We are finally getting ready to purchase our lodging for our trip in the next couple weeks (waiting on DH's training schedule to come out for that month so I know which days are good!), I've been planning for 6 mos, I am jealous of you that can book dates far in advance! 
We were going to stay onsite at AoA or in the Ft. Wilderness Cabins for around $1800/week w/ the military rate but I shopped around a little and I think we are going to book through Armed Forces Vacation Club as it's only $400 for the week for a 2BR w/full kitchen. With 6 of us that rate can't be beat and would free up quite a bit of spending money. We used them in 2011 and it worked out well. We looked into Shades of Green but they don't have availability for our dates and if they did it'd be $250/night for the suite we'd need based on family size and DH's rank, we'd probably stay @ Disney instead..
If we don't find anything through them my fall back option was Bonnet Creek through VS for about $250 more (if there is a resort fee instituted that will add to the cost as well). We drive our own car to the parks so we already spend $14/day on parking and I'd love to avoid resort fees if we can. I will say, I understand the resort fee and don't think it's terribly expensive but if we can avoid add'l fees on parking (and the shuttle we don't use), it would be nice
Last year we booked Bonnet Creek through the AFVC (and loved it) but this year it isn't available so we are looking at a few other resorts. So far we have found availability for our dates and favorable reviews on TripAdvisor for these resorts:
Silver Lake
Summer Bay
Cypress Palms
Orbit One Vacation Villas
Anyone have any experience with any of them?
We were going to stay onsite at AoA or in the Ft. Wilderness Cabins for around $1800/week w/ the military rate but I shopped around a little and I think we are going to book through Armed Forces Vacation Club as it's only $400 for the week for a 2BR w/full kitchen. With 6 of us that rate can't be beat and would free up quite a bit of spending money. We used them in 2011 and it worked out well. We looked into Shades of Green but they don't have availability for our dates and if they did it'd be $250/night for the suite we'd need based on family size and DH's rank, we'd probably stay @ Disney instead..
If we don't find anything through them my fall back option was Bonnet Creek through VS for about $250 more (if there is a resort fee instituted that will add to the cost as well). We drive our own car to the parks so we already spend $14/day on parking and I'd love to avoid resort fees if we can. I will say, I understand the resort fee and don't think it's terribly expensive but if we can avoid add'l fees on parking (and the shuttle we don't use), it would be nice
Last year we booked Bonnet Creek through the AFVC (and loved it) but this year it isn't available so we are looking at a few other resorts. So far we have found availability for our dates and favorable reviews on TripAdvisor for these resorts:
Silver Lake
Summer Bay
Cypress Palms
Orbit One Vacation Villas
Anyone have any experience with any of them?
