Coronado Springs Resort -- New Unofficial FAQ Thread -- October 2010

[justgeorgi]

After years of passing Coronado Springs (and brief stops on the Magical Express while waiting for others to board or disembark) I have always thought it looked very pretty from the outside but I have to be honest...I'm cheap, stingy, and will do anything to save money for my trips We LOVE Pop Century, LOVE it...and we also don't mind All Star. We also love camping at Fort Wilderness and have stayed at Port Orleans Riverside as well. I don't mind crowds, I don't mind kids and I don't mind "most" of the cheerleading and sports groups. (Although I have minded the leaders of those groups many times but thats another story....seriously aren't you there to SUPERVISE? Why are you at the bar DRINKING?) Ok I digress....

We have stayed offsite and on many times. If we have a large party we usually rent a house or condo to give everyone room to spread out and the kitchen is a necessity. I refuse to shell out the money for a villa....and frankly it really isn't enough room for us. We like several bedrooms, a dining room, living room, kitchen and several bathrooms as well as a place for the kids to hang out so a 2nd livinig room or den is perfect.

BUT with all that said...Hubby and I have taken a few trips just us and plan to do more in the future now that our daughter is 18. After spending this ENTIRE day reading through all of the posts, perusing all of the GORGEOUS pics, we have decided to that CSR is our 1st choice for our trip for the Food and Wine festival next year! We can't wait to start planninig and I've already started making lists!!!

 

[dtstampz]

KatMark--
I will be there Sept. 18-25. I think I leave just as you arrive?

 

[brerdawg]

Just back from the Coronado, and it was as lovely as ever! I had requested the Cabanas for our standard view room, but was assigned a room in Casitas 5--nothing available in the Cabanas. I asked for Ranchos 7B, and that location turned out to be very nice. It was quiet and fairly close to bus stop #4. No towel animals this time, but that was ok. Very pleased with the bus service, and I got gelato from Cafe Rix every night, LOL! Can't wait to return in September.

Any word on whether or not they will bring back the breakfast buffet at the Maya Grill?

 

[brerdawg]

Just returned from CSR today & we had a lovely time. Thanks to all the information on this board I felt really prepared for my stay.

We arrived at 11:00 am on 5/10 & our room wasn't ready so we headed to the pool. It was beyond awesome. By 3:30 we still hadn't received a call for our room & my little kids were very tired. We had a not so nice CM, but then my DH walked to El Centro & got a super CM who immediately gave us a room in Cabanas 8B. It was lovely. We didn't get any fancy towel creations .

We experienced wonderful bus service every day except on our last morning when we waited 35 min. for a MK bus (I timed it). We got to bus stop #4 at 8:05 a.m. & the bus showed up at 8:40'ish. It was a bit frustrating, but overall not too bad considering every other bus we waited for came within 5-10 min. of our arrival (we visited bus stops #4 & #1 depending on the morning).

There was A LOT of confusion over where our package of water was. I ordered it from Staples.com & it didn't come via UPS or Fed Ex. This really seemed to confuse a fair amount of people b/c there was no tracking number & it took upwards of 4 hours to find it, but it was eventually found & all was well.

We found the Pepper market to be pretty good. We had 2 wonderful dinners there (chicken fajitas & quesadillas), and the service was terrific. The meals at Siesta's by the pool were abysmal. I had the nachos & had to throw them away as they were reminiscent of something from taco bell. Just horrible!

We didn't find the walk to PM far at all & we were with a 5 & 7 year old. I wish there were more choices regarding food, but I knew what to expect so I wasn't disappointed. I honestly thought the coffee was putrid.

As a few others have pointed out we would return to our room around 4:00 p.m. & it still wasn't cleaned up. By the 3rd day & with our tipping we got our room serviced by 1:00 p.m. which was much better . I did find the toilets to be very loud overall. We even had a noise machine for the kids & we stopped flushing the toilet after they fell asleep b/c it was too loud.

The Dig Site was just incredible . My kids never wanted to leave. The pool never felt crowded to us at all. We even visited the Contemporary & Poly. & found those pools to be packed with people.

A week before our visit I called & put in a request for Cabanas & luckily that's what we got.

This was our 1st ever Disney trip & we loved CSR.

Sounds like you had a great time with only a few issues that would be expected with any trip. I think that their pool is only second to Storm Along Bay. We are already beginning to get excited for our April return to CSR!

 

[sassyredhead]

We are staying at CSR for the first time in 10 days! I just wanted to thank everyone who contributed to this thread, as it has been so helpful. I'll be sure to post a review when we get back!

 

[justgeorgi]

So jealous of all the countdowns on here that are coming up soon! Have a great trip EVERYONE!

Question....is it true the fridges do NOT have a freezer section? Thats a bummer if so.

 

[silverhaze269]

We are staying at CSR for the first time in 10 days! I just wanted to thank everyone who contributed to this thread, as it has been so helpful. I'll be sure to post a review when we get back!

I'll be sure to say Hi if I see you around the resort! I'm also leaving in 10 days

My thanks once again to all the people who posted helpful hints and pictures and reviews...I can't wait!

 

[MAMA GRAVE]

So jealous of all the countdowns on here that are coming up soon! Have a great trip EVERYONE!

Question....is it true the fridges do NOT have a freezer section? Thats a bummer if so.

The fridges do not have a freezer section though my Mom did have some Diet Coke freeze in hers. We found that if you pull the fridge out a little bit, it seems to work better.

 

[KatMark]

The fridges do not have a freezer section though my Mom did have some Diet Coke freeze in hers. We found that if you pull the fridge out a little bit, it seems to work better.

True; or keep the door of the cabinet that the fridge is in open.

 

[Disney Bunny]

So is it just the angles of the pictures I am looking at or do the buildings in Ranchos have fewer floors of rooms than the ones in Casitas? Also, do I remember correctly that one of the buildings does not have elevators? Really starting to get organized for our upcoming trip.

 

[snykymom]

I am sure more experienced will jump in, but we just got back and we were in waterview and they had us in Cabana 8a. Not sure if 8b is considered waterview as well?

Every building has water view rooms.

 

[cpayne1997]

Just completed my online check in!!! I can't wait!
Keeping my fingers crossed that we get Casitas 4 or 5

 

[dina7]

True; or keep the door of the cabinet that the fridge is in open.

This does help with helping the fridge to work better, except every time we left the cabinet door open, we would return from the parks to find that mousekeeping would close it again. Oh well.

 

[VeganCupcake]

There is only 1 playground at the resort right? Near the Dig Site pool? I requested Casitas 4. And I can not wait to go and surprise DS!

 

[KatMark]

There is only 1 playground at the resort right? Near the Dig Site pool? I requested Casitas 4. And I can not wait to go and surprise DS!

Yes, just the one playground...but it is a very good size playground.

 

[VeganCupcake]

OK, thanks. I thought there was only one. I looked at some pictures today and it didn't look like all the pictures were the same playground for some reason. It must just be b/c it is big the photographer couldn't fit the whole thing in one shot.

 

[scrdofbugs]

I did my online check in today. I can't wait!!! 10 more sleeps til CSR!!!

 

[aubriee]

So is it just the angles of the pictures I am looking at or do the buildings in Ranchos have fewer floors of rooms than the ones in Casitas? Also, do I remember correctly that one of the buildings does not have elevators? Really starting to get organized for our upcoming trip.

The Casitas can be either 3 or 4 stories. The Ranchos are either 2 or 3 stories and all of the Cabanas are 2 stories. It just depends on which building you are in.

Casitas 2 does not have an elevator. However, building 2 is connected to building 3 via a walkway type bridge. You can take the elevator in building three, then walk across the walkway to building 2. The only problem is if your room happens to be on the top floor on the back side of building 2, that can be a very long walk. You'd have to walk the length of building 2, cross over to building 3, use the elevator, go across the bridge, then walk all the way around and down the length of building 2 to get to your room. It was easier to just climb the four flights of stairs. The only problem with that is that the outside stairs (closest to bus stop 2) only go up to the third floor. You had to walk through by the health club, across the quiet pool area, and use that set of stairs to get to that top floor. Either that or use the outside stairs to the third floor, walk across the width of the building down a hallway type area and then take another flight to the fourth floor. What is funny is that I had a king room on the fourth floor. I couldn't believe they'd put a king room (that you must pay more for) way up there. It was very hard to get to and had an ugly parking lot view. It was very quiet though. I had trouble finding a way to get up there and was wandering around on the third floor looking for another flight of stairs when I ran into a CM. I could see my room from where we were standing, but couldn't find a set of stairs that would get me back up there. When I pointed to my room and asked how to get up there, he laughed and said I was in what the CMs call "No Man's Land". He said he had no idea why the architect designed it that way, but those particular 4th floor rooms were a pain in the neck to get to. He said the easiest way was to just use the stairs across from the quiet pool and just climb the four flights. The next morning I went down and asked to change rooms and got a wonderful first floor room in Cabanas 8A.

 

[Disney Bunny]

Well, I can tell which building I WON'T be requesting. LOL! DH would turn around and get right back on a plane to go home.

 

[aubriee]

Well, I can tell which building I WON'T be requesting. LOL! DH would turn around and get right back on a plane to go home.

The funny thing is that now that they've reclassified the buildings and Casitas 1, 2, and 3 are now preferred, that location is now preferred. To be fair though, Building 2 would be nice as long as you don't get stuck way up in that 'No Man's Land' on the back side of the 4th floor facing the parking lot. Rooms on the front side (courtyard/fountain view) or on the upper end closest to the main building on a lower floor would be a great location.