Anal Annie
at least I KNOW I'm a kook...I just can't help it
- Joined
- Dec 8, 2006
- Messages
- 13,921
OK, so this past weekend was our surprise birthday present trip for DS and we had a really good time. DS was super excited and talked non-stop all day on Friday on our way down! We had a couple of hours in flight delays with all the rain in Orlando last week so we did not get to spend the evening in Epcot like I'd originally planned which pushed us a little more for the remaining 3 days. We toured commando to fit everything in that DS wanted to do and regretted having to leave Epcot for our last day 'cuz our legs & feet were beat by then and that is just SO-O much walking.
It was our first time staying at SSR and we were pleasantly surprised with it. I was a bit worried if we'd like it or not since people either seem to love it or hate it. I had requested the Grandstand area and upon check-in the CM was about to put us in one of the further buildings but I asked if there was anything in either of the 2 closer buildings to the main Springs area and she found us an open studio in the 8200 building near the pool.
I was glad I asked and glad I had not done the online check-in thing. During check-in the CM knew we had packages to pick up from Bell Services and she had me sign for them (a case of water and the large box of stuff I'd shipped for our new OL). But when we went down to Bell Services they had a hard time finding the stuff. They were all quite nice but they seemed a bit confused for about 10 minutes. We stopped in the store on our way to Bell Services and got a VERY SHORT list of stuff which set us back $42!! (3 bottles of Miller Lite, one 32 oz bottle of milk, a SMALL box of butter, 2 SMALL packages of cream cheese (I'd brought bagels & cereal with us), and two 20 oz bottles of diet coke. That's it for $42!!!
)
Our unit was quite clean but we didn't have but one hand towel & 3 large towels and only 2 washcloths and there was no scrubber sponge thingy for the kitchenette. Since we're only 3 people I didn't fret over the towels but I did call Mousekeeping to request that they bring us a sponge for the dishes the next day. Unlike other resorts where we've stayed, the sleeper sofa was not made up (as I'd read they do not do that at SSR for you). There was only 1 pillow tho in the closet for it which I thought was odd. It was about 9:00 pm or so by the time we got the resort to check in and we hadn't eaten dinner yet so we dropped our stuff in the villa and went up to Artist's Palette to grab something to eat. Then when we got back to the villa DS wanted to go to the pool because it was RIGHT THERE and he could see it.
So, dead tired, at 11:00 we went down to the pool for about 45 mintues! By the time showers were over it was about 1:00 when we fell into bed.
After going to bed at 1:00 I got up at 5:30 on Sat. morning to make some coffee & unpack our Disney box & put the stuff into the OL and do some organizing. Then I got DH & DS up around 6:15 (they move slow and "hurry up" is not their thing) so we could hit morning EMH at Hollywood Studios. Then we moved to MK for a few hours in the afternoon. We were able to get fast passes for 5:00 for Splash Mountain and we decided that would be our last ride before going to get cleaned up for our dinner at T-Rex. We JUST went down the big drop and the ride broke down!! So we were stuck there at the bottom of the drop for about 30 mintues. By the time we left MK it was about 6:00. Sunday we hit AK in the morning then after lunch attempted to try out the main pool at SSR. We weren't there very long before it clouded up & we knew it wouldn't be TOO long before it stormed. So around 4:45 we packed up & walked over to the preview center to tour the BLT models. I thought the studio felt small and am still bothered by the bathroom sink being so close to the kitchenette...but I like how much space the kitchenette counter had. Some of the other studios barely have any room to set anything. This counter seemed spacious - if only the bathroom sink wasn't 2 feet away... I don't know when we'll attempt to stay at BLT...it's so point intensive. We thought the little model of the THV's looked VERY cool...
Sat. nite we had dinner ressies at 8:15 at T-Rex. I was glad I'd made a ressie as the wait time when we got there was about 1 hr 15 min.! It was a stormy evening so we took the bus...while we were ON the bus it started pouring not just buckets but BARRELS of water!! We had our ponchos on and had umbrellas too but still got drenched on the way. We literally waded thru about 4 or 5 inches of water trying to get to T-Rex (it was so deep it was OVER my ankle bone)!! We were soaked but DS really, really, REALLY liked T-Rex!!! It was very cool and he couldn't sit still for wanting to explore the other rooms. The reviews I'd read on it were that the food was only so-so but we enjoyed it. DH ordered a shrimp & linguine dish that was very good and DS and I both ordered the quesadilla from the appetizer menu (no 10% discount on apps BTW, only on entrees). The quesadillas were HOOOGE and we could've split one. But oh well. It was a great choice for us and DS already wants to go again.
We went to MK for the evening EMH's on Sunday and stayed until about 1:30. MK didn't seem the same with Space Mountain shut down. We skipped the parade but caught some seats for Wishes (on that restaurant terrace on the way to Tomorrowland - I don't even know the name of the CS place there - it seems like it's always closed whenever we go and I can't remember the last time we ate there).
We ended up doing Epcot on Monday which seemed to be our hottest, most humid but most rain free day. DS wanted to do the new Kim Possible Mission but we sort of goofed on that one. We could see that it started in the World Showcase so we thought we had to wait for 11:00 to do it. We got over there around 11:30 to where it starts and by then the "start time" we were assigned was 2:30.
Turns out that they start assigning start times at 9:00 and we COULD have started the mission at 11:00. I thought that info. could've been made clearer on the map or park hours thing or something. We had intended to leave Epcot right after lunch and go back to the pool again to try to get SOME down time. But the 2:30 thing really shot that plan down as we just had to wait around then for 2:30. We hit Spaceship Earth on the way out of the park and it was probably 4:00 or 4:30 by the time we left. W-A-A-A-Y too much walking for me to do Epcot all day on day 3 of a marathon park touring weekend. My shins, ankles & knees are shot!!
I wanted to try Restaurant Marrakesh for lunch and there were openings but we had a TS ressie for dinner so we decided to just go to the Tangerine Cafe instead. That is probably our most fav. CS place anywhere in WDW. I had the chicken wrap with cous cous and lentil salad and DH had the lamb wrap. DS just had chicken nuggets 'cuz he was being stubborn about where we ate (he wanted to eat something American and we were like you can eat "American" any time! WE want something different.)
Of course by the time we got back to SSR on Monday it was 5:00 and starting to storm again + we had dinner ressies at Wolfgang Puck Cafe at 8:00 so no pool time.
TRIP TIDBITS / SUMMARY - We enjoyed SSR and would stay there again (once we finish trying the rest of the resorts). I LOVED our new Owners Locker (wish it was just a smidge bigger), I LOVED traveling via carry-on only and I LOVED the new packing cubes I used for this trip! They were AWESOME and I plan to order a couple more sets!!! They saved me a ton of time and lots of space. I rolled our clothes for the first time and they hardly wrinkled at all. I just used the Downey Wrinkle Release on anything that DID get creases. I used some of the space bags for our dirty laundry so I wouldn't have to spend time rolling the dirty stuff up and that worked out great too.
Oh, and we did NOT get a "Welcome Home" message on our phone from our guide on this trip. I think this is the first time he's ignored our visit. I must be on his bad list or something.
It was our first time staying at SSR and we were pleasantly surprised with it. I was a bit worried if we'd like it or not since people either seem to love it or hate it. I had requested the Grandstand area and upon check-in the CM was about to put us in one of the further buildings but I asked if there was anything in either of the 2 closer buildings to the main Springs area and she found us an open studio in the 8200 building near the pool.
I was glad I asked and glad I had not done the online check-in thing. During check-in the CM knew we had packages to pick up from Bell Services and she had me sign for them (a case of water and the large box of stuff I'd shipped for our new OL). But when we went down to Bell Services they had a hard time finding the stuff. They were all quite nice but they seemed a bit confused for about 10 minutes. We stopped in the store on our way to Bell Services and got a VERY SHORT list of stuff which set us back $42!! (3 bottles of Miller Lite, one 32 oz bottle of milk, a SMALL box of butter, 2 SMALL packages of cream cheese (I'd brought bagels & cereal with us), and two 20 oz bottles of diet coke. That's it for $42!!!) Our unit was quite clean but we didn't have but one hand towel & 3 large towels and only 2 washcloths and there was no scrubber sponge thingy for the kitchenette. Since we're only 3 people I didn't fret over the towels but I did call Mousekeeping to request that they bring us a sponge for the dishes the next day. Unlike other resorts where we've stayed, the sleeper sofa was not made up (as I'd read they do not do that at SSR for you). There was only 1 pillow tho in the closet for it which I thought was odd. It was about 9:00 pm or so by the time we got the resort to check in and we hadn't eaten dinner yet so we dropped our stuff in the villa and went up to Artist's Palette to grab something to eat. Then when we got back to the villa DS wanted to go to the pool because it was RIGHT THERE and he could see it.
So, dead tired, at 11:00 we went down to the pool for about 45 mintues! By the time showers were over it was about 1:00 when we fell into bed. After going to bed at 1:00 I got up at 5:30 on Sat. morning to make some coffee & unpack our Disney box & put the stuff into the OL and do some organizing. Then I got DH & DS up around 6:15 (they move slow and "hurry up" is not their thing) so we could hit morning EMH at Hollywood Studios. Then we moved to MK for a few hours in the afternoon. We were able to get fast passes for 5:00 for Splash Mountain and we decided that would be our last ride before going to get cleaned up for our dinner at T-Rex. We JUST went down the big drop and the ride broke down!! So we were stuck there at the bottom of the drop for about 30 mintues. By the time we left MK it was about 6:00. Sunday we hit AK in the morning then after lunch attempted to try out the main pool at SSR. We weren't there very long before it clouded up & we knew it wouldn't be TOO long before it stormed. So around 4:45 we packed up & walked over to the preview center to tour the BLT models. I thought the studio felt small and am still bothered by the bathroom sink being so close to the kitchenette...but I like how much space the kitchenette counter had. Some of the other studios barely have any room to set anything. This counter seemed spacious - if only the bathroom sink wasn't 2 feet away... I don't know when we'll attempt to stay at BLT...it's so point intensive. We thought the little model of the THV's looked VERY cool...
Sat. nite we had dinner ressies at 8:15 at T-Rex. I was glad I'd made a ressie as the wait time when we got there was about 1 hr 15 min.! It was a stormy evening so we took the bus...while we were ON the bus it started pouring not just buckets but BARRELS of water!! We had our ponchos on and had umbrellas too but still got drenched on the way. We literally waded thru about 4 or 5 inches of water trying to get to T-Rex (it was so deep it was OVER my ankle bone)!! We were soaked but DS really, really, REALLY liked T-Rex!!! It was very cool and he couldn't sit still for wanting to explore the other rooms. The reviews I'd read on it were that the food was only so-so but we enjoyed it. DH ordered a shrimp & linguine dish that was very good and DS and I both ordered the quesadilla from the appetizer menu (no 10% discount on apps BTW, only on entrees). The quesadillas were HOOOGE and we could've split one. But oh well. It was a great choice for us and DS already wants to go again.
We went to MK for the evening EMH's on Sunday and stayed until about 1:30. MK didn't seem the same with Space Mountain shut down. We skipped the parade but caught some seats for Wishes (on that restaurant terrace on the way to Tomorrowland - I don't even know the name of the CS place there - it seems like it's always closed whenever we go and I can't remember the last time we ate there).
We ended up doing Epcot on Monday which seemed to be our hottest, most humid but most rain free day. DS wanted to do the new Kim Possible Mission but we sort of goofed on that one. We could see that it started in the World Showcase so we thought we had to wait for 11:00 to do it. We got over there around 11:30 to where it starts and by then the "start time" we were assigned was 2:30.
Turns out that they start assigning start times at 9:00 and we COULD have started the mission at 11:00. I thought that info. could've been made clearer on the map or park hours thing or something. We had intended to leave Epcot right after lunch and go back to the pool again to try to get SOME down time. But the 2:30 thing really shot that plan down as we just had to wait around then for 2:30. We hit Spaceship Earth on the way out of the park and it was probably 4:00 or 4:30 by the time we left. W-A-A-A-Y too much walking for me to do Epcot all day on day 3 of a marathon park touring weekend. My shins, ankles & knees are shot!! I wanted to try Restaurant Marrakesh for lunch and there were openings but we had a TS ressie for dinner so we decided to just go to the Tangerine Cafe instead. That is probably our most fav. CS place anywhere in WDW. I had the chicken wrap with cous cous and lentil salad and DH had the lamb wrap. DS just had chicken nuggets 'cuz he was being stubborn about where we ate (he wanted to eat something American and we were like you can eat "American" any time! WE want something different.)Of course by the time we got back to SSR on Monday it was 5:00 and starting to storm again + we had dinner ressies at Wolfgang Puck Cafe at 8:00 so no pool time.
TRIP TIDBITS / SUMMARY - We enjoyed SSR and would stay there again (once we finish trying the rest of the resorts). I LOVED our new Owners Locker (wish it was just a smidge bigger), I LOVED traveling via carry-on only and I LOVED the new packing cubes I used for this trip! They were AWESOME and I plan to order a couple more sets!!! They saved me a ton of time and lots of space. I rolled our clothes for the first time and they hardly wrinkled at all. I just used the Downey Wrinkle Release on anything that DID get creases. I used some of the space bags for our dirty laundry so I wouldn't have to spend time rolling the dirty stuff up and that worked out great too.
Oh, and we did NOT get a "Welcome Home" message on our phone from our guide on this trip. I think this is the first time he's ignored our visit. I must be on his bad list or something.
I got tired just reading what you did for those days lol
Sorry -- I'm not sure if you ever got it, whoever you are....
Glad you had a great trip. 
