Ms. WDW
A DIS Veteran who just won't grow up!
- Joined
- Aug 6, 2000
- Messages
- 3,161
I just returned from a GREAT stay at WDW. A short one I might add, but wonderful none the less. I stayed 4 nights at Saratoga Springs in Congress Park. I was in building 15 and had room 1645. Checkin was quick and effortless. The room wasn't quite ready so I headed to DTD. After a nice lunch at the Rainforest Cafe I got a call that my room was now ready and I headed back.
Now, I have to make you all laugh.....two years in a row I had this room. Loved...loved....loved this room. It was overlooking DTD with a view to die for and was right behind the quiet pool. The bus stop was directly across the driveway so that was nice also. But....the last time I was in this room was 2007. So when I made the request and received this room I was quite pleased. So upon entering the room I immediately went to the sliding door and preceeded to throw open the curtins so I could see.....TREES and BUSHES!! Lots of TREES and BUSHES!!! NO MORE DTD VIEW!!! NO MORE QUIET POOL VIEW; I wouldn't even have known there was a pool there if I hadn't been there before!!
I stood there laughing out loud saying "wait till I tell Milt (husband) about this. I never even thought about the "little pine tree out side the balcony" growing up!!!! Or all the pretty bushes and shrubs. But it was fine. I love the area, the room was perfect and I could just about roll out of bed and be at the pool!
Weather was HOT, HOT, HOT. Mid 90's from Tuesday on. A record was broken I think Thursday for hotest day in October. MNSSHP on Friday was absolutely wonderful. Not as crowded as I remembered from a couple of years ago. I wound up in Frontier Town on the porch in a rocker for about an hour prior and once the parade began had no problems taking some pictures. I'll post them a little later on.
I ate at (in order too) at the Rainforest Cafe at DTD, Rose and Crown Pub, Trails End Buffet at Fort Wilderness (this was a first) Cat Cora's new place Kouzzina, the Crystal Palace and of course grazzed around the WS at the Food and Wine Festival. I ate well...
. Little note here on the Trails End Buffet. This was a first for me; a family member who is also a CM took me there. It's very small and while the selection of food was somewhat limited, the food was excellent. I'd definately go back just for that fried chicken alone! Kouzzina (hope I'm spelling it right) was very nice. Other than the menu changing I still had the "Spoodles" feeling there and it was nice to see many familiar faces among the servers. The food was very good; I had the Fisherman's Stew as an entree which was excellent and tried the onion bread to start. The bread definately would have been shared if DH was with me, so I didn't finish it. I would have liked to have seen some sort of "pasta" or "rice" come with the stew however to off set all that tomato sauce/broth. It was placed ontop of fenel which at first looked like pasta but of course wasn't. But I would still order it again.
Parks...I spend most of my 4 days at the MK and EPCOT but did head into the Studios for a short time. I have to say the parks were not as crowded as normal for this time of year so going on my favorite rides was not an issue.
Transportation...ME was great; as usual. No lines and now wait. Got directly on the bus around 10:30 and at 11:10 I was checking into SSR. Buses to the park were not bad at all and I think the longest wait I had was in the late afternoon and it was oh, maybe 10 minutes for a MK bus. Early mornings they were fine; maybe 5-10 minutes. However, at the parks and trying to get home was another story. It was at least a 15-20 minute wait and sometimes it felt like forever. I think with the heat and humidity and the fact that you're just plain ole tired made it seem like it was forever, but one night at the MK I saw 3 buses for Coronado Springs leave before even 1 for SSR arrived. EPCOT wasn't much better; at least a 15 minute wait at night to go back to the hotel.
All in all I had a wonderful time and now the countdown begins again until we're back in June. This was a "me only trip" and in June DH will be with me when we celebrate my birthday. Normally I do "live" reports, but I didn't have the laptop this trip.
I'll try and post some pictures later on for all of you to see; especially my wonderful "view of DTD"!!!
Now, I have to make you all laugh.....two years in a row I had this room. Loved...loved....loved this room. It was overlooking DTD with a view to die for and was right behind the quiet pool. The bus stop was directly across the driveway so that was nice also. But....the last time I was in this room was 2007. So when I made the request and received this room I was quite pleased. So upon entering the room I immediately went to the sliding door and preceeded to throw open the curtins so I could see.....TREES and BUSHES!! Lots of TREES and BUSHES!!! NO MORE DTD VIEW!!! NO MORE QUIET POOL VIEW; I wouldn't even have known there was a pool there if I hadn't been there before!!
I stood there laughing out loud saying "wait till I tell Milt (husband) about this. I never even thought about the "little pine tree out side the balcony" growing up!!!! Or all the pretty bushes and shrubs. But it was fine. I love the area, the room was perfect and I could just about roll out of bed and be at the pool!Weather was HOT, HOT, HOT. Mid 90's from Tuesday on. A record was broken I think Thursday for hotest day in October. MNSSHP on Friday was absolutely wonderful. Not as crowded as I remembered from a couple of years ago. I wound up in Frontier Town on the porch in a rocker for about an hour prior and once the parade began had no problems taking some pictures. I'll post them a little later on.
I ate at (in order too) at the Rainforest Cafe at DTD, Rose and Crown Pub, Trails End Buffet at Fort Wilderness (this was a first) Cat Cora's new place Kouzzina, the Crystal Palace and of course grazzed around the WS at the Food and Wine Festival. I ate well...
. Little note here on the Trails End Buffet. This was a first for me; a family member who is also a CM took me there. It's very small and while the selection of food was somewhat limited, the food was excellent. I'd definately go back just for that fried chicken alone! Kouzzina (hope I'm spelling it right) was very nice. Other than the menu changing I still had the "Spoodles" feeling there and it was nice to see many familiar faces among the servers. The food was very good; I had the Fisherman's Stew as an entree which was excellent and tried the onion bread to start. The bread definately would have been shared if DH was with me, so I didn't finish it. I would have liked to have seen some sort of "pasta" or "rice" come with the stew however to off set all that tomato sauce/broth. It was placed ontop of fenel which at first looked like pasta but of course wasn't. But I would still order it again. Parks...I spend most of my 4 days at the MK and EPCOT but did head into the Studios for a short time. I have to say the parks were not as crowded as normal for this time of year so going on my favorite rides was not an issue.
Transportation...ME was great; as usual. No lines and now wait. Got directly on the bus around 10:30 and at 11:10 I was checking into SSR. Buses to the park were not bad at all and I think the longest wait I had was in the late afternoon and it was oh, maybe 10 minutes for a MK bus. Early mornings they were fine; maybe 5-10 minutes. However, at the parks and trying to get home was another story. It was at least a 15-20 minute wait and sometimes it felt like forever. I think with the heat and humidity and the fact that you're just plain ole tired made it seem like it was forever, but one night at the MK I saw 3 buses for Coronado Springs leave before even 1 for SSR arrived. EPCOT wasn't much better; at least a 15 minute wait at night to go back to the hotel.
All in all I had a wonderful time and now the countdown begins again until we're back in June. This was a "me only trip" and in June DH will be with me when we celebrate my birthday. Normally I do "live" reports, but I didn't have the laptop this trip.
I'll try and post some pictures later on for all of you to see; especially my wonderful "view of DTD"!!!
