Shades Of Green

[angelmav]

Well I realize that this review wont matter to most as the resort is for DOD, military and retiree,s but for anyone who fits that description, here goes.
The resort itself is exceptional, the rooms are large, queen beds, sofa, fridge, table, balcony, double sinks, Two pools, hot tub, PX, A few restaurants and a seperate gift shop. The rooms themselves are a great value when you consider where you are (next door to the Poly) and its a relaxing environment.
The buses are a major dissapointment, They are beat up, the A/C barely works and they dont run nearly as regularly as the other disney buses. From the resort and back to the TTC is the only bus you can catch with any consistency and a normal wait, but even then its not as often as it should be considering its going only a couple of blocks and back. Once we realized this we took disney busses from the TTC and only used the shuttle to get back and forth. The walk to the poly isnt bad, but in July its not what you want to be doing before or after a long day at the parks. Overall, this service is barely passable and not up to the standards of the resort IMO.
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.
Another note, you dont have charging privledges with your room key in the parks, so if you want a key to the world, you wont find it here. In all we had a better resort for the money than we would have gotten at the moderate level, but with everything else, I am not sure I would choose Shades again, much prefering the ability to get disneys dining plan and overall better transportation as a trade off for the bigger rooms.

 

[princessdisneybelle]

Hi we were there for my wedding. I agree that the resort was very nice. Rooms, staff. We used the golf cart alot to get to the end of the property, then just walked across the street to the Poly. BTW you can charge your food to your room at Mangolia's. And something I learned late in the trip you can have your purchases sent to your room from the parks. I never ate at the Gallery restaraunt. We were in the parks or busy will wedding stuff too much. I can say the food catered for our reception was amazing. The price of having a wedding here was great. I would definately stay at Shades of Green again. But if I was on a short trip and didnt have time to mess with the buses I would stay at a value or moderate.

 

[hildarumpole]

For the quality and size of the rooms, relative to price, SOG can't be beat. We ate at Mangino's 3 times during our stay and were able to charge it to our room. Compared to Disney TS, we thought it was an exceptional value, especially the kids meals. Only $4.50 for a huge plate of pasta, beverage, and ice cream sundae.

I agree about the park transportation. They definitely need to invest in new buses and some customer service training for the drivers. The AC worked on our trip, but was leaky. Also, there was usually one bus a day with a mechanical problem, so everyone would have to squash on to the smaller bus. We wished the AK and MGM buses ran more frequently than once an hour, but if you plan ahead, it works out o.k. On the plus side, the buses only service SOG, unlike other resorts, so you aren't spending as much time, making stops en route.

 

[angelmav]

I wish we had tried manginos, but since there only open for dinner, we opted for the buffet. The 2nd time we ate there on international night, the food inspector made them pull several dishes because they had not been brought up to the proper temp, also the kids mac n cheese was all cold but they never did replace that. I did hear many good things about manginos though while we were there but they are on the pricey side IMO, although the kids meals looked like a great value there. I loved the resort itself, but I feel on the whole it loses value because your not elidgable for the DDP, there is no charging privledges in the park, While you can have merchandise delivered, it takes until the next day before it will arrive unlike other disney resorts, They also charge you a daily fee to park at the resort. Had the offerings been considerably less (18.00 for an adult buffet) 15% gratuity vs say 23.99 and 18% at a much better Hollywood & Vine Buffet, then my opinion would be different. As such, I think that its probably a great place to stay for an orlando vacation, but less so if your tying yourself strictly to disney property as we did. The food and transportation issues should be addressed because its too nice a resort to have such shortcomings.

 

[Wilsonfamily4]

While you can have merchandise delivered, it takes until the next day before it will arrive unlike other disney resorts, .

Not accurate. We stayed at SSR in January and I had things delivered to our resorts gift shop but they always said they would be there the next day as well. So that is the same as Shades of Green.

 

[greeneyedchic75]

We are Military but havent stayed at SOG. The cool thing is when SOG is booked up, they will book u at a Disney Hotel of your choice at a discounted rate. Thats what happened to us one time. I know that everyone I know who has been there says the rooms are very nice. I dont like the fact that you cant use the early magic hours and the late hours etc. Atleast , last time we asked them when we were trying to get a room they said we couldnt, so we prefer to stay where we can use those hours. I hope they do invest in more buses, because reading what you all have said about that makes me not want to stay there just for that reason alone. Hopefully, they will .

 

[8caliace]

Everytime we have stayed at SOG, we have always been able to use the Extra Magic Hours.

 

[angelmav]

I believe the EMH were an option but we didnt use them since we didnt have any breaks and staying out that late then getting up to do another park just wasnt an option. Its an absolutely beautiful resort and the rooms cant be beat, but that added value comes at a cost (transportation, no DDP or key to the world) if any of those three things are an issue (they were for us) then as a whole the resort isnt as good a deal as it seems based on the room rate alone. I would gladly stay here again, but if I were there for only disney parks would go elsewhere, paying OOP for food alone makes the DDP a must for us on future trips or at the least a budget concious family should plan on driving off property for meals. Like anything though your vacation time is limited and you have to maximize what you have. I think that its necessary to point these things out and grade the resort on a curve for that reason.

 

[abolanwoski]

I have stayed at SOG many times and have always participated in EMH.

It is true that you can't use DDP, but if you figure out how much you save by staying at SOG and using the discount tickets, (comparing to rates for Deluxe resorts), you can afford to eat A LOT of food. I priced a week at BC with MYW and DDP (not during the free weeks) and it would be $2700 MORE. Even if you use AAA, I don't think you could get close enough in price to gripe about having to pay for your food.

I can't comment on the bus service as I haven't used it in years. We always walk to Poly and then take monorail, or continue to walk to TTC and use Disney buses (I love to walk and this allows me to pretend that I actually exercised so I can justify eating chipwhiches in the park!) For the far flung adventures (DTD or water parks) we usually take a cab, as I hate buses in general, and especially hate to stop at 4 different places to pick up/drop off others. Yes, I'm slightly spoiled.

Overall, I think it's a great value for the price. To pay that llittle elsewhere on property, you'd have to stay at a Value, and their rooms are like walk-in closets. And I really don't need to have a guitar shaped pool to feel like I'm in Disney.

 

[greeneyedchic75]

wow that is so weird that you can use EMH afterall. The shades of green people told me we couldn't. Glad they are wrong about that. They also told me that I couldnt have packages delivered to the hotel from the park too. I must have had an employee who didnt know all the ins and outs and gave me wrong info. Glad to hear that it does offer those perks afterall

 

[princessdisneybelle]

Yes we did both! If they would fix their buses it would be the perfect resort.

 

[angelmav]

The busses are the biggest detraction. Evergreens is fine but limited and there drink prices arent really that hot either, I was really let down by the garden gallery however, for one they had raised there prices and two it just wasnt that good a buffet especially for the price. Now we would never have stayed at a deluxe to begin with abolanwoski, so that comparison doesnt work for us, we had planned on Coronado Springs then decided to use shades since we re-enlisted. We spent $300 a day on food, on average, with snacks etc, the DDP would have allowed for some play in the room rate, plus not having to stress over what we were spending. Its our fault for staying on property, but were so beat we used the resort offerings more than expected.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

The cool thing is when SOG is booked up, they will book u at a Disney Hotel of your choice at a discounted rate.

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

I dont like the fact that you cant use the early magic hours and the late hours etc.

Also not true.

 

[greeneyedchic75]

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



Also not true.

Yes They will book you a room at the hotel of your choice because I did that last summer. They were booked and asked me what hotel I wanted and I told them and they booked it for my at a discounted rate. After I got off the phone I called that hotel to book it regular to make sure I got a cheaper rate and I did. So I know firsthand they do.

 

[stitchrulz]

We kind of liked SOG better before the refurb (Even though it is beautiful now, and I know that sounds silly.). Sometimes bigger isn't always better. It seemed like the transportation/service was better, and the PX/gift shop/bar/restaurant prices were much cheaper than the Disney prices. Don't get me wrong, it's still a great value, and I would advise anyone eligible to take advantage. Hopefully, SOG will get the bugs worked out, particularly on the transportation/information issues.

 

[robynv]

Having left Shades of Green this morning,... I have to agree the bus service sucks to put it mildly. If you just miss a bus you could be waiting a long time.

Also we ate at Evergreens for lunch and while it was pretty good, the burgers don't come with fries..if you order room service the price is about the same for a burger and you get fries with that.

But yesterday we ate at the buffet for dinner and YUCK!!!! It was so gross! The food was not good. And it was just... I don't know yucky.

Our room was 232 right next to the mickey pool. the first door next to the stairs. Nice location. The pizza at Evergreens was pretty good at midnight!

 

[bigAWL]

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?

Is there a difference in the room size?

Where are the suites located? New section, old or both?

Thanks.

 

[mouse4me]

We stayed at SOG about 3 years ago in the beginning of October. We had no complaints about anything, even the food and the bus service. We had the buffet both at breakfast and at dinner and thought the food was good. Also the buses ran about every 15-30 minutes - we did walk and/or take the golf cart to the Poly a few times. The one difficult trip I recall was trying to get to Downtown Disney - had to transfer at the transportation center and it probably took 45-60 minutes to get there. earsboy:

 

[Claire&TheBoys]

While I hope to stay at SoG at a future time, after reading how poor the bus service is, I'm very glad that I cancelled our reservation there, in favor of getting the Free Dining package and staying at Coronado Springs. With 2 little ones, it would have been very frustrating to wait a long time for buses and we really prefer to leave our car parked while we're on vacation there.

With discounts, the break-even point is different for everyone. We've stayed at CSR before and really enjoyed it, so it won't bother us to stay in the moderate. For us, excluding tickets (FL resident seasonal passes), the cost of staying at SoG for 6 nights and buying food OOP (figuring on a conservative $100/day for 6 days) was equal to the Free Dining package at CSR (with 1-day base tickets).

If dh and I ever get to go on an adults-only trip, we would be OK at SoG - we wouldn't mind walking to Poly or TTC. Not a good option with two kids!

Thanks for the review!

 

[Maine-iac]

The buses are a major dissapointment, They are beat up, the A/C barely works and they dont run nearly as regularly as the other disney buses. From the resort and back to the TTC is the only bus you can catch with any consistency and a normal wait, but even then its not as often as it should be considering its going only a couple of blocks and back.

Hmmm we never had a problem with the buses. A/C always worked and we did not find them run down. The bus drivers were not as friendly as the WDW ones.
As far as the bus schedules, we liked this. The bus was always there at the scheduled time. We made sure that we were at the bus stop about 5 minutes before the scheduled time and sometimes the bus was already there. No standing in line wondering when the bus will be there. Yes it is a long walk to the bus stop but we never minded unless it was raining.