fkj2 said:
Well, what I was really thinking about the busing within SSR is that you board the bus, it makes the circle around the complex, and then exits to its intended destinations. For example, it stops at the Carriage House, Congress Park, the Springs, and then for example, Epcot, before it returns to the resort. Someone at the very last bus stop would have a huge ride before the bus ever makes it back to the stop at Congress Park, unless they walked over to the temporary stop at the Carriage House.
And that's exactly what they should do. The "temporary stop" at the Carriage House is
right across the street from the permanent Springs bus stop. If you wanted to get from the main pool area to Congress Park, obviously you just walk across the road and grab a bus that's headed for CP.
I even think it would be a long walk from The Springs area to DTD, especially in high heat and humidity.
That's why they offer bus service, too.
But it's still no further than the walk from, say, BWV to MGM.
Am just now on phone with MS and the cast member with whom I spoke said that last April, 5 buildings with approximately 80 units (of varied size) were open so that was roughly 400 units. I also asked about eventual size of the resort and she said it would be about double OKW, which she said had 700 units. SSR is supposed to have 18 buildings.
With all due respect to MS, those numbers have quite a bit of margin for error.
Each SSR building has 2 Grand Villas, 20 Dedicated 2B Villas and 24 Lockoff 2B Villas. That's a total of 46 units per building, or 824 over 18 buildings.
By comparison, OKW has 531 total units. That makes SSR 55% larger than OKW.
Now, if you want to talk about max available units, assuming all lockoffs are booked separately as a Studio and 1B, then SSR will have 1260 vs. 761 at OKW. In that comparison, SSR is 66% larger.
Of course it's open to debate as to how many lockoffs are actually booked as a 1B + Studio.
It's going to be a huge resort, and unlike some of the other WDW resorts like GF or Contemporary or whatever, the transportation around SSR is different simply because of how the resort is laid out.
Yes it will be different, but I'm not clear on how that makes it inferior.
Want to get from Congress Park to the main pool? Either walk 5 minutes or jump on a bus to the stop at The Springs.
Want to get from The Springs to DTD? Either walk 15 minutes or take the bus.
As far as BWV or BCV is concerned, you can either choose to walk to either the Studios or Epcot, respectively, or take the bus or boat.
Not quite true. BWV and BCV do not have bus service to Epcot or MGM--it's either walk or take the boat.
I still maintain that the walk from the farther most buildings to DTD will find most guests taking the DTD bus.
And that may well be the case. I wouldn't argue otherwise since it would be about a 3 minute bus ride. But I don't see how this is a knock on the resort. Back to the SSR vs. BCV / BWV comparison, if you choose not to walk, you can get from SSR to DTD on a bus MUCH faster than from BCV / BWV to MGM via boat.