amblackmon
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Nov 6, 2005
What wonderful pictures and reports! I am thoroughly enjoying reading and looking! I hope the rest of your stay is magical! We are going in September and that seems just WAY to far away right now!
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Controversial Topics
Several months ago, I added a private sub-forum to allow members to discuss these topics without fear of infractions or banning. It's opt-in, opt-out. Corey Click Here
Here at the Carousel - SSR on the fly!
- Thread starter corinnak
- Start date
magicmommy
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 1, 2004
Thanks for the pics! I'll be checking in 2 weeks from tomorrow!
mamaprincess
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 6, 2005
Those pics are to die for. You have really captured the beauty and tranquillity of SSR. Whenever you have the oppurtunity, will you post them in the SSR Lovers thread, they would sure beautify the place!
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=16485292&posted=1#post16485292
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=16485292&posted=1#post16485292
conciergekelly
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 16, 2004
Loved your report and pictures! It is so nice to read DVC trip reports this time of year. Now I am day dreamin' up here in Michigan.
It is really neat to hear your day to day stories. Thanks for posting!
DH and I are going to SSR for the first time next Sunday. We were wondering about where to request a room and what the busses were like. Glad to read your replies to the same previous questions.
My parents are going with us for their first trip to WDW. Sounds like it will be a little crazy during that time, but glad to have the extra 4 nights to ourselves after they leave. I'm 5 months prego, so will need the time off my feet!!
The weather looks nice there, I hope we are just as lucky! We are having a werid week in Houston at 30-38 degrees. Looking forward to the 70's again!
Have lots of relaxing fun and keep posting!
Jen
DH and I are going to SSR for the first time next Sunday. We were wondering about where to request a room and what the busses were like. Glad to read your replies to the same previous questions.
My parents are going with us for their first trip to WDW. Sounds like it will be a little crazy during that time, but glad to have the extra 4 nights to ourselves after they leave. I'm 5 months prego, so will need the time off my feet!!
The weather looks nice there, I hope we are just as lucky! We are having a werid week in Houston at 30-38 degrees. Looking forward to the 70's again!
Have lots of relaxing fun and keep posting!
Jen
corinnak
100% Tag Free!
- Joined
- Jan 25, 2006
Wednesday was the "break day," and if you believe that, well, I have to tell you, we apparently don't really know how to take a break. We had a reservation at Chef Mickey's at 10:40. Mr. Little didn't want to go, so FINE - I would just take Mr. Tall and have a nice breakfast just the two of us. Except we got to the bus stop (with our friends who were going to Epcot) and DH calls and says "We're coming after all." And I said "If the bus comes, we are getting on without you." But it didn't, and we all got aboard for our ride to the Magic Kingdom.
Once there, we decided that while we COULD walk over on the path, it would be more fun to monorail over. We checked in, had our photo taken and sat down for a bit of a wait for a table. When we were seated, it was one table over from where we had been seated one year ago. The food was fine, but the characters seemed to miss us a lot - Goofy passed us by entirely, and Mr. Little decided moments before Pluto, Goofy and Donald came by that he really did need to go to the bathroom after all....we had asked him at several more opportune times, obviously. However it all worked out because after we finished eating, we realized our photo had never showed up. And we also hoped that we'd get a chance to see Goofy. By the time we left, we had seen all the characters, some twice, Mr. Tall danced with two napkins, gave one to Minnie, and got a big kiss from her when she gave it back to him. He was grinning so big and blushing a little.
We did finally and at last get our photo and we left. During all the waiting, Mr. Little took charge of the camera and kept busy. I thought this one was particularly artful for a 3 year old:
We decided to catch the monorail back to the Magic Kingdom to bus back to Saratoga Springs, and I asked about riding in the front. Well, she said that two of the three trains running had training going on, but we could wait and see. The next train was not used for training, but there was only room for two - Mr. Tall and DH, I said, should go ride up front. The other two passengers got off at the TTC, and two others went up there. At the Poly, they got out and there was pretty much no one waiting to ride, so I asked the driver if Mr. Little and I could move up there. He said that they don't board people already on the monorail to the front, just people waiting at the station. I said that was ok, but I just thought I'd ask since my husband and son were already up there. He looked at the vacant platform and said I could go on ahead up there with Mr. Little.
So shortly after we had left the Contemporary, DH and I had this phone conversation from different parts of the monorail in which I told him that I remembered that the plan had been to take the boys to Disney Quest after breakfast. I can't believe I forgot the plan! And so we took a poll and decided to ride back to the Contemporary and catch a DTD bus from there.
The boys love DQ - DH and I, not so much. It's kind of loud and obnoxious in there, but we had a good time today and it was not at all crowded. We did Pirates of the Caribbean twice, the second time, we just walked on. We spent a long time on the living easels - Mr. Little always loves working on those things, and I made a song in the songmaker suite, since there wasn't any wait for that. Mr. Tall played some sort of Egyptian adventure, and I helped out at the end - finally we vanquished the giant dung beetle....and I'm not making that up! Even when DQ isn't jammed with people, though, the noise gets old really fast, and after a couple of hours, DH and I, at least, had had enough.
The big plan for the day, though was to meet up with our friends in the afternoon to go to Beaches and Cream for a Kitchen Sink Sundae. It was Mr. Tall's big dream for this trip, and we thought that with 8 of us, we just might be able to eat that giant thing.
Our friends spent a quiet morning at Epcot - they said the place was practically deserted - and were determined to spend the afternoon at the pool. They left Epcot around 2, I think, and then swam until close to 4, and then were heading over to meet us at DTD, from which we would catch a bus to the Beach Club/ Yacht Club. Their plans went awry when their little princess decided she REALLY needed a bathroom as they were at the bus stop. Well, one of them dashed her back to the room quickly, but as soon as they left, the bus arrived, and they only had one charged phone between them, so no one got on that bus. They ended up walking to DTD.
In the meantime, we took a ferry from the West Side to Marketplace - oh, and here is a tidbit about the ferries that wasn't true in October. There are now 3 Downtown Disney ferry stops - West Side, PI, Marketplace. You have to switch ferries to go from Saratoga Springs to the West Side, because the OKW/SSR ferry no longer stops there.
Fortunately, the DTD shuttle leaves about every 5-10 minutes. There has been one right there every time we have used this service this trip.
So our friends have it in their heads that they need to visit Goofy's Candy Company and the Lego store before we head out. While waiting for them to walk from the villa to Goofy's, we went into the Christmas store and got a stocking for Mr. Little - he had never really had one all his own before, and they had one that was GREEN (I like Geen!) and had The Little Mermaid on it "I LIKE the Little Mermaid!" So that was great! Then we waited outside Goofy's, and I took Mr. Tall over to the pin station because I had not bought him a single thing this trip. We found a pin to commemorate his first trip on Space Mountain, a pirates lanyard and....well, a few other things. Do you hear time ticking away here?? It seemed to be.
Finally our friends arrived, spent some time at Goofy's and then half the party headed out to the Lego store - I went with them and took Mr. Little along. He got very engrossed in the building table. The problem of only one charged phone between them cropped up again, as we were, unbeknownst to me, supposed to backtrack and meet up in the Christmas store (I assumed everyone was following along to the Legos and we'd go to the PI bus stop....) At this point, I was having a hard time prying Mr. Little from the Lego tables, it was about 6pm and our friends decided they wanted to eat, probably at Earl of Sandwich, before going over for the Kitchen Sink.
Does anyone recall from the last installment, that it was our plan to also go to the Adventurer's Club, something we always want to do and never manage, while our friends watched our kids at the villa? Well, as it was 6pm and we'd been waiting around for a couple of hours, it seemed to us and our friends were also talking about not being up to going all the way over to B&C, and maybe getting the big Sundae at Ghirardelli's instead, we asked Mr. Tall about this. He said if our plan change so that we wouldn't get to do the kitchen sink, he would probably burst into tears. Well, it was one of his few requests for things to do this trip.
So I pried Mr. Little away from the lego table at last, plopped him in the stroller and we met up and headed for the bus stop....and Mr. Little piped up with "Mama! I need to go at potty!" Oh, fine...and thanks for telling us before we got on the bus, leaving our waffling friends behind.
So off we go - the closest bathroom I knew of to where we were when he said this was back on the other side of the toy store, after which, we went to the Marketplace bus stop, where, within about 3 minutes - The very bus we wanted!
We rode around to the West Side and before long, Mr. Little was....asleep. He would remain this way the rest of the evening. There were several more calls consulting with our friends about whether they should follow us or not, but finally, it turned out that their kids were exhausted and they all went back to the villa for an early bedtime. (Glad we didn't wait for them while they had dinner,too.
) I have to admit that while I love our friends and am VERY glad they have joined us on this trip, I was getting frustrated at this point.
So by the time we arrived at the beach club:
our 8 ice cream eaters was diminished to 3, but we were bound and determined to get this done. Oh, and just FYI, for those who are as clueless as I was, Beaches and Cream, in spite of the name, is actually to be found in the YACHT Club. Now they tell me! Mr Tall had a grilled cheese sandwich and DH and I split a veggie burger. Pretty good! And then, The kitchen sink. I took a video of the server bringing it out, and the expressions on there are just priceless. Eyes bugging out everywhere.
We dug in and did our best, but I have to say that I found all the conflicting flavors of the Kitchen Sink to be a bit on the gross side. Mint chocolate chip with coffee and pineapple and caramel and....you get the idea. We persevered until I saw a look on Mr. Tall's face that was something like this:
DH took him to the bathroom and I thought for sure he was going to hurl...but no! He was OK. Mr. Tall and I had had enough, but DH settled in for a little more. Finally he got to the chocolate ice cream at the bottom, and the hot fudge sauce, but I was too full to enjoy more than a little taste of that. This was our final result - I am sorry, it looks really gross.
Finally we paid and made our way out. I wanted to walk over to get a better view of the Boardwalk at night, so even though it was getting to be 8:30 and we had a long, transfer filled trip back to SSR, we wandered over to see what we could see. Someone at the recreation building said good evening to us, and I went on to take some photos of the boardwalk and that lighthouse at night:
When I was done, he asked us if we were going to stick around for the fireworks. I said "Probably not, but why do you ask??" and he said "I was wondering if you would like to go over to see them on a boat - someone paid for an Illuminations cruise and didn't show up for it, so it would be totally free! "We couldn't turn that down." I said. So even though poor little Mr. Little was still asleep, we went over to the pontoon, climbed aboard, were presented with lovely blankets and had a very nice ride over to Epcot for a perfect view of the fireworks. My goodness, it was amazing. He told us that several other people HAD turned him down that night, figuring there must be some catch, but that he loves making unexpected magic happen for families when he gets the chance. We couldn't believe our luck. My irritation with my friends vanished - it had all worked out so beautifully for us. I need to trust more in providence. Mr. Little slept through practically the whole thing, poor kid. OH, and our captain pointed out several interesting things to us, among them that there is a water bridge between Epcot and the resort area - in which cars drive UNDER the canal. I was amazed. Or very gullible....
After the best fireworks were done, our captain dropped us off at the Boardwalk at our request, so we could grab a taxi back to SSR. One had to be called that had a child seat, but it only took a few minutes and we were back to the front door of our building in practically no time. Totally worth the little bit of money - DH said it was $11 - I think that is with tip.
I could not believe how much we ended up doing on our "Break Day." And while we didn't get our date to the Adventurer's Club, DH and I would not trade our gratis Illuminations cruise with the kids for anything.
Once there, we decided that while we COULD walk over on the path, it would be more fun to monorail over. We checked in, had our photo taken and sat down for a bit of a wait for a table. When we were seated, it was one table over from where we had been seated one year ago. The food was fine, but the characters seemed to miss us a lot - Goofy passed us by entirely, and Mr. Little decided moments before Pluto, Goofy and Donald came by that he really did need to go to the bathroom after all....we had asked him at several more opportune times, obviously. However it all worked out because after we finished eating, we realized our photo had never showed up. And we also hoped that we'd get a chance to see Goofy. By the time we left, we had seen all the characters, some twice, Mr. Tall danced with two napkins, gave one to Minnie, and got a big kiss from her when she gave it back to him. He was grinning so big and blushing a little.
We did finally and at last get our photo and we left. During all the waiting, Mr. Little took charge of the camera and kept busy. I thought this one was particularly artful for a 3 year old:
We decided to catch the monorail back to the Magic Kingdom to bus back to Saratoga Springs, and I asked about riding in the front. Well, she said that two of the three trains running had training going on, but we could wait and see. The next train was not used for training, but there was only room for two - Mr. Tall and DH, I said, should go ride up front. The other two passengers got off at the TTC, and two others went up there. At the Poly, they got out and there was pretty much no one waiting to ride, so I asked the driver if Mr. Little and I could move up there. He said that they don't board people already on the monorail to the front, just people waiting at the station. I said that was ok, but I just thought I'd ask since my husband and son were already up there. He looked at the vacant platform and said I could go on ahead up there with Mr. Little.
So shortly after we had left the Contemporary, DH and I had this phone conversation from different parts of the monorail in which I told him that I remembered that the plan had been to take the boys to Disney Quest after breakfast. I can't believe I forgot the plan! And so we took a poll and decided to ride back to the Contemporary and catch a DTD bus from there.
The boys love DQ - DH and I, not so much. It's kind of loud and obnoxious in there, but we had a good time today and it was not at all crowded. We did Pirates of the Caribbean twice, the second time, we just walked on. We spent a long time on the living easels - Mr. Little always loves working on those things, and I made a song in the songmaker suite, since there wasn't any wait for that. Mr. Tall played some sort of Egyptian adventure, and I helped out at the end - finally we vanquished the giant dung beetle....and I'm not making that up! Even when DQ isn't jammed with people, though, the noise gets old really fast, and after a couple of hours, DH and I, at least, had had enough.
The big plan for the day, though was to meet up with our friends in the afternoon to go to Beaches and Cream for a Kitchen Sink Sundae. It was Mr. Tall's big dream for this trip, and we thought that with 8 of us, we just might be able to eat that giant thing.
Our friends spent a quiet morning at Epcot - they said the place was practically deserted - and were determined to spend the afternoon at the pool. They left Epcot around 2, I think, and then swam until close to 4, and then were heading over to meet us at DTD, from which we would catch a bus to the Beach Club/ Yacht Club. Their plans went awry when their little princess decided she REALLY needed a bathroom as they were at the bus stop. Well, one of them dashed her back to the room quickly, but as soon as they left, the bus arrived, and they only had one charged phone between them, so no one got on that bus. They ended up walking to DTD.
In the meantime, we took a ferry from the West Side to Marketplace - oh, and here is a tidbit about the ferries that wasn't true in October. There are now 3 Downtown Disney ferry stops - West Side, PI, Marketplace. You have to switch ferries to go from Saratoga Springs to the West Side, because the OKW/SSR ferry no longer stops there.
Fortunately, the DTD shuttle leaves about every 5-10 minutes. There has been one right there every time we have used this service this trip.So our friends have it in their heads that they need to visit Goofy's Candy Company and the Lego store before we head out. While waiting for them to walk from the villa to Goofy's, we went into the Christmas store and got a stocking for Mr. Little - he had never really had one all his own before, and they had one that was GREEN (I like Geen!) and had The Little Mermaid on it "I LIKE the Little Mermaid!" So that was great! Then we waited outside Goofy's, and I took Mr. Tall over to the pin station because I had not bought him a single thing this trip. We found a pin to commemorate his first trip on Space Mountain, a pirates lanyard and....well, a few other things. Do you hear time ticking away here?? It seemed to be.
Finally our friends arrived, spent some time at Goofy's and then half the party headed out to the Lego store - I went with them and took Mr. Little along. He got very engrossed in the building table. The problem of only one charged phone between them cropped up again, as we were, unbeknownst to me, supposed to backtrack and meet up in the Christmas store (I assumed everyone was following along to the Legos and we'd go to the PI bus stop....) At this point, I was having a hard time prying Mr. Little from the Lego tables, it was about 6pm and our friends decided they wanted to eat, probably at Earl of Sandwich, before going over for the Kitchen Sink.
Does anyone recall from the last installment, that it was our plan to also go to the Adventurer's Club, something we always want to do and never manage, while our friends watched our kids at the villa? Well, as it was 6pm and we'd been waiting around for a couple of hours, it seemed to us and our friends were also talking about not being up to going all the way over to B&C, and maybe getting the big Sundae at Ghirardelli's instead, we asked Mr. Tall about this. He said if our plan change so that we wouldn't get to do the kitchen sink, he would probably burst into tears. Well, it was one of his few requests for things to do this trip.
So I pried Mr. Little away from the lego table at last, plopped him in the stroller and we met up and headed for the bus stop....and Mr. Little piped up with "Mama! I need to go at potty!" Oh, fine...and thanks for telling us before we got on the bus, leaving our waffling friends behind.
So off we go - the closest bathroom I knew of to where we were when he said this was back on the other side of the toy store, after which, we went to the Marketplace bus stop, where, within about 3 minutes - The very bus we wanted!
We rode around to the West Side and before long, Mr. Little was....asleep. He would remain this way the rest of the evening. There were several more calls consulting with our friends about whether they should follow us or not, but finally, it turned out that their kids were exhausted and they all went back to the villa for an early bedtime. (Glad we didn't wait for them while they had dinner,too.
) I have to admit that while I love our friends and am VERY glad they have joined us on this trip, I was getting frustrated at this point.So by the time we arrived at the beach club:
our 8 ice cream eaters was diminished to 3, but we were bound and determined to get this done. Oh, and just FYI, for those who are as clueless as I was, Beaches and Cream, in spite of the name, is actually to be found in the YACHT Club. Now they tell me! Mr Tall had a grilled cheese sandwich and DH and I split a veggie burger. Pretty good! And then, The kitchen sink. I took a video of the server bringing it out, and the expressions on there are just priceless. Eyes bugging out everywhere.
We dug in and did our best, but I have to say that I found all the conflicting flavors of the Kitchen Sink to be a bit on the gross side. Mint chocolate chip with coffee and pineapple and caramel and....you get the idea. We persevered until I saw a look on Mr. Tall's face that was something like this:
DH took him to the bathroom and I thought for sure he was going to hurl...but no! He was OK. Mr. Tall and I had had enough, but DH settled in for a little more. Finally he got to the chocolate ice cream at the bottom, and the hot fudge sauce, but I was too full to enjoy more than a little taste of that. This was our final result - I am sorry, it looks really gross.
Finally we paid and made our way out. I wanted to walk over to get a better view of the Boardwalk at night, so even though it was getting to be 8:30 and we had a long, transfer filled trip back to SSR, we wandered over to see what we could see. Someone at the recreation building said good evening to us, and I went on to take some photos of the boardwalk and that lighthouse at night:
When I was done, he asked us if we were going to stick around for the fireworks. I said "Probably not, but why do you ask??" and he said "I was wondering if you would like to go over to see them on a boat - someone paid for an Illuminations cruise and didn't show up for it, so it would be totally free!
"We couldn't turn that down." I said. So even though poor little Mr. Little was still asleep, we went over to the pontoon, climbed aboard, were presented with lovely blankets and had a very nice ride over to Epcot for a perfect view of the fireworks. My goodness, it was amazing. He told us that several other people HAD turned him down that night, figuring there must be some catch, but that he loves making unexpected magic happen for families when he gets the chance. We couldn't believe our luck. My irritation with my friends vanished - it had all worked out so beautifully for us. I need to trust more in providence. Mr. Little slept through practically the whole thing, poor kid. OH, and our captain pointed out several interesting things to us, among them that there is a water bridge between Epcot and the resort area - in which cars drive UNDER the canal. I was amazed. Or very gullible....After the best fireworks were done, our captain dropped us off at the Boardwalk at our request, so we could grab a taxi back to SSR. One had to be called that had a child seat, but it only took a few minutes and we were back to the front door of our building in practically no time. Totally worth the little bit of money - DH said it was $11 - I think that is with tip.
I could not believe how much we ended up doing on our "Break Day." And while we didn't get our date to the Adventurer's Club, DH and I would not trade our gratis Illuminations cruise with the kids for anything.
lisareniff
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 26, 2003
Wonderful report. Thank you.
Sammie
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 20, 1999
Thanks for sharing especially the photos. 
Actually you were right to think Beaches and Cream to be a part of the Beach Club because it is.
You can access it, since the entry is on the outside near the pool, from either resort. If you are in the Beach Club simply go past Cape May cafe, out the doors and it will be on the right.
If you are in the Yacht Club, go past Yachtsman Steakhouse, outside past the beauty salon and its on the left. Either way it's about equal distance, with Beach Club being a little closer.
That was wonderful about the criuse and really nice of the CM to offer.
Actually you were right to think Beaches and Cream to be a part of the Beach Club because it is.
You can access it, since the entry is on the outside near the pool, from either resort. If you are in the Beach Club simply go past Cape May cafe, out the doors and it will be on the right.
If you are in the Yacht Club, go past Yachtsman Steakhouse, outside past the beauty salon and its on the left. Either way it's about equal distance, with Beach Club being a little closer.
That was wonderful about the criuse and really nice of the CM to offer.
mamaprincess
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 6, 2005
Wow that sounds like a "dream"! The pixie dust runneth over!
May the rest of your trip be just as magical and thanks so much for this beautiful report!
P.S. That Kitchen Sink is a wee bit gross but you have to try it once! 5 of us could barely put a dent in that thing.
May the rest of your trip be just as magical and thanks so much for this beautiful report! P.S. That Kitchen Sink is a wee bit gross but you have to try it once!
5 of us could barely put a dent in that thing.
corinnak
100% Tag Free!
- Joined
- Jan 25, 2006
Oh, dear readers. Today is our check out day. It is less sad for us than our friends because we have two nights at Animal Kingdom Lodge coming up, but it is still sad. Yesterday I was thinking that I didn't really want to check out from SSR. Partly because of all the packing up that needed to be done. Oh well.
We had a good day at Epcot yesterday. I will type up the details later, but let it be known that we finally found our groove with our friends on the last day.
We're going to spend a little more time at SSR today before we move, and I hope to get a whole slew of photos to post, especially of that new Grandstand area! I'll do my best.
We had a good day at Epcot yesterday. I will type up the details later, but let it be known that we finally found our groove with our friends on the last day.
We're going to spend a little more time at SSR today before we move, and I hope to get a whole slew of photos to post, especially of that new Grandstand area! I'll do my best.
tomandrobin
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 10, 2006
Great post so far!
We went with my brothers family last month. It can be hard to keep two families on the same schedule, esp since it was thier first time to WDW.
The fireworks cruise really seem to make everything good after all. What a great surprise that had to been!!
We went with my brothers family last month. It can be hard to keep two families on the same schedule, esp since it was thier first time to WDW.
The fireworks cruise really seem to make everything good after all. What a great surprise that had to been!!
GinaMattsMom
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Jan 8, 2007
Oh Corinna--
so sad to leave, but at least you can stay a while at AKL. You are not in Minn so that is the best part.
Those pictures are soooo beautiful and mostly I say that about the chocolate dessert. I have been trying to be good so I can fit in my bathing suit, but geez, if I am eating stuff like that in 12 days who cares!
so sad to leave, but at least you can stay a while at AKL. You are not in Minn so that is the best part.
Those pictures are soooo beautiful and mostly I say that about the chocolate dessert.
I have been trying to be good so I can fit in my bathing suit, but geez, if I am eating stuff like that in 12 days who cares!
DisneyFreaks
<font color="red">Don't get me started about those
- Joined
- Sep 7, 2000
Oh corinna I feel your pain. I was so sad to leave SSR. I found it to be the prettiest resort we have stayed at. Thank you so much for your wonderful reports and photos. They have really brightened my winter.
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