wendyinaustin
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- May 7, 2008
Well, it took me a week to recover from our WDW vacation but I wanted to post my review of our first stay at CSR. Warning: this is LONG! Sorry!
First impressions: We arrived at the resort around 6:15pm on Wed, Oct 8th. Pretty amazing because our plane landed at 5:10 and we walked right on the ME bus and they got us there within the hour!
Wow - the resort is BEAUTIFUL! We were blown away by the gorgeous landscaping. Super clean, nice colors. Everyone we passed said hello. We strolled through the main building and the HUGE gift shop. We liked the little "to-go" bakery and thought the lounge looked really nice.
"Hugeness" of Resort: It tickles me when I read about the "hugeness" of ANY Disney resort because, HELLO, WDW IS huge!
Is CSR big? Well, sure - it isn't made up of a couple of buildings and one pool. If I had to walk from Ranchos to Pepper Market and back and wanted to keep my coffee piping hot and my to-go waffles warm, well, I just wouldn't be a happy camper every morning! I stayed at GF and had to walk quite a bit each day to the main building to get to the monorail so a few extra yards at $300 less a night didn't bother me at CSR. 
Seriously, anyone who has restrictions could totally stay at CSR at the Casitas or Cabana 9B, be close to all the action, and be able to navigate their way without a lot of extra walking. We just took it in stride (no pun intended!) and enjoyed the strolls next to the lake to see the alligator and the turtles. 
Check-in: I had read on the boards that some people felt the CMs at the front desk were less than friendly so I was prepared to walk up with my usual smile and friendly attitude to set the tone for check-in.
We were greeted warmly by Stephanie from Barbados. She was fantastic! We talked for awhile as there were no other people in line to check-in. She said we had just missed the rush. By the way, the foyer of this resort is amazing! The tall ceilings and fountain made me think I was in a 5-star Mexican resort!
Anyway, Stephanie answered all our questions and was engaging. I had requested Cabanas 9B and connecting rooms. The resort must have been pretty full because they only had rooms in Cabanas 8B and Ranchos left. No worries. My next request since we were unable to get 9B was queen beds. She wasn't sure about the queen bed thing. We were assigned to rooms 8521 and 8522. There were several manager-types in suits hanging around in the lobby making sure people were being attended to. We asked Stephanie if we could tip her and she said sure as long as we put it in an envelope. We felt she deserved it!
Rooms: We took a nice stroll around the lake to get to our rooms. Again, the grounds are beautiful. I totally got the "Disney-feel" of the resort but at the same time, it felt like we were away on a Mexican vacation. Several golf carts passed us on the way - not one tried to run us over and everyone said hello.
The room was spacious and well-appointed. Love the granite counter-tops on the bathroom sink! Fridge is large enough for 4 1/2 gallons of milk and lots of other items. Ceiling fan is FANTASTIC for us as we must sleep with them at home. The room was clean and smelled fresh. The only problem was: no queen beds in Cabanas 8B. We called down and the only rooms available with queen beds were Ranchos. We looked out our window and we were about 30 yards from bus stop 4 so we decided we could live with full-size beds and be close to the bus stop, pool and pepper market. WE WERE HAPPY! The bus stop being close to our room ended up being the best choice for the rest of our vacation. More about Transportation later....
One more note: At first, we thought being at the back of the building would be a pain. NO WAY! We were right by the bus stop and it was super quiet in the back.
Dig site pool: We are night-time swimmers after a day in the parks so we didn't get to see the pool until day 3 because of the nightly thunderstorms. The pool is AWESOME! Our entire family and our friends loved the water slide! My 2 year old hung out in the baby pool and she had a blast! The lifeguards were so nice - they interacted with all the kids at the pool and joked around with everyone. I know most pools have towels but it sure felt like a luxury for us not to schlep a big pile of towels down to the pool! The pool is HUGE and would easily hold a lot of guests.
Quietness of resort: The resort was pretty busy while we were there but it did not feel like it at all. I did not hear doors slamming at anytime during our vacation. Every once in awhile I heard water running but that was only when I was in the bathroom. We pulled the room-darkening shade tight each night and we didn't even realize it was morning until our alarms went off - it was that quiet. The rooms seem to be well insulated. We couldn't even hear our friends through the connecting doors!
Suits AKA conventioneers: We saw just a few convention guests throughout our vacation. Didn't bother us in the least and didn't make the resort feel "un-Disney" to us. We just felt bad that they had to stay at boring meetings while we got to go have FUN at the parks!
Pepper Market: We loved the pepper market! We are commando types that stay in the parks from dawn to dusk so honestly we didn't eat there everyday, but when we did, we found it pretty easy to figure out and the food was great. My family is pretty picky on any given day so we really liked the variety of food available. I couldn't stop going to the Asian stir-fry station! Bourbon chicken - YUMMY! Great variety, good food - usual Disney prices but you felt like you got a pretty big portion for your money. And the 10% surcharge? A bargain for someone to get me drink refills, extra napkins, clean up my table, etc.
Pepper market employees: Going into this I knew that pepper market was not managed by Disney and that some people felt the employees were less than friendly. Well, they weren't your usual perky Disney CMs but we felt they were fine. I'm not trying to make excuses but we really felt a lot of it is language barriers. Most of the employees we encountered did not speak English fluently. Not that this excuses behavior, but it is a factor, IMO. Another thing I noticed is that they are WAY understaffed. I don't know what it is like during the breakfast rush or in peak times but there was only one person working at each station and that is just not enough to prep, cook the numerous items on the spot, etc. That would make me kind of grumpy if I had to do all that work by mself! Again, there is no excuse for rudeness but maybe Disney needs to rethink this.
Each waitstaff that waited on our table was friendly and got us everything we needed. A couple of times, I did overhear some families complaining (loudly) to a manager about the bad service. Poor manager - it looked like this was something he was used to hearing! I think the Pepper Market is a GREAT DEAL if you are on the Disney Dining plan - big portions and great variety. My husband got the steak and it was WONDERFUL!
Panchitos Gift Shop: HUGE gift shop! Best of the resorts, IMO. They also had a great variety of groceries and the milk prices were the same as what we got at Walmart.
Other amenities: We didn't do the spa or workout room - We walked about 7-10 miles a day so we felt we were good in the exercise department. I did use the laundry facilities and they were great.
Would I stay at CSR again?: ABSOLUTELY! We thought we got a STEAL on this "Mod-DELUXE" resort! The grounds are beautiful, it is so quiet, great food court, room-size perfect for our family of 4, did I mention the hot water in the shower is FANTASTIC!?!?! We are so missing Disney that we may go back in January or over Spring break before our next "big" trip in December 09. We want to stay at CSR again! My kids said they want to stay here every time because of the pool!
Okay, the tiny bit of negative but it is really not an exclusively CSR problem:
Transportation (and did I say it is not just a CSR problem?): Okay, so you know when you get that survey from the best company in the world and they make you list just one tiny thing they could do better even though you couldn't possibly think of one little thing? Well, my one little thing I would like to see change is Disney Transportation. Okay, so it's not little - it's BIG! A big problem! It wasn't that bad at CSR except for our first day. So you walk out of your room on Day 1 of vacation, excited to get to the castle, get your ears, get your popcorn - start the vacation you've saved for all year! Well, we get to bus stop 4 on day 1 and waited 45 minutes for a Magic Kingdom bus! We were not happy. I do have to say that after the snafu on Day 1, the most we waited on any given morning or evening for a bus was maybe 10-15 minutes which isn't bad at all. So, overall, the buses at CSR were pretty good.
Warning for those who stay in Cabanas 9A and 9B: It sure is nice to be in these preferred buildings but the wait at Bus stop 1 can be brutal. On the day the MK bus was 45 minutes late at Bus stop 4, we then went to bus stop 1 and there were no less than 75 people waiting at this bus stop. AND of course, they didn't get on our bus that was standing room only. That day it was really bad but every other day, there were tons of people waiting for buses at Bus stop 1. Just something to think about especially during peak season.
Magic Express: Great on the way to CSR, HORRIBLE the way back. After waiting 50 minutes for our bus to the airport, I went to the front desk and they had "Chisy" the CSR porter take us in a private bus to the airport for FREE. CSR manager Anna was great and apologized profusely. Again, like Pepper Market, the problems with ME are not the fault of CSR. Anna told us to please contact Disney transportation to report this problem. We had the same thing happen to us with ME on a trip in '06. After they picked us up at our resort, we were on the bus for 2 HOURS resulting in our plane having to be held for us at the gate. Needless to say, no more ME for us. We will just take a cab.
SORRY THIS IS SO LONG BUT I COULDN'T HELP IT! WE LOVE CSR AND HAD TO SHARE!
First impressions: We arrived at the resort around 6:15pm on Wed, Oct 8th. Pretty amazing because our plane landed at 5:10 and we walked right on the ME bus and they got us there within the hour!
Wow - the resort is BEAUTIFUL! We were blown away by the gorgeous landscaping. Super clean, nice colors. Everyone we passed said hello. We strolled through the main building and the HUGE gift shop. We liked the little "to-go" bakery and thought the lounge looked really nice.
"Hugeness" of Resort: It tickles me when I read about the "hugeness" of ANY Disney resort because, HELLO, WDW IS huge!
Is CSR big? Well, sure - it isn't made up of a couple of buildings and one pool. If I had to walk from Ranchos to Pepper Market and back and wanted to keep my coffee piping hot and my to-go waffles warm, well, I just wouldn't be a happy camper every morning! I stayed at GF and had to walk quite a bit each day to the main building to get to the monorail so a few extra yards at $300 less a night didn't bother me at CSR. Seriously, anyone who has restrictions could totally stay at CSR at the Casitas or Cabana 9B, be close to all the action, and be able to navigate their way without a lot of extra walking. We just took it in stride (no pun intended!) and enjoyed the strolls next to the lake to see the alligator and the turtles. Check-in: I had read on the boards that some people felt the CMs at the front desk were less than friendly so I was prepared to walk up with my usual smile and friendly attitude to set the tone for check-in.
We were greeted warmly by Stephanie from Barbados. She was fantastic! We talked for awhile as there were no other people in line to check-in. She said we had just missed the rush. By the way, the foyer of this resort is amazing! The tall ceilings and fountain made me think I was in a 5-star Mexican resort! Anyway, Stephanie answered all our questions and was engaging. I had requested Cabanas 9B and connecting rooms. The resort must have been pretty full because they only had rooms in Cabanas 8B and Ranchos left. No worries. My next request since we were unable to get 9B was queen beds. She wasn't sure about the queen bed thing. We were assigned to rooms 8521 and 8522. There were several manager-types in suits hanging around in the lobby making sure people were being attended to. We asked Stephanie if we could tip her and she said sure as long as we put it in an envelope. We felt she deserved it!
Rooms: We took a nice stroll around the lake to get to our rooms. Again, the grounds are beautiful. I totally got the "Disney-feel" of the resort but at the same time, it felt like we were away on a Mexican vacation. Several golf carts passed us on the way - not one tried to run us over and everyone said hello.
The room was spacious and well-appointed. Love the granite counter-tops on the bathroom sink! Fridge is large enough for 4 1/2 gallons of milk and lots of other items. Ceiling fan is FANTASTIC for us as we must sleep with them at home. The room was clean and smelled fresh. The only problem was: no queen beds in Cabanas 8B. We called down and the only rooms available with queen beds were Ranchos. We looked out our window and we were about 30 yards from bus stop 4 so we decided we could live with full-size beds and be close to the bus stop, pool and pepper market. WE WERE HAPPY! The bus stop being close to our room ended up being the best choice for the rest of our vacation. More about Transportation later....
One more note: At first, we thought being at the back of the building would be a pain. NO WAY! We were right by the bus stop and it was super quiet in the back.
Dig site pool: We are night-time swimmers after a day in the parks so we didn't get to see the pool until day 3 because of the nightly thunderstorms. The pool is AWESOME! Our entire family and our friends loved the water slide! My 2 year old hung out in the baby pool and she had a blast! The lifeguards were so nice - they interacted with all the kids at the pool and joked around with everyone. I know most pools have towels but it sure felt like a luxury for us not to schlep a big pile of towels down to the pool! The pool is HUGE and would easily hold a lot of guests.
Quietness of resort: The resort was pretty busy while we were there but it did not feel like it at all. I did not hear doors slamming at anytime during our vacation. Every once in awhile I heard water running but that was only when I was in the bathroom. We pulled the room-darkening shade tight each night and we didn't even realize it was morning until our alarms went off - it was that quiet. The rooms seem to be well insulated. We couldn't even hear our friends through the connecting doors!
Suits AKA conventioneers: We saw just a few convention guests throughout our vacation. Didn't bother us in the least and didn't make the resort feel "un-Disney" to us. We just felt bad that they had to stay at boring meetings while we got to go have FUN at the parks!
Pepper Market: We loved the pepper market! We are commando types that stay in the parks from dawn to dusk so honestly we didn't eat there everyday, but when we did, we found it pretty easy to figure out and the food was great. My family is pretty picky on any given day so we really liked the variety of food available. I couldn't stop going to the Asian stir-fry station! Bourbon chicken - YUMMY! Great variety, good food - usual Disney prices but you felt like you got a pretty big portion for your money. And the 10% surcharge? A bargain for someone to get me drink refills, extra napkins, clean up my table, etc.
Pepper market employees: Going into this I knew that pepper market was not managed by Disney and that some people felt the employees were less than friendly. Well, they weren't your usual perky Disney CMs but we felt they were fine. I'm not trying to make excuses but we really felt a lot of it is language barriers. Most of the employees we encountered did not speak English fluently. Not that this excuses behavior, but it is a factor, IMO. Another thing I noticed is that they are WAY understaffed. I don't know what it is like during the breakfast rush or in peak times but there was only one person working at each station and that is just not enough to prep, cook the numerous items on the spot, etc. That would make me kind of grumpy if I had to do all that work by mself! Again, there is no excuse for rudeness but maybe Disney needs to rethink this.
Each waitstaff that waited on our table was friendly and got us everything we needed. A couple of times, I did overhear some families complaining (loudly) to a manager about the bad service. Poor manager - it looked like this was something he was used to hearing! I think the Pepper Market is a GREAT DEAL if you are on the Disney Dining plan - big portions and great variety. My husband got the steak and it was WONDERFUL!
Panchitos Gift Shop: HUGE gift shop! Best of the resorts, IMO. They also had a great variety of groceries and the milk prices were the same as what we got at Walmart.
Other amenities: We didn't do the spa or workout room - We walked about 7-10 miles a day so we felt we were good in the exercise department. I did use the laundry facilities and they were great.
Would I stay at CSR again?: ABSOLUTELY! We thought we got a STEAL on this "Mod-DELUXE" resort! The grounds are beautiful, it is so quiet, great food court, room-size perfect for our family of 4, did I mention the hot water in the shower is FANTASTIC!?!?! We are so missing Disney that we may go back in January or over Spring break before our next "big" trip in December 09. We want to stay at CSR again! My kids said they want to stay here every time because of the pool!
Okay, the tiny bit of negative but it is really not an exclusively CSR problem:
Transportation (and did I say it is not just a CSR problem?): Okay, so you know when you get that survey from the best company in the world and they make you list just one tiny thing they could do better even though you couldn't possibly think of one little thing? Well, my one little thing I would like to see change is Disney Transportation. Okay, so it's not little - it's BIG! A big problem! It wasn't that bad at CSR except for our first day. So you walk out of your room on Day 1 of vacation, excited to get to the castle, get your ears, get your popcorn - start the vacation you've saved for all year! Well, we get to bus stop 4 on day 1 and waited 45 minutes for a Magic Kingdom bus! We were not happy. I do have to say that after the snafu on Day 1, the most we waited on any given morning or evening for a bus was maybe 10-15 minutes which isn't bad at all. So, overall, the buses at CSR were pretty good.
Warning for those who stay in Cabanas 9A and 9B: It sure is nice to be in these preferred buildings but the wait at Bus stop 1 can be brutal. On the day the MK bus was 45 minutes late at Bus stop 4, we then went to bus stop 1 and there were no less than 75 people waiting at this bus stop. AND of course, they didn't get on our bus that was standing room only. That day it was really bad but every other day, there were tons of people waiting for buses at Bus stop 1. Just something to think about especially during peak season.
Magic Express: Great on the way to CSR, HORRIBLE the way back. After waiting 50 minutes for our bus to the airport, I went to the front desk and they had "Chisy" the CSR porter take us in a private bus to the airport for FREE. CSR manager Anna was great and apologized profusely. Again, like Pepper Market, the problems with ME are not the fault of CSR. Anna told us to please contact Disney transportation to report this problem. We had the same thing happen to us with ME on a trip in '06. After they picked us up at our resort, we were on the bus for 2 HOURS resulting in our plane having to be held for us at the gate. Needless to say, no more ME for us. We will just take a cab.
SORRY THIS IS SO LONG BUT I COULDN'T HELP IT! WE LOVE CSR AND HAD TO SHARE!
I finally lifted up the bed skirt and the "full size" tag was on each bed. Don't know about the rest of the building - maybe our rooms were just the last to get changed over.
