I was there the week after Christmas in 1994 (yes I'm old). And I may have played the hole that was right outside our door after the last legit group finished playing.
They place now known as Shades of Green used to be called something else with a 'Golf' related name when we stayed there many years ago. There are Disney golf courses right outside that resort also.
Were these where Saratoga Springs is now? We stayed at the Disney Institute in 1996 and I think there were three parts of the resort: treehouses, villas, and ?? Bungalows, maybe. We stayed in an area that I think is now the Congress Park area of SSR, because we were near what is now Disney Springs. I think at the time it was the Buena Vista Marketplace, or possibly Downtown Disney.
ETA: I found an old resort map. I'm pretty sure we stayed in the "townhouses" section. https://www.dizavenue.com/2016/06/remembering-disney-institute-resort.html
Me! Although never stayed in one, we stayed at the nearby Treehouse Villas. (Don't remember bugs in the rooms, just noisy peacocks on the roof!)
Wasn't the Village awesome back then!
Went down the rabbit hole, and these are the only videos I could find that talks about the history of Disney Village / Disney Springs:
Sadly underviewed videos with a lot of great info. This guy deserves more views!
The videos were really worth watching. Thanks! The channel has some others (like River Country) I'm going to watch sometime, too.
I discovered it was originally called the Buena Vista Village , I knew it as the Disney Village/Marketplace, although located at Lake Buena Vista.
I remembered the Empress Lily, but had forgotten the Verandah and Village Inn Restaurants. I'd also forgotten the Captain's Tower - although I never knew it was called that, I remember it used to be decorated for Hallowe'en, complete with really loud howling! Funny the things that stick in your mind.
Lots of small things stick in my memory from those days-- Chef Mickey's (the original location with the aforementioned pizza smells wafting over the parking lot), learning the word "haberdashery" from Sir Edward's Haberdashery, the funny looking playground in the middle of the village (w/ quite a few child-unsafe hard right-angles), and of course the Empress Lilly. I think i'll be going further down the internet rabbit hole today...
We Honeymooned at the Vacation Villas '79 - former name of Fairway Villas - and our view was the Empress Lilly - now known as Paddlefish.
Was that the play structure with the fireman's pole? I loved that! First time I'd come across one in a playground.
I think one of the things I liked about the village was that it was smaller and low-key and I don't remember it ever being jam-packed. I don't imagine it would have served current numbers and needs, though.
Please let me know what you find.
I remember walking past the Vacation Villas on the walk from the Treehouse to the Village.
I was under the impression the Vacation Villas had private pools (maybe shared between pairs of houses) -- or did I imagine that?