Switch from POP to CSR?

[frannn]

DD and I have a girl's trip planned for my birthday in mid May. We love POP due to the skyliner and the lake. That being said, its only about $315 more to stay at CSR standard view. The hot tub and view there are making us want to switch. Is there a standard section there that would limit the amount of extra walking and are busses so bad we would miss the skyliner? Last May the evening rain caused us to not be able to use the skyliner back from the parks a few times. I'm torn..what would you do? We will not have a car.

 

[Mle8308]

I'd stick with Pop. A standard view at CSR is probably going to be the parking lot and you are bussing everywhere. And I would never use a public hot tub, even at Disney. I'd prefer the Skyliner, CSR is very spread out and you could be really far from things. The rooms are bigger, so that is a positive and there are full service dining options at Coronado, if that is important. However, the Skyliner makes it easy to get to 2 parks plus the Epcot resorts, which would be the decision maker for me, and saving money.

 

[hes122]

A friend of mine that I've done several girls trips with & I did a split stay in March 2021 at Pop (to utilize the Skyliner) and CSR (to try something new). Would that be a possibility for you? Here's what our itinerary looked like:

W- arrival (mid-afternoon), took Skyliner to Epcot and ate at Big River Grille and Beaches & Cream, took Skyliner back to Pop
R- Skyliner to HS in AM, back to Pop early afternoon for pool time (which turned into a nap instead), took bus to MK
F- took luggage to bell services to be transferred to CSR, took bus to AK, bus to CSR after lunch for pool time and then bus to EP for the evening
S- bus to MK, bus to BC (to avoid the front entrance of EP since monorail wasn't running yet), bus to CSR at the end of the night

It worked for us and we got the best of both worlds.

 

[disney-inspired]

DD and I have a girl's trip planned for my birthday in mid May. We love POP due to the skyliner and the lake. That being said, its only about $315 more to stay at CSR standard view. The hot tub and view there are making us want to switch. Is there a standard section there that would limit the amount of extra walking and are busses so bad we would miss the skyliner? Last May the evening rain caused us to not be able to use the skyliner back from the parks a few times. I'm torn..what would you do? We will not have a car.

Stick with Pop - go preferred if you can - but I wouldn't take CSR.
I stayed there once and I found the resort way to expansive and I was in a preferred room. Also, there are 4 bus stops for that resort and thankfully we were located closest to the first one but overall was not happy with the room distance to the food court and the wait for the bus.

ETA - I love using hot tubs so it's definitely value to me but I never even used it during my CSR stay in 2021 because we were tired from the parks.

If you are willing to give up Skyliner perk for the hot tub perk, I would rather go to Port Orleans. I have stayed there several times and always love it.

 

[notatallmagic]

We've also split stayed Coronado and Pop; and also Pop and Port Orleans.

Coronado is VERY spread out, and the buses were sketchy at best. It is pretty, the theming is nice, it's new, and there is a hot tub (it was broken while we were there ;()

My kids love Pop, even more than Deluxe resorts. Can't beat the price and the Skyliner - but if you want to try something new, my daughter and I did a get away at Port Orleans Riverside - very pretty - and our whole family split stayed at French Quarter. We used the non-Pop days for Animal Kingdom and Magic; and also rode the boat to Disney Springs.

 

[Disneylover99]

I love hot tubs, and CSR has a nice big one. I tried to use it daily on my 2 week trip. But it was so packed with kids jumping in and out, it’s probably my least favourite hot tub on property.

So I’d pick Pop.

 

[loves to dive]

I'm going the opposite from everyone, I'd go CSR. It's my favorite moderate, it's a beautiful resort. Yes, there are 4 bus stops but really, I've stayed at all the villages and the walk to the front is not really that far. I'm not a fan of the sky liner, it rains a lot in Florida and if it's windy or thunder storms they shut it down. The buses aren't bad at CSR, but I will say the buses are the buses are the buses and not any better or worse at any of the resorts. If you stay in Casitas you are at bus stop 2, which is the first stop to pick up and drop off. CSR is pretty close to Epcot and HS so the bus trip to either of those parks is pretty quick.

 

[Dug720]

I'm going the opposite from everyone, I'd go CSR. It's my favorite moderate, it's a beautiful resort. Yes, there are 4 bus stops but really, I've stayed at all the villages and the walk to the front is not really that far. I'm not a fan of the sky liner, it rains a lot in Florida and if it's windy or thunder storms they shut it down. The buses aren't bad at CSR, but I will say the buses are the buses are the buses and not any better or worse at any of the resorts. If you stay in Casitas you are at bus stop 2, which is the first stop to pick up and drop off. CSR is pretty close to Epcot and HS so the bus trip to either of those parks is pretty quick.

100%!!!!

I'm also not a fan of the skyliner with shared buckets. Sharing a bus and/or a monorail is one thing. But suspended in the air with strangers if the buckets stop? AWKWARD!

 

[chicagodisneyguy]

For that price I'd switch in a second. We did a few cash stays when we were tapped out of DVC points and stayed at CSR. It feels the most deluxe to me of all the moderates.

As far as buses, we actually never used them. Obviously it's a ymmv thing, but in our two, week long trips Ubers to just about everywhere on property were consistently $10 or less. Several were like $7. While I know it's adding costs to an already upgraded trip....at that price the convenience won out every time.

 

[kylenne]

I can’t speak to standard at CSR since I’ve only stayed in the tower there but if you are hot tub people the one at the Dig Site pool is great. Loved it after an evening at the parks. I’ll be honest, speaking as someone who is deluxe or bust, I enjoyed the resort more than some of the deluxes I’ve stayed at. Great on site dining an amenities for a mod because it’s a convention resort and it’s very centrally located on property, more than it appears.

 

[stinkpickle]

If I plan to spend any time at all at the resort, I would go with CSR.

 

[emilyann704]

I stayed in standard view Ranchos at CSR in May and really loved the resort. It was just me, a 30-something solo female, so what I really liked about it was the dining and bar options vs a value resort. It was the lowest priced moderate and since I was alone the idea of drinking and eating at my hotel was appealing. It's a large resort but if you don't have mobility issues everything was a 10 minute walk. I didn't have any problem with buses either and the pool was very nice too. I think I liked it because it just seems more "adult" to me than the values.

However, my next (likely solo trip) I'm definitely going to consider Pop just to save a little extra ($315 is a big difference!) and try out a new hotel.

I don't think one hotel is "better" than the other, it just comes down to how often you will actually get to use the amenities CSR offers over Pop and whether the Skyliner is really that big of a draw for you over buses.