chocovrdmicears
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 1, 2007
- Messages
- 6,933
We stayed at Coronado Springs for the first time 9/12-9/19. We have been blessed to have stayed at the Polynesian for our previous 3 trips and LOVED it. But life threw us some financial curveballs this year so the Poly wasn't in the budget even with free dining. So we were faced with either cancel our annual family WDW vacation or try a moderate for the first time. The package difference was about $2000. I did a lot of research and decided to try a moderate rather than go without. 
We have stayed at 2 values without my son (ASMovies~ loved it and Pop Century~ didn't love it) but we knew the size of the rooms and the bus sytem wouldn't work for our son.
After reading many reviews and doing a LOT of research, we chose CSR. The key factors for us was the great reviews of the bus system and the childrens play area.
I must preface my review with the fact that we do have a little one that requires some extra special circumstances. It was myself, DH, DD5 and DS4. My 4 year old son is autistic so our vacation must include certain special considerations. Staying at a monorail resort was wonderful but we felt, now that he is officially out of a stroller. (actually refuses to be in one
) we thought we could give the bus system a try.
I really really wanted to love this resort. I committed myself to approaching this trip as a new, exciting experience and not simply comparing a deluxe to a moderate. So here are my feelings based on my families experience.
When we first arrived I did notice how beautiful the resort was..but it was missing the 'Disney' atmosphere (which may be a plus for some!). Even the Values have a fun Disney feel ..but it honestly had a 'convention' hotel feel.
Check in went very quickly...no problems there. We had requested Cabanas when we made our reservations, confirmed a week before and when we checked in. More importantly we asked that we NOT be placed in the previous smoking room. My son has major sensory issues and we were concerned. My DH told them even if it meant not being in Cabanas we could not be in a previous smoking room. We went off the the park for the day as our room was not ready.When we returned later that night, we walked into our room and it was like walking into an ashtray. I couldn't believe how bad it was! We called the front desk and within 15 minutes that had another room for us (Cabanas 8B) but we had to roll our 2 kids and our 3 suitcases in the rain to our new room.
The new room was great! Incredible difference in the air quality. We found it spacious and clean. We were comfortable there for the remainder of our stay.
The other issue we had was that I seriously underestimated the size of this resort. It really is HUGE. Especially when you have a 4 & 5 year old.There is a LOT of walking involved to get around this resort. We did see golf carts but not as often as we would have liked. We bought the refillable mugs but to grab a diet coke at the end of the day or coffee first thing in the morning, it involved a 25 minute round trip walk. A couple of mornings we thought we would grab a quick breakfast at the Pepper Market but the line to get in there was down the hall...so we gave up on that early on.
We tried the Maya Grill for dinner one night and it was easily the worst meal (servie and food) that we have ever experienced.
We were close to the Dig Site and my dd5 really enjoyed the water slide and the pool very much. Our problem with the main pool had nothing to do with the resort, rather my lack of researching, but worth mentioning in case it helps someone else. The 'shallow' end of the main pool was over my 4 year olds head. Again, because of sensory issues, he wouldn't wear the life vest. If he swam on the stairs he was fine. But if he wanted to swim beyond that we had to be a few inches from him. Clearly a zero entry pool would have worked better for us. Again, NOT a resort issue, but worth mentioning if you have little ones who are too big for the 'kiddie' area but not strong enough swimmers to be in a pool that is too deep.
This was our first time being 100% dependant on the bus system. Bus stop #4 was right outside our room. The bus system worked very efficiently. Never waited for a bus very long and the busses were never crowded. However, we definately over-estimated my sons ability to handle the buses. It added too much waiting and too much extra walking to our vacation. For our son, when he is done his is DONE. We definately missed the luxury of the monorail. The bus system added an extra challenge to our vacation that took a toll on us. The resort was so big, that when we arrived back to our CSR from the parks, depending on the crowds, it was still another 15-20 minutes before we were at our bus stop. If you have little ones, or need to be in and out of the parks quickly, even the most efficient bus system doesn't compare to the convience of the monorail.
And the last 2 mornings of our vacation we had NO hot water in our shower.
For us, CSR definately lacked the Disney Magical feel. Coupled with the missing luxury of convience, this resort just didn't work for our family. We took advantage of the bounceback program and booked our Sept 2008 for the Polynesian.
Hope this resort review helps some others!
We have stayed at 2 values without my son (ASMovies~ loved it and Pop Century~ didn't love it) but we knew the size of the rooms and the bus sytem wouldn't work for our son.After reading many reviews and doing a LOT of research, we chose CSR. The key factors for us was the great reviews of the bus system and the childrens play area.
I must preface my review with the fact that we do have a little one that requires some extra special circumstances. It was myself, DH, DD5 and DS4. My 4 year old son is autistic so our vacation must include certain special considerations. Staying at a monorail resort was wonderful but we felt, now that he is officially out of a stroller. (actually refuses to be in one
) we thought we could give the bus system a try. I really really wanted to love this resort. I committed myself to approaching this trip as a new, exciting experience and not simply comparing a deluxe to a moderate. So here are my feelings based on my families experience.
When we first arrived I did notice how beautiful the resort was..but it was missing the 'Disney' atmosphere (which may be a plus for some!). Even the Values have a fun Disney feel ..but it honestly had a 'convention' hotel feel.
Check in went very quickly...no problems there. We had requested Cabanas when we made our reservations, confirmed a week before and when we checked in. More importantly we asked that we NOT be placed in the previous smoking room. My son has major sensory issues and we were concerned. My DH told them even if it meant not being in Cabanas we could not be in a previous smoking room. We went off the the park for the day as our room was not ready.When we returned later that night, we walked into our room and it was like walking into an ashtray. I couldn't believe how bad it was! We called the front desk and within 15 minutes that had another room for us (Cabanas 8B) but we had to roll our 2 kids and our 3 suitcases in the rain to our new room.
The new room was great! Incredible difference in the air quality. We found it spacious and clean. We were comfortable there for the remainder of our stay.The other issue we had was that I seriously underestimated the size of this resort. It really is HUGE. Especially when you have a 4 & 5 year old.There is a LOT of walking involved to get around this resort. We did see golf carts but not as often as we would have liked. We bought the refillable mugs but to grab a diet coke at the end of the day or coffee first thing in the morning, it involved a 25 minute round trip walk. A couple of mornings we thought we would grab a quick breakfast at the Pepper Market but the line to get in there was down the hall...so we gave up on that early on.
We tried the Maya Grill for dinner one night and it was easily the worst meal (servie and food) that we have ever experienced.
We were close to the Dig Site and my dd5 really enjoyed the water slide and the pool very much. Our problem with the main pool had nothing to do with the resort, rather my lack of researching, but worth mentioning in case it helps someone else. The 'shallow' end of the main pool was over my 4 year olds head. Again, because of sensory issues, he wouldn't wear the life vest. If he swam on the stairs he was fine. But if he wanted to swim beyond that we had to be a few inches from him. Clearly a zero entry pool would have worked better for us. Again, NOT a resort issue, but worth mentioning if you have little ones who are too big for the 'kiddie' area but not strong enough swimmers to be in a pool that is too deep.
This was our first time being 100% dependant on the bus system. Bus stop #4 was right outside our room. The bus system worked very efficiently. Never waited for a bus very long and the busses were never crowded. However, we definately over-estimated my sons ability to handle the buses. It added too much waiting and too much extra walking to our vacation. For our son, when he is done his is DONE. We definately missed the luxury of the monorail. The bus system added an extra challenge to our vacation that took a toll on us. The resort was so big, that when we arrived back to our CSR from the parks, depending on the crowds, it was still another 15-20 minutes before we were at our bus stop. If you have little ones, or need to be in and out of the parks quickly, even the most efficient bus system doesn't compare to the convience of the monorail.
And the last 2 mornings of our vacation we had NO hot water in our shower.
For us, CSR definately lacked the Disney Magical feel. Coupled with the missing luxury of convience, this resort just didn't work for our family. We took advantage of the bounceback program and booked our Sept 2008 for the Polynesian.
Hope this resort review helps some others!
The bus to Epcot went to Ft. Wilderness first. The bus coming back from AK went to GF first. It took us 55 minutes to get to DTD. NOTHING was direct, and you never knew where all you would stop before you got where you needed to go. Figuring transport time was impossible because it was a complete crap shoot! Based exclusively on how frustrated we were with the bus/boat situation we won't go back to WL.
I told my husband it certainly could have been a fluke, or an off night..but with my son we just couldn't take the chance. And because we had to book our next stay before we checked out, I couldn't research the resort to find out about the transportation...so we went with what we know and felt comfortable with. 
