Poor stay at Coronado Springs

[maxiesmom]

jaiminee krikit--Sounds like you got the CM from H E double hockey sticks! I tend to cut anyone in the service industry some slack as I work it myself, but talking with food in your mouth? Standing there mute because they don't want to go out of their way to help you? NOPE. You should have said something like "Maybe you can find someone not eating their meal, a CM who actually wants to help me".

 

[Arepells]

Oh no, we are checking in for 3 nights on Saturday. What was the problem?

We were told that our luggage would come to our room and it never was. When we called down for it, it took an hour to come to our room. There’s no screen at the main bus stop at the resort to let you know when the buses are coming so you might have to wait an hour for one. Also, there’s 5 stops at the resort and would HIGHLY recommend going to the 1st stop since it becomes crowded at the last one.

 

[Arepells]

CSR was not my favorite resort, but not my least favorite, either. But our stay was not great, and it started as soon as we arrived. When we were getting off the ME bus, there was a CM greeting some of the guests, but completely ignored us. I even stood near him just to see if he would acknowledge me, but he didn't. Oh well, I was excited to finally be at WDW.
They were still testing the room text option, but when we arrived we hadn't received a text message yet. I figured our room wasn't ready and it didn't bother me at all. We went to the lobby, and there were no other guests in there. I thought "This should be quick and easy". I went into the online check-in queue and waited to be called over. There were 3 or 4 CMs at their stations, and it appeared to be lunch time because a couple of them were eating. I'd never seen that, but I've eaten on the job before, I just never thought I'd see that at WDW. We were motioned over to someone's station (motioned, no words spoken). I walked up expecting some sort of greeting. The CM said nothing. I gave her a moment and she just stood there. So I said "Good morning, we're checking in". She pointed at the MB touch pad, so I touched Mickey-to-Mickey (thankfully I had done a trip before that with the MBs, so I knew what she needed me to do, but had I not used a MB before, I would've been a little confused). She then spoke (with a mouth full of peanut M&M's) and told me our room was ready. What a pleasant surprise! Things are looking up! Then she told me our room location. I had requested top floor in the Ranchos section. We had gotten a ground floor room in the Cabanas section. I have never requested a room and actually gotten the exact opposite before, so I was disappointed. I thought on it for a moment, and explained very nicely that I had requested a top floor room in the Ranchos section and asked if there was any way to see if a room was available in that section. She said to me "I'll have to make a phone call to find out", and just stood there staring at me, making no effort to pick up the phone. I told her "I hate being an inconvenience, but could you please check?" and she once again says to me "I'll have to make a phone call", and proceeds to still just stand there staring at me. I was befuddled at this point. I motioned towards the phone, and said "If you don't mind, I'd really appreciate it". Mind you, there was still no one else in the lobby waiting to check-in. She was on the phone for several minutes before telling me they were able to move our room. I told her thank you so much. She circled on the map where our room was and that was about it.
I knew CSR was big. I wasn't expecting just how big it was. And how far away the Ranchos section was from the main building. It felt like miles! And the CM didn't point out where the stairs or elevators were in our building, so that took me awhile to find. We got to the room, and it was fine.
The trip overall was great. It was DD and I's first girls only trip, and we had a great time. But the first thing I think of still when I think of CSR is that CM interaction at the very beginning. The buses at CSR are the best I've ever had. We never waited more than 5 minutes going to the resorts and coming back. The food was okay. We only ate at the hotel for breakfast a couple times and dinner once.
Then came time to come home. We were taking ME and arrived plenty early. Along with 20 or so more people (most I've ever had leave one hotel at the same time). Well, our pick-up time came and went, and no bus arrived. After about another 15 minutes, someone from bell services came over and asked us what time our bus was supposed to arrive. Long story short, our bus forgot to pick us up. We were all starting to panic. Luckily this CM was attentive and very helpful. He made a few more phone calls and just as several taxis were showing up, another ME bus arrived. We were all able to somehow fit on that bus and be on our way, but what a stressful end to our trip!
We had a few other less-than-stellar CM encounters during the stay. We would stay at CSR again if the price was right, but it will not be our first pick.

I’m so sorry you experienced this! We also had a very stressful stay there and unfortunately it was on the last night/day of our trip. Definitely wasn’t the typical “magical” stay you hope for.

 

[Arepells]

Not me. I've stayed at CSR 5 times now, and have only had one issue with the resort. We arrived very late, and they were short staffed so my food wasn't delivered to my room until the next morning. Other than that, no issues. I've found the bus service to be much better than most other resorts.

What do you mean you had issues with the "luggage area"?

They were supposed to bring the luggage to our room which never arrived. After having to call down for it, it took over an hour to receive. The next day when we went to check our luggage in to be picked up later, the CM stood there chatting with another family for 20 minutes and made us wait longer. Overall, bad customer service

 

[Arepells]

I've stayed there twice and will be there week after next and haven't had any horrible experiences but I'm pretty easy to please. As far as buses, as previous poster said, you are going to have bad and good service and every single resort.

I don’t agree with the bus statement. We’ve stayed at a few other resorts at Disney which provided consistent buses that were on time. We talked to a few other people who stayed at CS and they also thought the buses were inconsistent at this resort compared to others.

 

[Arepells]

Yes had an absolutely terrible experience start to end there in 2011.
Will not stay again.
Luggage from DME was "lost" and then found but during it being "lost" it was our fault apparently. Not sure how.
Mine and my niece's then key to the world cards did not have tickets loaded on them at the front desk as they should have so we spent time at Epcot getting that fixed.
Credit cards were not properly linked for room charging so at The Wave and LTT we spent time getting that fixed.
5 AK buses came but ZERO Epcot buses came. We had to ask the 5th AK bus to get a hold of someone to get an Epcot bus to come making us get a late start to Epcot once again.
Waiter at Maya Grill made us sit at a table /booth without enough chairs even though we were the only family eating there at the time.
He then forgot my niece's drink several times and then practically threw it at her when she started crying that she still needed a drink. (she was a toddler so it was in a child's cup with a top).
He then cleared everything off the table including silverware and glasses before letting us order dessert and then my sister felt very sick and could not handle waiting forever so she went back to the room and the waiter said he could not give us a to go box for her.
My nephew slipped on wet painted cement and while of course that was just an accident when my sister asked for assistance from a lifegaurd the told her all they could do was call 911. He just needed some ice and to stay sitting for a few minutes but they told her she would have to go get ice from a machine so instead she carried him back to the room since she was alone with him.
We rented 3 rooms and by the 4th day after the falling incident we went to the front desk with our list of issues and they gladly refunded 1 night for each room.
It was a very frustrating trip and we have learned to not stay there again.

I’m sorry you had this experience! We also found that their customer service was not up to Disney par and found we had better service at their value resorts!

 

[Arepells]

Sorry you had a bad stay, have you let Disney know? xx

Unfortunately I did let them know and after getting passed around 5 different times, their response to me was “what would you like me to do about it”

 

[maxiesmom]

They were supposed to bring the luggage to our room which never arrived. After having to call down for it, it took over an hour to receive. The next day when we went to check our luggage in to be picked up later, the CM stood there chatting with another family for 20 minutes and made us wait longer. Overall, bad customer service

Did you use Magical Express for your bags? If not you do have to call for your bags, they won't just bring them. And if they are busy it can take a while.

 

[loves to dive]

I don’t agree with the bus statement. We’ve stayed at a few other resorts at Disney which provided consistent buses that were on time. We talked to a few other people who stayed at CS and they also thought the buses were inconsistent at this resort compared to others.

I've stayed at GF, Poly, CR, YC, BC, BW, AKL Swan/Dolphin, Pop, ASsp, CSR, CBR, POR, OKW and Shades of Green before it was military and have had good and bad experiences at every single one of them. Just last Sept. waited 45 min. for a bus to AK on morning and 45 min for a bus to MK one morning at Dolphin. I've waited over a hour for a bus to Epcot at AKL one trip, I've stood in line at Pop and watched buses for every park except the one I was going to cycle around twice, the only time I've had a problem at CSR was early morning and the bus was so full by the time it got to the Cabanas stop that me and another couple with kids were standing with our toes on the line then some woman wanted off the bus at the main stop, which the bus wasn't going to stop at because it was full and she was all the way at the back of the bus so half the people had to get off to let her off then people were trying to push on that weren't on it originally. Of all those I've stayed at I can't think of a trip where I haven't had at least one time where the bus took longer than the 20 min. to get there or it was more crowded than standing room. The buses have to deal with traffic, people with ECV's, stroller people not folding down their strollers before the bus gets there, breakdowns, everything that every other mass transit system has to deal with that they have no control over and is going to throw them off schedule. I think for the number of people they transport, they do a great job and there are no buses assigned specifically to any resort, a bus could go to CSR to pick up for MK and at MK switch their sign over to another resort to return to. I'm not saying the original poster didn't have a bad time or a bad trip, I'm just pointing out this is a mass transit system and you are, I can guarantee, going to have a bad bus experience at all the resorts.

 

[Moliphino]

I don’t agree with the bus statement. We’ve stayed at a few other resorts at Disney which provided consistent buses that were on time. We talked to a few other people who stayed at CS and they also thought the buses were inconsistent at this resort compared to others.

I've always had good bus service at CSR. An occasional long wait, but you get that everywhere. We also like to stay in Casitas and get on at the last stop.

 

[Queen of the WDW Scene]

Since we are still on the bus subject I just wanted to toss in my experience at other resorts.
Only mods i've stayed at are CSR and POR. From my PP you know how terrible CSR was but POR wasn't that amazing either especially going to POFQ all the time. It took a lot of extra time.
I have not stayed at any deluxe but if they are like the mods it would be annoying to me for it to take that long to get to the parks. I'd have to leave much earlier to get to the parks.
I've stayed at all values besides AS Music which I'll be staying at in February.
Out of them I find POP has the absolute best bus service.
Its the value I've stayed at the most and I have never had a problem with the bus.
Buses are very predictable and I know when to leave in the morning to get on the bus for RD.
I also find that POP's route seems to be one of the most direct to each park.
I stayed in LM at AOA and just hated the long long long walk from room to bus and bus to room at the end of the night so nothing wrong with the bus service just the room location lol.
I like AS Sports and AS Movies service so I assume I'll like Music as well.

 

[Roxyfire]

CSR was not my favorite resort, but not my least favorite, either. But our stay was not great, and it started as soon as we arrived. When we were getting off the ME bus, there was a CM greeting some of the guests, but completely ignored us. I even stood near him just to see if he would acknowledge me, but he didn't. Oh well, I was excited to finally be at WDW.
They were still testing the room text option, but when we arrived we hadn't received a text message yet. I figured our room wasn't ready and it didn't bother me at all. We went to the lobby, and there were no other guests in there. I thought "This should be quick and easy". I went into the online check-in queue and waited to be called over. There were 3 or 4 CMs at their stations, and it appeared to be lunch time because a couple of them were eating. I'd never seen that, but I've eaten on the job before, I just never thought I'd see that at WDW. We were motioned over to someone's station (motioned, no words spoken). I walked up expecting some sort of greeting. The CM said nothing. I gave her a moment and she just stood there. So I said "Good morning, we're checking in". She pointed at the MB touch pad, so I touched Mickey-to-Mickey (thankfully I had done a trip before that with the MBs, so I knew what she needed me to do, but had I not used a MB before, I would've been a little confused). She then spoke (with a mouth full of peanut M&M's) and told me our room was ready. What a pleasant surprise! Things are looking up! Then she told me our room location. I had requested top floor in the Ranchos section. We had gotten a ground floor room in the Cabanas section. I have never requested a room and actually gotten the exact opposite before, so I was disappointed. I thought on it for a moment, and explained very nicely that I had requested a top floor room in the Ranchos section and asked if there was any way to see if a room was available in that section. She said to me "I'll have to make a phone call to find out", and just stood there staring at me, making no effort to pick up the phone. I told her "I hate being an inconvenience, but could you please check?" and she once again says to me "I'll have to make a phone call", and proceeds to still just stand there staring at me. I was befuddled at this point. I motioned towards the phone, and said "If you don't mind, I'd really appreciate it". Mind you, there was still no one else in the lobby waiting to check-in. She was on the phone for several minutes before telling me they were able to move our room. I told her thank you so much. She circled on the map where our room was and that was about it.
I knew CSR was big. I wasn't expecting just how big it was. And how far away the Ranchos section was from the main building. It felt like miles! And the CM didn't point out where the stairs or elevators were in our building, so that took me awhile to find. We got to the room, and it was fine.
The trip overall was great. It was DD and I's first girls only trip, and we had a great time. But the first thing I think of still when I think of CSR is that CM interaction at the very beginning. The buses at CSR are the best I've ever had. We never waited more than 5 minutes going to the resorts and coming back. The food was okay. We only ate at the hotel for breakfast a couple times and dinner once.
Then came time to come home. We were taking ME and arrived plenty early. Along with 20 or so more people (most I've ever had leave one hotel at the same time). Well, our pick-up time came and went, and no bus arrived. After about another 15 minutes, someone from bell services came over and asked us what time our bus was supposed to arrive. Long story short, our bus forgot to pick us up. We were all starting to panic. Luckily this CM was attentive and very helpful. He made a few more phone calls and just as several taxis were showing up, another ME bus arrived. We were all able to somehow fit on that bus and be on our way, but what a stressful end to our trip!
We had a few other less-than-stellar CM encounters during the stay. We would stay at CSR again if the price was right, but it will not be our first pick.

There is nothing I hate more than customer facing employees who cannot stick with the social "scripts" of interacting with people. There are many of us who are not really good at "improvising" interactions with people so we rely a lot on the unwritten, social scripts of certain interactions (like ordering food at a restaurant) to get us through. Certain expectations are set for the customer to make them feel welcome and have a good experience. This recounting made my skin crawl. As corny as it might be, when you're checking people into a hotel, you should welcome them, introduce yourself, and verbally explain what the customer needs to do. Not just grunt and point. Definitely not be eating while at your work station. If you need to phone someone, then actually do it, not use it as an excuse to avoid helping the customer.

I will say, it's not her fault you were granted your request THEN realized it was far. But it is hard to tell how far away things are based only on a paper map. Also, you can always use Bell Services to help you to your room with your luggage. Just be sure you have some cash to tip them. But all your other interaction with her was pretty bad and she sounded like she needed retraining.

 

[Arepells]

Since we are still on the bus subject I just wanted to toss in my experience at other resorts.
Only mods i've stayed at are CSR and POR. From my PP you know how terrible CSR was but POR wasn't that amazing either especially going to POFQ all the time. It took a lot of extra time.
I have not stayed at any deluxe but if they are like the mods it would be annoying to me for it to take that long to get to the parks. I'd have to leave much earlier to get to the parks.
I've stayed at all values besides AS Music which I'll be staying at in February.
Out of them I find POP has the absolute best bus service.
Its the value I've stayed at the most and I have never had a problem with the bus.
Buses are very predictable and I know when to leave in the morning to get on the bus for RD.
I also find that POP's route seems to be one of the most direct to each park.
I stayed in LM at AOA and just hated the long long long walk from room to bus and bus to room at the end of the night so nothing wrong with the bus service just the room location lol.
I like AS Sports and AS Movies service so I assume I'll like Music as well.

We stayed at AS music earlier in our trip and found the bus system to be wonderful! They had screens which listed the times for the buses (CSR does not have this) and found they were very accurate with their timing. We had a much better stay there than CSR. Hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

 

[Roxyfire]

Unfortunately I did let them know and after getting passed around 5 different times, their response to me was “what would you like me to do about it”

This might sound combative, but they ask this so they know how to "recover" the guest experience. Before you complain, (and I don't mean this in a negative or gold digging way) know what would make you happy and give them another chance. You could even say it as "For the price I paid, I did not think I received the quality I expect." I would think that would open the door to getting some of your stay credited back if you further discussed the expectations vs the reality.

 

[GreatLakes]

I have stayed there twice and never had a bad experience. I can't say I've had a bad experience at any Disney resort. The closest was POR where someone had obviously been in the room between the last cleaning and our arrival. We got in late and needed to call down and get the sheets replaced. That didn't really go all that well but it was taken care of and they comped us two nights. While not an ideal start to our stay I care about how it is handled and it was handled as well as anyone could.

I have also had my card not work once or twice when I got to my room the first time and I had to walk back to the lobby but that is nothing more than a little annoying.

I have had some longer waits for buses but I kind of expect that. I never view the buses as quick or efficient, just convenient in that they will get me from where I am to where I am going at some point. I'm not at work sticking to a strict schedule so I don't generally care.

 

[jaiminee krikit]

jaiminee krikit--Sounds like you got the CM from H E double hockey sticks! I tend to cut anyone in the service industry some slack as I work it myself, but talking with food in your mouth? Standing there mute because they don't want to go out of their way to help you? NOPE. You should have said something like "Maybe you can find someone not eating their meal, a CM who actually wants to help me".

Oh, I had a lot of things I wanted to say to her but I was just in shock. I have typically had good experiences checking in at my WDW hotels and this woman was the worst. When I think about it, I still can't believe it happened, and at Disney World of all places! My jobs have always been in customer service and there is no way I would do any of the things she did, even if the customer was rude, but I was so friendly and polite. Just sad.

I will say, it's not her fault you were granted your request THEN realized it was far. But it is hard to tell how far away things are based only on a paper map. Also, you can always use Bell Services to help you to your room with your luggage. Just be sure you have some cash to tip them. But all your other interaction with her was pretty bad and she sounded like she needed retraining.

Oh, I know it wasn't her fault. I just was warning future visitors about the size of the resort. It was exhausting to go to the main building!

 

[jaiminee krikit]

I've always had good bus service at CSR. An occasional long wait, but you get that everywhere. We also like to stay in Casitas and get on at the last stop.

I had amazing bus service at CSR! The longest wait we had was maybe 15 minutes. That was on our first day going to our first park and we were too excited to let it bother us that day, it was entertaining. After that, we never waited more than 5 minutes for a bus going to the parks, and not much longer coming back to the resort. And no matter what time we were leaving the parks, even at closing, we were on the first bus that showed up and always got a seat. I couldn't believe how good the bus service was there!

 

[tbholc81]

We stayed one night on our trip last week. It was the most disappointing part of the whole week. We found the room to be out dated and old feeling (which is probably why they are refurbishing the rooms), our shower needed to be replaced, and the bus service was the slowest I've experienced. We did like the food and the pool, and the grounds were really nice. Not a terrible experience but after I heard many people say it's like staying in a deluxe at a moderate price I was expecting more. Like I said we were only there for 1 night, then we were off to the Beach Club.

 

[maxiesmom]

We stayed at AS music earlier in our trip and found the bus system to be wonderful! They had screens which listed the times for the buses (CSR does not have this) and found they were very accurate with their timing. We had a much better stay there than CSR. Hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

I could have sworn when I stayed at CSR last year they had the screens. I'm almost positive they do.

One thing CSR has going for it over the value resorts is the location of the bus stops at the parks. CSR is always very close to the park gates. The value bus stops are the ones the farthest out. It is wonderful to have a short walk to the bus stop at night when you are worn out.

 

[Shellyb84]

I could have sworn when I stayed at CSR last year they had the screens. I'm almost positive they do.

You are correct - CSR has them (all resorts do now)