Feeling Hot Hot Hot! The Rain Curse is Broken! Two Weeks of Fun in the Sun! COMPLETE

[mnmrmustard]

I was so happy that the room was ready. I just wanted to get the room all set up and get the trip to the grocery store done with so we could spend the rest of the afternoon in the pool!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

May 11th continued

The trip back to Coronado Springs from Downtown Disney was quick and after swiping our resort card which was always a frustration for me (I can never seem to get the car close enough to reach the machine with ease) we made our way around the resort to the Casitas 5 parking lot. This was one of the few days where the Security gate at the resort was actually down, during most of the trip, due to conventions, they had the gate up which actually bothered me but I will get into that later.

The parking lot was practically empty so I got a spot up front and we unloaded the car and went in search of the elevator. It was easy enough to find and we were soon on the fourth floor. Our assigned room was 5422 which ended up being right around the corner from the elevator. I was pleasantly surprised to see that our room faced a courtyard and had a view of the lake. We had only paid for a standard room and I do believe this would have been considered a water view so we must have been upgraded! It was a great room location, right near the elevator and ice machine and had a great view. It was also close to everything we could have wanted, we were more than happy!

Sorry for the poor quality of the room pictures, I was in a rush as the others were impatient to get in the room as I was making them wait out in the hall.

Coronado Springs offers Queen beds which was wonderful compared to the doubles at the values and other moderate resorts although I do believe that one of the Port Orleans resorts has just upgraded to Queen beds as well.

I also liked that the bed linens were white, much easier to see if they are clean or not!

You'll note the sliding doors separating the beds from the bathroom area, very nice and great for creating privacy.

Since this is a convention resort they offer a desk in the room in place of the standard table.

The room offered these comfy little chairs that were easy to move about the room. I made frequent use of them.

Sorry, no pictures of the bathroom, I forgot. It was a typical Disney resort bathroom and had the curving shower rod. The tub also had a nice tiled area that could be used as a seat at the end of the tub, I imagine it would be a nice feature for parents needing to bathe their children.

I was very pleased with the room. The only bad thing is that there was not much storage space but that is a problem I have with all hotel rooms. I do not imagine that they are prepared for a family of four on a two week vacation, especially a family with an overpacker (that would be me!) There was not enough drawer space so Alek ended up keeping most of his clothes in the suitcase.

The mini-fridge was not turned on when we arrived so I turned it up to its coldest setting so that it would be ready to hold our groceries.

Mom stepped out of the room to make a call to our neighbour. You will remember that she thought that Hobbes might be trapped in her bedroom and Erich also realized that he had forgotten to feed his fish so that message had to get passed on as well.

While Mom was on the phone we began to unpack so that we could put away most of the luggage.

Once the unpacking was done it was time to head off to the grocery store. It was at that time Mom and I realized that we forgot to request a microwave for the room. During my trip planning I was happy to learn that Coronado Springs offers microwaves free of charge! There are a limited number so you are not guaranteed one but no harm in asking. We planned to eat in the room often on the trip so a microwave would be nice to have. We decided that we would just pop into the main lobby on the way to the grocery store to see if one was available that way we could know what type of groceries to buy.

I took some pictures of the room view when we stepped back out of the room.

At night you could see the highest fireworks from Illuminations.

Mom quickly popped into the lobby on the way out and our request for a microwave was granted and they would deliver it to the room shortly. Hurray!

Off to the grocery store! We decided to hit up the Publix nearby, I wish we had driven to the SuperTarget but at that time we were not aware of how close or far way it was and we did not feel like driving all around Orlando.

We were happy with the wide selection at the Publix, much better than at Goodings.

Supplies in hand it was back to the resort. When we got to the room Mom discovered that the bag holding all her yogurt was missing. She went back out to the car and was happy to see that the bag had simply slipped under some seats and not been forgotten at the store as she had feared.

The microwave was already in the room when we got back, they had set it up on the desk. It was a nice large microwave and took up most of the desk space. Not a problem, we simply used the top of the microwave to hold our cereal boxes etc.

All the tasks associated with settling in complete it was time to head to the pool!

We decided to go to the main pool over at The Dig Site. Some pictures from the walk over.

We have arrived!

Next update: Fun in the pool and we test out the new waterproof camera

[post=41400780]Continue to Next Post[/post]

 

[CandleontheWater]

Lovely pics of CSR! I have thoroughly enjoyed my stays there and I can't seem to understand why it gets a bad wrap by certain podcasts and forums.

Glad your mom found her yogurt! That would have been a not nice surprise to find in the car after a long hot afternoon in the sun!

Looking forward to your pool update! Being an archaeologist in my pre-baby life, I have always had a fond place in my heart for the dig site pool. I think it second only to SAB, with CBR a close third!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Lovely pics of CSR! I have thoroughly enjoyed my stays there and I can't seem to understand why it gets a bad wrap by certain podcasts and forums.

I don't get it, it was a lovely resort. The rooms were great as was the service. Sure it is a bit spread out but it is not that bad and it didn't take any longer to walk to the pool/main building than at many other resorts (AKL, Poly, CBR, DVC resorts, etc.)

Glad your mom found her yogurt! That would have been a not nice surprise to find in the car after a long hot afternoon in the sun!

No kidding!

Looking forward to your pool update! Being an archaeologist in my pre-baby life, I have always had a fond place in my heart for the dig site pool.

Really? That is really cool! My first university degree is in English Lit and Classical Studies. I took many archeology classes and even pondered continuing on to Grad School so that I could become a classical archeologist. Now I am in Nursing School, complete opposite of what I was doing before.

 

[Chaitali]

CSR looks beautiful and your room location sounds great! I'm going back to Disney World in October and was planning to stay at CSR, though now it looks like we may end up staying off site instead. Not my choice but we'll see what ends up happening.

 

[ozzyla]

Really enjoying your trip report

 

[Mysteria]

Love the CSR pics! Couldn't agree more about the white linens. If I ever make it back to a mod I'll have a tough time choosing betwen POFQ and CSR.

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

CSR looks beautiful and your room location sounds great! I'm going back to Disney World in October and was planning to stay at CSR, though now it looks like we may end up staying off site instead. Not my choice but we'll see what ends up happening.

I am sure that no matter where you stay you will have a great time! Just think, if you save money at an off site resort that is more money to spend on food and souvenirs!

Really enjoying your trip report

Thanks for reading! I'm glad you like it.

Love the CSR pics! Couldn't agree more about the white linens. If I ever make it back to a mod I'll have a tough time choosing betwen POFQ and CSR.

It is always hard choosing resorts. Alek and Erich have said they do not want to return to WDW for at least five years. As much as I love WDW I agree that we should wait a few years to return. I want it to stay special and fresh. When we do go back though the resorts under consideration: Poly and Beach Club.

In the mean time there are all sorts of other places we can vacation. Erich wants to go to Australia, he already has a fund set up, $20 a week gets put into his Australia account. We all want to go to Scotland, Mom has already busied herself researching for that trip. I want to go to Japan, nobody else in the family does though. Then there are Disney cruises! And of course we go out to BC every summer to visit Dad and go hiking.

 

[PlutosRHM55]

The Coronado Springs room are so nice! I've seen so many pictures and they all look fantastic. I would definitely like to stay there someday. And to the view It must be great to see some of IllumiNations from your balcony, just relaxing there watching some fantastic fireworks, though you may not hear the music. And the pool at CSR looks wicked nice! Can't wait to see what you photograph there with the waterproof camera! Update soon!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

The Coronado Springs room are so nice! I've seen so many pictures and they all look fantastic. I would definitely like to stay there someday. And to the view It must be great to see some of IllumiNations from your balcony, just relaxing there watching some fantastic fireworks, though you may not hear the music. And the pool at CSR looks wicked nice! Can't wait to see what you photograph there with the waterproof camera! Update soon!

We really enjoyed the pool and had some fun times there. This is the first resort where we have really made good use of the pools. When we stayed at Wilderness Lodge it was our first trip back in ten years and was only a week long as we barely used the pool. At POP it rained the whole time pretty much so no pool time there either. This was a nice change.

 

[lovethattink]

Love seeing the CSR pictures! From above, the tile on the fountain looks so pretty. From ground level I didn't really notice it. Very cool that you could see some fireworks!

 

[KatMark]

Your pictures of CSR are making me homesick and I can't wait to get there (after we try AKL for two nights first though). Love your location -- Casitas 5 is our top spot along with Casitas 4. And we've seen the high fireworks too from there. Were you able to see Expedition Everest from the property?

Can't wait to hear what you thought about the pool.

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Love seeing the CSR pictures! From above, the tile on the fountain looks so pretty. From ground level I didn't really notice it. Very cool that you could see some fireworks!

I was happy to have a view of the fountain although I much preferred the fountains in the other sections of the Casitas.

Your pictures of CSR are making me homesick and I can't wait to get there (after we try AKL for two nights first though). Love your location -- Casitas 5 is our top spot along with Casitas 4. And we've seen the high fireworks too from there. Were you able to see Expedition Everest from the property?

Can't wait to hear what you thought about the pool.

I never really looked in the direction of AK. If it can be seen it must not be too obvious as it didn't catch my eye.

 

[nilla]

Were you able to see Expedition Everest from the property?

Um, what?

Please elaborate! Please?

 

[nilla]

GREAT CSR pics, by the way. That place is the greatest.

 

[Mysteria]

It is always hard choosing resorts. Alek and Erich have said they do not want to return to WDW for at least five years. As much as I love WDW I agree that we should wait a few years to return. I want it to stay special and fresh. When we do go back though the resorts under consideration: Poly and Beach Club.

In the mean time there are all sorts of other places we can vacation. Erich wants to go to Australia, he already has a fund set up, $20 a week gets put into his Australia account. We all want to go to Scotland, Mom has already busied herself researching for that trip. I want to go to Japan, nobody else in the family does though. Then there are Disney cruises! And of course we go out to BC every summer to visit Dad and go hiking.

We were of the same idea. Let's give it a little break and see other things. Top of our list now is Vegas and New Orleans. Thought my next trip back would be my sister's 50th in 2014. Though I hoped we could fit in a few days of food and wine before then.

Then mil dropped the bomb! She wants me to go to food & wine with her this year as a thank you for all the work I've put into past vactions for us all! How cool is that?!

As far as your next stay. Poly is my favorite and never thought I'd be able to stay there. Post 9/11 they closed entire resorts for rehab. This happened at both resorts I was supposed to stay at 2001 (pofq) and 2002 (cbr). So in 2002 they gave us an deal we couldn't turn down on the Poly and I got to stay at my dream resort! Poly vs. BC for you guys though. I'd think BC for SAB!!

I want to go to Japan!!! Pick me, pick me!! Den wants China, I want Japan. Been a dream of mine since I was very young. I can't even tell you exactly why. The culture just draws me in.

 

[All7OfUs]

This is the second TR I've read this week with some stunning pix of CSR, and each time I see one, this resort really grows on me. Such pretty fountains and grounds.

I'll be interested to hear more about that gate...

 

[crazyfordisney2000]

Great update, love the resort pics!

Oh, and I bought that Grumpy shirt for my Dad! LOL!

 

[beebeeryan]

The resort looks beautiful and that pool looks so cool, my boys would love it. I've never even considered it before, but it will have to go on the list of places to stay.

Enjoying the TR so far!

 

[UGAFan0829]

Wow, CSR is better than I expected! The landscaping is gorgeous! I'm glad you got such a great room location. The room itself was beautiful as well!

I'm glad they were able to accomdate you on the microwave. I'm sure it came in handy!

Oh, I can't wait to see some pics from the waterproof camera!

I just can't wait for the next update!!