Just got back from SSR - Disappointed - Long

[chrismiss56]

Hi to all

First off I want to say I am not a DVC member but have always enjoyed staying at DVC properties.

This time we had 2 nights at a SSR studio and then 6 nights at a 2bdr BWV. BWV was wonderful as always.

SSR once completed will be lovely but too spread out. It is a good 15 minute walk from where we stayed to the main area. 15 minutes may not sound like much but it is when you just want to run and grab something from food court and your trying to carry food and a few drinks. Plus over at the Congress area there were no guests or CM's wandering around.

We (myself, DH and 2DD teens) were very excited to be trying out SSR. Construction was not an issue at all. The problem was the uninformed Cast Members working there.

We arrived early and the studio was not ready yet. That was not a problem. Was told to enjoy Disney and call after 4pm for the room assignment. We called at 4 and were told our room was 2332. Now normally I would think that was on the 2nd floor. I asked the CM on the phone if there was an elevator and he replied that I would not need one because it was on the 1st floor.

We spent 20 minutes going from building to building in the Congress area looking for 2332. Signage is awful and there were no guests or CM's walking around. Finally found a maintenance man who informed us that the room was on the 3rd floor not the 1st floor. The clue at SSR is the 2nd digit of the room number.

The room itself was fine.........very nice. Had a wonderful view of DTD and the fireworks.

We decided to go to the quiet pool and again there was no signage anywhere. The sign told us where vending, ice machines and exits were but no pool. Followed the sign to the exit and the door was stuck.....took my husband full force to open it. So now we are outside and still no signage. Fortunately ran into our first guest and they were nice enough to show us the quiet pool which is very nice.

After swimming decided to go to DTD for dinner. Called the front desk to find out where to find the walkway and the CM could not find it on the map!! After being put on hold for several minutes when she came back to tell us she couldn't find it I hung up in frustration and searched myself.

Found the walkway which takes you to the Marketplace. Only comment is that you have to walk all the way to the street and then wind your way back into the Marketplace. Had dinner at Wolfgang Puck's which is directly across from SSR. Dinner was wonderful as usual. But again we ran into the problem of CM's not having answers. Did not want to walk back through the Marketplace and around. We could see a walkway going from the West End but could not tell if it was completed. Asked several CM's at Wolfgang's and no one could tell us. Finally took the bus in front of PI back to SSR.

The straw that broke the camel's back came the next day. We left at 8am and returned at 4pm to find our room not made up. Remember I rented from Disney so I was entitled to housekeeping. Called the front desk and while I was on hold housekeeping showed up and the CM started asking me where the basket was.........had no clue what she was talking about in her very broken English. The front desk tried talking to her and did not understand either. Finally someone from housekeeping called the room and spoke with her. I guess at SSR there are no linen carts but laundry baskets filled with linen and she kept asking what I did with it........never did find out what happened to the basket.

At this point the family no longer felt comfortable staying at SSR....Called the front desk again and explained all my problems. The girl I spoke with was actually the one who couldn't find the walkway on the map and remembered me. She went above and beyond and was able to get us moved to the BWV one night early. I spoke with her manager and made sure she knew what great service we were given during the move.

So it wasn't the construction that bothered us - it was the lack of knowledge on the part of the CM's.....I am sure it will be fine once all is open but we will always choose Epcot Resorts first.

Any questions........

 

[manning]

Makes you want to stay at BCV

I wonder if that CM who told you your room was on the first floor thought he was in the basement.

You would think there would be better training before CMs are assigned. To not know the layout is pretty bad. And having help who can't speak enough english?

 

[bounceytigger]

Chrissmiss--sorry to hear about your disappointing stay. As you said, everything will probably be fine once the resort is fully running.... However, in the meantime, it doesn't seem like a very good excuse for CM's to not be better trained on things like locations of rooms, and walkways!!!!! (And the housekeeping issue?? Geez, I would've been ticked about that too, since you were a cash-paying guest, & entitled to the daily cleaning!)

I'm glad to hear that the CM helped you get your stay at BWV one night early--I think that says something, that she went out of her way to try to make things better for you.

I hope you'll try SSR sometime again down the road, if even just for a couple of nights! And now you'll know how to find your room, the pools, and the walkways...LOL! I've read a LOT of positive reports about SSR on this board thus far, and personally cannot wait for my stay in December....

 

[trishy]

Finally found a maintenance man who informed us that the room was on the 3rd floor not the 1st floor. The clue at SSR is the 2nd digit of the room number.

Admittedly, the room numbers are very confusing - no rhyme or reason. There is no clue - we had 1835 and I promise you there is no 8th floor at SSR. It was on the 4th floor - go figure!?! Anyway, I hope you give it another try when it's all completed. The walkway to DTD only takes about 5 minutes from Congress area and surprisingly people would take the bus there because they had no idea the walkway even existed. Glad they were able to accomodate you at BWV a day earlier. That's great customer service.

 

[kweaver]

I'm sorry and I feel your frustration. There is no excuse for uninformed CMs. I agree that additional signs for the quiet pool would be useful. We did not find any problems with the signage for the rooms.

The room numbers definitely have rhyme and reason...it's just not obvious until someone explains it to you. Someone had to explain it to me too! Hopefully this is correct...

The first digit indicates the building (or pair of buildings in the case of SSR).

The second digit indicates the floor. They use groups of four since there are four floors
1 or 4 = first floor
2 or 5 = second floor
3 or 6 = third floor
4 or 8 - fourth floor

The last two digits are the individual room number. There is a post about this issue somewhere on the DIS if you want to search for it.

I hope you will give SSR another chance. The employees we ran into there in June were excellent!

 

[Beth]

So if the 2nd digit is a 4, you could be on either the first or the fourth floor?

 

[Luckymommyx2]

Thanks for sharing an honest opinion chrismiss56. I always appreciate hearing the good and the bad. Hopefully they will be putting up more signs as construction moves along. Also, I would hope the CM become a little more familiar with their surroundings.

Can you tell me what the bus transportation was like to and from the parks?

Sorry about your stay but I hope you try it again in the future.

 

[las3888]

SSR once completed will be lovely but too spread out. It is a good 15 minute walk from where we stayed to the main area. 15 minutes may not sound like much but it is when you just want to run and grab something from food court and your trying to carry food and a few drinks

I couldn't agree with you more on this. We went for a visit and to tour the models during our last stay. I just about died in the heat walking from the main area to the models, and they are some of the closest units to the main complex. If it weren't so hot, it wouldn't have been as bad, but it definitely isn't convenient.

Thanks for sharing your post.

 

[chrismiss56]

We took the bus from SSR to Epcot so I could activate AP pass and then back from MK......Buses were totally empty and the driver asked which SSR stop we wanted to stop at. As I mentioned earlier we saw little to no guests.....Buses seem fine.

 

[lenshanem]

I see problems down the road. This resort is gonna be HUGE. Either they are going to have have guaranteed preferred views like BW or construct another food court with a theme pool. Otherwise ALOT of people are going to be requesting across from the theme pool and food court (I think that is under construction now?) OR want views of DTD. Thoughts?

 

[MickeyB426]

This is getting so frustrating to me.

I just spent about $89 per point and bought 400 points for SSR in February.

And I hear WAY too many complaints for a new resort. NO resort, I don't care what kind of construction it's under, should have this many concerns this early on, especially on a board where Disney criticism is tempered and at a minimum.

I'm going home for the first time in 12 days. I have this nagging fear that I'm going to hate SSR. And I'm going to feel that I wasted over $30K.

Let's hope I don't, for my sake.

 

[pumpkinboy]

Sorry you had a less than magical stay at SSR. I can certainly empathise with your comments. It seems to me that from your comments that the major problems are a result of the resort being so new: undertrained and uninformed CMs (including mousekeeping), lack of signage, etc will all correct themselves once the resort has been in operation for a while. Of course, SSR being spread out the way it is will not change, but the other issues will correct themselves over time; just too bad that you became a glitch in the early workings of it. Better luck next time, if you give SSR another chance.

Since you enjoy staying at the DVC properties so much, perhaps it might be worth it for you to buy a resale contract at someplace like BWV (esp since your first SSR experience left a bad taste in your mouth). Some folks like the more "hotel style" DVC resorts like BWV, BCV and VWL, while others of us love the relaxed more spread out feel of OKW and SSR. We've got members of my family on both sides of the fence here.

de gustibus non disputandum est

 

[BigTigger]

I agree with you that the signage needs some work. We walked over from DD to see the model unit and the path isn't marked. You need to know to walk past the bus stop and then over the new bridge and take the first left to walk along the water. Once you find the path, it's a nice wal kwith a little nature loop to the right (with a sign saying "closed from dusk to dawn"). As you get nearer the resort, there are no signs noting the building numbers from the walkway. I knew the model was near the Congress Park stop, but unit 2607 didn't correspond to building numbers like at OKW. After some searching we found our way, but once to the right building, finding the appropriate unit was another search over stair and riser. SSR has lots of maps, but few signs of value. finding a bathroom that you didn't need a key card to was even harder. We finally found one by the main pool. The last "lost" item was the bridge back to DD west side. It's the golf course bridge, but once you get past the tennis courts, there are no signs to direct you.

All of these signage issues can be fixed easily. The resort is beautiful and will be an asset to DVC.

 

[Pam&Joe]

Originally posted by kweaver
I'm sorry and I feel your frustration. There is no excuse for uninformed CMs. I agree that additional signs for the quiet pool would be useful. We did not find any problems with the signage for the rooms.

The room numbers definitely have rhyme and reason...it's just not obvious until someone explains it to you. Someone had to explain it to me too! Hopefully this is correct...

The first digit indicates the building (or pair of buildings in the case of SSR).

The second digit indicates the floor. They use groups of four since there are four floors
1 or 4 = first floor
2 or 5 = second floor
3 or 6 = third floor
4 or 8 - fourth floor

The last two digits are the individual room number. There is a post about this issue somewhere on the DIS if you want to search for it.

I hope you will give SSR another chance. The employees we ran into there in June were excellent!

Not to cause an argument or anything but I just stayed at SSR and had room 1603 and was on the second floor and the rooms 15xx were on the first floor. Does anybody know for sure how the room numbers associate to where you room is located??

 

[G8RFAN]

Originally posted by Pam&Joe
Not to cause an argument or anything but I just stayed at SSR and had room 1603 and was on the second floor and the rooms 15xx were on the first floor. Does anybody know for sure how the room numbers associate to where you room is located??

I think it is supposed to read as:

1 or 5 = first floor
2 or 6 = second floor
3 or 7 = third floor
4 or 8 - fourth floor

 

[DrTomorrow]

Well, as a (thoroughly satisfied) SSR owner, it's interesting to hear others' experiences. Of course, we experienced none of the OP's issues - sometimes I wonder if there are two SSRs - the one we stayed at, and its evil twin! ::grin::

I still wonder how it can take any healthy adult 15 minutes to walk from the CP area to the main area. We timed it several time and it never took us more than 5 minutes (and that was during the heat & humidity of late May). I'm beginning to think that this this is largely an expectations issue: I've read the same concerns about the Polynesian ("oh, this longhouse was soooo far from the GCH"); if people are used to an elevator down to the lobby, then a walk might be an issue.

Again, we didn't have any signage issues; of course, before we went anywhere we'd never been to before, we checked out the handy-dandy map of SSR - complete with our building circled - that they gave us at check-in and figured out where it was. And there are good-sized signs in front of each building stating what rooms are in that building. As for the walkway to DM, didn't that just open recently, after final construction was finished? It wasn't open - nor were there signs - when we were there; hope they label that better.

Sorry to hear about the laundry. For those who don't know (and I don't know if it is different at other DVC resorts) at SSR if it is a housekeeping day, they set a large laundry basket containing all the linens for the day right outside your room. If HK didn't put one there - or someone took it (!?!) - that was a big mistake.

It's unfortunate that your SSR experience wasn't a positive one; I agree with others that perhaps some of the other, more compact, resorts might suit you better.

 

[crisi]

All WDW Disney resorts are so large that its going to be a long walk somewhere.

The distance between the end of the Villas and Roaring Forks at VWL is not a trifle.

The distance between the far units and Oliva's and the main pool at OKW is a little bit of a stroll.

The distance between the back end of BCVs and the lobby.

The distance from the far buildings at SSR to the main building.

And, of course, the ten mile long hallways at BWVs.

With SSR and OKW, the assumption appears to be that your handy dandy car will help you move around - or any bus that will drop you off on its way out of the resort. Of course, BWV guest still have to walk the ten mile hallways.

 

[chrismiss56]

I guess my response to the ten mile hallways which I have walked several times are at least they are inside. It makes the hike that much longer when you are outside juggling some sort of package and/or drinks and it starts to rain.

Will take the ten mile hallways everytime

 

[LeftCoaster]

Originally posted by crisi
All WDW Disney resorts are so large that its going to be a long walk somewhere.


With SSR and OKW, the assumption appears to be that your handy dandy car will help you move around - or any bus that will drop you off on its way out of the resort. Of course, BWV guest still have to walk the ten mile hallways.

Maybe they need to have Segways in the hallways at BWV.

 

[kweaver]

>I think it is supposed to read as:
>
>1 or 5 = first floor
>2 or 6 = second floor
>3 or 7 = third floor
>4 or 8 - fourth floor

Sorry guys...you're right. I skipped the 7...brain freeze!