Military tickets, Shades of Green etc

[campermom]

We are going to book for Oct 2020. We will drive down so no worries about transportation from airport to hotel. 

We haven't been for a few years and have stayed in SOG both times as category I, but it appears things are different now with military discounts...would it be cheaper to stay in a Disney resort? We would now be category II at SOG and have a total of 5 so we were thinking of just getting the standard rooms, they would be 169 (I assume fees and taxes would be added.) Just wondering if anyone has done the comparison lately. One kid would be in a sleeper sofa.

We would do a 5 day hopper for 5 of us. When do I get dining reservations and fast pass again? I know it's different than Disney resort people. 

Also when we went last time bands were not included so we kept the ones we purchased before. We plan to get the memory maker discount ahead along with the tickets. 

Remind me of other things I should be aware of when planning? 

[nsl]

I priced out Shades of Green for my last trip (category 3), and it wasn't much cheaper than the very good room discount we were already getting. Particularly when factoring in transportation (we wanted to be walking distance to at least one park) we wound up passing on SoG.

I looked up Shades of Green's Fast Pass dates, and it looks like you'd be eligible to book Fast Passes at 60 days out, just like a Disney resort guest. Dining reservations are open at 180 days for anyone, regardless of where you're staying.

The only other tip I have is to remember to allot time on your arrival day or first park day to turn vouchers into tickets if you're buying yours on post. Shades of Green can sell you actual tickets with the military discount, but you have to do it over email and the phone.

[dcn]

There’s a Facebook group for military Disney planning, may be worth searching there for military specific questions!

It is called Disney Planning for Military Families

[campermom]

I called and because we have 3 kids, we would need a suite or two rooms at the resort. We will save $700 if we stay in one room at SOG as opposed tot he cheapest option (with the military discount) at the resort.

Yes we used to get fastpass at 30 days and now it looks like they changed it to 60! That’s great.

We can buy the tix from SOG and have them scanned so we can connect them to our bands and stuff. I seem to remember having to go to a park or something for our tickets. I’ll check into that. I’ll def check out that Facebook group!

[ilovelucyvv]

We stayed at SOG last year. I liked it; the rooms are huge. Yes we were able to get our fastpasses 60 days out.

[hbtk]

Nov 24, 2019 16:54:40 GMT -5 campermom said:

I called and because we have 3 kids, we would need a suite or two rooms at the resort. We will save $700 if we stay in one room at SOG as opposed tot he cheapest option (with the military discount) at the resort.

Yes we used to get fastpass at 30 days and now it looks like they changed it to 60! That’s great.

We can buy the tix from SOG and have them scanned so we can connect them to our bands and stuff. I seem to remember having to go to a park or something for our tickets. I’ll check into that. I’ll def check out that Facebook group!

You get your tickets at SOG, or you can get them at your MWR. You can plan fast passes and stuff with the passes you get there, but you’ll need to go to a customer service desk at any park or the transportation and ticket center to activate them when you arrive. If you buy the tickets in advance at your MWR or SOG, take pictures of them in case you happen to realize you left them at home when you are at customer service trying to activate them. Not that I know anything about that.