[QUOTE="Cinder" Ella's Mom;50028803]We love the pool area at CSR. The pool is huge with a fun slide and Mayan pyramid. When the pool openings in the morning, the CMs gather all of the kids to sit on the pyramid steps as they turn on the cascading water. That is pretty fun. All areas of the pool are visible from surrounding chairs, which I like. The area also has a dig site (sand for digging and excavating), a playground and an arcade plus pool bar/QS restaurant. You can refill mugs here too. In addition, there is a splash area for really little kids. Evenings there include roasting of marshmallows and movies by the pool. My kids DS12 and DD10 have been going there since they were 4 and 6 and have always loved it...still do![/QUOTE]
Our favorite as well. The slide is great for all ages, even adults and other than SAB I think the longest on property. The hot tub is the largest on property. We have never had any problem getting lounges, table/chairs at any time of day. The pool bar serves a small menu of counter service items and we've had lunch by pool without having to walk to a restaurant. Shade and sun alike. They play pool games with the kids too, and even big kids can play if like a trivia game. My kids loved it when they were young and still their favorite as adults.
The bus situation is that the bus picks up around the resort with the last stop being the main hub El Centro. So anyone wanting to go from their room to the El Centro can catch a bus. When it leaves the front it heads to the parks, so you can get on any bus coming by if you are only going to the main building. We like Ranchos which we can ride the bus to the front or walk, but we usually walk, it's not bad and the resort is beautiful. And at night stunning with all the lights bouncing off the lake. You def want to walk it at night.
Back to pools:
POR - Great theme, across the bridge from food court. Slide is fun for young children. Our issue is that even in low season we never can get seating for the family, find ourselves cramming on a couple chairs. We usually give up after once or twice and use quiet pool, so defeats one purpose of upgrading.
POFQ - Adorable theme, works great with resort, but even when my kids were young they called it the baby pool. Depends on your kids age and likes but I think for young families it is fine.
CBR - both our trips our room was located 1/2 mile from the main pool. First trip we went, it was before they renovated it and was not much. I understand it's cute now but last trip we decided we weren't going to walk that far (my kids were no longer young and excited about it) and I'm not in to getting on buses in bathing suits. So honestly room location could kill it for us no matter what the pool is like.
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