1. The breakfast buffet at the Garden Gallery was very cheap...around 7 dollars for adults. The food was very good and many options were available. The Garden Gallery also had a regular menu, with extremely cheap prices (3.50 for pancakes, most other items were around 3 or 4 dollars). The Garden Gallery also offers dinner buffets, which have a different theme for each night.
2. At the current moment in time, just about everything was finished. The only thing that was not completely finished was the Express Cafe. They were still adding decorations, although it was nothing that interfered with the quality of the cafe. The Express Cafe sells delicious breakfast items if you are short on time. To get to the bus station, you must pass through the Express Cafe, so it is a perfect place to quick get some food before a long day at the parks.
The Shades of Green bus system had two bus systems, Route A and Route B. Route A goes directly to the transportation center, where you can get a monorail to Magic Kingdom and Epcot. That bus starts at 7:30, and comes every 15 minutes until an hour after park closing. Route B takes you to MGM Studios and Animal Kingdom. That bus leaves every 30 minutes. There is also a bus to Downtown Disney and Typhoon Lagoon (Blizzard Beach was closed during the time I was there, so I have no idea what bus you take to get there). The DTD and TL bus leaves SoG every hour on the half hour (8:30, 9:30, etc) and pick up is every hour on the 45 (8:45, 9:45, etc) Pickup from downtown disney is on the west side near Cirque du Soiel until 5:45, then it changes to near pleasure island to continue until 2:45 am. If you miss a bus, you could always go to the poly and then take a short 5-10 minute walk across the street. If it is before 6 pm, you could call the front desk and send for "shady shuttle", which would come meet you at the corner to take you to the lobby free of charge. It is nice to know that the bus will come at a certain time, so you can plan your time around the bus system. At the Disney resorts, there is no set time the busses come, so you may end up waiting 20 minutes or so for a bus to come.
3. It was not crowded at all. Midday waits at the more popular attractions were normally around 20 minutes. The only ride I noticed a longer wait was for Test Track, which was 35 minutes at one point. (I have been to Disney in April during Spring Break and the Test Track wait time at one point was 180 minutes...) Downtown Disney was slightly more crowded, but it was also a friday night, and i would assume its always more crowded friday night.
4. My suite was located on the 1st floor in the new wing.
5.Mangino's is the new Italian restuarant. I personally did not try the food, but other people who I went with ate there one night and said the food was amazing, and the prices were quite low.
You will defintely enjoy your stay at SoG. If possible, request a room in the new wing, because they are nicer. I saw a room in the older section and it was still nice, but nothing beats new.
I hope that helped!
