Any advice for a 1st stay at Saratoga?

[Madi100]

Hi girls,

We have only been to WDW the one time when we bought the DVC. We never made it to DTD.

Do you have to go to DTD to catch a bus to the parks? Does the resort have a bus schedule? How do you know where you are staying at Saratoga?

Why did you like Earl's? And why didn't your kiddo's? Our boys love sandwiches, but one likes only meat and bread! Would the Meal Plan be advantagous?

I am so new to this! I really appreciate your input!

Here is a menu for Earl of Sandwich Menu
My kids didn't like it because the bread is different. And, the peanut butter and jelly sandwich is served hot. I liked the grilled cheese sandwich. They just wanted the plain 'ol standard sandwich. Not what they serve here.

No, you don't have to go to Downtown to catch a bus to the parks. However, the resorts don't have buses that go to different resorts. So, if you are at SS and you want to go to the Contemporary, you have to go to a main place (any of the parks or Downtown Disney) to catch a bus to that resort. It would be faster and less traveling to just walk to Downtown Disney and get on the bus there. But, buses run about every twenty minutes to each of the parks from the resort. When it's busy they are supposed to send more. I've not been to SS before, so I don't know how many bus stops they have.

 

[LOVETHATMOUSE]

What great suggestions. We will have our first stay 4/07 - can't wait!!

 

[Mickeylover6]

Enjoy your first trip to SS! It is a great place! You didn't mention how you are getting to Disney, but if your flying in and not planning to rent a car, you may want to consider a towncar service. They are always very good about stopping at Publix for us on the way to Disney from the airport. The boys will love the close access to DD. There is so much to do down there! You may even plan to go there your first day and put off buying park passes for a day. (just a way to save a little extra money!) We just returned from an eight day stay. My best advice... buy lots of water. We went through 3 cases and could have done more!

 

[Madi100]

Enjoy your first trip to SS! It is a great place! You didn't mention how you are getting to Disney, but if your flying in and not planning to rent a car, you may want to consider a towncar service. They are always very good about stopping at Publix for us on the way to Disney from the airport. The boys will love the close access to DD. There is so much to do down there! You may even plan to go there your first day and put off buying park passes for a day. (just a way to save a little extra money!) We just returned from an eight day stay. My best advice... buy lots of water. We went through 3 cases and could have done more!

A great suggestion that I found on the budget board is to order water from Staples. It's about $5 a case, and you can have it delivered to your resort. Perfect for staying at the DVC because you have fridges.

 

[Doingitagain]

We just had our first stay at SSR and loved it. The two bedroom was very spacious. Loved having a washer and dryer to keep up with our clothes. We ordered from gardengrocer.com on the Internet before we left. We scheduled a delivery in the 3-5 slot. We checked in at 2:00 and I called with our room number and told them they could deliver it earlier if that worked better. Brian showed up at 3:30 and wheeled in a cart with coolers for the cold food. He even unpacked all the food into the refrigerator and freezer for us! It was so nice to have breakfasts and light lunches in the room. We would go to the parks earlier, take a break for lunch and rest during the heat of the day, then go back at night.

There were four bus stops at SSR. We stayed in the last building of Paddock, so we used the Congress bus stop. It was very close. Take a hint...don't cut through the grass. They water it a lot and it is wet. Also, there are sections that are drainage ditches and you can actually get muddy going through them.

The busing was "hit and miss". During busy times we found that we had to wait. The longest wait time was 45 minutes at Magic Kingdom, when we left 1.5 hours into Evening Extra Magic hours. I guess that is the busiest time. Usually it was 20-30 minutes.

You can walk to Downtown Disney, but it is not a short walk, and in June it is very warm and humid.

I found the Artist's Pallette eating area to be very boring for food choices. The menu is very small, and didn't seem to change much during the week. They had pizzas on the menu, but they are flatbread pizzas, not what you usually get for a pizza. My teens didn't like them, and I would guess that younger children would also prefer more traditional pizza.

We had great burgers at the Turf Club, it should help when that fully opens as a restaurant later this year.

If you have the Park Hopper Premium package, take advantage of the 8:00 early resort guest opening at the water parks. Non-resort guests cannot get in until 9:00. We did that at both water parks, and we went on the "fun" rides many times in a row and then got on the lazy river before it got too crowded. We easily did what we wanted in a few hours, then headed back to the room to change, eat lunch, and head to a park. If we would have gone mid-day, it would have taken four times as much time out of our vacation.

 

[dsneygirl]

One thing that is wonderful about SSR is you can walk to DTD in about 10-15 minutes. We went to the Earl of Sandwich about three times and loved the food and the price ($4.95 a sandwich). Our DS's would go to DQ practically every night and loved the Virgin Music store - they already have a list of what they want to get this trip!

We were the same way with EoS. We were in Congress Park and could be at Earl's in about 7 minutes. I think we ate there 4 times in 7 days.

We also preferred the quite pool in CP. We didn't have any kids with us though but it was always almost deserted. Maybe only a couple other families at a time and it has such a great view of DTD.