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

[basketkat]

I'll be checking in at CSR next Saturday, Sept 24

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As far as the balloon, no idea. I'd think it's up to the individual CMs at the resorts as it's not a policy or anything like that. Having no kids and my own birthday being 5 months after my trip, I have 0 experience with it

Hope you have a great time, and if you see a random guy taking pictures of everything in the resort... give me a wave

We arrive on the 23rd...I will be the mom jumping up and down like Tigger because I can't believe we are finally back!

 

[MAGIC...itis!]

Greetings. I am just about to make my reservation but I am indecisive about the better room category option: CSR Preferred Room or CSR Water View. For the same price, I keep going back and forth as to the benefits of each category.

Any help would be appreciated as to what you would pick.... and why. Thanks.

 

[MusicMouse]

Greetings. I am just about to make my reservation but I am indecisive about the better room category option: CSR Preferred Room or CSR Water View. For the same price, I keep going back and forth as to the benefits of each category.

Any help would be appreciated as to what you would pick.... and why. Thanks.

Preferred rooms are in Casitas 1,2, and 3. They are closest to the main building and Pepper Market. Water View can be any where that overlooks the lake, a pool, or even the Casita fountains. Which you choose really depends on what is more important to you - location or view. HTH!

 

[MAGIC...itis!]

Preferred rooms are in Casitas 1,2, and 3. They are closest to the main building and Pepper Market. Water View can be any where that overlooks the lake, a pool, or even the Casita fountains. Which you choose really depends on what is more important to you - location or view. HTH!

Thanks for the info. Which location do you reserve, and why? Do you request a building? And why?

 

[Cafeen]

Greetings. I am just about to make my reservation but I am indecisive about the better room category option: CSR Preferred Room or CSR Water View. For the same price, I keep going back and forth as to the benefits of each category.

Any help would be appreciated as to what you would pick.... and why. Thanks.

Thanks for the info. Which location do you reserve, and why? Do you request a building? And why?

As mentioned, preferred is Casitas 1-3 whereas there are water views in every section (and probably every building ). Water view means either lake, pool, or I think even the fountains. It just means you can open your door and see some sort of water. They'd probably make it water view if there's a sprinkler running out in front

As for me, I booked preferred this year as it's the first year it's offered. I don't use the main pool (or the quiet pools for that matter), so distance to The Dig Site is of no importance. (Though, one night, after it's closed, I do hope to play with some longer exposure shots there... but I can hoof it). I do regularly go to El Centro (I love Panchitos) though, so proximity to that was important.

For the past 2 years, I booked Water View and got very good room locations (Casitas 4 last year, Cabanas 9A the year before)

For others, if the main pool is a draw, I'd forgo booking preferred, since Casitas 1-3 are probably the furthest from the Dig Site that you can get. If you fall into this category, I'd suggest requesting Casitas 4/5, or Cabanas 8A/8B/9A either water or non-water. These tend to be the closest to equidistant between El Centro and The Dig Site as you can get. (Especially Casitas 4 and Cabanas 8B)

 

[MAGIC...itis!]

Cafeen: Thank you so much. It is good to hear from a fellow Resort-o-phile the reasons why they pick their room location.

Being a Floridian, we go for long weekends, 3- to 4-days, and we don't usually have time for a "pool day". So the Dig Site doesn't need to play a role. Like you, I take it our needs will be better met if centrally located by Casitas or Cabanas.

Thanks again.

 

[MisWal]

Just booked our first stay at CSR for May 2012!! We can't wait!!

 

[Mickeyfan74]

Booked our 1st stay at CSR! November 2011. Looks like a great place.

Normally we stay at POP or SHADES for the low rates.
But they are curently offering great military rates throughout Disney and we got a King bed and meals for 5 days. Awesome deal

Can't wait to go.. 48 days and counting.

 

[bibbidibobbidibecky]

We will be staying at CSR for the first time the first week of Oct. and it looks like there is a convention going on there at the same time. Will this have an impact on us?

Thanks! We are very excited to try out a new resort...it will be our first Moderate, too.

 

[raymond3500]

I too will be staying at CSR the 1st week of October. Last time I checked there are conventions on both weekends but not during the week. 10 days out, I get to call in a room request today.

 

[raymond3500]

I've got another question regarding flights & CSR...

First, we are coming from WA state so there are no "short flights". No matter how you dice it, it takes about 8hrs to arrive in Orlando. I'm looking at an overnight flight where we board the plane the night before (2/10) our check in date, and arrive in Orlando the day of our reservations (2/11) at 6:55am. Now, I know our room wouldn't be ready first thing in the morning...but can we still check in around 8am, leave our luggage/carryons w/ bell services and get our KTTW cards so that we can enter the parks that morning & use our dining plan? Or can we not check in until a certain time? We don't need to be able to access our room until the evening as long as we can leave our luggage at the resort.

Hi fellow Washingtonian. I wish we would have gotten a late evening flight but I was out-voted. We fly out of Portland next Thursday at 7:30 am.

 

[E&As Mom]

You are going to love it!!!! My family of 4 stayed @ CSR from 9/3 to 9/11 and had our best stay yet. This was our first time staying @ CSR, and I can't imagine staying anywhere else for our future visits.

We were located in Ranchos 7B (by request, actually... I know that not many folks prefer the Ranchos). We had a corner room (room 7523), with a view of the quiet pool and right next to the laundry room. Big bonus for us, since I do laundry mid-week. It was close to the dig site and to 2 of the bus stops (#3 and #4). The beds are super comfy... we loved having a queen sized bed to sleep in. And the doors that separate the bathroom area from the rest of the room are a great thing to have. I could get ready in the mornings without disturbing the girls while they were still sleeping.

The resort itself is really beautiful. Very lush and beautifully landscaped. It's gorgeous at night as well. It was a little bit of a walk from our room to get up to El Centro, but really only took us about 8-10 minutes each way. We didn't rely on Panchitos or the Rix Cafe much... just went 2 or 3 times our whole stay.

At any rate, welcome to a beautiful resort! Hope your stays will be as wonderful as our was.

~Kelly

 

[CarolinaMomOf3boys]

after reading about traveling around the world to and from CSR I am having 2nd thoughts about this resort? We will be there for free dining in March/April and I am about 2 weeks away from making my dining reservations....hoping the park schedules with EMH will be released by then, too. We are flying into orlando and do not ever plan to get a cab for any transportation for ADRs or anything else....will this pose a problem? Should I rethink this?

Some list of restaurants I am considering are:
Chef Mickeys for breakfast one day
Crystal Palace for breakfast one day
SCI FI theater
Narcoossees one night
one night dining at downtown disney....not sure where, yet
ESPN
San Angel Inn
Cali Grill or Jiko....been to both, unsure of this trip....

Its the restaurants that are located at resorts that I am most concerened with making the ADRs for.....
Thanks!

 

[StitchandPooh'sMom]

I too will be staying at CSR the 1st week of October. Last time I checked there are conventions on both weekends but not during the week. 10 days out, I get to call in a room request today.

You can actually put in a room request at any time by calling Central Reservations. You can do online check-in at ten days, but there is no place during the online checkin process to make a room request.

Enjoy your trip!

 

[StitchandPooh'sMom]

We will be staying at CSR for the first time the first week of Oct. and it looks like there is a convention going on there at the same time. Will this have an impact on us?

Thanks! We are very excited to try out a new resort...it will be our first Moderate, too.

We have stayed several times at CSR, both with and without conventions. The differences I have seen with conventions are:

seeing people walk around with nametags
buses and pool are markedly less crowded since they are in meetings during the day
Pepper Market can be busier in the morning (but not always)
Bars tend to be busier in the evenings (but it depends on the group).

You can Google the name of the convention and probably find their schedule. Sometimes the conventions offer breakfast before meetings, so the Pepper Market is not affected. They usually have lunch brought in to the convention center. Sometimes they have evening activities, usually in the convention center or the parks, but sometimes on the grounds. Larger conventions sometimes have tents up on the grounds, but there are very few of those (only one comes to mind, and it has already happened this year). Convention people are placed throughout the resort but seem to be concentrated in the casitas, so you can request a different area if it looks like it will be a large convention.

 

[StitchandPooh'sMom]

after reading about traveling around the world to and from CSR I am having 2nd thoughts about this resort? We will be there for free dining in March/April and I am about 2 weeks away from making my dining reservations....hoping the park schedules with EMH will be released by then, too. We are flying into orlando and do not ever plan to get a cab for any transportation for ADRs or anything else....will this pose a problem? Should I rethink this?

Some list of restaurants I am considering are:
Chef Mickeys for breakfast one day
Crystal Palace for breakfast one day
SCI FI theater
Narcoossees one night
one night dining at downtown disney....not sure where, yet
ESPN
San Angel Inn
Cali Grill or Jiko....been to both, unsure of this trip....

Its the restaurants that are located at resorts that I am most concerened with making the ADRs for.....
Thanks!

You should be fine with all of these. No trouble at all getting to any of the parks (ADRs in the parks start around 8:00) or any evening ADRs. Transport to DTD usually takes a while (from any resort), so allow plenty of time to get there and plan to shop or wander if you get there early.

The ADRs that tend to be harder to get to using Disney transportation are non-monorail resort ADRs that are early in the morning. Getting to Cape May, for example, before Epcot opens is tough, since the CSR bus goes to the front of Epcot and Beach Club is at the back, and you can't walk through that early. Getting to Boma for breakfast would be tough, but we have gone to AKL for dinner several times using Disney transportation. You would need to transfer buses, though, to get back - you could go straight to AKL on a bus from whatever park you were in, but you would need to go to a park or DTD, then transfer to a CSR bus to get back.

I have read several times on the DIS about an early bus just for character breakfasts, but we drive if we are doing a resort breakfast, so I have never seen it. You could ask at check-in to be sure.

For Chef Mickey's, you can take a bus to MK and walk to CR or take the resort monorail. I think the first MK bus leaves CSR around 7:00, so you should be able to make a 7:30 ADR if you don't miss that first bus. Making an ADR for 8:00 gives you a little room for error, but it would be harder to make rope drop at MK after breakfast.

For ESPN, you can walk from Epcot or take the boat or walk from DHS (If you are at MK or AK that day, just take a bus to one of the Epcot area resorts.), then retrace your steps to catch a bus back to CSR after dinner. You just need to be done before the parks close. Alternatively, you could take a bus from one of the Epcot area resorts to whichever park has late hours that night, then catch a bus back to CSR. It takes longer, but you can use Disney transportation until midnight or later. You could also take a bus to DTD then transfer to CSR, but that would likely take the longest.

 

[westgrove]

Just booked our first stay at CSR for May 2012!! We can't wait!!

Me too! It will be my first ever trip to WDW and we'll be at CSR from 11-25th May... sooo excited!

 

[Disney Bunny]

We are trying to make it to rope drop for Animal Kingdom on the morning that it opens at 8 for EMH. If we are at the bus stop by 7 am, will that give us enough time to get there? I want to ride the safari before we have our 9:20 breakfast reservation.

 

[germ539]

We are planning on going the end of May 2012?

 

[spacy9]

I tried to find this info but can't seem to. Can someone tell me how many floors building 8A is?

Thanks!