Review: Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa, Page 5

(For the first page of this review of Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa, see this.)

MORE ON ACCOMMODATIONS AT DISNEY’S SARATOGA SPRINGS RESORT

There are currently 8 official Disney Vacation Club resorts at Walt Disney World.

However, I have come to count them as ten, 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:

1. The Villas at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge
2. Disney’s Animal Kingdom Villas–Jambo House
3. Disney’s Animal Kingdom Villas–Kidani Village
4. Bay Lake Tower at Disney’s Contemporary Resort
5. The Villas at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort and Spa
6. Disney’s Beach Club Villas
7. Disney’s BoardWalk Villas
8. Disney’s Old Key West Resort
9. Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort and Spa, main resort
10. 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.  Saratoga Springs has rooms of all four types.

At Saratoga Springs, Studios sleep four, in a queen bed and a fold-out full couch, and have a microwave and mini fridge. The fold-out couch is best for shorter and lighter guests.

• The sleeping area is small and the bath/kitchenette space relatively large.
• This is purposeful, to enable the bath 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 somewhat cramped quarters, and Studios at Saratoga Springs can’t be recommended for first-time family visitors. If you need a studio, almost 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. These rooms fit four-person families just fine.

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 layout of doors and whatever means that both baths are accessible to all without entering the bedrooms
• Like other DVC resorts of this basic design, the combined living/dining/full kitchen area is too small for the  eight people that the villa will sleep. 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 more livable. Otherwise many other DVC resorts would be a better choice.
• Many families of 8 or 9 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 entry door.
• Saratoga Springs Grand Villas have only one balcony–off of the dining room.
• This is one fewer than many Saratoga Springs two-bedrooms have…Other Disney World grand villas have as many as 6 balconies…
• See below for an example of a much more livable Grand Villa, at Bay Lake Tower. A grand villa at any other DVC resort would be a better choice for first-time family visitors.

Below is the exterior of a Grand Villa at Saratoga Springs (the closest I am likely to come to one, given its price) showing the two story window in the living room–and absence of balconies…

(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.)

AMENITIES AT DISNEY’S SARATOGA SPRINGS RESORT & SPA

This review continues here!

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