Will give a report of my stay at Coronado 11/14-11/22.
We arrived after dark and never actually saw the resort in the daylight until a few days later. It is prettier than I thought. I am not really into the southwest theme, but found this still very pleasing.
Check in was ok. I knew there were a lot of people staying at Coronado on our Magical Express bus so I rushed to get in line while my husband got our baggage stored below. I wouldn't have had to do that as they opened more check in places as the line grew. The person checking us in was part of an exchange program, maybe from Tokyo? He had me put a credit card on file and select a pin, even though I had done that all during online check in. That process deleted the pin off my husband's band, so he had to use mine. I'm sure he could have gone back and chosen his own again, but it didn't seem worth it. They first gave me a room in Ranchos. I had requested Casitas through my
travel agent and asked if it would be possible for a room there. He called someone and was able to get us Casitas 5. I asked about where my groceries could be picked up (Garden Grocer order), and was referred to the convention center. So off we went in search of that, as it was going to close in 5 minutes. We got there and they said it wouldn't be there if there was any refrigeration required. I was relieved as I knew there would be a fee then for that pick up. Back to the front desk. Found a different person, and they said to try Bell Services. They had my order, and met us outside with it all loaded in a golf cart. Thank goodness. That was a long trip to Castias 5. The bellman helped lug all our water and soda and bags up to our room. Well worth that tip.
Our checked bags hadn't arrived, so we called to check as the kids were getting tired. We were told it could be five hours? I had never heard that long before. But they showed up about 20 minutes after we checked. Was glad I packed pajamas for the kids in the carry-on bags though.
The room at first smelled a little musty, but I guess I got used to it because it didn't bother me after the first day. The shower tiles seemed dated, but otherwise the room was fine. I prefer two sinks and a table to one sink and a desk, but we got by. We did request a second luggage rack, as we don't use the dresser and prefer to live out of our suitcases, but it never did come.
The Magic Band door sensor broke one night. It still worked to let us in, but the plastic piece fell off. I found the whole placement of that piece very awkward to use, being right above the handle, but that's not a Coronado-specific complaint, I'm guessing. Anyway, they came around 1 AM to fix it as we heard the door open and close during the night. Glad we had the top swing-arm lock closed.
Housekeeping was fine. We had a towel Mickey head on the bed, and some odd towel creature on the dresser when we arrived, otherwise no other towel animals. She did arrange the kids' stuffed animals on the beds nicely. We ran out of facial tissue with two nights to go and guess she missed that as it didn't get replaced. That was sort of an issue as we all had colds when we were there.
My kids loved the pool. Liked it much better than French Quarter last year. The pool side activities were great. My son had a lot of fun and the two girls running the activities were very good. They were painting part of the playground so we couldn't use most of that.
While the kids used the pool, I used the time to do some laundry. I really wish laundry was closer to the main pool. I did the long walk several times. We could have used the quiet pool closer to laundry, but the kids wanted the water slide and activities.
The dryer was awful. It took two full dry cycles on high and my clothes still bordered on damp. I would have ran a third cycle, but we had to leave for a dinner reservation. I had this same problem last year at French Quarter, so either I know how to pick a dryer or they just aren't that efficient.
My husband is a huge soda drinker and we had the refillable mugs, but hardly used them because of the distance to El Centro from Casitas 5. Instead, he shelled out $3 a bottle twice a night. I wish we would have known how far we would be as I would have ordered more pop from Garden Grocer. We really did not use our mugs much.
We ate at Pepper Market twice. My husband had ribs and said they were very good. I shared Quesidillas with the kids, and other than having the cook make two other people's orders before mine (whom I was ahead of), it was fine. The other time we had a cheeseburger which hubby said was also very good, and chicken strips, which were standard chicken strips.
Buses weren't an issue for us. We were the first stop so always had seats. Sometimes they got pretty full, other times it was us and one other group. The return buses were always pretty full, but the location at the parks was always very close to the park exit which was nice.
My complaints relate mostly to its size, and being spoiled at French Quarter last year, being right by the main building and bus stop, nothing could compare. Maybe if we had stayed at Riverside or CBR before, this wouldn't have seemed like the inconvenience it did.
Overall, it was a very nice stay, and I wouldn't mind staying at Coronado again.