Buying military vouchers and/or tickets

[Swimmergirl]

I can't seem to find the thread about military tickets, and even if I could I'd rather not look thru 1000 posts to find the answer! So here are my questions...

My original plan was to purchase our 5 day military tickets on the day of our arrival at either Shades of Green or Downtown Disney, then begin using them the next day (our first park day). For some reason I thought this might save me some time. However, now that I'm thinking about it, I would be buying vouchers the first day, and would still have to stand in line at the ticket booth the next morning to activate them, right? So,
1. Would I be better off just going to the gates on our first park day and buying activated tickets?
2. Is there any benefit to getting the vouchers early?
3. Does it take a long time to get the tickets before park opening? We're trying to make rope drop at AK our first day.

Thanks so much for anyone willing to help!

[Leajess99]

If you buy the tickets at the window than you have to pay tax on them but if you buy them from Shades of green you save that money. I am not sure on the other questions though as I purchased our tickets from the local base and will have them activated next Saturday.

[baloo's girl]

Here's what we're doing: I bought our tickets at MWR here locally. We arrive next Saturday and will go to Downtown Disney to activate them (I remember people saying you could activate them at DTD). We're staying at the Comfort Inn Buena Vista Saturday night. Then Sunday am, we check into Pop Century and head to MK for rope drop. At this point, our tickets should be good to go and we can just go right in without extra wait. Someone correct me if this doesn't work.

[Swimmergirl]

Hmmm... so the tickets you get at Downtown Disney are activated tickets, as opposed to vouchers? If so we could definately save some time that first morning by getting them at DTD the day before. I think your whole party is supposed to be there when you get them though, right?

[Charleston Zurg]

If you get the tickets from SOG you will be getting hard tickets all you will need to do is activate them. Go to DtD that will save you some time or you could even go to one of the parks and have them activated. Usually late in the day customer service at the parks is not very busy. Hope this helped if you have any more questions please ask

[Cheshire Figment]

You might want to look at the Everything About WDW Tickets locked sticky in this Forum. Especially the items bolded in the list below.

Post and Contents

1. This Table of Contents
2. Magic Your Way (MYW) Ticket Basics Including Definitions
3. Annual Passes and Water Park Tickets
4. Tickets Available Only to Florida Residents
5. Tickets Not Available to the General Public
6. Upgrading MYW Tickets (Not to Annual Passes)
7. Upgrading Tickets to Annual Passes
8. Dealing With Tickets Issued Prior to 1 January 2005 (Pre-MYW)
9. Children and Adults
10. Special Events
11. Comprehensive MYW Ticket Example
12. Hotel Card (Key To The World (KTTW))
13. Lost Tickets
14. Finger Scans
15. Frequently Asked Ticket Questions.
15A. Hopping Rules
15B. WPF&M With No Expire
15C. No Expire Upgrades
15D. Upgrading an Unused Ticket
15E. Upgrading Special Tickets
15F. Checking on Old Tickets
15G. Renewing Annual Passes
15H. Upgrading a Completely Used Ticket
16. 2009 Free On Your Birthday Promotion
17. Information on Disney's Armed Forces Salute 2009
18. Prices Effective August 2, 2009

To get there directly, follow the link in my signature.

[sunking]

We arrived in Disney World today (Saturday) and we purchased our military tickets when we arrived. Had no issues in doing so and it was painless. Upon checking in at Saratoga Springs I asked and was told that you had to puchase them at one of the 4 major theme parks (MK, AK, Epcot, DHS).

My son (who is a United States Marine) went over to Disney Hollywood Studios and went to guest services. He presented his military ID showing that he was active duty and provide his current duty station and a bit of other information. We were asked how many additional tickets we needed (up to 5) and if we wanted the ability to park hop and access to the water parks, etc...

We were done in about 5 minutes...painless and easy.

Have a good trip!

[Swimmergirl]

Thanks everyone for your replies! Cheshire Figment - your posts were just what I was looking for and couldn't remember where it was! So, it looks like I can buy activated tickets at DTD when we arrive.

Sunking - did your son take everyone in your party with him to buy the tickets, or did he go alone? Officially the rules state your whole party needs to be present, but in practice I've heard mixed reports.

Thanks again all!