My mother-in-law (a military spouse) bought the discounted tickets directly from Shades of Green (sent by Fedex). It was my understanding that these tickets are activated and ready to go based on previous reports. However, I chatted with with a Disney customer service rep previously who gave me contradictory information. When I gave them the ticket numbers for the three tickets being used by my family of three, they said they were activated and ready to go. When I asked about if my MIL needed to activate the tickets (either at the gate or at Disney Springs), they indicated that she would need to verify her identity, but the rest of the ticket holders did not need to be present.
To double check, I explained our possible situation, in which my MIL and some family would be arriving at the hotel a day before my family arrives in Orlando, and how the last time we had military tickets, each ticket holder went with my MIL to Disney Springs and had the tickets activated in our names. They again indicated that she could go by herself, verify her identity, and the rest of the party did not need to be present.
I suspect that I was given erroneous information in an effort by Disney to prevent abuse. Since the purpose of the tickets is for the military member or spouse to go to the parks with their immediate family, the only way to try to prevent scalping of the tickets would be to tell people that the military member's identity must be verified, even if that is not true because the tickets are already activated since Shades of Green has verified the member's status.
In our case, we actually have a big group (my MIL's sister is bringing family, and they have their own military tickets), and the younger folk will be doing rope drop while older folks might be arriving later. I made reservations for Epcot for our first day since the opening hours are later in case the information I was told is correct and everyone needs to be together.
Has anyone recently used the military tickets sold by Shades of Green already activated? It would be nice to know if we need to build in extra time for this verification process. At this time, the entire group will be arriving in Orlando on the same day, but not at the same time, and I am not sure if anyone will want to go to Disney Springs after a 6 to 8 hour drive.
To double check, I explained our possible situation, in which my MIL and some family would be arriving at the hotel a day before my family arrives in Orlando, and how the last time we had military tickets, each ticket holder went with my MIL to Disney Springs and had the tickets activated in our names. They again indicated that she could go by herself, verify her identity, and the rest of the party did not need to be present.
I suspect that I was given erroneous information in an effort by Disney to prevent abuse. Since the purpose of the tickets is for the military member or spouse to go to the parks with their immediate family, the only way to try to prevent scalping of the tickets would be to tell people that the military member's identity must be verified, even if that is not true because the tickets are already activated since Shades of Green has verified the member's status.
In our case, we actually have a big group (my MIL's sister is bringing family, and they have their own military tickets), and the younger folk will be doing rope drop while older folks might be arriving later. I made reservations for Epcot for our first day since the opening hours are later in case the information I was told is correct and everyone needs to be together.
Has anyone recently used the military tickets sold by Shades of Green already activated? It would be nice to know if we need to build in extra time for this verification process. At this time, the entire group will be arriving in Orlando on the same day, but not at the same time, and I am not sure if anyone will want to go to Disney Springs after a 6 to 8 hour drive.
