lilostitch
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Sep 4, 2005
- Messages
- 290
We are just returning from a wonderful vacation at SSR. We have never stayed at a DVC resort, and wanted to try it out, so we rented points from a wonderful member of these boards.
We arrived around 6:30 in the evening and found check-in to be quick and efficient. The lobby was beautiful and we were pleasantly surprised to see the Christmas decorations were still up.
We stayed in a 2 bedroom: my sister and her husband and 2 year old in the master bedroom; my husband, my 6 year old and 19 month old in the other room which had the 2 queen beds. Both of the little ones used pack-n-plays. I brought my own, and my sister used the one supplied by the resort. The resort pack-n-play was very similar to mine and it had a little Mickey sheet that fit on it. My niece slept quite comfortably in it.
The room was close to the main pool, which was a HUGE hit with my daughters and my niece. The only incident that happened there was NOT Disney's fault, but on our second night there, another child pooped in the pool and the pool was closed down for cleaning. The lifeguards said it would be closed for an hour for cleaning. Personally, we decided an hour didn't sound like long enough to go back in the poop pool, no matter how much cleaning took place, so we left the pool for the night.
We ate at Artist's Palette twice for breakfast and twice for dinner. I thought the food was pretty good and the girls really enjoyed the little easels they had in the dining room for "creating artistic masterpieces". After the kids draw a picture or color one of the pictures provided, a CM will hang their artwork on a board, as featured art of the day. My 6 year old loved that!
We went to MK on Wednesday, and it was very packed. We still had a good time, and wait times weren't too bad. The worst part was walking, just so many people. My brother-in-law and niece had never been to Disney before, so it was pretty fun to see it through their eyes.
We went to AK on Thursday, it wasn't nearly as packed. It was pretty great, and after following some advice I read on these boards, my daughter was chosen to participate at the Lion King show. Thanks for the advice everyone, it worked! (By the way, the advice was: arrive early, sit as close to the front as you can, and sit your child on the end of the aisle). We sat in the "lion section", which is where SIMBA comes out and where all the animal dancers come out. The characters leaned over the rails several times to shake hands with my daughter, plus she was chosen to be in the show. It was pretty cool!
There were only 2 downsides to the trip:
1) I honestly didn't care that our room had a parking lot view. It's proximity to the main pool and restaurant made up for that. However, we were on the bottom floor and the DVC model that prospective DVCers tour was right above us. The constant foot traffic outside our balcony was loud at times, and sometimes it seemed as if our room would shake from the ceiling. I don't know what to attribute that to and thought it might have something to do with the prospective DVCers above us at all hours. It didn't ruin our trip, but it was somewhat annoying. I know they have to push the DVC, it is their job. Honestly, I've taken the tour myself (when it was at BCV). I don't know the solution to this one.
2) The people who commented on the bus situation on these boards were right on target. I have stayed at AKL, Coronado Springs, All Star Movies, and the Contemporary. My husband and I have always enjoyed Disney transportation, in fact, my 6 year old practically considers it one of the rides. We tried to catch a bus to MK, and after waiting over 30 minutes, as every other bus came through and then started repeating without one to MK, we felt fortunate enough to have our cars with us (which we promptly drove to MK). I explained to my family that because the resort is new, they are still figuring the transportation out, and that people on the boards had warned about it. It was a little disappointing, but not that big of a deal. It would have been a lot worse if we didn't have our own transportation.
That is it. The resort was lovely, and we truly enjoyed our stay.
We arrived around 6:30 in the evening and found check-in to be quick and efficient. The lobby was beautiful and we were pleasantly surprised to see the Christmas decorations were still up.
We stayed in a 2 bedroom: my sister and her husband and 2 year old in the master bedroom; my husband, my 6 year old and 19 month old in the other room which had the 2 queen beds. Both of the little ones used pack-n-plays. I brought my own, and my sister used the one supplied by the resort. The resort pack-n-play was very similar to mine and it had a little Mickey sheet that fit on it. My niece slept quite comfortably in it.
The room was close to the main pool, which was a HUGE hit with my daughters and my niece. The only incident that happened there was NOT Disney's fault, but on our second night there, another child pooped in the pool and the pool was closed down for cleaning. The lifeguards said it would be closed for an hour for cleaning. Personally, we decided an hour didn't sound like long enough to go back in the poop pool, no matter how much cleaning took place, so we left the pool for the night.
We ate at Artist's Palette twice for breakfast and twice for dinner. I thought the food was pretty good and the girls really enjoyed the little easels they had in the dining room for "creating artistic masterpieces". After the kids draw a picture or color one of the pictures provided, a CM will hang their artwork on a board, as featured art of the day. My 6 year old loved that!
We went to MK on Wednesday, and it was very packed. We still had a good time, and wait times weren't too bad. The worst part was walking, just so many people. My brother-in-law and niece had never been to Disney before, so it was pretty fun to see it through their eyes.
We went to AK on Thursday, it wasn't nearly as packed. It was pretty great, and after following some advice I read on these boards, my daughter was chosen to participate at the Lion King show. Thanks for the advice everyone, it worked! (By the way, the advice was: arrive early, sit as close to the front as you can, and sit your child on the end of the aisle). We sat in the "lion section", which is where SIMBA comes out and where all the animal dancers come out. The characters leaned over the rails several times to shake hands with my daughter, plus she was chosen to be in the show. It was pretty cool!
There were only 2 downsides to the trip:
1) I honestly didn't care that our room had a parking lot view. It's proximity to the main pool and restaurant made up for that. However, we were on the bottom floor and the DVC model that prospective DVCers tour was right above us. The constant foot traffic outside our balcony was loud at times, and sometimes it seemed as if our room would shake from the ceiling. I don't know what to attribute that to and thought it might have something to do with the prospective DVCers above us at all hours. It didn't ruin our trip, but it was somewhat annoying. I know they have to push the DVC, it is their job. Honestly, I've taken the tour myself (when it was at BCV). I don't know the solution to this one.
2) The people who commented on the bus situation on these boards were right on target. I have stayed at AKL, Coronado Springs, All Star Movies, and the Contemporary. My husband and I have always enjoyed Disney transportation, in fact, my 6 year old practically considers it one of the rides. We tried to catch a bus to MK, and after waiting over 30 minutes, as every other bus came through and then started repeating without one to MK, we felt fortunate enough to have our cars with us (which we promptly drove to MK). I explained to my family that because the resort is new, they are still figuring the transportation out, and that people on the boards had warned about it. It was a little disappointing, but not that big of a deal. It would have been a lot worse if we didn't have our own transportation.
That is it. The resort was lovely, and we truly enjoyed our stay.
I think I would have sat out a night also.
