We just returned from out trip 5/4-5/10 from a one bedroom in the Grandstand area of SSR and we are already talking about going back.
The resort is beautiful, and the CM's who work there were terrific. We did have a few grumpy CM's, but overall everyone was great. This is the first time we went to WDW and did not venture into any of the parks... I know, crazy right? My wife and I agreed before the trip that our 2 year old daughter was just a little to young yet to fully enjoy everything, so instead we really got to enjoy the resort and the pool. We set up a few character dinners at night to see if our 2 year old would be overwhelmed, and to try to ease her into the whole Disney experience.
Dinning-We use the Dinning plan and I have mixed emotions about it. I think overall it saved us money, but we did end up not using 2 QS meals. Even on the small plan it's a lot of food, which is great, but it gets to a point when you just can't fit anymore. I think if we had gone to the parks we may have been able to use all of the QS meals.
Pools-Even though we stayed in the Grandstand, we did not use the Grandstand pool. We really like the idea of the zero entry and the kids slide of the main pool, and my daughter loved both also.
Magical Moments-Like I said before, 99% of the CM's that we dealt with were terrific. I bought the annual golf pass and had an early tee time on Monday morning. When I arrived at the course a CM asked if I had ever golfed there before and I had not, so called the starter over and told him that I was going to place the pin for hole 9. The starter had me follow him to the green at nine and gave me the flag and said place it anywhere I wanted on the gree and that's what everyone will play. I thought that in itself was cool, but about and hour later a ranger stopped me on the course and presented me with a book that had my name, address and date printed on the front. Inside was a description of every hole and how to play it. I was blown away and the ranger thanked me for placing the pin and apologized for not getting my book to me sooner.
The CM's all treated my daughter like a princess, one CM stopped us at Bell Services, ran inside and appeared with a huge pink Mickey Mouse balloon that he said he had been holding for my daughter. Needless to say my daughter was extremely excited to have a huge Mickey balloon tied around her stroller. From there went to the Golf shop to pick up my clubs and a CM that worked at the golf course made my daughter a Mickey Mouse golf bag tag with her name printed on it to match the one that had been placed on my bag. Again, pure excitment, which is why we bought into the DVC inthe first place. Everywhere we went CM's stopped us and gave my daughter stickers, that eventually found there way to her shirt and stroller. Each time the CM took time out of what ever they were doing to make my us and my daughter feel like she was the most important princess on earth. She's only 2, so I'm sure she won't remember very much, but we will and someday I'll show her the video of her first magic trip to Disney.
Negatives-I'm not a complainer, I usually just go with the flow on everything, but I few things rubbed me the wrong way and in fairness to this review I thought they should be mentioned. The buses were horrible. I will never rely on the bus service again. It took us and hour and a half to get to the Grand Floridian for Cinderella's Gala one night. I watched two buses for Epcot and DTD before we ever saw a Magic Kingdom bus. As the week went on we started taking the DTD bus in order to transfer and take the bus to whatever resort we were heading for dinner, but you still needed almost and hour. The bus home at night from DTD was even worse and by the time the bus finally came we had watched 2-3 buses for the other resorts come and go. I know SSR is close and we could have walked, but usually we were dressed for dinner and walking back to the Grandstand for my wife and daughter was not an option. The only other negative, and I've heard it from a few people is that a very large number of guests staying a SSR were extremely unfriendly. Very few people made eye contact to say hello and many times they conducted they went about their business as if they were the only ones at the resort and in that particular space. I know you get those type of people everywhere, believe me, we have our share of them here in the Northeast, but I was raised to say thank you if somone held the door for me. Don't get me wrong, we met some great people at the resort also, but I had a co-worker come back from SSR two weeks ago and he felt the same thing.
That's all for now. If I can answer any questions please feel free to ask.
The resort is beautiful, and the CM's who work there were terrific. We did have a few grumpy CM's, but overall everyone was great. This is the first time we went to WDW and did not venture into any of the parks... I know, crazy right? My wife and I agreed before the trip that our 2 year old daughter was just a little to young yet to fully enjoy everything, so instead we really got to enjoy the resort and the pool. We set up a few character dinners at night to see if our 2 year old would be overwhelmed, and to try to ease her into the whole Disney experience.
Dinning-We use the Dinning plan and I have mixed emotions about it. I think overall it saved us money, but we did end up not using 2 QS meals. Even on the small plan it's a lot of food, which is great, but it gets to a point when you just can't fit anymore. I think if we had gone to the parks we may have been able to use all of the QS meals.
Pools-Even though we stayed in the Grandstand, we did not use the Grandstand pool. We really like the idea of the zero entry and the kids slide of the main pool, and my daughter loved both also.
Magical Moments-Like I said before, 99% of the CM's that we dealt with were terrific. I bought the annual golf pass and had an early tee time on Monday morning. When I arrived at the course a CM asked if I had ever golfed there before and I had not, so called the starter over and told him that I was going to place the pin for hole 9. The starter had me follow him to the green at nine and gave me the flag and said place it anywhere I wanted on the gree and that's what everyone will play. I thought that in itself was cool, but about and hour later a ranger stopped me on the course and presented me with a book that had my name, address and date printed on the front. Inside was a description of every hole and how to play it. I was blown away and the ranger thanked me for placing the pin and apologized for not getting my book to me sooner.
The CM's all treated my daughter like a princess, one CM stopped us at Bell Services, ran inside and appeared with a huge pink Mickey Mouse balloon that he said he had been holding for my daughter. Needless to say my daughter was extremely excited to have a huge Mickey balloon tied around her stroller. From there went to the Golf shop to pick up my clubs and a CM that worked at the golf course made my daughter a Mickey Mouse golf bag tag with her name printed on it to match the one that had been placed on my bag. Again, pure excitment, which is why we bought into the DVC inthe first place. Everywhere we went CM's stopped us and gave my daughter stickers, that eventually found there way to her shirt and stroller. Each time the CM took time out of what ever they were doing to make my us and my daughter feel like she was the most important princess on earth. She's only 2, so I'm sure she won't remember very much, but we will and someday I'll show her the video of her first magic trip to Disney.
Negatives-I'm not a complainer, I usually just go with the flow on everything, but I few things rubbed me the wrong way and in fairness to this review I thought they should be mentioned. The buses were horrible. I will never rely on the bus service again. It took us and hour and a half to get to the Grand Floridian for Cinderella's Gala one night. I watched two buses for Epcot and DTD before we ever saw a Magic Kingdom bus. As the week went on we started taking the DTD bus in order to transfer and take the bus to whatever resort we were heading for dinner, but you still needed almost and hour. The bus home at night from DTD was even worse and by the time the bus finally came we had watched 2-3 buses for the other resorts come and go. I know SSR is close and we could have walked, but usually we were dressed for dinner and walking back to the Grandstand for my wife and daughter was not an option. The only other negative, and I've heard it from a few people is that a very large number of guests staying a SSR were extremely unfriendly. Very few people made eye contact to say hello and many times they conducted they went about their business as if they were the only ones at the resort and in that particular space. I know you get those type of people everywhere, believe me, we have our share of them here in the Northeast, but I was raised to say thank you if somone held the door for me. Don't get me wrong, we met some great people at the resort also, but I had a co-worker come back from SSR two weeks ago and he felt the same thing.
That's all for now. If I can answer any questions please feel free to ask.
