las3888
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 30, 2001
Hi all,
We booked a somewhat last minute trip--maybe 30-45 days out and found that the only resort available was SSR. While some of our favorites are OKW, BC, or BLT, we knew that at last minute beggars can't be choosers, so we decided to give it a shot. Then we could at least say that we tried it!
While we weren't Wowed over by the resort, we did really enjoy ourselves and probably liked it more than we expected.
Upon check-in we were pleasantly surprised that ALL of our requests for our 1BR had been met--high floor (we got floor 4), Springs area (we were in the middle building of the Springs) and a nice view (we were at the far end of the building overlooking the pond across from the Paddock area which was quite nice). We checked in on the late side (around 6:30) too so we were very very happy to get all of our requests.
We ate at the Turf Club that evening and LOVED it! We sat outside and found it very nice and relaxing. Because SSR is similar to OKW in many ways and we have stayed at OKW many times, we made a lot of comparisons to OKW and Turf Club dining was a big plus over Olivia's. We like Olivia's but outdoor dining is very hot and sunny and indoor is a little cramped and noisy. The Turf Club was just more quiet and elegant and we really loved the menu over Olivia's. Great way to start the vacation!
We enjoyed the parks and found them a little less crowded than we had expected which was nice. I had been reading about how HOT it was lately, but while hot, it was pretty tolerable. We have been to WDW several times in August and other summer trips and have been defeated by the heat, but it wasn't nearly as bad as our previous experiences. We also hit the pools by 2-3pm anyways to cool off.
Just a note about the DVC 10% discount in the shops--make sure that you have your DVC card with you as well as driver's license (or photo ID). I had always thought that since our room cards say 'DVC' on them, that I wouldn't need to bring the actual card, especially since in the past, we found that we didn't actually use it much to get a discount (we formerly have had TIW for dining discounts). However, I was told upon my first purchase (the gift shop at SSR) that I needed the actual DVC member card (and later learned that they ask for a photo ID in addition every time but maybe once). I missed out on a savings of a few dollars, but learned my lesson, so heads-up! I was told by the CM that all the cards for people staying at DVC resorts say 'DVC' on
the card and it doesn't mean you are a DVC member, but I don't know if I agree with her on that point.
Anyways, our overall impressions regarding SSR--very nice! Our favorite things were the pool--we loved that it wasn't too deep except for in the middle, so that allowed DS (8) to be able to stand in most of the pool (unlike OKW). We loved the proximity to the pool and dining that the Springs offered. We also loved the close parking to your building (BWV has a HUGE disadvantage for us because of the very remote parking, despite our loving the resort and location). The rooms were nice but nothing out of the ordinary--pretty much the standard DVC room and not a lot of dramatic theming, but still very nice. The patio was small and didn't extend to the master bedroom (OKW has a huge advantage with room size and patio size). We loved having the elevator (especially on 4th floor)! We also thought the resort was very quiet. We only rode the elevator one time with another person--the rest of the time we were always the only people in the elevator. We never saw anybody walking around our building to go to their room. We never had any room noise from neighbors.
We never used the bus so no comments really other than I found the springs stop very close and saw busses pretty frequently.
We were a little irritated with one aspect of our reservation--because we have 3 separate DVC contracts, we had to link a 2 night resv. with a 1 night resv. from a different contract, and then yet one more night resv. from our 3rd contract. We are used to linked reservations, but I think it was a first for us to use all 3 contracts. We were not able to use on-line check-in because of the linked reservations (although I am told that will be changed someday). That wasn't a big problem for us though. However, we did have to settle our room account at the end of each reservation. We used a Visa for our card to be able to charge to our room, but we wanted to use our DVC rewards card from our Visa to actually pay for any charges. We did this after our first two nights, but then decided to just forgo any room charges and use the Visa rewards card for any charges directly. We did this partially because on our 3rd night we gave our Visa for room charges and lo and behold were rejected when we went to eat at T-Rex because the room didn't have charging privileges (even though I set it up to have charges and it said that we had charging privileges on the card). I should have known when they didn't ask for a pin after I gave our CC (BTW, I love that they do that now--nice added security). Also, it was a pain that we had to get new room keys every day because by 11am our reservation automatically checked us out and our keys would no longer work. One day a CM said that they could deliver them instead, so we set it up to have keys delivered between 7-8am but nobody ever showed up. We had to make an unplanned 10 minute stop back at the Carriage House when we were anxious to make rope drop at HS for JTA. Anyways, those were some irritations that we had not just with SSR but with DVC methods in general (although we weren't happy that SSR didn't deliver room keys as promised, nor did they set up our room for charging even though we gave them our Visa). Long story short, most of this won't affect you as you all probably don't book using 3 separate contracts like we did this time.
In general, we did really like our stay at SSR. I think the pool was our very favorite thing. We will stay at SSR one day again, but we like to mix it up and hop around. The DVC resorts all have their pro's and con's and we do find it difficult to pick a favorite. Our next stay will be at GCV, then WL, then BLT. We are looking forward to trying GF sometime. We went to the model at SSR and found it interesting. We had always somewhat avoided SSR but we will add it to the mix for future!
Oh - also, we had wanted to take the bus or try to walk to DTD since we went there 2 evenings to try to take advantage of our close proximity to DTD, but those darn late afternoon FL showers took over so we ended up driving. It seems like a nice thing to do though.
We booked a somewhat last minute trip--maybe 30-45 days out and found that the only resort available was SSR. While some of our favorites are OKW, BC, or BLT, we knew that at last minute beggars can't be choosers, so we decided to give it a shot. Then we could at least say that we tried it!
While we weren't Wowed over by the resort, we did really enjoy ourselves and probably liked it more than we expected.
Upon check-in we were pleasantly surprised that ALL of our requests for our 1BR had been met--high floor (we got floor 4), Springs area (we were in the middle building of the Springs) and a nice view (we were at the far end of the building overlooking the pond across from the Paddock area which was quite nice). We checked in on the late side (around 6:30) too so we were very very happy to get all of our requests.
We ate at the Turf Club that evening and LOVED it! We sat outside and found it very nice and relaxing. Because SSR is similar to OKW in many ways and we have stayed at OKW many times, we made a lot of comparisons to OKW and Turf Club dining was a big plus over Olivia's. We like Olivia's but outdoor dining is very hot and sunny and indoor is a little cramped and noisy. The Turf Club was just more quiet and elegant and we really loved the menu over Olivia's. Great way to start the vacation!
We enjoyed the parks and found them a little less crowded than we had expected which was nice. I had been reading about how HOT it was lately, but while hot, it was pretty tolerable. We have been to WDW several times in August and other summer trips and have been defeated by the heat, but it wasn't nearly as bad as our previous experiences. We also hit the pools by 2-3pm anyways to cool off.
Just a note about the DVC 10% discount in the shops--make sure that you have your DVC card with you as well as driver's license (or photo ID). I had always thought that since our room cards say 'DVC' on them, that I wouldn't need to bring the actual card, especially since in the past, we found that we didn't actually use it much to get a discount (we formerly have had TIW for dining discounts). However, I was told upon my first purchase (the gift shop at SSR) that I needed the actual DVC member card (and later learned that they ask for a photo ID in addition every time but maybe once). I missed out on a savings of a few dollars, but learned my lesson, so heads-up! I was told by the CM that all the cards for people staying at DVC resorts say 'DVC' on
the card and it doesn't mean you are a DVC member, but I don't know if I agree with her on that point.
Anyways, our overall impressions regarding SSR--very nice! Our favorite things were the pool--we loved that it wasn't too deep except for in the middle, so that allowed DS (8) to be able to stand in most of the pool (unlike OKW). We loved the proximity to the pool and dining that the Springs offered. We also loved the close parking to your building (BWV has a HUGE disadvantage for us because of the very remote parking, despite our loving the resort and location). The rooms were nice but nothing out of the ordinary--pretty much the standard DVC room and not a lot of dramatic theming, but still very nice. The patio was small and didn't extend to the master bedroom (OKW has a huge advantage with room size and patio size). We loved having the elevator (especially on 4th floor)! We also thought the resort was very quiet. We only rode the elevator one time with another person--the rest of the time we were always the only people in the elevator. We never saw anybody walking around our building to go to their room. We never had any room noise from neighbors.
We never used the bus so no comments really other than I found the springs stop very close and saw busses pretty frequently.
We were a little irritated with one aspect of our reservation--because we have 3 separate DVC contracts, we had to link a 2 night resv. with a 1 night resv. from a different contract, and then yet one more night resv. from our 3rd contract. We are used to linked reservations, but I think it was a first for us to use all 3 contracts. We were not able to use on-line check-in because of the linked reservations (although I am told that will be changed someday). That wasn't a big problem for us though. However, we did have to settle our room account at the end of each reservation. We used a Visa for our card to be able to charge to our room, but we wanted to use our DVC rewards card from our Visa to actually pay for any charges. We did this after our first two nights, but then decided to just forgo any room charges and use the Visa rewards card for any charges directly. We did this partially because on our 3rd night we gave our Visa for room charges and lo and behold were rejected when we went to eat at T-Rex because the room didn't have charging privileges (even though I set it up to have charges and it said that we had charging privileges on the card). I should have known when they didn't ask for a pin after I gave our CC (BTW, I love that they do that now--nice added security). Also, it was a pain that we had to get new room keys every day because by 11am our reservation automatically checked us out and our keys would no longer work. One day a CM said that they could deliver them instead, so we set it up to have keys delivered between 7-8am but nobody ever showed up. We had to make an unplanned 10 minute stop back at the Carriage House when we were anxious to make rope drop at HS for JTA. Anyways, those were some irritations that we had not just with SSR but with DVC methods in general (although we weren't happy that SSR didn't deliver room keys as promised, nor did they set up our room for charging even though we gave them our Visa). Long story short, most of this won't affect you as you all probably don't book using 3 separate contracts like we did this time.
In general, we did really like our stay at SSR. I think the pool was our very favorite thing. We will stay at SSR one day again, but we like to mix it up and hop around. The DVC resorts all have their pro's and con's and we do find it difficult to pick a favorite. Our next stay will be at GCV, then WL, then BLT. We are looking forward to trying GF sometime. We went to the model at SSR and found it interesting. We had always somewhat avoided SSR but we will add it to the mix for future!
Oh - also, we had wanted to take the bus or try to walk to DTD since we went there 2 evenings to try to take advantage of our close proximity to DTD, but those darn late afternoon FL showers took over so we ended up driving. It seems like a nice thing to do though.
