Return to Disneyland - Using Military Salute Tickets

[Melanie]

First of all, I want to thank Disney yet again for being so gracious to us military folk for the very reasonably priced tickets we are able to purchase. 6 days at Disneyland for $250 is a steal!

That said, how exhausting the entire ticket process turned out to be!

First day, no problems whatsoever. Purchasing was a breeze, and the CM at the ticket booth assured me using them back to back (one three day ticket, then the other three day ticket in a 6 day period) would be no problem. What he did NOT tell me was I needed to have my military ID with me every day. This is a different policy than WDW. When they asked for my military ID at the gate on the first day, I just assumed that was the initial check they do to confirm I was the one who purchased the ticket. I was planning on bringing my ID with me again on day 4 when I started using my second ticket.

After spending the morning in DCA the first day, we decide to park hop on over to Disneyland. So, I get my hand stamped when leaving DCA, then when we get to the Disneyland gates (2 minutes later ), a CM takes my picture with their iPhone and attaches that to my ticket as well. This is because it's a multi-day ticket.

So next morning, we go to the Disneyland gates, they scan my ticket with their iPhone thingy before the turnstile, see my picture and know it's my ticket. But I am then denied entry at the turnstiles because I don't have my military ID. Yep, you have to show it at your first park entry of the day, every day of use. 15 minutes later they finally let me in, which was kind of them because I definitely got upset. I don't just carry around my military ID. It's a big deal if you lose it, and I wouldn't want to be far from home and not have it. The CM manager told me that everything was outlined on the information I was given at the base when I bought my ticket, but she didn't have a lot to say when I told her I bought the ticket about 100 feet away at the Disneyland ticket booth and wasn't told a thing.

So after learning the process, showing my ID every day, having the CM check my ticket and compare my photo on every park entrance and getting a handstamp and showing it upon every re-entry, I kinda felt like I was going through TSA just to enjoy Disneyland. Sure hope they are catching those who are abusing their ticket system.

[tinkwest]

Sure hope they are catching those who are abusing their ticket system.

Sounds like, once again, the ones that abuse ruin it for the rest of the guests. It does sound like a pain, but at least it was a fairly easy fix. (I like the part of the story where you stumped them with the revelation that you purchased the ticket on property and not on base.)

[BrerGnat]

Perhaps the CM at Guest Relations assumed (wrongly, of course) that you knew your military ID would be required every day. We were told multiple times and asked every day, even on the second entry. This was back when they first really started enforcing this, and before they were taking photos of guests with multi day tickets. And, we did order our tickets from a base, and they did come complete with a piece of paper very explicitly stating in no uncertain terms, that military ID would be required on EVERY entry. My sister and her husband came with us and we had to all enter together to show our military ID for them.

That multi day scam was really a huge issue. The scammers were going so far as to have guests sign tickets using erasable ink, thus the need for the sharpie type pens the CMs are using now.

I carry my military ID and driver's license everywhere I go. Is it a big deal to lose a military ID? I wasn't aware of that, but I've never lost mine.

Glad they were able to straighten it out without you having to go all the way back to the hotel. And, I suppose the CMs at Guest Relations were given a little refresher course on this matter.

[Melanie]

Perhaps the CM at Guest Relations assumed (wrongly, of course) that you knew your military ID would be required every day. We were told multiple times and asked every day, even on the second entry.

I guess he wrongly assumed as well, because I had no idea. And another lesson on never assuming what happens at WDW happens at Disneyland.

The point of my post was I felt like I had to go through 10 different checkpoints just to get into Disneyland. It does get a bit excessive after a while, but thank goodness crowds were low when I was there and it didn't take too long.

And yes, I'm very careful of my military ID, especially since hubby's SS# is on it, and ours used to be. We're pretty obsessive about that kind of thing in general though. And I can remember at the beginning of this 18 years of fun we've had, being told how important it is not to lose it. I think being overseas heightened that awareness as well. I've never made a point of carrying it into theme parks, etc. when I'm not carrying my regular purse and wallet.

[BrerGnat]

And yes, I'm very careful of my military ID, especially since hubby's SS# is on it, and ours used to be. We're pretty obsessive about that kind of thing in general though. And I can remember at the beginning of this 18 years of fun we've had, being told how important it is not to lose it. I think being overseas heightened that awareness as well. I've never made a point of carrying it into theme parks, etc. when I'm not carrying my regular purse and wallet.

Ok, that's odd. We've never had IDs where anyone's SS# is on it. We have a separate "DOD ID#" on ours...it's not a SS number. I just looked at my ID to make sure, but nope...nothing identifying except name and DOB. Weird.

I've never worried about losing it. DH worries a bit more than me, but he still has it on him at all times.

[Melanie]

Ok, that's odd. We've never had IDs where anyone's SS# is on it. We have a separate "DOD ID#" on ours...it's not a SS number. I just looked at my ID to make sure, but nope...nothing identifying except name and DOB. Weird.

That IS weird. Ours has always had hubby's SS# on it, and still does, and used to have mine as well. They started doing the XXX-XX-XXXX thing around the time my oldest got his ID.

I don't even know what a DOD ID# is.

[BrerGnat]

That IS weird. Ours has always had hubby's SS# on it, and still does, and used to have mine as well. They started doing the XXX-XX-XXXX thing around the time my oldest got his ID.

I don't even know what a DOD ID# is.

Well, I've always gotten my ID cards in CA. Maybe it's done differently over there.

I've had 3 ID cards issued, and none of them have ever had SSN on them. There is a spot for DH's rank, and then there is a DoD ID# underneath that.

We'll have to compare IDs next time we hang out.

[Tiggerlovr9000]

When we used our 5 day hopper pass the first they took our pictures. I was fine with that but after we left DCA for DL with a hand stamp it annoyed me that with the hand stamp I also had to show my ticket again. When I questioned a cm I was happy to hear you can get your pass replaced if you lose it ,if you have the receipt. That didn't used to be the case, right? We didn't have military passes.

[DisneyLandMomma]

I know this is over a year old but I remember reading this last year and wanted to ask a question about these tickets. My SIL came out for a very short visit while my BIL, who is active duty, is deployed. Last time she visited we had annual passes, so we didn't need tickets, but we have since gotten rid of them so she was treating us to a day at the parks. We were just planning on buying regular park hoppers for my daughter and I, with SIL getting the military ticket, as she has in the past. When we were at the ticket booth, the CM let us know it was cheaper for SIL to purchase the military tickets for all three of us. I made sure to ask if daughter and I could use them without military IDs and she confirmed yes because SIL was with us. SIL asked if it was possible for us to come back again without her, since she was going home the next day, and the CM again said yes, and that we had until end of Sept to use them. So from what I'm reading here, it doesn't seem to be true....

Will my daughter and I be able to use the remaining days on our tickets without SIL? It will be disappointing if we can't but we were only expecting to go the one day with park hoppers anyway so I won't be that upset about it.

Also the CM scanning us in did give us a hard time about not having the ACTUAL military member with us for the tickets, even though SIL had her dependent military ID with her....which was weird. She wasn't listening when we said he was deployed and NOT at the resort. She said this one time I'll let you in but next time you need to have the military member with you. Uh....Ok


I also wanted to mention, my husband is a former marine(well ya know, what's a marine, always a marine <~definition of my hubby ) and he was stationed at Camp Pendleton when we were first married, our IDs had SS# on them, both his and mine on my dependent ID. It was about 10 years since we've had ID's though.

[BrerGnat]

I know this is over a year old but I remember reading this last year and wanted to ask a question about these tickets. My SIL came out for a very short visit while my BIL, who is active duty, is deployed. Last time she visited we had annual passes, so we didn't need tickets, but we have since gotten rid of them so she was treating us to a day at the parks. We were just planning on buying regular park hoppers for my daughter and I, with SIL getting the military ticket, as she has in the past. When we were at the ticket booth, the CM let us know it was cheaper for SIL to purchase the military tickets for all three of us. I made sure to ask if daughter and I could use them without military IDs and she confirmed yes because SIL was with us. SIL asked if it was possible for us to come back again without her, since she was going home the next day, and the CM again said yes, and that we had until end of Sept to use them. So from what I'm reading here, it doesn't seem to be true....

Will my daughter and I be able to use the remaining days on our tickets without SIL? It will be disappointing if we can't but we were only expecting to go the one day with park hoppers anyway so I won't be that upset about it.

Also the CM scanning us in did give us a hard time about not having the ACTUAL military member with us for the tickets, even though SIL had her dependent military ID with her....which was weird. She wasn't listening when we said he was deployed and NOT at the resort. She said this one time I'll let you in but next time you need to have the military member with you. Uh....Ok


I also wanted to mention, my husband is a former marine(well ya know, what's a marine, always a marine <~definition of my hubby ) and he was stationed at Camp Pendleton when we were first married, our IDs had SS# on them, both his and mine on my dependent ID. It was about 10 years since we've had ID's though.

First of all, yes, your SIL was well within the rules to buy you AFS tickets. They are for "family or friends", not just active duty and dependents.

Second, the active duty member most certainly does NOT have to be part of the traveling group. That gate CM was wrong and apparently power tripping.

Finally, there USED to be the rule that an ID holder had to accompany in any friends/family members, but Disneyland retracted that rule. It only applies for the first entry. You and your daughter should have no problem using the remaining days before they expire. Make sure you have your photo ID with you though. That will be required. Also, did they take your picture when you went in the first time?

[DisneyLandMomma]

Oh yay! Happy to hear we'll be able to use them. We did get our photos taken and our names are on the tickets so I will definitely take our ID's with us.

The gate CM was a little witchy and my sister in law is sort of timid so I was annoyed she was more than a little rude about it. We knew the service member did not have to be with us because SIL has used the ticket in previous years without BIL but the CM was so adamant about it, I thought maybe it had changed.

Thanks for the help....we're about 2 hours away from the DLR so I didn't want to drive down there and find out we couldn't use them.

[Melanie]

The Disneyland CM's seem to be a little over zealous regarding this, in my opinion. But I guess it's warranted, for whatever reason.

[kbauer]

We were in DL over labor day weekend and for that week, and we had a similar experience to the OP. We ended up finding that DL does things VERY differently than WDW!

Our experience with the tickets was: We checked in, and had purchased the military tix which should've been in our packet (but weren't).

So to be safe I asked a CM at the concierge desk if we were going to, or needed to get tix (we got there early on day one, and didn't plan to hit the parks until day 2, so no probs to run down and pick them up if we needed), or just use the key card as our tickets and she said the admission should be on the card, just use them.

Well....wrong. We showed up to the gate of DCA and were told we can't get in on the card, we need to buy tickets. I was a *little* mad after waiting in line for the extra magic, only to spend it in line waiting for tickets were were told we shouldn't need (and had already paid for)...but we got them. AND we were told (again after asking) we don't need our mil ID every day because she checked when she issued the card, all we'd need is our pic taken at the first use so they can verify it's us. Ok, seems reasonable. Then we used them....

- Can I see your mil ID?
- Sure, I still have it out, but the ticket person said we didn't need them?
- She's wrong. Need the ID please.

(on a side note, once we had our ID and pic in the system, we never needed it again)

Showed the ID, got the picture and we were on our way. We ended up park-hopping to DL and when we asked for the stamp, they said we don't need one since our pic is already in the system.

Wrong again...

This time, I asked to talk to a supervisor and asked her why everyone here seems to be using different procedures. I also showed my old CM card and the 10 year pin on my lanyard to emphasize I'm not just asking to be a pain.

Got a blank stare and "it's policy" from her, but she let us through since our pic was in the system and showed up when they scanned the card. Annoying point: nobody checked for the stamp when we did get one, they went off our photo in the system.

Once the day was over I did go to the service desk and the hotel (DL Hotel) and talked to a rep about this as well as got our previous ticket purchase refunded. They apologized profusely and gave us a couple of perks, but it still bothers me that from one CM to another they didn't know what was going on, plus we lost our magic hour plus AND the extra time to get back into line.

Had it been a few weeks earlier where we were told by several CMs it was just PACKED and we'd have probably lost a lot more time and I would have been much more upset, but after that first day mess, all was fine.

If misuse is really that bad at DL, make it a general policy that you need an ID with the admission to get in and it'll be cross-checked with the photo in the database, no exceptions, no hand-stamp. But please; pick a policy, brief the staff and stick to it instead of the guest having to hear 10 versions of "the policy".

[Melanie]

If misuse is really that bad at DL, make it a general policy that you need an ID with the admission to get in and it'll be cross-checked with the photo in the database, no exceptions, no hand-stamp. But please; pick a policy, brief the staff and stick to it instead of the guest having to hear 10 versions of "the policy".

This!