Shades of Green

[jb.brooks]

Checking my boards and links this morning and found on allears.net that as of l/1/06 that guest staying at sog are no longer eligible to participate in EMH. Now i am in a panic. Made my ressies i yr in advance and made my touring plan according to this key i mean KEY!!!! feature and am now at a loss for words and am very upset . I am getting ready to call them. Making a ressie at this time some where else is cutting it close. I am VERY VERY VERY!!!!!!! Upset. Can Anyone confirm this?

 

[sk8ingmom]

WHAT???
I don't have an answer, just commiserating! That messes up our March trip also if it is true!

You might want to try posting this on the resorts board also.

 

[mtdevine615]

I don't know if I would change my ressi. I would probably just scrape up the money and take a towncar from the airport. They usually run around $100 round trip. Or you could always take the Mears shuttle which is even less. I know it doesn't help you out much, but really there are a lot of transportation options.

 

[HollyJoy]

Wow, that really stinks. Maybe call Shades of Green yourself, and confirm this.

 

[Luv2Diz]

I will send them an e-mail to inquire. We are planning to return again this year and stay at the Shades of Green. We loved staying at the Shades last year and having EMH - that was a very nice benefit.

 

[zagafi]

I don't know if I would change my ressi. I would probably just scrape up the money and take a towncar from the airport. They usually run around $100 round trip. Or you could always take the Mears shuttle which is even less. I know it doesn't help you out much, but really there are a lot of transportation options.

I think you've misunderstood. She's talking about Extra Magic Hours, not Magical Express.

 

[Sherrypooh]

I just called the hotel front desk, and you are correct, as of Jan 1, 06 SOG doesn't participate in this. Sorry.

sherry

 

[Genieswife]

This really stinks. We leave for SoG the end of next month. Already talked to DH and we are thinking of getting new resies some where else. Sherrypooh, did they say anything else when you called?

 

[Sherrypooh]

Only thing the front desk said was it has to do with a contract with disney they do every year. She also said some CM's are letting SOG people in, but once the word gets out.. there is no telling. We are not going until may, so I am thinking about switching hotels...

sherry

 

[sk8ingmom]

Well isn't this annoying!

At least I have time to switch my ressie, but what about the people who are within the 30 day cancelation for SOG. Its not like there was a lot of warning!

I just priced a mod with MYW & dining and it is about $400 more than we would pay for SOG+hopper+food on our own. It ends up being about $66 a night more for our fam. Now I just need to decide if it is worth it for the EMH.

Need some pixie dust here - come on Mod discount....

 

[jb.brooks]

Just got off the phone with sog. Evidentley sog has to pay disney for this some how and their board did not think it was cost effective . Sog says to keep room rates low. Well sounds a little greedy to me. Have been going to sog since 1994 and am stunned .Sog said "It was only an Hour and only certain rides are open". Obviously was someone who has no idea how much that can do for you or what it means to people in the know.

 

[mtdevine615]

jb.brooks, I'm sorry I was reading too fast, actually surfing too fast. I did see where sog was no longer being included in EMH a week or so ago. Sorry for the trouble this is going to cause you. EMH can be great at times.

 

[greg126]

Just got off the phone with sog. Evidentley sog has to pay disney for this some how and their board did not think it was cost effective . Sog says to keep room rates low. Well sounds a little greedy to me. Have been going to sog since 1994 and am stunned .Sog said "It was only an Hour and only certain rides are open". Obviously was someone who has no idea how much that can do for you or what it means to people in the know.

What a catastrophe!! Wonder if this has anything to do with the recent Disney price increase? Since its quite correct that whoever was in on the decision has no idea at all of the value of this perk it should be revisited by customer service, the board or whatever...just how much would it increase room rates anyway?

We went last month and were told parking privileges at Disney were no longer extended to SOG guests (but parking CMs were still letting SOG folks in for free, still I don't expect that to last long, hate to lose that little perk also). I would expect they'll be somewhat more stringent slamming the door on park admission tho....especially when all SOG gave us was this cheesy resort id cut out of a piece of paper....last time we had a nice lettered plastic id (that was our key also?) - looked much more official.

We didn't happen to use EMH privileges this last time but they were invaluable for previous spring break trip - and that was before evening EMHs!! What about package delivery - are they doing away with that too??

Gov't rates at Swan/Dolphin looking pretty good even with tax and parking but it ain't SOG......

 

[Momof6]

This does not come naturally for me...dh is the optimist and I am very much the pessimist. We have been to WDW two times in the past year - once with our kids and once just us. We found that the parks that had EMH were more crowded. Don't get me wrong, we especially loved the evening EMH, and were counting on using them, as we are taking our two youngest during Pres. week. I initially thought about switching, but I'm not sure I want to. I need to think about this more...

Denise

 

[TSirgey]

That stinks!!! We stayed at SOG in April and liked having the same privileges as those at the resorts. However, we really only used the EMH one night (we try to stay away from the EMH morning parks). For me, it would depend on when you are going. If the park hours are shorter because it is off peak season, you might want those EMH's nights to have some extra time in the parks. Personally, I like to go to a non EMH park at opening and walk right onto my favorite attractions first and then use a fast pass the rest of the day.

 

[cstraub]

When I make up my intenerary I always plan to AVOID EMH. When it first started it was awesome because not many people knew about it but now that the word is out everyone is there. Over Spring Break 2005 my DS8 and I were in the park until around 2am on an EMH. I kept waiting for the lines to go down but they never did. At Christmas time 2005 the EMH were hit or miss but still very crowded. It does depend on what time of year it is.

Anyway, everyone else is making their plans with EMH in mind too. You may be better off to make plans in a park w/o EMH.

We loved, l;oved, loved shades of green!!! For $99 a night I would give up EMH in a heartbeat. The rooms are huge. I would say that any other on site property would charge anywhere from $300 to $500 for these standard rooms. Our whole family loved the place. It was much more deluxe than most Disney deluxe properties. Any other hotle for $99 on site will be about a 1/3 to 1/2 the size.

Good luck in whatever you decide!

 

[sk8ingmom]

I loved SoG, but the savings depends on where you are on their "sliding scale". 2 years ago we stayed at POR & CBR for $5 less than SOG ($109 with a code). If I can get a Fl Res code for our next trip it will cost about the sames as SoG, only I'll get EMH & other perks.

I'm annoyed/bummed, but I guess if there are many people in my situation it frees up some rooms for those whom a SoG room means the difference between going or not going to WDW.

 

[Cynt]

I know it stinks but according to all the guides and advice they say to avoid EMH anyway. So for all of you WDW savvy addicts that go commando style and have been to Disney 5 billion times, what am I missing? I don't think it should matter to you because you don't go during EMH anyway if you're following the advice.

OK, I just read my post and I don't want to get flamed. But I don't understand why you're upset if you don't use EMH.

 

[micmacmissy]

Sorry--does this policy refer to getting in the park at the early time, or staying for the late closing? Or both???

 

[greg126]

I know it stinks but according to all the guides and advice they say to avoid EMH anyway. So for all of you WDW savvy addicts that go commando style and have been to Disney 5 billion times, what am I missing? I don't think it should matter to you because you don't go during EMH anyway if you're following the advice.

OK, I just read my post and I don't want to get flamed. But I don't understand why you're upset if you don't use EMH.

I think the guides are saying avoid the EMH park if you can't or don't take advantage of EMH.

Don't know about night EMH (as noted above, definitely see where it could be an advantage in effectively extending limited park hours at some times of year) but with morning EMH (or EE as it was then) we went, did our stuff, left as it started getting crowded and took a break (good reason to stay onsite/SOG), then went to the park that had EMH the day before - worked great.