Shades Of Green

[Maine-iac]

The food is hit and miss, breakfast at the garden gallery is a great value but with limited selection and they dont have a lunch buffet. Dinner here is a rip off, they have raised the prices and its nearly as expensive as eating at a buffet in the parks only less enjoyable and with fewer selections. I would avoid it for dinner. Evergreens was fine for a sandwich, they make great pizzas which are also a good deal but thats the only food available here after 10pm, the drinks arent a particularly good value either, again, the savings over the parks isnt that large. Garden Gallery and Evergreens are the only two places you can charge to your room as well. There is an ice cream shop (marginal IMO) and the express cafe which we didnt particularly like either and were really not that hard to please. In all I was highly dissapointed by the food offerings here.

If dining is an important part of your vacation and you like to eat alot of sit down meals then you have a good point. This is where room charging would be helpful as well as the DDP. SOG has its own dining plan but is limited to it's own restaurants.
We eat breakfast in our room or grab something from the Express Cafe. We have had the breakfast buffet at the Garden Gallery and enjoyed it.
We usually eat counter service in the parks for most of our meals and we do not eat alot at SOG. I would love to have the room charge privelege but since we can't we are gonna use gift cards next trip. Hope they work out ok.

 

[madge]

This is not true. You don't get your choice of hotels.

I called Monday, to check availability for October 6 and was offered more than one resort choice. They were all more than I wanted to spend (overflow rates have gotten higher over the last few years ) but I did have a choice!

 

[Disney Davo]

Glad to see a SOG thread going strong. SOG is the best deal on Disney property, without a doubt! I still love the Disney resorts, but you can't beat the SOG for deluxe quality and price. I think for my rank it is $107 for a poolside room. Rooms in the new section are even bigger than the Disney deluxe resorts. One thing i would like to see is better bus service and a better pool. SOG needs a better themed pool with a water slide to compare to the Disney Resorts.

 

[hildarumpole]

I've heard it's better to stay in the old section rather than the new rooms which were added during expansion. I had heard complaints about low water pressure and noisy pipes in the new section. Any experience out there?

We stayed in the new section and didn't notice any problems with water pressure or noisy pipes. The bathrooms in the new section have double sinks, compared to single sinks in the old section, which made getting ready in the mornings easier for my family of 5. We liked our location, because it was near the lobby and it was a short walk to the buses and Shady Shuttle.

 

[bigAWL]

We stayed in the new section and didn't notice any problems with water pressure or noisy pipes. The bathrooms in the new section have double sinks, compared to single sinks in the old section, which made getting ready in the mornings easier for my family of 5. We liked our location, because it was near the lobby and it was a short walk to the buses and Shady Shuttle.

That's good to know. I had heard that the rooms had double sinks. I didn't know that was only in the new section.

 

[bigAWL]

More questions...

It's been a long time since I was at WDW. I guess there is a security checkpoint for cars approaching all the resorts, is that right? Since it's a DoD facility, is there a special security check at the SOG for checking ID cards of everyone including pedestrians? Can non-DoD, non-guests visit the SOG?

 

[princessdisneybelle]

More questions...

It's been a long time since I was at WDW. I guess there is a security checkpoint for cars approaching all the resorts, is that right? Since it's a DoD facility, is there a special security check at the SOG for checking ID cards of everyone including pedestrians? Can non-DoD, non-guests visit the SOG?

We had our wedding at Shades of Green in July. We had to make sure and submit a guestlist to security. When we arrrived the guard made sure we were on the list. They do not check for pedestrians though. They didn't check id's on the buses either. So yes others can visit.

 

[Twingle]

We'll be spending one night at SOG in October, and I'm trying to find out if SOG will transfer luggage to a Disney property, or if we need to do that ourselves.

Anyone know? Thanks for any help!

 

[angelmav]

There isnt any problem getting on the resort unless your wanting to park, thats when youll need your ID, They had a couple of other busses (MGM, Animal Kingdom) that were nicer than the TTC bus but were broke down most of the time we were there so they barely ran, also, they had to send a shuttle one night to MGM because the main bus broke down, we then gave up on them for anything but TTC travel. Ol' Smokey was definitely distinctive when waiting for a ride from the TTC though, even without any markings to signal its prescence. Depending on the time of year you go, the walk to the poly is probably an option, but in the July heat, we only did that once.

We had rooms 252, 255, 256, 2nd floor with pool views, loved the rooms and the resort as a whole, though, like someone else mentioned, a slide at the mickey pool would be awesome, I cant complain about this aspect of the resort. Really, its so nice that it makes these other shortcomings more glaring.

The Garden Gallery had recently raised there prices, had they still been where they were previously, I could overlook the food quality, but they are just too close to the park prices now and the experience isnt anywhere as good. For instance, dinner ran our party here $140, but breakfast was only $45, so even though the food may not have been fantastic, we gladly went back three times for breakfast. Under their old pricing structure, the buffet would have been less than $100 for dinner so not only was the price change dramatic, the food didnt reflect the increase. Mangino's you must make reservations for (at least in July), although I assume you can get them on short notice.

One thing to note, If your staying at any other Disney Resort you can still purchase attraction tickets as SOG.

 

[robynv]

Oh I would agree the price is right!! $111 per night for our family of 5! Although it goes up in Sept I think to around $ 120

We were upgraded to a pool room and were right next to the mickey pool and Evergreens. room 232 walk out your door and the door to the pool is right there. Pool was nice and warm but we thought it could use a slide. We loved our stay there, but the food at the Gallery was yucky. For the price we paid... But we only ate there once! It was enough.

The rooms seemed kind of small to us, but I don't think they really are, I think it was because we had just transfered from Bonnet Creek and had 4 bedrooms and 4 baths. Now THAT was an amazing stay!!

 

[mouse4me]

Glad to see a SOG thread going strong. SOG is the best deal on Disney property, without a doubt! I still love the Disney resorts, but you can't beat the SOG for deluxe quality and price. I think for my rank it is $107 for a poolside room. Rooms in the new section are even bigger than the Disney deluxe resorts. One thing i would like to see is better bus service and a better pool. SOG needs a better themed pool with a water slide to compare to the Disney Resorts.

I think the rooms are great and the resort is very nice - lots of wood and clean. But as someone said, it kinda misses that total Disney surround fantasy thing. But for the price, I think you can easily get your Disney needs met in the parks.

 

[Fallon3248]

We will be staying at the SOG and some of our family will be at the Poly. How do I use a golf cart to go between the two resorts? I didn't know that was an option.

 

[greeneyedchic75]

This is not true. You don't get your choice of hotels.



Also not true.

I am posting this to show you that you can have your choice of hotel is Shades of green is booked .I have done it before and I know its true. You can go to Shades of Green website and click on overflow reservations and it has all the info right there and the rates they can get u, I cut and pasted it as well. I am also booking my room in dec this way since they are booked so I can get cheaper rate at a disney hotel again. Hope this info helps clarify that you can pick what hotel you want if Shades of green is booked up.

Overflow Reservation Form

Thank you for your interest in Shades of Green. We are sorry we are unable to accommodate your party at Shades of Green, however, we have many desirable resorts located in the Disney area. Please complete the form below and a Shades of Green representative will finalize the booking process within the next 5-7 business days; if we are unable to accommodate your request, someone from Shades of Green will contact you via e-mail or at the phone number provided. Disney area hotels require a credit card for booking and will charge a 1-night deposit. Cancellation or changes to these overflow reservations must be done through Shades of Green at least 7 days prior to your arrival in order not to lose your 1-night deposit. Click here for more information on Disney World Resorts

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Preferred Resort:
Disney Value Resort ($63-$120/night)
Disney Moderate Resort ($111-$215/night)
Disney Deluxe Resort ($164-$640/night)
Home Away From Home Resorts ($389-$925/night)

 

[hildarumpole]

We will be staying at the SOG and some of our family will be at the Poly. How do I use a golf cart to go between the two resorts? I didn't know that was an option.

The golf cart is located just outside the lobby. Ask the guys at the Bell station to give you a lift. It doesn't take you all the way to Poly, but to the edge of the property. You'll need to cross a street to get to the Poly property. From Poly, you'll need to walk all the way back to SOG, unless you luck out when the cart is dropping someone else off. Poly has signs along a path directing you toward SOG. It's a nice walk, if it's not too hot.

 

[Sleepy]

I had heard that the rooms had double sinks. I didn't know that was only in the new section.

Actually, we have stayed in the old section 4 times. There are 2 styles of bathrooms. One is a room with the double sink and a smaller room with just the tub/toilet. The other style of room is the handicapped room. This is one huge bathroom with everything in it. You will only find a single sink here. When requesting a room in the old section, just ask for a room that is not handicapped.

 

[MIGHTY MO]

We stayed at SOG last week and thought it was great. We did not have any problems with the buses. They were all working fine. The buses are slightly outdated but they worked. If they did not work for our time frame, we took the shady shuttle to the end of the property and walked to the Poly. We then would use the monorail or disney buses depending on where we were going. We ate at the Gallery, Evergreen, Ice cream shoppe, Mang. For the price this was a great resort for us.