Trip Report Cycling through Celebration, a cream cheese covered remote and the Closed Wallet Rebellion of 2016.

So last week we spent seven nights in a one-bedroom at Saratoga Springs Resort in the Congress Park section. We like Congress Park and have stayed in that section before. The walk over to Disney Springs is fun and since the new section just opened with several new shops and restaurants, we walked over several times during the week.
I think the first evening there is when I declared the wallet closed and decided to try to save a dollar or two this trip. What started it was sticker shock at some of the prices I was seeing.
But let's start at the beginning and I'll go into more detail later.
We got an early start and arrived to WDW via the 535 entrance to Hotel Plaza Blvd.:

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epcotisbest

epcotisbest

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Original Poster
Went in the expanded World of Disney store and is it impressive. Much bigger, more room to move around, and bigger selection. We would also stop by Ghirardeli for a sample and go by my favorite fountain at DS. I have always liked this for some reason and always get a photo or two while there.

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epcotisbest

epcotisbest

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Original Poster
Hope you are not getting too bored with me so far. I must warn you, if you read trip reports for adventures in dining and fun in the parks, there is none in this trip report. We would spend the entire week bicycle riding, hanging out at the pool, pool hopping (DVC perk that many frown upon but we enjoy) and eating in the room.
On the way back to the room, I stopped by the quiet pool again to check the crowd level. Yeah, not too bad.

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epcotisbest

epcotisbest

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We are making an effort to stay at all the WDW resorts and like to try different places. This is the second time here at SSR and won't be the last. The rooms are nice and roomy, with nice furnishings and the grounds are lovely, well-maintained and vast with excellent views all around. There are four pools and we would visit each one of them at least a couple of times this trip. Back at the room, I snapped a few pics.

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epcotisbest

epcotisbest

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
After a quick dip in the pool we grabbed some crackers and light snacks from our cooler, had a light dinner and turned in early, tired from a long day and eager to start Saturday bright and early.
We got up Saturday morning, got ready and headed over to the Premium Outlets at Vineland. I did not object much as I figured it was good to go ahead and get it out of the way early. Apparently, outlet shopping is a must-do for my wife.
We went through a fast food drive through and had to wait on these two to get out of the way. Only thing is, they were headed in the wrong direction, and apparently in no big hurry.

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Tiggerish

Tiggerish

Resident Redhead
Premium Member
epcotisbest said:
Went in the expanded World of Disney store and is it impressive. Much bigger, more room to move around, and bigger selection. We would also stop by Ghirardeli for a sample and go by my favorite fountain at DS. I have always liked this for some reason and always get a photo or two while there.

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I love that fountain!! Glad to see it survived the "renovation".

epcotisbest said:
We are making an effort to stay at all the WDW resorts and like to try different places. This is the second time at SSR and won't be the last. The rooms are nice and roomy, with nice furnishings and the grounds are lovely, well-maintained and vast with excellent views all around. There are four pools and we would visit each one of them at least a couple of times this trip. Back at the room, I snapped a few pics.

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Have always enjoyed SSR, stayed there several times. Don't know why it has such a bad rap. :confused:
 
epcotisbest

epcotisbest

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We would spend all day at the outlets then at Publix stocking up on groceries and diet soft drinks, milk etc...I like making breakfast in the room and a couple of days I managed to have breakfast ready without waking my wife.
So after shopping and groceries, we had a big ole Publix deli sub in the room then rode around the grounds, snapping some photos as the sun began to set.

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epcotisbest

epcotisbest

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Tiggerish said:
I love that fountain!! Glad to see it survived the "renovation".



Have always enjoyed SSR, stayed there several times. Don't know why it has such a bad rap. :confused:
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I have read people complain about how big it is, how far it is from the parks, lack of Disney style theme and more. We really like it too.
As for the Mickey topiary fountain, I remember it from years and years ago and always thought it might be fun to try to replicate something like that at home, but then I never did get one of those round tuits.
 
Tiggerish

Tiggerish

Resident Redhead
Premium Member
epcotisbest said:
I have read people complain about how big it is, how far it is from the parks, lack of Disney style theme and more. We really like it too.
As for the Mickey topiary fountain, I remember it from years and years ago and always thought it might be fun to try to replicate something like that at home, but then I never did get one of those round tuits.
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Closest I've gotten is a collection of pots outside my back door. But no Mickey watering them. :(
 

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