SHADES OF GREEN at Walt Disney World Resort Information & Questions

[brockash]

Curious how long after you sent the form in you got the call to purchase your tickets. I'm waiting for the early release for MVMCP and trying to decide if I should do Shades or direct through Disney.

Not Op, but have ordered often. Usually it's about a week, but I just put in an order about 3 weeks ago and they called me back twice (I missed the first call) on the same day thay I put the order in.

 

[DisArmyWife215]

Not Op, but have ordered often. Usually it's about a week, but I just put in an order about 3 weeks ago and they called me back twice (I missed the first call) on the same day thay I put the order in.

They were quick with my standard order but wasn't sure about special tickets. Thanks for your info, glad to see they seem to have caught up from the weeks long ordering was taking. I did see they've updated the website saying prices are coming soon for MVMCP and Jollywood.

 

[jellypop]

What is the quickest way to get from SOG to Epcot to rope drop Remy?

1) Bus to TTC, monorail to Epcot main entrance, and walk back to World Showcase

or

2) Bus to HS, then get to the International Gateway via boat, Skyliner, or walking

If option 2, which is the best method?

 

[Leigh L]

What is the quickest way to get from SOG to Epcot to rope drop Remy?

1) Bus to TTC, monorail to Epcot main entrance, and walk back to World Showcase

or

2) Bus to HS, then get to the International Gateway via boat, Skyliner, or walking

If option 2, which is the best method?

I wouldn't do #2 because the SOG bus goes to AK first before DHS (unless that recently changed).

With SOG stay, since you get early entry if you get the first bus to TTC, I think it should be ok getting to Remy.

(Last fall I got VQ 2 group for Guardians and went straight down to bus to TTC at 7. I got over to epcot before 8 am. I was off the ride before early entry even started).

 

[jellypop]

I wouldn't do #2 because the SOG bus goes to AK first before DHS (unless that recently changed).

Thank you! I was curious about whether there were 2 separate buses for AK & DHS or if both parks shared one bus. From the comments I've read it seems like one bus goes to both parks, but the bus schedule on the SOG website doesn't make that really clear.

I was also curious about this message printed at the bottom of at the bus schedule:

"Getting back to Shades of Green using the Walt Disney World® Bus Service: The most direct route will involve a combination of bus and monorail... From Disney's Animal Kingdom, Disney's Hollywood Studios, and Disney Springs, catch a bus for the Magic Kingdom or EPCOT. You must transfer to the monorail to the Transportation and Ticket Center, where you catch a Shades of Green bus".

So does that mean that although the bus takes us from SOG to AK/DHS, it won't pick us up from these parks to return to the hotel? We have to take a bus to MK then monorail back to the TTC before we can get a bus back to SOG?

 

[dreamin'boutdis]

"Getting back to Shades of Green using the Walt Disney World® Bus Service: The most direct route will involve a combination of bus and monorail... From Disney's Animal Kingdom, Disney's Hollywood Studios, and Disney Springs, catch a bus for the Magic Kingdom or EPCOT. You must transfer to the monorail to the Transportation and Ticket Center, where you catch a Shades of Green bus".

So does that mean that although the bus takes us from SOG to AK/DHS, it won't pick us up from these parks to return to the hotel? We have to take a bus to MK then monorail back to the TTC before we can get a bus back to SOG?

No, that only applies if you take Disney's bus service. SOG's bus will pick you up from all the parks and bring you back to the resort.

 

[jellypop]

No, that only applies if you take Disney's bus service. SOG's bus will pick you up from all the parks and bring you back to the resort.

Oh I see what you mean, thank you!

 

[NavyDad]

Just got back from a week at Shades of Green. This was our second time staying here and we loved it even more than the first time. I'm going to just share some things I can remember and some highlights.

1. At check-in I asked to be moved to the Palm wing. We drove so it was nice to have easy access to our car. They were very nice about it and moved our room quickly and easily.

2. The busses were great all week. They gave us a bus schedule at check in and I took a pic on my phone. If you want to Rope Drop just be down there 15 minutes prior to the first bus and you will be fine. The bus to TTC and then monorail to MK or Epcot is so quick and efficient. We found the shared bus to AK and DHS to be more than fine as well. We took the first bus to AK and easily made Rope Drop. Rode both of the Avatar rides before the park officially opened. Do not sweat the busses - just follow the schedule and plan ahead and you will be fine.

3. It's so nice having the small exchange on property. You can get necessity items as well as snacks, drinks, food, bathing suits, shoes, hats, flip flops, jackets and a great selection of cheap alcohol. It's very convenient.

4. We at breakfast twice at Garden Gallery. The buffet is great and about half the cost of a Disney breakfast buffet.

5. We had a very nice meal at Manginos on night. We enjoyed the NY Strip, Chicken parm and chicken alfredo. Good wine selection. Highly recommend.

6. Nothing beats getting food by the pool at Evergreens. We did this 4 times. Our kids said they could just come down for a week and hang out by the pool.

7. Saw lots of wildlife including turtles, frogs, alligator, turkeys and an armadillo.

It was very hard to leave after this trip. We always said we wanted to stay at every WDW resort at least once but Shades has become our happy place. As a retired Navy Chief, it really means something to me to stay at a resort that is filled with military families and have all of the perks afforded to us at Shades. The vibe is just so different than any WDW resort. It feels like being at Home or at a family reunion.

 

[DisArmyWife215]

It was very hard to leave after this trip. We always said we wanted to stay at every WDW resort at least once but Shades has become our happy place. As a retired Navy Chief, it really means something to me to stay at a resort that is filled with military families and have all of the perks afforded to us at Shades. The vibe is just so different than any WDW resort. It feels like being at Home or at a family reunion.

This is spot on. I have a few WDW resorts I'm still interested in but they will be likely 1-2 night split with majority of stay at Shades. The overall value and feel of Shades can't be beat! Be sure to try the little cafe by the bus stop on your next trip. Great quick food spot and portions big enough to share!

 

[Grumpy by Birth]

7. Saw lots of wildlife including turtles, frogs, alligator, turkeys and an armadillo.

 

[NavyDad]

Just the head of a small one. Probably less than 3 feet.

 

[katyringo]

Hello all. I want to write about our experience at Shades this past week. I know many people love this resort. The love wasn't there for us, but that's okay! We still had a good trip and our stay wasn't bad by any means, but I feel the point of these boards is honest thoughts, so here it is!

The first thing to know is that my hubby qualifies to stay because he has service-connected disability. not 100%- We stay under the equal access act and pay the highest rate. That probably impacts our thoughts some. Since we are paying the highest rate, it is a bit more than Disney value resort prices. My hubby also has PTSD. I'm not sure if staying at the military resort was best for his mental health for this trip. More people talked to him about his service this trip. This isn't a bad thing but those of you who have PTSD and love a person with PTSD know that it can be really good, but it can also be triggering.

I think had the path to polly still have been open I may have liked Shades more but having to go through the TTC was a big turn off for me. One day we caught a shift change and the drivers had to switch and do a complete sweep, inspection and wipe down of the bus. I appreciate the safety, but we were also really ready to get to Epcot for a boarding group and still had to go through the TTC. Another issue with the bus was that on our MK day the driver took it upon himself to give everyone on the bus a lecture about don't blame him if you don't know where you are going once at the TTC. At the end of the HS day the bus was completely full and they didn't have a second bus so we waited a long while. I really missed Disney bus service this trip. On our HS day we arrived to the bus stop fairly early and the first bus was only going to be going to AK, but the driver took pity and let us ride along and he stopped at HS for us. So that was really great. Personally, I think with the pathway gone they need designated busses for each park. And we decided to uber to Disney Springs after finding out the Shades bus drop off is a pretty substantial walk away from the shops.

The Wi-Fi was pretty iffy at the resort. It kept dropping and I didn't have great service. Thankfully by 7am each day we were already on a bus or already to the TTC so I had good service.

From 2-5pm there is only one food option open and its evergreens by the pool. Would have really liked to grab food closer to the room during our afternoon break. The coffee shop/pastries might be open but I mean like meal food...

Twice- when we arrived and when we left there was no one at the bell hop desk.. we waited.. and waited and finally went to the front desk where they called someone.

We did really like the room. Basic, but spacious and the ceiling fan was great.

The customer service with check-in was great and very friendly.

We liked having the early entry benefit and the extended hours. We only used extended hours for our MK day.

The exchange is very nice to have. we grabbed drinks and meds there for very affordable cost a few times.

I'm glad we gave it a try, but for us we will go back to staying at Disney resorts even if its value. We will use the benefit of being able to buy the reduced cost MYW Tickets through shades.

 

[brockash]

Hello all. I want to write about our experience at Shades this past week. I know many people love this resort. The love wasn't there for us, but that's okay! We still had a good trip and our stay wasn't bad by any means, but I feel the point of these boards is honest thoughts, so here it is!

The first thing to know is that my hubby qualifies to stay because he has service-connected disability. not 100%- We stay under the equal access act and pay the highest rate. That probably impacts our thoughts some. Since we are paying the highest rate, it is a bit more than Disney value resort prices. My hubby also has PTSD. I'm not sure if staying at the military resort was best for his mental health for this trip. More people talked to him about his service this trip. This isn't a bad thing but those of you who have PTSD and love a person with PTSD know that it can be really good, but it can also be triggering.

I think had the path to polly still have been open I may have liked Shades more but having to go through the TTC was a big turn off for me. One day we caught a shift change and the drivers had to switch and do a complete sweep, inspection and wipe down of the bus. I appreciate the safety, but we were also really ready to get to Epcot for a boarding group and still had to go through the TTC. Another issue with the bus was that on our MK day the driver took it upon himself to give everyone on the bus a lecture about don't blame him if you don't know where you are going once at the TTC. At the end of the HS day the bus was completely full and they didn't have a second bus so we waited a long while. I really missed Disney bus service this trip. On our HS day we arrived to the bus stop fairly early and the first bus was only going to be going to AK, but the driver took pity and let us ride along and he stopped at HS for us. So that was really great. Personally, I think with the pathway gone they need designated busses for each park. And we decided to uber to Disney Springs after finding out the Shades bus drop off is a pretty substantial walk away from the shops.

The Wi-Fi was pretty iffy at the resort. It kept dropping and I didn't have great service. Thankfully by 7am each day we were already on a bus or already to the TTC so I had good service.

From 2-5pm there is only one food option open and its evergreens by the pool. Would have really liked to grab food closer to the room during our afternoon break. The coffee shop/pastries might be open but I mean like meal food...

Twice- when we arrived and when we left there was no one at the bell hop desk.. we waited.. and waited and finally went to the front desk where they called someone.

We did really like the room. Basic, but spacious and the ceiling fan was great.

The customer service with check-in was great and very friendly.

We liked having the early entry benefit and the extended hours. We only used extended hours for our MK day.

The exchange is very nice to have. we grabbed drinks and meds there for very affordable cost a few times.

I'm glad we gave it a try, but for us we will go back to staying at Disney resorts even if its value. We will use the benefit of being able to buy the reduced cost MYW Tickets through shades.

This was basically how we felt for our 1 and done stay as well. It's fine and the price is great, but we felt the transportation was terrible (and this was when the walkway was open) for how we do Disney. Food options were limiting and we really missed the Disney bubble. We decided we'd be happy to do a value over Shades in the future.

I'm so glad it's there for those who love it, but for us it's just missing a lot.

 

[Saltywardog]

i love the extra room, you are gonna lose 200 square feet going to a value (shades 450, disney, 250). I also have my car at the resort so ill drive since the walkway is closed but major hassle closing that, i only ride shades bus for AK up till now

 

[Leigh L]

We stayed at Shades from 6/24 until 7/3. We have stayed prob close to a dozen times at this point as we tend to stay 1 or more nights when passing through Orlando or coming to WDW for a trip.

Rooms, prices, hotel, staff, and generally everything we love and that won't change, but the walking path closure is a huge con for us. It felt like we were on an island of sorts. We missed the Disney transportation options, walking paths (where can you go for a decent walk/run at Shades that is a continuing path?), and the additional dining options. While we like SOG dining, it felt limited in contrast with pre-pandemic with a lot of overlap take out menu with the evening Garden Gallery takeout with Evergreens and Manginos.

During this trip we also learned just how much we hate, hate, hate dealing with parking at the TTC. We had a large party and almost everyone traveling with us was not crazy about Shade's buses after our first park day experience using them, so we drove 4 out of 5 days with some of our party using the bus mid-day to get back to the resort for breaks. It did seem as if Shades was running more buses in the a.m. for TTC as they said they would and this was smooth, but didn't seem as if they were running more buses in the evenings and it was a cluster if you stayed past park close. That experience pretty much shut down the option of our party wanting to use SOG buses for the rest of the trip.

I also don't think it was realized just how many people used the monorail and Poly buses. The AK/DHS first or second bus line was crazy long the day we took the other bus to the TTC. Hopefully, they were running more buses there too at rope drop time.

Honestly, I think it's time to separate the AK/DHS bus route.

My next WDW trip is for MNSSHP and I'm going to stay at Coronado for that one since I'll be by myself for part of the trip. I think we'll probably continue to do split stays with SOG/Disney resorts for annual trips. It does feel "home" to us as we love the resort but it's not the same for us without the walking path on how we like to experience Disney.

 

[NavyDad]

We stayed at Shades from 6/24 until 7/3. We have stayed prob close to a dozen times at this point as we tend to stay 1 or more nights when passing through Orlando or coming to WDW for a trip.

Rooms, prices, hotel, staff, and generally everything we love and that won't change, but the walking path closure is a huge con for us. It felt like we were on an island of sorts. We missed the Disney transportation options, walking paths (where can you go for a decent walk/run at Shades that is a continuing path?), and the additional dining options. While we like SOG dining, it felt limited in contrast with pre-pandemic with a lot of overlap take out menu with the evening Garden Gallery takeout with Evergreens and Manginos.

During this trip we also learned just how much we hate, hate, hate dealing with parking at the TTC. We had a large party and almost everyone traveling with us was not crazy about Shade's buses after our first park day experience using them, so we drove 4 out of 5 days with some of our party using the bus mid-day to get back to the resort for breaks. It did seem as if Shades was running more buses in the a.m. for TTC as they said they would and this was smooth, but didn't seem as if they were running more buses in the evenings and it was a cluster if you stayed past park close. That experience pretty much shut down the option of our party wanting to use SOG buses for the rest of the trip.

I also don't think it was realized just how many people used the monorail and Poly buses. The AK/DHS first or second bus line was crazy long the day we took the other bus to the TTC. Hopefully, they were running more buses there too at rope drop time.

Honestly, I think it's time to separate the AK/DHS bus route.

My next WDW trip is for MNSSHP and I'm going to stay at Coronado for that one since I'll be by myself for part of the trip. I think we'll probably continue to do split stays with SOG/Disney resorts for annual trips. It does feel "home" to us as we love the resort but it's not the same for us without the walking path on how we like to experience Disney.

I think you probably should have given the busses to the TTC another try. Parking at the TTC is a nightmare - I will never do that again. We stayed the week before you and found the busses to TTC incredibly fast and convenient. We park hopped almost every day and returned to Shades mid day for a break and never waited more than 5 minutes for a bus either at Shades or at the TTC. The place they drop you off at TTC is super convenient for hopping on the monorail - much more convenient than parking at TTC and either making the hike in or hopping the tram. The fact that you can jump on the Express Monorail there instead of the Resort monorail is amazing.

We didn't have issues with the AK/DHS bus but I would fully support separate busses - especially in the morning for Rope Drop.

 

[Leigh L]

@NavyDad I agree with you, for the most part, we have used the buses many times in the past (but always use the walking path as well). For certain times of the day, buses are perfect.

Using Polynesian transportation is just quicker and more enjoyable for end of the park day (and I used to do the full walk to MK for rope drop at least one day). Also, losing easy access to monorail dining was a big con for us.

Just curious, did you stay at Epcot or Magic Kingdom past close and take the last buses? Our experience with that was terrible. Midday and before park close was much faster.

 

[NavyDad]

@NavyDad I agree with you, for the most part, we have used the buses many times in the past (but always use the walking path as well). For certain times of the day, buses are perfect.

Using Polynesian transportation is just quicker and more enjoyable for end of the park day (and I used to do the full walk to MK for rope drop at least one day). Also, losing easy access to monorail dining was a big con for us.

Just curious, did you stay at Epcot or Magic Kingdom past close and take the last buses? Our experience with that was terrible. Midday and before park close was much faster.

Yes - we did EEH at both parks and made it out for the very last bus. There was maybe 5 other people on the bus so it was super quick and easy. When we left MK, we just missed the next to last bus which looked very full. We were a bit disappointed to miss that bus (barely) but we sat on the bench and the driver was back in 15 minutes and since we had the bus almost to ourselves, we were actually able to sit down and not stand so it worked out better for us.

We used the bus to TTC pretty extensively due to park hopping and mid day breaks. We didn't really have any bad experiences.

Our only "bad" experience was one day when we missed the very first bus as we were planning to rope drope ( I can't remember which park) and we didn't drag our behinds down early enough for the first bus. That was obviously our own fault though.

 

[NavyDad]

@NavyDad I agree with you, for the most part, we have used the buses many times in the past (but always use the walking path as well). For certain times of the day, buses are perfect.

Using Polynesian transportation is just quicker and more enjoyable for end of the park day (and I used to do the full walk to MK for rope drop at least one day). Also, losing easy access to monorail dining was a big con for us.

Just curious, did you stay at Epcot or Magic Kingdom past close and take the last buses? Our experience with that was terrible. Midday and before park close was much faster.

Regarding the Poly - our first stay we really enjoyed the easy access over there as well. Partly for transportation but also partly because we just like the Poly. We had a nice dinner and a nice breakfast over there a couple of times. We rode the boat back to MK one night and caught the fireworks on the dock which was amazing. Unfortunately though, it does not seem like that access is coming back so we just have to adjust to the "new normal" like with so many things the last few years.....

Our favorite resort is Pop Century. That was where we stayed the very first trip and our kids will always remember it. We will always have fond memories. Well, as I hopped on the monorail to TTC leaving MK at park close, I took a look at the bus stop for Pop Century. The line for the bus was overflowing so bad it looked like it would take about 4 bus loads to get them all. I certainly don't miss those long walks to the Pop bus stop late at night with tired kids and then the long waits we experienced over the years waiting for the second or third bus to take us back.

Sometimes we just have to accept that there are trade-offs no matter what you do and where you stay.

 

[Leigh L]

Yes - we did EEH at both parks and made it out for the very last bus. There was maybe 5 other people on the bus so it was super quick and easy. When we left MK, we just missed the next to last bus which looked very full. We were a bit disappointed to miss that bus (barely) but we sat on the bench and the driver was back in 15 minutes and since we had the bus almost to ourselves, we were actually able to sit down and not stand so it worked out better for us.

We used the bus to TTC pretty extensively due to park hopping and mid day breaks. We didn't really have any bad experiences.

Our only "bad" experience was one day when we missed the very first bus as we were planning to rope drope ( I can't remember which park) and we didn't drag our behinds down early enough for the first bus. That was obviously our own fault though.

That's good to know thanks! Maybe just bad luck for us in the evening this time around.