Disney Armed Forces Salute Tickets expire on and cannot be used after 17 December 2021. You could use them on the 15th, 16th, & 17th. Days left on the tickets lose all value.
Tickets purchased from Shades of Green do not need activation, but the expiration remains the same.
I am a retired military veteran of 26 years. I do not have children but I would like to sponsor my neice and her family, 2 adults and 3 young children, do I have to go with them or can I just sponsor them for tickets and/or shades of green hotel packages?
Hi Christopher,
For any and all room discounts you must be in the travel party and occupy one of the rooms.
Non-military cannot access Shades of Green at all without an eligible member.
There are actually 3 different types of military discounted tickets for Disney World.
Only the Regular Military Discounted Magic Your Way Tickets may be used without the sponsor as part of the party and physically being present.
See: https://www.militarydisneytips.com/blog/military-discount-theme-park-tickets/regular-military-discounted-magic-your-way-tickets/
I bought my tickets (6 day park hopper) last month January for a trip that I have planned for in June. So just to make sure I understand, if I wanted to purchase and add the fun option to my ticket, as of now that’s not allowed correct?
Hi Khristen,
Upgrades for the 2020 tickets are in question as they are no longer for sale and they were not selling the Plus versions at all after reopening.
I’m still trying to get Disney to answer.
I bought Some 5-Day Park hopper passes, however I need to activate them so I can add them to my mydisney account in order to reserve dates at the theme parks. How do I activate the passes (into tickets)? I am not physically located close to Disney World.
Hi Keith,
Someone gave you some bad info there. You do not need to activate your tickets to add them to MDE. These are 2 totally separate things.
See: https://www.militarydisneytips.com/blog/my-magic-plus/linking-disney-military-tickets-and-fastpass-plus-reservations/
After linking you do still need to activate them when you arrive so that you can use them.
Hello, my family has 2020 6 day Military Salute Tickets, that we bought for a cancelled trip last year, that expire in Sept. 2021. We now want to visit in Nov. 2021. I see that you wrote “Base Ticket Offices have been instructed to allow members to use 2020 Salute Tickets that they could not use by the 26 Sept. 2021 towards new tickets” but as of now, the base we purchased has said that isn’t an option. Have you found a base that will upgrade tickets to ones that would be valid in Nov 2021 (either the new Military salute tickets or just military discounted base tickets)? We tried reaching out to Shades of Green, but we haven’t heard back from them. Thanks!
Hi Dave,
I do not personally know of any that are. No one has passed this back to me.
But I do know of one case of Disney converting someones 2020 tickets to a 17 Dec 2021 expiration ( I just heard this from the individual, who I’ve corresponded with for years, a couple days ago). Here is what they said: “We bought 2020 AFS tickets back at beginning of March last year. We were slated to go in May. Well you know that didn’t happen so we moved it to December and we still couldn’t go. Then we switched to April and due to hubs training being pushed back we can’t go till end of this year after the tickets expire. So I called Disney yesterday and held on for 3 1/2 hrs but finally spoke with someone and he said we could upgrade and pay difference to 2021 tickets he had to have someone in guest relations call me back we have 3 tickets so the difference would have been 80 per ticket. She waived it for us! That hold was worth it”
So give calling Disney a try when you have a bunch of time…
Hi Dave,
I just updated this post. Shades of Green advised me that Disney WILL upgrade your 2020 Salute Tickets to 2021 versions!
Hi Steve! Thanks for all the great info you provide military families. We have two unused 2020 armed forces salute tickets that we won’t be able to use by the September 2021 cutoff. We are planing to go early December 2021 and would love to apply the value for these to 2021 Salute tickets. Am I understanding correctly that I do this by calling Disney directly, not Shades of Green? Thanks so much for your help in how to navigate this. Thanks to your tips we got an awesome room discount in December too. Really appreciate you!
Hi Kris
Thank you!
Yes, you sure can. Another reader was able to do it via phone with Disney. Shades is referring people to Disney for 2020 upgrades.
This is great news! Thanks Steve! I’ll update you after I call.
Disney will not upgrade partially used tickets. We used two of the six days and they said they will not upgrade the remaining tickets.
Thanks for the current intel Mark. They always have in the past.
Update: Disney told me to call Shades of Green and Shades of Green said to ask Disney again.
Steve,
An update: Disney ticketing did suggest I ask Shades of Green for an exchange. Shades of Green said “no exchanges,” but they were surprised Disney declined to extend the dates, and suggested I call Disney back. They gave me a different number to call.
I spent a lot of time on hold today between Shades and Disney, but it was worth it because Disney did end up extending the end date … but only to November 30.
Awesome Mark!
One very bad thing about Disney’s phone support is lack of training/keeping up to speed on all the variables of Disney’s military discounts. It is often the case that a castmember will give out entirely incorrect, sometimes very costly, information.
It can be so bad that I wrote a post about it a long time ago. You often have to call several times before you get someone who knows what they are talking about…
https://www.militarydisneytips.com/blog/disney-military-discounts/disney-parks-call-center-should-you-trust-them-about-military-discounts/
Hi Steve, Since it is just me and my wife, can I purchase 6 tickets and each of us use three of them for a total of 15 days each ? thanks !
Hey Kelly,
Absolutely!
https://www.militarydisneytips.com/blog/disney-military-discounts/use-disneys-armed-forces-salute-multiple-times/
Oops, wrong link: https://www.militarydisneytips.com/blog/faq/can-i-use-the-disney-armed-forces-salute-tickets-back-to-back/
My husband is deployed, but wants our family members to go to Disney World while he is still deployed.
Is there a way he can secure tickets for us, while he is deployed?
Hi Jenn,
You as the spouse are eligible in his place. (with your current mil ID)
See: https://www.militarydisneytips.com/blog/the-disney-armed-forces-salute-military-ticket-and-room-discounts/
Can we use the Annual Passes tab to make reservations on the Disney Park Pass Reservation site with Salute to the military passes?
Hi Jeff,
I’m not sure I understand your question. It appears to be parts of 2 sentences.
Theme Park Reservations may be made with Annual passes linked to your My Disney Experience account. I do it all the time. You may make up to 3 day’s worth of reservations for any open dates, unless you have a resort reservation. Then you may make up to 3 day’s worth of reservations for any open dates, plus during the dates of your stay check in to check out days.
Any ticket military or otherwise linked to your My Disney Experience account, may make reservations up to the length of the ticket. Having a resort reservation puts you into a different bucket from being a day guest.
Reread your question again, do you mean you have a pass and some tickets for others as well? That’s always my situation and it works just fine, pursuant to the rules for passholders, day guests, and resort guests.
Hello,
I bought 5, 6 day park hopper tickets in January of this year for our upcoming Disney trip in June, but now I plan on bringing my mom along. Am I allowed to buy the 4 day hopper for her? And then also just to make sure I understand because I have a 6 day ticket I am not allowed to upgrade and add the water parks correct?
Hi Khristen,
Yes you can buy any 2021 ticket for your mom.
So having bought the 6-day 2020 tickets, the only upgrades are to the 2021 versions and there is no 6-day version.
To add the Plus option for water parks you’d need to go to a 5-day.
So how does activation work for the military passes if we need to reserve The park we are going to be in. In order to make park reservations we have to have park tickets which we technically won’t have until we go to the park to activate?
Hi there Steven,
If you’ve purchased your Disney Armed Forces Salute tickets at your base ticket office you have all you need. You do not need to activate or exchange vouchers to do this.
Follow the linking instructions here: https://www.militarydisneytips.com/blog/my-magic-plus/linking-disney-military-tickets-and-fastpass-plus-reservations/
Then the Park Reservations instructions here: https://www.militarydisneytips.com/blog/my-magic-plus/using-the-walt-disney-world-park-reservation-system/
This isn’t any different from linking and making FastPass+ reservations in the past.
This seems to be for DisneyWorld? How does this all work (linking Military Salute tickets) for Disneyland?
Thanks!
Hi Traci,
Sorry, it doesn’t right now…
See the end of this post (under Disney Armed Forces Salute): https://www.militarydisneytips.com/blog/disneyland/disneyland-resort-reopening-details/
Hi Steve
We’re a family of 4 and purchased 4 Armed Forces Salute tickets on 04 Dec 20 and used them in March. We’d like to go back in sept, so if I understand correctly we can now purchase 4 more (exceeding our 6 ticket limit) 2021 salute tickets without issue?
Hi there Jen,
Good news! Yes and no… lol.
The 4 you purchased previously were under the prior to 18 Dec 2020 6 ticket limit. Any new ones will be under the 19 Dec to end of 2021 6 ticket limit.
So, yes you can purchase 4 and the no part is you won’t be exceeding any limit.
I’ll look at this post to see if I need to make it clearer. Thanks
Apologies if you addressed this already….I see that annual pass holders have more options to book parks for any given date in May. Wondered if Disney World also allows Military Salute ticket holders to book parks as if they were an annual pass holder? Guessing no…but thought I’d ask! Hollywood Studios is booked until June unless you are an annual pass holder.
Thank you so much!
Hi Laura,
That would be nice, but no they don’t.
Are we able to purchase our Disney Salute tickets at Shades of Green as a walk in instead of using the online order form if we are not staying at Shades of Green as guest? And will we get our tickets the same day?
Yes, absolutely to both Amanda. They will hand you your tickets when you purchase them at the register.
My husband is a veteran (disabled), and we were planning on a SOG stay in September. The hotel is basically 100% sold,out and I’ve been trying to catch a room since last September. Since it doesn’t look like we can stay at SOG, do we have any other options for that month? It’s the only month he can stay with his status.
Regards,
Y..
Hi Y,
Call their reservations line vs using the website. Ask for an Overflow Rate. Theses are prices that have negotiated with the Disney Springs area hotels for when they are full.
See this post about the hotels but the discount mentioned in the post is not the one I’m talking about.
https://www.militarydisneytips.com/blog/disney-military-discounts/disney-world-downtown-disney-resort-area-hotels-offer-military-discounts/
Good morning. Does this ticket offer also extend to 100% Disabled Veterans?
Hi Victor,
100% DAVPRM are eligible, DAVTMP are not.
See: https://www.militarydisneytips.com/blog/the-disney-armed-forces-salute-military-ticket-and-room-discounts/
and: https://www.militarydisneytips.com/blog/walt-disney-world-military-discount-id-guide-for-veterans/
Steve,
First thank you for all of the work you do, it’s really helpful. Second, I bought 3 salute to military 2020 tickets for a trip that I had to cancel. We are going this year, staying at Shades of Green but now going with my brother and his family. Based on your advice we purchased 5 tickets for him and his family during the December to February 2021 window (they were 2020 tickets though). I just wanted to confirm that we will be able to activate all 8 tickets when we arrive in August. Is that a safe assumption? Thanks again
Hi Eric,
Thanks so much!
Yes, the 2 groups of tickets fall under different purchase windows (in this odd period)(couldn’t hurt to bring the purchase receipts if you have them).
The 5 count against your 2021 ticket allotment.
Hi Steve
I just was this message on the Fort Belvoir MWR ticket page, it is pasted below. Does this mean I could buy 12 tickets for our 2021 trip??
*NEW! Eligible Military Guests should not exceed the use of more than twelve (12) Military Salute tickets from January 1, 2021-December 31, 2021. This includes the purchase of 2020 or 2021 Salute tickets. If an Eligible Service Member purchases twelve (12) 2020 Salute tickets, he/she is NOT eligible to purchase or redeem 2021 Salute tickets.
Hi Tina,
No. What they have stated is a really bad summation of the info in this post.
If you had 6 of the 2020 tickets purchased in the initial timeframe AND 6 2020 tickets purchased in the second timeframe or 2021 tickets, technically you could use all 12 in 2021. The first set by 26 Sept and the second by 16 Dec.
Hi Steve,
Thank you for all the information on this site and my family and I have found it to be the most useful site for everything Disney Military! We received a response to our inquiry about our 2020 Disneyland Military Salute tickets and wanted to get your thoughts on their response. Naturally, I’m hesitant to take this Disney employees email as direction to let the tickets expire and go to Disneyland in 2022 to get credit to use to purchase new tickets. I have not seen this in writing anywhere except to our response. Have you heard anything about this exchange after the expiration date? Here is our exchange of emails with Disney.
Email to Disneyland:
Hello!
We have Disneyland 2020 Military Salute tickets, purchased through our local Air Force Base which now have an expiration date of 12/16/2021. Our family has some members who are high risk for COVID and we do not anticipate feeling safe enough to use these tickets before their expiration. I emailed through the Disneyland website and was instructed to contact the Air Force Base. Based on that email response, I contacted the Air Force Base where we purchased the tickets and they said they will not give us a refund for the tickets and we need to contact Disney. Is there a way for us to extend the expiration date on our tickets, get a voucher to use them in 2022 instead, or have you transfer them into 2022 Military Salute tickets? Please contact me at XXX-XXX-XXXX if you need further information or have questions. Thank you for your help!
Disneyland Customer Service Ticket Response:
Hello Andrea,
Thank you for contacting the Disneyland® Resort in California!
If you are unable to visit the Disneyland® Resort prior to the expiration date of your park ticket, not to worry! The value that you paid for your park ticket will never expire, so you can apply that value towards the purchase of a new, valid park ticket of equal or greater value at the Disneyland® Resort ticket booths.
For further questions, please contact our Guest Information & Ticket Sales Team at 714-781-4636 any day of the week from 7:00AM to 9:00PM Pacific Time. A Cast Member there will be more than happy to assist you!
We thank you for choosing the Disneyland® Resort.
Have a Magical day!
Bernadette
Disneyland® Resort
Online Sales & Service
Hi Donald,
Thanks so much!
It is always wise to suspect a cast member’s statement that is outside what you know or the norm… They have little to no training given on military discounts.
Your response looks like a cut and paste regarding general public tickets as it says “The value that you paid for your park ticket will never expire” which is not normally the case for Salute Tickets. And the words Salute or military are not used in the response.
However just a day or so back another reader left a similar question on another post, where she copied just this portion of a Disneyland email response and it does specifically say Salute Tickets.
“When Salute Ticket sales do resume, the expiration date for Disney Armed Forces Salute Tickets sold through December 15, 2020 will also be extended to 26 September 2021. (instead of December 18, 2020) This date will be printed on all newly sold Salute Tickets.
“If a guest is unable to visit by September 26, 2021, Disney will allow the guest to apply the value of a wholly unused Ticket toward the purchase of a ticket for a future date.”
Note: The 2020 expiration has been further extended through 16 Dec 2021.
As you note, I haven’t seen anything from Disneyland about using 2020 tickets towards new ones at any time desired in the future. I’d keep a hold of that email to use as leverage in your negotiations at the ticket window if you find that you can’t go this year.
We purchased 4 Disney Military 5 day park hopper tickets September 2021.. We were headed to Disney on 1 October 2021. Unfortunately we were involved in vehicle accident and we were unable to make our trip to Disney. We’ve read that our tickets expire on the 17th of December 2021 and due to our granddaughter’s school schedule, vehicle being repaired which want be until December, I’m unable to drive until December and other circumstances we would not be able to use our tickets until after the expiration date. In your opinion is there any chance of Disney extending the dates of our tickets and if you believe they would what would we need to do.
Thank you
Donald Sheppard SFC, Retired
Hi Donald,
As I’m sure you have discovered there is currently no Salute offer for 2022 at WDW. I expect that if 2022 has an offer it will be a separate/independent offer as usual vs a continuation of the 2021 offer. This means your tickets will become invalid.
I recommend that you contact WDW Guest Relations to explain the situation and ask for an extension or conversion of the tickets to the equivalent general public ones at no extra cost.
Make sure this extension/conversion is done while you are on the phone and you can see the date change in your My Disney Experience app before hanging up. This is because anything they tell you on the phone in no way is binding when you later try to do what they said you could. The cast member at the later date could just say that’s not allowed.
You provide such helpful information! Thank you! I do have a question that perhaps you could help me with…
If I purchase the 4-day park hopper plus option, does that mean four theme park days and one water park day, five days total? Or does it mean four park days, regardless of theme park or water park?
Hi there Lea,
Thanks so much!
With a 4-day Hopper Plus you get 4 days of unlimited entry into multiple theme parks per day (currently limited by attendance levels and having a reservation for the first park of the day).
AND 4 entries into the Plus venues. The entries can be the same or different days as the theme park days.
Check out the link below which covers this in detail. It’s the 3rd of the ticket add ons addressed in the post.
https://www.militarydisneytips.com/blog/military-discount-theme-park-tickets/disney-world-water-parks-and-sports-option-park-hopper-plus-option/