Just back from SSR – my review

[sheryl0521]

We arrived home on Sunday after 7 nights at an SSR studio, Congress Park yellow building #2223. (Yes, 7 nights in a studio – I missed my usual 1-bedroom but this was a “extra” trip)

First – may I say that I thought the room was beautiful! The furnishings were not as dark and as formal as I first thought from seeing the pictures. The room had a great view from the balcony of the quiet pool and DTD. We caught the fireworks a couple of nights when we were awake for them and they didn’t even wake us up on the nights we weren’t.

Model rooms are in Congress Park pink building #’s 2601, 2603 & 2607. We toured the 1-bedroom (2603) and it was very nice – connect it to the studio (2601) and you have the typical 2-bedroom layout. The connecting doors are in the foyers, I liked that. I can’t say enough about the Grand Villa (2607) – it was our first time seeing this amazing room and I love the additional features of the second floor entry door for luggage and handicap access, although it does provide access for wandering children on the upper level. It will be great for guests to leave & enter without disturbing the first floor master bedroom (DVC point holder.) The guide pointed out the surround sound in the living room, and the additional full bathroom off the kitchen to us too. This room has 4 full bathrooms! More than my house in CT! Perhaps one day we will arrange our points to take advantage of that home.

The Spa was awesome – DH used the fitness center almost daily and I even got a spa manicure & pedicure. They were able to fit me in at late notice and then I had full access to the facilities for the remainder of the day. Very Nice!

Artist Palate fit our needs. We had a hot breakfast one day and a mid-afternoon snack of chicken artichoke flatbread & mini hotdogs for the kids. It is a cross between counter service and a formal sit-down restaurant. We thought the food was very good. We also thought we found all we needed in the mini grocery store & gift shop. Expensive – yes, but you are on vacation and it is Disney. So if you want to save a few dollars, definitely hit up the local grocery store before you come in.

Now – my small “grievances” – please keep in mind these are just my opinions.
1. The queen size bed in our studio – hard as a rock. Don’t know if these mattresses are supposed to be extra, extra firm – but my goodness! Unless you are a back sleeper, we was hard to find a comfortable position on this bed. The kids did like the sleeper sofa - they thought it was very comfy.
2. The air conditioning in the room – we couldn’t figure out what that locked closet was when we first arrived in the room, but once the a/c turned on, we sure knew what it was. It was fairly loud and definitely worked well. My DH thought the thermostat wasn’t working right because we had it set at 76-78 and the room was very cold.
3. The bathroom fan/vent is definitely on a motion sensor. It would turn on as soon as the bathroom door opened and would remain on for a period of time after you left – which was OK, but when you were in the shower and all the motion was behind the shower curtain the fan would turn off and resulted in a steamy bathroom upon shower exit. Once the shower curtain was opened the fan would kick back on again, but I found it quite odd.
4. Trash – I think the only trash room is on the 1st floor of the building. So I did see bags of garbage in the halls as we walked to the stairs to get to the quiet pool. And the room isn’t located in a spot that you would walk by when exiting the building as if you were leaving to go out – it was around the corner so you had to make a purposeful stop to go to this room. I feel this layout is going to deter guests from disposing of the trash.
5. The place is huge! It was quite a walk from our Congress Park building to the main resort area where the theme pool, Artist Palate, Spa & Community Hall are located. It seems like The Springs buildings will be centrally located, but all other buildings will have to rely on the internal busses which we heard will be working once the resort is complete.
6. I thought the walkways to DTD were a bit long for me. We didn’t get a chance to try the boat, and after the first walk we drove over to DTD. Perhaps a bridge/walkway can be built over the lagoon? Kind of a far out thought, but it came to mind on our trip back to our room via the walkway around the golf course side. I was pooped!
7. Lots of selling going on at the preview center. Once the prospective buyers visit the center, they are driven via golf cart (see - too far to walk!) over to Congress Park to tour the models. These golf carts were everywhere during our visit. We wanted to ask about renting one ourselves, but we didn’t.

We will stay at SSR again once the resort is complete – the construction was a bit of a distraction. And we feel The Springs buildings will be the best fit for us. That is why we love our BCV & BWV - Closer to the center of the action (we are Epcot & MGM fans) and less of a walk to hotel facilities. Another example of the reason everyone has his or her DVC preferences and favorite hotels. We had a small intention of speaking to a sales person about an add-on, but we didn’t feel the need to after our stay. Maybe a resale at BWV would fit our needs better. As the topic of how hard it may be to get into other DVC hotels may be once SSR is sold out came up during our trip.

Thanks for reading this far & I hope this review was as bi-partisan as it could be.

Enjoy!
Sheryl

 

[ErinC]

thanks for the review. I have seen the models and what was open back in May. We are going to be staying at SSR in Feb. I look forward to getting to try it out, although in all honesty, I let DH choose this time, and I would have rather tried at BWV since we haven't stayed there yet. I think you were very fair with your report! So do you think that you will stay there again? Or would you rather be somewhere else?

 

[lsutiggeratwk]

Thanks for the trip report ! I just love reading about others travels. We have a reservation for a studio at SSR in January and I'm anxious to try it out That is one of the things my DH loves about the DVC is the ability to try out the different resorts. I've never been in a GV before, but will certainly take the tour in January to check it out. Didn't someone mention of the boards awhile back about being able to see the villas without a "tour guide"? Or am I once again making something up???

Thanks again and glad you enjoyed you stay!

 

[Pa@okw95]

Thanks for your report. I think DVC members that own at BCV and BWV will always like their home resort better, just a thought. I own at OKW and don't think I would want to try SSR, it sounds to me like OKW which I love. I would think that the walkway to DD would be made shorter, perhaps there are plans to do so.

 

[sheryl0521]

Hi -
Between 5-7:00 PM is when they ask current DVC members tour the models without a guide. It was a bit deceiving because there weren't any signs or open doors. I had called and gotten the room numbers and then when we got there, we saw another family walking out and I asked them if we were in the right place.
The GV did have a sales person hanging out to answer questions, but she just let us walk around.

We did ask her what she thought was going to happen to the other resorts in 2042, and she couldn't say for sure, but she thought some type of extension offer would be made to current owners at an agreed upon price.

ErinC - we will go back to SSR, but not right away. We have decided that BCV & BWV are our favorites and that is where we want to spend our next few trips. Once complete, we will probabally go back to SSR as more of a golf & Spa vaca - maybe even kid free! One can hope, right??

 

[bounceytigger]

4. Trash – I think the only trash room is on the 1st floor of the building. So I did see bags of garbage in the halls as we walked to the stairs to get to the quiet pool. And the room isn’t located in a spot that you would walk by when exiting the building as if you were leaving to go out – it was around the corner so you had to make a purposeful stop to go to this room. I feel this layout is going to deter guests from disposing of the trash.

Sheryl---Yikes! Was this trash picked up frequently??

Thanks for your report--I think you were very fair, and raised valid concerns........as an SSR owner, I'm just hoping lots of these concerns will be addressed by DVC over time...Meanwhile, I love reading people's reports of my 2nd home!!!

 

[stacy6552]

Homesick.

 

[sheryl0521]

Bouncy - yes the trash was picked up often so it wasn't a problem.

I even put a bag outside the door (due to poopy diaper) and we were going to take it to the trash room as we were leaving within 15 minutes. By the time we did leave - it was actually already picked up! I am thinking it was one of the housekeeping people that got it. I felt a bit bad because we were planning on bringing it out, but they beat me to it!

 

[DVCTiff]

Thanks so much for your report. I'm going to put in that room request for our October trip. I can always hope!

 

[jbwolffiv]

Thanks so much to the great review. We will have our chance to see our home for ourselves in a week and are very excited. It is good to hear ALL opinions about the resort so we know what to expect. I am glad that the trash is picked up quickly yet I feel that it cant be THAT far to walk, what maybe 3 minutes or so. Oh well that is just me.

 

[dianeschlicht]

Thanks for the report. We are doing 2 nights in a SSR studio prior to our GV stay in October.

 

[pmcpmc]

we have just arrived in Boston for the third leg of our summer off.
we are hoping to visit New York and Washington over the next few weeks.
We spent from 12th July to the 30th at SSR in three different rooms(report to follow when I return home)
I am glad you enjoyed your stay and concur with many of your points.

 

[allicat]

Thanks for your review!
Regarding DTD, would you recommend the boat instead of walking? We will be arriving in a little over 2 weeks and Im wondering if the walk to DTD will be waaayy too hot!

 

[Buzz's Buddy]

The problem with the boat is that it is near the Carriage House, which is quite a walk from the Congress Park buildings. Now once the other buildings open, the boat to DD will be a little more convenient, but that's not the case right now.

As for walking to DD, I think the walk from Congress Park to the Marketplace side of DD isn't bad at all. I didn't time it, but I'd be surprised if it took longer than 10 minutes. To me, it seemed about the same as the walk from BWV to EPCOT.

 

[lat]

Sheryl, thanks for the report. How was your drive?

 

[tjkraz]

Sheryl,

Thanks for the report.

I asked this question in another thread, but so far no replies. Maybe you can shed some light. There had been reports that more than the initial 4 buildings would be opening in 2004. Based upon the construction progress while you were down there, did it look like any of the buildings in The Springs would be ready for guests in the next 2-3 months?

 

[JessetheCowgirl]

Thank you, Cheryl, for the report.

We will be trying out SSR next summer with 24 relatives!!!!

I wonder how far our walk will be from room to room??? Of course, sometimes a little distance can be a good thing

 

[SueM in MN]

Originally posted by tjkraz
Sheryl,

Thanks for the report.

I asked this question in another thread, but so far no replies. Maybe you can shed some light. There had been reports that more than the initial 4 buildings would be opening in 2004. Based upon the construction progress while you were down there, did it look like any of the buildings in The Springs would be ready for guests in the next 2-3 months?

We just got back and it looked to us like at least 2 of the buildings in the Paddock area would be ready soon. They were pretty much complete on the outside. The buildings in the Spring area might be finished by the end of the year, but they had no siding and were kind of "bare bones" of the buildings.

 

[pmcpmc]

He said that the new buildings will open in the spring of 2005.
The fourth building of Congress Park opens Monday.

 

[tjkraz]

Originally posted by pmcpmc
He said that the new buildings will open in the spring of 2005.
The fourth building of Congress Park opens Monday.

That's what I had suspected. Thanks SueM in MN and pmcpmc.