SSR in the Summertime, a TR by wdrl and denlo

[nono]

Enjoyable read. Keep up the good work....errr...vacation!

[worldfanatic]

My sister is an uber-planner and commando at heart and was shocked to hear that we had been at WDW for three days and only ridden one attraction -- the Haunted Mansion.

Those poor Commandos sometimes have trouble comprehending the "proper" way to do Walt Disney World.
She'll learn some day. LOL
Personally, I love your vacation style!
Also loving your report!
I'm especially interested because I plan to spend part of next summer's trip in a SSR Studio for the 1st time.
Keep having fun!!

[denlo]

Thanks athenna, idratherbeinwdw, Checkers, simbasmom, nono, and worldfanatic, for reading our TR and we promise more is on the way. I just finished uploading some photos to photobucket that we took earlier today. Still need to write up something to go with them. But I think I'm going to take a little nap right now instead of working on the TR.


Mar' I thought you would like the Bullseye photo. A CM went through a lot of work making that rose blanket for him.


Simbasmom, we'll try to check out the desserts when we're back at AoA next week, can't guarantee the gelato will win out though.


worldfanatic, we are both enjoying our stay at SSR and really like the studio. I suppose location does make a difference. We drove over to the Grandstand this afternoon on the way back to our villa and the pool there looks pretty nice too. The thing we like about our location is we're right next to the Paddock Pool, which means a short walk to swim and to do laundry. And our building is adjacent to the walking bridge that is just a hop, skip and jump to the Carriage House.


We still have 8 more days of vacation left so more installments are in the future.

[bakerworld]

GREAT TR

[wdrl]

We interrupt this trip report to make a comment about Disney's wi-fi service.

We had wi-fi at Pop Century and we have it here at SSR. For the most part, it works fine and the speed is the same that I'm use to at home. We've surfed the web and uploaded photos with no noticeable problems with speed.

But here is the glitch: There are times -- maybe 20-30 minutes in length -- when we repeatedly drop the wi-fi connection. We lose it, then have to reconnect, only to lose it two minutes later. What is really strange is that denlo and I each have the same MacBooks and one of us will stay connected while the other one repeatedly loses connection.

My advice to anyone who is coming to WDW to work and HAS to have totally reliable, uninterrupted, wi-fi access: Bring your own wi-fi hotspot with you. For the rest of you, like denlo and me who can work around short term glitches in wi-fi access, the Disney wi-fi seems to work fine.

[dchubirk]

...The thing we like about our location is we're right next to the Paddock Pool, which means a short walk to swim and to do laundry. And our building is adjacent to the walking bridge that is just a hop, skip and jump to the Carriage House...
.

We stayed in that very building last Oct Denise (facing the pool tho) and there is one more advantage you may need later.
If you ever "just miss" a theme park bus from the Paddock bus stop, you can briskly "hop, skip and jump" over the bridge to the Springs bus stop and catch that same bus before it leaves the resort.

BTW, I'm enjoying your TR also...

[denlo]

We stayed in that very building last Oct Denise (facing the pool tho) and there is one more advantage you may need later.
If you ever "just miss" a theme park bus from the Paddock bus stop, you can briskly "hop, skip and jump" over the bridge to the Springs bus stop and catch that same bus before it leaves the resort.

BTW, I'm enjoying your TR also...

Except that the bus route has temporarily changed. They are doing construction on the exit for the main entrance into SSR off of Disney Vacation Way. The buses now come in off of Buena Vista Drive so the order is the Springs, Grandstand, Carousel, Paddock and Congress Park and then they exit the resort. We asked how long this change was expected to continue and got the proverbial shrug. But supposedly the main exit has been closed for about a month. You can still enter that way but have to exit out onto Buena Vista Drive. It seemed strange to have the bus go right by the main entrance just so they can keep the new route intact.

[denlo]

H2O's sea salt bath soap, grapefruit bergamot shampoo, conditioner and shower gel. They definitely smell like grapefruit too. And I can actually use the conditioner as the bottle is soft enough to squeeze. Bad news, the tops are all flip tops that easily open, so it might leak in the luggage on the way home.

They are still nice soaps and shampoo. And the shampoo and conditioner doesn't dull my hair like the old one did.

[wdrl]

Day 5 - Thursday 8/02


Since we didn't go to Animal Kingdom last night, we decided to go there first thing this morning. Unlike Hollywood Studios, AK does a rope drop. We went through the turnstiles about 8:45 AM and were stopped at Discovery Island where they did a rope drop at 9:00 AM. In the past, Mickey and Minnie welcomed everyone to AK while standing on the top of a Safari truck. Today, I didn't see any sign of them; we just had a Cast Member make the opening speech.


We went first to Kilimanjaro Safari. The storyline about poachers, the ranger Wilson, and the baby elephant Little Red are gone from the attraction. The area that had the poachers' campsite and Little Red is being renovated. However, the renovations are being done in a fairly low key manner so its not intruding on the spirit of the safari ride. Zebras will be roaming the area once inhabited by Little Red. We actually saw some zebras in the far distance during the Safari, but they aren't yet officially part of the Kilimanjaro Safari.

Not everyone is into commando style Park visits; some just sit and watch the people go by:



Lots of families visiting WDW this time of year:



We slowly walked from Africa to Asia and got a FastPass for Expedition Everest. The stand-by line was less than 15 minutes, so we rode EE, then used our FastPasses to ride it again. Since it was close to 11:00 AM by now, we left AK for our lunch ADR at the Kona Cafe at the Polynesian Resort.

If you don't like Disney buses, there are alternative means of transportation at Animal Kingdom:




We shared the Sticky Wings and Pot Stickers for lunch. They were both great. Unfortunately, we didn't save any for idratherinwdw. The Sticky Wings are a little messy to eat, but Kona gives you wash clothes which really helps. We thought about dessert, but weren't that hungry so we passed.




We then rode Monorail Yellow to the Grand Floridian to get a closer look at the construction of the new Villas of Grand Floridian. The GF's beach pool is still open, but there are construction wall enclosing about 75% of it. The VGF building is being built immediately to the south of the beach pool and the new water play area is being built on the north side of the beach pool. Four of the five floors of the VGF building have been laid. It definitely looks like there will be at least two-bedroom villas -- if not grand villas -- located on the end cap of the building facing the Magic Kingdom. Work is also underway on the new parking lot for VGF. Its located just outside of the monorail loop.

View of the VGF from the Grand Floridian:




We walked around to the Wedding Pavilion and took some more photos, and then walked back to the Polynesian Resort where we parked the car.


Around 5:00 PM, we took a bus to Downtown Disney. Our transportation mojo was still working: the DTD bus came in six minutes and we were at DTD in less than 5 minutes. Because there is construction at the main entrance to SSR, the bus routes inside SSR have temporarily been switched around. Our DTD bus picked us up at the Paddock section, then went to Congress Park, and then left for DTD. Denlo posted some info about the changes in the SSR bus route in Post #17 of this thread.

We saw this figurine of Minnie as a Park Guide. Still debating whether we should buy it.




After walking around DTD for awhile, we went to Fulton's Crab House for dinner. We there there before 6:00 PM and had no problem getting a walk-up table. We both had the crab cakes. They were very good. Not as good as some we've had in Baltimore, but still very good.




Our SSR boat was waiting for us when we got to the Pleasure Island dock and we were back at SSR in no time. We walked back to our villa, taking some more photos of SSR. Have I mentioned that I think SSR is a beautiful resort?






My sister and family arrived Thursday night via a very late flight from Houston and are staying at BLT for the next three nights. Got a text from her at 12:57 AM that they were in their villa. She still plans on having the family up and going by 6:30 AM so that they can make rope drop at Epcot at 8:00 AM on Friday. Like I said, my sister is a dyed-in-the-wool commando.


Coming up: Epcot, Soarin', and maybe some sleepy nieces.

[DiZ NeE 08]

I am really enjoying your TR wdrl and denlo!

I really love those droids you built in the star tours shop! Ahhh! when I was reading and read the part about them having changed the store and they had a new part that you build your own droid I almost freaked as I was on my phone and I was reading before the pictures had loaded. but wow, this really makes me want to buy tickets so that I can go make one. oh man, I hope you are having fun. I am so jealous right now.