nzdisneymom
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 27, 2003
- Messages
- 6,083
We joined DVC in March and had our first trip "Home" this past weekend. We were going for the Minnie Marathon as DH was running in the 15K on Sunday. SSR is our home resort.
We arrived at SSR on Friday evening around 8 p.m. We went through the security gate and got our first official "Welcome home!" We pulled into the front of the Carriage House where DH dropped me off to go check in and he pulled around to park. There was an ambulance in the drive-thru so that's why we didn't just park there to check in.
There was only one other guest in the lobby, so I went right up to get registered. From start to finish, it was about 5 minutes. I even got to pick which building between two buildings that were available. FWIW, we were getting a studio.
We ended up in #6412... I picked it because in one bldg we could have 1st or 3rd floor and in the other building we could have 1st, 3rd or 4th - so I wanted the 4th floor. We followed the map and found where to park - how nice to park up close! We checked out the room - how nice to have a "welcome home" mat outside
The room was clean and comfortable. Definitely more room than the regular resort rooms we've been staying at in the moderates We liked having the kitchenette, especially the refrigerator to put our milk, juice, water and sodas into. And having a toaster meant that I brought pop-tarts for breakfast as we like them warmed up.
We were surprised to find three pillows on the bed (queen sized) ... I had DH pack his extra pillow since I didn't know. The boys slept on the pull-out couch (they are ages 8 1/2 and nearly 10) without any difficulty, but when they get bigger, the bed will likely be too small for them both.
I double-checked the bathroom and it was clean - nothing icky growing or hiding out. We had our 4 towels, 4 wash cloths and 2 hand-towels. I reminded everyone we didn't get extra towels unless we paid for them, so please hang them up and don't drag them across the floor. As it turned out, we ended up with an extra towel from the pool that helped round out the end of our stay.
Friday night we explored the resort - find the nearest bus stop and pool at the Paddock (which is the area we stayed in) and the boys liked the playground. We decided to find our way over to DTD, so we crossed the bridge and as we neared the Springs bus stop, a DTD bus pulled in, so we hopped on and went over to DTD. I won't bore you with what we did at DTD, but I was curious about where the dock was at SSR, so we took the boat back from DTD Marketplace to SSR. I couldn't get my bearings and of course we didn't look at a map, so we just wandered around after getting off the boat and found the tennis courts, the back of the DVC preview center, etc. The next day I figured out if we had gone to the left off the dock instead of the right, we'd have been right by the Carriage House. Duh!
We sat out on the balcony for a little while and enjoyed our view. We could see Cirque de Soleil and the top of Disney Quest, etc., but we really enjoyed watching the pond and just seeing how quiet it really was around where we were. We only saw a few people in our area walking around and there were just a handful of people at the quiet pool / hot tub when we'd been there earlier.
Saturday we needed to be at Animal kingdom before opening as we were meeting some friends early, so we got up, enjoyed being able to have a nice breakfast in the room, picked up after ourselves, washed up the glasses, and then headed out to the bus stop where the AK bus was already there. The bus driver had hopped off for a minute to use the restroom (whew!) so we were able to get right on and arrived at AK early. (fill in blah blah blah what we did while we were out for the morning...) We went back to SSR around noon to drop of DH's running packet and freshen up before going to MK for the rest of the day. We had to wait about 10 minutes for the MK bus to pick us up.
MK closed at 7 p.m. on Saturday for Grad Nite, but we left around 6:30. We waited maybe 5 minutes for the bus back to SSR. When we got back, the boys wanted to swim so we thought we'd check out the big pool since I wanted to explore the community-areas of the resort anyway. So we hiked over to the pool - took about 8 minutes to walk over. The slide was open for about 30 more minutes after we got there - plenty of time for our slide-freak DS to get his slides in. Then the boys just enjoyed being in the pool, using the noodles, etc. DH stayed with them while I went to check out Artist Palette, etc.
I was a bit disappointed in how small the Artist Palette area was - I expected a bigger gift-shop area, but I guess being so close to DTD, they wouldn't sell much stuff there - although I bought golden mickey ears there instead of at DTD just so I wouldn't have to carry them so far I noticed the DDP snack indicators for things like loaves of bread, etc., so I thought that would be a great use of the DDP snack option if we had done the DDP (which we didn't). I hadn't realized they had changed the DDP some, so for future guests, know that you can get some groceries with some of your DDP credits. I hadn't realized about being able to check out DVD's either... not that we had a DVD player in our studio, but we have a portable one we will bring with us for longer stays in the studios.
I went over to Community Hall and talked to the CM there. She told me about how things work in terms of renting bikes, borrowing sports equipment, etc. And I had forgotten about the PlayStation2 games. When we go and stay longer, I'll definitely take the boys up to Community Hall for some activity time.
DH and the boys went from the big pool to the quiet pool / hot tub while I went back to the room to get the bed ready and start packing up as we were leaving the next morning and had to be up early (5 a.m.) for DH's run. We got a wake-up call and off to zzzz.
(15K stuff happened - nice morning - DH ran and finished with a just under 9-minute mile pace - he's training for the Disney marathon.) DH told me later in the day that SSR has good areas for running for those so inclined... and I just read in another post that there is a path between SSR and OKW???? Cool - we'll have to look for that on a later trip.
We got back to the room around 8:45 a.m. and got DH showered (p-u) and finished packing. We left SSR around 9:20 and drove over to Wilderness Lodge where we were meeting friends for breakfast at Whispering Canyon... then off to MK for a few hours. We parked at WL, so we returned back to WL before leaving. Of course we had to detour and check out the lobby area for the Villas... wow! It was really beautiful and we definitely want to stay there at some point.
Thanks for reading.
We arrived at SSR on Friday evening around 8 p.m. We went through the security gate and got our first official "Welcome home!" We pulled into the front of the Carriage House where DH dropped me off to go check in and he pulled around to park. There was an ambulance in the drive-thru so that's why we didn't just park there to check in.
There was only one other guest in the lobby, so I went right up to get registered. From start to finish, it was about 5 minutes. I even got to pick which building between two buildings that were available. FWIW, we were getting a studio.
We ended up in #6412... I picked it because in one bldg we could have 1st or 3rd floor and in the other building we could have 1st, 3rd or 4th - so I wanted the 4th floor. We followed the map and found where to park - how nice to park up close! We checked out the room - how nice to have a "welcome home" mat outside
The room was clean and comfortable. Definitely more room than the regular resort rooms we've been staying at in the moderates
We liked having the kitchenette, especially the refrigerator to put our milk, juice, water and sodas into. And having a toaster meant that I brought pop-tarts for breakfast as we like them warmed up. We were surprised to find three pillows on the bed (queen sized) ... I had DH pack his extra pillow since I didn't know. The boys slept on the pull-out couch (they are ages 8 1/2 and nearly 10) without any difficulty, but when they get bigger, the bed will likely be too small for them both.
I double-checked the bathroom and it was clean - nothing icky growing or hiding out. We had our 4 towels, 4 wash cloths and 2 hand-towels. I reminded everyone we didn't get extra towels unless we paid for them, so please hang them up and don't drag them across the floor. As it turned out, we ended up with an extra towel from the pool that helped round out the end of our stay.
Friday night we explored the resort - find the nearest bus stop and pool at the Paddock (which is the area we stayed in) and the boys liked the playground. We decided to find our way over to DTD, so we crossed the bridge and as we neared the Springs bus stop, a DTD bus pulled in, so we hopped on and went over to DTD. I won't bore you with what we did at DTD, but I was curious about where the dock was at SSR, so we took the boat back from DTD Marketplace to SSR. I couldn't get my bearings and of course we didn't look at a map, so we just wandered around after getting off the boat and found the tennis courts, the back of the DVC preview center, etc. The next day I figured out if we had gone to the left off the dock instead of the right, we'd have been right by the Carriage House. Duh!
We sat out on the balcony for a little while and enjoyed our view. We could see Cirque de Soleil and the top of Disney Quest, etc., but we really enjoyed watching the pond and just seeing how quiet it really was around where we were. We only saw a few people in our area walking around and there were just a handful of people at the quiet pool / hot tub when we'd been there earlier.
Saturday we needed to be at Animal kingdom before opening as we were meeting some friends early, so we got up, enjoyed being able to have a nice breakfast in the room, picked up after ourselves, washed up the glasses, and then headed out to the bus stop where the AK bus was already there. The bus driver had hopped off for a minute to use the restroom (whew!) so we were able to get right on and arrived at AK early. (fill in blah blah blah what we did while we were out for the morning...) We went back to SSR around noon to drop of DH's running packet and freshen up before going to MK for the rest of the day. We had to wait about 10 minutes for the MK bus to pick us up.
MK closed at 7 p.m. on Saturday for Grad Nite, but we left around 6:30. We waited maybe 5 minutes for the bus back to SSR. When we got back, the boys wanted to swim so we thought we'd check out the big pool since I wanted to explore the community-areas of the resort anyway. So we hiked over to the pool - took about 8 minutes to walk over. The slide was open for about 30 more minutes after we got there - plenty of time for our slide-freak DS to get his slides in. Then the boys just enjoyed being in the pool, using the noodles, etc. DH stayed with them while I went to check out Artist Palette, etc.
I was a bit disappointed in how small the Artist Palette area was - I expected a bigger gift-shop area, but I guess being so close to DTD, they wouldn't sell much stuff there - although I bought golden mickey ears there instead of at DTD just so I wouldn't have to carry them so far
I noticed the DDP snack indicators for things like loaves of bread, etc., so I thought that would be a great use of the DDP snack option if we had done the DDP (which we didn't). I hadn't realized they had changed the DDP some, so for future guests, know that you can get some groceries with some of your DDP credits. I hadn't realized about being able to check out DVD's either... not that we had a DVD player in our studio, but we have a portable one we will bring with us for longer stays in the studios.I went over to Community Hall and talked to the CM there. She told me about how things work in terms of renting bikes, borrowing sports equipment, etc. And I had forgotten about the PlayStation2 games. When we go and stay longer, I'll definitely take the boys up to Community Hall for some activity time.
DH and the boys went from the big pool to the quiet pool / hot tub while I went back to the room to get the bed ready and start packing up as we were leaving the next morning and had to be up early (5 a.m.) for DH's run. We got a wake-up call and off to zzzz.
(15K stuff happened - nice morning - DH ran and finished with a just under 9-minute mile pace - he's training for the Disney marathon.) DH told me later in the day that SSR has good areas for running for those so inclined... and I just read in another post that there is a path between SSR and OKW???? Cool - we'll have to look for that on a later trip.
We got back to the room around 8:45 a.m. and got DH showered (p-u) and finished packing. We left SSR around 9:20 and drove over to Wilderness Lodge where we were meeting friends for breakfast at Whispering Canyon... then off to MK for a few hours. We parked at WL, so we returned back to WL before leaving. Of course we had to detour and check out the lobby area for the Villas... wow! It was really beautiful and we definitely want to stay there at some point.
Thanks for reading.
