Need Help Choosing Moderate

Tigger&Belle

<font color=blue>I'm the good girl on the DIS<br><
Joined
Sep 2, 2000
I'm planning an October trip for me and my 4yo. We went in February and stayed at Pop Century. I liked it overall, but was thinking about trying a moderate this time.

I'm trying to compare and contrast the different resorts and figure out which one I would prefer.

How do the pools compare? Do they all have water slides? How shallow are the shallow areas?

Are some resorts more spread out that others. I understand that the POFQ is fairly compact, but are there differences among the others?

Do all the resorts have elevators? I would have Jake's stroller so can't be lugging that up stairs if we don't have a ground floor room.

Can coffee makers be requested for any of the moderate rooms? If so, is there a charge? (I've read that CS have them in all the rooms) They can't be requested at Pop, so I brought a little coffee maker, but it took up a lot of room in my suitcase.

Is bus transportation better at some resorts? Pop Century busses were so crowded, and this was in February during a slow period. My sister went with me that trip so it wasn't a big deal keeping track of things on the busses when we had to stand up, but by myself would be harder.

Anything else I should be aware of?


Thanks, T&B
 
CSR is a great resort. It has the best pool of all the moderates with a large slide. The depth of the pool is mostly 4ft but there are some deeper areas.

It is a large resort set in a Mexican/SW theme.

All the buildings ar CSR have elevators.

CSR has coffeemakers in the room along with central air, iron, hair dryer and an ironing board.

My experience with the CSR transportation is that the buses are usually less crowded than other resorts because CSR doesn't share transportation with other resorts and since it is a convention resort, the conventioneers are working during the day. Buses from DtD are usually crowded, especially if you board on the second stop.

CSR is close to AK, MGM and Epcot and Blizzard Beach.
 
CSR is the only moderate that I have stayed in and that was only 1 night.

Do you know how deep the pool is in the most shallow part? Since it will still be hot in October we would probably be hanging out at the pool several times and my little guy wouldn't do very well in 4' water.

That's good that there are elevators. Do you know if all of the moderate resorts have elevators?

When we stayed at CSR we had quite a hike back to the main building, which was a negative without a car. Does the bus pick up from around the resort or does a person have to go to the main building to catch it?

Thanks for your help!

T&B
 
This may help.

Take the bus instead of walking
Theme park buses go:
2 - Casitas
3 - Ranchos
4 - Cabanas
1 - El Centro

Downtown Disney buses, as well as Park Exit buses go:
1 - El Centro
2 - Casitas
3 - Ranchos
4 - Cabanas

CSR buses go in this order so that guests can hop on board a theme park bus and take it to the main building. They can then hop on a DTD bus to get back to their rooms.

CSR has life vests you can get at the pool. Not sure about the depth. The part by the temple has stairs going into the pool which gradually gets deeper. The part by the slide exit is shallow too but I don't know the exact depth.
 


Just CSR has elevators. But in my mind i would pick CBR love the theming, food and atomospher.pirate:
 
We have stayed at POR and CSR. We are getting ready to stay at CBR next month. We also have stayed in every deluxe except 2. Of these resorts CSR was our least favorite due to being so far from the food court. Plus we hated the food court. The pool was a hike as well. We hated the fact that you had to walk across the parking lots to get to the bus stops...to us it was dangerous at the time. Very busy holiday season. Our favorite will always be the Grand Floridian with the Wilderness Lodge and the Yacht Club following. That said we are trying to stay at all of the resorts on property (excluding the values). Which is why we are trying CBR this trip. I know I will have wished we were in a Deluxe but at least I know next trip that is all we have left to stay at!!!!!

So for you I would chose one of the smaller Mods...POFQ or pay the extra 10$ and get a preferred view room that is located close to the food courts at the other larger resorts!

Good luck
 
Riverside had an elevator also (at least in Acadian House). The best description I've heard of the theming of Riverside is "Gone With the Wind" for the mansions, and "Huck Finn" for Alligator Bayou. It is mid-sized as far as mods go (bigger than POFQ, but smaller than CSR and CBR imo). It shares a bus with POFQ, and since I wasn't there while POFQ was open I can't comment on how busy it was. The landscaping around the resort is absolutely beautiful!!
 


Hmmm, now I'm totally confused. :)

So PO Riverside has elevators, as does CSR?

But not the others? I would have a hard time lugging the stroller up the stairs since it will just be me with my 4yo, or do they gaurantee ground floor if a person has a stroller? If I was renting a car I could deposit the stroller in the car, but I probably would avoid the car rental.

Yes, it can be a hike at CSR to the food court. I had no idea that a person could take a bus. That's interesting and good to know.

I've stayed at several deluxes, but I can't justify that for this trip, unless I could get a great AP rate at WL. There will just be the two of us going and I'm trying to pull off a few trips this year with the AP so I need to watch the budget. As a family, though, we've stayed at the Swan, WL (concierge), AKL (concierge), and Poly (reg and concierge). It's easier to justify when all of us go and the trips are few and far between.

That's a possibility to stay in a preferred room in one of the larger resorts, ie CSR. I'll keep that in mind.

Any additional thoughts or information to the pool depth, etc?

T&B
 
We returned from POFQ two weeks ago.

The walks are short 2 minutes (maybe 3 minutes with a 4 yr old) was the longest.

We stayed in bldg 1, first floor, I believe the buildings had elevators - but did not actually see one. The buildings are 3 stories.

The pool was okay - depth was 3'0" to 4'9". Most places it was 3'6" or 3'9". My 6yr old DS loved the slide, our 3yr old DD was intimidated. The pool has a large basket of life vest available to anyone who wants them.

The room had a 4 cup coffee maker and coffee packets - we did not use it so can't say how the coffe tasted.

POR and POFQ share buses. POFQ was always first to pick up and first to drop off - that was nice. In fact many times the bus would visit no more than one POR stop (there are 4) then go directly to the park because it was full.

I think that answers most of your questions. I have stayed at POR and CBR before, but it was too long ago to compare. In fact- when I stayed at CBR they had not yet built the buildings on the back side of the lake - and you had an unobstructed view of Epcot fireworks.
 
Thanks for the info. I usually bring my own coffee to hotels since I'm a coffee snob so quality of the coffee isn't important.

Short walks would be good. I can confirm with CRO about the elevators. That's good that there is a somewhat shallow area at the pool. I love the Universal hotels and others that have a zero entry area, but Jake is now tall enough to handle a little depth.

Thanks, T&B
 
Anyone else know for sure about the elevators at the moderate resorts? Or any other info for me to think about?

T&B
 

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