Anyone have experience with Shades of Green?

[mainelyfoolish]

We're planning to go to WDW a year from now and are eligible for SOG. I'm curious to hear any experiences. 

The last time we went to WDW (in 2014), we wanted a one bedroom suite so we could shut the door and hide from our kids at night so we stayed at a Fairfield Inn offsite not far from Disney Springs and that was fine (and relatively inexpensive). With the kids being a little older, we might be able to tolerate all sleeping in a room together, so that makes SOG an option. It would be more money than staying off-site, both room cost and not having included breakfast, so I'm wondering if being closer to the parks is worth the expense. (The only park perks you get at SOG are the EMH and package delivery. You still have to book FP+ at 30 days out, you can't buy a dining plan, you don't get magic bands, you have to pay for parking at the parks.)

[monkeyfeet]

Every time I've gone to Disney World, I've stayed at shades of green. It is not a fancy hotel but you can walk to the Polynesian and hop on the monorail there or boats to get to Magic Kingdom or wherever you want to go. I've never used a car after I've arrived. They also have buses to/from the parks. It's been a while since I've been, but they do have a few restaurants on site. I also think you can have a small refrigerator in your room and they also have a small PX if you wanted to make oatmeal or cereal for breakfast to save money that way. We like the proximity to the parks, but I don't know what the price difference is because we always stay at SOG. Recently, friends of ours told us you could stay at some of the other on-site hotels for almost the same price as shades of green with military discounts. I don't know where they found them, but it might be worth looking into.

[was5]

Coincidentally, there is a recent trip report on Disboards from someone who stays at Shades of Green. I had never heard of it before (I'm not in a military family) and I wondered what it was. I finally made the connection.

Anyway, it is a super long thread but you might find some helpful information. If you go to her second post in the thread, she has links to each day. I would go to day 1 and skip over all of the other stuff before that.

disboards.com/threads/october-2016-sew-many-trs-ive-run-out-of-titles-update-11-3.3557008/page-4#post-56685438