Just back from 1st stay at SSR & BWV!

[mickeywho?]

We're just back and trying to get back to reality. Thought I would let you all know how the trip worked out after all your help and advice.

We arrived at SSR on Saturday morning- around 11am. Room was ready! Off to The Paddock. A nice surprise but not so nice once we saw where they put us. We were in the most distant room with a view of the parking lot, road and firestation. A few minutes after we got into the room the sirens began. Aargh! We called the front desk right away and they said we could move rooms - no problem - as long as we were willing to wait. Well we really didn't mind the wait - we had planned to spend the afternoon at DTD anyways.
We managed to get our new room at The Grandstand by 3pm. Great quiet view of the golf course - just out of sight of DTD - and a quick walk to the Carriage House. Worked perfectly for us! We didn't make any request for location on our reservation because we had so many different opinions on what everyone loved so we thought we would leave it up to the reservation fairies - next time we'll request Grandstand. Definitely the option for us.

Beautiful resort. Room (both really) was squeaky clean and fresh. Quiet at night. We never waited more than 10 minutes for a bus. Overall a great stay!

On the Thursday we moved to BWV. We had booked a preferred view but again made no requests and just waited to see what we would get. We had to wait for our room - we were at the resort early - but had it by 4pm. We took that time to explore the boardwalk and headed over to Beaches and Cream for the Kitchen Sink (we ate the whole thing! ).
We were in room 4059 - directly above the Wyland Gallery overlooking the grassy area. We loved it. We felt like we were in the middle of everything but didn't get all the noise from the Boardwalk. We really loved the location and headed over to Epcot every night for a walk and snacks around the world. The kids loved the slide (although that clown kinda freaked me out!)

Room was fine. We had a new sofabed that the kids preferred over the one at SSR. The room felt a bit worn down and was ready for a rehab. The doors on the tv armoire were falling off so we were afraid to shut them. And what's with the tv? Are they all 15 inch or was it just ours. That was the tiniest tv I've ever seen in any hotel room. We assumed the original one was broken and this was the make-do while waiting for a full-size to be bought. The kitchen cupboard doors all really needed a good cleaning - there was alot of spatter on them and all the trimwork around the room was pretty dirty. We had maintenance come by after we arrived as the outlet for HSI was falling out of the wall. Which he promptly fixed with superglue. I'm sure that will last!
Overall a great stay. Both resorts were great - a good mix to do both. My hubbie and I will be back at BWV in a few weeks for a minitrip without the kids and we're really looking forward to it. Now I'm off to catch up on all the post vacation chores

 

[alldiz]

thanks for the great review....

cant wait to try BWV
Is BWV on the rehab list?
thanks
Kerri

 

[disneynutz]

We're just back and trying to get back to reality. Thought I would let you all know how the trip worked out after all your help and advice.

We were in room 4059 Room was fine. We had a new sofabed that the kids preferred over the one at SSR. The room felt a bit worn down and was ready for a rehab. The doors on the tv armoire were falling off so we were afraid to shut them. And what's with the tv? Are they all 15 inch or was it just ours. That was the tiniest tv I've ever seen in any hotel room. We assumed the original one was broken and this was the make-do while waiting for a full-size to be bought. The kitchen cupboard doors all really needed a good cleaning - there was alot of spatter on them and all the trimwork around the room was pretty dirty. We had maintenance come by after we arrived as the outlet for HSI was falling out of the wall. Which he promptly fixed with superglue. I'm sure that will last!

Glad you had a wonderful trip. Please take the time to report the BWV issues to the DVC Member Satisfaction Team.

dvcmembersatisfactionteam@disneyvacationclub.com

 

[mickeywho?]

Glad you had a wonderful trip. Please take the time to report the BWV issues to the DVC Member Satisfaction Team.

dvcmembersatisfactionteam@disneyvacationclub.com

We told (and showed) to the cm who came by originally to look at the outlet and I also spoke to the manager at the front desk. Should I follow up with DVC Members Satisfaction?

 

[spiceycat]

all the tv are small - except for AKV - they have the new ones!!!

 

[disneynutz]

Sorry double post...

 

[disneynutz]

We told (and showed) to the cm who came by originally to look at the outlet and I also spoke to the manager at the front desk. Should I follow up with DVC Members Satisfaction?

You talked to local personal. They can fix small problems but that is as far as your contact went.

By reporting to the DVCMST your report is recorded and the info is passed to upper management. Their job is to keep members satisfied. If enough people have reported issues at the resorts, they will put pressure on the resort management to improve maintenance. It also helps the resort management with their maintenance budget for next year. The squeaky wheel gets the grease.

Just cut and paste from your post into a email and send it off.

Bill

 

[mickeywho?]

Thanks - I sent an email yesterday.
I also mentioned that one of our neighbours was smoking on his balcony (not wanting to start a right's thread here!) and could they in future make it clear to guests where the smoking areas are. At both resorts we were given maps in our folders but there was no mention of the non-smoking policy and direction to smoking areas. I can't fault a guest who hasn't been informed. The manager that had come to our room did go speak to him immediately and there were no issues the rest of the stay so I'm sure that was simply the case.
As far as the tv goes - the SSR tv was a full-size and the BWV was teeny. I don't know what AKV have - perhaps the nice new flat-screens that we had at Poly on our last stay. But a 15-inch is definitely not the norm!

 

[cjs123123]

we stayed in the paddock last month and I had posted something on here about the fire station. People thought that I was crazy, when I mentioned something about the sirens all day long. I will never stay in the paddock again!!!

 

[kda]

Thanks - I sent an email yesterday.
I also mentioned that one of our neighbours was smoking on his balcony (not wanting to start a right's thread here!) and could they in future make it clear to guests where the smoking areas are.

I agree ....... we were at VWL in November and we were told verbally and it was printed out on something that I had to initial at check in.

Glad you had a good trip and thanks for posting!

 

[mickeywho?]

I was surprised that neither check-in mentioned the policy. One CM was in training so that may be excused but the other was not. When we were at the Poly in August they pointed out the closest smoking area to our building and where we could smoke at the pool - we're non-smokers so we had not even asked.
CJS - when we mentioned the sirens to the front desk we were told - "oh no they never have their sirens on around the resort" Huh? Well - they did and it was loud! So we were out of there immediately! We really enjoy sitting on the balcony at night after the kids have gone to bed so having a relatively quiet area is important to the quality of our stay.

 

[sanbornangel]

Our first trip to SSR:
Room was ready,
We decided not to use bell service,
Dragged our luggage in 90 degrees in our Buffalo wardrobe,
Didn't look at the map,
Took a wrong turn,
Went the LONG WAY to Congress Park,
Got to the room and went to the balcony,
BIG TREE IN MY VIEW,
Complained about the view,
Dragged the luggae back to the desk,
Waited at the pool for 3 hours for the new room,
New room in same building looking at a little stream and a big parking lot!
HMM...HMM
I mean gorgeous view of a river running gentle by...
NEVER COMPLAINED AGAIN
DH WANTED TO DISOWN ME!

 

[dw1]

Thanks for the great review.

 

[disneymom8589]

Thank you for your review. We stayed in Congress Park at SSR last summer and it was lovely. We just today switched our reservation for July from VWL to BWV. We are excited to stay there, since it will be our first time.

 

[cjs123123]

I was surprised that neither check-in mentioned the policy. One CM was in training so that may be excused but the other was not. When we were at the Poly in August they pointed out the closest smoking area to our building and where we could smoke at the pool - we're non-smokers so we had not even asked.
CJS - when we mentioned the sirens to the front desk we were told - "oh no they never have their sirens on around the resort" Huh? Well - they did and it was loud! So we were out of there immediately! We really enjoy sitting on the balcony at night after the kids have gone to bed so having a relatively quiet area is important to the quality of our stay.

My husband and I mentioned it to the cm and they said is it that bad? I was like yes and they did nothing for us. When my husband and I visited the ak model at ssr the lady asked us how our stay was? and the first thing we mentioned was the sirens. The girl said I didnt know there was a fire station near. Looks to me like the cms dont know there area, never stayed at the resort before. I like ssr. I just will never stay at the paddock again. We have a 17 month old, we could never keep our patio door open cause there was a call ever 2 hours. Our daughter could never take a nap. it sucked. Lets keep the paddock area open to the paying people not dvc members!!!!

 

[abk96]

Glad to hear you had a great vacation!

We did the exact opposite last July. First BWV then SSR. We loved both resorts and thought it was a great mix.

We were supposed to be in the Paddocks section too, CP request didn't happen. But after hearing about how far it is from everything I kindly asked if we could be in the Grandstand section. The CM at the front desk kind of looked at me like I was being too picky. She said that the Paddock section is her favorite at SSR. I guess she doesn't know about the fire station.

 

[mickeywho?]

I really thought the two resorts gave us two different vacations. It was a great mix! We may do it again next year!

 

[cjs123123]

we are going in june we are staying at bw the first 4 days and ak the next two and then ssr the last 2 we are on a wait list for ak for all 4. I am just hoping that we get it. I rather not stay at ssr. If I do I will not be near the paddock!!!

 

[byoung]

We're just back and trying to get back to reality. Thought I would let you all know how the trip worked out after all your help and advice.

We arrived at SSR on Saturday morning- around 11am. Room was ready! Off to The Paddock. A nice surprise but not so nice once we saw where they put us. We were in the most distant room with a view of the parking lot, road and firestation. A few minutes after we got into the room the sirens began. Aargh! We called the front desk right away and they said we could move rooms - no problem - as long as we were willing to wait. Well we really didn't mind the wait - we had planned to spend the afternoon at DTD anyways.
We managed to get our new room at The Grandstand by 3pm. Great quiet view of the golf course - just out of sight of DTD - and a quick walk to the Carriage House. Worked perfectly for us! We didn't make any request for location on our reservation because we had so many different opinions on what everyone loved so we thought we would leave it up to the reservation fairies - next time we'll request Grandstand. Definitely the option for us.

Beautiful resort. Room (both really) was squeaky clean and fresh. Quiet at night. We never waited more than 10 minutes for a bus. Overall a great stay!

On the Thursday we moved to BWV. We had booked a preferred view but again made no requests and just waited to see what we would get. We had to wait for our room - we were at the resort early - but had it by 4pm. We took that time to explore the boardwalk and headed over to Beaches and Cream for the Kitchen Sink (we ate the whole thing! ).
We were in room 4059 - directly above the Wyland Gallery overlooking the grassy area. We loved it. We felt like we were in the middle of everything but didn't get all the noise from the Boardwalk. We really loved the location and headed over to Epcot every night for a walk and snacks around the world. The kids loved the slide (although that clown kinda freaked me out!)

Room was fine. We had a new sofabed that the kids preferred over the one at SSR. The room felt a bit worn down and was ready for a rehab. The doors on the tv armoire were falling off so we were afraid to shut them. And what's with the tv? Are they all 15 inch or was it just ours. That was the tiniest tv I've ever seen in any hotel room. We assumed the original one was broken and this was the make-do while waiting for a full-size to be bought. The kitchen cupboard doors all really needed a good cleaning - there was alot of spatter on them and all the trimwork around the room was pretty dirty. We had maintenance come by after we arrived as the outlet for HSI was falling out of the wall. Which he promptly fixed with superglue. I'm sure that will last!
Overall a great stay. Both resorts were great - a good mix to do both. My hubbie and I will be back at BWV in a few weeks for a minitrip without the kids and we're really looking forward to it. Now I'm off to catch up on all the post vacation chores

Stay in 4059 a few years back, we loved it. Not as good a view of the fireworks as the Boardwalk views we book now.