In September 2024, we visited Saratoga Springs in a 2-bedroom suite. We had a total of 6 adults and 3 kids, all very young (2, 1, 1).
We booked this trip as part of a Disney+ promo that offered free meal plans as part of the booking. I do not believe we got any sort of cash discount. More on the meal plan later.
We also bundled the Disney tickets into the overall cost with Disney rather than going through something like Undercover Tourist, so the total cost for the 6-nights and the Disney tickets for 6 adults was roughly $10,000. We did spring extra for the "premium" or preferred view type, because we wanted to ensure we could be at The Springs to be as close to amenities as possible. We didn't have a big desire to venture to Disney Springs with such young kids, so we were rolling the dice that they would honor our request for The Springs vs putting us in Congress Park, as the walking distance to Disney Springs meant nothing to us.
The biggest cons I read about Saratoga pre-visit was that it's so spread out, so the walks to amenities can be painful, as well as the bus being the only mode of transportation. We were very happy to be granted our request and receive a room in The Springs. We were a very very short walk over to the main building and the main pool area, providing easy access to the Turf Bar and Grill as well as the Quick Service dining option.
The room itself was very nice and modern. The murphy beds in the living room were surprisingly comfortable. The size of the 2-queen room was massive. They did not give us cribs in our rooms (part of our room request) so we had to call once we checked in to have them drop those off. I'll say that they made it seem like they couldn't guarantee availability and that it was first come first serve, so we were a little hesitant--we were close to using a local non-Disney service to bring us cribs so that we could 100% reserve them, but luckily the front desk had them in stock for us. They also made it seem like who ever I talked to during reservation must have been mistaken, because they have plenty of cribs to go around. The cribs were nothing special--in fact, the rails are a bit high, which makes lowering your young baby into the crib a bit more difficult. There are also wheels on the bottom of the crib, so if you don't have them locked and your belly hits the crib bar, your crib will move on your and wake your sleeping child!
We wish the 2-queen room had a door that separated the sleeping area (where the beds are) from the vanity and bathroom area. It felt like it was it's own studio, but it wasn't a dedicated lockoff with it's own door from the hallway. If that door between the bed area and the vanity existed, then others staying with us could have utilized our bathroom area while the kids slept in the bed area. Since it was wide open, the guests mostly utilized the more accessible bathroom that was a part of the King bedroom area. It did have it's own door from the kitchen area, which helped. But what ended up happening was, the two adults who slept in the living room ended up using the King bathroom as their own, along with the 2 adults from the King bedroom. So the adults were kinda split 4 in one bathroom and 2 in the other. I wish we could have offered the 2-queen area bathroom in more situations without having to worry about our kids being woken up.
The main pool area was great. The kids had a lot of fun going down the big slide. The zero entrance part is a must for young ones. We liked that there was a bar nearby outside and that the quick service food area was a short distance away. We did venture to the smaller pool area across the bridge at The Paddock once--didn't think the pool was as cool, but they have a dedicated kids play area that is better than the main pool. The main pool had a pretty weak splash pad area while The Paddock has basically a wet jungle gym with a bucket that fills up with water and dumps it on kids. We also felt the Quick Service at The Paddock had better food options than the main Quick Service (Artists Pallete). This is because they had things like burgers and chicken sandwiches, where as the AP was more of a focus on chicken tenders and pizza.
The Turf Bar was very good, probably my 2nd favorite place we ate at. We did really enjoy that we could try out a multitude of sit-down places with our meal plan, but it was such overkill. It was honestly hard to utilize one quick service and one table-service for 6 adults for 6 days. I think if we ever did meal plans again, we'd just focus on Quick Service. Things like Casey's Corner at MK are just easier to deal with when you are busy, and we'd save Table service stuff for special occasions. We found ourselves having to plan our day around dinner or lunch reservations that were kinda average (with a few notable exceptions) and we'd rather just pay the cash rate when we are excited about a spot rather than "eh, we have these credits, better use them".
The transportation to the parks was kind of a gripe. The bus was always on time but being at The Springs meant we were last on the pickup route before heading out of the area to the parks. This meant in the morning when trying to rope drop, we were always standing while holding folded up strollers and kids. This wasn't ideal! It was much more enjoyable on the ride home when we could sit, but unfortunately The Springs was last on the drop off spot, so once we rolled into Saratoga, we still had at least 10 minutes before they got to our spot. This didn't deter us from doing midday breaks, but it definitely made the process more of an ordeal (this was also a main driving factor in us eventually buying into Poly--gotta guarantee that monorail! haha)
All in all, we had a great trip. I do feel overall that Saratoga was a bit "sleepy" or quiet for my tastes--while I like my room being quiet, I do prefer being in the hustle and bustle of things when I'm out of my room. And the long peaceful walks to get to amenities or different pools in the area just isn't really for me. We're looking forward to being "in the action" our next trip which will be at Poly. Taking mid-day breaks should be easier and quicker too, which I think will be very prioritized as our kids become toddlers and we remain a very MK focused family until the kids get older and want to spend more time at the other parks.
We booked this trip as part of a Disney+ promo that offered free meal plans as part of the booking. I do not believe we got any sort of cash discount. More on the meal plan later.
We also bundled the Disney tickets into the overall cost with Disney rather than going through something like Undercover Tourist, so the total cost for the 6-nights and the Disney tickets for 6 adults was roughly $10,000. We did spring extra for the "premium" or preferred view type, because we wanted to ensure we could be at The Springs to be as close to amenities as possible. We didn't have a big desire to venture to Disney Springs with such young kids, so we were rolling the dice that they would honor our request for The Springs vs putting us in Congress Park, as the walking distance to Disney Springs meant nothing to us.
The biggest cons I read about Saratoga pre-visit was that it's so spread out, so the walks to amenities can be painful, as well as the bus being the only mode of transportation. We were very happy to be granted our request and receive a room in The Springs. We were a very very short walk over to the main building and the main pool area, providing easy access to the Turf Bar and Grill as well as the Quick Service dining option.
The room itself was very nice and modern. The murphy beds in the living room were surprisingly comfortable. The size of the 2-queen room was massive. They did not give us cribs in our rooms (part of our room request) so we had to call once we checked in to have them drop those off. I'll say that they made it seem like they couldn't guarantee availability and that it was first come first serve, so we were a little hesitant--we were close to using a local non-Disney service to bring us cribs so that we could 100% reserve them, but luckily the front desk had them in stock for us. They also made it seem like who ever I talked to during reservation must have been mistaken, because they have plenty of cribs to go around. The cribs were nothing special--in fact, the rails are a bit high, which makes lowering your young baby into the crib a bit more difficult. There are also wheels on the bottom of the crib, so if you don't have them locked and your belly hits the crib bar, your crib will move on your and wake your sleeping child!
We wish the 2-queen room had a door that separated the sleeping area (where the beds are) from the vanity and bathroom area. It felt like it was it's own studio, but it wasn't a dedicated lockoff with it's own door from the hallway. If that door between the bed area and the vanity existed, then others staying with us could have utilized our bathroom area while the kids slept in the bed area. Since it was wide open, the guests mostly utilized the more accessible bathroom that was a part of the King bedroom area. It did have it's own door from the kitchen area, which helped. But what ended up happening was, the two adults who slept in the living room ended up using the King bathroom as their own, along with the 2 adults from the King bedroom. So the adults were kinda split 4 in one bathroom and 2 in the other. I wish we could have offered the 2-queen area bathroom in more situations without having to worry about our kids being woken up.
The main pool area was great. The kids had a lot of fun going down the big slide. The zero entrance part is a must for young ones. We liked that there was a bar nearby outside and that the quick service food area was a short distance away. We did venture to the smaller pool area across the bridge at The Paddock once--didn't think the pool was as cool, but they have a dedicated kids play area that is better than the main pool. The main pool had a pretty weak splash pad area while The Paddock has basically a wet jungle gym with a bucket that fills up with water and dumps it on kids. We also felt the Quick Service at The Paddock had better food options than the main Quick Service (Artists Pallete). This is because they had things like burgers and chicken sandwiches, where as the AP was more of a focus on chicken tenders and pizza.
The Turf Bar was very good, probably my 2nd favorite place we ate at. We did really enjoy that we could try out a multitude of sit-down places with our meal plan, but it was such overkill. It was honestly hard to utilize one quick service and one table-service for 6 adults for 6 days. I think if we ever did meal plans again, we'd just focus on Quick Service. Things like Casey's Corner at MK are just easier to deal with when you are busy, and we'd save Table service stuff for special occasions. We found ourselves having to plan our day around dinner or lunch reservations that were kinda average (with a few notable exceptions) and we'd rather just pay the cash rate when we are excited about a spot rather than "eh, we have these credits, better use them".
The transportation to the parks was kind of a gripe. The bus was always on time but being at The Springs meant we were last on the pickup route before heading out of the area to the parks. This meant in the morning when trying to rope drop, we were always standing while holding folded up strollers and kids. This wasn't ideal! It was much more enjoyable on the ride home when we could sit, but unfortunately The Springs was last on the drop off spot, so once we rolled into Saratoga, we still had at least 10 minutes before they got to our spot. This didn't deter us from doing midday breaks, but it definitely made the process more of an ordeal (this was also a main driving factor in us eventually buying into Poly--gotta guarantee that monorail! haha)
All in all, we had a great trip. I do feel overall that Saratoga was a bit "sleepy" or quiet for my tastes--while I like my room being quiet, I do prefer being in the hustle and bustle of things when I'm out of my room. And the long peaceful walks to get to amenities or different pools in the area just isn't really for me. We're looking forward to being "in the action" our next trip which will be at Poly. Taking mid-day breaks should be easier and quicker too, which I think will be very prioritized as our kids become toddlers and we remain a very MK focused family until the kids get older and want to spend more time at the other parks.
