SSR any positives

[BethA]

We are planning a last minute trip President's week-end and nothing is available but SSR. My older son is not thrilled about it and i had not planned to get a car, but if it is like OKW I think we will need one--who wants to hike to the pool?

Can someone give me some positive feed back on your experiences there?
Did you rent a car or use DME?

thanks

 

[Rozzie]

Well, for starters, we used a towncar. Never had a car. Didn't need one. Don't buy into the being stuck at the resort theory. We hardly ever have a car. We use the buses, or if we need to be somewhere on time, for a few bucks we take a cab. Never had a problem with the busses.

You might enjoy the Springs area more than the other areas. It is very close to the Main pool that has the community hall there, AP, and pool bar. Also the spa is right there.

We love SSR (of course we are biased!), and it has a true small town feel to it, and wonderful friendly CMs. The resort itself is breathtaking, and I know of many people who went with reservations about the place and came back loving it. Besides, there are worst places to be in life, right?

 

[Sammie]

I agree with Rozzie, if we have a car we use it, if not we are not stranded. I agree that your son might enjoy the Springs location. Close to the buses, main pool, arcade, food. etc.

This is not our home resort but we love this place. Great room decor, comfy beds and sofa beds, great staff, lovely views, good food. Buses will take you anywhere you need to go and walking distance to Downtown Disney which offers a lot of dining and shopping.

 

[Cinderella]

We love ssr - did have some problems with the transport, but then, we have had most of the resorts. i don't understand why people have a problem with srr location. we love other resorts eg. poly and vwl - but they are only close to mk and a real hike to the other resorts.

i wasn't sure about ssr until my last trip - i was a die hard vwl fan but i love the place now and can see myself spending most of my time there. closest to the main pool is the springs section - and the pool and slide is excellent

 

[Pooh's Pixie]

We just came back on Sat. from SSR...loved it. Try to request the Springs area. We didn't have a car. No problem to walk to the pool or the bus. In fact, I think we were a closer walk to both at SSR than we were at WL last year (we stayed in the hotel and had a LONG, albeit indoor Walk for everything!) The resort was nice & quiet. I had my teenage niece & nephew with us (19 year old twins!) and they seemed to like the proximity to DTD (bus, walk, or boat!) and the hot tub at night! Go with an open mind. It really does fell like a home away from home!

 

[MiaSRN62]

I've heard many good things about SSR---particularily being able to take a very nice stroll over to DD (I know my son, age 19, loves this area). We've never stayed there but would like to.
As for OKW, we've stayed there often over the years and we rarely use our car there. Busses to the parks are rarely, if ever, longer than 10-15 min at OKW. We don't mind walking to the main pool---many of the buildings are less than a 2-3 min walk. We were in a further bldg (#45) in August and found the walk to be about 4 min tops. And, besides, there's always a quiet pool within close proximity to any building. I'm assuming it's the same with SSR. Heck, we stayed at BWV in '03 and had a hike to the main pool, so there's really no assurances anywhere. Hopefully you all will enjoy your stay at SSR Someone posted some pics of SSR recently here on these boards, and the landscaping really looks pretty

 

[UrsulasShadow]

I had no problems at all at SSR. All the walks were completely manageable from Congress Park. All the buses were within reason timewise, and NONE were crowded! The resort is beautiful, and quiet, and the CMs (esp. bell services)were wonderful and helpful. They all got BIG Christmas tips from us!

The theming is absolutely lovely, and will only get better with time, when the trees grow to a point to hide the utter "flatness" of Florida. The spa is fantastic, the food court is better than most. The proximity to DTD was a big plus for us, as well.

 

[BethA]

keep the information coming--I'm feeling better already--actually I was doing okay when we decided to go today--sort of last minute to use up points.

Has anyone tried the spa?
How about the restaurant there? Is there a shop with food supplies?
Thanks everyone for posting.
Beth

 

[athenna]

keep the information coming--I'm feeling better already--actually I was doing okay when we decided to go today--sort of last minute to use up points.

Has anyone tried the spa?
How about the restaurant there? Is there a shop with food supplies?
Thanks everyone for posting.
Beth

Don't worry, the positive posts have been coming a lot lately!
I tried the spa!!! Perfect birthday present to myself! I got the peppermint pedicure (only offered in the winter) and it was great!!
I enjoy the restaurant, but not everyone does. The burgers and fries crowd aren't partial to it. I am not of the burger & fries crowd so I like it a lot. The Turf club lounge is offering limited menu at this time-like appetizer type stuff. However, a full service restaurant has been announced. I want to say I read in 11/06 it will open.
Yes, there is a shop w/food supples.
I love SSR, truly feels like a ''home away from home'' for me

 

[tiberius]

Has anyone tried the spa?
Sorry, but not us.

How about the restaurant there?
Artist's Palette is good as a high quality snack bar, but is not really a sit down quality restaurant. Food is good and relatively reasonable.

Is there a shop with food supplies?
Yes.

We stayed with my 15 and 17 yo DDs. They loved the place, even the cynical 15 yo said the place was "awesome". We stayed in the Paddocks building closest to the Congress Park bus stop, which was a really good location. You can take any bus back to the main building, which can cut down on walking time. Being near DTD was great, and I did not think I would really care for it, but I loved being there.

Over all, we all loved the resort.

 

[Steamboat Bill]

My only complaint about SSR is that there is no "signature dinner restaurant" other than that, it is a wonderful property.

 

[cobbler]

Love SSR. I am actually sad I won't be able to go back there for a while. Darn the quirk to have the need to try every resort on property Seriously though I do have that quirk and I just think about how I can't wait to go "home" again.

We were in Congress Park and loved it there. I think I prefer that over the Springs personally. There are many things to do there and it is a nice quiet resort. Love the decor too.

 

[La2kw]

We are planning a last minute trip President's week-end and nothing is available but SSR. My older son is not thrilled about it and i had not planned to get a car, but if it is like OKW I think we will need one--who wants to hike to the pool?

Can someone give me some positive feed back on your experiences there?
Did you rent a car or use DME?

thanks

We booked a last minute trip last July and were very disappointed that OKW was not available. We "settled" for SSR. I had absolutely no desire to ever stay at this resort and couldn't understand why anyone would want to purchase there. Once we checked in, we were quite surprised at how much we loved this resort. In fact, we liked it so much, we added on 120 points. We have owned OKW since the time that OKW was called "Disney Vacation Club" and never really felt we needed to add any more points until we stayed at SSR. Now we figure we will alternate between our two home resorts each year.

SSR feels similar to OKW in that it is a vacation "home" and not so much a "hotel". In fact, OKW feels like a neighborhood, and SSR feels like a village. The Artist Palette is rather good and definitely better than a typical fast food outlet. We also loved being walking distance from DD (you never know when you may need to have a Ghiradelli hot fudge sundae) and Disneyquest. We never had problems with buses either. The service is not quite as good as OKW, but definitely was better than the BC, BWV, and WL bus service was the times we stayed at those resorts.

The grocery store is a part of the restaurant and gift shop. It stocks basically the same items as the other DVC stores. Plenty of frozen, refrigerated, boxed, and canned items.

 

[yitbos96bb]

Which area is the closest to DTD? How was the wait for the buses back to SSR? One of the reasons we looked at DVC (and ultimately bought) was that when we were on our last trip, we had to wait FOREVER to get back to the All Stars, given the number of people. It is a bit disheartening to wait an hour plus, while all the deluxe lodges were long gone at that point (not complaining about them being gone mind you.. I understand that the all stars have a LOT of people... plus it was summer) and I broke down and took a cab a few times. We are looking at trying to get to BCV or BWV for our first DVC trip, mainly due to the boat access to Epcot, where we eat a lot of our meals and is my wifes favorite park, but I am open to staying at our home resort SSR... I just don't want to wait forever to get back to the resort with the buses. The walks don't bother me, especially in January when we are going. Plus, we can always walk to DTD and catch a bus to Boardwalk or any other resort.

So as I have keep babbling:

How long were the waits for the buses at the park closings AND what time of year were you there?

Which area is closest to DTD and the busses?

 

[cncDisney4]

Which area is the closest to DTD? How was the wait for the buses back to SSR? One of the reasons we looked at DVC (and ultimately bought) was that when we were on our last trip, we had to wait FOREVER to get back to the All Stars, given the number of people. It is a bit disheartening to wait an hour plus, while all the deluxe lodges were long gone at that point (not complaining about them being gone mind you.. I understand that the all stars have a LOT of people... plus it was summer) and I broke down and took a cab a few times. We are looking at trying to get to BCV or BWV for our first DVC trip, mainly due to the boat access to Epcot, where we eat a lot of our meals and is my wifes favorite park, but I am open to staying at our home resort SSR... I just don't want to wait forever to get back to the resort with the buses. The walks don't bother me, especially in January when we are going. Plus, we can always walk to DTD and catch a bus to Boardwalk or any other resort.

So as I have keep babbling:

How long were the waits for the buses at the park closings AND what time of year were you there?

Which area is closest to DTD and the busses?

We stayed at SSR for the first time last month and loved it! We have stayed at All Stars in the past and just joined DVC in October. We were watching the All Star buses when we waited for our bus and they were ALWAYS packed. What I REALLY enjoyed about SSR was that the buses were never full (we were there 12/21 to 12/27) and the most we waited was 25-30 minutes for a bus and that was just a few times. When we had our ADR at O'hana's we just walked to DTD and caught the bus to Poly and did the same thing when we had ADR's at Boma (we caught the bus at DTD to Animal Kingdom). We were in the Paddocks building that is closest to Congress Park (Room 6827) and it was perfect. Congress Park is closest to DTD and there is a bus stop right there. Our DS's who are 20 and 16 loved just walking to DTD and going to Disney Quest every night. I had absolutely no complaints about our first trip "home" and am waiting until I can call to make our reservations for this December again. Enjoy!

 

[RoyalCanadian]

My daughter was 5 years old when we visited SSR in January 2005. She certainly didn't consider a walk from the farthest building in Congress Park to the pool to be an arduous trek, but I can understand how a teenage boy would consider anything beyond 5 minutes to be something akin to the Bataan Death March.

 

[ccw]

Spa at SSR was great. Some in our group had massages, some had facials. We all enjoyed our treatments. DVC members get nice discounts for themselves and everyone in their party staying on same card. My brother says the fitness area at SSR is one of the best of any of the Disney resorts. Can't imagine you will be miserable at SSR!

 

[JimMIA]

One other plus - to me, at least - is that either SSR or OKW are very convenient to going off-site if you have a car. You're parked right by your villa, and all the grocery stores, restaurants, drug stores, etc. are only a few blocks away. We usually find ourselves running to a store every other day or so, so that's a good thing for us.

The situation is similar at BCV and BWV, but not quite as convenient. They're a little farther away from the shopping areas off-site, and you have to walk some distance to your car.

 

[Cinderella]

The spa is the best on Disney property. GF is nice - but SSR is super deluxe. I had a pedicure and paraffin wax and they sit you in a chair that massages your whole body whilst you're having your treatment. Didn't use the gym but popped my head in and it looked great - v well equipped.

 

[BethA]

thanks for all the replys.