If you stay at the treehouses you'll know what I mean about the bus service, we started walking to the Grandstand as it was quicker even from our treehouse near the entrance.
The biggest problem we saw was folk waiting at the main building not getting on cause the bus was full, and that was a daily occurrence, we were OK as we were on 1st but the same thing was happening 2 years ago especially 1st thing before the parks opened.
I'm not sure if this is a regular thing or not, but when we booked the Treehouses, the CM advised us to a: have our own car and b: stock the refrigerator well, as it's not a hop skip and a jump to the main building for a snack.
I probably like SSR more than you (no, no don't try to argue with me on that) but one thing that ticked me off was this: One of the reasons I liked buying into SSR was the proximity to Pleasure Island.
What was that?
Exactly.
Now for people who don't care as much for some of the more elaborate themes of the other resorts, who like their vacations to be less than Disney 24/7, and for people who like to do a lot of shopping on their trips, SSR is awesome. To be that close to all the Disney shops is some people's idea of a dream vacation. And the boat access is very nice, too. But had I known how difficult it could sometimes be to book outside the home resort, even at the 7 month window, I may have opted to either go resale, or waited for a resort that interested me more, like VAK and BLT do. But while I did enough research to know that I'd like to join DVC, I didn't have the foresight to appreciate the possibility that so many more deluxes would get DVC wings in time.
Of course, if I REALLY had foresight, I would have waited for the economy to collapse and get VAK points for about as much as Hilton Head points were going for a couple of years ago.
Oh, and to answer a question Jarissa asked me:
Originally Posted by slappy magoo View Post
I've tried booking Villas at Animal Kingdom at the 7 month window, and remained on the wait list up until our departure date, with no luck.
Aack! Oh, no! Was this during peak season? Or could this reasonably happen no matter when we plan to travel?
This was Value season, BUT it was Value season in early December, which DVC members will tell you is still highly in demand, due to members wanting to go see WDW all dolled up for the holidays without dealing with the Christmas Week crowds. It's still not as busy in the parks as it will be come Xmas Eve, but the DVC units are hopping.