Has anyone stayed at Shades of Green?

[windwalker]

Sally and I are thinking about staying at Shades of Green this next marathon weekend. Anyone stayed there, what did you think? Did you buy your tickets there?

Dave

 

[ZellyB]

We stayed there in 2013 when we ran the marathon. It was actually a great location. SoG runs buses to the event just like the other resorts. We were on the first bus at 3 AM and one was sitting waiting to leave when we finished. It's also a great location for the parks since you can walk over to the Poly and catch the monorail in additon to the buses they provide. You could do this on race morning too, but we didn't want to walk that much prior to the race. It is a very spread out resort and we were in a room that felt MILES away from the entrance which was a bit agonizing after the race, but other than that, it was really good.

You can buy the tickets there, but we bought ours in advance from a local base.

 

[dancef150]

We are looking at staying at SOG too. I have been trying to figure out if its a big enough savings to give up on POR. I have heard that the buses are not frequent and there is not a Disney feel to it. Did anyone find the buses to be useful or do we have to rely more on the Poly? We have a party of 5, so most resorts are out for us.

 

[Goofierunner]

We also stayed at SOG for the 2013 Marathon weekend and I would 100% do it again. The buses on race morning were very convenient and it's at mile 7 of the marathon course so my wife was able to roll out of bed, stroll to the end of the drive and wait there to cheer me on.

We bought our tickets there the day after we arrived because MWR at SOG was already closed. We could have purchased them ahead of time and they would have been waiting for us. We also took advantage of some of their other discounted tickets.

The buses were good enough that it was pretty much a waste of money for us to have rented a car. It sat in the parking garage for most of the trip. Plus you can rent a car right at the resort if needed.

 

[ZellyB]

We are looking at staying at SOG too. I have been trying to figure out if its a big enough savings to give up on POR. I have heard that the buses are not frequent and there is not a Disney feel to it. Did anyone find the buses to be useful or do we have to rely more on the Poly? We have a party of 5, so most resorts are out for us.

The resort itself is nice but does not have a lot of Disney decor. A little in the lobby, buy the rooms themselves have nothing Disney. But, they are nice rooms and what would be considered deluxe by Disney standards. Big rooms and interior doors. The pools are nice although not especially extravagant. There is a small pool that is the shape of a Mickey head which is sort of cute.

The buses are not great in my opinion. Well, not the race buses, those were wonderful. But the park buses don't run on as frequent a schedule as the Disney resorts, I don't think. So, we felt sometimes rushed to try to be sure we made it to a bus because if you missed it you had a long wait for another one. If you are okay with a bit of a walk though, it's a very pleasant walk over to Poly and then you are on the monorail. But, while it's true that Poly is "across the street" from SoG, the drive into SoG is really long, so I'd say you are probably walking a quarter to a half a mile to get to the monorail. That's not a big deal to us and most days we enjoyed it, so we pretty much just used that instead of the buses.

 

[windwalker]

Thank you. How are the restaurant prices? Is the whole resort state tax free? We are going to arrive on Sunday, is the ticket office MWR there on Sunday?