Saratoga Springs Resort at Holidays

[Jarrod]

We are planning a trip for 10 days at the end of November and we have 6 people in our party. We have a reservation for 2 rooms at GF, but we can get a 2 room villa at SSR for about $300/night less. That really adds up over 10 days. We have nver stayed anywhere that far off the beaten track and are curious about a few things.
1. Is transporation a pain from SSR.
2. What are the holiday decorations (if any) at SSR like?
3. Is it as nice as it looks?

Just trying to get some ideas.

Thanks

[MickeyMousse]

We stayed at SSR last November, earlier than your stay, and there were very little in the form of holiday decorations. (we were there th first 2 weeks of Nov) I am sure that because you are going later in the month that they will be already decorated.

I am not a fan of the SSR transportation. The only plus is that the buses are for SSR only, so there is no stopping at other resorts. But there is at least 5 stops within your own and the bus can get pretty packed. Many times it was standing room only on the buses. And we experienced many long wait times for a park bus to arrive-sorry, but waiting 30 minutes for a bus is too long. SSR really needs to put more buses on their route.

We stayed in Congress Park, which was very nice. The building and grounds were neat and clean and our rooms faced the water/House of Blues. It was beautiful when everything was lit up at night. And it was quiet. :thumbsup:

Yes, SSR is off the beaten path and you must rely on bus transportation unless you go to DTD, which you can walk or boat over to. It's great if you want to end your evenings at DTD versus a park.

[wendy*darling]

We spent the week between Christmas and New Year's at SSR several years ago. We had a 2 br villa, which was very nice.
SSR is spread out, but still convenient from most locations within the resort. We stayed in the Springs Section, which is the last to get picked up or dropped off on the buses. I hear that the Grandstand Section is the first on the buses, and also very convenient to the main building for check-in, food, etc.
The lobby and the food areas were nicely decorated, and there were wreaths and lights in other places throughout the resort.
It is not the Grand Floridian. The GF lobby is jaw-dropping gorgeous at Christmastime. You just don't get the same feel at SSR.
We just planned meals at most of the monorail resorts throughout our stay, so we still got our fix of Christmas lights and decorations!

If you have not stayed in a 2br villa before- I say go for it! You will have a hard time going back to a regular room ever again!!!

[TheRustyScupper]

1) Based upon your section, buses are great or horrid.
2) The decorations are minimal compared to other resorts
3) The resort is nice, but really spread out. *

* SSR is the largest of the DVC resorts.