PTR - SF, NY & WDW Oct/Nov

[PrincessInOz]

What did you think of CSR?

As rooms and facilities go, it was fine. Lots of people love CSR and the theming; and I think there are a number of Aussie Dis-sers here that do love CSR. I also thought it would be a resort that I would love....as I really do love that Southwest rock and desert. Afterall, by preference, I do truly enjoy Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado as a holiday destination.


However, I personally thought it was missing something "Disney". Whilst it is on Disney property, I think I remember reading that CSR isn't run by Disney. It's run by another organisation so that they can fully focus on being the Conference Hotel. We were there because DH was attending a conference and I found it a little disconcerting having breakfast and walking around the resort with guests in suits. Perhaps it was that I felt awkward about being in my Disney themed t-shirts and shorts and having breakfast with DH's colleagues; not quite in suits but they were all dressed to work.

And our housekeeper didn't make any towel animals either.


The pool was fantastic and the resort was lovely; the food court and Disney store was great and the rooms in 2010 had been recently refurbed; so it was very nice. It doesn't share it's buses with any other resorts so you get to go direct to all destinations and back from the resort, which is a big plus.

But, it wouldn't be the first moderate I would choose to stay at because I really don't want to see business suits around me when I'm on holiday at Disney. But that's me. As you can see, Wanderlust has provided a different opinion and it'll come down to what you prefer to do. If the Free Dining numbers work for you and your family, then it will be a compelling reason to change. There are 3 adults in my family now and running the numbers and checking it against how we eat, we are better off with a room-only discount and paying for food OOP. The Disney DP is now priced at a point where you really need to work out your eating style and whether you'll eat all the food provided on the plan for it to be worth your while.

We certainly ate what we wanted on the trip in September for (on average) less than the US$160 per day it would have cost us on the DP.

And I do like knowing that I had food pre-paid in advance like you do on the DP. I just made sure that I had my food money all changed and available. All I did to enjoy this same 'benefit' was to keep changing AUD to USD from time to time when the exchange rate was good so that I had the 'cash' in hand (or on the travel card).


I hope you enjoy CSR.

 

[WanderlustNZ]

But that's me. As you can see, Wanderlust has provided a different opinion and it'll come down to what you prefer to do.

Except your opinion is based on experience and mine isn't

The way I see it is this. Let's say a room at CSR costs $220 p/n after tax. Paying out of pocket, a family of four could easily spend $140 + a day for two meals and snacks. This essentially brings the room cost down to no more than $80 p/n. Given all that you get by staying onsite (transport, EMH etc) I think this is a mega bargain. Even if you don't love CSR, you can walk around feeling proud as punch that you got a great deal.

In saying all this, do check availabilty for this resort. I did a quick check and it seems like they don't have much left. It may pay to call Disney to discuss your options. I wonder if booking something now would help better you chances of securing the room you want when free dining is announced to the public? Sorry, I don't really understand how these things work.

 

[CJ2001]

As rooms and facilities go, it was fine. Lots of people love CSR and the theming; and I think there are a number of Aussie Dis-sers here that do love CSR. I also thought it would be a resort that I would love....as I really do love that Southwest rock and desert. Afterall, by preference, I do truly enjoy Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado as a holiday destination.


However, I personally thought it was missing something "Disney". Whilst it is on Disney property, I think I remember reading that CSR isn't run by Disney. It's run by another organisation so that they can fully focus on being the Conference Hotel. We were there because DH was attending a conference and I found it a little disconcerting having breakfast and walking around the resort with guests in suits. Perhaps it was that I felt awkward about being in my Disney themed t-shirts and shorts and having breakfast with DH's colleagues; not quite in suits but they were all dressed to work.

And our housekeeper didn't make any towel animals either.


The pool was fantastic and the resort was lovely; the food court and Disney store was great and the rooms in 2010 had been recently refurbed; so it was very nice. It doesn't share it's buses with any other resorts so you get to go direct to all destinations and back from the resort, which is a big plus.

But, it wouldn't be the first moderate I would choose to stay at because I really don't want to see business suits around me when I'm on holiday at Disney. But that's me. As you can see, Wanderlust has provided a different opinion and it'll come down to what you prefer to do. If the Free Dining numbers work for you and your family, then it will be a compelling reason to change. There are 3 adults in my family now and running the numbers and checking it against how we eat, we are better off with a room-only discount and paying for food OOP. The Disney DP is now priced at a point where you really need to work out your eating style and whether you'll eat all the food provided on the plan for it to be worth your while.

We certainly ate what we wanted on the trip in September for (on average) less than the US$160 per day it would have cost us on the DP.

And I do like knowing that I had food pre-paid in advance like you do on the DP. I just made sure that I had my food money all changed and available. All I did to enjoy this same 'benefit' was to keep changing AUD to USD from time to time when the exchange rate was good so that I had the 'cash' in hand (or on the travel card).


I hope you enjoy CSR.

All booked at CSR for 27th - Nov 3rd. The kids werent too keen on the pool at POR but do like the look of the pool at CSR - so finally got some approval from them!

I have made new ADR's

Dinner at Raglan
8.20 breakfast at Tusker House

Hubby is a big eater and likes his steaks, I do aswell and my son likes to have ribs so I think it will be worth it for us.

I havent added my tickets yet, the lady on the phone said if free dining comes through I will have to ring up and change my booking to a room that is available for free dining. So should I add tickets now or at that time? Also would I get free dining for the whole period of time I stay there including the 3rd?

 

[PrincessInOz]

All booked at CSR for 27th - Nov 3rd. The kids werent too keen on the pool at POR but do like the look of the pool at CSR - so finally got some approval from them!

I have made new ADR's

Dinner at Raglan
8.20 breakfast at Tusker House

Hubby is a big eater and likes his steaks, I do aswell and my son likes to have ribs so I think it will be worth it for us.

I havent added my tickets yet, the lady on the phone said if free dining comes through I will have to ring up and change my booking to a room that is available for free dining. So should I add tickets now or at that time? Also would I get free dining for the whole period of time I stay there including the 3rd?

Congratulations!

I would recommend going early to AK and allowing time to get your pictures taken whilst the park is relatively empty (assuming that the day you've picked isn't an EMH morning day).

I loved dinner at Raglan Road and have just finished writing up about dinner there on my latest TR. So if you want to see pictures of food, they'll be there.

I stopped reading about tickets.....there were some posts on the Dis about buying tickets from Undercover Tourists and Disney implementing new changes about upgrade rules. If you're planning on covering the entire duration of your stay with full park hopper and WPFM tickets, then it won't matter when you buy your tickets. But I would look at the ticket prices closely and see how much you can save from UT; using the Mousesavers link. (you can get an extra $1 per ticket discount through Mousesavers if you buy from UT).

In the past, as long as you start/check in to your room on a day that is within the FD window, the entire stay will be covered by FD. I think there might be a rule of up to 10 days after or something; but you should be fine.

 

[WanderlustNZ]

There are 3 adults in my family now and running the numbers and checking it against how we eat, we are better off with a room-only discount and paying for food OOP. The Disney DP is now priced at a point where you really need to work out your eating style and whether you'll eat all the food provided on the plan for it to be worth your while.

Apologies for being fastidious, but no matter how I crunch the numbers, I can't work out how this would be possible with a moderate.

During Sep/Oct most moderates are around $200p/n and a 30% discount is $60. My family of 3 (one being 6 years old) could never eat 2 meals and a snack a day for only $20 each unless we only ever ate kids meals at counter service places.

Perhaps I'm missing something?

 

[WanderlustNZ]

All booked at CSR for 27th - Nov 3rd. The kids werent too keen on the pool at POR but do like the look of the pool at CSR - so finally got some approval from them!

I have made new ADR's

Dinner at Raglan
8.20 breakfast at Tusker House

Hubby is a big eater and likes his steaks, I do aswell and my son likes to have ribs so I think it will be worth it for us.

I havent added my tickets yet, the lady on the phone said if free dining comes through I will have to ring up and change my booking to a room that is available for free dining. So should I add tickets now or at that time? Also would I get free dining for the whole period of time I stay there including the 3rd?

Well done!

The dining is based on the number of nights you stay and you'll get if for the whole time. Not sure though about the best time to add tickets sorry.

Raglan Road and Tusker House are great ADRS

 

[PrincessInOz]

Apologies for being fastidious, but no matter how I crunch the numbers, I can't work out how this would be possible with a moderate.

Most moderates are around $200p/n and a 30% discount is $60. My family of 3 (one being 6 years old) could never eat 2 meals and a snack a day for only $20 each unless we only ever ate kids meals at counter service places.

Perhaps I'm missing something?

You're right about the moderates and the dining plan.

I crunched the numbers when we stayed 5 nights at POR and were on the QSDP then. DS was 9 and there was no way he would stay still long enough to wait and eat Table Service. It was lineball for us. Even on the QSDP, it was way too much food for us. We would never have dessert with every meal; and we ended up with more than 5 snacks at the end that we converted to sweets at Goofy's.

From memory, the QS was $25 per adult and $10 for the child then.

 

[Aussie Wendy]

You have to buy your WDW tix as part of the package (or at least 2 days of the tix and given the discounts as you increase number of days its not worth it to buy a 2 day+ a separate 3 or 5 dayer.). Quote: "The only other requirement is that you must purchase a 2 day basic Magic Your Way park ticket per person on the reservation. This means you can’t purchase discounted Walt Disney World tickets from an authorized reseller, which is something to keep in mind when doing the math to determine if “Free Dining” is a good value for you."

I have calculated for us 2 adults we will be around $150 OOP with our current 20% pre-tax discounted room only + UC tix versus Free Dining given what we are likely to eat but will be interested to check free dining full package cost to confirm this. Since I really wanted to stay at POFQ or POR and they are excluded and we are going to WDS first before Universal so I would have had to rearrange plans so as to arrive at WDW on or after 26th, I am happy to wear the difference for getting all that I wanted but its a different situation if I we were a family of 6 with lots of adults!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Ooh! Yes. I forgot you had to buy the tix from Disney as part of a package to qualify for FD. Thanks!

 

[Caroline NZ]

Everyone has different preferences for their holiday dining, so one calculation is never going to work for all. For us free dining is a non event as we would never stay onsite in a room only as a family of 4 as we like our space ( the 2 bedroom onsite villas would be great but they are out of our price range). But even if we were staying onsite we wouldn't eat a full table service dinner and lunch every single day, that is too much food and too much time out of the day for us. But for others that food and dining experience is a very important part of the trip every day. I am looking forward to picking just a few restaurants to eat at though

 

[WanderlustNZ]

CJ2001, because you can use all your snack credits at once if you want, one other tip is to save them all up for the F&W Festival. This works out great value as the snacks can make a good substitute for a meal or two. From memory even the lobster roll could be bought with a snack credit and that was around $8 or $9.

 

[CJ2001]

Just booked hard Rock hotel for 4th to 7th & realised I'm missing a nights booking so will have to change Disney booking for check out on 4th.

As we are staying at HRH for 3 nights we will need 3 day tickets so that's one less day at Disney

 

[WanderlustNZ]

Just booked hard Rock hotel for 4th to 7th & realised I'm missing a nights booking so will have to change Disney booking for check out on 4th. As we are staying at HRH for 3 nights we will need 3 day tickets so that's one less day at Disney

Woohoo, you won't regret staying onsite at Universal. It's awesome. Plus it will be a huge benefit being onsite so soon after the new Harry Potter land has opened up. I'm insanely jealous. I told DH that we will have to go back within the next 5 years so I can experience the new HP land and he just rolled his eyes.

The pool at HRH is so lovely.

 

[FireflyFi]

Your plan looks great! I'm really jealous of your HRH booking

Have you been to NY before? A couple of tips from my own experience (almost two years ago now, but hopefully hasn't changed too much) - go to FAO Schwartz when it opens and you'll see them do a 'welcome' presentation and you'll get the Big Piano almost to yourself. You can hire bikes just a few blocks away from Central Park, which is a great way to see it relatively quickly (and you can stop the places you want to see and quickly move through the rest of it). My friends and I walked across the Brooklyn Bridge first thing in the morning on the last day we were in NY because it was going to be a scorcher. It was a beautiful walk, though. Going Manhattan to Brooklyn was a bit against the traffic, but there's lots of space. And if you walk another 10 or so minutes beyond the bridge, there's a great diner. http://www.juniorscheesecake.com/ They'll look at you funny if you order cheesecake at 9am, but hey, that's what holidays are for!

 

[CJ2001]

Your plan looks great! I'm really jealous of your HRH booking

Have you been to NY before? A couple of tips from my own experience (almost two years ago now, but hopefully hasn't changed too much) - go to FAO Schwartz when it opens and you'll see them do a 'welcome' presentation and you'll get the Big Piano almost to yourself. You can hire bikes just a few blocks away from Central Park, which is a great way to see it relatively quickly (and you can stop the places you want to see and quickly move through the rest of it). My friends and I walked across the Brooklyn Bridge first thing in the morning on the last day we were in NY because it was going to be a scorcher. It was a beautiful walk, though. Going Manhattan to Brooklyn was a bit against the traffic, but there's lots of space. And if you walk another 10 or so minutes beyond the bridge, there's a great diner. http://www.juniorscheesecake.com/ They'll look at you funny if you order cheesecake at 9am, but hey, that's what holidays are for!

Yes we are looking forward to it, we dont usually splurge on accommodation but the benefits here are worth it

thanks FireflyFi for the tip about FAO Schwartz that is something I really wanted to show the kids. Nope havent been to new york before so really excited, bit worried about how busy it is and how much we have to squeeze in!

Yummy that place looks amazing!

 

[CJ2001]

CJ2001, because you can use all your snack credits at once if you want, one other tip is to save them all up for the F&W Festival. This works out great value as the snacks can make a good substitute for a meal or two. From memory even the lobster roll could be bought with a snack credit and that was around $8 or $9.

will keep that in mind thanks

 

[CJ2001]

Woohoo, you won't regret staying onsite at Universal. It's awesome. Plus it will be a huge benefit being onsite so soon after the new Harry Potter land has opened up. I'm insanely jealous. I told DH that we will have to go back within the next 5 years so I can experience the new HP land and he just rolled his eyes.

The pool at HRH is so lovely.

The kids actually approve of this place (when they pulled themselves away from the xbox to have a look!)

 

[Zosha]

Just chiming in on CSR vs PO. We stayed at POFQ and CSR in March with a 9 and 11 year old, and we much preferred the CSR pool area for the kids. It is a huge resort but we were close to El Centro which was great. POFQ was lovely as well, but with kids, we would pick CSR again.

 

[CJ2001]

Just chiming in on CSR vs PO. We stayed at POFQ and CSR in March with a 9 and 11 year old, and we much preferred the CSR pool area for the kids. It is a huge resort but we were close to El Centro which was great. POFQ was lovely as well, but with kids, we would pick CSR again.

I am looking forward to staying here, any room tips? Is it better to be near the bus stop or the pool?

 

[CJ2001]

How do I see my balance on what I owe on for my disney world accommodation?

I have looked under my experience and can the reservation but cant see the remaining balance, can you pay for it through the website or will I have to ring to finish the payment?