DVC 7 Resorts In 7 Weeks | Saratoga Springs Review | The DVC Show | 09/23/19

[@dismom3197]

need me another 7 in 7 - don't wait to long to continue - we love them!

[@coreyhopkins1661]

I am so thankful for this 7 in 7 series. Of all the 7 in 7 series I have found this one the most helpful. Staying at BLT for a weekend in October and I am beyond excited to see what a DVC stay is all about. Thank you for all the work that was put into putting this series together.

[@jessif.]

Thank you for this series! It’s helped me a lot as a potential/future DVC owner.

[@brittanyn.5532]

I think this has been my favorite series you guys have done. Loved every episode and I learned so much about the DVC resorts!! Thank you all for this great content

[@DisMindy5767]

We brought my cousin and his family with us in July and stayed in a 2 bedroom villa in the Grandstand section by request. There are 6 neighborhoods and 5 pools. Only the Carousel doesn't have a pool. If I just miss my bus at Grandstand, I know I have at least 9 minutes to walk to The Springs which is the last bus stop. Grandstand is first. Our 2 bedroom was clean and comfortable. Ready on schedule. CMs were friendly. I like the theme. They did a pretty good job recreating a northern NY vacation destination in the tropical south.

[@gregoryjohanek5832]

The Boardwalk preview center is there because of the Swan and Dolphin. So many people come there for conferences and vacations so they have a preview center at Boardwalk to capture casual interest from folks wandering over...

[@kellyspina1419]

SSR is my home resort. It is big I agree. One of the things I like about it is the calm feel. I love Disney but after a long day at th parks it is nice to come back to a nice calm resort to decompress.

[@itslisawright]

Happy Monday!!! Love Love Love this show.

[@wakeywarrior]

Drive to front desk?! Come on Pete, get the steps in!

[@nolanboys]

We just got back from SSR. That room is not redone. They are working their way through Congress Park. We stayed in the Paddock section and noticed the redone rooms at night - the cabinets are white. Our studio was very clean and walked everywhere. We don’t mind walking - it’s just like staying at OKW in the farther sections. We have also had problems with very late check ins at BWV.

[@leafyvlogsuk]

Worth also mentioning that if you do have a car, you can park close to your accommodation for ease of access when getting luggage and groceries to your room unlike some DVC resorts where you have to use other means.

[@kevinmedeiros7765]

Stayed at Saratoga the other night .. had reserved a Studio room on points and they upgraded me to 1 bedroom overlooking Paddock pool .. they also gave me a $50 resort credit for messing up my Magicband charging privileges when they upgraded me on the cash side of reservations. Room was very clean and comfortable.

[@bbkangs]

Stayed there when Disney upgraded me from a preferred room at the Movies resort to a 2 bedroom villa at congress park. It was amazing 😍

[@michaelleykamm6880]

I am at Saratoga Springs now, on 9/24 and got into my room right away.We love this resort and the grounds are beautiful.

[@evensteven164]

Excited to see the tree house review. Fell in love with those first time I seen them

[@kellykristine1238]

According to DVC, check in is after 4pm. Rooms booked via Disney are by 4pm. Unfortunately, I don't think there is much we can do until it become ridiculously late.

[@builderphil13]

Yes the resort is big, but the idea that you would need a car to get around is a little silly. I was just there for the first time last week and I timed the walk from check in to all the different areas. The longest was 8 minutes to the last building in Congress Park, closest to Disney Springs. Second longest was 7 1/2 minutes to the last building in Carousel.

[@shelfj]

What time is Check-In and Check-Out at Disney Vacation Club Resorts? A. Check-In is after 4:00 PM (please notify Member Services if you're planning a late arrival), and Check-Out is by 11:00 AM. It is written right on the dvc guide. They do not guarantee a time at all. It's too bad they were judged for something that was within the rules of DVC.

[@davidwperkins]

That's a shame on the check-in. I fly in early and am always prepared to wait until 4, but usually get in by 1pm. SSR Congress Park is my favorite because I love walking over to DS everyday.

[@KevinMcPherson88]

When we went in May my room wasn't ready till almost 6. They didn't offer anything either. My parents room was ready at 3 and I ended up with the attached room which didn't have anyone cleaning in it since we got to my parent's room.

[@annapower1833]

A little sad that this series of 7 in 7 is done . . . Thanks so much for the very useful information. We are not a DVC member - yet - but it’s on our Vision Board and this really helps in decision making. Can’t wait to see the changes in reviews.

[@brittanyfull7595]

My family and I (5 of us) just got back from a 5 night stay at Saratoga. We were put in the Grandstand buildings . We did online check in and arrived at about 2. The room wasn’t ready which was fine because i knew check in wasn’t technically until 4 so we got a quick service and waited in the lobby. The room was ready at 4 but we waited for a bell hop to take us to our room via golf cart for about 20 minutes. We had an amazon prime now order that they couldn’t find and that took even longer than waiting for the cart to the room. It was pretty clean when we went in the room. We had a 2 bedroom. It did have some stains by the baseboards and under the sink in the main bathroom. Nothing too bad though. I do agree the bed is very comfortable. I didn’t eat much from the quick service but i thought the caprese pizza was pretty good. My son has special needs and only eats pizza and pancakes. He ate the cheese pizza which is saying a lot. At breakfast we were there once and i had asked if they could make him pancakes, they only had waffle batter so we tried a pancake made from that. He didn’t eat it but it wasn’t that bad. The rest of us all tried it. My biggest issue was how far away it is to the main building especially after walking all day at the parks and you just want to grab something to snack on at the QS location.the boat to DS was nice though. I’d stay there again but only if we were staying close to the main building. From the grandstand building we were in it was about a 7 minute walk. Not awful . It was a very quiet stay though i did enjoy that. All in al i was really nice. It was our first time at a dvcproperty. We stayed at AoA previously and many years before have always stayed at All Stars.

[@MCL-cx9ne]

These videos have been very helpful since, I am trying to decide which resort I want as my home resort. Please review the other 3 or (4 since I think Riviera is officially open) at Disney World. Thanks!!! :-)

[@scotth1042]

Saratoga is our home resort. Love it!!

[@melissaclark79]

It doesn’t matter which Disney resort we stay at we ALWAYS get into our room late. Doesn’t matter if we get there at 8 am or 3 pm to check in . This is the entire reason we hate to do split stays it’s a waste of a day when we cannot get in your room until early evening, can’t even get cleaned up for dinner. We are non DVC also. This has happened to us most recently at Poly, Beach Club, and Cooper Creek. We’re left WAITING in the lobby with our luggage it’s so frustrating

[@disneyduchess889]

What is the deal with the "window" there at the bathtub? That baffles me. I dont need shutters separating the bathtub from the bedroom, I need a solid tiled wall. Bathroom time is private time and those shutters are very unnerving.

[@debrakrook1045]

We bought at SSR direct from Disney in 2005 and paid $85 per point. It must have been a special incentive. In 2011 we went to a DVC meeting and they offered us more points at SSR for $95. I would love to see what the new rooms look like. Also, we have always had marvelous meals at the Turf Club. It’s a hidden gem imho. I love the relaxing vibe at SSR. Someone once did research on time spent traveling to the parks from each resort (I think it was wdw prep school) and overall you spend less time riding a bus staying at SSR ❤️

[@sherylledvina9877]

We own at SSR and have stayed there multiple times (10+ times) and only once I believe was our room not ready at by 4:00pm. I think overall this is not an issue. Also the room reviewed was not refurbished- once the refurb is complete these are going to be beautiful. We love SSR and like Jackie said - it’s not my absolute favorite but it is certainly a great value!

[@davidhenry5203]

thanks so much for the 7 in 7 its been so useful

[@GAN-0]

Corey ...let me get this straight. You waited 1-1/2 hours in 100-degree heat when you could have walked less than 5-minutes to the main building??? I’ve stayed in CP and the walk is less than 5-minutes ...then you could have rested comfortably, had a cocktail, played pool, whatever. SSR is to fault for not having the room ready ...no question. But it sounds like a severe case of asceticism to me. It’s not like they dumped you into the middle of Death Valley! Just for that I’m throwing one HUGE ....C’MON MAN your way! Randy Moss Hall of Fame. I love your stuff by the way. 😉

[@juliasthomason]

I stayed at All Star Music 9/20-15 and I didn't get my room notification until 9:17pm. This was after I had done online check-in, prepaid my room, had a credit card on file and called the "resort number" on the MDE app where I was told that I would have to go to the front desk. I was at MNSSHP and did NOT want to wait in a line at ASMu after midnight & also after traveling and being at the party. So I tweeted to WDWToday at 9:10pm and amazingly I got a notification a few minutes later. I got no apology or anything while I was there. After I got home I replied to a survey about my stay and got a call from the rooms manager at ASMu and he is refunding one night of my stay to my credit card and upgrading my next stay in January for the Festival of the Arts. Had I not filled out the survey I would have never gotten anything for waiting until 9:17pm to get my room assignment.

[@kimt8162]

9 pm is just unacceptable. I don't know about you, but after travelling you can be pretty tired and hungry. We stayed at the All Star Sports, and I must say not such a great stay--the room smelled of clorox (non-refurbished) and I swear there was way more people staying in the room near us than what was allowed. We came out and there's like 3 kids outside and 2 ladies really arguing; I mean going at it. I vowed after that stay, no more All Stars for me.

[@kristin5977]

We are Saratoga lovers. We don’t get preferred, and we have always requested Paddock near transportation. It is near a bus stop, one of many. I like this better than say Kidani where there is one bus stop and it is a million miles from your room. There is a pool with a water slide beside us. We are either in-room or in-park eaters, so we don’t care how far artist pallet is. We don’t find the main pool too far across the bridge. It seems reasonable. For Disney Springs it is a bit of a hike from our room but still manageable. We have never had check-in problems or cleanliness issues.

[@erikamacias4940]

I had one meal at Artist Palette last November and it was gross. I couldn't even finish it. My room had excessive humidity and I had severe congestion any time I was in the room and had to sleep with a shirt over my face for the two nights we were in that room. I finally had to ask to have a room change. The staff was super friendly. I loved interacting with the front desk, but the food and room were bad.

[@robs7229]

Love the Show guys!!!!!! I really enjoy your Resort reviews its really interesting and its nice to see the Different Resorts and to get the Staffs input on the Rooms and Resort and I really enjoy and totally respect there opinion!!!! What would be really interesting would be if you guys did a show ranking all the Resorts one show for DVC and one for the Regular Resorts!!!! That would be awesome when picking a Resort and having the respectable and unbiased opinions from the people who know and are there.... that's just my 2 cents!!!!!! Great job guys!!!! Keep up the great work!!!!!!!!

[@johnconey441]

Any chance of a future road trip to stay at and review Vero Beach and/or Hilton Head?

[@ferrar2000]

FYI - The video for the room walk through is set to private and your viewers are unable to watch it. The same is true for the Poly review

[@myrnapowell1637]

Bob Ferrari they are for Patreon members. At least for now. Sometimes they release them later and Patreon members just get them first for a little bit of time.

[@kimt8162]

Did they have online check in? I mean we used online check in and they told us when our room was ready by text. We came in on Magical Express and we knew our room wasn't ready yet, so we went to our (6 months ago Chef Mickey's brunch reservation). Ate at Chef Mickey's and while finishing up at Chef Mickey's we got a text saying our room was ready. So then we went back to (this was Wilderness Lodge) the front desk just to double check our magic bands (Per stories of Pete's past issues with magic bands) and everything was pretty seemless. THe one thing I will say, if trying to make a DINING reservation on the day your are coming in from an airport, maybe not such a good idea if your plane gets delayed. We didn't have any delays that day so for the most part pretty seemless.

[@stephgirlygirl]

This is EXACTLY what happened to me (room not being ready until 5pm).

[@WilsonFlyer]

DVC has always been vague and has always said check-in is "after 4:00." That leaves a lot of room for flexibility... on their part. We have gotten our room as late as 7:00pm. Lately, it's been better for us. We generally arrive in the resort area around 2:30 and for the most part, out room has been ready when we get there or by 4:00ish. There doesn't seem to be any consistency or predictability as to when rooms will be ready, especially on weekend arrivals. As for your phone calls. You were already there. Why didn't you go to the front desk and ask? Due respect, that's on you. You only reached a central call center that, unfortunately; reads a canned script as to availability. I'm not even sure they can see availability of rooms at the resorts. As a matter of fact, I'm pretty sure they cannot.

[@ainsleyperry5192]

Dis Unplugged, Tree house Villa's. These buidings were built around 73. At the time Disney was looking at restarting Walts plans for a ski resort. They were to show that they could build these villa's without impacting the environment around them. At the time a lot of Californian officials came to view them in and after construction. All the villa's were constructed using Disney's own building codes. Epcot, living upto it's original title and aims. Cheers, Chris Perry.

[@lawrestler]

This may have already been mentioined, but if you are a golfer, SSR is for you. The club house is located there.

[@epcotlandfan2804]

I enjoy staying at Saratoga, but i find the couches to be really in poor shape. I am glad a renovation is coming to the rooms.

[@mattaaron9865]

not a rehabbed room, have been like this since at least 2008

[@lorrifrench4460]

This is my home resort. Sadly next trip everything DVC is booked up in Oct. . My husband has a work related convention . We usually book our usual trips a year out anyway we have to stay off property :( We are on a waiting list .

[@dee_mcgee11]

Have you picked an off-site hotel yet?

[@lorrifrench4460]

Dee McGee Yes it across the Street from Disney Springs

[@dee_mcgee11]

@@lorrifrench4460 I stayed at the Clarion Lake Buena Vista back in August for the 20 Years of Dreams event and though it's a value hotel, it met my need of a pet friendly hotel with an affordable price point. Would definitely stay there again.

[@lorrifrench4460]

Dee McGee Thank you that’s good to know if we get another dog.

[@dee_mcgee11]

@@lorrifrench4460 some people are a bit snobby when it comes to hotels and would utterly balk at the thought of staying at a value hotel. The Clarion might night be for everyone, but it suited my needs just fine.

[@syndys4463]

I don't think this was a refurbished room. Pictures on DisBoards are different for refurbished rooms.

[@ButtercupNWA]

Does anyone know how long the walk to the lobby actually is from the various sections of the resort? People always say it's a long walk, but just how long is that? (Specifically wondering about the Paddock)

[@nickm1587]

The Springs and The Grandstand areas are only about a five minute walk to the lobby. I’m not sure about the other areas

[@nolanboys]

We just stayed there and it was 10 minutes.

[@rodrigochaves6562]

It's probably at 8-10 min walk from the Carousel, about 6-8 min from the Paddock and 10 min from the Treehouse Villas. And if you are walking from the lobby to Disney Springs it's about 15 min. I personally wouldn't bother taking a bus, it seems like that would take longer. We were just there and we don't mind the walk, it's a very enjoyable walk.

[@erikamacias4940]

It's really not a long walk from the Paddock. Ten minutes and it's a beautiful walk. SSR is beautiful. (Not necessarily the rooms, but the building theming is gorgeous.)

[@ButtercupNWA]

Thank you for the info! That seems reasonable and not too bad at all (though certainly not preferable after a day in the parks). I think the resort is gorgeous and won't mind the walk

[@sandratyler3956]

I think this is bit of an unfair review, love them but those two extra pools with drinks machines and quick service cafes serve the size of the resort. It is also close to Disney Springs and you can walk to all those fabulous restaurants.

[@groot3737]

Kinda unsure about staying there in 9 days because of all the construction.

[@briantelesh3745]

I agree with your review. SSR is the DVC resort I stay at when no other DVC resort is available. The points change for preferred stinks as before that change I could simply request near DS on checkin preferences. I could never see VGF being lower than SSR so regardless of the checkin rating of 3 SSR will always be lowest rated. Y'all hit the nail on the head with the Florida Apt. Complex analogy. Not like Celebration or real Saratoga Springs, NY as they are both walkable and have food, shopping and leisure NOT a bus ride away (except maybe Saratoga Race Course 😉) I used to live 15 minutes from Saratoga and would go with fam to Track on Sun after Church. I would ❤ nothing more than SSR to be the awesome place to stay. I was excited when I heard DVD was developing a Saratoga based DVC resort. 😥 Sadly that's not the feeling I got the 1st time I stayed. Turf Club is only decent food on property - Artist's palette is bad. SPA city is known for great food, drink, music, Victorian houses & horses. They missed the mark on all but Victorian and horses. Another great episode idea / series for the future might be - What would I change at _______ Resort? I'd start with SSR as there are some cool things that can be done to create intimate neighborhoods within the very large resort. For new purchase SSR is clearly the best value you can buy. You can stay at all but RR and you get more years then OKW but can book most of time at 7 mos. The new reno pictures at SSR have RR style murphy beds and look brand new making point value decent in short term.

[@walterwillis5351]

Who knows, maybe they realized who you were and sent housekeeping to really clean the room. :)

[@rebeccaburns6479]

Off topic. Usually I listen to these and don’t watch them. So I’m watching it now and saw Corey’s tattoo. For the horde my friend.

[@kathleenalbert62]

This is not a rehabbed room :) I think they only have a handful of refurbed ones so far. They're pretty white :) Not like this at all and they have the new style murphy bed couch (like Riveria) in the living room. The rehabbed rooms look great!

[@dee_mcgee11]

There really is no excuse for not updating the guest if their room is not going to be ready on time. I would have been furious and marched right back up to the lobby.

[@MrBoomatt]

This is not the rehabbed room. Well maintained though

[@MCL-cx9ne]

Actually, a standard view studio at SSR is only 83 points for a week, it is the preferred view that is 97 points. Also, Animal Kingdom Lodge standard view rooms, for a week are only 81 points and value rooms are only 60 points for the week (though they are VERY hard to get). Old Key West and Boardwalk Villas have standard view studios for only 76 points for the week. Again these are all for the Adventure season as Pete had mentioned. So, there are a few with low point values to choose from! :-)

[@Lynnmarie9395]

I don't think this room was reburbished...looks exactly the same as the room I stayed in back in 2016.

[@julesT246]

The grout in the shower kinda gives me the willies. They need to bleach it.

[@LARKXHIN]

Bringing a child's significant other on a Disney trip has never occurred to me. Why on earth.

[@disneyduchess889]

Bc one day that S/O could be part of the family and it's never to early to make memories.

[@mrcranpro]

Saratoga Springs has the ugliest rooms on property. I don’t understand how anyone can like that carpet or that old vomit green color.

[@itslisawright]

Happy Monday!!! Love Love Love this show.

[@itslisawright]

Happy Monday!!! Love Love Love this show.