Took my parents to SSR--Mini Trip Report

[Doctor P]

My parents were supposed to join us for Easter Sunday at HH on their way back from their winter home in Florida, but ultimately chose to drive straight home rather than detour to HH for a couple nights. Since I was already planning on visiting them in Florida, I offered to switch the reservation to go to WDW for for a night to play golf and whatever else we wanted to do. They said sure. I decided to shoot for a reservation at SSR in a studio. When I called in mid-January, there was availability at every single resort for a studio on Wednesday March 15, so I stuck with the plan to go to SSR since I had visited, but never stayed at the resort. We arrived at the resort at about 9:30 am and our offered room was not ready. The offered studio was on the second floor, water view (DD view), in the Congress Park section. We decided to take that room and wait till later in the day for it to be ready. The room ended up being ready at approximately 3:00 pm (we had first called at 2:30 pm and it was not ready at that time). The studio was nicely located (the # was 1612) and was a lock-off studio that looked out toward Fulton's and the far east end of the Marketplace area of DD. My reaction to the room was that the decor was quite nice (the "marble" tops on the vanity and wet bar were especially stunning). The layout and size was, in my opinion, exactly the same as BCV, though some of the furnishings were obviously different due to differences in theming. My DF noticed that the carpet in the entry area was quite worn, especially for such a new unit, but it was not worn through and was not unsightly. We did report it to the Front Desk upon leaving so that they could look into it before it did become a problem. We rode the buses extensively all over Disney property in the nearly 36 hours we were on property. Since we were resort hopping, we chose to use the DD bus service most of the time, but did use the SSR bus service several times from theme parks. Here were my overall observations about SSR:

1) It is a very nice resort and we all agreed we would stay there again;
2) The completed sections of the resort are much more compact than I had expected. We were at the far end of Congress Park and it only took me 6 minutes to walk to the Carriage House for the DVC member update.
3) My parents (67 yo and 75 yo) commented on how easy it was to walk around the resort and how close together things were--their comment: "the resort really looks a lot bigger than it ends up being when you are walking"
4) Contrary to my previous experience, I would rate the bus service at SSR as no worse than any other resort. Because this was a concern of mine, even when we weren't riding the SSR buses I timed them relative to other resorts and I timed our total trips when we were using them. As an aside, we went to BCV (Cape May Cafe) for dinner on Wednesday night. We were on the bus at DD and left Marketplace at 4:50 pm. We arrived at the bus stop at BCV at 5:37 pm. Terrible, terrible bus service. Having 5 resorts on one bus (and the bus was relatively full) meant that we had 6 stops before we got to BCV!!!!!! Bad news. SSR buses through both days were regular, reliable, and fast.
5) We found being close to DD to be awesome in terms of bus service and entertainment, especially if you wanted to go to another resort.
6) We ate lunch at Artist's Palette and found the portions to be large, fairly priced, and of very high quality. We would eat there again. BTW, we were very impressed with Earl of Sandwich at DD--what a nice affordable option that is close by for those who stay at SSR.
7) Given that we played golf at LBV, I can tell you that the construction at SSR is quite loud and very heavy, but most resort guests would never feel it or see the heaviest portions of the construction once they got into the resort.
8) We couldn't believe how convenient the LBV clubhouse is to SSR.

I do not own at SSR and probably never will, but it is a very nice resort that is a nice addition to DVC and a place that I am sure we will eagerly stay at again as a family or with my mom and dad.

 

[LIFERBABE]

Thanks Dr. P.

How great to vacation with your parents! Glad you enjoyed SSR.

Did you swim?

 

[Doctor P]

No, we didn't swim, though we had our suits in anticipation of doing so. All the pools were being heavily used throughout our stay. Weather was good, but some of the people complained about the water being cold. I'm not sure if that is accurate, however, as we heard similar complaints from people at my parent's pool house in their development where the water was objectively measured at 82 degrees which is quite warm and the water at SSR was even warmer than that in both pools we were at there (didn't swim but we did test the water, and not just the surface).

 

[byoung]

Thanks for reporting.

 

[SusanWasHere]

what a great report! so glad you had such a good time! i'm bringing my parents there next spring, similar ages to yours. so i am happy to hear the walking isn't as "overwhelming" as i've heard. lol! thanks for the report

 

[Twingle]

Just to comment on the walking, my DD is 62, and insisted he couldn't walk from the check in to our room. We went ahead and walked, he waited for the bus. Needless to say, we made it to our room in about six minutes, it took him over 20 - after that, he was quite comfortable with the walk. He too was surprised that such a large place was really pretty quick to get around.

edit: whoops, DD meant "dear dad", not "dear daughter"!

 

[dsneygirl]

I enjoyed your report. We stayed in the farthest building in Congress Park as well and I think I timed the walk at about 7-8 min. You must move a bit faster than me

 

[cobbler]

Great report. Sounds like you had fun.

What sections are they working on now? Did they finish the 2 bldgs over at the end of the Paddock near the guard kiosk yet?

 

[SaratogaShan]

Thanks for the report Doctor P. Glad you had a nice time! In your report you said that you had visited the resort before but this was your first stay. I'm just curious if the opinions you had of the resort after your "visit" changed after you actually stayed there? (I don't know if you ever posted with your impressions after your visit)

Thanks!

 

[Doctor P]

Thanks for the report Doctor P. Glad you had a nice time! In your report you said that you had visited the resort before but this was your first stay. I'm just curious if the opinions you had of the resort after your "visit" changed after you actually stayed there? (I don't know if you ever posted with your impressions after your visit)

Thanks!

Yes, they changed in terms of the bus service. The bus service experiences on my previous visits led me to believe the service was horrible. This trip changed my assessment to at least average if not a bit above average transportation service, especially given the option of using the DD buses as a back up means of transportation to get to other resorts.

 

[DisFamily2006]

Yes, they changed in terms of the bus service. The bus service experiences on my previous visits led me to believe the service was horrible. This trip changed my assessment to at least average if not a bit above average transportation service, especially given the option of using the DD buses as a back up means of transportation to get to other resorts.

Yes, people are very quick to ding the various resort bus services. It's a bit presumptuous to say definitively: "The bus service at resort X is bad". It's even presumptuous to say definitively: "The bus service at resort X is good" as well. Having stayed at several of the Disney resorts over the years I've found that all Disney experiences are subject to a bit of "bad luck" from time to time. Sometimes a cast member may not seem up to par, bus service may be poor, service in a restaurant may not be what was expected. These occurrences are usually few and far between. I always take people's "labeling" of resorts and bus services with a very large grain of salt. I've even read posts where people have had their car wrecked by the valet service at Boardwalk and they say how the resort was this or that (no doubt a wrecked car would be difficult to bounce back from while on vacation). I guess to sum it all up, if you go to Disney (as with anywhere else for that matter) with a critical eye, you can always find something you don't like. I for one have never let the negatives (all be them few and far between) spoil my vacation. I am always amazed at the attention to detail that is achieved at all levels.

I'm glad you had a good Trip!