Saratoga Springs Community Hall October 2016
Recreation for Families at a Disney Vacation Club Resort
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| Saratoga Springs Community Hall Recreation and Various Activities |
These are my photos from the inside part of the Saratoga Springs Community Hall. I absolutely LOVED this part of the resort. It was located behind the lobby and was next to the pool area. All the photos are from my trip in October 2016. I'll be doing a another post about some of the outdoor activities at Saratoga Springs and have separated things because I have so many photos from this vacation. The indoor family recreation room was hands down one of my favorite new finds from this latest trip. There isn't much in Walt Disney World that I haven't done or seen but for some reason I had not even stepped foot in the community hall at Saratoga Springs before until last week. To be honest, I probably wouldn't have spent any time in the community hall in the first place had it not been for a mistake in misinformation by a Disney cast member in the planning stages of this vacation. I ended up with some extra hours to kill while my room was being prepared after being dropped off by the Magical Express from my 4 day cruise on the Disney Dream. With some extra time and wanted to explore the Saratoga Springs property I decided to stop in at the Community to Hall and check on rental prices for the surrey bikes. I was intrigued to see so many families working on things together because when I visited the Community Hall at Bay Lake Towers it was mostly just kids and teenagers. I had thought that Community Halls at Disney were exclusively for children like Lilo's Playhouse at The Polynesian Resort but it turns out I couldn't be more wrong. Parents are welcome to join their children for fun at any of Disney's Community Halls (I did check Disney's website. Sadly only five resorts have Community Halls on property and they are Animal Kingdom Lodge, The Contemporary Resort, Old Key West, Bay Lake Towers, and of course Saratoga Springs.
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| Outside of Saratoga Springs Community Hall |
This wasn't my first trip to Saratoga Springs and as I said I hadn't visited the Community Hall before although I wish I had because this place is tons of fun. It's changed my opinion of Saratoga Springs as far as considering it a family resort. I always loved the atmosphere and amenities but it wasn't equal to The Wilderness Lodge or The Polynesian in children's activities. It's still probably not overall but it's close when you consider everything all together. Saratoga Springs is Disney Vacation Club gold as far as I am concerned because this resort costs WAY less points to stay at if you happen to be a DVC member. I'm not sure how staying at the hotel compares when you are paying out of pocket but I will check on that and update as soon as I can. Another thing to consider cost wise as well is that many of the activities/entertainment options that are nice for children at those two deluxe resorts are things can be expensive. Mickey's Backyard BBQ ($60&up) and The Spirit of Aloha Dinner ($31-60) are not cheap. Both are wonderful experiences and offer a nice dinner show but get expensive very quickly. I will concede that both of these resorts still win with resort location and resort theme but the Community Hall at Saratoga Springs gives the rest of Disney's Deluxe resorts a run for their money. After visiting here, I consider it to be one of the "hidden treasures" of Walt Disney World. You could easily spend any entire day here and it would be fun and relaxing especially compared to the crazieness of a day at the parks. I did pick up on the resort recreation guides for October but I can't seem to find it. You can take a look at one over at The Mouse For Less. It's the exact same one that I had except it isn't folded in half and doesn't smell like sunscreen.
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| Front Building of Community Hall at Disney's Saratoga Springs |
It's right near the pool and there is also nearby poolside dining with flatbread pizzas and other items. I was just here and waited in line for pizza on the 14th on October and decided to go Wolfgang Puck for one instead but for some reason nothing is online yet about it and everything only shows drink menus. I will include go ahead and link one of those menus below but I'm promise, there is food served now.
Movie Area
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| Movie Screen Area w/ Seating. |
This is one of my favorite areas and I'm not a big fans of stopping to watch a movie at Disney even though I love animation but this area is a nice open room that feels like home. The couch is large and very comfortable. The bean bag chairs are the one that can seat two if need be or if a parent and child want to sit together.
This TV is amazing. The quality of the images is mesmerizing and makes me want to desperately upgrade the television in my own home. When I was taking these photos I actually paused and stopped because they were playing "The Princess and the Frog" and I'm obsessed with this movie. There was a Dr. Facilier scene that I knew was coming up and I know the Bruce W. Smith animation in the sequence very well already but I wanted to see it on this TV. All I can say is that this scene that I have watched over and over again seemed brand new to me. My face must have been some sort of tell because the custodial cast member stepped up near me and made some remark about the picture quality on TV. She knew. My top advice for anyone visiting Saratoga Springs is to stop into the community hall on your check in day and see if they can schedule "The Princess and the Frog" during your visit. Or you could check to see if it's already on the schedule, there's always that.
If you love animation, you will want to watch something on the TV here.
Gaming Area
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| Saratoga Springs Gaming Area in Community Hall. |
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| Saratoga Springs Gaming Area in Community Hall. Video Games and YouTube. |
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| Saratoga Springs Gaming Area in Community Hall. |
Crafting Area
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| Saratoga Springs Community Hall 2016 Some Examples of Things You Can Paint. |
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| Price List for Ceramics You Can Paint. Saratoga Springs 2016. |
The coolest past about this is that the price includes the price of all of your paints. First of all, for anyone that has ever stepped into a ceramics cafe to begin with, you will know that these places are generally pretty pricey. I thought for certain when I walked in that the prices listed probably didn't include paints of firing. When I stopped to ask a cast member what was included for the price listed with ceramic purchases I also learned that DVC members got an additional 10% off all their crafts. How cool is that? $4.50 for an owl mug? Yes please.
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| Examples of Avaliable Colors Ceramic Paints (Prices Include The Costs of Paints!) |
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| DIY Button. Saratoga Springs Crafts Community Hall 2016 |
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| Make Your Own Luggage Tags. Saratoga Springs Community Hall. |
I wouldn't recommend this craft for use on a bag that you are checking with an airline. It definitely wouldn't hold up going through airline baggage but it's cute for a $2 craft if you travel by car or have carry-on bags.
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| Design Your Own Pillow Case. Saratoga Springs Community Hall Crafts. |
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| DIY Wine and Drink Cups. Multiple Canvas Sizes. Saratoga Springs Community Hall. |
The great thing about some of these crafts is that many of them are great for adults too. I actually saw an adult couple making the glasses. One was doing the wine glass and the other the straw/lid cup. I feel like the only craft probably wouldn't do would be the canvas art because the paint looks really cheap but the cost is $3-$6 so it would work for kids. I think that the ceramics are the best. I did actually make something and they are 100% of comparable quality to local DIY ceramic shops in my opinion.
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| Craft List With Prices For October 2016 (Click Image To Increase Image Size) |
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| Tables for Crafting. |
These were FULL during the day. People were in and out of here like crazy.
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| The "Make Your Own Bookmark" Station |
This was a free craft. There were also other activities and crafts that were offered at no cost during the day but I'm not sure what all they were. I took all my photos at night so everything was cleaned up when I took these but when I first stopped in around lunch time, the tables were packed with families doing all sorts of activities. Now I wish I had paid more attention but I do remember thinking that it was nice to see adults and kids hanging out together instead of just parents dropping the little ones off. That is what stood out to me the most.
Miscellaneous Games and Photos
Ok so this is awkward but I actually don't what this game is. If someone could email me to tell me what it is, I'd be eternally grateful and maybe I'll send you a little something. You can email me at houseofsummersville@gmail.com
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| Some old fashioned checkers anyone? |
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| Board Game Rental List Book |
Book with list of available board games you can rent. They also have several different books with movies you can rent. The deferent books have movies separated based on MPAA ratings. I browsed the books out of curiosity and needless to say the book with R rated titles had far less movies for rent than the other books. Movie rentals and board game rentals are free for all resort guests. I believe that rentals were for 2 or 3 days. I will check on that and update this as soon as I can. I also have more Saratoga Springs information posts on the way.
If you enjoyed this post, you might also like some of my other Disney resort posts.
