Made our 1st ressie as DVC members!!

[Nursejilly]

I just made our first DVC member ressie!! We booked Mardi Gras week 2009
(2/21-2/28) at SSR with our developer points. It will be a dedicated 2 bedroom. How does this compare to a lockout? Anyone been the DW during that week? I am not a big advocate of taking my DD age 12 out of school for vacation but since we have 2 days off that week already, it will only mean missing 3 days of school. I know, i am a bad mom, heehee! Would love to get some suggestions on building to request. Our youngest traveler will be 10 months so it would probably be good to be near a bus stop. Thanks for any input!

 

[disneyistheone]

Hi again Louisiana. Since you used developer points, can you tell me if they gave you a reservation number? I made my first ressie this week using developer points and did not get a reservation number at booking. They assured me that I had a booking and that the number would follow.

 

[Nursejilly]

Same with me! I was told by MS that i would receive the confirmation via US mail or email. I chose email. She assured me that we had the reservation and it would take 3-5 days to get the confirmation number. I am sooo excited! Where are you using your developer points? We were originally planning on trying to get easter week but i figured it will be a long shot and very crowded at that time.

 

[Nursejilly]

Hey, Disneyistheone,
Have you successfully logged into the DVCmember.com?? I tried today several times with the PIN number and it would not work. I called MS and we tried several more times and never got it to work. The nice CM said that there might be a problem with the site right now. I will keep on trying!

 

[jbrowna]

I just made our first DVC member ressie!! We booked Mardi Gras week 2009
(2/21-2/28) at SSR with our developer points. It will be a dedicated 2 bedroom. How does this compare to a lockout?

I believe that, in the lockoff, there is a queen and a pullout in the second bedroom (studio) portion, whereas in the dedicated two bedroom unit there are two queen beds there. I'm not sure about what difference there may be in the kitchenette that's normally in the studio portion. Anybody know?

 

[Michaeljsz]

Hi,
I can tell you from experience that the weather durring that time can be very unpredictable. We go to WDW every year at that time and the crowds around Orlando and WDW can be crazy at times too for one simple reason and it's the reason we go that time each year, Race Week in Daytona leading up to the Dayona 500 for NASCAR. I've been there and it's been overcast and freezing cold, other times I've been there and been in shorts and t shirts and the weather was perfect. Feb is a weather hit or miss time for sure.

 

[disneyistheone]

We are going the first week of October to SSR and will return sometime in the spring to SSR to probably finish our developer points.
As far as DVC, yes I can log on using DW's user and password. I have not received the card with my activation code. I think that we should both receive an activation code.
As far as the reservation number, I'm just a bit nervous about the whole thing since this is our first time.
We just passed our 10 day waiting period and next will be our actual closing about mid-August. I understand that the developer points won't show on the dvcmember.com site since they don't really belong to us.The contract points show in one area but don't show in our point balance yetr I suppose since we haven't closed yet.
There's a lot to learn!!!

 

[dtauer]

I believe that, in the lockoff, there is a queen and a pullout in the second bedroom (studio) portion, whereas in the dedicated two bedroom unit there are two queen beds there. I'm not sure about what difference there may be in the kitchenette that's normally in the studio portion. Anybody know?

Yes, just returned yesterday from a SSR dedicated 2 bedroom, our previous trip was a lockoff.

Here are the differences we noticed:

The dedicated 2 bedroom shares the entry door with the other unit, the lockoff has it's own exterior "front door".

The lockoff has a patio or deck for the second bedroom, the dedicated just has one deck.

The lockoff has a kitchenette with it's own microwave, fridge, and disposable plates and glasses. The dedicated has a 2 sink vanity, instead of a single sink. The area in front of the vanity is also much larger because the additional depth for the kitchenette is not needed.

The dedicated 2 bedroom has 2 queen size beds instead of a bed and a sofa sleeper.

In both cases, the second bedroom (or unit in the lockoff) can be isolated from the rest of the villa by closing the adjoining door. We chose the dedicated for this trip because we put my son and his friend (both 17) in the 2nd bedroom and wanted to have a shared entrance so we knew when they were coming and going.

I believe the closets in the dedicated were also larger which makes sense because there is 1 less entrance door.

By the way, this is the first time we've stayed at SSR on the 4th floor. We were in Congress Park and the view of the waterway and Downtown Disney was fabulous. I've gone from someone who bought SSR because it was available and had the best incentives, to someone who absolutely loves the resort, especially the views. Depending on where you are in the resort, the buildings are designed to look at either Downtown Disney, a golf course, or woods. There aren't many bad views.

 

[honeymo78]

We got our confirmation in the mail for our developer points reservation about 2 weeks after making the ressie. When I called to make ADRs I double checked that our reservation was still showing up.

 

[Nursejilly]

How was congress park in relation to the bus stop? How was the bus transportation overall? On our last trip on nov 07 the buses from WL were pretty timely, but the buses going back to the resort were hit or miss. I think the dedicated villa will be best for us with 4 kids. I like the idea of 2 queen beds too!

 

[dtauer]

How was congress park in relation to the bus stop? How was the bus transportation overall? On our last trip on nov 07 the buses from WL were pretty timely, but the buses going back to the resort were hit or miss. I think the dedicated villa will be best for us with 4 kids. I like the idea of 2 queen beds too!

Congress Park has it's own bus stop. We were in the building closest to Downtown Disney and the walk to the bus stop was maybe 3 minutes, possibly not even that. Very quick.

I continue to hear bad stories about busing from SSR, but we just haven't seen it. For instance, last week, we never had a wait longer than about 10 minutes leaving the resort. Going to the theme parks was very quick service, or else we just happened to time it right.

Coming back from the parks wasn't as good. Our longest wait was probably about 25 minutes from Magic Kingdom back to SSR. Not horrible, but seems like a long time when you're standing waiting for a bus.

The best part of the busing last week was that I NEVER had to stand, not once. I don't mind giving up my seat for others, especially those with small children, but I never needed to do it last week. This included coming back from Epcot after Illuminations, plenty of room on the bus, so they must have had a lot of them running.

One other thing we did last week was taking the bus back from the park to Port Orleans - Riverside. We like the food court a lot better there, and you are a just a boat ride back to Downtown Disney and a short walk to Congress Park. We don't like the waits and prices at the Downtown Disney restaurants, but remember you have boats from Port Orleans - Riverside, French Quarter, and Old Key West back to Downtown Disney at a very regular interval.