K9pal
<font color=green>Just call me Miss Patient!
- Joined
- Aug 26, 1999
- Messages
- 1,150
My DH and I just returned from our first visit home, and we can say that we are very happy with our home resort, SSR. We spent 2 nights at SSR in a 2BR (with my parents as our guests), then 5 nights at BWV in a studio with just the 2 of us. Before going, we were concerned from comments made on the boards that we might not be completely happy with SSR, but we far preferred it over BWV.
We arrived on 9/13 (Monday) around noon. There was only one CM working at check in, with another CM helping a guest with shipping a package. There were 2 families ahead of us in line and 2 behind us, and it took at least 25 minutes before we were waited on. This really was the only thing we were not happy with, since there were other CMs in the back that did not offer assistance. Our villa was not yet ready, so we were given room keys and a phone number to call. We went to DTD for lunch, called from there and were in our villa by 1:30. It was gorgeous! It was villa 1510, a dedicated 2BR on the ground floor. We took my 80 yr old parents and they were very impressed as well. The room was very quiet - the patio faced DTD and the patio doors completely shut out all noise. However, the BR windows did not and we were all awakened each night at midnight for the PR fireworks. The master bath is fantastic and the beds were so comfortable! The things we didnt like were very insignificant, such as only one thermostat for the whole villa. It was also a hike to the main SSR area, but close the community (quiet) pool. Very close to the bus stop, but far from the boat. The walkway to DTD was a nice stroll, about 5-7 minutes. Since we did not visit any of the parks these first 2 days, I cant vouch for the transportation. However, we saw buses coming in and out constantly. We were disappointed to see that a previous guest had thrown lots of cigarette butts in the landscaping just beyond the patio. Also, many of the new landscape plants had been blown sideways and partly uprooted by Charley. I hope they are able to salvage these. Hurricane damage was evident in landscaping everywhere, very sad to see. We did like the ambience of SSR, but agree with another persons observation that SSR seems more geared to adults than families with kids. The corridors are covered exterior corridors, so I cant imagine them being carpeted. I cant understand why the concrete bothers people, since its decoratively painted. Actually Im glad it was concrete - I dropped an unopened bottle of red wine just outside the door, and would have been mortified if Id ruined new carpeting!
On 9/15 (Wed), we checked out of SSR, said goodbye to my folks, and moved over to BWV. Although we love the Epcot area and were disappointed at the time that we couldnt buy into BWV or BCV, we are now glad that we bought SSR instead. Check in was smooth and our room was ready even though it was early (11 AM). We had room 4064, a PW view of the main pool on the 4th floor. As soon as we walked in, we realized the balcony had a high, solid wall that we could only see over if we stood up. We like to sit on the balcony, so we immediately went back to see if we could get another room. It took awhile and the CM had to call the room assigner (VERY nice guy), but he was able to reassign us to 3019. We were happy with this room - it was very quiet and had a view of the Swan/Dolphin and canal to the left. However, the elevators were quite far away. My tip for BWV - use the free valet service! We did not and we regretted it. While we were happy with the room, it was a bit worn. The pull out bed was not at all comfortable and hard to pull out. There was a loud, annoying drip to the faucet that had to have been obvious to housekeeping. We plugged it with the sponge at night so it wouldnt keep us awake, because we didnt want to fool with maintenance. The morning of the second day, our toilet backed up and overflowed (not our fault!) which was not pleasant. We called maintenance and it was fixed while we were at the park. They also fixed the drip. Our third evening, we arrived home late to find a voice mail saying electricity would be shut down for mandatory emergency check at 2AM for 1-2 hours. The message was left at 6PM, and we thought they should have notified everyone earlier so they could make plans, since it was a scheduled outage. It ended up being off for 2 ½ hours, and the room got quite warm during that time. Also, to get hot water in the mornings we had to run the faucet for about 10 minutes. We called maintenance thinking there was a problem, and they said just to let the faucet run. That was a bit annoying as well. The room did have its good points - we were very near the stairs that led directly to the main pool.
All in all we had a great trip, looking forward to going back next year! We did discover that we now want more points...
We arrived on 9/13 (Monday) around noon. There was only one CM working at check in, with another CM helping a guest with shipping a package. There were 2 families ahead of us in line and 2 behind us, and it took at least 25 minutes before we were waited on. This really was the only thing we were not happy with, since there were other CMs in the back that did not offer assistance. Our villa was not yet ready, so we were given room keys and a phone number to call. We went to DTD for lunch, called from there and were in our villa by 1:30. It was gorgeous! It was villa 1510, a dedicated 2BR on the ground floor. We took my 80 yr old parents and they were very impressed as well. The room was very quiet - the patio faced DTD and the patio doors completely shut out all noise. However, the BR windows did not and we were all awakened each night at midnight for the PR fireworks. The master bath is fantastic and the beds were so comfortable! The things we didnt like were very insignificant, such as only one thermostat for the whole villa. It was also a hike to the main SSR area, but close the community (quiet) pool. Very close to the bus stop, but far from the boat. The walkway to DTD was a nice stroll, about 5-7 minutes. Since we did not visit any of the parks these first 2 days, I cant vouch for the transportation. However, we saw buses coming in and out constantly. We were disappointed to see that a previous guest had thrown lots of cigarette butts in the landscaping just beyond the patio. Also, many of the new landscape plants had been blown sideways and partly uprooted by Charley. I hope they are able to salvage these. Hurricane damage was evident in landscaping everywhere, very sad to see. We did like the ambience of SSR, but agree with another persons observation that SSR seems more geared to adults than families with kids. The corridors are covered exterior corridors, so I cant imagine them being carpeted. I cant understand why the concrete bothers people, since its decoratively painted. Actually Im glad it was concrete - I dropped an unopened bottle of red wine just outside the door, and would have been mortified if Id ruined new carpeting!
On 9/15 (Wed), we checked out of SSR, said goodbye to my folks, and moved over to BWV. Although we love the Epcot area and were disappointed at the time that we couldnt buy into BWV or BCV, we are now glad that we bought SSR instead. Check in was smooth and our room was ready even though it was early (11 AM). We had room 4064, a PW view of the main pool on the 4th floor. As soon as we walked in, we realized the balcony had a high, solid wall that we could only see over if we stood up. We like to sit on the balcony, so we immediately went back to see if we could get another room. It took awhile and the CM had to call the room assigner (VERY nice guy), but he was able to reassign us to 3019. We were happy with this room - it was very quiet and had a view of the Swan/Dolphin and canal to the left. However, the elevators were quite far away. My tip for BWV - use the free valet service! We did not and we regretted it. While we were happy with the room, it was a bit worn. The pull out bed was not at all comfortable and hard to pull out. There was a loud, annoying drip to the faucet that had to have been obvious to housekeeping. We plugged it with the sponge at night so it wouldnt keep us awake, because we didnt want to fool with maintenance. The morning of the second day, our toilet backed up and overflowed (not our fault!) which was not pleasant. We called maintenance and it was fixed while we were at the park. They also fixed the drip. Our third evening, we arrived home late to find a voice mail saying electricity would be shut down for mandatory emergency check at 2AM for 1-2 hours. The message was left at 6PM, and we thought they should have notified everyone earlier so they could make plans, since it was a scheduled outage. It ended up being off for 2 ½ hours, and the room got quite warm during that time. Also, to get hot water in the mornings we had to run the faucet for about 10 minutes. We called maintenance thinking there was a problem, and they said just to let the faucet run. That was a bit annoying as well. The room did have its good points - we were very near the stairs that led directly to the main pool.
All in all we had a great trip, looking forward to going back next year! We did discover that we now want more points...
. We just bought a resale there!
I wouldn't be a bit surprised based on other trip reports I've read. I already want an add-on! I have to go on our first trip home with DH first so he will want one too
