Just got back from a trip and stayed at CSR. I'll start with the good.
- The room was great. Without knowing I'd say it was recently refurbed, it was a preferred room. Beautiful space, modern feel, etc.
- The "food court." I liked the variety and everything on offer. This past weekend was extremely busy, no idea why. Touringplans had it projected at AK as a 3 for instance and it was an 8. Everything was just really busy, resort included. The food court was still quick even with decent lines.
- The gift shop there was a descent size compared to CBR's (now demolished) little one.
- It's very picturesque, and you can even watch the MK fireworks from there.
- The location, nothing is super close but everything is fairly close and nothing is super far. I really love AKL and put up with it being a bit further away for how gorgeous I find it, but it was nice being so central.
Now the not so great:
- I didn't start in prefered, I was in a room I could literally reach out and touch the construction fence. I kept an open mind though. 630 am a work team is hammering in silt fence 20 feet away. 430ish am a generator of considerable size kicked in. Both woke me up. Hence the move. I supervise for a company that does civil services (construction) and there's a way to do this kind of thing correctly. We have jobs all the time with mandated 9 am starts. Disney isn't doing this here. I have to feel a 9am - 5am construction period over 7am - 3am would be preferable here. I'm not sure if they have really poor project managers or just literally don't care. And yes they did stop at 3, so they weren't doing 10 - 12 hour days to "rush" the project.
- The size. I honestly can't get past this. I don't mind walking. I love CBR. I've stayed at the very end of AKL, but at CSR there seems to be no way to be close to dining and the pool. It's one or the other. I love using the hot tubs and obviously eating is a requirement.
Overall it's a very nice resort but to me it's not a great disney resort. Not because of theming or other concerns I've read, just that it's so lazily done. A bridge through that lake like they did at CBR solves the issue of size in a heartbeat. I've only stayed at 8 disney resorts but this is the first one I would straight up not reccommend to someone.
It's just purely the size. I thought it wouldn't bother me because I always hear that complaint about CBR as well. I still had a great trip, I still enjoyed my stay at the resort. I also think they're being very greedy keeping rooms open 8 feet away from construction. I could touch the fence from my door in the first room. I think that's a short term gain long term hurt situation. I know there are better resorts but if I was a first time guest to WDW and that's what I got, I may just assume it's the norm. I wouldn't be going back.
- The room was great. Without knowing I'd say it was recently refurbed, it was a preferred room. Beautiful space, modern feel, etc.
- The "food court." I liked the variety and everything on offer. This past weekend was extremely busy, no idea why. Touringplans had it projected at AK as a 3 for instance and it was an 8. Everything was just really busy, resort included. The food court was still quick even with decent lines.
- The gift shop there was a descent size compared to CBR's (now demolished) little one.
- It's very picturesque, and you can even watch the MK fireworks from there.
- The location, nothing is super close but everything is fairly close and nothing is super far. I really love AKL and put up with it being a bit further away for how gorgeous I find it, but it was nice being so central.
Now the not so great:
- I didn't start in prefered, I was in a room I could literally reach out and touch the construction fence. I kept an open mind though. 630 am a work team is hammering in silt fence 20 feet away. 430ish am a generator of considerable size kicked in. Both woke me up. Hence the move. I supervise for a company that does civil services (construction) and there's a way to do this kind of thing correctly. We have jobs all the time with mandated 9 am starts. Disney isn't doing this here. I have to feel a 9am - 5am construction period over 7am - 3am would be preferable here. I'm not sure if they have really poor project managers or just literally don't care. And yes they did stop at 3, so they weren't doing 10 - 12 hour days to "rush" the project.
- The size. I honestly can't get past this. I don't mind walking. I love CBR. I've stayed at the very end of AKL, but at CSR there seems to be no way to be close to dining and the pool. It's one or the other. I love using the hot tubs and obviously eating is a requirement.
Overall it's a very nice resort but to me it's not a great disney resort. Not because of theming or other concerns I've read, just that it's so lazily done. A bridge through that lake like they did at CBR solves the issue of size in a heartbeat. I've only stayed at 8 disney resorts but this is the first one I would straight up not reccommend to someone.
It's just purely the size. I thought it wouldn't bother me because I always hear that complaint about CBR as well. I still had a great trip, I still enjoyed my stay at the resort. I also think they're being very greedy keeping rooms open 8 feet away from construction. I could touch the fence from my door in the first room. I think that's a short term gain long term hurt situation. I know there are better resorts but if I was a first time guest to WDW and that's what I got, I may just assume it's the norm. I wouldn't be going back.