|
Troops Relax at Their Own Disney Resort
EFLIt's not exactly camouflaged, but just beyond a bamboo thicket near where the Monorail whisks tourists to the Magic Kingdom, the Army owns a resort with a critical wartime mission. The 586-room Shades of Green at Walt Disney World Resort has no guard gate with saluting soldiers, no humvees in the parking lot. Except for five service flags out front, there's little hint of a military installation. Here, the Army and its civilian staff must provide all the first-class dining, activities and service any family visiting Disney would expect. But the resort serves an exclusive clientele: active-duty service members, military retirees and reservists -- and their family members. "The visit here has to be transparent; there should be no sign here that we're not Disney," says civilian general manager Jim McCrindle, who also is (according to regulations) the "installation commander." The Army and its civilian staff also must provide a quiet retreat for military families with a husband or wife who is returning from combat or preparing to go. McCrindle says he sees "various stages of relaxation" among the guests, noting that "a soldier has a certain look when they've been in a combat zone -- the stare." He said he often sees couples touched by combat slowly walking the grounds just talking. After seven to 10 days, he says, tensions ease, loud noises seem bearable to the combat veterans, and the vacationers blend with the rest, joining the morning rush to breakfast and buses to EPCOT or Disney-MGM Studios. Providing "R&R" for all service members is a job the Army takes seriously, having opened four such getaways around the world since World War II. And accommodations at Shades of Green are nothing like barracks. A standard room comes with two queen beds, a balcony overlooking Disney's championship Palm golf course and a spacious clay-tiled bathroom. But the ultimate lure, guests say, are the rates, which start low and rise with rank. An Army private or Air Force airman pays $77 per night for that standard room; a colonel pays $106. The same room would cost about $250 at a nearby comparable private resort such as Disney's Polynesian Resort. The Army has invested more than $130 million in Shades of Green, and it reports that every penny came from money raised at its resorts. The Army has doubled the resort's size in 10 years. It operated at 95 percent capacity for 2005, with the average stay lasting five days with three people per room. In all, Shades of Green served about 150,000 guests last year. A recent $90 million expansion included about $6 million for features that comply with government "defense of force" standards. They include a 170-camera security system and a detached parking garage designed to insulate the lodge from an explosion. The Army paid $43 million for the resort structures in 1996 and signed a 100-year lease for the land. Again, the Army reports, the costs -- including a two-year closing and renovation from 2002 to 2004 -- were covered by the lodging, food and drink payments from service members. As for the name Shades of Green? It refers to the hue in most of the services' ground combat uniforms, McCrindle says. "We couldn't call it the Pink Orchid," he said. "We couldn't call it 'The M-16 Stopover' either." Posted by: Desert Blondie 2006-03-21 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=146150 |