Review: Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort and Spa, Continued
For the first page of this review, click here.
MORE ON DISNEY’S SARATOGA SPRINGS RESORT AND SPA
There are currently 7 official Disney Vacation Club resorts at Walt Disney World.
However, I have come to count them as nine, because two of the resorts–Saratoga Springs and the Animal Kingdom Villas–have two very different areas.
In order of their appropriateness for first time family visitors to Walt Disney World, they are:
- The Villas at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge
- Disney’s Animal Kingdom Villas–Jambo House
- Disney’s Animal Kingdom Villas–Kidani Village
- Bay Lake Tower at Disney’s Contemporary Resort
- Disney’s Beach Club Villas
- Disney’s BoardWalk Villas
- Disney’s Old Key West Resort
- Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort and Spa, main resort
- Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort and Spa, Treehouse Villas area.
These resorts are available to anyone to reserve through the regular Walt Disney World website or resort reservations phone number at 407-939-7675.
They also are available to the general public at great discounts through renting points from a Disney Vacation Club member.
All Disney Vacation Club resorts have studio rooms, One-Bedroom Villas, and Two-Bedroom Villas.
Most have Grand Villas as well.
At Saratoga Springs, Studios sleep four, in a queen bed and a fold-out full couch, and have a microwave and mini fridge.
- The sleeping area is quite small and the bath/kitchenette space relatively large.
- This is purposeful, to enable the closet, bath and kitchenette to be accessed without interrupting the bedroom when the Studio is combined with a One-Bedroom to make a Two-Bedroom.
- It does lead to cramped quarters, and Studios at Saratoga Springs can’t be recommended for first-time family visitors. If you need a studio, any other DVC would be better. (Some others, like those at Bay Lake Tower, are equally cramped, but have better convenience or kid appeal.)
One-Bedroom Villas have a master bedroom with a king and a master bath, a particularly small full kitchen/dining/living space with a second door to the master bath, and sleep 4.
- As noted on the first page of this review, when the sleeper couch is opened, the main living area becomes unusable.
- One-Bedrooms contain one very small closet–with less hanging space than available in a value resort.
- A One-Bedroom at any other DVC resort would be a better choice for first time family visitors
Two-Bedroom Villas add a second bedroom with a queen, a full sleeper sofa, and a second bath to the amenities of a One-Bedroom, and sleep 8.
- The additional closet space in the second bedroom–which is accessible to all–is quite welcome
- The layout of doors and whatever means that both baths are accessible to all without entering the bedrooms
- The size issues of the combined living/dining/full kitchen area, which is exactly the same size as that of the One-Bedroom villa, become particularly bothersome if you are using all of the sleeping spaces and packing 8 people in.
- However, if your family can fit into the two bedrooms (that is, with 6 or fewer people, in three beds) and not use the sleeper sofa, the layout becomes quite livable. Otherwise any other DVC resort would be a better choice.
- Many families will find the three-bedroom layout of the Treehouses an interesting alternative at the same price. See this for more on the Treehouses
Grand Villas at Saratoga Springs sleep 12 in a little less than twice the space of a Two-Bedroom Villa, in three bedrooms (one with a king, and two with two queens) plus sleeper sofas.
- At Saratoga Springs, Grand Villas are two-story spaces. The master bedroom, living room, dining room, and kitchen are on the first floor, and the two other bedrooms are on the second. Note that the second floor has another exit door.
- Saratoga Springs Grand Villas have only one balcony–off of the dining room.
- This is one fewer than a two-bedroom has…and three fewer than newer Grand Villas at Bay Lake Tower.
- See below for the much more livable Grand Villa at Bay Lake. A grand villa at any other DVC resort would be a better choice for first-time family visitors.
(To each of the capacity figures above, you can add one more kid under 3 at time of check in who sleeps in a crib.)
Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort and Spa is described on Walt Disney World’s website as follows:
An “equestrian themed, Victorian style … resort on the shores of Lake Buena Vista…inspired by historic Saratoga Springs, a late-1800s New York retreat famous for its spas and horse racing.”
The resort was built on the grounds of the old Disney Institute–an ill-fated foray into consumer cognition–and preserved several of the buildings from that enterprise.
The resort opened in phases, beginning in 2004, with the last phase, the Treehouses, opening in 2009.
The official Disney website claims 65 acres for the resort. Several phases ago, and before the Treehouses, maybe, but the resort is now in excess of 200 acres.
The resort is divided into two main sections: 18 three story structures with 40+ units in each, divided into the Springs, Grandstand, Congress Park, Carousel, and Paddock sections, and, in a section so different I provide it its own review, the 60 units at the Treehouses.
Each section is served by the Carriage House, which includes check-in, dining, shops, and the main pool, and is near the wonderful Spa.
The resort has a total of 5 pools–not 4, as the official website indicates. One is at the Treehouses, one at Congress Park, one at the Grandstand, one at the Paddock, and the main pool between the Springs and the Carriage House.
Among the DVC resorts, Saratoga Spring’s strengths for first time visitors are its spa, its propinquity to Downtown Disney, and its often lower rates….and availability
Saratoga Springs’s principal negatives are its distance from Walt Disney World theme parks, its lack of kid-appeal, its sprawl, and its cramped rooms.
EXTERNAL LINKS FOR DISNEY’S SARATOGA SPRINGS RESORT AND SPA:
LINKS FOR WHERE TO STAY AT DISNEY WORLD
- For where to stay, see this
- For your next best choices, in order, see this
- For picking your resort based on appeal to kids, see this
- For picking your resort based on convenience, see this
- For where not to stay, see this
- For what you get in each resort price category, see this
- For Walt Disney World resort price seasons, see this
- For differences among value resorts, see this
- For the moderate resorts, see this
- For differences among moderate resorts, see this
- For differences among deluxe resorts, see this
- For the Disney Vacation Club (“DVC”) Resorts, see this
- For suites at the deluxe resorts, see this
- For a (geeky) overview of comparative room size, see this
- Large families should look at this, and also at
- Military/DOD families should look at this
- Tightwads should look at this
- Families seeking the most comfortable place to stay should see this
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