Saratoga springs First T8me

BeachMouse1

DIS Veteran
Joined
Dec 12, 2022
Messages
801
So have never have stayed at Saratoga. Booked a preferred room for February is there any room requests I should make?
is Saratoga one of those resorts where you can park your car right in front of your room?
please tell me any helpful tips about staying here?
Give me the good and bad please
 
Preferred rooms are either in the Springs or Congress park sections. Springs is near the lobby, restaurants, the main pool and the boat Dock to DS. Congress Park has a quiet pool, is nearer to DS because the walking path starts there and some rooms have a DS view, which is one of the best on property.
So it's up to you which one you prefer, both have their pros. Personally, I would request Congress Park with a high floor and DS view. If you get it it's very good.

Yes, there is parking in front of each building. If you have a car you avoid the main complaint about SSR, which is having to take a bus everywhere. When I've stayed there the bus service has always been quite good, while the internal stops add to commuting time, SSR is centrally located so it doesn't take long to reach any park once the bus leaves the resort. So, even better if you have your own car.
 
So have never have stayed at Saratoga. Booked a preferred room for February is there any room requests I should make?
is Saratoga one of those resorts where you can park your car right in front of your room?
please tell me any helpful tips about staying here?
Give me the good and bad please
Request Congress Park, near the pool, water view. Easy walk to Disney Springs and the quiet pool with hot tub is beautiful.
 
Agree with Congress Park. Its a great location to get to DS and the bus to visit other resorts.

If we're going to hop to other restaurants/resorts, SS is our resort of choice. Matter of fact, staying there in December to visit other resorts to see the Christmas decor.
 

With preferred, you can request either Congress Park or Springs area. Besides things noted above, Congress Park can result in a room that has a nice view of the large lake looking over to Disney Springs. As a result, if you have a request put in for Congress Park, you might want to add a request for higher floor.

Congress Park has a pool, but it is just a pool without a theme and no long slide into the pool or a drink/quick food bar-like store. Springs has one of the two main large themed pools with the extras. Thus, if it is important to you to be very near a themed pool, Springs would be the choice.

The SSR bus service to the parks has five stops, in order by designated area: Grandstand, Carousel, Paddock, Congress Park, and Springs. An issue that can sometimes happen during the morning rush hours with Springs, but less of a risk with Congress Park, is that the bus may be full or have standing room only when it reaches Springs.

Springs has the advantage that you go directly to the park from there but the disadvantage of being the last drop-off coming back, but Congress Park has the same issue with three stops coming back before it. Just note that I have never found the SSR buses to present any significant disadvantage as to other resorts. The trips are still fairly quick and there are usually no significant waiting issues (except for that which can be suffered by all resorts using buses when departing a park at closing time, when the lines to get on a bus can be far longer than the number of passengers needed to fill a bus).

As noted above there are those that prefer just driving to the parks. I recommend not doing that for MK simply because that driving trip itself can be quite a challenge. Once you are in the huge parking lot, you must first go by tram or walk to the Transportation and Ticket Center area and then wait to catch a boat or monorail to MK. Moreover, particularly during morning rush times, the traffic back-up to even get to the parking lot can get very long. The total trip from resort to actual park entrance can approach an hour. Also, I do not know if it is still an issue, but it was in May, there may be no trams at Epcot or Studios to take you from your parking space area to the park entrance -- they did away with the trams during the pandemic and they had not yet returned to Epcot and Studios last time I was there, and thus you could have long walks from where you park to the front gate.

The walk to Disney Springs (the big mall, restaurant and entertainment center, not the Springs area of SSR) is fairly long from the SSR Springs area but still doable. Congress Park provides the shortest walk, but even that has some distance to it, and you enter Disney Springs from one end of it, and thus walking from one end of Disney Springs to the other end of Disney Springs, such as to get to Cirque du Soleil, is itself a long distance (about 2/3rd mile).
 
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So have never have stayed at Saratoga. Booked a preferred room for February is there any room requests I should make?
is Saratoga one of those resorts where you can park your car right in front of your room?
please tell me any helpful tips about staying here?
Give me the good and bad please
We love SSR!!! You do not want the Springs if you are going to parks especially early in the morning due to being last stop. We prefer Grandstand and depending on building you are just as close to food court as Springs. Grandstand is not preferred but it is first pick up and first drop off for parks. Congress Park is best by far especially if you are going to Disney Springs for dinners or shopping. Paddock pool also has food and food court is excellent. Do not eat at Turf Club is was absolutely the worst meal we had during our Christmas 15 day trip last year. Some people call it a hidden gem but that gem should remain hidden in my opinion. Chef Art Smiths and Boathouse are great in Disney Springs, Steakhouse 71 at Contemporary for lunch or dinner excellent food/service(we usually walk over for dinner during our day at Magic Kingdom, Sci-Fi is great experience at Hollywood, Restaurantasourus at Animal Kingdom is great for quick service lunch and Teppan Edo at Epcot is a must do every trip if you like hibachi.If you have any other question feel free to reach out.
 
With preferred, you can request either Congress Park or Springs area. Besides things noted above, Congress Park can result in a room that has a nice view of the large lake looking over to Disney Springs. As a result, if you have a request put in for Congress Park, you might want to add a request for higher floor.

Congress Park has a pool, but it is just a pool without a theme and no long slide into the pool or a drink/quick food bar-like store. Springs has one of the two main large themed pools with the extras. Thus, if it is important to you to be very near a themed pool, Springs would be the choice.

The SSR bus service to the parks has five stops, in order by designated area: Grandstand, Carousel, Paddock, Congress Park, and Springs. An issue that can sometimes happen during the morning rush hours with Springs, but less of a risk with Congress Park, is that the bus may be full or have standing room only when it reaches Springs.

Springs has the advantage that you go directly to the park from there but the disadvantage of being the last drop-off coming back, but Congress Park has the same issue with three stops coming back before it. Just note that I have never found the SSR buses to present any significant disadvantage as to other resorts. The trips are still fairly quick and there are usually no significant waiting issues (except for that which can be suffered by all resorts using buses when departing a park at closing time, when the lines to get on a bus can be far longer than the number of passengers needed to fill a bus).

As noted above there are those that prefer just driving to the parks. I recommend not doing that for MK simply because that driving trip itself can be quite a challenge. Once you are in the huge parking lot, you must first go by tram or walk to the Transportation and Ticket Center area and then wait to catch a boat or monorail to MK. Moreover, particularly during morning rush times, the traffic back-up to even get to the parking lot can get very long. The total trip from resort to actual park entrance can approach an hour. Also, I do not know if it is still an issue, but it was in May, there may be no trams at Epcot or Studios to take you from your parking space area to the park entrance -- they did away with the trams during the pandemic and they had not yet returned to Epcot and Studios last time I was there, and thus you could have long walks from where you park to the front gate.

The walk to Disney Springs (the big mall, restaurant and entertainment center, not the Springs area of SSR) is fairly long from the SSR Springs area but still doable. Congress Park provides the shortest walk, but even that has some distance to it, and you enter Disney Springs from one end of it, and thus walking from one end of Disney Springs to the other end of Disney Springs, such as to get to Cirque du Soleil, is itself a long distance (about 2/3rd mile).
Thank you for this detailed answer. We always have a car but pref not to drive anywhere and just use Disney transit unless we are going to another resort for a dinner or something. We will take an Uber or Lyft often before driving.
 
We love SSR!!! You do not want the Springs if you are going to parks especially early in the morning due to being last stop. We prefer Grandstand and depending on building you are just as close to food court as Springs. Grandstand is not preferred but it is first pick up and first drop off for parks. Congress Park is best by far especially if you are going to Disney Springs for dinners or shopping. Paddock pool also has food and food court is excellent. Do not eat at Turf Club is was absolutely the worst meal we had during our Christmas 15 day trip last year. Some people call it a hidden gem but that gem should remain hidden in my opinion. Chef Art Smiths and Boathouse are great in Disney Springs, Steakhouse 71 at Contemporary for lunch or dinner excellent food/service(we usually walk over for dinner during our day at Magic Kingdom, Sci-Fi is great experience at Hollywood, Restaurantasourus at Animal Kingdom is great for quick service lunch and Teppan Edo at Epcot is a must do every trip if you like hibachi.If you have any other question feel free to reach out.
Thank you for all this. i appreciate all the input. We go to Disney alot. Annual pass and DVC but we have never stepped foot inside the Saratoga area. I wasn’t on the ball for our home resorts and Saratoga is the only thing available. I listen to many podcasts and know Saratoga is know as the resort of last resort’s and every podcast I have listened to say once they stay there they fall in love with it. So I’m actually quite excited but we normally don’t stay at such a sprawling resort. Do you think preferred is worth the extra points we are using? It’s not much but when they say preferred i figured there is an advantage to the location.
 
It’s not much but when they say preferred i figured there is an advantage to the location.
Originally SSR had no Preferred vs. Standard locations. However, over time it became obvious that many people requested Congress Park because of its proximity to DS and Springs due to its proximity to the main building, feature pool, etc. IOW, those are the advantages to those locations. And it’s up to you to decide whether it’s worth the extra points to you!
 
If you book standard you can then request Paddock which I think is a good compromise. It's 5 minutes walk to either the reception and to Congress park for the path to DS. And it's adjacent to the second feature pool and bar (which I've read is not too bad).
Or you can request Grandstand to be the first on and off the busses. The problem is the dreaded Carousel section, which is really not convenient for anything and a longer walk to all pools and restaurants. It's not like you're in another state, but it adds 5-10 minutes to any walk anywhere.
They're good at accommodating requests for a section, but someone has to stay in Caroousel :)
 
Thank you for all this. i appreciate all the input. We go to Disney alot. Annual pass and DVC but we have never stepped foot inside the Saratoga area. I wasn’t on the ball for our home resorts and Saratoga is the only thing available. I listen to many podcasts and know Saratoga is know as the resort of last resort’s and every podcast I have listened to say once they stay there they fall in love with it. So I’m actually quite excited but we normally don’t stay at such a sprawling resort. Do you think preferred is worth the extra points we are using? It’s not much but when they say preferred i figured there is an advantage to the location.
We usually go with the preferred section when we know we will be at DS more. We always request Congress Park. I also love the views over the lake from most of those rooms. When we will be doing the parks more, we will go standard and request either Grand Stand or Paddock. We got a room in the Paddock once that was close to the Congress Park section and we ended up being closer to the Congress Park bus stop than most of Congress Park was!
 
Ok so we booked preferred and our room request options are
none
near pool
congress park
Grandstand
near bus
near carriage house

springs was not an option

which should we choose?
 
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Ok so we booked preferred and our room request options are
none
near pool
congress park
Grandstand
near bus
near carriage house

springs was not an option

which should we choose?
Near Carriage House (with preferred) is Springs. I am surprised to see Grandstand listed.
 
Ok so we booked preferred and our room request options are
none
near pool
congress park
Grandstand
near bus
near carriage house

springs was not an option

which should we choose?
Is that the list from online checkin? If so, leave it blank and submit your request via MS, if you want Springs.
 















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