choosing where to stay?

[Raci]

Trying to plan for our first ever WDW trip and I thought I'd decided which hotels from each price band I prefered the sound of:
Value - All stars music
Moderate - Coronado springs
Deluxe - Polynesian (or Wilderness Lodge)

But when I went to price poss trips up last night during free dining summer 2010, all star music didn't work out good value because there was no free dining, coronado springs never came up on the list, polynesian was too expensive and wilderness lodge didn't seem such a good deal as there were good offers on Old Key West and Saratoga Springs.

So now I'm confused

I've never looked at OKW or SSR because they were DVC resorts so I don't know much about them. Do they have as much Disney themeing as the other resorts I mentioned?

My other concern was that OKW and SSR didn't seem to have the same amount of food choice on resort as any other disney ones did, is that right?

Which of these 6 resorts do people recomend?

 

[orangetiggs]

stayed at poly and csr, would not stay at csr again as too conventiony for us

this year we are at POFQ and next year we are going for saratoga springs

 

[JohnnySharp2]

The Old Key West Resort & Saratoga Springs Resort are both very good value for money at the moment, however both aren't themed in a 'Disney way' (whatever that is) and you wouldn't necessarily feel you are staying on WDW property.
Having said that, to many that is part of the appeal and all resorts are after all themed differently to cater for many tastes.

As far as the dining options go personally I agree and neither appeal to me either from that point of view, though SSR has the advantage of being a short walk from Downtown Disney where there is shopping and dining available to use and enjoy.

From a pure theming & dining perspective out of the resorts you list the Polynesian would be my choice, in addition you are also on the monorail route and have Magic Kingdom, as well as the Grand Floridian, Contemporary and the not yet opened Bay Lake Towers - so you have several different themes, dining opportunities all closeby.

As ever it is all a matter of taste & budget.

 

[Raci]

I have since found some reviews of SSR and although the majority of people seem very happy with their overall stay there , even those people keep saying the cons of SSR are the lack of dining choice, and both the buses and size of the reaort can be an issue if you don't have a car.

Have any of you stayed at SSR? And if so is this fairly accurate?

 

[Claire L]

I have since found some reviews of SSR and although the majority of people seem very happy with their overall stay there , even those people keep saying the cons of SSR are the lack of dining choice, and both the buses and size of the reaort can be an issue if you don't have a car.

Have any of you stayed at SSR? And if so is this fairly accurate?

We have now stayed at SSR twice and yes it is big but easily walkable for the average adult. Plus for food DTD is only a bus, boat or walk away. We found the buses at the BWI to be the worst for taking so long getting anywhere.

Claire