The *NEW* Coronado Springs FAQ Thread (Part II)

[rosiep]

Oh! I'm so glad RIX is on the DDP! It's going to make everything that much easier for me!

 

[MzGemini]

Where is the Rix Cafe

There is the Rix and then there is the Rix Cafe.

The Rix Cafe is in the hallway going from the front entrance down to the Pepper Market and the Maya Grill. Its located right next to the gift shop. There is also the Rix, which is seperate, and it is located across from the Pepper Market. The Rix Cafe has no seating area, you get your food to go. I didn't go into the Rix while we stayed there, so I'm not sure what that is like inside.


Thanks all, for the well wishes on my camera! I wouldn't have minded buying a new camera but I'm some glad I'm getting my picture back!

 

[agnes!]

We are making a quick WDW trip this weekend , a Christmas trip/present and we are staying at Coronado Springs for the very first time.

If you had to pick ONE thing to do at CS, what would that be? We'll only be there Friday & Saturday night and will be maximizing the parks after dark (as much as we can), so we can see some of the park light displays. We've never seen the Osbourne Family Lights (the one year we went at Christmas-time, the lights were shut down), so that is first on our list, but I'm interested in any special things to look for around CS.

We will not have the DDP, so the various credits levels don't mean that much to us, but we do have the DDE and have APs.

Thanks for any advice/tips.
agnes!

 

[DisGal520]

Woohoo!! Someone found my camera and is mailing it to me!

!

MzGemini
So glad your camera was returned.
If an employee of the CSR found the camera, you should write a nice letter to the resort manager thanking the manager on the conern the staff showed. I'm guessing you told the CSR lost and found about the camera and that they called you to tell you it was found. Even if you don't know the name of the person who turned it in, the letter will be shared with the staff there.

A couple years ago I had my wallet pick-pocketed while in the MK. Noticed it missing within 10 minutes and went to lost & found to report it. Got a call from Disney later after I returned home that it was found in the trash by a mousekeeper at the Grand Floridian (where I had not visited). The thief must have tossed it there after taking the cash. The cash was gone, but all my ID and insurance cards, etc were still in it. The GF Manager had checked to see if I was a guest at that resort first and then called information for my phone number in MD using the name on my ID cards. After we spoke and I could identify what the wallet looked like, etc, it was mailed to me. She had included a nice card about hoping that experience had not ruined my vacation.

I sat down and sent a thank you letter right back to them and requested the letter be shared with all mousekeeping at their resort. My only regret is that I did not ask for the name of the person who found and turned in the wallet. But I'm sure the thank you letter was appreciated.

DisGal

 

[Buzz2001]

The view from our room 2 weeks ago. We were in 9B and it was a perfect location! I had requested 8A, but this was better!

Does anyone ever get tired of seeing this? Not me. Such a lovely resort!

Me neither! I love seeing pics.

 

[Buzz2001]

If you had to pick ONE thing to do at CSR, what would that be? We'll only be there Friday & Saturday night and will be maximizing the parks after dark (as much as we can), so we can see some of the park light displays. We've never seen the Osbourne Family Lights (the one year we went at Christmas-time, the lights were shut down), so that is first on our list, but I'm interested in any special things to look for around CS.

You don't say if you have kids but I would check out the beautiful x-mas decorations at CSR, try the slide at the Dig Site (if the weather permits), couples massage, try the new Rix Lounge, try the Maya Grill buffet breakfast, try a wet burrito at the PM, walk around the fountains in the casita area, rent a surrey bike, rent watermice, go fishing, walk the nature path, have a margarita from Sietas, and check out Panchitos.

 

[agnes!]

Buzz, Buzz, Buzz...
Haha, I asked for *one* thing (but I know that must be almost impossible for you).
Thanks for the tips. I don't know how much resort time we'll have but am excited about staying at CSR. We just have one DD & she's almost 15.

Is the Maya Grill buffet breakfast something special or is it just standard breakfast (waffles, eggs, etc.) fare? We're fond of the Crystal Palace at breakfast and the Hyatt Regency's Sunday brunch is spectacular...so many places to eat, so little time .

What are the food/drink prices like at CS's restaurants/bars?

agnes!

 

[Lilolvr]

It's a good buffet but the price is very good.

7 a.m. - 11 a.m. daily
$16.95/adult, $9.95/child 3-9

Mixed Fruit Salad
Whole Fruits
Cold cereals
Oatmeal and grits
Pastries
French Toast
Waffles with syrup
Scrambled Eggs
Egg Burritos
Sausage links
Ham/Bacon
Biscuits with Gravy
Home Fries with Onions and Peppers
Hash Browns
Coffee/Tea

Selection of Juices
Milk and Hot Chocolate

 

[Pixmaus]

We just got back today from 5 nights at CSR. We stayed in the Casitas Bldg. 3.

First the good stuff:
All castmembers were very helpful and friendly
The landscaping and scenery is beautiful

I don't have any comments on transportation, since we had our own car.

Food: We tried the Pepper Market, Maya Grill and the Rix Cafe. All three were adequate, but nothing really stood out (negative or positive).

Now the negatives:
Noise: We were staying in a third floor corner room. Several nights it was quite loud. Our last night there, several drunks were apparently making their way back to a nearby room at about 2:30am. They were yelling, laughing and banging on a door. At 3am, when they still had not gone into a room, my husband called the front desk. Security came out and things were quiet for about 10 minutes, then they started back up. I realize that this is not Disney's fault, but that doesn't make it any less annoying. I think that the new Rix lounge caters to a younger adult crowd, that may not always be as mature and respectful of others as they should be.
My other complaint was the cigarette smoke in common areas. Smokers were obviously not confining themselves to the designated smoking areas and the smell of cigarette smoke was very noticeable in many of the common areas.

We enjoyed all other aspects of our trip, but just wish we had stayed elsewhere. Thanks for letting me vent...

 

[Buzz2001]

We just got back today from 5 nights at CSR. We stayed in the Casitas Bldg. 3.

First the good stuff:
All castmembers were very helpful and friendly
The landscaping and scenery is beautiful

I don't have any comments on transportation, since we had our own car.

Food: We tried the Pepper Market, Maya Grill and the Rix Cafe. All three were adequate, but nothing really stood out (negative or positive).

Now the negatives:
Noise: We were staying in a third floor corner room. Several nights it was quite loud. Our last night there, several drunks were apparently making their way back to a nearby room at about 2:30am. They were yelling, laughing and banging on a door. At 3am, when they still had not gone into a room, my husband called the front desk. Security came out and things were quiet for about 10 minutes, then they started back up. I realize that this is not Disney's fault, but that doesn't make it any less annoying. I think that the new Rix lounge caters to a younger adult crowd, that may not always be as mature and respectful of others as they should be.
My other complaint was the cigarette smoke in common areas. Smokers were obviously not confining themselves to the designated smoking areas and the smell of cigarette smoke was very noticeable in many of the common areas.

We enjoyed all other aspects of our trip, but just wish we had stayed elsewhere. Thanks for letting me vent...

Sorry your stay was so magical. The things you mention as negatives could happen at any resort. Noisy neighbors and smokers not smoking in DA's

 

[dburg30]

We just got back today from 5 nights at CSR. We stayed in the Casitas Bldg. 3.

First the good stuff:
All castmembers were very helpful and friendly
The landscaping and scenery is beautiful

I don't have any comments on transportation, since we had our own car.

Food: We tried the Pepper Market, Maya Grill and the Rix Cafe. All three were adequate, but nothing really stood out (negative or positive).

Now the negatives:
Noise: We were staying in a third floor corner room. Several nights it was quite loud. Our last night there, several drunks were apparently making their way back to a nearby room at about 2:30am. They were yelling, laughing and banging on a door. At 3am, when they still had not gone into a room, my husband called the front desk. Security came out and things were quiet for about 10 minutes, then they started back up. I realize that this is not Disney's fault, but that doesn't make it any less annoying. I think that the new Rix lounge caters to a younger adult crowd, that may not always be as mature and respectful of others as they should be.
My other complaint was the cigarette smoke in common areas. Smokers were obviously not confining themselves to the designated smoking areas and the smell of cigarette smoke was very noticeable in many of the common areas.

We enjoyed all other aspects of our trip, but just wish we had stayed elsewhere. Thanks for letting me vent...

WOW, We're still here, and we're on the 3rd floor of casitas.. I dont remember any real loud rucus goin on. Maybe it was more towards the el centro part of building 3? The only time it would get loud is mid morning or so when i guess lots were taking their showers or something. We were usually gone early, so I didnt have to deal with much of that..

I agree with pepper market, nothing to get excited about, but it wasnt bad at all. Didnt try other stuff. CM's were 99% good except for the ones that decided they didnt want to deal with cash and told me I couldnt just apply cash to my account and use it that way. Had 3 different ones tell me that!! I just kept paying the room everyday to get rid of some of my cash. One time the concierge (sp) helped me and discreetly mentioned that perhaps I should just put the cash to the room next time I was there so I didnt have to carry around so much cash. I litterally threw up my hands and told them I was told 3 times I couldnt do that. They admitted that the folks probably just didnt want to deal with cash (you know, then you have to be responsible). So if you just take cash, MAKE them put it on your account if you want to..

Transportation, after the first night, was excellent.

As far as the smoking, again, I usually saw people in the spots they were to be in, but if you were having issues with people at 3am, you were probably havin people not pay attention to where they were supposed to smoke also. I did notice a few time folks walking the path smoking, but nothing really offended me.

Sorry you had some issues, the noise one would've ticked me off also, but the others, I wouldnt have really let bug me..

 

[dburg30]

Also, the 'internal shuttles' I think are a figment. Actually I did, finally see one this AM cruising the path. Literally, that was the first one I saw all week. That was a disappointment, sometimes after the parks it would've been nice to hope on one of them, but they were never seen..

 

[dburg30]

Thanks Buzz!!! Do you know if the hotel will charge a handling fee for the water?

They charged me. Maybe if I would've gone down and picked it up, it would've been free, but it was 12.78 for 2 cases of water, and a light box from staples.. But, it was delivered about 10 minutes after I called about it upon checkin also, so I had no issues with the charge.

 

[MzGemini]

We just got back today from 5 nights at CSR. We stayed in the Casitas Bldg. 3.

First the good stuff:
All castmembers were very helpful and friendly
The landscaping and scenery is beautiful

I don't have any comments on transportation, since we had our own car.

Food: We tried the Pepper Market, Maya Grill and the Rix Cafe. All three were adequate, but nothing really stood out (negative or positive).

Now the negatives:
Noise: We were staying in a third floor corner room. Several nights it was quite loud. Our last night there, several drunks were apparently making their way back to a nearby room at about 2:30am. They were yelling, laughing and banging on a door. At 3am, when they still had not gone into a room, my husband called the front desk. Security came out and things were quiet for about 10 minutes, then they started back up. I realize that this is not Disney's fault, but that doesn't make it any less annoying. I think that the new Rix lounge caters to a younger adult crowd, that may not always be as mature and respectful of others as they should be.
My other complaint was the cigarette smoke in common areas. Smokers were obviously not confining themselves to the designated smoking areas and the smell of cigarette smoke was very noticeable in many of the common areas.

We enjoyed all other aspects of our trip, but just wish we had stayed elsewhere. Thanks for letting me vent...

We stayed at CSR Nov. 29 - Dec. 9 and had the opposite experience. We felt like we were staying at a deserted resort. We would get back to the resort between 10pm - 12 am and the path ways would be deserted. My son was kind of creeped out walking along them at night time by ourselves. I never heard any noise, not even my neighbours. I remember last year when we stayed at All Star Sports we could hear the the toilets flush from the room next to us and there were always people about no matter the time. But that doesn't bother me as we use to live in an apartment building right next door to a play ground so I pretty much learned to block out any unwanted noise.

Both my son and I were impressed by the theming of the Maya Grill. It's a very beautiful restaurant. And for those of you on the dinig plan, Maya Grill is one of the few places that kids can get steak in a kid's meal. My son was thrilled about that! We didn't eat at the Pepper Market so I can't comment about that but as I said in a earlier post, I was impressed about the Rix Cafe.

Sorry your experience wasn't so magical. Any negative experiences I had at Disney (resort or theme park) was caused by a guest, not by Disney. Its too bad people can't be more respectful of others so everyone can have a magical time.

 

[Buzz2001]

We stayed at CSR Nov. 29 - Dec. 9 and had the opposite experience. We felt like we were staying at a deserted resort. We would get back to the resort between 10pm - 12 am and the path ways would be deserted. My son was kind of creeped out walking along them at night time by ourselves. I never heard any noise, not even my neighbours. I remember last year when we stayed at All Star Sports we could hear the the toilets flush from the room next to us and there were always people about no matter the time. But that doesn't bother me as we use to live in an apartment building right next door to a play ground so I pretty much learned to block out any unwanted noise.

Both my son and I were impressed by the theming of the Maya Grill. It's a very beautiful restaurant. And for those of you on the dinig plan, Maya Grill is one of the few places that kids can get steak in a kid's meal. My son was thrilled about that! We didn't eat at the Pepper Market so I can't comment about that but as I said in a earlier post, I was impressed about the Rix Cafe.

Sorry your experience wasn't so magical. Any negative experiences I had at Disney (resort or theme park) was caused by a guest, not by Disney. Its too bad people can't be more respectful of others so everyone can have a magical time.

Great review Lisa! Welcome back!!

 

[Buzz2001]

They charged me. Maybe if I would've gone down and picked it up, it would've been free, but it was 12.78 for 2 cases of water, and a light box from staples.. But, it was delivered about 10 minutes after I called about it upon checkin also, so I had no issues with the charge.

I read a post a few days later that stated all the convention resorts are now charging for this service.

 

[Bellybee]

We stayed between 29th November -13th December.

We were in Ranchos 7a as we did not request a particular area.

We did request a non parking lot view but still got the parking lot lol.

It was a lovely resort and very quiet but with all the water I was scared of aligators.

We were really far from everything but had a quiet pool and the Laundry room quite close and we were walking distance to the dig site which was quite cool.

We had a meal at Maya Grill that was one of the worse of our whole trip I had the steak and catch the steak was ok the fish was something I had no idea what it tasted like squid but looked like a fillet it was gross.

Then we waited and waited for our plates to be cleared and get a dessert and none came near despite the restaurant having 6 waiters and 2 other tables. So we finally got our bill but it was like 2 hours after our meal started and wrong so we werent over loving that place thankfully we were on DDP and needed to use credits up so we werent too bothered.

However the resort is beautiful and the Cast Members (with exception of Maya Grill) were great.

We ate at Pepper Market twice but found it too much of a faff to really enjoy it really isnt very straight forward.

We spent quite a few CS from the DDP at the pool bar and the food there was fresh and good so would recommend that.

We saw the internal shuttle all the time but it was speeding by us all the time with no one on it but never stopped for us.

We used to get the bus round to stop 1 all the time and walk back as it was at least a 20 minute walk from El Centro to our room.

Great Great Holiday though

 

[Lilolvr]

WOW, We're still here, and we're on the 3rd floor of casitas.. I dont remember any real loud rucus goin on. Maybe it was more towards the el centro part of building 3? The only time it would get loud is mid morning or so when i guess lots were taking their showers or something. We were usually gone early, so I didnt have to deal with much of that..

I agree with pepper market, nothing to get excited about, but it wasnt bad at all. Didnt try other stuff. CM's were 99% good except for the ones that decided they didnt want to deal with cash and told me I couldnt just apply cash to my account and use it that way. Had 3 different ones tell me that!! I just kept paying the room everyday to get rid of some of my cash. One time the concierge (sp) helped me and discreetly mentioned that perhaps I should just put the cash to the room next time I was there so I didnt have to carry around so much cash. I litterally threw up my hands and told them I was told 3 times I couldnt do that. They admitted that the folks probably just didnt want to deal with cash (you know, then you have to be responsible). So if you just take cash, MAKE them put it on your account if you want to..

Transportation, after the first night, was excellent.

As far as the smoking, again, I usually saw people in the spots they were to be in, but if you were having issues with people at 3am, you were probably havin people not pay attention to where they were supposed to smoke also. I did notice a few time folks walking the path smoking, but nothing really offended me.

Sorry you had some issues, the noise one would've ticked me off also, but the others, I wouldnt have really let bug me..

Looking forward to reading your full review.

 

[Ice]

We'll be at CSR in 113 days, and thanks to this thread, Buzz's website and the 'just back' thread, which I've spent the last couple of weeks reading, I'm getting more excited by the day. I'm much more excited than our 2 sons (9 and 5), but in truth, I think the whole idea still seems a bit unreal for them.

We've saved up for 10 years for this holiday, and when we booked, we hoped we could afford a Disney hotel, and luckily, due to school holidays falling out of synch with Easter, and some Virgin holiday vouchers, we managed to stretch to a moderate. We chose CSR on the basis of one line in a guide book I'd read, which simply said that CSR was the newest of the Disney moderate hotels, and had slightly more facilities.

Only recently have I thought to look online to find out more about the hotel, and I can now see what a great choice we've made.

 

[Buzz2001]

We'll be at CSR in 113 days, and thanks to this thread, Buzz's website and the 'just back' thread, which I've spent the last couple of weeks reading, I'm getting more excited by the day. I'm much more excited than our 2 sons (9 and 5), but in truth, I think the whole idea still seems a bit unreal for them.

We've saved up for 10 years for this holiday, and when we booked, we hoped we could afford a Disney hotel, and luckily, due to school holidays falling out of synch with Easter, and some Virgin holiday vouchers, we managed to stretch to a moderate. We chose CSR on the basis of one line in a guide book I'd read, which simply said that CSR was the newest of the Disney moderate hotels, and had slightly more facilities.

Only recently have I thought to look online to find out more about the hotel, and I can now see what a great choice we've made.

CSR is the newest mod and offers some deluxe amenities like a spa, fitness center, salon, full menu room service, a lounge with live entertainment. CSR has the best pool/slide of the mods too. The transportation is great and not shared. CSR is centrally located so you have quick rides to all the parks.

Have a great trip!