SSR 2 nights, 2 rooms! Review

[mandi5379]

Unfortunately my review of SSR has turned into more a 2 day trip report, so beware that there is a lot of useless information involved. Iam also going to attempt to post photos of wretchedly bad quality and you can expect equally poor writing. Read at your own risk :RpS_tongue:

This was actually our Kidani Village trip, but we added a couple days to the beginning to try SSR for the first time. We are a family of 3 driving down from Ohio. We usually rent DVC points and stay in a one bedroom at OKW (we love OKW!), but this 2 day stent at SSR would have us in a studio for the first night and a 1BR the second night.

The little man has been waiting for this trip for what must have felt like forever, although it was only 30 days. http://i1124.photobucket.com/albums/l573/mandi5379/12b148d6-1.jpg
Yes, we have the flatware and yes our neighbors think we're crazy. http://i1124.photobucket.com/albums/l573/mandi5379/ea7e5346-1.jpg

Arrival day-

Let me first address the theming, which I had read dismal reviews of. I actually found the theming to be quite nice. Yes, it is understatedand not as “in your face” but still adequate. I mean, the buildings give the feel of a horse barn and there are nice little equestrian touches throughout the resort. What do people want? Do they want it to smell like a horse barn, would that add moremagic to the experience? I should think not.

We arrived at SSR at noon, and were thrilled to find that our room was ready. Our first night was room #5501, a first floor studio in thePaddock section. Initially there was an odor in the room. Not a horse barn odor,but definitely unpleasant. Fortunately we either got used to it, or it wentaway and it didn’t bother us the rest of the night. This room had not yet beenrefurbished and there were quite a few signs of wear. They were working nextdoor while we were there so I imagine it’s probably finished by now.


One example of wear and tear.

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Here is a view of theconstruction next door.

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Much better view to the right.

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As is customary for us, DH and DS headed off to the poolwhile I got us settled into the room. I decided to go ahead and set the sofabed up to get that out of the way. WOW! That was more difficult than I anticipated, and I have now decided that the first time pulling out a DVC sofabed is a rite of passage. It was downright hilarious. Once you do it the first time, it’s a piece of cake. It’s also important to note that they are surprisingly comfortable and VERY sturdy.


I won!

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After wrestling with the sofa bed, I decided to join the boysat the Paddock Pool. The pool was fantastic, but seemed too small for the crowdthat was there. There were NO empty chairs available, but it sure didn’t spoilour fun. Our 5 year old was so proud to be able to go down the “big slide”without having us catch him for the first time ever. Sniff.


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The counter service at the Paddock Pool was likely thesingle worst meal we have ever had at WDW. The menu is limited; service slow, cold food was warm, warm food was cold. It was just bad, very bad.That’s the only negative thing I have to say overall about SSR. Let’s get back to the warm fuzzy stuff, shall we?

It did not take long for us to decide that we are more than happy with the smaller studio units. Yes, a 1BR is better but this trip really solidified us as a studio (at least for now) family. At 8:00, we tucked DS into bed and enjoyed a bottle of wine on our patio as he drifted off to sleep. Avery pleasant surprise was a view of what I assume was Epcot’s fireworks. Not a fabulous view of them, but it was nice nevertheless.

Day 2 in a one bedroom at SSR upcoming. Much more stuff, and hopefully less of a mess.

[vicki_c]

Cool - SSR is my home resort. We have only stayed in a studio there, though. I found it too cramped last Easter, so this year we got a 1 BR at OKW (which was so amazingly huge). Unfortunately, we don't have enough points each year for a 1 BR during peak times, so I don't know what we're going to do going forward! (We have 4 people - kids are 10 and 13.)

[mandi5379]

Without question, the one bedrooms at OKW are amazing. All that space spoiled us! We actually could put the pack n play in the laundry room when DS was a baby so we had the run of the place once he was asleep.

I also agree that 4 in a SSR studio, especially withthe older kiddos would be too tight. For the three of us, it was alright. That said, it was just one night... after a few days I'd miss the washer and dryer.

[mdsd8700]

Thanks for the review, I always love to read what others think of the resorts the first time they stay. We have only been stayed in a THV at SSR but found that quite enjoyable. Can't wait to read about day 2!

[mandi5379]

Day 2 -
We got up bright and early and drove to Wilderness Lodge for breakfast at Whispering Canyon cafe. It was delicious, a decent value and tons of fun. It was our first time eating there and the antics were in full swing. It’s not on my “must do every time list”, but it was great and I recommend it to anyone. I forgot to take picture in the restaurant except for this MickeyWaffle and bacon pic. Again I apologize for these pictures.


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Back at SSR, we were packed up and ready to check out (and check back in) at 10:30am. We messed this up. We called bell services and they came and took our bags to their holding area. In hindsight, checking in to our new room would have made a lot more sense. We just figured it wouldn’t be ready at 10:30am. Fortunately, (or not) it was ready, so we wound up tipping twice for our bags. My husband swears I told him $3 a bag (I know that I did not). So end result was we paid $60 for bell services to move our stuff. :RpS_cursing:We laugh about it now. They were kind enough to keep us in the same section, room 5703 on the 3rd floor. We were in our new room with our luggage by 11:30am. Ok, I’ll be honest. The one bedroom felt huge after the night in the studio. At least for our family however, not worth more than double the cost.

After the moving and tipping, we were ready for our nextadventure - DTD. We walked across the lake, past the feature pool and down tothe boat dock. It was about a 30 minute wait and our boat was fully loaded leaving 19 guests left waiting for the next boat. I heard the driver relaying this information, so they seem to be at least trying to be on it.
I tried like mad to get this man to wave, but he was ignoring me. I think he was more worried about how full the dock was.


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We ate lunch at T-Rex, which was surprisingly decent. DH hadthe cheesesteak, which I apparently took a picture of.


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We made our way through West Side, spent too much money at the Lego store and found our favorite Margarita Bar. There was one empty table It was not along the water rather it was directly facing the order window. Jacob wanted to play with his new Legos and we wanted a margarita. Here he is with his creations at our table.


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In hindsight, this was probably not the most responsible parenting decision ever made. If it weren’t for all of the other kids around there, it would have felt like we had our child in a bar with us. Yikes!


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This one man band provided some relaxing island style entertainment. He was actually pretty good, or maybe that’s the margaritastalking.


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Since we were at the far end of the Marketplace, we decidedto take the bus back to the resort. It pulled up right as we made to the bus stop. We were the only ones on board.


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We ordered pizza from Sassagoula for dinner. It was just ok.We again watched fireworks from our balcony, and had a lovely evening at SSR.We woke early the next morning and walked over to Artist’s Point for our breakfast.I enjoyed their selection, but the whole set up confused us a little. Thehighlight for us was the easel with crayons at our table. Jacob loved being an “artist”after breakfast. We leisurely strolled back to our room after breakfast. SSR is a pretty resort to just walk around, but I suppose all WDW resorts are. We decided not to use bell services, so we packed up the car and made our way to Kidani Village for an enjoyable 7 nights without room switching.

Keep in mind; we were only at this resort for two days. Overall we liked SSR very much, and would stay here again without hesitation.

Pros – Artist’s Pallet counter service, boat to DTD, fantastic zero entry pools with slides for the kiddos, beautiful grounds
Cons – Rooms smaller than OKW (but they all are), Paddock pool counter service (for the love of all things holy, skip this)

Thanks for reading!
-Mandi