Saratoga Springs About This Page:

[Nova]

Just back from our Aug. Disney vacation. SS was nice but wouldnt want to do it again, to many negatives for me. It is very spread out and even though you stay at the Springs the area near the food area and check in, you are the last bus pick up and usually end up standing. We walked over the bridge to the Paddock area to board our bus. The eating place was very small and the store area even smaller which I was suprised thought it would be a nice size. Both places share the check out registers. There was not much of a food selection. The main restaurant was wonderful however. The staff was great, food wonderful. There were girls up screaming and yelling till midnight the night we were leaving running thru the hall which by the way is all cement no carpet so the sound just echo's something terrible. I should of just called the front desk to see if they could get them to stop, but they were running all over so you really couldnt tell them what room they were coming from. I didnt care for the cement hall ways you couldnt let the little one down for fear of falling on the cememt. Dont get me wrong it is a beautiful well kept area but just not for us. Oh and I saw a post about poop in the pool. We saw it on the walkway up to the eating area for 2 days till finally it got cleaned up. Our pool was closed as well as someone threw up in it. Stuff like that happens and guess you need to expect it. no matter if it is a value or deluxe. I prefer the Pop Century over SS. rather the one bus stop, bigger food court, my waist can do without the sit down restaurant. But cant say enough about the service and food there excellent. Hated the char. breakfast at Animal kingdom. SS had a nice small sliding board for the kids really nice 0 entry pool as well. Saw an alligator in the water outside the room we had 1st floor. rather a balcony room but with the kids in strollers 1st floor was better for Daughter and hubby. was suprised at the fly population this trip never had a fly issue before. it must of been a time between what ever they use to control them. Fun to stay somewhere you have not before but wouldnt want to stay here again.

[KMB733]

You actually saw an alligator! I've always wondered about alligators on property, but thank God, have never seen one.

[Tupac]

Sorry to hear that you didn't have a good time. Saratoga Springs is one of our favorite resorts. We have never encountered problems with screaming kids in the hallways. I will agree that it is VERY spread out and having a car at this resort is of paramount importance!

PEACE OUT!

[sweetyface77]

Wow! That's too bad that you had such a negative experience at Saratoga Springs. My family and I stayed in a 2BR Villa in Congress Park (WWWWAAAYYY in the back of the resort) and despite the vastness of the resort, we enjoyed our stay and experienced every bit of Disney Magic. The one thing that I will DEFINITELY agree with is the Food Court (can they even call it that as I had more room in the villa then I had there) and the shared common space with the store. I found the area ridiculously small and was completely inadequate for a resort that size. I do love the resort and despite the minor flaws, I will definitely stay there again. I hope your next trip is better!

[Principessa_di_Fata]

I'm sorry you had an unmagical time. I visited SS in Sept 06 (we had family there) and thought it was lovely, though I agree, very spread out. The pool was awesome, though. LOL! We didn't eat in the food court or restaurant, though, so I can't speak to that. But yeah those cement walkways do echo when you walk, though I had no problem letting DD walk on the cement.

That's so cool that you got to see a gator, though! I've never seen one on property but I'm always on the lookout!!

What didn't you like about the breakfast at AK? I ask because I loved it and recommend it to everyone, lol. I'm sorry it wasn't good for you. That always stinks when you fork out that money and don't have fun.

Anyway, I'm glad you at least got to try a new place!

[honeybee723]

SSR is our home resort with DVC, and I have to agree with you on how large it is. That is one of the downfalls of the resort...in my opinion. We stayed at the Paddock as well, and every morning we would walk across the bridge to get the bus since it was one of the first stops, but on the way home we would wait to get dropped off at our section. So while it's not one of my favorite places, I think it's one that I will have to get use to since it is my "home"

If it makes you feel any better, we stayed at AKL once and had noise issues with our roommates next door. We called the front desk and they took care of it. AKL is one of my favorite resorts, and I'm actually staying there in December, but you can have noise anywhere...it just depends on how considerate the people around you are.

[disney]

Originally Posted by Nova

Just back from our Aug. Disney vacation. SS was nice but wouldnt want to do it again, to many negatives for me. It is very spread out and even though you stay at the Springs the area near the food area and check in, you are the last bus pick up and usually end up standing. We walked over the bridge to the Paddock area to board our bus. The eating place was very small and the store area even smaller which I was suprised thought it would be a nice size. Both places share the check out registers. There was not much of a food selection. The main restaurant was wonderful however. The staff was great, food wonderful. There were girls up screaming and yelling till midnight the night we were leaving running thru the hall which by the way is all cement no carpet so the sound just echo's something terrible. I should of just called the front desk to see if they could get them to stop, but they were running all over so you really couldnt tell them what room they were coming from. I didnt care for the cement hall ways you couldnt let the little one down for fear of falling on the cememt. Dont get me wrong it is a beautiful well kept area but just not for us. Oh and I saw a post about poop in the pool. We saw it on the walkway up to the eating area for 2 days till finally it got cleaned up. Our pool was closed as well as someone threw up in it. Stuff like that happens and guess you need to expect it. no matter if it is a value or deluxe. I prefer the Pop Century over SS. rather the one bus stop, bigger food court, my waist can do without the sit down restaurant. But cant say enough about the service and food there excellent. Hated the char. breakfast at Animal kingdom. SS had a nice small sliding board for the kids really nice 0 entry pool as well. Saw an alligator in the water outside the room we had 1st floor. rather a balcony room but with the kids in strollers 1st floor was better for Daughter and hubby. was suprised at the fly population this trip never had a fly issue before. it must of been a time between what ever they use to control them. Fun to stay somewhere you have not before but wouldnt want to stay here again.

i think at this rate there was another post that someone saw a snake at ssr you saw an alliagator gee it sounds like they should change the name to akl 2 . we stayed there too community hall they were really nice because it was dd b-day so they let us have b-day cake there for dd as a surprise .

[chezp]

Thanks for the honest review.

[MMMD]

Thanks for the review. Sorry this hotel wasn't for you. As for the loud kids, that burns me up. I always keep after my kids to be quiet in early and late hours at a hotel, explaining courtesy and shared walls etc. I see that you are going again in a few weeks. Hope you have a better time!

[spiceypj]

boy those kids were loud.

when staying in CP when DTD still have the fireworks - you couldn't heard the fireworks - see them.

so the sound proofing is pretty good - so those kids must have been really, really loud.

bad sign - going back there soon - hope for Congress Park again.

[Disneybine]

I'm sorry you didn't fully enjoy your stay. We just bought into DVC at SSR because we fell in love with this resort. We always rent a car so we actually love how spread-out the resort is. Now about the alligator Did you let a CM know? I'm sure they try to keep alligators away (for obvious reasons) somehow.

[spiceypj]

under florida law, the alligator has to be so big before Disney can remove it.

of course you could kill it there - but that might upset the other guests.

[Diz]

Sorry you weren't happy with SSR. My DH would totally agree with you. He hates it there! We still go back, though. It always seems to have rooms when we make a last-minute reservation. Our stay last week was interesting. We had 2 studios. One was unlivable. Something had died in there. Not sure what - maybe one of those gators. They had to change it. It was just impossible to stand inside for even a few minutes. They sent housekeeping to try and fix it because they were at capacity and needed to put someone there after they changed us. Poor people. Hope they were upgraded somewhere else!

I don't mind SSR. There are sections I don't like --for instance the Grandstands. I will not stay there again. Talk about noise levels! The "quiet" pool is not that quiet at all. It's great for kids, but for adults who just want to swim without the hassle, . I love the Paddocks by the quiet pool.

Nine out of ten times we drive, so we rarely deal with the buses. One time when I traveled alone, though, I stayed at SSR in a Studio and used the buses. I was in the Paddocks that time and had no problem.

It seems that either people hate SSR or love it.

[waycoolmom]

We LOVE SSR. It's our Disney "home." We stayed at OKW on our last trip and, while OKW was nice, we all agreed that we really missed SSR and can't wait to stay there in November. I'm sorry you had a bad time. We have never had a bad experience at any Disney resort, so I guess we've been very lucky.

[Nova]

I wouldnt call it bad but just was not the resort for us. And it was not kids that were loud it was a group of asian girls young adults. Trying to keep babies quiet is hard but there was no excuse for the noise these gals were making wouldnt even call it noise screaming was more like it. anyway it was my own fault for not calling the front desk and asking them to send someone over to stop it. The alligator they knew it was there but it was quite large and the scarry thing was it was out of the water on the edge of the water. Hubby was concerned because 2 little girls had been roller blading across the bridge over into the Springs area alone and said what if one of them had gone down to it not realizing it was for real. I have seen them at CB in the water once it started to follow the small sprint boats in there they set traps to captur it. I remember my Daughter being 12 and riding in one of thoes boats sure would not have liked it if I saw a gator trailing behind the boat. It was unusual to see it out of the water though I have a picture of it in my camera when I get it developed I will try to get it on my computer and email it to some willing person to post if you all like.