nhdisnut
My screen name says it all!!
- Joined
- Jun 26, 2000
- Messages
- 829
We have been at WDW since Christmas Eve and been having an absolute blast! I thought i would share some of my observations and experiences from this, the busiest week of the year at WDW....so here goes:
SSR: The resort is beautiful! The Carriage House and Artist Palette area are all decked out in Christmas decorations - not as impressive as, say, Wilderness Lodge, but perfectly suited to the setting here. At check-in on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day they had a very nice cast member in appropriate Saratoga Springs dress handing out sugar cookies and lemonade - a nice touch! I had requested Grandstand and were assigned there! Fantastic room location. Quick walk to both the GS bus stop and the AP and the Springs bus stop. We are in a studio lock-off and the room is immaculate (or was until our teenagers "unpacked."
As we have experienced in all of out previous SSR trips, the resort has such a laid-back, relaxing feel. We have not seen or heard any neighbors at all, and despite full parking lots the resort does not feel at all busy.
The weather: It has been COLD. Not NH cold like we are used to (it was 1 above at home the other day), but certainly cold for FL. It has been in the 30's in the evening and overnight for three nights now. It is supposed to gradually warm up tomorrow and be seasonal (70 or so with lows in the 50's) by the end of the week. We had seen the forecast in advance of our trip, thank goodness, and brought all of the coats, hats and gloves necessary to still enjoy our trip. During the day it has been very nice and sunny, just chilly. So far we had one evening of showers, but nothing like the downpours of summer.
The crowds: We zig when others zag. Now that our kids are older (15 and 18) we avoid early mornings completely and concentrate on the parks in the evening and at night. Works well, and has really worked well this trip. DS and I were at MK on Christmas night until 1am and walked on to every single ride (other than Space Mtn. which still had a bit of a wait). The whole family did evening EMH at MK on Sunday until 3am, and, probably thanks in part to the cold, we literally had the park to ourselves. We rode Space Mtn. several times - once when we did not stop until we got to the empty rocket just waiting for us! Very cool! Twice we had our own rocket for just our family!! We even walked right on to Peter Pan...that is almost unheard of, and we had a private Pirate's boat as well!
Yesterday, however, we had reservations at Tony's for a 2:00 lunch (more on the food in a bit) and we discovered all of the people! MK was busy! Buzz was a 60 minute wait, Space Mtn. 90, and there was a line for the Peoplemover that reached over to the Buzz line. I have been in the park when it felt more crowded (NYE a couple of years ago), but it was a shock after having all of Main St. to ourselves late Sunday night. Even with the crowds, however, we enjoyed a great view of the Holiday Parade, a spin around the Carousel of Progress, and the Peoplemover before heading back to SSR for a relaxing evening at the resort.
Today we spent some mid-day time exploring some resorts (Poly and GF) and made our way to DTD for some shopping. One way to avoid the crowds in the daytime, for sure, is to visit the resorts. There were people, but nothing too unusual. The gingerbread house at the GF was beautiful! We even got to see a bride and groom taken to the wedding pavillion in Cinderella's Coach...wonder how much that cost them?!
DTD was busy, but not wall-to-wall.
Tonight we are going to DHS to take in the Osborne lights and the 3rd showing of Fantasmic. Hoping for one more night of people avoiding the cold....We'll see how the crowds are... We haven't seen Fantasmic in a few years - hate the wait and the fact that it is only a few nights a week now, but DS loves the show and really wanted to take the time to see it, so why not?
In fact, time to head out....I'll add more about the food (mostly excellent) and the busses (amazingly excellent) later on....
Any questions I can answer, please let me know!
SSR: The resort is beautiful! The Carriage House and Artist Palette area are all decked out in Christmas decorations - not as impressive as, say, Wilderness Lodge, but perfectly suited to the setting here. At check-in on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day they had a very nice cast member in appropriate Saratoga Springs dress handing out sugar cookies and lemonade - a nice touch! I had requested Grandstand and were assigned there! Fantastic room location. Quick walk to both the GS bus stop and the AP and the Springs bus stop. We are in a studio lock-off and the room is immaculate (or was until our teenagers "unpacked."
As we have experienced in all of out previous SSR trips, the resort has such a laid-back, relaxing feel. We have not seen or heard any neighbors at all, and despite full parking lots the resort does not feel at all busy. The weather: It has been COLD. Not NH cold like we are used to (it was 1 above at home the other day), but certainly cold for FL. It has been in the 30's in the evening and overnight for three nights now. It is supposed to gradually warm up tomorrow and be seasonal (70 or so with lows in the 50's) by the end of the week. We had seen the forecast in advance of our trip, thank goodness, and brought all of the coats, hats and gloves necessary to still enjoy our trip. During the day it has been very nice and sunny, just chilly. So far we had one evening of showers, but nothing like the downpours of summer.
The crowds: We zig when others zag. Now that our kids are older (15 and 18) we avoid early mornings completely and concentrate on the parks in the evening and at night. Works well, and has really worked well this trip. DS and I were at MK on Christmas night until 1am and walked on to every single ride (other than Space Mtn. which still had a bit of a wait). The whole family did evening EMH at MK on Sunday until 3am, and, probably thanks in part to the cold, we literally had the park to ourselves. We rode Space Mtn. several times - once when we did not stop until we got to the empty rocket just waiting for us! Very cool! Twice we had our own rocket for just our family!! We even walked right on to Peter Pan...that is almost unheard of, and we had a private Pirate's boat as well!
Yesterday, however, we had reservations at Tony's for a 2:00 lunch (more on the food in a bit) and we discovered all of the people! MK was busy! Buzz was a 60 minute wait, Space Mtn. 90, and there was a line for the Peoplemover that reached over to the Buzz line. I have been in the park when it felt more crowded (NYE a couple of years ago), but it was a shock after having all of Main St. to ourselves late Sunday night. Even with the crowds, however, we enjoyed a great view of the Holiday Parade, a spin around the Carousel of Progress, and the Peoplemover before heading back to SSR for a relaxing evening at the resort.
Today we spent some mid-day time exploring some resorts (Poly and GF) and made our way to DTD for some shopping. One way to avoid the crowds in the daytime, for sure, is to visit the resorts. There were people, but nothing too unusual. The gingerbread house at the GF was beautiful! We even got to see a bride and groom taken to the wedding pavillion in Cinderella's Coach...wonder how much that cost them?!
DTD was busy, but not wall-to-wall.Tonight we are going to DHS to take in the Osborne lights and the 3rd showing of Fantasmic. Hoping for one more night of people avoiding the cold....We'll see how the crowds are... We haven't seen Fantasmic in a few years - hate the wait and the fact that it is only a few nights a week now, but DS loves the show and really wanted to take the time to see it, so why not?
In fact, time to head out....I'll add more about the food (mostly excellent) and the busses (amazingly excellent) later on....
Any questions I can answer, please let me know!
Wow! Now that's what I call a great trip! We love the SSR, it's our home resort and we enjoy staying there, it' our home away from home! We have stayed at other resorts onsite and offsite, but always go back to SSR. We also enjoy all the extended magic hours wether early or late great benefit for staying at an onsite resort! Hope you enjoy the rest of your trip! 
and might take a trip to play mini-golf or maybe pop into AK (probably the least crowded park that day) - we will be avoiding the other parks during the day for sure.
The high was in the low 70's and it is not supposed to go below 50 tonight. Rather than face crowds during the day today, we slept in and then enjoyed SSR all afternoon. DS and I played some tennis, then DD and I hit the pool and hot tub. Not sure if I mentioned that she and I went in the hot tub earlier in the week (at night with temps in the 30's) - that was fun, but today in the sunshine was much nicer! Took a to go lunch from AP and have just been relaxing...perfect afternoon!
. Definitely people around, but we had a nice time.
, but we have certainly made the most of the trip!
then went to the SSR NYE celebration at the pool. They had (free!) decorate your own cupcakes, trivia, Toy Story 3, and dance music going on. A small crowd had a good time. DW and I also took a wonderful romantic walk around all of SSR just before midnight. We went onto our balcony at midnight at watched the Epcot fireworks which were followed shortly after by the DHS fireworks. Not quite like being there, but still impressive. Even more impressive was the sound of people cheering! We could hear people from DTD, SSR, and Epcot cheering at midnight - very cool! Went to bed shortly thereafter though, because we had a relatively early DME bus to catch on Saturday. That's the main reason we didn't go to a park for an actual celebration - figured it would be 2am at least before we would get back to our room....no way we could have pulled that off!
! 
