How to book a DISNEY trip with Shades of Green: Beginners Guide to DISCOUNT Military Tickets | 2021 — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00okay this is kind of weird this is as
2. 0:01good as it's going to get I'm sitting on
3. 0:03the floor in the bedroom I tried to make
4. 0:06this video yesterday and my battery died
5. 0:08and story didn't sleep we're going to
6. 0:10try this again take two obviously from
7. 0:13the title of the video you can figure
8. 0:14out that this is going to be about how
9. 0:16we visit Disney through the shades of
10. 0:18green if you've never been to Disney or
11. 0:20you've never heard of shades of green
12. 0:22this might be a little helpful for you
13. 0:24even with as big of a Disney fan as I've
14. 0:27always been I didn't always know about
15. 0:29shades of green I didn't find out until
16. 0:31maybe five or six years ago that the
17. 0:33shades of grain was even a place if
18. 0:36you're new to the military or if you're
19. 0:37new to the Disney scene planning is a
20. 0:40daunting task and I just thought if I
21. 0:42made this video this might help be able
22. 0:44to navigate this whole process a little
23. 0:46bit better with Disney planning there is
24. 0:48a lot that goes into it and then with
25. 0:50the pandemic things just got even
26. 0:51crazier because things are changing at
27. 0:53Disney now there are no fastpasses
28. 0:55anymore you have to make Park
29. 0:57reservations which are separate from
30. 0:59your Park ticket tiet and it's just a
31. 1:01whole thing so while I could make a
32. 1:022hour video about the whole Disney
33. 1:05process I'm going to try my best to just
34. 1:07keep it narrow down to our experience
35. 1:09and how we book through the shades of
36. 1:12green with that being said we're a
37. 1:13family of three my husband is currently
38. 1:16deployed right now overseas I'm still
39. 1:18able to go to shades of green as a
40. 1:20military spouse I'm going to be
41. 1:22considered the sponsor at this Resort so
42. 1:24the first thing I guess you need to do
43. 1:26is figure out if you're eligible and if
44. 1:28you go to the shades of green website
45. 1:30site basically it's going to show you
46. 1:31everything that you need to know and you
47. 1:33can check your eligibility and then go
48. 1:34from
49. 1:37there so let's go to shades of
50. 1:42green
51. 1:44okay and then so this is the homepage
52. 1:46and then if you scroll all the way to
53. 1:48the
54. 1:49bottom there's going to be a thing about
55. 1:52special offers and then right below that
56. 1:54is the ticket request form click on
57. 1:56submit
58. 1:57request when you see this attraction
59. 2:00ticket ordering section over here
60. 2:03there's going to be a little tab to
61. 2:05click on that says Disney military ID
62. 2:07guide so once you click on Disney
63. 2:09military ID guide it will take you to
64. 2:11this page where it shows you all of the
65. 2:14different kinds of IDs that are
66. 2:16acceptable and
67. 2:21[Music]
68. 2:23eligible so once you've confirmed that
69. 2:25you're eligible you can go back to the
70. 2:27page where you have your attraction
71. 2:28ticket ordering information
72. 2:30scroll past the question form and then
73. 2:34down here under rules and regulations
74. 2:36it's going to tell you all about the
75. 2:38different kinds of military tickets that
76. 2:39you can purchase I could go into all of
77. 2:41them and describe them all but they all
78. 2:43have their pros and cons for our family
79. 2:46personally we have found that the
80. 2:48military promotional tickets are the
81. 2:50best value with that being said these
82. 2:52are promotional tickets and these are
83. 2:55only going to be valid through December
84. 2:5717th of 2021 while the promotion is
85. 3:00valid so we are waiting to find out if
86. 3:04Disney and shades of green are going to
87. 3:06extend that for
88. 3:0820122 they usually announce that this
89. 3:10time of year um with Co and everything
90. 3:13last year they did announce it a little
91. 3:15bit later in the year so they we we're
92. 3:17just still waiting they could still
93. 3:19announce it but we're just keeping our
94. 3:20fingers crossed that they're going to do
95. 3:21this again for next year they've been
96. 3:23doing it for such a long time I don't
97. 3:24see why they wouldn't do it but money is
98. 3:27a thing so who really knows so these are
99. 3:30the tickets that we want so now we are
100. 3:33going to go back up here to ticket
101. 3:40prices and then it's going to break down
102. 3:43the price of all of the different kinds
103. 3:46of tickets that you can get this is a
104. 3:48lot of
105. 3:49information and I understand that so if
106. 3:52we just keep scrolling down here and
107. 3:53again this is what we use for our family
108. 3:55so that's what I'm going to kind of go
109. 3:57over today here is the military
110. 3:59promotional ticket so for our trip
111. 4:02coming up it's going to be myself my
112. 4:05daughter who is three who does need a
113. 4:07ticket now any child over the age of two
114. 4:09needs a ticket and then my best friend
115. 4:12is coming into town my husband like I
116. 4:14said he's overseas so he can't be there
117. 4:17I'm going to be the sponsor so I'm able
118. 4:19to get the tickets for my best friend
119. 4:22and for my daughter so what we're going
120. 4:24with is the 4day park hopper which is
121. 4:26right here it's the
122. 4:28$293 ticket tiet no that's a really good
123. 4:32price if you go on the Disney website
124. 4:34right now and try to buy one Park ticket
125. 4:38for one park that means for example if I
126. 4:41want to go to Magic Kingdom one ticket
127. 4:43for an adult is
128. 4:45$19 I can't park hop I can't go anywhere
129. 4:48else except for that one park that I
130. 4:50choose
131. 4:52so this is a a great value this is
132. 4:56incredible and I don't think that
133. 4:57there's a better ticket out there or a
134. 4:59better discount out
135. 5:01there good job Disney for helping out
136. 5:04with the military some of the cons to
137. 5:07this maybe if you have a family with
138. 5:10more than six people because you are
139. 5:12limited to six tickets per promotional
140. 5:16year we can only buy six tickets a year
141. 5:19so if we go one time and we have six
142. 5:23people that's all we can get for the
143. 5:25entire year we can break that up and do
144. 5:30visit in the beginning of the year and
145. 5:32just get two tickets and then do another
146. 5:34visit and get two more tickets and so
147. 5:36forth but if you have a larger group I
148. 5:39can see where this is you know you're
149. 5:42only going to get to use it one time all
150. 5:44that to say it's a great deal if you're
151. 5:47able to use this ticket that would be my
152. 5:50recommendation it's the best value
153. 5:52you're getting a lot for your money with
154. 5:54this ticket if we go back to the last
155. 5:56page we were on with all these tabs and
156. 5:58we go to order tickets this is going to
157. 6:01be the form that we have to fill out to
158. 6:03submit our request so you can kind of
159. 6:06tell on this page all of these gray
160. 6:09areas are where we need to fill in our
161. 6:11information so last name first name the
162. 6:14rank and the status of the person
163. 6:16ordering the tickets this part is kind
164. 6:18of confusing for me because while I am
165. 6:21able to be the sponsor for the trip I'm
166. 6:24still the spouse of the service member
167. 6:27so when it asks for the rank and the
168. 6:29status
169. 6:30I go with obviously my husband's rank I
170. 6:32don't have a rank I'm the misses so I
171. 6:36usually put his name and all of his
172. 6:38information right there just to be I
173. 6:41don't know just to be safe so then over
174. 6:43here is where we're going to put the
175. 6:44type of part ticket that you are buying
176. 6:46so like I said we're going with the
177. 6:48military promotional ticket we're going
178. 6:50to write that right here and we want the
179. 6:514day so this is exactly what we want we
180. 6:55want two tickets one for my daughter and
181. 6:57one for my friend and so here is the
182. 6:59price of this the ticket the total
183. 7:00amount and then the total due so we fill
184. 7:03all of that information in you have to
185. 7:05do your own math and then you sign it
186. 7:08electronically and then what you're
187. 7:09going to do is you're going to save this
188. 7:11file to your desktop and then email it
189. 7:15to Advanced tickets shadesofgreen.org
190. 7:17somebody from the shades of green will
191. 7:19call and they will verify your
192. 7:20information they will go over everything
193. 7:23that you've ordered and confirm your
194. 7:25price and then when everything is agreed
195. 7:28upon you're going to use your form of
196. 7:29payment to pay over the phone for your
197. 7:31tickets once your transaction goes
198. 7:33through then they're going to explain to
199. 7:35you how you're going to receive your
200. 7:36tickets the way that you get your
201. 7:38tickets or the type of ticket voucher
202. 7:40that you get could vary depending upon
203. 7:43the kind of tickets that you order so
204. 7:44for us again since we went with the
205. 7:46military promotional tickets this is the
206. 7:48way that we got ours they've explained
207. 7:50on the phone that FedEx is going to be
208. 7:53shipping our tickets to us and when they
209. 7:55arrive I need to be here or somebody
210. 7:57needs to be here to sign for them so
211. 7:59they're going to come in a little packet
212. 8:01like this and when you get it there's a
213. 8:03little envelope inside and inside the
214. 8:06envelope is your
215. 8:09receipt and your tickets these are your
216. 8:12tickets so these are obviously outdated
217. 8:14because it talks about Disney Fast Pass
218. 8:16Plus which is no longer a thing at
219. 8:17Disney unfortunately or fortunately
220. 8:20however you look at it we can use these
221. 8:22to walk through the entrance at Magic
222. 8:24Kingdom these are our tickets this is
223. 8:25what we use at the Little D the little
224. 8:29thing Disney you can decide however you
225. 8:31want to do it you can use these cards to
226. 8:33get through the Turn Style at Disney or
227. 8:35you can download My Disney
228. 8:37Experience link your card link your
229. 8:40ticket to that and then use my Disney
230. 8:42Experience or your magic band or however
231. 8:45you want to link everything up
232. 8:47electronically to get through at the
233. 8:49gate but these are ticket like these are
234. 8:51good valid tickets some of the tickets
235. 8:53that you get the Stars and Stripes I
236. 8:56believe or some a few of the other ones
237. 8:58they're going to send you a different
238. 9:00kind of card and that's going to be a
239. 9:01voucher so before you can use your
240. 9:04ticket you have to get your voucher
241. 9:07validated and there's different places
242. 9:09to do that we've never had to do that
243. 9:11because like I said we always go with
244. 9:13the military promotional ticket so I'm
245. 9:14probably not the best person to explain
246. 9:17that process but from what I've read and
247. 9:19understood you can do that at the shades
248. 9:21of green Resort if you choose to stay
249. 9:23there or you can show up early for your
250. 9:25trip and go stop by Disney Springs and
251. 9:28do it at Guest Relations there that way
252. 9:30you don't have to you know wake up extra
253. 9:32early in the morning to go to Disney
254. 9:34just to like set time aside to get them
255. 9:37validated before you go into the park
256. 9:38you know what I mean you're just saving
257. 9:40time on your first day at Disney so you
258. 9:43don't have to do all
259. 9:46that once you have your tickets locked
260. 9:48in you're good to go now the next thing
261. 9:51you need to do is make your Park
262. 9:52reservations and that's where it gets
263. 9:54kind of tricky
264. 9:56because for our trip we're going for the
265. 9:5850th Ann
266. 10:00so everybody wants to be at Magic
267. 10:01Kingdom October 1st everybody just wants
268. 10:04to be at a park October 1st so those
269. 10:07Park reservations were very difficult to
270. 10:09get and with me being an annual
271. 10:11passholder the rest of my group non
272. 10:14passholders but Resort guests we fall
273. 10:18into different categories when it comes
274. 10:19to making those Park reservations so it
275. 10:21was a huge thing where I'm the one on My
276. 10:24Disney Experience trying to make the
277. 10:26reservations for my group and so when I
278. 10:28went in to make the reservation on
279. 10:30October 1st for Magic Kingdom I was able
280. 10:32to make a reservation for my two guests
281. 10:35so my daughter and my friend for Magic
282. 10:37Kingdom because they fall into this
283. 10:39separate category as a resort guest I
284. 10:41had to make my reservation separately as
285. 10:43an annual passholder and by the time I
286. 10:46made their reservation and went back to
287. 10:48make mine there were no more so so like
288. 10:51story could go into Magic Kingdom but I
289. 10:54couldn't go with her how does that make
290. 10:56any sense right so everything is good
291. 10:58now I ended up just getting on the
292. 11:00Disney website and chatting with one of
293. 11:02the cast members I explained to them the
294. 11:04situation and they were able to get one
295. 11:06for me pixie dust magic whatever you
296. 11:08want to call it I was so grateful though
297. 11:10because I was like how am I going to
298. 11:12like let my three-year-old go into
299. 11:14Disney World Without Me Like obviously I
300. 11:17couldn't you know she couldn't go if I
301. 11:18couldn't go but it all worked out if you
302. 11:20find yourself in a situation like that
303. 11:22where you were in a different category
304. 11:24from the rest of your group reach out to
305. 11:25Disney and what I would suggest is
306. 11:27getting on the chat on the website
307. 11:29versus calling because everybody is
308. 11:31calling in right now and sometimes the
309. 11:33wait can be hours nobody has time to
310. 11:36wait hours for somebody on the phone so
311. 11:38get on the website get on your um if you
312. 11:41have my Disney Experience get on the app
313. 11:43and just talk like chat with somebody
314. 11:45there because I feel like that's quicker
315. 11:47so once you've got your tickets once
316. 11:49you've got your Park reservations then I
317. 11:51feel like that's a good time to decide
318. 11:53where you want to stay a lot of people
319. 11:55do it backwards and they figure out
320. 11:57where they want to stay and then they
321. 11:58get their tickets so you can do whatever
322. 12:00works for you obviously like every group
323. 12:03is going to be different but again this
324. 12:04is just what we do I want to make sure
325. 12:07that I have a ticket to go and that I
326. 12:09have a a locked in Park reservation
327. 12:11before I start booking hotel rooms that
328. 12:14I can't get refunded you know what I
329. 12:19mean so where do you want to stay when
330. 12:21you go to Disney do you want to stay on
331. 12:23property you want to stay off property
332. 12:25that's up to you there are perks and
333. 12:27pros and cons to both we've done both
334. 12:29we've done all of it we've stayed at
335. 12:31airbnbs outside of town we've stayed on
336. 12:33Disney property in Disney Resorts
337. 12:36anywhere from value to moderate to
338. 12:38Deluxe we've also done shades of green
339. 12:40several times we love it there like we
340. 12:43absolutely love it and I think the value
341. 12:45just with the location alone can't be
342. 12:47beat again in our situation it's me my
343. 12:51friend and a 3-year-old so with a
344. 12:53toddler you have to think about
345. 12:54logistics and so we really have to think
346. 12:56about how we're going to get back to our
347. 12:58room in between the park visits that's
348. 13:01why I think shades of green is perfect
349. 13:03for us the location it's right behind
350. 13:06the Polynesian if you don't know where
351. 13:07the Polynesian is if you're looking at
352. 13:09Magic Kingdom the castle it's right
353. 13:11across the water so that's where the
354. 13:13Polynesian sits and then if you just
355. 13:14cross the street behind it that's where
356. 13:16shades of green is we can walk there we
357. 13:19don't have to necessarily take
358. 13:21transportation and a lot of times that's
359. 13:23what we do especially when it's crowded
360. 13:25like it will be for October 1st we're
361. 13:27going to try to avoid that situation and
362. 13:29just walk it might take a little bit
363. 13:31longer
364. 13:33but I don't know for me I'd rather walk
365. 13:36more than like get stuck in crowds so
366. 13:38that's what we're going to do so once we
367. 13:40had our tickets once we figured out okay
368. 13:42we've got our Park reservations we're
369. 13:43staying at the shades of green we needed
370. 13:45to see what kind of rooms were available
371. 13:47so if we go back to Shades scen website
372. 13:49on the homepage at the very top you can
373. 13:52select your check-in date let's pick
374. 13:54some dates that are like kind of far out
375. 13:56let's go with May of 2022 we're going to
376. 13:59see what's
377. 14:00available May 15th through the 20th
378. 14:05let's
379. 14:06see we've got a few a few are
380. 14:09available so a standard room is pretty
381. 14:12much like your most affordable option
382. 14:15category 1 is going to be anywhere from
383. 14:17E1 to E6 those are the military ranks so
384. 14:20if you're between an E1 and an E6 you're
385. 14:23going to have the best price and what I
386. 14:25love about shades of green is they price
387. 14:27it so that the lower ranks have the more
388. 14:30affordable price so the higher rank you
389. 14:32are the more you're going to pay I just
390. 14:34I really like that I've got my
391. 14:363-year-old I don't know if she's going
392. 14:37through a sleep progression or what
393. 14:39she's going through but she's kind of
394. 14:41always just been very particular when it
395. 14:44comes to her sleep we couldn't just get
396. 14:46a standard room because she needs her
397. 14:48own space she needs a space where we can
398. 14:50close the door behind her she's got her
399. 14:52blinds pulled down her fan she just
400. 14:55needs her room right I can't picture us
401. 14:57going to Disney coming back to to the
402. 14:59room for nap time and having a standard
403. 15:02room and then just like you know putting
404. 15:04her in bed and being like okay go to
405. 15:05sleep we're going to be over here like
406. 15:07snacking and watching TV like it's just
407. 15:09not going to work in one room like that
408. 15:11so for our trip we had to look for a
409. 15:14suite that has a separate bedroom they
410. 15:16have a junior suite A family Suite
411. 15:19there's the Palm Suite which is a larger
412. 15:21room and then they have the Magnolia
413. 15:23Suite which is like the biggest room and
414. 15:25there's two bedrooms and then a common
415. 15:26area in that one so we had to book one
416. 15:28of those obviously those are harder to
417. 15:30come by it may not always be available
418. 15:32for the dates of your trip but what I
419. 15:34would recommend is if any of the dates
420. 15:37are available in the room that you want
421. 15:39book those dates and then keep coming
422. 15:42back to check and see if those other
423. 15:44days open up that's what we had to do so
424. 15:47I actually had to make two separate
425. 15:50reservations did I have three I may have
426. 15:52even had three because I was trying to
427. 15:54get them all separately and then lump
428. 15:56them together so I got one of the sweets
429. 15:59for like two of the days I got another
430. 16:01suite for like another 3 days and then I
431. 16:04was waiting to get this last day right
432. 16:07that's our that was our entire trip but
433. 16:09we needed that Suite so that we could
434. 16:12have that room for story to take her
435. 16:14naps in and sleep in so I have spent a
436. 16:17lot of time on the computer refreshing
437. 16:20and checking every morning every night
438. 16:22every nap time I would go on and I would
439. 16:24click and refresh and see if anybody
440. 16:26canceled those rooms or you know
441. 16:28whatever ever I could do and it worked
442. 16:31it worked for me but you have to be
443. 16:33persistent you have to keep checking and
444. 16:35keep going on the website to see if
445. 16:36there is any changes we ended up
446. 16:39combining all of those reservations into
447. 16:42one big reservation for the room that we
448. 16:44wanted but you're going to have to call
449. 16:46shades of green and explain that to them
450. 16:48and then they're going to cancel all
451. 16:50those little reservations and give you a
452. 16:52new confirmation slash reservation
453. 16:56number for your stay once you have that
454. 16:59that then you can link your shades of
455. 17:01green resort reservation number this is
456. 17:04so much you can link that to your My
457. 17:06Disney Experience and then you can make
458. 17:09your dining reservations at one time you
459. 17:12can make fast passes that way etc etc
460. 17:15however it gets complicated because the
461. 17:17confirmation number that shades of green
462. 17:20gives you is not compatible with my
463. 17:23Disney Experience because shades of
464. 17:25green is not a Disney Resort Hotel and I
465. 17:29know that's confusing because it's on
466. 17:30Disney property but it is still a resort
467. 17:33owned by the government it's not owned
468. 17:34by Disney they're not always compatible
469. 17:37with technology and apps and everything
470. 17:39like that so what you have to do is you
471. 17:42have to call shades of green and you
472. 17:44have to get your I just call it the
473. 17:46other confirmation number and that's the
474. 17:49number that you call Disney with and say
475. 17:51hey this is my confirmation for Shades
476. 17:53of Green can you link this to My Disney
477. 17:56Experience and then they'll link it and
478. 17:58then it will show up up on your app this
479. 17:59is so much
480. 18:01information it's so much information
481. 18:03that I don't know how
482. 18:06to deliver it to you because there are
483. 18:08so many things where if you decide to do
484. 18:11this then you need to think of this and
485. 18:13if you decide to do it this way then you
486. 18:15need to consider these things and so
487. 18:17it's
488. 18:18hard to go over all of it but I hope
489. 18:21this was kind of helpful or I hope that
490. 18:23at least this kind of gave you a little
491. 18:25bit of insight as to how it works
492. 18:29whenever you're booking through shades
493. 18:30of green it is a lot of work but Disney
494. 18:32is a lot of work and if you're signing
495. 18:34up to go to Disney and you're a part of
496. 18:36the military use the shades of green
497. 18:38because holy cow you're lucky I think
498. 18:41I've covered everything that I can cover
499. 18:43that's how we booked our trip coming up
500. 18:45that's how we did it it's a special
501. 18:47situation because of the 50th
502. 18:48Anniversary it's not always this
503. 18:50difficult to get the rooms and Park
504. 18:52reservations that you want but because
505. 18:54this is like a high demand time it's
506. 18:57just it was a little bit harder for us
507. 18:59Disney is becoming high demand all year
508. 19:02long there used to be these waves of
509. 19:05like busy season non busy season but
510. 19:08it's just steadily becoming like a
511. 19:11constant busy season so I feel like it's
512. 19:13going to we're going to run into this
513. 19:15situation more and more in the future
514. 19:17but as of right now in 2021 this is what
515. 19:20worked for us I'm so beyond thankful
516. 19:22that we were able to get our room that
517. 19:24we wanted we were able to get the park
518. 19:26reservations that we wanted for the days
519. 19:28were're going to be there we get to go
520. 19:29and celebrate and we get to do it on a
521. 19:31military budget and not a Disney budget
522. 19:33because now we can spend all that extra
523. 19:35money on merchandise and treats last but
524. 19:39certainly not least thank you so much to
525. 19:41all of the military members out there
526. 19:43thank you so much to their families if
527. 19:45you enjoyed this video if this was
528. 19:46helpful for you please give us a thumbs
529. 19:49up and if you want to support us even
530. 19:50more go ahead and subscribe and look
531. 19:52forward to the videos coming out soon of
532. 19:55our trip to Disney we love you all and
533. 19:57we'll see you on the next one
534. 19:59bye
535. 20:01[Music]