Coronado Springs Resort - New Unofficial FAQ Thread - November 2011

[Missytara]

What are the chances of getting a room before 3pm?

I am trying to talk Dh into arriving more around noon time but he doesnt want to wait for a room. I tried to explain that we can hit up PM have a good lunch hang out at the pool etc. I don't (and wont be able to) want to just "get up when the early alarm goes off" (4:45am with a 10-12hr drive)

I just wanna get to CSR and DISNEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you do online check-in, you will most likely have a room by noon. If the resort are not busy, rooms are available earlier. Many people have been in their rooms long before noon.

 

[marylandgirl]

Does anyone know if the PM has the full sized mickey waffles at the breakfast buffet?

 

[MrEVILdrPorkchop2u]

You could drop off your bags and then go enjoy the resort or even head to DTD. We are driving 21 hours straight and plan to do the same. There will be 7 of us this trip and we will be taking turns driving.

 

[Tinkerbellie16]

I believe I saw a sign or notice limiting guests to 15 minutes in the hot tub. How "strict" is the resort in enforcing the 15 minute rule in the hot tub?

I have never had anyone tell me or my family to leave a hot tub at Disney. But be careful! I got really sick from spending too much time in a hot tub once (dehydration) so I rarely go in them and when I do, I definitely don't stay in longer than 15 minutes. I also check the temperature before letting my kids in and the rule for them is that they can not stay in longer than their 'year' in minutes. So my 9 year old may not stay in longer than 9 minutes. Their little bodies can't take that heat very well!

During breakfast and lunch the Pepper Market is a buffet. At dinner it is not. They have different booths you can go to and pick out food items, but you are charged for each of them. You can get most anything to go from the Pepper Market. We did that a lot!

My mom tried getting some items to go during breakfast (which is buffet) and they would not allow it. Were you able to do this at breakfast or lunch or only dinner?

Hey everyone!

My family and I are heading to CSR October 25th! So excited! Anyhow, we have a very early ADR at Chef Mickey's one morning at 7:40am! It's not on an EMH morning and while my cousin tries to assure me we can do it, I'm worried about being able to get busses that early. Does anyone have any experience with getting from CSR to Chef Mickey's that early on a bus? There is a big group of us too and taking a cab might be pretty difficult (5 adults and we also will have 2 pre-schoolers and a 1 year-old). Any advice? Thanks!

I do not believe the buses will even be running early enough for you to make your reservation on time. I believe buses only start running 1 hour prior to park opening and even if MK opened at 8 am, making a 7 am bus would not give you enough time to get to MK then walk to Contemporary. BUT, there may be early buses for people with early ADRs at MK, I am not sure though. Given that getting between two resorts is such a long time though, I would get a cab ride. You can be there in 10 minutes or so and pay about $15 for a normal cab for 4 people. And you can request vans too - call Mears or check their website for details.

What are the chances of getting a room before 3pm?

I am trying to talk Dh into arriving more around noon time but he doesnt want to wait for a room. I tried to explain that we can hit up PM have a good lunch hang out at the pool etc. I don't (and wont be able to) want to just "get up when the early alarm goes off" (4:45am with a 10-12hr drive)

I just wanna get to CSR and DISNEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

While your chances may be good for getting in about noon, be prepared to not get that room until 3 - have a back up plan in place!

Does anyone know if the PM has the full sized mickey waffles at the breakfast buffet?

When I was there for breakfast on 7/26, they did not have Mickey waffles. They did have waffles but they looked like frozen store ones, no Belgian or fluffy ones so I didn't get any.

 

[KatMark]

I have never had anyone tell me or my family to leave a hot tub at Disney. But be careful! I got really sick from spending too much time in a hot tub once (dehydration) so I rarely go in them and when I do, I definitely don't stay in longer than 15 minutes. I also check the temperature before letting my kids in and the rule for them is that they can not stay in longer than their 'year' in minutes. So my 9 year old may not stay in longer than 9 minutes. Their little bodies can't take that heat very well!

EXCELLENT idea re your kids.

 

[HANDYMOM]

Hey everyone!

My family and I are heading to CSR October 25th! So excited! Anyhow, we have a very early ADR at Chef Mickey's one morning at 7:40am! It's not on an EMH morning and while my cousin tries to assure me we can do it, I'm worried about being able to get busses that early. Does anyone have any experience with getting from CSR to Chef Mickey's that early on a bus? There is a big group of us too and taking a cab might be pretty difficult (5 adults and we also will have 2 pre-schoolers and a 1 year-old). Any advice? Thanks!

There are van sized cabs around all the resorts. We used two when we moved from a room only at ASSports to Pop for our MYW weeklong stay, the fare wasn't bad. The distance is longer to the Contemporary.

Why don't you call the cab company and ask the fare for your headcount? I looked it up on the Mears Fare Estimator (from Mousesavers: http://www.mearstransportation.com/services/taxi-fare-estimator.aspand it would be $37 flat rate for a van for you

 

[sunny_stace]

Thank you so much everyone! My cousin still doesn't believe me, but I have another 2 months to try and convince her! Half of me wants to make another reservation behind her back just incase we miss the first one!

 

[Donna in NJ]

Hey everyone!

My family and I are heading to CSR October 25th! So excited! Anyhow, we have a very early ADR at Chef Mickey's one morning at 7:40am! It's not on an EMH morning and while my cousin tries to assure me we can do it, I'm worried about being able to get busses that early. Does anyone have any experience with getting from CSR to Chef Mickey's that early on a bus? There is a big group of us too and taking a cab might be pretty difficult (5 adults and we also will have 2 pre-schoolers and a 1 year-old). Any advice? Thanks!

I have never posted here before. We will be staying at CSR from Sept 29 to Oct 6 and can't wait. Last summer we stayed at CBR and had early morning ADR every morning. It is just my husband Lou and I and we are early risers. My best advice is to ask the bus driver for MK breakfasts if they can bring you directly to the resort after they drop at MK. We had a very early breakfast at Cat Cora's restaurant on the boardwalk. A bus drive told us to ask the Hollywood studio bus driver if he had time to drop us at the boardwalk. After he dropped at Hollywood studios he dropped us off. The same driver told us alot of the early morning drivers will drop off at resorts close the park on their route if you ask nicely.

 

[Claire&TheBoys]

Bus service always starts at 6:30 AM. We had an 8:10 ADR for Crystal Palace last year and got on a bus at 7:00 sharp and were at MK by 7:20. It is only about a 10-15 minute walk from the MK bus station to the CR.

 

[maxsmom]

We had dinner this evening. I was under the impression that they charged you 10% when you paid for gratuity. I also thought that if you were on the dining plan it covered it. However, this evening our waitress told us when we were leaving that the 10% AND the gratuity was not covered by the dining plan. 2 questions: 1st, I thought the 10% was the gratuity, not that there was 10% fee for eating there(?) and also gratuity. 2nd, were we supposed to leave a tip? There were 4 of us so once we saw the total of $45 we walked back $6. We are so confused & the copy of our receipt has all zeros. Please help.

 

[OThopeful35]

Hey everyone!

My family and I are heading to CSR October 25th! So excited! Anyhow, we have a very early ADR at Chef Mickey's one morning at 7:40am! It's not on an EMH morning and while my cousin tries to assure me we can do it, I'm worried about being able to get busses that early. Does anyone have any experience with getting from CSR to Chef Mickey's that early on a bus? There is a big group of us too and taking a cab might be pretty difficult (5 adults and we also will have 2 pre-schoolers and a 1 year-old). Any advice? Thanks!

We had a 7:40am ADR at Chef's Mickey's and we caught the earliest bus...I think it was around 6:40 or so and we made it with time to spare. If you tell the bus driver where you are going like we did they might drop you off right in front of the Contemporary

 

[EveClark]

Anyone eaten at Maya Grill lately?
I've looked at the menu here on the DIS and also the one on the WDW website. They are so different, I'm not sure which one to go by... Anyone know which one is accurate?

We're trying to decide what to do about "lunch" on the day we arrive.
Our flight lands at 12:45 so I'm guessing that we will arrive at CSR just after Pepper Market closes.
We'd rather not use a meal credit getting a sandwich by the pool, so I was thinking about heading to DTD...but with a 4 year old, I'm not sure how tired we will all be at that point, and if we'll be up for more traveling after being on the go since 6 am.
If Maya Grill seems like a place we would like to eat for dinner, then I may be able to swing something in to hold us over until then.
I hope that makes sense!

 

[marylandgirl]

We had dinner this evening. I was under the impression that they charged you 10% when you paid for gratuity. I also thought that if you were on the dining plan it covered it. However, this evening our waitress told us when we were leaving that the 10% AND the gratuity was not covered by the dining plan. 2 questions: 1st, I thought the 10% was the gratuity, not that there was 10% fee for eating there(?) and also gratuity. 2nd, were we supposed to leave a tip? There were 4 of us so once we saw the total of $45 we walked back $6. We are so confused & the copy of our receipt has all zeros. Please help.

I was under the impression that a 10% gratuity was added at dinner automatically and you had to pay tip on top of that. I would assume if you are on the DDP that the 10% would already be factored in and you would just have to leave tip. Can someone clarify for us?

 

[MSSANDRA]

When we were there in January and on the DDP, nothing was ever added to our bill. We added a tip on our own at lunch and breakfast tried to add it on at Dinner but the waiter did not know how to do it and when we tried at the check out they said we could not add it now. Our lunch waiter was great and deserved the nice tip we left. The dinner guy did very little so we did not feel too badly.

Eve Clark,
I was under the impression that Maya Grill was no longer open for lunch. Now I may be very wrong so maybe someone else can help. I would count on not getting to the resort to well after 2:00. Will your little one be ok with such a late lunch? Maybe take something to have an early lunch on the plane and then enjoy a ice cream or bakery treat when you get to the resort. If you try to do lunch at DTD, it may be well after 3:00. Maybe a snack and a rest or swim and get a place for a fun first early dinner.

 

[cjsm&d]

Anyone eaten at Maya Grill lately?
I've looked at the menu here on the DIS and also the one on the WDW website. They are so different, I'm not sure which one to go by... Anyone know which one is accurate?

We're trying to decide what to do about "lunch" on the day we arrive.
Our flight lands at 12:45 so I'm guessing that we will arrive at CSR just after Pepper Market closes.
We'd rather not use a meal credit getting a sandwich by the pool, so I was thinking about heading to DTD...but with a 4 year old, I'm not sure how tired we will all be at that point, and if we'll be up for more traveling after being on the go since 6 am.
If Maya Grill seems like a place we would like to eat for dinner, then I may be able to swing something in to hold us over until then.
I hope that makes sense!

As the pp mentioned, Maya Grill is open for Dinner only now.
Here is the updated menu as of June

Dinner
http://allears.net/menu/menu_mg.htm

Kids Dinner
http://allears.net/menu/menu_mgk.htm

I'd grab something at the airport to tie you over and just plan on dinner. We always do dinner at Maya first day after hanging by the pool tyo unwind from traveling.

 

[MMlvsMM]

As the pp mentioned, Maya Grill is open for Dinner only now.
Here is the updated menu as of June

Dinner
http://allears.net/menu/menu_mg.htm

Kids Dinner
http://allears.net/menu/menu_mgk.htm

I'd grab something at the airport to tie you over and just plan on dinner. We always do dinner at Maya first day after hanging by the pool tyo unwind from traveling.

I think those are the old menus even though they say June 2012. The new one came out in july.

 

[HLAuburn]

Just got back late last night from our stay at CSR, so I just wanted to post a few things about the trip.

We did online check in and had requested first floor Cabanas. We were going to be spending time at the pool, but we didn't plan on eating at the main building much or using the bus, but I wanted to be close to El Centro anyway.

We arrived about 12:00. There was a short line for online check in (much longer for regular check in), but as I was waiting, I was pulled out of line and directed over to the concierge desk, where I was checked in. We were happy to hear the room was ready AND not only did we get our requests, we were "upgraded" to a waterview! Honestly, I didn't really think waterview would be all that impressive, but we had a beautiful view of the lake and it was nice to open the curtains and look out. The room was in 8B, and I think it was a perfect location - right near the pool, short walk to El Centro, and the bus stop was right when you walked out of the building.

We had dinner at Pepper Market - DD and I shared the chicken fajitas and I thought they were pretty good. DH got a steak burrito, but wasn't too impressed. The waitress was happy to refill our mugs and a 10% service charge was added to the bill.

This was a short stay for us and we ate breakfast in the room, but if we were on the dining plan or there for a longer stay, I think we would miss having a "real" counter service option. Cafe Rix was OK for grab n go type stuff, but I like the convenience of the food courts.

The grounds were beautiful and we enjoyed walking around. DH made the comment that it seemed like there was more to do around the resort at POR/POFQ, so that might be a consideration if you planned on really spending time around the resort, but it was fine for us for this trip.

Overall, we really liked CSR and would definitely consider staying there again.

I'll be glad to try to answer any questions (while it's all fresh on my mind!)

 

[sorahl1]

Just got back late last night from our stay at CSR,... DH made the comment that it seemed like there was more to do around the resort at POR/POFQ,

can you clarify this?

Thanks for the report, hoping we get a similar room in 14 days

John

 

[pooh2001]

Just got back late last night from our stay at CSR, so I just wanted to post a few things about the trip.

We did online check in and had requested first floor Cabanas. We were going to be spending time at the pool, but we didn't plan on eating at the main building much or using the bus, but I wanted to be close to El Centro anyway.

We arrived about 12:00. There was a short line for online check in (much longer for regular check in), but as I was waiting, I was pulled out of line and directed over to the concierge desk, where I was checked in. We were happy to hear the room was ready AND not only did we get our requests, we were "upgraded" to a waterview! Honestly, I didn't really think waterview would be all that impressive, but we had a beautiful view of the lake and it was nice to open the curtains and look out. The room was in 8B, and I think it was a perfect location - right near the pool, short walk to El Centro, and the bus stop was right when you walked out of the building.

We had dinner at Pepper Market - DD and I shared the chicken fajitas and I thought they were pretty good. DH got a steak burrito, but wasn't too impressed. The waitress was happy to refill our mugs and a 10% service charge was added to the bill.

This was a short stay for us and we ate breakfast in the room, but if we were on the dining plan or there for a longer stay, I think we would miss having a "real" counter service option. Cafe Rix was OK for grab n go type stuff, but I like the convenience of the food courts.

The grounds were beautiful and we enjoyed walking around. DH made the comment that it seemed like there was more to do around the resort at POR/POFQ, so that might be a consideration if you planned on really spending time around the resort, but it was fine for us for this trip.

Overall, we really liked CSR and would definitely consider staying there again.

I'll be glad to try to answer any questions (while it's all fresh on my mind!)

Thank you for the great review.
When we return to WDW, our DS & DD will be 'adults'.
Do you think we could fit a twin areo bed in the CSR standard double bed room ?
Maybe move the chairs and place the twin areo bed near the window & door ?
Any thoughts, since you just returned and maybe remember the room configuration ?
Thank you!

 

[Pixiedust34]

POFQ and POR have a boat to DTD, bike rentals, boat rentals (although the marina at CSR is offering activities soon, you can rent a boat to go down the river at POFQ & POR), and family friendly live night entertainment at each resort (Elliot Dyson and Bob Jackson on select nights). They also have carriage rides and a fishing hole.

POFQ, POR, and CSR all have fun pool games, a campfire, and nightly movies.