We had reservations last December. When I spoke to CRO, they assured me that SOG only had 2 floors at the NGW, not the 1st floor. They assured me that they would honor our request for a North Garden Wing room - first floor, close to the Tower Building for medical reasons. DH has severe allergies, and was recovering from his third case of pneumonia in 14 months! When we got there to check in, we got there around 1 pm - so weren't expecting the room to be ready. When DH asked the CM where we would be located - he said, you already know that - it says right here you made requests. Then he printed out keys. We were shocked when he took out the map, and circled a SOUTH GARDEN WING ROOM, 1st floor - close to Bay Lake!! Way more walking than DH needed, on a smoking floor!!! We told the CM this was unacceptable, that we had been promised a NON-smoking room in the NGW. DH tried to get him to give us a quote on how much it would cost to upgrade to the tower - he never acknowledged the question - just disappeared in the back room for about 5 minutes, then printed out new keys again - WITHOUT CHECKING WITH US!! DH again tried to find out about the upgrade pricing - but the CM just said here - this room is available now - non-smoking, closest to the Tower Entrance. We were now 2nd floor, SGW. I was going to argue, but my kids were starting to wilt, so DH said, "Let's just check it out - if it's at all smoky, we'll come back. Well, the room itself was fine. We had a direct view of the pool, which was quiet, as it was quite cool. You could also see the Water Pageant from the room. The only place we sometimes noticed smoke was in the elevator, and it was very faint.
As you can tell from my screen name - I love the CR, and haved stayed in both the NGW, the Tower Building, and now the SGW. I have been lucky enough to get the room area in the NGW nearest to the Tower Building - but the SGW just doesn't have the same magic - it is a longer walk to get to the escalators, food court for refills, etc. If you are going to use the pool a lot though, it is very easy access. We did make one quick run to let the girls work off some excess energy, while we soaked in the hot tub!
