This post is part of our Frequently Asked Question Series in the Disney Armed Forces Salute Ticket FAQ section.
The Disney’s Armed Forces Salute offers huge savings on theme park tickets and resort rooms to those Service Members who are eligible to participate.
Can I Upgrade My Disney Armed Forces Salute Ticket?
Yes you can in a couple of ways. And No you can’t in one significant way!
First and most important! You must still have days available for use on your ticket at the time of upgrade. You cannot upgrade a old used ticket.
The Disney Armed Forces Salute tickets come in 2 varieties for Walt Disney World: Park Hopper and Park Hopper Plus. At Disneyland they only come with the Park Hopper option.
All varieties can be purchased without or with Disney Genie+.
Upgrading Ticket Options
At Walt Disney World, if you’ve purchased the Park Hopper version you may upgrade your ticket to the Plus option.
If you purchased tour Salute Tickets without Disney Genie+, you may also add that to your tickets.
All upgrades must be done in person at a Disney Ticket or Guest Relations location.
To upgrade just drop by any WDW ticket or Guest Relations location and pay the price difference between the ticket that you have and the ticket that You are upgrading ti. You will pay the price deferance plus tax on the price difference.
If you originally purchased your ticket from Shades of Green you can also upgrade your tickets there to the new price without tax. Or you can upgrade your Shades of Green purchased ticket directly with Disney World with the tax added.
You cannot upgrade tickets purchased elsewhere at Shades of Green!
Upgrading to an Annual Pass
Any Disney Armed Forces Salute ticket can be upgraded to any pass.
At Walt Disney World, if you’d like to upgrade to one of the many different annual passes you can go to any WDW ticket location and pay the price difference between the Salute ticket and the desired pass plus tax.
At Disneyland, if you’d like to upgrade to an annual pass you can go to any DLR ticket location and pay the price difference between the Salute ticket and the desired pass.
Adding a Day
Prior to 2017 Disney did not allow you to add days to the 4-day Walt Disney World or 3-day Disneyland Resort Disney Armed Forces Salute Tickets.
But with the addition of the 5-day Walt Disney World Armed Forces Salute Tickets and 4-day Disneyland Resort Disney Armed Forces Salute Tickets there had been a change to this policy.
If you buy the shorter tickets (4-day at WDW & 3-day at DLR) you can upgrade them to the longer versions (5-day at WDW & 4-day at DLR) for the price difference.
No other additions of days are allowed.
There is no other way to add days! 5 days at WDW and 4 days at DLR are the maximum lengths allowed for Disney Armed Forces Salute tickets. If you need longer tickets you’ll need to consider other options, see What is the Right Military Ticket for Me?
Walt Disney World Locations to Upgrade:
- All four theme park ticket and Guest Relations windows
- The Transportation and Ticket Center Ticket or Guest Relations windows
- Magic Kingdom Ticket or Guest Relations windows (Outside the main entrance, Town Hall, and Next to the Hall of Presidents in Liberty Square) Note: Liberty Square location currently closed
- Epcot – Main Entrance or International Gateway Ticket or Guest Relations windows (Outside both entrances and behind and to the left of Spaceship Earth in Guest Relations)
- Hollywood Studios Ticket or Guest Relations windows (Outside the main entrance and Ticket Central at Hollywood and Sunset Boulevards) Note Ticket Central currently closed
- Animal Kingdom Ticket or Guest Relations windows (Outside the main entrance and the Ticket Corner at Island Mercantile on Discovery Island)
- Both Water Parks
- Typhoon Lagoon
- Blizzard Beach
- Disney Springs Shopping and Entertainment Area (formerly Downtown Disney)
For full information on the Disney Armed Forces Salute, please see our Disney Armed Forces Salute Page.
Disney Tickets and Technology Links
Tickets
Disney's Armed Forces Salute Tickets The biggest military discount available on tickets
- Disney Armed Forces Salute FAQ The questions that I get most often
Regular Disney Military Discount Tickets The permanent Disney Military Discount
Disney Military Tickets – Your Start to Finish Guide
What’s the Right Military Discounted Disney Ticket for Me?
11 Differences Between Disney Armed Forces Salute and Disney Regular Military Discounted Tickets
WDW's Park Hopper Plus Option Information
Technology
Disney Technology Overview Page
Memory Maker and PhotoPass+ Military Discounts
Linking Disney Military Tickets
Disney FuelRod Stations are Available at Disney Parks for Recharging Your Devices
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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:
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I thought there was no tax on tickets at Disneyland?
Oops, yep you are right Elizabeth.
Hi Steve!
After the military salute tickets are activated at the gate with service member present, does the service member need to return to the gate with party to update to the water park and more option?
No they do not Ashley. The party may separate or even use the tickets on different days.
Thank you so much for your response. Your page is so helpful, I always refer friends.
I realize I may not have asked clearly, so I wanted to double check. My father is the service member and our party of 6 used all 5 days of our Military Salute tickets last month. We realized we did not upgrade and add the “Water Parks and More” option as we intended too before we left Orlando.
I am returning to DisneyWorld in May without my father. Can I add the option to our MagicBands, or would he again need to be there to authorize (as he was when we first converted our vouchers to tickets on first entry)?
Hope that isn’t confusing. Thanks, Steve!
Hi Ashley,
No not confusing. But you needed to upgrade the tickets prior to finishing using them. They most likely will not allow the upgrade after so long and very well could require a valid military ID to do so.
Thanks for the info!
HI Steve,
Now that there is the 4 day and the 5 day ticket option, is it possible to upgrade to 5 day if we already purchased the 4 day and want to stay an extra day? I know that typically you cannot add extra days, but since they now offer the 5 day ticket is it possible?
Hi Liz, I’ve reached out to Disney on this and waiting on a reply.
Thank you!
Hello,
I have seen on other sights with this price bridging where if you have a multi day pass, they credit the gate price of that pass rather than what you paid with discount. Just curious as I wanted to see if I could purchase a 4-day military pass for Disneyland and get credited the full gate price for that when upgrading to a pass instead of just what discounted price I paid.
Hey Marine,
Price Bridging does not apply to Disney Armed Forces Salute tickets. Nice try though. Disney knows what you paid for these HIGHLY discounted tickets, they won’t give you credit for twice what you paid.
I’ve done several upgrades myself and have one coming up next month.
Hey Steve! I bought a one day non military ticket direct from Disney because I’ll have a free day at a conference I’m attending next week. An opportunity has now come up for me to take a quick 2 day December trip as well. Can I upgrade my one day regular ticket to a military salute ticket at guest services- I’m assuming before I use it- next week?
Yes absolutely Rachelle. Disney will allow you to use the price of the unused ticket towards a Salute ticket (or any more expensive ticket or pass).
Hi,
so we are going in March, just my husband and I. we will probably get the 4 day salute tickets but the long game is to get annual passes. we’re taking our 4 kids in July… my question: if we use 3 out of the 4 days in march can that 4th day qualify our tickets for the upgrade to AP in July? and it would be the current AP price minus the 4 day salute price that we would end up paying?
thanks!!
Hi Jenny,
Yes, you have it correct.
As long as the Salute ticket is not used up you may upgrade it to an annual pass (through 19 Dec ’19 the end of the Salute) for the price difference between the Salute ticket and the full price AP plus tax through Disney.
Doing the entire transaction through Shades of Green (both the initial Salute ticket purchase and the upgrade) will save both the tax and you’d upgrade to Shades’ discounted price (not full price).
The start date for your AP will be the day you first used your Salute ticket (not the upgrade date) if the cast member does it correctly.
See:
http://www.militarydisneytips.com/blog/shades-of-green/pre-order-disney-theme-park-tickets-at-shades-of-green/
http://www.militarydisneytips.com/Tickets/WDW-Annual-Pass.html
I’ve scoured the web and cannot find an answer to this question. Say I purchase the Military Salute 5 day plus option that includes the admission to water parks. I intend to visit August around Labor Day weekend, but only use 2 of my water park entrances. I then would like to upgrade my Military Salute pass to a lower tier Fl resident pass would my remaining 3 water park entrances carry over even just till the 2019 Military Salute expiration??
Hi Jessica,
Well this is a question that I’ve not had before.
The answer as far as I know would be no, you’d loose the remaining Plus admissions. This is because you are surrendering the Salute ticket and using it towards a pass that does not include any Plus options. That value goes towards all the days you are gaining
The old Salute ticket is no more after the upgrade.
Hello, I purchased 4-Day Salute tickets for Disney World for a January 2021 trip. We currently have 4 days at the parks with a cruise following. If the cruise cancels can we upgrade to the 6-day Salute tickets for the price difference? And if so can we do that in advance (once the cruise is confirmed or cancelled) so we can make park reservations or will we have to do it in person? If it can be done in advance, do I call Disney, or Shades of Green? We purchased our tickets from Shades of Green., if that makes a difference.
Hi Stefani,
Yes, as noted in this post you can upgrade to longer Disney Armed Forces Salute tickets for the price difference.
And you must do this in person at Disney.
There is a (very slight) chance that you can do an upgrade with the military ticket office where you purchased them. If you’ve linked the tickets to people in your party, you’d need yo get them unlinked by calling the Disney Internet Help Desk at 800-848-6413, option #3.
Do all members of the party need to be there in person? I want to upgrade our 4-day Salute to a 6-day Salute to use in April. Can I (military spouse) take the family’s Magicbands to the Ticket Center to upgrade? I will be the only one traveling to Orlando in December. Or can we wait and upgrade when we arrive in April? I saw that the tickets have to be purchased by the end of this year even though they are good until next September.
Hi there Wendy,
I do not believe that they have to be there, as the tickets are already active and they have already ensured that they are each for a specific individual.
Can salute tickets purchased prior to Feb 2021 with the expiration of Sept. 26th 2021 be upgraded to the new AP?
Can this be done tax free at Shades?
Hi Amanda,
They are allowing 2020 upgrades to 2021 Salute Tickets, APs would be the same.
Shades no longer carries APs. When they did they would only upgrade tickets purchased there.
I have a 2021 salute ticket (not used) and a cast member on the phone told me that we can not upgrade to an AP with it. Do I need to try to call again? This seems so wrong…
I would definitely try calling again Kimberly.
Thank you so much!
Hi Steve!
I may have missed this in the comments or article, but I am interested in upgrading our 4 day to 5 day park hopper at the park. I know that we will pay the difference to Disney + tax. I confirmed the price difference with a cast member, so I understand that. My question is will we need to pay the tax on the difference or will tax be applied for the full cost of the 5 day ticket?
Thank you for your help and love the site!
Hi Christy,
You just pay the tax on the price difference. Disney considers the 4 days as fully paid with tax.