SSR ~ What We Liked and What We Didn't

[wendydarling826]

Well we're back from our first stay at SSR and we're missing the warm Florida sunshine. BCV is our first home-away-from-home, but we added on SSR points last year and thought we should try it. Here's our thumbs-up, thumbs-down review:
THUMBS UP:
The theming and landscaping are beautiful. Beautiful grounds for walking or biking. We had a first floor studio in the Paddock area and our unit had a nice, roomy patio facing a lovely courtyard with garden statuary. Very nice for early morning coffee on the patio.

The Artist Palette and Turf Club are very attractive and serve good, fast food. Artist Palette has lots of comfortable seating, both indoors and out, and we loved the tabletop easels for little ones to draw on. We don't have any little ones, but we drew on them anyway. The homemade potato chips are delicious! Playing pool in the turf club at night was fun.

Quick bus ride to DTD and then transferring to a resort bus made it easy to go to another resort for dinner. We went to the Grand Floridian one night and the Yachtsman Steakhouse another night and it didn't take long at all to get there.

THUMBS DOWN:
The resort is huge and the walk to the Restaurant/Store/Front Desk area was long. Not a problem in nice weather, but in the stormy season it could be a pain. Also a pain when you just need a quick something from the store. You can take a bus but by the time you walk to the bus stop you'd be halfway there anyway, so you might as well walk.

The long bridge that you walk across to get from the Paddocks area to the Main area is always lined with seagulls and is covered with their droppings. They need to either control the seagull population or clean the bridge more often.

Ferry service to DTD seemed like a great idea, but we waited 25 minutes for a Ferry and when it came the Captain said she had to go to OKW and if we wanted to ride it would be another 45 minutes. SSR definitely needs its own ferry. It's a short walk or bus ride to DTD, but the Ferry is a nice option that shouldn't take over an hour!

The main pool is very nice, but was crowded and the resort is still not nearly completed. We wondered if the size of the pool will be adequate. There are quiet pools, but I guess we've been spoiled by Storm-a-long Bay!

All in all, we had a great time and the accommodations were comfortable, but we still much prefer BCV.

 

[jlx2]

Thank you for posting. We are new owners at SSR and it was good to read a review. Thanks again!

 

[Cinderella]

Great review - i love SSR and like to read what other folks think of it. You should have stayed in the Springs section tho - it is much more convenient for the main pool!

Talking of that bridge - did you notice a wooden thing on it that looked like a puffin? We saw it when we were videoing from our balcony, and walked all the way over there to see it - then found it wasn't real!

 

[WDWorld2003]

Thanks for posting.... I will be at SSR next month with my teenage DD and her friend. I am concerned about the long walks as we will not have a car. We're used to the Boardwalk and having a car so this will be new to us. We are on a waiting list there.

We are staying at the Beach Club the last couple of nights so at least I can easily visit our BWV

Do you think the teens will enjoy the location of SSR? (I'll just be happy to be out of the cold for awhile.)

 

[Mrs Potato Head]

We are also brand new owners at SSR and I enjoyed reading your comments. My DH and I go to back for our first visit to SSR in May, and we are booked again for Nov. Our boys are teenagers, and although we'd much rather have purchased BWV, obviously, the deal was too good to pass on to buy the current selling property.

I'd love to consider add-on points at some time, but not sure DH will go for it. We'll see after more trips....hopefully he'll be hooked on the DVC concept! We took this tour originally in 94, passed on it. Took it again in 98 and SHOULD have purchased then, because it was BWV...and we were staying there and loved it! Oh well...can't change the past...

 

[zoomsharedisney]

I understand your frustration with the ferry service, but the times that the ferry leaves SSR for DD are posted at the ferry dock itself. If I remember correctly, the ferry leaves on the hour for DD up until 4 o'clock and then I think it's every 1/2 hour. I could be wrong on the times, but I know for a fact that there are signs posted as to when the ferry leaves the dock. You should have looked for the signs instead of waiting for the ferry for 25 minutes - you could have walked there by then.