Spring is coming, and many families of Servicemembers take their vacations during the spring or summer months. There are a number of discounts for admission to various amusement parks, including discounts at the Busch Garden Family of parks. Any Servicemember who is on active duty, or an active National Guardsman, or a drilling or active reservist is entitled to free admission under their program. The program, called the “Here’s to the Heroes†is one that was set up to show appreciation to our men and women in uniform.
At the entrance to each park the Servicemember can stop and register. Giving their information, and showing a valid DoD photo Identification is all that is takes. It is also possible to register online on the Internet at the Busch Gardens main web site. Each qualified Servicemember can take up to three of their dependents with them for free when visiting any of the participating Busch Garden’s parks, but they must also either pre register on the Internet or at the park. If traveling to the park without their qualifying Servicemember, they must present dependent DoD photo ID and be accompanied by an adult.
Sea World at San Antonio, Sesame Place, and the Willamsburg Busch Garden parks are all closed until later Spring 2008. The other parks, Sea World San Diego, Sea World Tampa Bay, and Sea World Orlando Florida are all open year round and currently accepting admissions. Admission is also possible to other Anheuser Busch Adventure Parks, Busch Adventure Island, and Busch Water Country USA.
There are also discounts available from Universal Studios theme parks. Universal Studios Hollywood in particular gives discounted ticket options to anyone serving in the U.S. Armed Forces. This includes DoD personnel, all members of the Reserves/National Guard, Active Duty Servicemembers, Dependents, retirees, and other civilian base personnel. Tickets for discounted Universal Studios admission must be purchased ahead of time, and can be obtained a couple of different ways.
Visit Your Base MWR ITT/IRT Office. Visit your base ticket office and pre purchase your tickets that way. If the ticket office at your base does not have tickets available they are able to pre order tickets for you. It’s a good idea to call them at least a couple of weeks ahead of your trip, or even a month. It will take at least five full business days to obtain tickets after they are ordered. Order By Telephone. You can call the military ticketing office for tickets. This option is a good one if you are pressed for time, they can ship you your tickets via overnight priority or UPS type mail for a fee. Contact:  Commander, Navy Region SW at their phone number (619) 767-6000. If you do not need priority or special mail service then your tickets should arrive within seven to ten business days.
