{travel} Disney Hotels - Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa

On our latest trip Christian and I spent our final night at Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa. We rented someone's Disney Vacation Club points and spent $255 on the night for a Preferred room, through Disney it would have been $620. Yowza!

On check-in day we decided to take a walk over to Disney Springs for a late dinner and snack. The following day, check-out day, I headed to Animal Kingdom for the first half of the day while Christian worked from the hotel. After I finished with the park I hung out with Christian in the dining area until it was time to head to the airport for our flight.

Transportation

Buses

The main form of transportation besides driving yourself or using rideshare is buses. Because the resort is so big there is an internal bus loop as well as buses to the parks. The bus stops to the parks are as follows:

The Grandstand
The Carousel
The Paddock
Congress Park
The Springs

Boat

Heading to Disney Springs? There's a boat dock by the hospitality building that will take you over to the Marketplace entrance of Disney Springs via the Sassagoula River Cruise. I would only do this if I had a lot of time to kill or you can't walk for a mile. Since you can walk from the resort it's a waste of time taking the boat because you first have to wait up to 20 minutes for a boat and then ride the boat to Disney Springs.

Walking

It is possible to walk to Disney Springs from the resort. There is a nice path along the water that lets you in at the Marketplace entrance of the Springs, the same spot as the boat. When the weather is nice we much prefer walking over other forms of transportation. It's less full of people and often way faster because you aren't waiting on a bus or boat.

Dining

Since we only stayed one night we didn't really have time to enjoy the food at the resort. We did check out the quick service location to see what offerings they had but since we were so close to Disney Springs we opted for that for dinner. Next time we will probably try one of the table service options.

The Turf Club Bar and Grill

Turf Club is the resorts table service restaurant. They serve up steaks and seasonal dishes in horse-racing club themed dining area. The Turf Club also has a Lounge where you can grab cocktails and beer. We weren't able to find a last minute dining reservation here so we'll hit it next time we're at the resort!

The Artist’s Palette

This is the resort's quick service location where you can find groceries, grab a to-go snack or sit down for a meal. We noticed a lot of fun desserts when we perused the offerings. If I hadn't brought us back a snack from Animal Kingdom on check-out day we would have tried one of their themed desserts.

Pool Bars

The Paddock Grill, On The Rocks, and the Backstretch Pool Bar serve up alcoholic beverages and light snacks! The Paddock Grill also serves breakfast, lunch and dinner because it's on the opposite side of the resort/the quick service dining there.

Recreation

Pools

We did not take advantage of any pools on our trip, but there are five scattered throughout the resort. There are three "leisure" pools at the Treehouse Villas, Congress Park and The Grandstand sections. There are also two larger pools - High Rock Spring Pool and The Paddock Pool.

Activities

As with other Disney hotels there are various activities to take part in. Campfires with s'mores, movies under the stars and much more! Be sure to check at the lobby to see what types of fun they are hosting while you're there. All the activities available at the resort can be found on the recreation page.

You can also rent a 2 or 4-person Surrey Bike to ride around the resort. Saratoga Springs Resort also has normal bike rentals you can take advantage of (they come with helmets so you don't have to bring one!)

The Lake Buena Vista golf course is part of this resort. More information including how to book a tee time can be found on the Disney website.

Saratoga Springs also has a Community Hall where you can find everything from complimentary ping-pong, foosball, arts and crafts, video games, DVDs, board games and more. They had a whole craft room where children (and adults) can paint ceramics, canvas, color a button and much more (for a fee!)

Rooms

We stayed in a Preferred Deluxe Studio, meaning we were in a room closer to amenities. We were in The Springs building, which was right across from The Carriage House. The Carriage House is where the lobby and main restaurants are. It was the perfect spot for our quick stay, we didn't have to worry about navigating all over the resort and I was easily able to bring all our bags to Bell Services the morning we checked out so I could head to the park and Christian could start working in the main building after he had to leave the room at 11am.