CSR is wonderful! It is my favorite resort. ..I have so much to say about it, soooo, I will paste my original CSR review from this past August here. Enjoy, and I hope you find it helpful, even though you already got GREAT info from the other posters.
-Maren
First of all, I've been trying to stay at CSR for the past three years, but I'm so indecisive about which resort to choose, I always ended up switching at the last minute. Luckily, I finally decided to stick with my original decision and stay at CSR--We were definetly not disappointed! For this trip I reserved two rooms for my boyfriend and I and his parents. My only requests were non-smoking and that the rooms have some distance between them (his parents can be annoying at times!)
We arrived on August 2 around 10:00 and were greeted by very friendly and helpful CM's. We walked right up to check-in with no wait. The lobby was beautiful! I was really impressed with the artwork and the overall themeing of the resort. My two requests were met with no problem at check in. I had the choice of moving into the Ranchos immediately or waiting until 3:00 for two rooms in Casitas 2. If it were just my boyfriend and I, most likely, I would have just went for the Ranchos just so we can get settled in (we drove this time and were a bit frazzled from the ride over). But since his parents are a bit older, I thought they would appreciate being closer to El Centro. So we got two ground floor rooms in Casitas 2. We did experience the Ranchos--I'll explain about that later. Mike and I got the corner room (#2140) and his parents were just a short walk down the hall in room 2135. Right outside our door was the beautiful lion fountain and just a few steps to our left was the Casitas quiet pool. This was an excellent location for us. I was very much impressed with the grounds at CSR. The landscaping was really well done. In my opinion, this was the best landscaping I have seen at any of the Disney resorts I've stayed at. I especially liked the Three Caballeros topiary and the palm tree atrium in the Casitas.
The rooms themselves were perfect condition. They were bright and cheery and nice to come back to after a long day at the parks. We had no problems with housekeeping. The rooms were always cleaned by the time we came back and they never disturbed us early in the morning. I loved the extra in-room amenities such as the coffee maker, hairdryer, and iron / ironing board. Wasn't sure if it was just the layout of the room, but both mike and I felt that the room seemed bigger than the one at WL we stayed in last year. The fact that the room had only one sink was no problem for us, since while one of us was showering, the other was outside at the sink. I appreciated the fact that there was more counter space to lay out all of our crap!
From our room location, it was no more than a pleasant three minute walk to use the Dig Site main pool. The pool was fantastic! Never very crowded, always plenty of charis, and the slide was the best! It was like something right out of River Country! We also used the hot tub at night and had no problem getting in there, as it is very large and can accomodate 20+ adults. We did use the Casitas quiet pool a lot since it was right next to our room (also never crowded) and it also offers a nice view of the Illuminations fireworks!
One thing that I was hesitant about was the Pepper Market. It just sounded a little too confusing and too much of a hassle. I was wrong! It was a very nice place to eat and we were all impressed with the food selection and quality. Everything was fresh and made to order. One thingI noticed about the Pepper Market was that it was very quiet and relaxed (actually, the whole resort was like that!) compared to the other moderate's food courts. Yes, it was a bit more expensive than the other moderate's food courts, but the quality of the food, service, and whole atmosphere made it worth it. We also ate at the Maya Grill for dinner and liked that very much.
Bus service was fantastic. There was really never a wait--just a constant stream of busses and also, they were never filled! So we never had to stand even during park openings and closings. CSR is VERY close to the Studios, Epcot, Animal Kingdom, and Blizzard beach. It was also a short ride to Magic Kingdom. The longest destination seemed to be going to Pleasure Island.
Lets see--what else, what else....Oh! I also kept in mind the negatives that others had about CSR, like the conventioners and the fact that it seems arid and hotter than most resorts. I wasn't bothered by either of those. Yes, there were conventioners, but we hardly noticed--who cares anyway? They didn't spoil our trip--if anything, I'm sure they were jealous of all the people on vacation while they were stuck working! All they did was walk quietly from the casitas to the convention area in the morning, and there were not many of them. I did not find the resort to be exceptionally hot due to the themeing. If anything, it was very breezy, maybe because of the lake. I really like the gift shop--they sold many items that can be found in the Mexico pavillion in Epcot and I loved the fact that I could get many of the same items from Mexico at the resort. Just two miscellaneous things--we did see the infamous CSR gator in the lake and the resort offers cane pole fishing which I have not seen mentioned anywhere.
Oh! I almost forgot to tell you about the Ranchos! Well, on our last day, MIke got sick so we had to extend our stay. It was no problem, but we had to move to the Ranchos as our Casitas room was going to be taken. So we were in Ranchos 6b on the ground floor. This was a cool location--right next to the Dig site and the Ranchos quiet pool. It was about a five minute walk around the lake to get to El Centro--it wasn't unbearable by any means though. We got another corner room and it was wonderful condition as well.
I have to say that CSR is definetly my favorite resort (yes--liked it more than WL!!) This was the first Disney trip where we actully made it a point to spend more time at the resort than at the parks. I just loved the laid back, peaceful feeling. It really felt like you were on an exotic vacation and really away from it all. I would have no problem staying there again and I enthusiastically recommend it to those of you who are thinking about staying there. I hope I gave you detailed info, but of course, please feel free to ask any questions, as I would be happy to help.
