quick SSR report

[jojoromama]

Hi, our family of 6 just returned from a 6 night stay in a 2br at SSR. this was our first stay at SSR, having stayed at BWV and OKW before. SSR is beautiful and very clean. They powerwashed the pool deck every morning we were there. The landscaping was gorgeous and our room 3412 and 3414 in the Springs was great. We ate at the Turf Club one night for dinner. The food was delicious but the service was okay, not great. I think they are trying. My only complaint was that the resort is poorly marked. We got lost the first night we were there. We got off at our busstop but it took a lot of walking to find our building. Also, we could never find the much advertised walkway to Downtown Disney. We never saw a single sign the whole week for the walkway. Even when we got on the walkway from DD, we had no idea when to get off the path to go to the Springs section. There were no signs. I found this very strange. Is it just me? We found ourselves cutting through bushes and walking on grass to get to our room. It was a bit disturbing. The main pool is beautiful. I wish we had spent more time by the pool. Also, the busses were on time, we didn't have to wait long, however sometimes we could not board due to overcrowding. I found that we had to wait an additional 20 minutes each time that happened. Give yourself an hour to get anywhere from this resort. Bus time took a big chunk of our trip. We tried to walk whenever we could, but as I stated, the walkway to DD was not marked. Even the internal bus stops around the resort were just too much bus time. Beautiful resort, I just would not want to stay here again if my primary reason was to visit the parks.

 

[Anthony1971]

Sorry you had some inconviences
You should always carry the map they give you at check in when you are unfamiliar with a resort it makes it much easier to find places at the resorts.
The bus service can be hit or miss at any resort at peak times I always walk to a bus stop that is not last.

 

[BroganMc]

My only complaint was that the resort is poorly marked. We got lost the first night we were there. We got off at our busstop but it took a lot of walking to find our building. Also, we could never find the much advertised walkway to Downtown Disney. We never saw a single sign the whole week for the walkway. Even when we got on the walkway from DD, we had no idea when to get off the path to go to the Springs section. There were no signs. I found this very strange. Is it just me? We found ourselves cutting through bushes and walking on grass to get to our room. It was a bit disturbing.

You cut through bushes? Nope, I fear it's just you.

FWIW, most of the maps are at crossroads along the walkways. There's one at the crossroad from DTD along the waterside path to Congress Park. There's another at the walkway from Congress Park to the Springs (by the traffic circle). The one difference is that they rotate the maps based on where you are and which direction you're looking. (CP's maps were "upside down" from the Springs.)

There are also signs marking the Surrey Bike path and foot traffic. I believe the one indicating the walkway to DTD is at that map kiosk by the traffic circle. That's where you'd get on it first. Otherwise you take a path around a building by the Congress Park pool. Or you'd take the street path along the bus route (not as scenic). The DTD walkway is located on your handout map as well. It's the same one they give you at check-in with your room number. We usually ask for a couple and stick them in our pockets until we get acclamated.

Granted the first time around the resort I was studying my map more closely. After dark that pathway back from Congress Park (where it forks 90 degrees along the canal) is a little hard to remember. It's not marked, but then either you end up in the water or at the gazebo on the water's edge. If one has a few drinks and tries to find their way back never taking before I can see getting lost. Or just having a poor sense of direction.

The main pool is beautiful. I wish we had spent more time by the pool. Also, the busses were on time, we didn't have to wait long, however sometimes we could not board due to overcrowding. I found that we had to wait an additional 20 minutes each time that happened. Give yourself an hour to get anywhere from this resort.

That's the issue with the Springs. It is the last of the 5 internal bus stop route. If you had crossed the bridge to the Paddocks, you'd be at stop number 3. Go up past the Carriage House and you could hop the 1st stop at Grandstand.

This is why the Grandstand is fast becoming a preferred section. Empty busses, proximity to the resort center, but has plenty of amenities to keep guests happy.

 

[Starr W.]

We carried our map on our first trip(I even brought it home and it is in the carryon bag along with the instructions to override the motion detector on the A/C). I was happy on our last cruise they had a "pocket map" of the ship, so I could figure out how to get around.

Now we have stayed at alot of "resort" type hotels(not at Disney) and usually do a recon trip to find the best way to points A, B or C, so when we do head out we are usually going in the right direction. We stayed at CP and located the walk way while checking out the playground for my youngest.

We were there at Thanksgiving and thought the bus service was super(I think 20 min. was the longest wait). We had a 25 min wait for a MGM bus on 5/6/07 at VWL. DH times the waits, plus I think we have been "lucky" especially on our Epcot days. Those are the ones that everyone else is waiting for MK/AK and you get 4 buses in a row all going to Epcot.

 

[OrthoDad]

I have to reply to this post. First of all, I've been a long time poster on the DisBoards for a while, but had to change my username for some email problems.

However, we are brand new DVC members, and we were at the Springs last week for our first time using our points, as well. And, we had some major problems with SSR. And, let me say, we are BIG Disney fans, so it was pretty bad for us to complain.

I agree with the OP that signage at the resort was awful! Some of the maps at the resort have North pointing up, and some have it pointing down! And, the buildings themselves are not labeled very well. For example, we were in 3710, a 2 BR on the 3rd floor. But, NOTHING was labeled saying that 35xx was on the first floor of our building, 36xx the 2nd floor, etc. We had to find that out on our own.

And, the map of the resort does NOT show the path to DTD! We also had a problem with that, but eventually found our way.

I agree the resort was beautiful, and we loved our room. But, we had a disaster with checkin (4 hours to get our room, they had messed up our reservations), a horrible room assignment (when we had asked for medical reasons some considerations for our 2 sons in wheelchairs), and problems with the service in bell services and at the food court.

SSR is our home resort, but we'll probably try another DVC resort next time.

W

 

[Cee]

But we always stay in Congress Park.

 

[ebenmax]

I feel really bad that you had such difficulties at SSR recently. We too just returned from our first visit home and it could not have been more opposite.
Our check-in was outstanding. THEE nicest CM who took time to explain EVERYTHING we needed to have addressed, and checked us in asking us if we had any requests. We had been placed in Congress Park, but asked if they had any 2BR in Grandstand since all of the reviews on the boards had been so positive. Instantly, we were assigned a 4th floor room with the most gorgeous view. The room looked as if it had never been used!!
Bell services were exceptional!! They greeted us and drove us our room with our 12 bags, all the while explaining about the SSR and answering our questions. We received that exact same treatment when we checked out even though there had already been 450 check-outs before us. (It was only 8:15 a.m.)

I guess what I am trying to say in all of this is that hopefully that was a rare exception as to the type of experience you and your family will receive at SSR and one that does not keep you from coming back. We couldn't have been more pleased. I sincerely hope your futures stays are 180 from the one you just had.

 

[jojoromama]

I agree with the OP that signage at the resort was awful! Some of the maps at the resort have North pointing up, and some have it pointing down! And, the buildings themselves are not labeled very well. For example, we were in 3710, a 2 BR on the 3rd floor. But, NOTHING was labeled saying that 35xx was on the first floor of our building, 36xx the 2nd floor, etc. We had to find that out on our own.

And, the map of the resort does NOT show the path to DTD! We also had a problem with that, but eventually found our way.
W

Thank you for your post. I am relieved to see that I was not the only one who had a problem with the signs. My kids were teasing me the whole trip saying I wasn't going to quit until I found the entrance to the walkway! Well, I never did. I agree with you about the floor numbers as well. It was unnecessarily confusing. We also, had to wait for our room. We arrived at the resort around 4:30 pm and our room was not ready. We waited about an hour at Artist Palette for it to be ready. As soon as we left Artist palette, a hail storm broke loose from the skies. We, trying to follow the map, ran into the Spa. We were soaked, and they very nicely told us we could wait it out on the couches. We told them that we were trying to find the "Springs" buildings but no one in the Spa knew what we were talking about. We then ran to the DVC preview building. The hail was unbelievable. Not one person,as nice as they were, knew where "the Springs" was. Granted, we were right across from our building without knowing it. We waited about 45 minutes in the preview building and then finally hoofed it across the parking lot and found our room. We called bell services for our luggage but was told that no bellmen were going out because of the bad weather. We waited about an hour and a half for luggage to arrive. We were freezing! I know that the weather was abnormal and this was not Disney's fault, but I do feel we had bad directions to our room.
We did carry the map with us but that was not too helpful. I did see the signs around the resort marking the surrey bike route, but last time I looked, I was not a surrey! Although, after the DDP, who knows? Even one of the water launch captains agreed that it is very poorly marked. Again, I never saw any sign anywhere throughout the resort pointing out a pedestrian walkway to DTD. One night, on our way back, I walked all the way to the end where the bandstand was, and there was still no sign.
We did learn to walk over from the Paddock bus stop to our room at the Springs to cut down on bus time. It was a very nice walk, albeit unmarkeWd! The maps posted around the resort were not much help.
Again, SSR is beautiful, but it is poorly marked. Yes, once you get acclimated, you're fine and you get over it. We enjoyed our stay and were grateful for any room at Disney.

 

[BroganMc]

Ok, this is bugging me. Here is the map you get at check-in (also posted as kiosks around the resort as I mentioned). (The color lines are distance markers I've made up for online usage, so ignore those.)

You see that little man walking symbol in the bottom right of the map (Congress Park section, with a distance marker line in red)? If you look at the map legend, you see the little man walking stands for "Pedestrian Walkway to Downtown Disney".

At the crossroads from CP to Springs, it is rotated so the map represents the direction you are looking. (i.e. the DTD lake is on the other side of the buildings you're looking at). Here's the photo I took.

The only time I encountered trouble with signage is at that right corner of the pathway by the DTD lake. If you are walking back from DTD you just see it dead end at a gazebo overlooking the canal and lake. The correct route is to make a right at the nearest walkway and follow it out to Broad Street. A sign there pointing to the interior of the resort would be helpful.

 

[BroganMc]

By the way jojomama and OrthoDad, I am sorry you had such difficulties and I wasn't there to assist. I am quite good with navigation so I frequently end up giving people directions and map reading assistance at any resort I visit. It's such a shame you never found that walkway jojomama because you were right there.

OrthoDad, I'd love to know what difficulties you had with your accessible room. I use a powerchair so need a HA room with roll-in shower. I'm religious about making sure I have it blocked out far in advance, and yet I too had a problem my last stay in May. (The blocked out a tub room instead.) Fortunately the Front Desk staff was very good about correcting the mistake. I do think the weak link is in Member services contacting Special Needs for you. Any time I have to rely on 3rd party communications I expect problems of understanding can creep up. This is an issue I'm investigating so if you can be specific about your issues, I'd appreciate it.

 

[starbox]

We could not find the boat ferry stop on our first stay at SSR - I just headed towards the lake and kept walking until I eventually hit it! I do think that signs pointing to the DTD path, ferry, and Springs would be nice throughout the resort - but I will also say that I got acclimated to the layout after that first visit.

We always like being the first bus stop - we've missed busses due to them being full @ both VWL and OKW, and we had a BWV bus fill up at BW and not even stop at Swan or Dolphin - so I am sure those poor people were waiting a looong time. It stinks when that happens. After our last trip, I am a big fan of Grandstand - first on and first off for the busses.

 

[jojoromama]

By the way jojomama and OrthoDad, I am sorry you had such difficulties and I wasn't there to assist. I am quite good with navigation so I frequently end up giving people directions and map reading assistance at any resort I visit. It's such a shame you never found that walkway jojomama because you were right there.

Dear Brogan, I wish you had been there, too! I must point out that I have always thought I was good with maps, but this trip proved me wrong. I do realize that I was on the path, however, there was no sign to the path or on the path. On many of the posted maps, the "You Are Here" was not there. That would have helped tremendously. From one's building at SSR (in my case, the Springs) one can figure out the general direction one needs to take in order to walk to DTD, but as I have stated before, there are no signs pointing out the way. There are many paths and walkways which meander through the resort. The buildings all look the same. The captain of the water taxi behind The Turf Club agreed and told us to actually cut through the golf course because it was a much more direct route. We never tried that. But, he thought the layout was very confusing and poorly marked as well. A simple sign stating, "Walkway to Downtown Disney" and an arrow would have been wonderful. If one wants to walk to DTD, I would suggest staying at Congress Park. I didn't mean to harp upon this, but it was frustrating and it seems like such an easy fix.

 

[DMKEDM]

Your report and your reaction are so much like my very first experience at SSR...it only took a short time to figure it out, but that first attempt at finding my room (w/carryon luggage in hand, as the Bell Services staff was too busy to take me or my suitcase right then and I didn't want to wait the 20-30 minutes they estimated it would take to give me a ride) was positively hellish...but it was only that "bad first hour" and after that it got easy and I fell hook, line & sinker in love w/SSR...but I surely do agree that the signs and markings rather stink for the first-time walker...

Once you get on the driving routes, it's better...and once I figured out that if I just followed paths from which I could SEE Downtown Disney, I found the walking path pretty readily...that of course wouldn't help in a rain storm or after dark...and it did take a while to figure it out...

So, official request to the powers that be at SSR: better signs, pretty please, for those among us (ME!!!) who are "directionally challenged" (the only time I can read a map is when I already know where I am and how to get where I'm going; THEN it makes perfect sense...however, I can't make heads or tails of it if I don't know where I am/how to get where I'm going!)...I need signs & markers and arrows...please, dear Disney, pretty please???

 

[BroganMc]

Dear Brogan, I wish you had been there, too! I must point out that I have always thought I was good with maps, but this trip proved me wrong. I do realize that I was on the path, however, there was no sign to the path or on the path. On many of the posted maps, the "You Are Here" was not there.

... I didn't mean to harp upon this, but it was frustrating and it seems like such an easy fix.

Ah well the one route I think is in desperate need of better signage is the ferry dock. There are three alternate routes back to the main area (to the left by the Club Bar, to the center up to Turf Club, and to the right along the Preview Center parking lot). None will take you to DTD via a golf course route. DTD's walkway is separated from the main resort area by a canal. You cross it via the bridge at Broad St.

Not being able to find your way is a common complaint from first time SSR visitors. It is a large resort with many scenic pathways. It's easy to lose sight of landmarks when you round a corner into trees and flowers. But those landscaped areas are what gives the resort it's quiet ambience. And once you acclamate yourself, everything becomes so easy to understand.

One of the best things we did was to get up early one morning and just walk around. (We stayed in Grandstand nearest that bus stop.) That's when I kept my map on hand in case the scenery didn't match my expectations.

When I stayed there in December and just used my car to get around, I was fairly clueless. But the funny thing is once you take a bearings walk, it all seems so simple.

Next time you go, take a day off from the parks and spend it at the resort. Get up early, go for a morning coffee run to AP then a stroll around the resort. Hop in the pool mid-day and take a nap in late afternoon. Then head over to DTD for dinner and shopping. My favorite part of my last trip was doing just that. I even passed up an extra afternoon at EPCOT just to chill at SSR.

Note: In case you all think I'm superhuman with maps, I have gotten lost at several resorts. Poly (after dark, tiki torches just don't cut it for lighting), AKL (took me a couple years to figure out where the savannah was compared to the pool), and BWV/BCV/YC/BC/S&D (I only realized it was a loop around by studying satellite images, the maps at the resorts only give tiny cross-sections).

 

[OrthoDad]

Well, I'm pretty good at navigation, too, but I still had problems. And, no sense of navigation will correct for not having signs on the buildings that tell you what room numbers are where. Or, having some maps with N pointing up, and some with N pointing down.

And, I'm glad someone posted that resort map. When you look at it, you can see the pedestrian walkway just stops in the corner. No where on that map do you see the actual connection to DTD. Now, that I know where it is, I know that it's "just off the map in that corner." But, I understand why the OP had trouble with it, because we did, also.

In terms of our medical requests, we did not request a handicapped accessible room. Our 2 sons are still fairly small, so we didn't want to take up an accessible room. However, we knew we were going to use the main pool and foodct alot, so we asked to be close to that.

Well, on checkin, they had deleted our kids names on the reservation, even though we had it printed on our copy. Didn't seem such a big deal to us, but it was for the checkin crew. Then, they put us in the FARTHEST most bldg in Congress Park, about the farthest bldg away from the Springs, pool, and food ct. They corrected it; but the whole ordeal lasted 4 hours (we arrived at 8, and got in our room at midnight...and got our bags at 3am), and we had to change rooms the 2nd night.

I understand that there is no guarantee that DVC will grant requests. But, I thought they would come closer for medical requests. I guess I've just been spoiled at POR....they have ALWAYS granted requests for my sons in wheelchairs and gotten us close to the foodct.