SHADES OF GREEN at Walt Disney World Resort Information & Questions

I’m waiting (not so) patiently to find out if SOG will expand their availability to veterans. We stayed there in 2014 and loved it! We went this year and stayed at PoP because my husband is out of the military, but is a disabled veteran (not 100%) and we can only stay Jan or sept and we wanted a summer trip. That trip was great but we missed shades so much! We are looking at a trip next year and we want to stay at SOG so I’m wondering if I need to plan for September (which would be fine) or if we will be open to other months. Anyone else have thoughts or information about this?
 
I’m waiting (not so) patiently to find out if SOG will expand their availability to veterans. We stayed there in 2014 and loved it! We went this year and stayed at PoP because my husband is out of the military, but is a disabled veteran (not 100%) and we can only stay Jan or sept and we wanted a summer trip. That trip was great but we missed shades so much! We are looking at a trip next year and we want to stay at SOG so I’m wondering if I need to plan for September (which would be fine) or if we will be open to other months. Anyone else have thoughts or information about this?

As far as I know (on the phone with them today), they have many times when they are booked up. The “slow” time is January and September, and January is nearly all booked up as well. I don’t foresee them ever opening it up to all veterans, otherwise the active duty people won’t be able to get reservations. The cancellation policy is strict (30 days unless you show/prove orders taking you away) and still it’s nearly always full.
 
As far as I know (on the phone with them today), they have many times when they are booked up. The “slow” time is January and September, and January is nearly all booked up as well. I don’t foresee them ever opening it up to all veterans, otherwise the active duty people won’t be able to get reservations. The cancellation policy is strict (30 days unless you show/prove orders taking you away) and still it’s nearly always full.

Very good points! I for one am glad we atleast get the opportunity to stay there at all!
 


I’m waiting (not so) patiently to find out if SOG will expand their availability to veterans. We stayed there in 2014 and loved it! We went this year and stayed at PoP because my husband is out of the military, but is a disabled veteran (not 100%) and we can only stay Jan or sept and we wanted a summer trip. That trip was great but we missed shades so much! We are looking at a trip next year and we want to stay at SOG so I’m wondering if I need to plan for September (which would be fine) or if we will be open to other months. Anyone else have thoughts or information about this?

There's been an update to the eligibility for the Disabled Veterans Equal Access Act, posted to the website today. The explanation is here (https://www.shadesofgreen.org/accommodations/eligibility) and you require a Veteran Health Identification Card and pay the category 3 rate.
 
So we just booked shades of green! We are one of those effected by the equal access act. My hubby has a service connected disability but is not retired or 100% rated... yet. I am so very happy we now qualify. We are new to Disney world! We’ve always gone to Disneyland.

my question right now is this: I’m reading on the shades of green website that busses start 30 mins before park opening. We can also walk to the poly or transportation center.

we are rope droppers and actually like to arrive an hour or so before opening most times. What’s the best way to achieve that at shades of green?
 
So we just booked shades of green! We are one of those effected by the equal access act. My hubby has a service connected disability but is not retired or 100% rated... yet. I am so very happy we now qualify. We are new to Disney world! We’ve always gone to Disneyland.

my question right now is this: I’m reading on the shades of green website that busses start 30 mins before park opening. We can also walk to the poly or transportation center.

we are rope droppers and actually like to arrive an hour or so before opening most times. What’s the best way to achieve that at shades of green?

You can walk to the Polynesian and monorail or boat from there (depending on their hours), but I'd just take an uber to the Contemporary and walk from there (you can't uber to MK; if you try to do that, you'll end up back at the ticket and transportation center). You could even walk to the TTC from SoG, depending on the age and fitness of your group (my brother and I have done it, my dad, not so much!).
 


So we just booked shades of green! We are one of those effected by the equal access act. My hubby has a service connected disability but is not retired or 100% rated... yet. I am so very happy we now qualify. We are new to Disney world! We’ve always gone to Disneyland.

my question right now is this: I’m reading on the shades of green website that busses start 30 mins before park opening. We can also walk to the poly or transportation center.

we are rope droppers and actually like to arrive an hour or so before opening most times. What’s the best way to achieve that at shades of green?

Any of those will be good choices, but it is a little bit of a walk to the TTC to catch the monorail there vs just walking to the Poly. If you’re RDing Epcot, it may be worthwhile to walk to the TTC and take the monorail, but the bus is likely faster because of the walk and wait for the monorail. The buses seem to be pretty slow from the Poly, from my limited experience with them. Early in the morning will probably be quicker, but the last time I caught a bus from the Poly to go to DHS, it was a bit of a wait, then went to the GF to load people there. If there are scooters to load at the other resort, it’s a more lengthy process and a longer stop as well.
SOG buses go directly to the parks without stopping at another resort, so there’s a time savings there.
Alternatively, you could call an Uber or Lyft, and meet them outside the gate.
 
So we just booked shades of green! We are one of those effected by the equal access act. My hubby has a service connected disability but is not retired or 100% rated... yet. I am so very happy we now qualify. We are new to Disney world! We’ve always gone to Disneyland.

my question right now is this: I’m reading on the shades of green website that busses start 30 mins before park opening. We can also walk to the poly or transportation center.

we are rope droppers and actually like to arrive an hour or so before opening most times. What’s the best way to achieve that at shades of green?

We always walk over to the Polynesian and grab the monorail from there if going to Epcot or MK. Also has the benefit of the security check at the Polynesian being shorter than waiting for the security check at TTC.

If the Shades buses aren't early enough for you for the other parks, you can use the Disney buses at Poly as well if they are earlier.
 
We always walk over to the Polynesian and grab the monorail from there if going to Epcot or MK. Also has the benefit of the security check at the Polynesian being shorter than waiting for the security check at TTC.

If the Shades buses aren't early enough for you for the other parks, you can use the Disney buses at Poly as well if they are earlier.
This is what we do too. Sometimes there is a little "hold" between Poly and MK in the early morning but usually gets moving quickly. For MK and Epcot, we always walk to the Poly. Early morning monorail security line is a breeze there!

For AK and HS we typically use the SOG buses but we've also used our rental car as well which we've used on days we want to get to a park super early and just paid for parking. For AK and HS, in August SOG had a shared bus and I think that might be the norm(?)

The SOG bus stopped at AK first, then went on to HS. This was for an AK EMH and, since we were going to AK, we weren't too far behind the crowds at security and tapping in, but way too far behind to get in line for FoP which was somewhere between 90-120 minutes - we walked on to Navi and then did the rest of the park with ease until regular opening arrived. Just wanted to mention the bus is shared for those parks - at least some of the time - and you might not get there as early as you'd like. Especially for HS.
 
We had shared AK/HS buses during our end of Nov/early Dec trip this year. Our previous trips were the same week (post Thanksgiving) in 2015/2016/2017 with no shared buses, so I don't know if this is the new normal, but it was like that all week. In 2017 when we were going to morning EMH at HS they used two buses to get us all there (well, basically it was one packed bus and then a second bus that had a few people riding with lots of personal space!). This year the only time I witnessed a bus being "too full" was in terms of scooters/wheelchairs, where there were more than 2 waiting so the others had to wait for the next bus. We didn't do any AM EMH parks this trip though.
 
Blah. So hit a little bump in the road and would love some advice. So I was looking at shades of green discounted magic your way tickets. These aren’t the super discounted military tickets.

They clearly state that anyone eligible to stay at shades of green are eligible for these tickets. But I guess that was before this policy change on veterans with service connected disabilities.
I’ll keep my opinion of the lack of discounts available to my husband who was literally hurt during service to myself..

but I called today and was told..

we haven’t worked out if we will be offering tickets to equal access eligible folks yet, right now it’s just retired, active and 100% disabled.

I said “your website states..”

she said “ well yeah we would probably sell you tickets when you got here”

well 1. Fastpasses 2. Probably?

ugh. I have an email in as well. But I’m just gonna plan to buy tickets elsewhere I think.
 
Any of those will be good choices, but it is a little bit of a walk to the TTC to catch the monorail there vs just walking to the Poly. If you’re RDing Epcot, it may be worthwhile to walk to the TTC and take the monorail, but the bus is likely faster because of the walk and wait for the monorail. The buses seem to be pretty slow from the Poly, from my limited experience with them. Early in the morning will probably be quicker, but the last time I caught a bus from the Poly to go to DHS, it was a bit of a wait, then went to the GF to load people there. If there are scooters to load at the other resort, it’s a more lengthy process and a longer stop as well.
SOG buses go directly to the parks without stopping at another resort, so there’s a time savings there.
Alternatively, you could call an Uber or Lyft, and meet them outside the gate.
Lyft/Uber can come through the gate at SOG.
 
Another stay at SOG done and as always, love staying here. The price is great, the rooms are huge and comfortable and the food / beverage options are good.

there’s just one (1!) thing I truly truly wish shades would fix -their WiFi service. No matter what wing we stay in, what room we are in (and I’ve been there 5 times since 2014) , it’s barely usable and, generally, completely unusable.I’ve left comments on surveys, complained mid stay, etc. I know unplugging is a good thing - it’s just nice to have the ability to FaceTime with family.
 
Another stay at SOG done and as always, love staying here. The price is great, the rooms are huge and comfortable and the food / beverage options are good.

there’s just one (1!) thing I truly truly wish shades would fix -their WiFi service. No matter what wing we stay in, what room we are in (and I’ve been there 5 times since 2014) , it’s barely usable and, generally, completely unusable.I’ve left comments on surveys, complained mid stay, etc. I know unplugging is a good thing - it’s just nice to have the ability to FaceTime with family.

I haven't had that problem in any of my 4 trips since 2015. Sometimes when my device has been asleep and I wake it back up, I sometimes have to re-agree to the wifi terms, but that's about it.
 
I haven't had that problem in any of my 4 trips since 2015. Sometimes when my device has been asleep and I wake it back up, I sometimes have to re-agree to the wifi terms, but that's about it.
Weird. I have not had that experience at all.
 
I see a "walking to Poly" theme here. I just wanted to add that when I stayed there as AD on per diem for a conference in Orlando, when I was free and able to explore, there had been a robust, multi-pax sized golf cart that regularly took individuals from SoG to Poly. The conference was a good 4 years ago now, but it was running then. This might still be a thing today?
 
I see a "walking to Poly" theme here. I just wanted to add that when I stayed there as AD on per diem for a conference in Orlando, when I was free and able to explore, there had been a robust, multi-pax sized golf cart that regularly took individuals from SoG to Poly. The conference was a good 4 years ago now, but it was running then. This might still be a thing today?
In August 2019 we had taken the monorail back to the Poly and found SOG's golf cart was waiting at the edge of their driveway. It was POURING that day, so we thought they were helping guests get back, which was awesome. Maybe it's also a regular thing and wasn't just due to the rain?

Edit to add: We always have wi-fi trouble at SOG, one trip I wasn't able to connect at all.
 
I see a "walking to Poly" theme here. I just wanted to add that when I stayed there as AD on per diem for a conference in Orlando, when I was free and able to explore, there had been a robust, multi-pax sized golf cart that regularly took individuals from SoG to Poly. The conference was a good 4 years ago now, but it was running then. This might still be a thing today?
It is
 

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