Well you can only purchase armed force salute tickets for 4 or 5 days. You can get the water parks add on which would allow you the number of visits to the water parks equivalent to the number of park days (so 4 water park visits on the 4 day ticket, 5 for the 5 day).
4 day salute with hopper OR water park: $209/ person
5 day salute with hopper OR water park: $224/ person
* For both hopper and water park, add $37 to each ticket
Since these water park visits can be used on different days than your park days, a 5 day ticket with the water park add on could give you 10 days worth of stuff to do. If you really want to spend 8 days in the theme parks only, you can't do that with the salute tickets.
Shades of green offers discounted military tickets (you can stay at any Disney resort) and for 8 days with park hopper and water parks, it is $473/ person.
A full price 8 day PH ticket through Disney would be $527.18/ person.
A standard room at Shades of Green would be around $805 for 7 nights.
A standard full price room at one of the All Star resorts would be around $846 for 7 nights late nov- early Dec. With military discount, it would be $673.40.
So just throwing some hypotheticals out there, if you stayed at an All Star resort for 7 nights with military discount and the military tickets, it would be $673.40 (room)+ [473 x 4 (tickets)]= $2565.40.
Paying full price there for everything and getting free quick service dining, it would be $846 (room) + [527.18 x 4 (tickets)]= 2954.72. So if you think your family would eat $409.32 worth of quick service food in the week,
free dining would be better than the military discount. You can't get free dining at Shades of Green and their room price is more than a discounted room at an All Star resort.
For the record, the cost of the dining plans if paid oop are $48.19/ night/ person for quick service (includes 2 quick service meals + 2 snacks each night, plus resort refillable mug for length of stay). For regular dining plan, the cost is $69.35/ night/ person (includes 1 table service meal + 1 quick service meal + 2 snacks each night + refillable mug).
There are so many different factors that go into pricing. If you were were okay with only doing 5 days in the theme parks and the rest as pool/ water park days, then a discounted Disney room and the salute tickets with paying for meals oop might be a better value. You need to look at what sort of room category, type of beds, and hotel amenities you are looking for. You also have to look at whether you are planning on all quick service meals or some table service too as that will affect out of pocket costs as well as where you can get free dining if you elect to go that route. In the past, value resorts have qualified for quick service and moderates and deluxes have received the regular dining plan. Since Disney has not yet released free dining info for this year, nobody even knows for sure IF it will be offered, let alone what dates and resorts it will be available for. That promo does book quickly though, so if it's something you want to take advantage of, you're going to want to book immediately after it's released.
If you stay at shades of green, remember that you will not qualify for the Magical Express shuttle from the airport to your resort and back. You will have to pay for your own transportation. Also, buses from SoG to the parks don't run as frequently as the buses at Disney resorts. Buses to and from AK, HS, water parks and DS run once per hour and every 20 mins to the TTC where you have to catch the monorail to Epcot and MK.
It's really hard to say what routes will be a better deal for you overall since you don't have exact dates, free dining has not yet been announced, we don't know your eating habits, etc. This is all info you will have to look into, but hopefully this has been some help.
