Hi Belinda!
Ooooh - your trip is next week! Mine is a military family too, and I am so thankful for the wonderful
Military Tickets that Walt Disney World Resort extends to us as a 'Thank You.'
Did you know that there's also a military rate on
Disney's Memory Maker?
I've used these tickets six times in the last few years, most recently a month ago. It's definitely a smart move to activate them before their first day of use, especially since you have early dining reservations. We had to validate our tickets the morning of our first park day this last trip due to a last minute curveball, which of course was the day I was trying to rope drop early morning extra magic hours. The pre-turnstile Guest Relations window did open about an hour before the park did, so should you need it there is still hope of getting help before breakfast.
Technically the active duty/retired military member, or their spouse, is the only one who has to be present, and present a valid Military ID, when activating these tickets. However, that person does need all paper copies of the tickets your party purchased to be able to validate them all. Our last trip everyone was also asked to hand over their MagicBands during the validation process, which I think was more of a double check that everything connected correctly than anything official.
Tickets can be validated at any
Guest Relations location. We like the option at Disney Springs as it's open really late and has amazing dining nearby, which might be a good option for your group if you needed to wait until everyone was together to validate your tickets.
We'll See You Real Soon, Belinda!
~Kristen