WWYD? offered free upgrade

[Simbee3]

We are back from our Magical Disney Vacation, and I was so disappointed that I didn't really meet anyone from the disboards. Let me correct myself when I was checking out of Pop on 8/26 I was lucky enough to meet one very nice disboard member. But, that was it.

Though we didn't meet many disboard members, we had a great time at both Pop and SSR. Now back to the real world.

By the way was anyone able to take advantage of the bounce back program they offered to people who were at WDW during the free dining promotion?

 

[joyerbides]

Hello my dis friends. We got back Friday night. This is the first chance I've had to get on the computer all weekend We spent the last 2 days unpacking and cleaning. I've been trying to catch up on the latest. I'm glad everyone is still posting on this thread. We stayed at SSR in Congress Park and loved it. We had some glitches, but they were taken care of eventually. On our fourth night (Monday/Labor Day) we came back from MGM and my kids room was 87 degrees (we had 2 one bedroom villas). I called the front desk and had maintenance come down to fix the air conditioner. This was about 11:15 pm. They came and it took until 12:30 (I was TIRED) to fix it or so I thought. They said it was fixed and it would cool down. The next morning, I went to get the boys up and it was still 87 degrees. I called the front desk and asked them to move us. (We all had to move as the boys are only teens and I did not want to be separated). They were going to have maintenance come back and try to fix it again. I told the CM that they tried the night before for and hour and 15 minutes and evidentally it did not work. I again, asked to be moved. The CM was not very helpful so I asked to speak with a manager. She put me on hold, and came back about 5 minutes later and said she was busy. By this time, we were supposed to be getting ready to head for Animal Kingdom (we had ADR's at Donald's Breakfastasourus), and I was getting really irriated. Sorry, it must have been the Florida heat in my son's room, So I told her that I would just come to the front desk and speak with someone. Since we were in Congress Park, I had a small trek, but I made it in less than 5 minutes. When I got there, the manager told me she just talked to my DH and found out we had breakfast ressies and wanted to get us to them as quick as possible. I explained our situation and also informed her that we were a grand gathering with another family. (When we first checked in they were put on the 3rd floor on the other side of the building and we were on the fourth floor. We weren't even close to eachother). I told her about that, and that I never complained about being so far from them, I also informed her that I tried to downgrade to a studio to have a connecting room with my kids and was refused, but didn't so much as question it, but after all of this, I wanted to be moved at least close to our other party. So she put us all in a 2 bedroom villa (no charge) and moved us two doors down from our other party, and apologized for our inconvience. She was going to have bell services come and move our stuff for us, but I called my DH on his cell and by the time I got there, he had us all packed and ready to go. I had the new cards so we just moved ourselves. It was probably quicker. We did make it to our breakfast ressies on time, but what a morning that was I can't complain though, It was a great room and we had a DTD view from the balcony. And I felt better with the kids in the same room. They weren't thrilled, go figure.

 

[jwboucher]

Hello my dis friends. We got back Friday night. This is the first chance I've had to get on the computer all weekend We spent the last 2 days unpacking and cleaning. I've been trying to catch up on the latest. I'm glad everyone is still posting on this thread. We stayed at SSR in Congress Park and loved it. We had some glitches, but they were taken care of eventually. On our fourth night (Monday/Labor Day) we came back from MGM and my kids room was 87 degrees (we had 2 one bedroom villas). I called the front desk and had maintenance come down to fix the air conditioner. This was about 11:15 pm. They came and it took until 12:30 (I was TIRED) to fix it or so I thought. They said it was fixed and it would cool down. The next morning, I went to get the boys up and it was still 87 degrees. I called the front desk and asked them to move us. (We all had to move as the boys are only teens and I did not want to be separated). They were going to have maintenance come back and try to fix it again. I told the CM that they tried the night before for and hour and 15 minutes and evidentally it did not work. I again, asked to be moved. The CM was not very helpful so I asked to speak with a manager. She put me on hold, and came back about 5 minutes later and said she was busy. By this time, we were supposed to be getting ready to head for Animal Kingdom (we had ADR's at Donald's Breakfastasourus), and I was getting really irriated. Sorry, it must have been the Florida heat in my son's room, So I told her that I would just come to the front desk and speak with someone. Since we were in Congress Park, I had a small trek, but I made it in less than 5 minutes. When I got there, the manager told me she just talked to my DH and found out we had breakfast ressies and wanted to get us to them as quick as possible. I explained our situation and also informed her that we were a grand gathering with another family. (When we first checked in they were put on the 3rd floor on the other side of the building and we were on the fourth floor. We weren't even close to eachother). I told her about that, and that I never complained about being so far from them, I also informed her that I tried to downgrade to a studio to have a connecting room with my kids and was refused, but didn't so much as question it, but after all of this, I wanted to be moved at least close to our other party. So she put us all in a 2 bedroom villa (no charge) and moved us two doors down from our other party, and apologized for our inconvience. She was going to have bell services come and move our stuff for us, but I called my DH on his cell and by the time I got there, he had us all packed and ready to go. I had the new cards so we just moved ourselves. It was probably quicker. We did make it to our breakfast ressies on time, but what a morning that was I can't complain though, It was a great room and we had a DTD view from the balcony. And I felt better with the kids in the same room. They weren't thrilled, go figure.

Our a/c always went up to 75 degrees at night. I always woke up sweating.

 

[jwboucher]

Did anyone do the Pirate & Princess Party on 8/28? For nightime, it was really hot. After waiting in a few lines for booty, we gave up and just went on rides. The fireworks & parade were great!!

 

[jwboucher]

Did anyone get the bounce back offer with free dining for 2008 while staying at SSR?

 

[LanaJae]

Did anyone get the bounce back offer with free dining for 2008 while staying at SSR?

It wasn't offered to us, but we did express checkout and didn't have any charges to our room, so I never went back to the front desk.

 

[joyerbides]

Our a/c always went up to 75 degrees at night. I always woke up sweating.

That room was the only room we had problems with. Poor kids, when the maintenance guys left (saying it was fixed) I assumed it was and went back to my room. The next morning, it was a sauna in there and they were hot as hades. Our room stayed at 69 degrees the whole time and we woke up chilled, but that was great, since I had blankets.

 

[DISNEYNY]

Our a/c always went up to 75 degrees at night. I always woke up sweating.

The A/C in our room did the same thing. It was either way too cold or way too hot in the room. I could never figure out how to get it set to a comfortable temp.

 

[calypso*a*go-go]

Did anyone get the bounce back offer with free dining for 2008 while staying at SSR?

We had absolutely nothing about it in our room @ OKW. I didn't find out about it until I got home. We couldn't have taken advantage of it anyway because of the dates...but I'm still a little peeved that we had the option and didn't even know it.

 

[DISNEYNY]

We had absolutely nothing about it in our room @ OKW. I didn't find out about it until I got home. We couldn't have taken advantage of it anyway because of the dates...but I'm still a little peeved that we had the option and didn't even know it.

Same here. I read about the bounceback offer when I got home. It would have been nice to get the offer. I don't think we would have done it either because of the dates. Possibly we didn't get the letter because we were at a vacation club. I read that it was sent out at values, mods & deluxes.

 

[lyzziesmom]

I didn't hear anything about a bounceback offer either! We just got back yesterday from SSR and it was great. We had three 1-br villas in the Springs section, very close to the bus stop and the main buildings. No problems with transportation, in fact we had several buses all to ourselves. Once there were three buses for three parks all lined up at the Springs stop at the same time! Several times on the way back to SSR at night, the bus drivers would ask which stop people needed and just skip the stops that nobody was getting off at, so that was nice.

We got lost finding our room when we checked in - it was around midnight and the maps around the resort are not very helpful at all. I was highly embarrassed by my family, who got separated and wandered around yelling across the parking lots at each other in the middle of the night at this lovely, peaceful upscale resort. It took us about 20 minutes to find our rooms, and in the morning we saw just how close we were when we were lost. D'oh!

WDW was so HOT... I lived in FL for 15 years and don't remember heat like that. Our room seemed to reset itself to 75 degrees overnight and during the day too, and that is too cold for us. My kids sleep without covers and they were freezing - but when we turned it warmer, the heater kicked on and it got hot. Weird.

My parents and my brother both got handicapped accessible rooms, which were odd because they had two bathtubs and no shower - we expected a roll-in shower. But the rooms were all nice, and my DD3 was very confused that we were coming back home because she thought SSR was home.

It seemed like there was never enough time to see and do everything, and we actually didn't spend too much time at the resort. Free dining was great, it was too much food! We are not big eaters, and my parents kept trying to save food and were sharing CS meals and lugging leftovers around all day, only to realize that we had more meal credits than we knew what to do with and then they'd toss the food out - except of course the yummy desserts! Me and my girls had 14 CS credits left over and 4 snacks. We grabbed some snacks to go before heading home yesterday. My brother & his girlfriend skipped a couple of the TS meals so we used their TS credits as CS and got 4 pin/lanyard sets for the kids. Of course this was on our last day, and I really wish I'd known that before I bought a $5 lanyard for my little one but oh well, we are more than set for next time!

We saw very few dream team members or prizes. A dream team member did talk to DD3 quite a bit one day on our way into MGM and I was getting really excited, but she only gave her some stickers. DD8 received a lanyard and an ice cream sandwich from a cart vendor in MGM, and a Tinkerbell pin set at the MGM info desk. I guess MGM was our lucky park!

We saw the Imagination Movers and the Doodlebops, and I liked the Imagination Movers much better - even my dad got up and danced! I just don't see the mass appeal of the Doodlebops, but DD3 loved it. One of them had his wig on crooked and you could see his sideburns sticking out.

I took a ton of pictures, although with so many of us I didn't really have time to stop and take as many as I usually like to. We didn't do too much photopass pictures because my family didn't really "get it" and we didn't do many character greetings. We did go to Chef Mickey's and the girls didn't eat at Le Cellier so we used those credits for a breakfast at Hollywood & Vine with just them and me, I paid OOP. It was fun, my DD8 thought it was lame and the Little Einsteins looked creepy.

DD8 is getting to be "that age" - she bought a few books and read them through several shows and meals. The store at SSR was "lame." Many rides and shows were "babyish." She was constantly "bored." And yet she managed to spend all of her $110 and then some, and can't wait to go back.

Cirque du Soleil was amazing. DD3 had fallen asleep at MGM earlier that day before we had a chance to see the Little Mermaid show, so all through Cirque she kept asking, "Where is the mermaid?" She fell asleep before the end but we all really enjoyed it and were so happy that we splurged on it.

I did meet one of our group, although I cannot for the life of me remember at the moment who it was. I was too flustered to remember to give her one of my DIS "calling cards" so I hope she remembers! We were walking down Main Street and I felt a tug on my camera and heard, "Lyzziesmom!" It was all very cool. My parents are still bewildered by the whole message board thing but I think they finally understand why I ask them not to embarrass me.

I was very pleased one day in the Artist's Palette to see a large green Mickey Head drawing on the easel with a Welcome DISboards Members message on it and a Diser's name! My DD remarked that the date was wrong (it said 7/7 rather than 9/7) and I added my name and my girls' names, and the date. Later that night I realized that I wrote the date wrong too! Not only did I put the wrong month, but I got the day wrong as well - I wrote 8/08 when it was really 9/7. D'oh!! I also took a picture of it so my stupidity is preserved. That's fun. Did anyone else see it that day?

I was so sad yesterday on our last day at WDW and SSR. I woke up and had myself a good hard cry, which continued on & off throughout the day. People walking by me must have thought I was nuts. I think it was really bad because I don't know when/if we can return, and usually I have at least a general idea. It's very depressing being back home and back to work - it feels like WDW was a long time ago and not 100% real. I guess that's why we love it so much.

 

[DISNEYNY]

Welcome back. I have been back a week and I am finally getting over my post Disney depression and getting back into the swing of normal life. We had the same problem with the heat at SSR. When we would try to make it a little warmer...not so much A/C...the heater would come on. It was weird. We also got lost trying to find our room. The place is so big!!! How did that work with the pin sets? You were able to trade in unused meals for the pin sets?? How many did you have to use for each set???

 

[joyerbides]

lyzziesmom, that is too funny about your DD3 thinking SSR was home. So did my DD3. She kept calling it "home" everytime we were in a park. How did she do with the potty training thing? My DD3 wore her undies the whole time. Of course, she didn't go #2 until Thursday (one week without going ) I was starting to get nervous. I'm glad I'm not the only one with the WDW blues. I can't believe it's over. I am sad At least we still have eachother and our boards. I want to do a trip report, I just haven't had time. I did a dining review last night (took and hour), and when I went to post, there was an error message. I couldn't post . I'll have to try again later. Hope to hear more about everyone's vacations.

 

[LanaJae]

We just got back yesterday from SSR and it was great.

You have so much energy for someone who just got home!! Welcome back - I enjoyed reading about your trip, but if I could've reached through the screen and grabbed some of those credits... lol

 

[LauraAnn630]

I agree, the buses were great!

My DS asked me this morning, "After we take Zak to school can we go back to Disney World?"

I wish!

DH left a suitcase at the airport! He had to go back and get it. We were so tired!

 

[lyzziesmom]

How did that work with the pin sets? You were able to trade in unused meals for the pin sets?? How many did you have to use for each set???

It was funny, the CMs didn't really know about the pin sets, it took about 3 of them to get the transaction done. The other option was to trade a TS meal for a CS meal plus 2 snacks, but goodness knows we didn't need more snacks! We used 4 TS credits and traded for 4 CS meals and 4 pin sets - they were just a plain blue lanyard with one pin on it. They had some Mickey Mouse pins and some Chip & Dale pins, we got 2 of each. DD3 already traded one of hers at the EarPort - the Disney store in the Orlando airport. She loves pin trading and will happily trade one pin back & forth all day long! It was very funny because she would trade, and then her sister would see that the little one got a pin she liked, and would con her into trading with her so she could get it.

lyzziesmom, that is too funny about your DD3 thinking SSR was home. So did my DD3. She kept calling it "home" everytime we were in a park. How did she do with the potty training thing?

DD3 did really good with the potty training, with one exception. On the way to WDW, on the Magical Express bus the poor girl had a major blowout. I brought only two pullups in our carryon, and I put one on her on the plane because she kept telling me her tummy hurt. On the ME bus suddenly she stunk and said that she didn't go, but "nobody touch my butt!" Then my mom was holding her (I forgot there was a bathroom on the ME bus) and DD's face turned red, Mom RAN to the back of the bus and they didn't quite make it. Luckily Mom brought an extra pair of DD's panties too, but she fell asleep and dirtied those before our luggage came at 2:45am. It was a messy start to the vacation but luckily for us, it did not happen again. I think the poor kid was just full of nerves and her tummy went crazy on her. Otherwise, we have a vacation rule of "when one person goes, everyone tries" and as long as we stuck to the rule, there were no problems.

You have so much energy for someone who just got home!! Welcome back - I enjoyed reading about your trip, but if I could've reached through the screen and grabbed some of those credits... lol

Thanks... I wish I really had as much energy as it seems like! I am pretty wiped out in reality, although not as much as after last year's free dining family trip. Whew, that one nearly killed me. I learned that downtime is a MUST, even if it's just back to the resort for an hour for a quick 1/2 hour nap.

LauraAnn - are you the one who left the green Mickey Head drawing in Artist's Palette? I freaked out when I saw it, my parents could not figure out what the big deal was! Actually DD8 spotted it first -- what a great idea! I wish I'd thought of it. My DD3 said the same thing as your son, she wants to know when we're going back to the hotel. I almost cried when I told her "never."

We really loved SSR, but I still love the values. My dad actually went to the Pop food court one day just for an ice cream sundae, even though it took him an hour to get there on the buses! One thing about SSR was I thought there was not a lot of storage space. The drawers under the tvs in the armoires were very shallow, and our clothes filled them completely. We didn't really have any place to put our souvenirs, and they ended up all over the table, the bar counter, and any available space. That made me so mad, because I really wanted to keep the room neat and clean but it got cluttered up very quickly. It seems like there are more drawers in the values to put all that miscellaneous stuff into. Also, even though we loved having the bus stop so close to our building (no long walk at the end of the day!!) we really missed how at the values, the bus stop is right by the store/food court so you can do a quick shopping stop or grab a quick snack on the way back to your room. Even though we were not far from the main buildings at SSR, it still seemed like a hassle if we wanted to pick up something from the store or food court especially in the morning, because we had to go past the bus stop and past the pool, and then the kids wanted to swim, and then we'd have to go back to our room and then back out to the bus. It was not that convenient to just "stop by" the front desk if we needed anything. I'm not complaining AT ALL, we loved the upgrade and felt really pampered, I'm just making comparisons.

The rooms were so big and the views were beautiful. There was a white bunny outside our building who we would see almost every night. He had a grey streak on his back, and my dad named him Snowtread because it looked like he'd been run over by a dirty tire. DD3 shushed everyone as we returned to our room each night -- even strangers! -- so the bunny wouldn't be scared away. The resort was very peaceful and quite different from any other WDW stay we've had, it was really nice.

We had one funny encounter with housekeeping: On the one day that we did not go to a park, we slept in and hung the "do not disturb" sign on the door. When we left the room around noon, there was a laundry basket outside our door with our room number on it, and it was full of linens, towels, soaps etc. I assumed that housekeeping left it there for us to make up our own room since we did not want to be disturbed, so I brought the basket in. The next morning, there was another basket outside our door with a big sign on it that said, "Please do not remove basket!" Oops!!

 

[scottny]

If anyone does a TR on the TR boards please post it here so I can find them. I love reading peoples TR's with pics.
Thanks.

 

[LanaJae]

but "nobody touch my butt!"

Totally PMP over this! I miss those days now that they're over.

We really loved SSR, but I still love the values. My dad actually went to the Pop food court one day just for an ice cream sundae, even though it took him an hour to get there on the buses! One thing about SSR was I thought there was not a lot of storage space. The drawers under the tvs in the armoires were very shallow, and our clothes filled them completely. We didn't really have any place to put our souvenirs, and they ended up all over the table, the bar counter, and any available space. That made me so mad, because I really wanted to keep the room neat and clean but it got cluttered up very quickly. It seems like there are more drawers in the values to put all that miscellaneous stuff into. Also, even though we loved having the bus stop so close to our building (no long walk at the end of the day!!) we really missed how at the values, the bus stop is right by the store/food court so you can do a quick shopping stop or grab a quick snack on the way back to your room. Even though we were not far from the main buildings at SSR, it still seemed like a hassle if we wanted to pick up something from the store or food court especially in the morning, because we had to go past the bus stop and past the pool, and then the kids wanted to swim, and then we'd have to go back to our room and then back out to the bus. It was not that convenient to just "stop by" the front desk if we needed anything. I'm not complaining AT ALL, we loved the upgrade and felt really pampered, I'm just making comparisons.

The rooms were so big and the views were beautiful. There was a white bunny outside our building who we would see almost every night. He had a grey streak on his back, and my dad named him Snowtread because it looked like he'd been run over by a dirty tire. DD3 shushed everyone as we returned to our room each night -- even strangers! -- so the bunny wouldn't be scared away. The resort was very peaceful and quite different from any other WDW stay we've had, it was really nice.

We had one funny encounter with housekeeping: On the one day that we did not go to a park, we slept in and hung the "do not disturb" sign on the door. When we left the room around noon, there was a laundry basket outside our door with our room number on it, and it was full of linens, towels, soaps etc. I assumed that housekeeping left it there for us to make up our own room since we did not want to be disturbed, so I brought the basket in. The next morning, there was another basket outside our door with a big sign on it that said, "Please do not remove basket!" Oops!!

I feel the same about the values and storage - that closet was something else - to hang something in there and get to the safe and leave room for the vacuum and portable crib (did yours have a portable crib?) was not fun. I used the big chests for most of the clothes, but then I could never find what I wanted.

I also missed ASMo for the friendliness of everyone staying there - I visited a lot with people at the pool and in the food courts. I didn't miss that bathroom and sink there though. Found myself never using the fridge at SSR, and that was one thing I felt I needed at ASMo (didn't know about fridge swap). My only real complaint was not being able to utilized refillable cups because it was a zillion miles away to get to a drink station.

We had the laundry basket by our door by 6 am every morning. I figured they used the vacuum inside, but I wondered if they brought anything along to use for cleaning. They must not use housekeeping carts ever, I never saw one.

 

[lyzziesmom]

We were pleasantly surprised to find that we had the portable crib. DD3 loved it, which cracked me up because last year at Pop she cried if she so much as looked at the crib, and this time she didn't want to sleep anywhere else for most nights. I thought the closet was pretty useless too. We only hung my one nice dress and the kids costumes, everything else went in the drawers -- which may be why we had no room for souvenirs!

I saw my mom at lunchtime today and she said that she should have read her check-in packet while at WDW because the bounceback offer was in there. I'll have to unpack mine and take a look - I think last year they were still letting people book a couple days after they checked out, if they called in and said that they just didn't see it and could prove they were at WDW during the right time. Mom wasn't sure if it was a good deal or not and could not remember the details, but she thought it was for the Poly - how great would that be?

 

[Kitty-chan]

We weren't offered the bounceback promotion either. Darn! Would have been nice . . . but what the heck, we so totally lucked out this year I can hardly complain!

We were at the Pirate and Princess Party 8/28 and had a total blast. Gathered loot, shook our booties in Tomorrowland, saw the parade and fireworks. I agree that it was definitely hot! But we are pirate-mad, so we just sweated it out.