Please help! Grandstand or Congress park?. Need advice & opinions..

[Lorilais_mommie]

We will be staying at Saratoga Springs for the 1st time ever..
Hubby and I are torn between requesting grandstand or congress park?
Since we have never stayed here.. We are looking for some help in weighting which would be a better option for our family..

What we have so far..
Grandstand- is has a better kid friendly pool
1st on/1st off on park bus (will have stroller)

Congress park-
Closer to disney springs
Easier to get a bus to other resorts

Info..
DH, me, DD9, DD4
Will need to bring a stroller.. (Crossing my fingers this is the last time)
My girls LOVE to swim- close to a pool is a must..as I bet we will spend much more time there this trip.

This trip is a last min. Trip.. Focused on relaxing..
I'm normally a camando style planner, and spend all our time in the parks..
Since this trip is a "relax" trip.. I'm looking more into the resort and other non park things to do.

opinions or advice are welcome!
Thank you

 

[jon18uk]

We were a group of adults and liked Congress Park for the short walk to Disney Springs in the evening. We only briefly used the pool (as we go to the waterparks for slides) and the Congress Park pool was a more "adult" feeling pool.

Generally though we didn't like Saratoga Springs anyway, other than being able to walk to Downtown Disney, there was nothing else we liked about the resort, we just didn't take to the theme and it felt huge and too quiet.

If you have kids that would want pools then I would pick grandstand or Paddock, or maybe The Springs to be close to the main building and main pool.

 

[Jhondy210]

I would do Grandstand. I think the pool would be better for your family plus you can always walk to the main building to go to the main pool or you could take the boat to Downtown Disney. You can always walk to other pools to experience the pool at Paddock or Springs too.

P.s. just to go against the person above me, my family, friends, and I have stayed at SSR and we love SSR. It is a quiet and pretty resort

 

[Lorilais_mommie]

Thanks for help..
Any other advice??
1st timers and the size of the resort is a little intimidating

 

[Jhondy210]

Don't let the size intimidate you…it is big but it looks bigger on the map. Everything in the resort is easy to walk to. I think the worst location at the resort I had was in the back corner of the resort (in Carousel) and I was really not keen about the location but it really wasn't that long to walk to everything. There are also quite a few bus stops at the resort but many of the other deluxe resorts share buses with other resorts so I don't think it takes any longer to get on your way to the parks than the other resorts.

I think this resort will be perfect for your family. You said your girls love to swim and they will actually have 3 unique themed pools (Paddock, Grandstand, and Springs) so they can try out the different pools on different days of your stay and it will be like an all new adventure for them.

Since you said this trip was more of a relaxed look into resort things to do, SSR will also give you the advantage of finding nice things to do at the Springs (like watching any of the street performers, playing in the jumping water feature thing, seeing a movie, bowling, playing at the lego store, etc. ) and you could always take a boat from the Springs to POR and explore that resort as well.

My style of vacation is to be at the parks a lot (this will be the first trip we are going to take it easy) so I'm not sure all the activities that SSR has. I know I remember the movies at the Springs pool which the kids appeared to love (I'll admit I thought it was fun too). I would suggest looking over the activity guide when you get there and just see what you would like to do.

 

[shevys]

We stayed at the Grandstand and loved it. Bus pick up and drop off were great, and there really is something to be said about being first on and off the bus. The pool looked really nice there, though it was too cool to swim when we visited. The walk from the Grandstand to the Carriage House and main pool area was very easy and quick. I agree with the Jhondy...it looks bigger on the map than it feels in reality. And we were first-timers at Saratoga and loved every minute of it.