CSR just back:Good/Bad

[momimouse27]

We just arrived home from our 6 night stay at CSR. All in all, it was a good trip and we found some great, some not-so-great things about our resort.

We liked :
Pool area and dig site-great area for kids, we loved
the big deal they made over turning the water on at
the waterfall in the morning!
The beauty of the large lake and lights of El Centro at
night...very nice.
All the animals we saw...lizards, bunnies, even saw a doe
cross in front of our car on our first night
Bus service-never waited more than 10 minutes for a bus
Laundry area-more laundry facilities than most resorts,
there were always plenty of washers/dryers available

We didn't care for :
Our section-Ranchos-I have never been a fan of adobe/
desert type architecture. There were some things that
were very beautiful, but for the most part I didn't care for
it. I had requested Casitas, but didn't get my wish.
Long walk to El Centro-I knew from researching the resort
that it was big, but when you have to walk it after a long
day at the park, it brings a new meaning......
Mousekeeping-A couple of times we had to ask for coffee,
one day we didn't get towels, and I was a little disappointed
that others around us had towel animals in their windows, but
we never got one I had even printed out those nice
little envelopes for our tips!

 

[tlelliott]

We arrived back home on Friday 9/14 from CSR too, no animals here either

I'm going to piggyback on your post - ok?

Here is some more information on CSR from our trip to 9/9-9/14:
We stayed in Cabanas 8a, closer to the laundry station between 9b/8a....which I ended up using, very convenient, I was the only one using them at the time.

The room was very clean, service was nice....the room service must have happened mid-afternoon while we were away, beds made, kids stuffed animals stacked, bathroom cleaned.

Pepper Market: we ate there a few times....our first time was lunch and it was super crazy since there was a convention going on and must have just gotten released for lunch. I ended up waiting at the kids station for over 3 minutes before asking another station to come help me...and it was our first time using our QSM dining option, and the restaurant host was not helpful in explaining how it worked. I liked all the choices and checking out was very easy IMO. We also ate breakfast and dinner there over the 5 days....those experiences were much better since it wasn't super busy. Some of the custom choices took longer to cook, but were always done in a few minutes.

Dig Site/Bikes: We loved the dig site, the kids (and us) enjoyed the slide and DS enjoyed the sand area. We also rented the family bike and toured the resort, it was a lot of fun!

Bus Service: The bus service to the parks was very convenient, and I loved the fact that Coronado Springs was always the first or so bus stop to come back to the resorts, less walking. We did have to stand on the bus a few times at park close time, but that is expected.

Overall Resort: It is a large resort, but I enjoyed the space and lake atmosphere. We did walk to El Centro a few times without the kids complaining too much, and the shuttles seemed to be by a frequently, and were easy to catch if they had room.

My tip for Sept: Bring ponchos - it rained every night, we even missed some shows because they had to cancel them with the lightening being too close.

Thanks to everyone on here for helping me prepare and plan - my DH was very thankful for the tips I had learned before we arrived - it really was a magical stay at Disney!!!

Photos around Resort:

 

[Jane-in-PA]

We just arrived home from our 6 night stay at CSR. All in all, it was a good trip and we found some great, some not-so-great things about our resort.

We liked :
Pool area and dig site-great area for kids, we loved
the big deal they made over turning the water on at
the waterfall in the morning!
The beauty of the large lake and lights of El Centro at
night...very nice.
All the animals we saw...lizards, bunnies, even saw a doe
cross in front of our car on our first night
Bus service-never waited more than 10 minutes for a bus
Laundry area-more laundry facilities than most resorts,
there were always plenty of washers/dryers available

We didn't care for :
Our section-Ranchos-I have never been a fan of adobe/
desert type architecture. There were some things that
were very beautiful, but for the most part I didn't care for
it. I had requested Casitas, but didn't get my wish.
Long walk to El Centro-I knew from researching the resort
that it was big, but when you have to walk it after a long
day at the park, it brings a new meaning......
Mousekeeping-A couple of times we had to ask for coffee,
one day we didn't get towels, and I was a little disappointed
that others around us had towel animals in their windows, but
we never got one I had even printed out those nice
little envelopes for our tips!

Sorry you didn't get the section you requested. The same thing happened to me when I stayed at CSR in 2002. I asked for Cabanas 1st choice, Casitas 2nd choice, just please not Ranchos. Of course, we got Ranchos! It was August, about 100 degrees. After walking to El Centro a couple of times, we just drove our car. It was way too far to walk in the heat. I didn't care for the look of Ranchos either. We enjoyed our stay well enough, but we decided for our last trip to try POFQ, which we loved!

 

[Buzz2001]

Welcome back! Thanks for sharing!! Nice pics tlelliot!!

Long walk to El Centro-I knew from researching the resort
that it was big, but when you have to walk it after a long
day at the park, it brings a new meaning......

momimouse27, not sure why you would have to walk after a day at the parks. Why not just use the ranchos bus stop?

 

[momimouse27]

Either way it was alot of walking. It would have been much quicker walking to the bus stop(#4) and just riding to El Centro than just walking directly, but everyone was so worn out we didn't even want to make it to the bus stop....we always stayed til the parks were closing every night!

CSR is a very lovely resort overall, and even though its very spread out, my favorite resort, Beach Club, is also spread out so that was not a huge deal, only an inconvenience.