RoyalCanadian
A Proud DVC Member @ SSR
- Joined
- Jan 10, 2004
- Messages
- 2,703
The Story in General
Our first trip home to SSR after purchasing 150 points at the end of January 2004.
The Arrival
There were lots of "Welcome Home" greetings -- from the Disney Security at the front gate to the CMs working the front desk. We were ably guided through the check-in process, which fell under the new MYW guidelines, even though we had pre-purchased our 10 day MYW + 5 Magic Plus + No Expiry through Maple Leaf Tickets. (which were waiting for us at check-in) DD5 was given her own KTTW but without the charging privileges which would have given her fairly unfettered access to Daddy's Visa Gold card. There was some confusion (on our part) about picking up confirmations for our HDDR PS that evening and I was made a little anxious by another CM who gave me a little grief for not being at Pioneer Hall already when I came into the Carriage House to get the confirmation slip.
The Room
The front desk CM was a little apologetic at not being able to give us the top floor DTD view I had requested -- however he could give us a 2nd floor DTD view. It didn't matter to me. We were in 1234, in "Building #4" -- closest to DTD. Our immediate impression was WOW
when we opened the door to our room. While I had seen many pictures of what SSR had to offer in the rooms I wasn't fully prepared for the luxury I found there waiting for us. The view of DTD was somewhat obscured, but it was still wonderful. DW unpacked -- the first time she has ever unpacked in a hotel setting. As she told a DVD CM at one of the park booths a day or so later, "I felt like I could unpack because I was home."
Later that night I had to look around to find the bedding for the pull-out couch, but soon used deductive reasoning and found the linens in the closet off the jacuzzi bathroom. The bed was actually quite comfortable (DD5 slept there -- I fell alseep there a couple of times when I put her to bed or back to bed after late night toilet trips.) The king size bed in the bedroom was heavenly -- so comfortable -- the pillows were perfect. Nice to have a television right there and so much room to spread out with stuff packed away in the drawers or spread out on a chair (all depends who was putting stuff away, I guess.) At midnight the first night I heard a dull popping from outside -- pulled the curtain aside to find the brief fireworks show at PI in action. Nice sight that really proved I was home.
Nice toilet, but...
I've read a great deal about overly sensitive bathroom exhaust fans (no problem there -- although the green strobe light effect from the sensor light was a surprise in the wee hours of the night) and AC systems that shut off at night because nobody is moving about (no problem there -- AC kept working through the night to keep things fresh.) but do those toilets have to be so loud?? There was grinding as the lever hit bottom and then a great whoosh as what I presume to be the "jet power" helped the water do its job. WOW.
Those were the days, my friends
Being a Canuck from the Great White North, I have heard plenty about Quick & Casual Vouchers but figured I would be unable to get my hands on any for a reasonable price. Thankfully, a very kind DISer (you know who you are) sold me some extras that she had left over from a recent trip. Instead of making a pile of money from the sale of these vouchers she sold them to me for face value + a small consideration to help with postage. These vouchers were a great idea and we ate like kings. I purchased 10 of them, we used 8 of them and managed to get over $150 value from those 8 vouchers. We used 4 Q&C vouchers at Tangerine Cafe on two occasions -- when everything was totalled these vouchers essentially worked like 50% off coupons there. They wanted us to take two more side orders, despite the fact that the exact same salads were already included -- we couldn't have eaten them anyways. The platters were jam packed with great food. Outstanding value. Two vouchers were used at Beaches & Cream -- no milkshakes or fruit smoothies allowed for beverages (but free refills on fountain beverages), we were told and the side was considered included in the entree, however we could choose which side we wanted and the regular "No Kitchen Sink rule" applied, but we found great value in the $7.99 sundaes, which we had to leave unfinished. For the $22.40 investment (remember the consideration for postage), we managed to get about $50 value with food, tax and gratuity. Not bad for a 20 minute wait to sit down at a "counter service" restaurant. Flame Tree BBQ at AK wasn't as great a value as I expected, as the sides already included on the plate were considered the sides mentioned on the voucher (obviously the Moroccans weren't running the show there!). Still, we had already paid for the voucher and the cost of the meal + tax were greater than our cost.
The extra two vouchers will go with DWs parents on their 45th Anniversary trip to OKW in February (courtesy of our points borrowed from next year).
Magic Your Way Tickets
I didn't experience any problems myself, but DW had some troubles with her ticket on the Friday as we were enterring DS. The next day at MK there were more problems upon entry and she was unable to access FPs. We exchanged her ticket at Guest Relations and the CM told her she had to exit the park and re-enter because the ticket was not showing her as being in the park. When she tried to do this, the CM at the gate told her that the system was showing that she was in the park. No problem with getting FPs after this (other than what I took to be usual FP hiccups.) Maple Leaf Tickets delivered the MYW tickets to SSR, as promised -- same Disney ticket media (indestructible "paper" ticket) with which I was familiar from our trip in Nov. '97 when we had 5 day Canadian @ Par tickets and same as the 5 day PHPs DW's parents received from Ticketmania. However, TDS in Walden Galleria in Buffalo, NY was selling plastic "Credit card" style tickets with the "hangers" attached. When DW exchanged her ticket at MK Guest Relations, I thought she might receive a plastic ticket in return -- but the ticket machine printed out the same paper media we all know.
DD5 was not expected to submit to biometrics -- as many have pointed out on the DISboards, such measurements are fairly useless over time for a growing child.
Recreation
We all swam in both the Congress Park quiet pool and the High Rock Springs pool @ SSR. DD loved the Donald Duck fountain. I asked one of the lifeguards at High Rock Springs what the pool capacity was and although it wasn't posted, he suggested that most WDW Resort pools have a capacity of 250-300. It was very quiet both times we were at High Rock Springs -- until one extended family arrived in which the two accompanying mothers felt their parental obligations and responsibilities were set aside because of the presence of 2 lifeguards. These children (ranging in age from about 5-16) ran on the pool decks, up the stairs to the slide entry and along the paths to the slide entry. The youngest of the lot threw himself down the pool slide, despite his general inability to swim and the lifeguard had no choice but to jump in to save the child before he went under for the third time -- even though he could have put his feet down to stand up in the meter deep water at the exit to the slide. The mother of the child in question didn't think much of this and laughed it off when she came down the water slide. One lifeguard commented to me as I swam with DD, "And we were just commenting on how quiet it was."
Disney Transportation
We saw many Disney guests using the SSR buses for access to DTD -- they were guided to the SSR bus by various Disney CMs. At some point in the trip from the various parks to the resort each group piped up with this fact, addressing nobody in particular, but generally wondering how one gets from SSR to DTD. Being generally nice, I refrained from directing them towards the Fairway and Treehouse villas (even though one group assumed the bright lights of the Carriage House, Performance Hall, and Spa complex were the lights of DTD) and instead directed them along the lakeside path towards DTD. It didn't affect any SSR guests -- that is, nobody trying to get to their accommodations at SSR were denied bus transport because a DTD visitor was on the bus, but this is January. I can imagine that things could be much worse in peak holiday seasons.
Beyond these specifics -- the parks were great (we avoided EMH, as suggested by UG and seemed to do quite fine in the doing) and I'd be more than willing to try to answer any questions anyone might have.
Now to planning how to convince our friends they will want to join us for March Break in 2006!
Our first trip home to SSR after purchasing 150 points at the end of January 2004.
The Arrival
There were lots of "Welcome Home" greetings -- from the Disney Security at the front gate to the CMs working the front desk. We were ably guided through the check-in process, which fell under the new MYW guidelines, even though we had pre-purchased our 10 day MYW + 5 Magic Plus + No Expiry through Maple Leaf Tickets. (which were waiting for us at check-in) DD5 was given her own KTTW but without the charging privileges which would have given her fairly unfettered access to Daddy's Visa Gold card. There was some confusion (on our part) about picking up confirmations for our HDDR PS that evening and I was made a little anxious by another CM who gave me a little grief for not being at Pioneer Hall already when I came into the Carriage House to get the confirmation slip.
The Room
The front desk CM was a little apologetic at not being able to give us the top floor DTD view I had requested -- however he could give us a 2nd floor DTD view. It didn't matter to me. We were in 1234, in "Building #4" -- closest to DTD. Our immediate impression was WOW
when we opened the door to our room. While I had seen many pictures of what SSR had to offer in the rooms I wasn't fully prepared for the luxury I found there waiting for us. The view of DTD was somewhat obscured, but it was still wonderful. DW unpacked -- the first time she has ever unpacked in a hotel setting. As she told a DVD CM at one of the park booths a day or so later, "I felt like I could unpack because I was home."Later that night I had to look around to find the bedding for the pull-out couch, but soon used deductive reasoning and found the linens in the closet off the jacuzzi bathroom. The bed was actually quite comfortable (DD5 slept there -- I fell alseep there a couple of times when I put her to bed or back to bed after late night toilet trips.) The king size bed in the bedroom was heavenly -- so comfortable -- the pillows were perfect. Nice to have a television right there and so much room to spread out with stuff packed away in the drawers or spread out on a chair (all depends who was putting stuff away, I guess.) At midnight the first night I heard a dull popping from outside -- pulled the curtain aside to find the brief fireworks show at PI in action. Nice sight that really proved I was home.
Nice toilet, but...
I've read a great deal about overly sensitive bathroom exhaust fans (no problem there -- although the green strobe light effect from the sensor light was a surprise in the wee hours of the night) and AC systems that shut off at night because nobody is moving about (no problem there -- AC kept working through the night to keep things fresh.) but do those toilets have to be so loud?? There was grinding as the lever hit bottom and then a great whoosh as what I presume to be the "jet power" helped the water do its job. WOW.
Those were the days, my friends
Being a Canuck from the Great White North, I have heard plenty about Quick & Casual Vouchers but figured I would be unable to get my hands on any for a reasonable price. Thankfully, a very kind DISer (you know who you are) sold me some extras that she had left over from a recent trip. Instead of making a pile of money from the sale of these vouchers she sold them to me for face value + a small consideration to help with postage. These vouchers were a great idea and we ate like kings. I purchased 10 of them, we used 8 of them and managed to get over $150 value from those 8 vouchers. We used 4 Q&C vouchers at Tangerine Cafe on two occasions -- when everything was totalled these vouchers essentially worked like 50% off coupons there. They wanted us to take two more side orders, despite the fact that the exact same salads were already included -- we couldn't have eaten them anyways. The platters were jam packed with great food. Outstanding value. Two vouchers were used at Beaches & Cream -- no milkshakes or fruit smoothies allowed for beverages (but free refills on fountain beverages), we were told and the side was considered included in the entree, however we could choose which side we wanted and the regular "No Kitchen Sink rule" applied, but we found great value in the $7.99 sundaes, which we had to leave unfinished. For the $22.40 investment (remember the consideration for postage), we managed to get about $50 value with food, tax and gratuity. Not bad for a 20 minute wait to sit down at a "counter service" restaurant. Flame Tree BBQ at AK wasn't as great a value as I expected, as the sides already included on the plate were considered the sides mentioned on the voucher (obviously the Moroccans weren't running the show there!). Still, we had already paid for the voucher and the cost of the meal + tax were greater than our cost.
The extra two vouchers will go with DWs parents on their 45th Anniversary trip to OKW in February (courtesy of our points borrowed from next year).
Magic Your Way Tickets
I didn't experience any problems myself, but DW had some troubles with her ticket on the Friday as we were enterring DS. The next day at MK there were more problems upon entry and she was unable to access FPs. We exchanged her ticket at Guest Relations and the CM told her she had to exit the park and re-enter because the ticket was not showing her as being in the park. When she tried to do this, the CM at the gate told her that the system was showing that she was in the park. No problem with getting FPs after this (other than what I took to be usual FP hiccups.) Maple Leaf Tickets delivered the MYW tickets to SSR, as promised -- same Disney ticket media (indestructible "paper" ticket) with which I was familiar from our trip in Nov. '97 when we had 5 day Canadian @ Par tickets and same as the 5 day PHPs DW's parents received from Ticketmania. However, TDS in Walden Galleria in Buffalo, NY was selling plastic "Credit card" style tickets with the "hangers" attached. When DW exchanged her ticket at MK Guest Relations, I thought she might receive a plastic ticket in return -- but the ticket machine printed out the same paper media we all know.
DD5 was not expected to submit to biometrics -- as many have pointed out on the DISboards, such measurements are fairly useless over time for a growing child.
Recreation
We all swam in both the Congress Park quiet pool and the High Rock Springs pool @ SSR. DD loved the Donald Duck fountain. I asked one of the lifeguards at High Rock Springs what the pool capacity was and although it wasn't posted, he suggested that most WDW Resort pools have a capacity of 250-300. It was very quiet both times we were at High Rock Springs -- until one extended family arrived in which the two accompanying mothers felt their parental obligations and responsibilities were set aside because of the presence of 2 lifeguards. These children (ranging in age from about 5-16) ran on the pool decks, up the stairs to the slide entry and along the paths to the slide entry. The youngest of the lot threw himself down the pool slide, despite his general inability to swim and the lifeguard had no choice but to jump in to save the child before he went under for the third time -- even though he could have put his feet down to stand up in the meter deep water at the exit to the slide. The mother of the child in question didn't think much of this and laughed it off when she came down the water slide. One lifeguard commented to me as I swam with DD, "And we were just commenting on how quiet it was."
Disney Transportation
We saw many Disney guests using the SSR buses for access to DTD -- they were guided to the SSR bus by various Disney CMs. At some point in the trip from the various parks to the resort each group piped up with this fact, addressing nobody in particular, but generally wondering how one gets from SSR to DTD. Being generally nice, I refrained from directing them towards the Fairway and Treehouse villas (even though one group assumed the bright lights of the Carriage House, Performance Hall, and Spa complex were the lights of DTD) and instead directed them along the lakeside path towards DTD. It didn't affect any SSR guests -- that is, nobody trying to get to their accommodations at SSR were denied bus transport because a DTD visitor was on the bus, but this is January. I can imagine that things could be much worse in peak holiday seasons.
Beyond these specifics -- the parks were great (we avoided EMH, as suggested by UG and seemed to do quite fine in the doing) and I'd be more than willing to try to answer any questions anyone might have.
Now to planning how to convince our friends they will want to join us for March Break in 2006!
