iloveeeyore
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 12, 2003
- Messages
- 3,787
We returned late last night from 7 wonderful nights at CSR! This was our first time at a moderate since 1991 (CBR), and our first time with kids. While I can't say we fell in love with the resort, we did like it very much and found it more than satisfied our needs.
The resort is beautiful, and seemed a little smaller to me than I had expected. It was very, very quiet. I had requested Ranchos 7B, but I think it's possible that my request was lost when I changed my dates due to Irene and forgot to reiterate my request. We were placed in Cabanas 8B, first floor, on the end that is closer to the quiet pool (our room actually faced the entrace to the guest laundry), and when the host at the on-line check-in line told me where our room was (it was ready at 10:15 am on Tuesday, 8/30), I decided not to ask to be moved, because I knew that Cabanas was centrally located. WOW, did we have a FANTASTIC location! We were less than 5 minutes from El Centro, less than 5 minutes from the Dig Site, and about 2 minutes from Bus Stop #4. We almost always used stop #1, though, because we had to go to El Centro for drinks on the way to or from the parks. I did wander over to 7B one day to see what it looked like, and it seemed nicely themed and also very convenient, but not quite as convenient as 8B, since it's a minute or two further from El Centro. Aesthetically, I liked Cabanas least and Casitas the most. In fact, the Casitas section looks very upscale with its fountains and arches and arcades.
The room was lovely, and felt more spacious than our rooms at WL and AKL. Our housekeeper was Liza and she was great, kept everything sparkling and even organized our stuff for us pretty well. We never heard any neighbors, except for an occasional toilet flush. It felt a little like a fish bowl, having the ground floor room with no private balcony (not that many people walked by at all)...and we missed having a balcony, since we are used to deluxes. We also didn't really like the entrance from the outside; we prefer inner corridors. Some of the outside hallways looked like they were in need of maintenance, some cleaning and painting, and that made the place feel a little...um...less than moderately priced. There was one particular spot around the corner from our room that looked like it could be at a Motel 6, and if our room had been located there, we would have been really turned off.
The dig site was great! The pool and hot tub are huge and the slide is pretty fun. I liked the pool complex much better than the ones at AKL and WL, but not as much as the one at the Poly. My kids and I rank the Dig Site 2nd after the Poly's theme pool, while DH ranks it 3rd, after Poly and WL. The slide had much shorter lines than the Poly; the slide wasn't nearly as great, but it was WAY better than the lame slides at AKL and WL, in my opinion. There were great games for the kids in the afternoon. I had a margarita on the rocks from the Siesta bar and it was so disappointing. I guess I should have gotten one of the frozen ones, but in general, I don't prefer my margaritas frozen.
We had lunch at the Pepper Market on our arrival day (I will be doing a dining report soon, so follow the link in my signature) and it was pretty good, especially the steak ranchero. Despite my research and all the warnings that the place was confusing, we were still pretty stumped! We got through it, though, and enjoyed our first meal out by the laguna bar. We went to Rix Cafe every morning before 8 and found it convenient and easy, we always found seating, the coffee seemed better than other coffee we've had at WDW. The selection was adequate. There was a smaller-than-expected selection of beverages offered for the refillable mugs.
The bus service was absolutely OUTSTANDING, the best that we have ever experienced. We went to DTD on Saturday night and only waited about 10 minutes, however, another family at the bus stop said they had been waiting over 40 minutes, and they were so stressed because they had an ADR. We even caught a bus back from DTD as we walked up to the stop. We know that was luck based on how we hit it, but I have to say we did see more DTD buses around than ever before, so maybe Disney is actually addressing the problem with transportation to there. On Monday night, we watched the Epcot bus pull away from Bus Stop #4 and had to wait for the next one...we only waited about 15 minutes. That was our longest wait the whole trip, most waits were under 5 minutes. We took about 12 minutes to MK, 8 minutes to AK, 10 minutes to Epcot and 8 minutes to DHS. We did have a chaotic time trying to make rope drop at MK yesterday (our departure day)...we didn't get to the bus stop until 8:40 and there were so many people waiting...we realize this was our fault for not being earlier. The key is to be early!
We would absolutely not hesitate to stay at CSR again! It was a tremendous value for the 4 of us in one room with free dining. If we stay there again, we would probably request Casitas for the upscale feel.
I would be happy to answer any questions!
The resort is beautiful, and seemed a little smaller to me than I had expected. It was very, very quiet. I had requested Ranchos 7B, but I think it's possible that my request was lost when I changed my dates due to Irene and forgot to reiterate my request. We were placed in Cabanas 8B, first floor, on the end that is closer to the quiet pool (our room actually faced the entrace to the guest laundry), and when the host at the on-line check-in line told me where our room was (it was ready at 10:15 am on Tuesday, 8/30), I decided not to ask to be moved, because I knew that Cabanas was centrally located. WOW, did we have a FANTASTIC location! We were less than 5 minutes from El Centro, less than 5 minutes from the Dig Site, and about 2 minutes from Bus Stop #4. We almost always used stop #1, though, because we had to go to El Centro for drinks on the way to or from the parks. I did wander over to 7B one day to see what it looked like, and it seemed nicely themed and also very convenient, but not quite as convenient as 8B, since it's a minute or two further from El Centro. Aesthetically, I liked Cabanas least and Casitas the most. In fact, the Casitas section looks very upscale with its fountains and arches and arcades.
The room was lovely, and felt more spacious than our rooms at WL and AKL. Our housekeeper was Liza and she was great, kept everything sparkling and even organized our stuff for us pretty well. We never heard any neighbors, except for an occasional toilet flush. It felt a little like a fish bowl, having the ground floor room with no private balcony (not that many people walked by at all)...and we missed having a balcony, since we are used to deluxes. We also didn't really like the entrance from the outside; we prefer inner corridors. Some of the outside hallways looked like they were in need of maintenance, some cleaning and painting, and that made the place feel a little...um...less than moderately priced. There was one particular spot around the corner from our room that looked like it could be at a Motel 6, and if our room had been located there, we would have been really turned off.
The dig site was great! The pool and hot tub are huge and the slide is pretty fun. I liked the pool complex much better than the ones at AKL and WL, but not as much as the one at the Poly. My kids and I rank the Dig Site 2nd after the Poly's theme pool, while DH ranks it 3rd, after Poly and WL. The slide had much shorter lines than the Poly; the slide wasn't nearly as great, but it was WAY better than the lame slides at AKL and WL, in my opinion. There were great games for the kids in the afternoon. I had a margarita on the rocks from the Siesta bar and it was so disappointing. I guess I should have gotten one of the frozen ones, but in general, I don't prefer my margaritas frozen.
We had lunch at the Pepper Market on our arrival day (I will be doing a dining report soon, so follow the link in my signature) and it was pretty good, especially the steak ranchero. Despite my research and all the warnings that the place was confusing, we were still pretty stumped! We got through it, though, and enjoyed our first meal out by the laguna bar. We went to Rix Cafe every morning before 8 and found it convenient and easy, we always found seating, the coffee seemed better than other coffee we've had at WDW. The selection was adequate. There was a smaller-than-expected selection of beverages offered for the refillable mugs.
The bus service was absolutely OUTSTANDING, the best that we have ever experienced. We went to DTD on Saturday night and only waited about 10 minutes, however, another family at the bus stop said they had been waiting over 40 minutes, and they were so stressed because they had an ADR. We even caught a bus back from DTD as we walked up to the stop. We know that was luck based on how we hit it, but I have to say we did see more DTD buses around than ever before, so maybe Disney is actually addressing the problem with transportation to there. On Monday night, we watched the Epcot bus pull away from Bus Stop #4 and had to wait for the next one...we only waited about 15 minutes. That was our longest wait the whole trip, most waits were under 5 minutes. We took about 12 minutes to MK, 8 minutes to AK, 10 minutes to Epcot and 8 minutes to DHS. We did have a chaotic time trying to make rope drop at MK yesterday (our departure day)...we didn't get to the bus stop until 8:40 and there were so many people waiting...we realize this was our fault for not being earlier. The key is to be early!
We would absolutely not hesitate to stay at CSR again! It was a tremendous value for the 4 of us in one room with free dining. If we stay there again, we would probably request Casitas for the upscale feel.
I would be happy to answer any questions!
) questions - what did you think of the rooms? Is the decor nice in person? And what did you think about the wood door between the bathroom and the main room? 
I am so glad you had a great time at our fav mod resort! I love it there and I am going to miss it as we are staying at the AKL for something different.
