Disney's Saratoga Springs Review
As you may have read in my previous planning post and trip report, Brad and I just returned from Walt Disney World. We went back to celebrate our two year wedding anniversary. Below is a review of our stay at Saratoga Springs. If you want more information on my trip and haven't read about it yet, read it here.
We arrived at Saratoga Springs via Disney's Magical Express around 9:45 am on Saturday, May 9. I received both an email and text message from Disney around 10:00 am letting me know my resort was ready. Because of the slight delay in our arrival and my text, I did wait in line at the front desk assuming our room was not ready and wanting to leave our carry-on luggage with bell services. There really wasn't a "line" to be formed. You kind of just stood in the lobby until a castmember acknowledged you. I stood by the sign that said on-line check-in and maybe wait 4-5 minutes on someone to acknowledge me. The castmember told me my room was ready and that I should have received a text. Then I looked down and saw it. My phone had been on silent so I never heard it.
Now that we got that squared away, we needed to get to our room. Here is what the text message said:
And the email:
Luckily the email had a map. That is the good thing about regular check-in is they always give you a nice map and direct you to your room. We were just kind of left to figure it all out on our own. We were staying in The Springs, and we found that section fairly easily. Finding our building took a little more work. The signs were not easy to find that labeled your building. Maybe it was just our lack of sleep, but we struggled. We did eventually find our room, and it was at a pretty good location.
Upon walking up, you are first greeted with a nice doormat that says "Welcome Home". For those not familiar, this is a common phrased used at Disney when you arrive at any hotel/resort. This may not be our "home" resort of choosing, but we were definitely home by simply being on Disney property!
We just touched our MagicBand to the door, and it unlocked itself. When we first walked in, there was a coat rack on the left and a connecting door to the next room on our right. We never used either of these amenities. Continue forward, there is immediately a kitchenette on the right side next to the connecting door. The top cabinet had two shelves and contained paper plates, plastic utensils, paper towels, coffee mugs, glasses, and menus for the Artist's Palette. The next shelf housed a microwave, ice bucket, and a dish towel with bar utensils. The main counter space had a toaster, coffee maker, single serving coffee packs, a dish towel, soap, sponge, and of course a sink. Below the counter was a refrigerator (no freezer) and the garbage can.
Directly across from the kitchenette was the restroom area. If you are facing the bathroom sink, the bathroom itself is on our left and the closet is on your right. The closet had about 10-12 hangers, extra sheets and pillows, an ironing board (no iron, but we requested one and received it the next day), and the safe.
The bathroom was pretty basic. There was a shower/tub combo and toilet. There was plenty of toilet paper, 4 bath towels, 4 wash clothes, 2 hand towels, and soap/shampoo/conditioner/body wash. Unfortunately I did not get any pictures of the bathroom itself, but it is part of the video below.
The bathroom sink had bar soap, lotion, 1 hand towel, 2 wash cloth, Kleenex, and a hair dryer. Unfortunately there is just one sink.
When you continue into the sleeping area of the hotel you have a queen size bed on your left and an entertainment center on your right. There is also a nightstand, couch, ottoman, and lamp next to the bed. Next to the entertainment center is a table with two chairs.
We also had a balcony with two chairs and a small table that overlooked the water.
Here is a video of our Deluxe Studio:
Review
Price - The price of this resort mixed with the amenities is what we chose it. We wanted a deluxe style room but more closely priced to a moderate. I also wanted to be within walking distance of something. In this case Downtown Disney was just a 10-15 minute walk away from our room. We only paid about $200 more for Saratoga Springs than we would have at Coronado Springs.
Commute - This is really two parts: Magical Express and Park Transportation. The Magical Express was great as always. We love this service. This time was even better because we made very few stops between our hotel and airport both ways. The commute to the parks really wasn't that bad. From the moment we got on our bus, it would usually take us less than 20 minutes before we would be at a park. Now, we did have the last bus stop in the resort. While that may seem like a perk, there are two major negatives to this. One - we were the last stop being dropped off after leaving the parks. This probably added another 10 minutes at least to our commute back. I know two times on our way back from the parks I got in a good 20-30 minute nap. Two - Sometimes the buses are already full by the time they get to our bus stop. We only really encountered this one time. It was our last day and apparently the Epcot bus was always full by the time it arrived. And even if it wasn't full, it did increases your odds of having to stand. Overall, I don't think I would have changed our location within the resort. I am most concerned about getting to the park quicker than getting back.
Room - I really did like the setup of the Deluxe Studio room. My only complaints would be that there is only one sink in the bathroom area and there was not a bed skirt. I know we had a sink by the kitchenette, but it just wasn't the same. We made it work without any fights, so I would say it wasn't a deal breaker. I mean I knew before booking the room that it would be this way. Mousekeeping was pretty good. Our first full day we noticed we did not have an iron, so we called the front desk. We didn't get one until that evening. We used our ice bucket most days, and some days they would not give us a replacement bag. I thought that was pretty customary. Speaking of ice, the only ice machine was on the first floor. That was frustrating for Brad to deal with because it just wasn't convenient.
Room Location - So during the online check-in, we were able to make two requests regarding our room location. We wanted an upper floor so that we could have a balcony, and we wanted to be near Carriage House which is where the food and front desk is located. Disney met both of our requests. We were on the 4th floor of one of the building within The Springs. The Springs is just across the street from the Carriage House. To the bus stop, we had about a 3-5 minute walk. To get to the Artist's Palette, we had a 5 minute walk. The last major place we would go is Downtown Disney, and that was about a 15 minute walk. It would sometimes be shorter during the day because there is another path through some trees to get there, but that path is not open at night. I think location wise, The Springs is the best. We knew we would be walking to the Carriage House more than Downtown Disney, so that was most important to us. I did feel that this property is really big and I found it much more cumbersome than large resorts like Port Orleans. There was some construction walls throughout the resort, so sometimes it made navigating a little more difficult. Below are some of the shots I took of Downtown Disney while walking there from Saratoga Springs.
Food - So the food court was not good at all. I did not like that there wasn't really a food court. There was simply one counter that you walked up to to order what you wanted. They gave you a receipt and you paid for it in the gift shop. Oh the gift shop is part of the food court too. Maybe this is a villa thing, but I wasn't a fan. I mean at least at The Contemporary and Grand Floridian the food court was slightly larger and was strictly food only. My other huge complaint is that there was not a station to clean your Rapid Refill mugs. After breakfast, we always rinse out our mugs and store them in a Ziploc bag. That way when we return from the parks, we can refill them if we want instead of going back to the room. Well we had to use a combination of the hot water from the coffee and the water from the fountain machine. It was really kind of irritating. We asked an employee and they said there was not a cleaning station. I mean the food court had a lot of negatives, but we really made the best of it and we were able to eat things we liked and we never had trouble finding a seat.
General - So we did not use the pool or any of the recreational items, but from what we could see, it was really nice. We never had trouble with noise and the location of the resort in general was nice. The only reason we would stay here again is if we traveled with Brad's family simply because it is a golf resort and the men in his family love their golf. Our favorite resort is still The Contemporary for sure.
You can read all about my May 2015 trip here.
