Not sure if you made your decision yet but I thought I would chime in.I have been to POP before the Skyliner was operational so I have been really looking forward to trying it out, but I just found out that my son who will be going with us is eligible for Shades of Green as a DOD civilian. I have read transportation is not great from Shades of Green. I have read that SOG is considered Deluxe level, but without the Disney feel. Pricing looks to be about the same for either one. We are rope droppers (well I am sometimes I have to go by myself) so transportation is important. Looking for opinions for people who stayed in both.
We have stayed at both resorts multiple times as well as other Disney resorts including Deluxe. I love both resorts but would give Shades the edge. Here is a couple of points I would make:
1. Shades gives you (some of) the perks of a deluxe resort at the price of a value. The biggest perk right now is the access to Extra Evening Hours. We did EEH at both MK and Epcot in June and both were fantastic. That means 2 hours of extra park time at night when the parks are not that busy. We got a lot accomplished during that time and people are paying 600-700 bucks a night at some deluxe resorts for that opportunity.
2. Transportation - there is a lot of negative reviews over the years about transportation but we found it to be great. We just followed the bus schedule and had no issues at all. The first bus runs 1 hour before the earliest park open time and as long as you make that bus you will have no issues for Rope Drop. Our family did this multiple times. We also had a couple of days where the teens didn't want to move in the morning and we didn't make RD but that was on us. We find the bus to TTC very convenient because it's very short and drops you off very close to where you hop on the monorail for MK or Epcot. We found the buses at Shades to be way more reliable than we ever had staying at Pop or even deluxe resorts like Beach Club and Grand Floridian. Just take a picture of the bus schedule, make sure you have ID and resort ID and you will be fine.
3. We found the dining options at Shades to be really good at a fraction of the price of Disney prices. The breakfast buffet in the morning is wonderful and about 1/2 or even 1/3 the cost of Disney breakfast buffets. Mangino's is a great dinner venue and we love having Evergreens (sports bar) down by the pool. There were a couple of other options as well that we have not tried.
4. Pools and pool area - Shades has two great pools. We like the pools at Pop quite a bit but pools at Shades are much better with a large and fast water slide, kids play area at one and the other pool having zero entry and a hot tub. There are tons of loungers as well as tables with chairs by the pools and the easy access to Evergreens is clutch. We spent a lot of pool time this trip and it was so great bringing down pizza, wings, nachos, burgers down to our table and having a great full service bar right there. If pool time is important, this is where Shades has a major advantage over Pop.
5. Disney atmosphere - there are some nice Disney touches like a Mickey in the lobby you can take pics with among a few other things but Shades does not have the over the top Disney feeling like Pop does. If that is important to you then maybe Shades is not your place. We love Shades because it's just enough Disney but much cheaper (compared to deluxe) and we are a military family so we like the military atmosphere.