MagikMom
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 3, 2004
Hi all. Just got back Friday night from 1 week stay at SSR. It was our first time in a 2 bedroom because we brought DD friend with us. Here are the positive and negatives of our trip. Let start with negatives and end with the positives:
NEGATIVES:
1) Check in: We arrived at 10:00am for check in. We went to Epcot and we called a few times to see if the room was ready yet. We had groceries being delivered at 4:00 and we had dinner reservations at the Turf club for 5:30pm. We arrived back at the resort at 3:00pm. Room still not ready. No biggie as check in is not until 4:00 anyway. We hung out at the bar at Turf club. At 4:00pm, room still not ready. Groceries arrived and were put in storage. Spoke with cast member at check in to find out what time room would be ready. She said housekeeping was in there now and it should be ready in a 1/2 hour. She gave us our room #, 8701 at Grand Stand and told us to check back with her in a 1/2 hour. At 4:30 she said room was ready and we went to baggage claim for them to take us and our things to our room. (we had to change our dinner reservations to 7:00pm). At baggage claim they said "This room # is wrong. We just took a family to that room a few minutes ago. You need to go back in and tell them to give you a new room #." I very calmly told them no, I would not be going back and that I wanted to speak with a manager. Manager comes out and says he will fix it. He comes back with a first floor room in a completely different bldg. It is now 4:45 and I have 3 very tired, hungry and sweaty teenagers. I told him that it was unacceptable because we checked in at 10:00am and were told we would be in the Grandstand bldg. Finally, we got a room 8721 at Grandstand. We were finally in our room at approx 5:15pm.
2) Backstretch pool snack bar was hardly ever open. Somedays it opened, somedays it closed completely. The days that it was opened, the times varied.
3) Artist Palatte: Still has the disorganized food line. You order your food in one place and then pay for it in another line.
4) Air Conditioning: The A/C in our rooms were on a sensory system. If you were up moving around, the a/c would come on. If you were in bed sleeping, the a/c would shut off. We would wake up hot and then get up and move around so the a/c would come back on!
5) Mousekeeping: We got trash and towel service on the 4th day of our stay. My husband took the trash out most of the time on his own anyway. We did not get a full day of mousekeeping because we were only there for a week. We usually stay for more than a week so we were not aware that you only got one day of full mousekeeping if you stayed for more than 1 week.
6) Weather: we went from 8/17-8/24. They were having a heat wave that week. HOT! in the mid to upper 90's everyday.
7) Alfredo's Restaurant in Italy: We usually like it there but the food/atmosphere was very disappointing this time. We found out that they were closing in a few weeks for renovations. I have a feeling that was the reason for the food quality. Yuck!
POSITIVES:
1) The room was gorgeous! It was our first time in a 2 bdrm and I think we are hooked! We had a view of the golf course and lake from our balcony. We were on the 3rd floor and we overlooked the pool when we stepped outside our door.
2) Pool: Loved the Grand Stand pool!!! Very clean and refreshing. The water area with the squirting horses was a nice touch too! I spent a lot of time there due to the heat.
3) Movie Nights: They had movies at the pool on a giant screen on Mon, Wed and Fri nights. Me, DH, and DS 12 loved it!!
4) Turf club Restaurant: Loved it! great atmosphere, great food, great service.
5) The spa: It was my 2nd time there. I got a massage and my DD and her friend got manicures. I was soooo awesome!
6) DTD: once again, we love the close proximity to DTD. The boatride over from SSR is a nice alternative to the buses.
7) Bus service: We found that we had good luch with the bus service. We only had one day that we had a bit of a wait and that was for Typhoon lagoon. We waited about 30 minutes. Totally understandable given the heat!
8) Fultons Crab House: Crab claws and wine were delicious as usual!!
9) DVC Models: Like having the DVC models right on site. We went to look at a grand villa model on our last day. They are huge!
10) It did not rain once the whole time we were there except for the day we were leaving! That's pretty rare for August.
Over all we had a great vacation as usual. I would have liked to have stayed longer. Wasn't ready to come home yet. Back to both work and reality tomorrow!!
NEGATIVES:
1) Check in: We arrived at 10:00am for check in. We went to Epcot and we called a few times to see if the room was ready yet. We had groceries being delivered at 4:00 and we had dinner reservations at the Turf club for 5:30pm. We arrived back at the resort at 3:00pm. Room still not ready. No biggie as check in is not until 4:00 anyway. We hung out at the bar at Turf club. At 4:00pm, room still not ready. Groceries arrived and were put in storage. Spoke with cast member at check in to find out what time room would be ready. She said housekeeping was in there now and it should be ready in a 1/2 hour. She gave us our room #, 8701 at Grand Stand and told us to check back with her in a 1/2 hour. At 4:30 she said room was ready and we went to baggage claim for them to take us and our things to our room. (we had to change our dinner reservations to 7:00pm). At baggage claim they said "This room # is wrong. We just took a family to that room a few minutes ago. You need to go back in and tell them to give you a new room #." I very calmly told them no, I would not be going back and that I wanted to speak with a manager. Manager comes out and says he will fix it. He comes back with a first floor room in a completely different bldg. It is now 4:45 and I have 3 very tired, hungry and sweaty teenagers. I told him that it was unacceptable because we checked in at 10:00am and were told we would be in the Grandstand bldg. Finally, we got a room 8721 at Grandstand. We were finally in our room at approx 5:15pm.
2) Backstretch pool snack bar was hardly ever open. Somedays it opened, somedays it closed completely. The days that it was opened, the times varied.
3) Artist Palatte: Still has the disorganized food line. You order your food in one place and then pay for it in another line.
4) Air Conditioning: The A/C in our rooms were on a sensory system. If you were up moving around, the a/c would come on. If you were in bed sleeping, the a/c would shut off. We would wake up hot and then get up and move around so the a/c would come back on!
5) Mousekeeping: We got trash and towel service on the 4th day of our stay. My husband took the trash out most of the time on his own anyway. We did not get a full day of mousekeeping because we were only there for a week. We usually stay for more than a week so we were not aware that you only got one day of full mousekeeping if you stayed for more than 1 week.
6) Weather: we went from 8/17-8/24. They were having a heat wave that week. HOT! in the mid to upper 90's everyday.
7) Alfredo's Restaurant in Italy: We usually like it there but the food/atmosphere was very disappointing this time. We found out that they were closing in a few weeks for renovations. I have a feeling that was the reason for the food quality. Yuck!
POSITIVES:
1) The room was gorgeous! It was our first time in a 2 bdrm and I think we are hooked! We had a view of the golf course and lake from our balcony. We were on the 3rd floor and we overlooked the pool when we stepped outside our door.
2) Pool: Loved the Grand Stand pool!!! Very clean and refreshing. The water area with the squirting horses was a nice touch too! I spent a lot of time there due to the heat.
3) Movie Nights: They had movies at the pool on a giant screen on Mon, Wed and Fri nights. Me, DH, and DS 12 loved it!!
4) Turf club Restaurant: Loved it! great atmosphere, great food, great service.
5) The spa: It was my 2nd time there. I got a massage and my DD and her friend got manicures. I was soooo awesome!
6) DTD: once again, we love the close proximity to DTD. The boatride over from SSR is a nice alternative to the buses.
7) Bus service: We found that we had good luch with the bus service. We only had one day that we had a bit of a wait and that was for Typhoon lagoon. We waited about 30 minutes. Totally understandable given the heat!
8) Fultons Crab House: Crab claws and wine were delicious as usual!!
9) DVC Models: Like having the DVC models right on site. We went to look at a grand villa model on our last day. They are huge!
10) It did not rain once the whole time we were there except for the day we were leaving! That's pretty rare for August.
Over all we had a great vacation as usual. I would have liked to have stayed longer. Wasn't ready to come home yet. Back to both work and reality tomorrow!!
