Shades of Green

[Tinkerbell397]

In July we will be staying at Shades of Green. This will be our first experience there. Are the park passes the same as at other resorts.....I love those "credit card room key/park passes". We plan to purchase 6 day park hopper passes. Also.....can we go into the park without our military sponsor or do we always need to stay together? Can we charge to our room and have packages sent there? How is the transportation? I hear differing opinions. Thanks! :wave:

 

[PineapplePrincess]

Unfortunately the tickets are made of cardboard. They don't do the room key/charge card thing there. I don't think you can have packages sent to your resort, but I'm not 100% sure on that one. The transportation is good. Just read the schedule they give you ahead of time, and you should have no problem. Also, it's only about a 10 minute walk to the Poly. to catch the monorail. Have fun!

 

[VeRTiGo91]

They also have busses that run evry so often as well to the parks.

Although alot of people hitch walks to the Polynesian, we liked the bus ride.

By the way, you'll like Shades. We were there last year, and we loved every second of it. Have fun!!

 

[monorailguy01]

Is SOG part of the Disney Resort Chain or is it like the Swan and Dolphin there not owned by Disney but there on the resort?

 

[jsharpay]

I have stayed at SOG before. Its not bad and its a good price. You might want to get stars and stripes tickets. The only time you need to with your sponsor is checking in,buy in PX/BX in SOG and getting your tickets.

 

[Ms. Tinkerbell]

Is SOG part of the Disney Resort Chain or is it like the Swan and Dolphin there not owned by Disney but there on the resort?

Shades of Green is an Armed Forces Resort.

 

[Ms. Tinkerbell]

We stayed at SoG last spring and really enjoyed it. You don't have charging rights with your room key in the Disney parks (although you do in the SoG resort) but we were able to use package delivery last year, which was really nice. We used their bus transportation several times and never had a problem. We also were able to take advantage of extra magic hours.

 

[maharet97a]

If you have a dep. ID card, you shouldn't even need your sponsor to purchase from the AAFES store. It's a regular AAFES and if you have BX/PX privilages, you're okay. And we've never had anyone check our military ID for our tickets, except when doing the Hero Salute at Sea World, so going and coming in the parks will be no problem.

 

[DSNYKID]

We usually stay onsite at a Disney Resort, but one trip we stayed at Shades Of Green courtesy of my father-in-laws retired military.

It was an ok place to stay to me. It is definitely not run by Disney and you can tell. It's a somewhat attractive hotel but has no Disney Theme. The hotel itself does not sparkle like the Disney hotels.

We had an issue where the airline lost our double stroller. Once the stoller was found, the airline was to retun it to Shades of Green. The front desk assured us they would bring it to our room or call us when it arrived at the hotel. 4 days went by and we called the airline to see where the stroller was. They told us it was left at the front desk a few days prior. The hotel had it for 2 days and did not call us.

As far as transportation, it does not compare to Disney transportation. The SOG busses do not take you to the gate like the Disney busses do. If you want to go to the MK, can walk to the POLY or take a bus to the TTC then monorail or boat it the rest of the way. No real quick way to get anywhere. The busses are much less frequent.

It's a big hotel, and the restaurants in it can be quite a walk away from your room depending on what part of the hotel your room is in. The food was not as good as at a Disney hotel.

I guess I expected more from a hotel that is so close to the magic... but the magic just wasn't there for me.

 

[Disneyfalcon]

We love Shades of Green! It's not real "disneyfied" to be sure. But it is a beautiful hotel. I think the location can't be beat. We often walked to the Poly, but we found the busses fine too. They seemed to run as often as any other hotel we'd stayed at, but I could be wrong.

You can't beat the price for the quality of rooms. The rooms are very large. Some of the biggest on property, actually bigger then the Grand Floridian (which is about 4 times the price).

There are a few different ticket options and no you do not have to be with your military sponsor to use them. If you are interested in the park hopping option and the water parks and more option, the Stars and Stripes tickets are a great value.

I would recommend it to anyone who is elligible!

 

[Kerby626]

The only regretor problem I had about SoG was the fact that we didn't get the Park Schedule channel. I'm at a loss for what it is really called, the Disney Channel with all the different park info and such. SoG is different from a Disney hotel, but has it's advantages too. Room size being a big one. And a gym. I like it, it was definitely an experience.