I was so excited to be staying at CSR because of this thread. As someone above said, I felt like I knew all I needed to before I ever arrived. It was myself, and 3 kids. DD 12, DD 9, DS 4. Our friends and their 2 children.
We landed at MCO and had a little trouble finding the ME busses. I'm a bit surprised it's not better marked. We were the 3rd resort of 5 to be dropped off. I was a little dissapointed with that but it was fine. I was just ready to be on vacation.
When we walked into the main doors we immediately felt like vacation had begun. The fountain at the entrance with the very tall doorways is just beautiful. We didn't have to wait to check-in. We'd done on-line check in the night before as the computers at WDW were down before that.
I requested ground floor, water-view, Cabanas 8A. I got all of my wishes and even got a corner room. We LOVED our location and both of our windows. It felt bigger because of the light coming in too. Our room # was 4183. It was perfect for us. It was a super short walk to the pool, nice short walk to bus stop 4, and the sidewalk that ended in front of our door led to the first hammock!
The Cabanans Quiet Pool was closed for the first part of our visit but then opened. We never used it as we were a lot closer to the Dig Site and that's where we wanted to go anyway.
The first night, we went to DTD. We waited for a bus for about 15 min. That was by far our longest wait. While waiting, we saw our first tiny lizzard and also saw a Lubber Grasshopper. (I had to google it to find out what it was called.) We first thought it was fake as it was gigantic and looked like something Disney would do. It hopped! Our kids loved it. I really detest bugs and lizzards but none of those bothered me one bit, like I thought it would.
The only time our busses were full was one night when we stayed at Epcot for the park closing. Most of the time, the bus had just us or at the most 5 other people on with us. We loved that.
We also hardly waited ever for a bus. Sometimes the bus would see us coming and wait for us too.
We loved the Dig Site pool, hot tub, and baby pool. Mike, the lifeguard, was AWESOME! We really loved him. He made friends with my 9yo DD. He let her help him close the waterslide and give his nightly speech. He hosted a pool party at 1pm one day we were there. We had an issue with one of the kids at the water slide and he immediately jumped in and took care of it all for us. We could tell he was genuinely dissapointed that we were leaving the next morning. My ds wasn't sure about the water slide so he allowed my 12yo dd to take him down once to help him. Then, he instructed him to put his hands out to the side so he wouldn't turn over and that made all the difference. Ds went down the slide as many times as his little legs could carry him up the stairs to the top over and over and over again. We really loved the pool
We weren't super impressed with the girl at the counter at Siestas. It wasn't clear what was included as a snack and she didn't like telling us. But, I was on vacation, so I ignored her attitude and went with the flow. My kids probably didn't even notice. The food we got there was good. The kids enjoyed ice cream a couple of times. My girls got nachos and I got fries to share with ds. We were all happy with the portions (HUGE!) and taste both.
When I made the reservations last April, I told them it was dd's b'day. When I checked in, I reminded them. When I chose to not use Mousekeeping, I had to sign a paper which also had on it that it was dd's b'day. Two nights before we left, I called the front desk and told them that she had yet to be recognized and that my friends' ds had received a card from Mickey, etc. They appologized and promised something would happen. Well, nothing did. So, I called again the next night and told them again. The next day, while we were at the pool, someone left a card in our room, no pin, and a photopass card. Well, we were leaving early the next morning and spent our last day at the resort, so she never had the opportunity for the photopass card. I'm not sure it's different than the one you get at the park anyway, but I was dissapointed that I had to handle it not once, but twice. The morning we left, I went to the desk myself and asked for a b'day pin for her.
My friend and I had massages on our last full day there. It was a long walk from Cabanas 8A to Cassitas 4 but it was soooooooo worth it. Oh, it was incredible. The ladies giving our massages were wonderful. We asked if we could get a golf cart ride back to our room and they were very positive and said sure! When the guy came to get us (5 min at the most), he was grumpy. After we left the building, he grumbled that the golf cart isn't supposed to be used for guests, but for baggage. Now, while I'm very willing to walk most times and pretty forgiving most times, he was rude. The ladies at the spa didn't hesitate that it wasn't a problem at all and made us feel like it was totally normal to get a golf cart ride to our rooms.
We ate breakfast at the Pepper Market 4 times. Twice, we got it to go and twice, we ate inside. We were never charged a tip any of the 4 times. We had the
DDP. Because of this thread, I knew exactly what to do, so that wasn't hard at all. I will say that since I was the only adult, it did make it hard to have the three kids with me and get our meals, and out the door without spilling or dumping anything. But, I'm a mom. I made it work and it was fine. One of our servers at the Pepper Market was not friendly, not attentive, and didn't seem to enjoy his job but it was ok. The other server we had was wonderful.
I didn't want our room cleaned. I kept it picked up and cleaned up. I got towels from Mousekeeping a couple of times and more soaps. I gave her my dirty towels once. Since I was waiting for someone to leave something for dd for her b'day, I didn't put the privacy card in our key slot. I wrote a note and put it on my bed saying to please just exchange the towels and garbage and that was all. I came back to a completely clean room. I realize I probably sound nuts but I really didn't want anyone messing around in our room when I wasn't there. I took 2 laptops, a Nook, and other things like that, plus left money and cc in the room. So, I wasn't very happy that she moved our clothing (the kids left pjs on the beds) and remade beds (I made them before leaving every morning.) and cleaned e/thing. I complained when I called the front desk that night when I was also calling about the lack of b'day recognition for dd.
The resort itself was very clean everywhere that I went. They even combed the sand. I saw people around the resort cleaning constantly, picking up trash, all of those things. There was a large convention there the last part of our stay and while we saw them around, they were only in our way one time when we used the lobby bathroom before heading out to a park. It wasn't a big deal at all. The ones we were around were friendly and it was fine.
I really loved CSR. I really loved where we stayed at CSR. I would highly recommend it to my friends. I also plan to return in Dec 2012 so we can see WDW at Christmas. CSR is beautiful, very vacation feeling, the pool and waterslide are a lot of fun. The hot tub is relaxing and big so there's plenty of room. We loved it!
I have a few questions. 
) I'd like to be as close to a bus stop as possible, and close to the food court (mug refill station 
) would be great. How close we are to the pool doesn't concern me, and noise level isn't a concern either. Any suggestions? And also, when do I send the request? I've heard that others send a fax directly to the hotel, is this recommended? I don't want to seem pushy or demanding. I'll be happy with anything (except ranchos lol) but if the perfect room or building is available, I'd like to try for it! 
We just got our room when we checked in.
I did get a PM answer from MickMan_03 that there wouldn't be a charge, hope that's right, thanks again!
