Coronado Springs Resort - New Unofficial FAQ Thread - November 2011

[sunsetbeachgal]

Hoosier Mom...thanks for your review! We cant wait to stay at CSR...think we lucked into this as we changed resorts to take advantage of free QSDP pin and this was the only one available our dates...but with the Pepper Market buffet it sounds like this is the best moderate resort for getting maxiumum value for our CS credits! Thanks again!

 

[Tinkerbellie16]

We are back from 9 nights at CSR. It was our first stay there. Previously we were at Wilderness Lodge and CBR.

We requested 8A or 9B but got neither of our requests. However, we were assigned Casitas bldg 5, 4th floor. We loved Casitas. If I had it to do over again, I would pay extra to be in Casitas 1, 2, or 3. And I think I would request ground floor, although the elevators were fine in bldg 5.

My husband and son visited the quiet pool, but said the water was much warmer at the Dig Site pool. They loved it. My son won a couple prizes. I think one was for doing the macarana dance.

We had the buffet breakfast most days. It was fabulous. It's the only place on Disney property where I've ever found crisp bacon! There were two kinds of breakfast potatoes. Plain, and one with onions and peppers. Plenty of scrambled eggs. Mickey waffles, pancakes. Etc. Lots to pick from. And I liked how it was set up at different stations so there wasn't one long food line.

A couple of days we did snack credits from the grab and go. We got bananas, blueberry muffins, and cereal & milk. It was okay, but we found that we were starving by 9:30 on those days.

We had the buffet lunch a couple times too. Loved the chicken quesadillas. I think I had read somewhere that they serve you, but that was not the case. At all the stations, you serve yourself (except where they make the ommlettes). Also I had to ask for sour cream and they were happy to give me some.

We talked to a lady and expressed how much we enjoyed the buffet for breakfast and lunch. She said they may make dinner a buffet eventually. I hope so.

We did seek help from the concierge once and I tried to tip him, but he refused a tip. He checked us in for our flights and printed our boarding passes.

We did the luggage check in the morning of our flight and it was great.

Our room was great. Our 6 year old slept in a rollaway bed. Our only gripe was there didn't seem to be very many channels to watch. But we were too tired to watch much tv anyway.

I've been asking about the bacon but no one seemed to know so thank you for posting this!! By any chance do you know if Cafe Rix had real bacon on their breakfast sandwiches too?

We paid for preferred rooms and thanks to your post, I know where that is and if it is worth it

Thanks for posting!!

 

[bobbigrl27]

Hoosier Mom...thanks for your review! We cant wait to stay at CSR...think we lucked into this as we changed resorts to take advantage of free QSDP pin and this was the only one available our dates...but with the Pepper Market buffet it sounds like this is the best moderate resort for getting maxiumum value for our CS credits! Thanks again!

I am so jealous of all the DISers who are getting Free Dining Pins. I tried all the tricks (saving offers, ordering DVDs and maps), but I haven't received anything. I finally just decided to book with the 25% room discount. Definately better than nothing, but Free Dining would have saved us more money. My DD is 10 and an adult in Disney's eyes, but she would probably only have a pancake or bowl of cereal at breakfast. It's not worth it to spend $14.99 on her for the buffet.

 

[cmhguy]

I am so jealous of all the DISers who are getting Free Dining Pins. I tried all the tricks (saving offers, ordering DVDs and maps), but I haven't received anything. I finally just decided to book with the 25% room discount. Definately better than nothing, but Free Dining would have saved us more money.

I, too, am a little envious - Last year, I received this PIN offer, and we upgraded to the TS. I did a little math, and now I feel a bit better. I calculated the cost of paying full price for the room and compared that to our current room only price adding DDP or QSDP.

For 8 days, the CSR room only discount with the DDP OOP was only $140 more than if I received the current PIN offer and upgraded to DDP. The QS offer would only be a savings of $129.

While $140 saved is money saved, I felt a little better knowing the room only discount is significant. I'm not sold on the DDP anyway - For our plan, it doesn't 'save' much $$$, and I'm reading that isn't so much point of it anymore. I'm considering paying OOP for our meals - that plan with the room only offer saves me the most. If we ate about 3 less TS meals (we don't eat all of those desserts and drink a lot of water anyway), I'd save at least $300 or more over the DDP - even eating 3 or 4 buffet meals at PM, lunch or breakfast.

If I changed my reservation to POP from CSR with the current PIN offer, there's more of a significant savings. I changed from POFQ to PoP last year when I got this PIN for this very reason. I'm soooo excited to be staying at CSR this year, and I'm not interested in changing it. We enjoyed PoP, but I'm expecting to enjoy CSR even more!!!!

 

[LoriNKY]

As far as I understand, the free dining plans are available to everyone. It's just during certain dates (I think I even saw the dates listed on the planing DVD). We get discount codes all the time, but never for specifically free dining. This will be our 2nd year using it.

Oh, and we had our TA run all the numbers, and the free dining plan is definitely more of a discount. But that also depends how much you think you'll eat or take advantage of character meals. We go crazy with character meals when they're free. (besides tip) If there were no free dining offers, we'd never purchase the plan.

 

[LJSquishy]

Well, I'm here at CSR right now! It's Day 2 for us. We did AK yesterday and MK today...only 35 degrees outside this morning but we had virtually no waits first thing in the morning! Park opened at 9am and we were completely done with MK by 2 and that included eating lunch at Columbia Harbour House. We did skip the kiddie rides.

reporting back on Ranchos roof repairs: Walked by twice and didn't notice anything at all being done, so either they are finished or are making such minor repairs that it is not affecting anyone.

We're in Casitas 5...did not make any room requests. I figured we'd be out in Ranchos! I did online check in and our room was ready for us at 8am on our arrival day, I couldn't believe it!!! I love the room, but the bathrooms need to be redone. Not only are they tacky but they just look run down as far as flooring/shower tiles/paint goes. TINY bathroom, too, although the sink area is awesome. The beds are fairly comfy, as are the pillows, but I find the pillows to be small...not standard size pillows. But, each bed has 4 so I guess you could lay them side by side if you wanted. LOL! The noise level from surrounding rooms is pretty high...we do have a connecting room door but haven't heard much from them. It's the other rooms that we hear. We are on the 2nd floor. It isn't enough to bother me, but it's much less soundproof than the usual Mariott hotels I frequent.

We have found it easy to get around the resort and have filled our mugs 4 times at least, it's a quick 5 minute walk. None of the rooms, even Ranchos, are THAT far. The resort paths are very poorly lit at night. They really need lights on both sides of the paths. Employees are hit and miss as far as friendliness goes. They are either very pleasant, or down right grumpy.

WARNING: Do not get the espresso at CSR! It was an overpriced ($5+) vanilla latte that literally tasted like warm vanilla milk. Faint coffee taste. At least now we know! I am not speaking about the Nescafé but the actual espresso machine at Cafe Rix. The banana walnut muffins are moist and yummy!

Please let me know if you have anything you want me to check on at CSR for you -- I'm here until Saturday afternoon (18th).

PS: My overall findings are that hubby and I can do each park in one day...at least so far...we've done AK and MK.

 

[lovethattink]

Well, I'm here at CSR right now! It's Day 2 for us. We did AK yesterday and MK today...only 35 degrees outside this morning but we had virtually no waits first thing in the morning! Park opened at 9am and we were completely done with MK by 2 and that included eating lunch at Columbia Harbour House. We did skip the kiddie rides.

reporting back on Ranchos roof repairs: Walked by twice and didn't notice anything at all being done, so either they are finished or are making such minor repairs that it is not affecting anyone.

We're in Casitas 5...did not make any room requests. I figured we'd be out in Ranchos! I did online check in and our room was ready for us at 8am on our arrival day, I couldn't believe it!!! I love the room, but the bathrooms need to be redone. Not only are they tacky but they just look run down as far as flooring/shower tiles/paint goes. TINY bathroom, too, although the sink area is awesome. The beds are fairly comfy, as are the pillows, but I find the pillows to be small...not standard size pillows. But, each bed has 4 so I guess you could lay them side by side if you wanted. LOL! The noise level from surrounding rooms is pretty high...we do have a connecting room door but haven't heard much from them. It's the other rooms that we hear. We are on the 2nd floor. It isn't enough to bother me, but it's much less soundproof than the usual Mariott hotels I frequent.

We have found it easy to get around the resort and have filled our mugs 4 times at least, it's a quick 5 minute walk. None of the rooms, even Ranchos, are THAT far. The resort paths are very poorly lit at night. They really need lights on both sides of the paths. Employees are hit and miss as far as friendliness goes. They are either very pleasant, or down right grumpy.

WARNING: Do not get the espresso at CSR! It was an overpriced ($5+) vanilla latte that literally tasted like warm vanilla milk. Faint coffee taste. At least now we know! I am not speaking about the Nescafé but the actual espresso machine at Cafe Rix. The banana walnut muffins are moist and yummy!

Please let me know if you have anything you want me to check on at CSR for you -- I'm here until Saturday afternoon (18th).

PS: My overall findings are that hubby and I can do each park in one day...at least so far...we've done AK and MK.

My dh loves those banana muffins!

I'll be so glad when the temps go back up to 80 in a couple days! I can't get warm today. 30's in the morning does not feel like Florida weather!

Is the noise your hearing talking or bathroom noise. I notice hearing the toilets flush in all the Disney resorts we've stayed at.

 

[LJSquishy]

My dh loves those banana muffins!

I'll be so glad when the temps go back up to 80 in a couple days! I can't get warm today. 30's in the morning does not feel like Florida weather!

Is the noise your hearing talking or bathroom noise. I notice hearing the toilets flush in all the Disney resorts we've stayed at.

The noise seems to be a little of everything, such as banging around/stomping, toilets, showers, a little talking (but no screaming kids so far thank goodness!), etc. I'm sure it's probably the same at all of the resorts and like I said it isn't enough to keep me awake at night by any means, just not quite as private and peaceful feeling as I expected. The resort grounds are beautiful and we've loved walking around the entire resort and inside as well a couple of times each day.

 

[Wendy&Grumpy]

Please let me know if you have anything you want me to check on at CSR for you -- I'm here until Saturday afternoon (18th).

PS: My overall findings are that hubby and I can do each park in one day...at least so far...we've done AK and MK.

Not so much CSR specifically, but mugs... are they still the same ones... Mickey, Minnie and gang at the pool with pink, yellow, blue & black lids?

We'll be back in May and we're hoping for a change!

 

[KatMark]

WARNING: Do not get the espresso at CSR! It was an overpriced ($5+) vanilla latte that literally tasted like warm vanilla milk. Faint coffee taste. At least now we know! I am not speaking about the Nescafé but the actual espresso machine at Cafe Rix.

Agreed; but the cappucinos from the window at Pepper Market are MUCH better, although a little small for the price. Enjoy the rest of your stay.

 

[Hoosier Mom]

I've been asking about the bacon but no one seemed to know so thank you for posting this!! By any chance do you know if Cafe Rix had real bacon on their breakfast sandwiches too?

We paid for preferred rooms and thanks to your post, I know where that is and if it is worth it

Thanks for posting!!

Sorry, we didn't try any of the Rix sandwiches.

You will love being in bldg 1, 2, or 3. It's so close to the restaurant.

Someone asked about mugs. They were pink, black, or teal.

We didn't hear any noise from our neighbors except one time we heard a voice in the next room, but couldn't tell what he was saying. I think he was talking on the phone. We had an adjoining room so I'm guessing we were hearing him through that doorway even though the door was shut.

Bus service was great! We used bus stop 1 at El Centro, or bus stop 2 at Casitas.

We visited the laundry room one afternoon. The washers and dryers were 2$ each. They had powdered All in the machine. The All was 1$ each. It took about 2 hours total for the loads to wash & dry and get it back up to our room.

Here's the only thing that that sort of raised my eyebrows. When the buffet bill comes, it has printed on there what a tip of 18 or 20% would be so that you can leave your tip. The server only brought our beverage so I personally though 20% of the buffet price was a little steep. But perhaps they share their tips with the attendants putting the food out. Who knows. So take that for what it's worth.

 

[disney debi]

I just booked our first ever stay at CSR! I had originally booked POR but after reading the boards and comparing resorts, I decided to switch. I love the look of the rooms and the fact that they have queen beds. It also sounds like the bus service might be a bit better. I can't wait for April to get here!

We are also going in april for our first stay at CSR!

 

[KingK12]

All in all it looks like a very nice place to get away from the everyday madness of my life! It kinda has a Spanish look to it with the decor and accents. Really nice!!!

 

[nebo]

LJ Squishy: dod you notice if you can get coffee and tea at the mug station at the Dig site pool? and, if so, unitl what time? do you know what time you can refill mugs with soda op at the dig site?


thanks!! and have fun!

 

[KatMark]

LJ Squishy: dod you notice if you can get coffee and tea at the mug station at the Dig site pool? and, if so, unitl what time? do you know what time you can refill mugs with soda op at the dig site?


thanks!! and have fun!

If memory serves me right, Siestas opens at 11 at the pool, and they do have coffee. They close early...maybe 5 or 6.

 

[Tinkerbellie16]

Well, I'm here at CSR right now!
Please let me know if you have anything you want me to check on at CSR for you -- I'm here until Saturday afternoon (18th).

IF you go to Cafe Rix, will you see if the bacon on the breakfast sandwich is REAL and not the paper thin stuff they sell at the rest of WDW? And I'm curious about pepper market too - IF YOU GO! THANK YOU!!! And Have a great time!

Sorry, we didn't try any of the Rix sandwiches.

Bus service was great! We used bus stop 1 at El Centro, or bus stop 2 at Casitas.

Here's the only thing that that sort of raised my eyebrows. When the buffet bill comes, it has printed on there what a tip of 18 or 20% would be so that you can leave your tip. The server only brought our beverage so I personally though 20% of the buffet price was a little steep. But perhaps they share their tips with the attendants putting the food out. Who knows. So take that for what it's worth.

I'll see if LJSquishy can check out the bacon right now

Great to hear about the bus service! And I agree about the 'suggested tip' for a buffet. But many restaurants have this as standard - they may not be able to change the amount (like 10% or 15%). I would hope people could at least figure out 10% though

 

[LJSquishy]

IF you go to Cafe Rix, will you see if the bacon on the breakfast sandwich is REAL and not the paper thin stuff they sell at the rest of WDW? And I'm curious about pepper market too - IF YOU GO! THANK YOU!!! And Have a great time!



I'll see if LJSquishy can check out the bacon right now

Great to hear about the bus service! And I agree about the 'suggested tip' for a buffet. But many restaurants have this as standard - they may not be able to change the amount (like 10% or 15%). I would hope people could at least figure out 10% though

I actually happened to have one of the breakfast sandwiches on Sat morning and the bacon is somewhat thin. I haven't had any bacon elsewhere in DW so I can't compare but I will say it is certainly not thick-cut bacon from home. I was able to taste the bacon, though. The breakfast sandwich had 3 slices on it.

 

[LJSquishy]

Not so much CSR specifically, but mugs... are they still the same ones... Mickey, Minnie and gang at the pool with pink, yellow, blue & black lids?

We'll be back in May and we're hoping for a change!

The mugs are still the pool scene and only three colors were available at CSR: blue, black, and pink.

 

[Crazy Mother of Two]

Here's the only thing that that sort of raised my eyebrows. When the buffet bill comes, it has printed on there what a tip of 18 or 20% would be so that you can leave your tip. The server only brought our beverage so I personally though 20% of the buffet price was a little steep. But perhaps they share their tips with the attendants putting the food out. Who knows. So take that for what it's worth.

I was under the impression that the PM added a 10% tip to the bill? What's with the 18-20%?

 

[StitchandPooh'sMom]

I was under the impression that the PM added a 10% tip to the bill? What's with the 18-20%?

Pepper Market is a buffet now for breakfast and lunch. There is no surcharge during these meals. The 18-20% is a suggested tip. You can tip how you'd like. The servers will seat you, get and refill your drinks, clear your dishes and bring your check as they would at a typical TS buffet. If you would normally tip 18-20% at a buffet, then it may be helpful that they did the math for you. If you tip differently, you can tip whatever you think is appropriate.

Dinner is still a la carte and still has a 10% surcharge. You can avoid the charge by getting your food to go and eating outside or in your room, or by eating instead at Cafe Rix, Laguna Bar or Siesta's.

Breakfast and lunch from the Pepper Market cannot be taken to go.