WolfpackFan
Retired and loving every minute of it!!
- Joined
- Jul 24, 2000
- Messages
- 2,539
We just got back from three nights at SSR. If you had asked me late Friday night if we would ever stay at SSR again, the answer would be absolutely not. But if you were to ask me now, I'd say yes we would. It might not be our first choice, but we will stay there again. Friday night started out real rocky though. We used ME and that went pretty good. But when we checked in at SSR, the person who was checking us in was absolulely no help at all. To start with, I could hardly understand what she was saying. She had a very difficult time speaking English. Now I know part of this is perhaps my fault for not making myself more aware of the layout of SSR, but we had a very difficult time finding our room in the dark. The front desk clerk just gave us a map, circled our building and that was it. She gave no directions, no information on how to get to our building, no nothing as far as help goes. So here we setoff schlepping our carryon luggage, which when we left registration was not that heavy but after wondering around in the dark got heavier and heavier. Trying to find our way using the map but with no real directions in the dark was ridiculous. We'd go down one sidewalk after another basically going around in circles and it seemed like we'd be walking on one sidewalk and then it would end for no reason at all. After bumbling around in the dark for about 30 minutes (for what actually turned out to be an 8 minute walk) we finally found our building in the far Paddock area. Then to find the room. We were in 6632. Well how am I to know what floor that is on? We finally figured out 65xx is first floor, 66xx second, etc. Anyway we finally got to our room (a studio). It was very nice and had a terrific view of a very nice parking lot. By that time it was 8:00 and we still had nothing to eat. Now to find our way to Downtown Disney with no instructions on how to get there. More trying to read the map in the dark, wondering about and low and behold we found ourselves back at the SSR registration building. I wasn't about to go back to the front desk because the clerk who couldn't speak English well was still there. So I went to where the luggage handlers were and asked for directions. They were very helpfull and gave us some directions and we ended up taking the bus and got to DD, had dinner at Earl of Sandwich (great) and actually found our way back to SSR by the path. Saturday morning then came and things took on an entirely different look in the light of day. SSR really is a very nice (but very large resort). We had no other complaints for the weekend. We got used to how to get around, learned how the buses run, etc. I figure Friday nights frustrations would have not happened, if we had just had a front desk clerk that was a little more helpfull or even if I had done my homework ahead of time and studied the resort maps and learned the lay of the area before we got there (I usually do this).
We only had two other complaints about SSR, but they are not enough to keep us from staying there in the future. I really don't like the fact that the units open to an outside corrider. A couple of years ago we had a bad experience when a couple of men tried to get into our room at 2:00 in the morning from an outside corrider (I had to call front desk, who sent security right away, but it was very scary while it was happening). So every since then I've tried to stay clear of ourside corrider hotels. Second, we had an early pickup with ME this morning and left our room early thinking we'd have some breakfast at Artist Palette before getting on bus. Turns out AP opens at 7:30. Seems kind of late opening when alot of folks might have early flights out.
Anyway, everything turned out fine, we had a great weekend. Couldn't believe the winds on Saturday. White caps on the lake between Future World and World Showcase at Epcot. We will definitely stay at SSR again, especially when we might want to go to Epcot mostly (F&G or F&W times) and can't get into BWV or BCV at 7 months. Next time though I would request Congress Park with a view of the lake.
Sorry this has been so long. Now to get back to the real world. The great thing though is I retire in two weeks. And I am so excited I don't know what to do. Now to wait one more year for DW to retire and we can go to WDW whenever we wish.
We only had two other complaints about SSR, but they are not enough to keep us from staying there in the future. I really don't like the fact that the units open to an outside corrider. A couple of years ago we had a bad experience when a couple of men tried to get into our room at 2:00 in the morning from an outside corrider (I had to call front desk, who sent security right away, but it was very scary while it was happening). So every since then I've tried to stay clear of ourside corrider hotels. Second, we had an early pickup with ME this morning and left our room early thinking we'd have some breakfast at Artist Palette before getting on bus. Turns out AP opens at 7:30. Seems kind of late opening when alot of folks might have early flights out.
Anyway, everything turned out fine, we had a great weekend. Couldn't believe the winds on Saturday. White caps on the lake between Future World and World Showcase at Epcot. We will definitely stay at SSR again, especially when we might want to go to Epcot mostly (F&G or F&W times) and can't get into BWV or BCV at 7 months. Next time though I would request Congress Park with a view of the lake.
Sorry this has been so long. Now to get back to the real world. The great thing though is I retire in two weeks. And I am so excited I don't know what to do. Now to wait one more year for DW to retire and we can go to WDW whenever we wish.
. We've never used bell services much as we usually drive down ourselves and carry our own luggage. I was thinking bell services was for folks with lots of checked luggage plus I didn't know they would actually carry you with the luggage. I glanced at the map and it didn't look that bad, so told DW let's do it. Little did I know. I'll know better next time.
