The PP are spot on!! I love SOG, and biggest standard rooms on property, probably the least crazy/loud resort, and LOCATION! It cannot be beat. The Starbucks is so much less expensive
and handy. My kids have loved pool days and the views are amazing. MagicBands if you have them (or want to buy them) will still work in the parks, and can be handy. I never charge to my room anyway, I'd rather keep track, or let my kids pay with a gift card if they have one.
*ETA* SOG does run specials sometimes that include breakfast / other meals. That might be something to look into if you're wanting to have some "on-site" dining plans.
The Disney Dining Plan IMO is truly not worth the money in almost every case, and my family prefers to pack food/eat one meal "out" per day and save $$ so we'd rather spend the time in the parks or the pool and not at a lot of restaurants. Mobile ordering FTW as PP said! Especially with the bigger groups. My husband and I have 5 kids and anywhere we can save is amazing.
Pop is our go-to if we don't do Shades. We've been toying with the idea of purchasing DVC for a few years and honestly one reason we haven't is because we love Shades so much. One thing that's a "downside" is that we can't do laundry in our rooms or cook (DVC "upside") but we've made it work and it's worth the money!
I recently brought a friend for a one night pre-cruise stay at SOG. She's been to almost every resort at WDW and said SOG was in her top 2. If you want to read my further thoughts please do!
https://notclub33.com/blog/2019/07/03/shades-of-green-how-military-vets-save-at-walt-disney-world/