[SillyMe]

Are there any Military folks here that have stayed at the newly renovated Shades of Green? We were going to meet our Daughter and 3 grandchildren for a "Magical Gathering" at Ft Wilderness which had to be rescheduled twice. Ft Wilderness was booked up for our 3rd attempt in October, but we were able to obtain rooms at the Shades of Green. We have not stayed there since before the renovations and I was wondering if you have and what your thoughts are. I remember the hotel was fine, but the restaurant food was horrible. They have little buses that take you around WDW. Does it go to Disneys Market Place? We have birthday dinner reservations (for our oldest son) at Chef Mickeys. Will we have to drive? Any info you can give me would be most helpful. Besides our 3 sons and oldest daughter will be entertaining our 11, 7 and 4 year old grandchildren. We just have 2 1/2 days, so the only park we will be visiting will be the Magic Kingdom. Thanks in advance for any information.

[DisneyTeacher]

Maria,

I just stayed at SoG in July. We had a awesome trip, the resort is wonderful. The new addition is very nice, the rooms are just as large as the rooms in the old part. The pull out bed in the new rooms is great because it doesn't take up and more floor space than the couch, very cool! Over all, we were impressed with with the resort. If we ever have the chance I would stay there again. The only down side (besides the awful green apple liquid shower soap, bring your own!!!) to the the resort is the lack of "Disney magic." I love the Disney touches one gets in a WDW resort, the Mickey soaps, the towel animals, the cute refillable mugs......

We traveled with two other families so our group included 9 people total. We ate at Evergreen's twice and enjoyed it both times. The food was typical sports bar food, burgers, chicken sandwiches, nachos, and the like. The servings were HUGE, we had too much food and couldn't finish it all.

We had breakfast at the Garden Galley several times and we all thought it was good. Our meals ranged from bagel and fruit to the full buffet, everyone enjoyed this place as well. Keep in mind we are not super picky people (most of us are teachers and have school lunch as our standard) but we also enjoy good food.

The bus service was very good. The buses are large tour type buses with padded seats, two seats to a side. They stick to a schedule and were always on time and rarely over crowded. On our water park day, one family in our group forgot their tickets and had to got back to Shades to get them. The driver was so nice, he ran through his other stops as fast as her could to get them back ASAP, he offered to do the same to get them back before they closed the gates at BB.

I do not believe there is a bus directly to the Marketplace. I would walk over to the Poly and get a Disney bus there, same on the return trip. To get to Chef Mickey's we took the MK bus to the TTC and got on the resort monorail there. Piece of cake!

We were with a person who had great trouble walking long distances. Because of that we didn't walk to the Poly to get on the monorail or use the WDW buses more than one night very later after Wishes when our friend wasn't with us. The walk was a brisk 10 minute walk, much faster than waiting for the TTC monorail or the ferry to take us to the TTC and then waiting for the next SoG bus.

If everyone in your group is up to it I highly recommend traveling through the Poly. There is a nice paved path connecting the two resorts. Remember, I only did this once so forgive me if these directions are not 100% correct. When you leave the Poly (out the doors by the check-in desk) go out and turn right at the valet/bell hop desk, you will walk by the service drive and up a hill, then you will make a turn to the left and cross a street and you will be on Shades property walking up a sidewalk that runs along the front drive.

If you have any other questions I will be happy to answer them if I can.

[SillyMe]

Thank you so much for all your very useful information. We are looking SO foward to this trip. Hopefully NO MORE HURRICANES for a while!