Our trip to CSR

[ScottJ]

Hello all, I am a new poster here but am not new here. My DW has been posting for years & I’ve been reading over her shoulder all along.

We went from Aug. 14th thru Aug. 20th and we stayed at CSR in the Cabanas 9B. Our started with booking our airline flight & our resort. We booked on Spirit & thru Dreams Unlimited for our stay.

First our Flight, I was very apprehensive on flying Spirit. I will give them 3 ½ stars out of 5. If you know what you’re booking and know what to expect well it’s a good choice. They pack you into the plane (my knees were actually touching the seats in front of me & my elbow hung into the center aisle) & make you pay for anything else beside your trip. The crew on the trip down was great, they joke about paying for everything even eventually the sunrise. The crew on the way back was a little more stoic. The parking was fine as usually although we left two coffee drinks in our vehicle & they had curdled. When we got into our van at 12am it was overwhelming to say the least.

Dreams Unlimited was awesome, a 5 star performance. They were extremely professional & very nice and save us more money than expected.

So now the Disney part of our trip.

We had requested the Casitas and when we arrived we were put into the Cabanas. Which I didn’t have a problem with the Cabanas except the room in the Cabanas was the most inconvenient. I would have thought that since they couldn’t meet our request they would have at least put us in a bit more desirable spot. I understand other rooms may have been taken & they can’t put other guest out but it would have been nice if they would have said, I’m sorry we couldn’t meet your room request but we have a couple of other options.

Before I go any further, I want to NOTE: I will not complain about food or where I stay until I leave a resort. I don’t want anything to happen to my food or anything missing from my room. I admit I am paranoid.

We get to our room & I used the bathroom. When I sit down, the toilet is not level. All week long if & when the call of nature came, I have to use my left arm against the wall to hold myself. I have a nasty pinched nerve in my back & this just aggravated it. I should have immediately requested a new room (see above).

I know this is not the resort fault that during construction the contractors failed. However in a related item, the Café Rix is relatively new or remodeled. They have two water fountains in front tiled with black iridescent glass. Both look like blind tilemen installed them. I couldn’t believe how badly they were installed. I work as an estimator in the tile industry. I will tell you we would have never been paid for the craftsmanship in both the bathroom & the water fountains.

My problem with the construction is Disney is supposed to detail orientated and pay attention to even the smallest one.

(to be continued)

 

[ScottJ]

Speaking of detail, I couldn’t believe the peeling paint at 9B. I admit most guess wouldn’t notice it but I would have thought Disney would. In addition to the peeling paint, the last time they painted the door at our room they didn’t cover very well and there was door paint spray along the ceiling.

In addition to this since we were on the lower back side of the 9B, the bushes had more garbage than expected. There was a wash cloth that sat for 3 days before being picked up. Maybe I should have picked it up but I didn’t know who it belonged to or what was washed with it.

The last thing regarding our room was house keeping. It was horrible. Worst than horrible. I would never say our room was “clean” per se. It never seemed to be vacuumed and the bath floor was never mopped. The following is a short list of problems we had:

1. Our housekeeper didn’t restock any toiletries. Due to travel restrictions and paying for our luggage, we use the soap & shampoo provided by Disney. So, BW left a note requesting more.

2. The second day the house keeper left our door open all day.

3. Our DS puked during bedtime, we called house keeping for new sheets. They never showed up. DD & DS got the clean bed & DW & I got the mattress of the other one.

We tipped everyday but our last two hoping things would improve but they didn't & I look back and have no idea why we tipped.

Our week got off to a rough start, oh; I forgot to add that during our flight our hairspray exploded. The front desk was awesome; they sent toothpaste, toothbrush & hairspray.

I’m a little out of order. I missed the Magical Express portion. Our bus driver sounded just like Dr. Janosz Poha, the character from Ghostbusters II.

(This report seems to be really negative and honestly for the first 3 days they were. I'll continue with the rest of the report. I don't know if I should just have one huge post or break it up so I'm breaking it up.)

 

[ScottJ]

Food is the next part of my report.

We purchased the basic DDP. It saved a bunch. Our table services were Teppan Edo, Kona Café, Grand Floridian Café, 50’s Prime Time, Coral Reef, Maya Grill. Teppan Edo was by far & away the best, just awesome. 50’s Prime Time was horrible & wouldn’t be in business if it was a Disney restaurant. It was one of worst places I’ve ever eaten. The service was bad & the food was worse. Maya Grill was the big surprise. It was good with good service & the kids menu was awesome. The food at the Grand Floridian Café was good but the service is what made it. Kona Café & Coral Reef were really good too.

My big question is what happened to the kid’s menu. The Mac-N-Cheese is just gross now. It used to be really good. In our past trips my DS & DD asked for it everyday. This time they had it once & only ate half of it and never wanted it again. My kid’s are picky eaters either. The kid’s chicken nuggets left a lot to be desired. I understand they are trying to do the “healthy” thing but when you go to Disney you’re on vacation & indulging. Shouldn’t the kids be able to indulge a little also?

Busing.

DW told me Disney is implementing a new busing system. We chose CSR last trip & this trip due in part because of the busing. I will say it’s gone downhill with the new system. I hope they get the bugs of this new system worked out. Our last trip to CSR had awesome busing.

The Parks.

DW & I are both in the understanding Disney has had some cost cutting in the past couple of years with layoffs & whatnot. The parks upkeep left something to be desired. DW & I couldn’t believe the amount of gum on splash. The missing paint at the Haunted Mansion is in an area that’s supposed to be painted.

All but one of the CMs were great & we couldn’t complain except for the one & it was how she treated us but how she treated another guest. An older lady was trying to get onto Pooh and was having a horrible time. We were next in line. The CM was making rude comments and was very loud so all could hear. I couldn’t believe my ears. This woman ended up not riding.

The parks were packed for the first part of the week and thinned out for the second half. We got stuck in Fay but it turned out to be awesome we turned to have the parks to ourselves. Walk on at every single attraction.

Our biggest disappointment was involved with the monorail. It turned out we arrived in at the right time for our DS & DW to drive the monorail. The cast member was speaking to a couple, we told our DS to be patient and wait to speak, someone was already speaking and he would have to wait his turn to ask if he could drive. A family came running up from behind and I could hear the mom say run & ask. The boys cut in front of the other family (at the urging of the mom) that was talking to the CM and asked about driving the monorail which he said no one had asked yet and they got to drive. My DS was crushed. It's not the CMs fault.

Our trip had improved towards the end, most of the trip was good but the bad always seems to stand out and I think we expect more from Disney. I don’t want to be one of those people that complain about things all the time. So, I’m venting a little here. Maybe I should write to Disney but what good would it bring. We choose WDW as our vacation spot and even looked into DVC while there knowing this trip was isolated and 99 out of 100 WDW stays will be magical. We just happened to find the 1.