Just had 3 trips to SSR in the past 15.5 months.
First stay was me and my DDs and my mom in a 1BR for 3 nights in Congress Park. It was the very day the new bridge opened (Aug 2014). It was great for walking over to DtD (or Disney Springs as it's now called). My DDs took a boat over to movie theater side while my mom and I hung in the room. Then another night my mom and I got dressed first and walked over to Rainforest to sit at outside bar for a drink while DDs got dressed for dinner. We ate at Raglan Road one night. My DDs (now going on 17) are not into pool time anymore so we didn't care the Congress Park pool is a bit boring. We drove in and it was nice to park our car right at our building (not far to haul luggage). Our balcony overlooked the balloon thing at DtD (DS) and it (DtD/DS) was very pretty all lit up at night.
Second stay was in a 2BR and with my DDs, DS and DH this past Aug. It was for 4 nights after a week at BWV. SIL, her DH and DD were also there in a 2BR. We requested Congress Park again. We had 2 cars there. It was great for switching from BWV. We parked in Congress Park and walked over to DtD (DS) to eat lunch and then see a movie while waiting for our rooms to be ready (which wasn't until 4pm so it was good to have DtD to hang out at). This time we got the farthest building from the bridge so that was a bummer. We ate again at Raglan Road. We had soda mugs this trip and found that using them at SSR is a pain. There is no food/drinks at the pool in Congress Park. So we hardly used them.
Last stay was over this past Halloween weekend. It was DH, DDs and I in a 1BR for 3 nights. This time I requested 'near a pool' with thoughts that we could get food/drinks at 3 of the 4 pools and the 4th, being Congress Park, we could go to DtD (DS) for food/drinks. We got Paddock and right next to the pool (better pool if you have kids that like the pool). It was a really nice location. That pool has food/drinks (even breakfast) and right off our room (first floor room) was a bridge that took you over to the Carriage House. We walked over there for food/drinks at the Artist Palette (gives TIW discount) a few times. We also used the Paddock pool food counter a few times. One night we drove over to park at Congress Park and then walk over to DtD (DS) to meet friends for a late snack/drink at Rainforest Cafe.
The busing kind of stinks from SSR. It was a lot of long waits and then we'd be crowded on a bus. Another thing about Congress Park is that you can walk over to DtD (DS) to catch any resort bus from there and avoid all the internal stops at SSR. But for park going...it stinks.
Any questions?
Oh, another thing we did in Aug with the inlaws is...we took a boat from Congress Park bridge to POR to eat at Boatwrights.
