Welcome BACK, Wes!
It's great to see you again asking another Walt Disney World Resort vacation planning question to us hEAR at the Disney Parks Moms Panel!
U.S. Military Room Rates can only be secured by booking your room through the Disney Resort Hotel Reservation phone line. What I like about calling is that you're more than welcome to just inquire about your options, and are under no obligation to book. And better yet, if one (or more!) of the choices sounds like it will work for your party, you can place a complimentary 24-hour hold on that quote so you can run it by the others in your crew or go research the resorts, etc. The Disney Resort Hotel Reservation phone number is (407) 939-1936 and they are open from 7:00 A.M. until 11:00 P.M. Eastern time zone.
Pro Tips:
~ While every
Disney Resort Hotel participates in offering so many Military room rates per night, this offer is quite popular and sometimes this rate can sell out at one or half or even all of the hotels. But don't stop trying! When you call to inquire about the Military rate, instead of asking about one specific resort, say "Do any resort hotels have a Military rate during these dates" or "Which Moderate Resort ..." and the Cast Member can search everything available.
~ If even one night in your range of dates is sold out but the others aren't, then your whole range of dates will show up as no availability. Don't be afraid to ask the Cast Member to check other dates if you happen to have some flexibility. (So maybe instead of staying Sunday the 2nd through Saturday the 8th, ask to check Saturday the 1st through Friday the 7th, etc.) If you're willing to move resorts a few days into your vacation (which is called a
Split Stay and is a very popular option), you'd be then searching for fewer consecutive nights at each hotel lowering your chance for sold out nights.
~ Did you know that you can book up to three separate rooms with your Military rate? The only rules are that the rooms must be at the same resort hotel and the other parties can't check-in before you do.
To answer your second question, Disney's awesome Dining Cast Members are well trained to ask "Will you be using a
Dining Plan today?" with every food transaction you have, from the fancy signature dining locations to the super awesome snack carts. And if you're worried that either you or your server might forget to make the distinction, in their sales system the Cast Member has to select either "Dining Plan" or "Charge" (as in 'charge to the payment card on file') before you're allowed to tap your
MagicBand. Bonus Tip: Your
My Disney Experience Mobile App has a checks-and-balances section for your dining plan that will show who redeemed what and where. If when checking your app you don't see a redemption for a specific food purchase, the Front Desk Cast Member at your Disney Resort Hotel would be more than happy to double check if that meal was accidentally charged to your card, and they can even fix any mistake made.
I hope this helped to clEAR things up, Wes, and We'll See You Real Soon!
~Kristen