SandraC
Longs for the feeling of sandy salt water in her k
- Joined
- Oct 27, 2000
- Messages
- 5,091
DISNEY APRIL 20 - 30, 2002
TRIP REPORT
DAY 1 ~ SATURDAY, APRIL 20
DH and I woke up 6am to prepare for 10:15am Air Canada flight AC912 Toronto to Orlando. Woke the kids dd (8) ds (2) at 6:30am. Airport limo arrived at 7:35am ~ way too early as usual. Long lines at airport. There was only the self-check-in kiosk at Air Canada, so we checked ourselves in - it wasn't too much problem but I was born in Quebec and it would not take my birth certificate number at first, I needed help. A fella came along and told me that I needed to type "Q" in with my birth cert. #. Good thing the came along! Security was a breeze. As we droned along with the other folks waiting for security, the flight clew whisked past us. The security guard who let them in, waved us thru too! We got to the head of the line ~ LOL! By 8:30am, we were sitting waiting for the 10:15am flight. Everything went great on the plane. Air Canada was wonderful to fly with ~ on time there and back! HIGHLY RECOMMEND PREBOOKING YOUR SEATS! We did and it was GREAT! So many folks had to split up their families! We landed at 12:40pm, got our Dollar car rental (mini-van, thank you mousesavers! $199 a week!). By 1:40pm we were on the road to Goodings. Picked up groceries around 2pm and arrived at CSR by 2:40pm. I got the room we requested Cabanas 8A (ROOM 8157) We asked for a lower level corner room near the Dig Site but not directly facing it for noise. The room was perfectly quiet. We swam at the Dig Site then ate at Pepper Market ~ ds was in bed asleep at 7pm! The rest of us fell asleep about 11pm.
BIG SURPRISE FOR THE KIDS: I brought a BIG yellow gift bag and hid it in my luggage. When we went out to dinner the first night, I went back to the room and placed a gift for each kid in the yellow gift bag. DS's gift was wrapped in blue with ribbon and DD's in pink with ribbon and Disney name tags addressed to each kid. When we got back to the room after dinner the kids were surprised with gifts from MICKEY! Each day when we returned from the parks, there was a gift for each kid! They were thrilled!
CSR FIRST IMPRESSIONS: CSR was what I expected. It was nice enough, but I prefer CBR. DD preferred CBR too, DH didn't have a preferance. I liked CSR well enough and happy that we tried it (the price was right ~ again THANKS mousesavers $94 a night) but it didn't do the magic that CBR did last year. The Dig Site pool was GREAT! That was the best part! The quiet pools were nice too! The kiddie pool didn't have the BIG fish that I saw in past pictures. That confused ds, since I kept telling him about the fish and showing him pictures. I didn't like the Pepper Market very much. The food was okay and the folks were friendly enough, but I liked CBR better. I found El Centro to be cold while OPR was friendly and lively! Now I think if I tried CSR first, before CBR, I might be writing a different review. CBR was our first Disney resort last year and it was soooo magical that it really was a hard act to follow. I was terribly disappointed with the housekeeping staff. The TV cabinet had a knob missing off the door which was dangerous for ds (2), sharp! The hot water faucet kept falling off. They fixed it as soon as I reported it, but I thought that type of thing should have been fixed before we got the room. Both things were very obvious. The housekeepers did put the kids toys in the window which was a nice little treat, but two days when I forgot to leave out tips envelopes, the toys were just thrown on the floor. I saw one housekeeper really make a fuss about another families room, when he saw that I saw him, he rushed off. The Character Caravan was okay, but extremely disorganized! The carpets were dull and ugly and old. But the bedding was pretty and bright. All in all, I would give CSR 6.5 out of 10, where I would give CBR 8.5 out of 10 ~ that just my opinion. I liked it just fine ~ but I am comparing it to a GREAT stay at CBR last year. We are looking at a combo moderate/deluxe resort next trip! Since we did the DISNEY COMMANDO thing again this year and didn't spend lots of time at CSR, the resort suited us just fine. If given a choice of repeats CSR or CBR, I would pick CBR in a shot! Loved CBR, liked CSR. Now for the REALLY important part ~ DISNEY!!!!!!! DAY 2 to follow!
TRIP REPORT
DAY 1 ~ SATURDAY, APRIL 20
DH and I woke up 6am to prepare for 10:15am Air Canada flight AC912 Toronto to Orlando. Woke the kids dd (8) ds (2) at 6:30am. Airport limo arrived at 7:35am ~ way too early as usual. Long lines at airport. There was only the self-check-in kiosk at Air Canada, so we checked ourselves in - it wasn't too much problem but I was born in Quebec and it would not take my birth certificate number at first, I needed help. A fella came along and told me that I needed to type "Q" in with my birth cert. #. Good thing the came along! Security was a breeze. As we droned along with the other folks waiting for security, the flight clew whisked past us. The security guard who let them in, waved us thru too! We got to the head of the line ~ LOL! By 8:30am, we were sitting waiting for the 10:15am flight. Everything went great on the plane. Air Canada was wonderful to fly with ~ on time there and back! HIGHLY RECOMMEND PREBOOKING YOUR SEATS! We did and it was GREAT! So many folks had to split up their families! We landed at 12:40pm, got our Dollar car rental (mini-van, thank you mousesavers! $199 a week!). By 1:40pm we were on the road to Goodings. Picked up groceries around 2pm and arrived at CSR by 2:40pm. I got the room we requested Cabanas 8A (ROOM 8157) We asked for a lower level corner room near the Dig Site but not directly facing it for noise. The room was perfectly quiet. We swam at the Dig Site then ate at Pepper Market ~ ds was in bed asleep at 7pm! The rest of us fell asleep about 11pm.
BIG SURPRISE FOR THE KIDS: I brought a BIG yellow gift bag and hid it in my luggage. When we went out to dinner the first night, I went back to the room and placed a gift for each kid in the yellow gift bag. DS's gift was wrapped in blue with ribbon and DD's in pink with ribbon and Disney name tags addressed to each kid. When we got back to the room after dinner the kids were surprised with gifts from MICKEY! Each day when we returned from the parks, there was a gift for each kid! They were thrilled!
CSR FIRST IMPRESSIONS: CSR was what I expected. It was nice enough, but I prefer CBR. DD preferred CBR too, DH didn't have a preferance. I liked CSR well enough and happy that we tried it (the price was right ~ again THANKS mousesavers $94 a night) but it didn't do the magic that CBR did last year. The Dig Site pool was GREAT! That was the best part! The quiet pools were nice too! The kiddie pool didn't have the BIG fish that I saw in past pictures. That confused ds, since I kept telling him about the fish and showing him pictures. I didn't like the Pepper Market very much. The food was okay and the folks were friendly enough, but I liked CBR better. I found El Centro to be cold while OPR was friendly and lively! Now I think if I tried CSR first, before CBR, I might be writing a different review. CBR was our first Disney resort last year and it was soooo magical that it really was a hard act to follow. I was terribly disappointed with the housekeeping staff. The TV cabinet had a knob missing off the door which was dangerous for ds (2), sharp! The hot water faucet kept falling off. They fixed it as soon as I reported it, but I thought that type of thing should have been fixed before we got the room. Both things were very obvious. The housekeepers did put the kids toys in the window which was a nice little treat, but two days when I forgot to leave out tips envelopes, the toys were just thrown on the floor. I saw one housekeeper really make a fuss about another families room, when he saw that I saw him, he rushed off. The Character Caravan was okay, but extremely disorganized! The carpets were dull and ugly and old. But the bedding was pretty and bright. All in all, I would give CSR 6.5 out of 10, where I would give CBR 8.5 out of 10 ~ that just my opinion. I liked it just fine ~ but I am comparing it to a GREAT stay at CBR last year. We are looking at a combo moderate/deluxe resort next trip! Since we did the DISNEY COMMANDO thing again this year and didn't spend lots of time at CSR, the resort suited us just fine. If given a choice of repeats CSR or CBR, I would pick CBR in a shot! Loved CBR, liked CSR. Now for the REALLY important part ~ DISNEY!!!!!!! DAY 2 to follow!
It's nice to hear that Air Canada's service was really good as we've been hearing a lot of "off" reports.
