What are the disadvantages of staying at Shades of Green

[connie1042]

Are there any. Can you still do EMH, I know you can not use ME. Can you be on the dinning plan? How far is the walk to the Poly to use the monorail? If you could, would you stay there or a Disney resort. Please explain why. I am talking about a normal reservation, not like now or last year when you get 40% off your Disney room. This is for next year, and I am not so sure they will run a special next year. I am working on this for someone else and they are thinking of going in Feb. 2011

 

[Deb & Bill]

You cannot do the dining plan at SoG.

 

[kaytieeldr]

If I had a choice and a car, I'd stay at Shades of Green. HUGE rooms, deluxe-quality, every room has a balcony, and I think a table with four chairs (so maybe a fridge, too? I forget).

The walk from the front door to the Polynesian is between 1/4 and 1/2 mile, I think - then you still need to walk across the parking lot and into the resort and upstairs to get to the monorail. There may or may not be SoG employees with golf carts to transport Guests to the end of the driveway.

Shades of Green has its own bus. You can check shadesofgreen.org for more (and more accurate) information, but it may be only one or two buses going to one or two parks, then you need to use Disney's transportation to get to the other parks. Or I could be entirely wrong and there's a bus for each park.

 

[bitohoney]

Sorry if there are any SoG lovers but I stayed once in 2007 and never again. No transportation from the airport, no where to eat except some little nasty place (gave me wrong pizza), hair on sheets in room, floor and carpet dirty, no dining plan and no theme. It just wasn't Disney enough.

 

[MAGGIED]

Disadvantages:

No dining plan
No magical express

Advantages:

Largest rooms on property
Price
Queen beds
Balcony or patio with EVERY room
Refrig in room
All rooms have been renovated now (just finished in October)
2 sit meal locations
ice cream parlour
Great express meal location on way to bus stop (great bagels)
REAL coffee stand (Starbucks)
2 pools
large hot tub
Considerate staff
Reliable bus service - they run on a schedule so you always now what time they are coming... you don't have to worry about waiting and wondering what time the next bus comes
The men actually give up their seats so woman and children can sit!!!
Shopette for picking up little things....

 

[TinaElmerRh]

We have stayed at the Poly and Dixie Landings (old name) in the past and have stayed at SOG since our first stay there. The resort is beautiful. The rooms are larger and the walk to the Poly isn't bad at all. We have used SOG transportation and have walked over to the Poly for the monorail and have had no problems with either. I am booking a room for August and my husband won't stay anywhere else. For the price, plus no taxes you can't beat the rooms.

 

[dburg30]

And it's very exclusive, which I think is the best part.

I think it's great they have a resort specifically for armed service folks!

And if you are allowed to stay there, THANK YOU for your service!


And to the PP that said it wasnt Disney enough for them, IMO the only resorts that feel "Disneyish" to me are the values with the big in your face icons, all others have hints of Disney, but if someone just dropped you at one of the resorts and you had no idea where you were, it would be hard to know you were at WDW just by the theming.

 

[Princess Disney Mom]

Shades of Green is really a great place to stay.

I guess the cons would be: no ME; no Disney theming; possibly really long walks to the room; no pool slide; no food court; staff no where near as friendly at CMs; transportation can be a pain.

 

[40-Something Kid]

I used to stay there, but am not eligible anymore.

I think SoG is the best resort deal in WDW because of location and room size. 10 min. walk to the Poly monorail is not bad at all.

SoG may also offer reduced rate "overflow" to WDW hotels, when they are booked up.

Good luck, and have a wonderful stay.

 

[connie1042]

Thanks for all the replys. The only question that was not answered was do you still get Extra Magic Hours?

 

[BabyFu18]

We are staying at SOG again this year, and the pros out weigh the cons for us at least, but here are the cons as we see it.

Cons:

No DP (Not terrible, cause the room rate may allow extra money in your food budget. We still do all of the places we want and never feel like we should have done a Disney resort for the DP).

No ME (Not a problem if you'll have a car.)

No refillable mugs (Not make or break)

No "in your face" Disney theme (Again, not make or break)

No really good dining options (So, that part sucks, no way around that...)

Bus transportation doesn't run as frequently as Disney transportation (I put buses under pros to, so check that out.)



Pros:

Large Rooms (Love the extra space)

Pool is never too crowded (Big plus for us as we are summer travelers)

All rooms have a patio or balcony

Bus transportation is always on time

Location is great for the walk to the Poly and monorail

Price is the main pro (Based on rank, but still comes out ahead for us in comparison)

 

[jthornton94]

For us the price isn't worth it. It's based on ranked and for what we have to pay I could stay at a moderate. I also love the dining plan. Factor in that disney is almost always having some sort of deal. We are going in May and will be paying half of what SoG wants for a room. I spend all of our time in the parks so I personally don't care how big the room is.

 

[Local_Girl]

I believe SOG guests used to be entitled to free parking at the parks...is this still the case? I haven't been able to find any current info on this. Also, there is a daily fee for parking at SOG, correct? What is this fee? Thanks for any info as we are considering a stay at SOG also.

 

[goodferry]

You are entitled to the EMH perk when staying at Shades of Green

 

[BabyFu18]

Parking is still free at the parks for SOG guest as far as I know (It was last year and I haven't heard any different so far this year). As far as parking at SOG, it's $5 a day.

 

[Local_Girl]

Parking is still free at the parks for SOG guest as far as I know (It was last year and I haven't heard any different so far this year). As far as parking at SOG, it's $5 a day.

Thank you very much for the reply!

 

[BabyFu18]

No problem, glad to help!

 

[happyjen]

Please pass on our families THANK YOU and appreciation for your friends, we can not thank the armed services and their families enough

 

[PinkRhombus]

My husband is civilian military, so we have to pay the highest rate.

But whether or not it is a better deal depends on the offers Disney has.

We're staying for a week soon. Considering tickets and hotel room only, it's cheaper. If you take into account the $500 gift card deal, plus add in the additional cost of the shuttle van that we'd have to pay for if we stayed at SOG, it was over $200 cheaper to stay at a Disney moderate.

We like Shades of Green though. The rooms are nice. But our room was quite a hike (all inside) to get to the front to catch the buses. Some of the buses...I think to DHS for example...there was only one every 45 minutes or so. There is a published schedule, so you're not left wondering when the next one will be by.

Good gift shop. And the last time we were there, they had a Starbucks right outside the gift shop entrance. That helped

 

[mousesweetie]

Yes, you still get EMH priviledges when staying at SOG. they give you a card, ours was green to show for EMH in the parks.

Just one note regarding late EMH. Make sure you know the bus schedule WELL. My bf and I had a dinner that ran way over at EPCOT one night and the busses had stopped for SOG like an hour before we got to the TTC and the monorails had stopped too, so we couldnt monorail to the Poly then walk to SOG. We thought we were stranded, and would have to walk in the dark and cold(FEB) but turns out a really nice CM that did maintenance at TTC took us in his company van to the front of sog so we didnt have to walk.

Just FYI.