Day 1 - Part 4 - "Are we ever going to be at the hotel?"
Disney's Coronado Springs hotel was only about 10 minutes away from Celebration. In fact, it was less than 10 minutes away from ANY location we went to all week!
Location was one of the reasons I chose this particular resort and I am so glad I did! I didn't care for the Southwest motif but the location was awesome, the room was quite nice and the pool was great!
As we drove up to the main entrance, Rob let me out while he tried to wait close to the door. They ended up booting him out so he went and parked in the 30 minute check-in zone, just across from the main doors.
It was about 7:30pm and the registration area was pretty much empty. I walked right up and got all checked in. I got a nice girl who was actually from Victoria, B.C., my favourite city in the whole world! She was very sweet and happy when I told her how much I loved her city
The Magic Bands that I had customized 50 days earlier were there waiting for me as they don't ship to Canadians. I was also happy to see that they also gave me Key to the World cards as there had been rumours just before I left that they were starting to just give out the bands with no cards.
I had clients that checked out that same day after a week at Disney and they had nothing but problems with their bands their entire stay, so I was worried about not having that KTTW card back up!
I was happy to learn that both of my requests had been met...Ranchos 7B and first floor
Once that was all set, I gave them some cash to put down on my account, which we were going to use to pay for our food, mostly for testing the whole MB system. Well, that really messed everyone up! She called in her supervisor and then he called another guy. Finally that guy knew what he was doing and told the other two how to set it up. Then the girl next to us was watching too because she was all confused about how it works. So, I was glad I could be of service and have them learn something new
I had told Kira about the Magic Bands and how she could open our door and even buy us lunch every day and she liked that!
So, I found my family and gave Kira her Magic Band and she said "Are we ever going to be at the hotel?"
So off in search of the Ranchos section, we came to the gate and while I was just told at check-in that the bands did not work for the gate or Photopass just yet, I handed over my MB to Rob and asked him to try it.
And...
TA DAH!
It worked!
We found the parking lot for Ranchos and off we went in search of our room. It was a bit of a ways down from the parking lot but that meant it was closer to the Dig Site pool area, so I was okay with that!
Kira, always being 47 steps ahead of us was ready to use her band to open the door for us...
She was quite thrilled that it worked! She's all independent like that so we let her use her band as often as possible the whole week.
We checked out our room real quick then Kira and Rob went back to the vehicle to grab all of our crap while I took some photos and video of the room before it looked like a war zone
And of course, it's not a vacation without our bed tester...
While I quickly put a few things away, Kira camped out on her new bed and did some doodling...
We were pretty happy with the room. It wasn't spectacular or anything but it worked for a week. The beds were not as comfy as I had hoped they would be. I recall the beds at All Star Music being much better back in 2011. Being a moderate, I thought the beds would be significantly better than a value resort, or at the very least, just as nice.
I wrote a note for Mousekeeping asking for a couple feather pillows and left it right beside their tip envelope but after 3 days of not getting any, I gave up and threw the note out
The bedding was also a little lackluster, no heavy blanket or bedspread at all. I used those two bed runners, which were small but nice and heavy, to cover Kira every night because she was cold. Even with the temp at 72 every night, Rob and Kira were cold so I took the sheet and gave Rob the extra blanket every night.
We didn't even use the drawers on the dresser, it was just easier to live out of our suitcases for the week. The TV was nice and Rob enjoyed the coffee every morning. The fridge was barely cold, except for the second shelf on the right. There was a super cold spot, which I found after day 2 when the strawberries froze! So every night, I would put a bottle of water in that spot and by the morning, it would be mostly frozen so we took it to the parks with us! It was so darn hot and humid though, in an hour into our park touring, it was barely cold LOL!
The safe was a joke! Too small to fit anything really and it locked with a key!! HAHAHAH! I was like...a KEY??? Seriously????
The thing I loved about the bathroom area was the heavy doors near the sink! I could get up early and shower and get ready with the doors closed and not even bother my family. Although, it got smokin' hot in there so I usually waited until everyone was up before blow drying my hair so I didn't have to sweat like a little piggie!
And one last thing that I loved was the little shelf bench at the back of the shower! This was SUPER handy for holding all our stuff!
We were VERY close to the quiet pool (I will show ya later), the laundry and about a 3-4 minute walk to the Dig Site! (main pool area)
We were pretty far away from El Centro, where the registration, concierge, shop and food all are but I did walk home one night from there and it only took 5 minutes to the Dig Site, then another 3 to our room, so while it wasn't too bad, I would suggest paying the extra bucks to stay in Cabanas if you plan on spending more time at El Centro. Especially if you spend $18 on a refillable mug and want to use it!
There is a place to refill your mugs at the Dig Site but it has very limited hours.
At my image limit so I have to end this chapter.
Next up, our first Disney meal!