Mouse Extra

The Saratoga Springs Resort and Spa is the home resort for many Disney Vacation Club members, myself included.  It is a beautiful sprawling resort with a wonderful main pool, interesting architectural details, and pleasing landscaping.  But it does lack a bit in the food and drink department.  There is one bar called the Turf Club, and it does not live up to the standard set by the rest of the resort.

As you can probably tell from the name, the Turf Club tries to maintain the general resort-wide theme of Saratoga Springs, NY and its rich horseracing history.  But beyond the name, and a few wall decorations, it does little more to offer an immersive experience.  In fact, the atmosphere here is not much better than a hotel lobby, even though this is not a lobby bar. 

The space has much potential.  It is odd shaped room off in a quiet corner of the building.  But Disney planners never even bothered to build an actual bar, which makes the hole thing very frustrating.  It says “bar” right on the sign, but there is no bar.  Instead there are various chairs spread haphazardly across the room, and a small walk-up area to get a limited selection of drinks.  My wife and I went there once for an NFL playoff game.  We decided after a few seconds to go and watch it in our room because there was only one television and you could only really see it from certain places.  What resulted were dozens of fans standing in front trying to catch a glimpse. 

The Disney Vacation Club created a terrific resort at Saratoga Springs, but failed miserably at creating a bar where you can simply hangout.  Thankfully, Downtown Disney with all the bars you can want is only a boat ride away.  But it would have been nice to build something inviting on property that fit’s the theme.