Ssr & Bcv 5/30-6/6

[DISNEYWORLDBORN2SHOP]

5/30- We checked into studio #2836 at SSR. Jacob checked us in and welcomed us home. He informed us that our room was ready but unfortunately there were no water view rooms available that day. He put a request in the system for us to get a water view room when we moved to a 1 bedroom on 6/1. Our room was on the 4th floor overlooking a stagnant looking canal (I was told the canal will be cleaned and nice once all the construction is finished). The room itself was beautiful. There were no bugs on the balcony. as a previous poster reported a week prior to our arrival. We had dinner at Le Chefs de France which was just o.k. but a new experience for us and then headed back to the resort for a swim in the pool. We basically had the pool to ourselves (NICE). Oh, did I mention we had our own personal bus to and from Epcot? Basically, we had our own personal bus to and from anywhere we wanted to go the entire week (I wish it would always be that way).
5/31 - We walked to DTD (Seemed like a very long walk in the heat)and we spent the entire day at DQ and had dinner at WolfGang Pucks. I went back to SSR to put our leftovers in the fridge and planned to meet my guys back at DQ later). I
attempted to take the boat (which is a long walk from the Congress Park buildings) back to DTD but after waiting 45 minutes and watching many boats go past and 2 with a green flag(green is for the DVC Ferry) come from OKW completely full and not stop, I got agitated. Finally a boat stopped but the driver informed me that he was going to OKW not DTD and I could not board. I told him I had been waiting for 45 minutes and he basically told me I was full of s*** and pulled off (He did not have the Disney Spirit). Another DVC couple that I met at the boat launch said that was the second rude CM they had encountered that day and they went and told a bellhop (Jonathan) what happened and he rode us on a golf cart over to DTD. We decided to go to the fireworks viewing area to see the PI fireworks. Unfortunately, the fireworks were very dissappointing. I think they lasted 20 seconds. We kind of expected a wee bit more.
6/1- We moved to our 1 bedroom villa #2541 and what a view it was. We watched the fireworks from our room and they were better than the night before.
6/2-6/4- Was a blurr of making pancakes for breakfast, dropping in at the parks (the beauty of APs), swimming in an empty pool and eating wonderful meals (Tony's, Ohana, Whispering Canyon). We went to LaNouba, too. They are running a great special where you get a child's ticket for 1/2 price with every paid adult.
6/5-We checked into the BCV and our room (studio #360) was ready around 1:00. This was our first time staying here and it was nice. The boys enjoyed the day swimming at SAB. We had dinner at Beaches and Cream (Yummy!).

Observations-We usually go a week later than we did this trip and the parks were a lot more crowded. This was our 6th trip this year and I have noticed increased crowds everytime. However, the crowds did thin out around Thursday so I think Memorial Day was a factor this trip. We usually stay at BWV and love it despite it's long hallways. SSR has a charm all it's own and even though things are not as easy to get to as BWV, I think it will be really nice once it is complete (Unfortunately, I think we will have to share the buses with others). BCV were also nice and our room was clean and our water pressure was fine. The only draw back I can see to BCV (but this could be b/c we didn't have but one night to find our way around) was that it seemed choppy to go from one area to another. We felt like we were constantly going in and out to go from one place to another but it wouldn't keep us from staying there again. Oh, I almost forgot about the heat. It was way hotter than normal with very little rain. Overall, we had one of our best trips ever and can't wait to go back.

 

[Doug7856]

Thanks for all of the details!

 

[MJTinNH]

Thanks for posing your report. Sounds like you had a great vacation despite the heat!

 

[calypso*a*go-go]

Great report -- thanks for sharing!

 

[RweTHEREyet]

I think we checked into the same room on Friday, June 4. We overlooked the canal, too. Was your room the last one on the right before you would have had to go down the back stairs? It looked as if there was a room to the left because of the railing there, but it was the railing around the stairwell. The only view was to see the common buildings lit up at night.

We enjyed our very short stay there (2 nights) and would have loved one more night there, but had to move over to BCV as SSR was totally sold out, not even 1 bedrooms available.

I am really looking forward to going back to SSR this Fall. It will be very interesting to see how different the resort will feel with many more people there.

And you were right, it was very, very hot while we were there, too. For once, I am really glad I will not be there in the middle of summer.

 

[jbwolffiv]

Thanks for all the info, still cant get enough info about SSR.

 

[DISNEYWORLDBORN2SHOP]

I

I think we checked into the same room on Friday, June 4. We overlooked the canal, too. Was your room the last one on the right before you would have had to go down the back stairs? It looked as if there was a room to the left because of the railing there, but it was the railing around the stairwell. The only view was to see the common buildings lit up at night

Yes, that was our room. Did you happen to notice how hot the elevators were? We started taking the stairs because it was much cooler than the elevators.

 

[RweTHEREyet]

The elevators were rather warm, but I still used them. Stairs are not one of my favorite things to do. While I was not totally thrilled with the view, my reservation was made late enough and with only one building being open, I was not surprised at all. I was just glad to be able to stay there and check it out.

We ate at Artist Palette twice, a lunch and a dinner, and I was pleased. I also was glad to see more DVC merchandise than I had seen in a while. I picked up a license tag and a DVC note cube.

My one surprise was that there is ice available only on the first floor. But I guess that is better than OKW having it only at the bus stops, at least SSR has it in the building. I loved that the vanity area is very bright, not dark like WLV. Also, being from North Carolina, I was proud of the Thomasville furniture. The grounds were beautiful and all the Cast Members that I encountered were extremely friendly and helpful.

The DVC Sales center seemed to be hopping busy everytime we passed by and the carts with the sales people and prospects were everywhere. I stopped in the Sales Center early one morning to see if we could check out the models and they gave me the room numbers and said to go ahead and look all we wanted. I fell in love with the Grand Villa, it was so different from what I envisioned from looking at the room layout. I really, really liked it and did not mind the wall between the dining room and living area as others had mentioned. Also didn't mind the downstairs bathroom being off the kitchen. It is a huge guest bathroom. Love that outside entrance for the upstairs of the Grand Villa for those that may use wheelchairs and/or electric scooters.

The first night I did not hear any fireworks at midnight, but the second night I did. I assumed they were from Pleasure Island. They did not wake me up, I had not fallen totally asleep yet, and it was not that bad.

We will have more time to check out the resort in October. We didn't try out the pools or the boat service or the Spa.

Funny that we both went from SSR to BCV.

 

[DISNEYWORLDBORN2SHOP]

We had originally booked 5/30-6/5 in a studio the first day we were able to make ressies b/c we were trying to save our points to do DCL next summer. When we found out the Magic would be sailing out of California we decided to try and upgrade to a 1 bedroom. That was only like a month ago so we were shocked when our waitlist came through for 4 of the 6 nights. About 2 weeks ago my DH said it was a shame we hadn't booked our stay through 6/6. Well, that was all I needed to get on the phone and try and get another night. I decided on BCV since we had never stayed there before and my boys love SAB. I thought it would be the perfect way to end a trip and it was.

I agree with the immense amount of activity at the preview center. There was always a guide pulling up to the building with a golf cart full of prospective DVCers.

I was supposed to try out the spa but never got around to it. That is why I should have made an appointment before I left home.

We ran into quite a few people wandering around trying to figure out how to get to DtD. All of them had the same story - they were coming from a theme park and asked how to get to Downtown Disney and were told to hop the first bus to Saratoga and then walk there. Apparantly, all the CMs are not aware that the official walkway to DtD is not open yet. One night it was a lady with 2 young children (1 sleeping) and her elderly mother. I told her that I didn't think she wanted to attempt the walk carrying a sleeping toddler and she would be better off to go to the bus stop and wait for the DtD bus.

 

[tinkgrl]

Hi,

Thanks for sharing!!!

Allison an associate

 

[Disney Enthusiast]

I enjoyed reading your post. Thanks for sharing your trip report w/ us.

 

[btrim]

Great report. Glad you enjoyed SSR. Can't wait to stay there. I think I read on another thread that the boats are no longer run by Disney. Was I wrong? Did someone else read that? Anyway, the ones running from DTD and OKW and SSR look different than the ones running from MGM and EPCOT.