The good and bad of Coronado Springs

[PrincessDisneyMomx2]

I booked our Nov vacation at CSR but now doubting my decision.. I have stayed at all of the value resorts and CBR (which was our favorite). I have a 5yr old and we LOVED the separate kids pool area with the kid water slides at CBR does CSR have that also?
I wanted to try something new but don't want to be disappointed.
Tell me the good and the bad of CSR.

 

[IndyRnRfan]

http://www.disboards.com/threads/di...s-resort-information-questions.3270962/unread

The above thread will pretty much tell you everything you need to know. The short version. Nothing bad at this resort for us. It is well decorated, the buses run smoothly, there is a ton of food options, the pool is awesome as are the quiet pools, and we love the fact it is spread out. Many complain that it is too big but those are usually people that are not is the best shape and walking from the back to El Centro is a chore(we can walk it in about 7-8 mins). They do offer complimentary rides on golf carts if you ask. This is basically a deluxe resort at a mod price with all the amenities available.

My wife has stayed at all 3 mods and CBR is her least favorite. POR and CSR are neck and neck for me. I won't complain about either one. The general consensus on here is CBR is great for families with little ones because of the pools. POR and CSR is typically better for families with the older age kids(upper elementary and older)

 

[_auroraborealis_]

CSR does not have a children's water play area. If that is a major thing for you, you may be unhappy. CSR has a great feature pool and slide, but the only Mods with water play areas right now are CBR and POFQ.

 

[PrincessDisneyMomx2]

CSR does not have a children's water play area. If that is a major thing for you, you may be unhappy. CSR has a great feature pool and slide, but the only Mods with water play areas right now are CBR and POFQ.

She will be 5 1/2 by then and we also have a dd15 plus my parents, sister and 2 older cousins are going so with a life jacket I'm sure she will love the big pool and slide..

 

[JohnDaleswife]

Best transportation that I have had at all the Disney resorts I have stayed at. Theming was beautiful. Loved the Ranchos. Hot tub, great. Pool was awesome, even though I do prefer zero entry. Only negative, the food. It sucked.

 

[wdw4rfam]

CBR is my favorite moderate, CSR is my least favorite. But that being said the only thing I didn't like was the lack of selection in the foodcourt. The pool was our least favorite too. But we still would stay there again if the others weren't available. You will be fine.

 

[Jennny]

My kids prefer CSR over the other moderate resorts . Largely due to the pool and water slide. Longest one of all the moderates . They were 4 and 5 and loved the pool... They are now 9 & 11 and asked to go there over all the other resorts for our next visit . It's a very pretty, quiet resort - you won't be upset. Enjoy!

 

[nkereina]

We did not care for CBR, but really enjoyed our stay at CSR and would stay again. Our favorite mod is POR. We're two adults, no kids.

For us, the best parts of CSR were the decor and the bus transportation. We did not care for the food options - the food venues are operated by third parties so we found that quality varied from other QS locations throughout WDW. For instance, the pizza was very different and not what we expected. Just didn't care for the food.

Another thing that's both a pro and a con is the fact that CSR is a convention resort. In many cases, if there is a large convention while you're there, it means the pool and buses will be less crowded during the day. That's the pro. The con in our experience was that they travel in packs - we were stuck on a bus with a large group of them to Disney Springs one night, caught them in the food court, etc. And as a business traveler myself, seeing them working on laptops and taking conference calls at the tables by the lake was popping my Disney bubble, reminding me of work back home. No biggie, but just something we hadn't experienced before at other resorts.

 

[mmbrad02]

Some of this info is repetitive but here is our take on CSR…

We are a family of two adults and one child and we stayed at CSR in 2014 and enjoyed it so much that we are staying there again this fall (admittedly it didn’t hurt that it also had the best rates…). I remember being skeptical in 2014 and kinda had the mindset of “If we can get anything but Rancheros it will be fine”. That theming and distance from the main building did not excite me at all. So of course we were placed in the Rancheros. It ended up being great! We were right next to a quiet pool that myself and our then 4 year old used several times (we just simply didn’t let her know there was a nicer pool, and what she didn’t know didn’t hurt her – she was happy with a nice basic pool). Anna is now 6 and we may venture to the main pool this time; it looked and sounded like a lot of fun.

We loved that it was quiet and calm. We liked starting and ending our day that way, and then having all the fun we could have at the parks. It is a huge resort but we had a bus stop not far from our building and we used that for all transportation – we rarely went to the main building which is a plus and a negative to me. It made our refillable mugs virtually useless (we had to truly make ourselves even go pick them up). But it also kept us from eating OOP every morning for breakfast (we had a delivery to our room from Garden Grocer) and it also minimized my daughter asking for gift shop items. We did eat dinner at the Quick Service choice one day and thought it was fine – it was not crowded at all while we were there. We had utilized the Magical Express so we didn’t have to worry about getting our luggage to our room, and on our last day, we simply requested assistance and was shuttled with our luggage back to the main building. Super easy.

The convention center part, to me, was actually nice because the busses were not crowded at all and we loved that aspect. There was a convention there while we were vacationing but aside from seeing them occasionally on the internal busses, we would have never noticed them.

 

[ChimCher-ee]

Only negative, the food. It sucked.

Could you go into more detail? Was it the type offered, the quality, the crowds? I'm going to give CSR a try, I think, but I always eat at least one meal (QS or TS) at my resort, and this would be a letdown.

I see over on the Disney Dining board that some consider Maya Grill a hidden gem - - not true?

Thanks for your opinion!

 

[cmph]

I guess we're in the minority on this thread, but we love Maya Grill. (And yes, it's one of the "hidden gems" on the restaurant board a bunch of others mention too, so it's not just me!) Unless something has changed in the last year, it was my understanding that the restaurants are run by the same company that runs the Mexican restaurants in Epcot. But if you're expecting standard Tex-Mex stuff, it won't be that. The short ribs were delicious, and we quite enjoyed the margarita flight! I can't remember what the usual "freebie" bread or whatever was, b/c DH has celiac so we had chips and salsa, which was very good. Plus the atmosphere is great, with live music and the decor - like you're in a giant temple. Pepper Market has a lot of fans, so I'm surprised to hear many dislike it, but then it isn't quite the usual CS food. We almost never eat resort CS, so I can't really speak to that.

We were off in the Ranchos too, but we didn't really have an issue with that. There was a bus stop right by our building, so we had no reason to walk over to the main building, and that's where the conventioners are going to be placed. We never really encountered convention groups on buses, or just in general, consequently. I was surprised we didn't even see them in the evenings we spent at the pool. DH saw a few when he worked out early in the morning, but not enough to fill up the exercise room.

We were on DDP, so we had our mugs filled at the main pool snack bar more than the food court. That was much closer to us, and it didn't feel inconvenient. We had a longer walk at POR to get our morning coffee, actually, long enough that we usually didn't bother.

The CSR pool is certainly impressive with the temple! Nice big hot tub too.

We also had much better transportation experiences at CSR than our previous moderates stay (at POR), although we haven't done CBR. The travel time seemed so much longer from POR to every park, which probably doesn't make sense for MK. We did miss the boat ride option at POR and just skipped Downtown Disney b/c it was so far away. None of the Springs stuff was there yet, so it wasn't much of a loss for us. Also, it's a short and cheap cab ride to AKL/Kidani, and we are big fans of the restaurants there (all of them - Jiko, Sanaa, and Boma) - so don't feel locked into eating at CSR if the food doesn't appeal to you. We did that three times our last trip. One day we'll actually pay the $$ to stay at AKL.

 

[ChimCher-ee]

I guess we're in the minority on this thread, but we love Maya Grill. (And yes, it's one of the "hidden gems" on the restaurant board a bunch of others mention too, so it's not just me!) Unless something has changed in the last year, it was my understanding that the restaurants are run by the same company that runs the Mexican restaurants in Epcot. But if you're expecting standard Tex-Mex stuff, it won't be that. The short ribs were delicious, and we quite enjoyed the margarita flight! I can't remember what the usual "freebie" bread or whatever was, b/c DH has celiac so we had chips and salsa, which was very good. Plus the atmosphere is great, with live music and the decor - like you're in a giant temple.

My mom and I are going to be eating at San Angel for the first time this summer - - I can't wait! I'll use it as a guide to get an idea of Maya Grill.

Thanks for the other tips, like mug refills at the main pool and the bus stop close to your section of the resort. And I'll definitely keep the hot tub on my list.

I'm sold! (got a ways to go til 2017, but it's never too early to start dreaming! )

 

[DJFan88]

We liked the Pepper Market food, ate several times and everyone found something there. Main pool was always crowded, but it was summer. However, my boys loved the quiet pool, was hardly anyone ever in it and they had a ton of space to do whatever. We couldn't NOT see conventioners walking around, Especially noticeable at El Centro. This is the reason why my husband didn't like it, since he felt less Disney. I disagree, thought the resort was beautiful, esp. at night. Unlike some, I found this to be one of the worst bussing experiences of the 3 mods we have been at. However, this is always a hit or miss, with 50 % percent swearing their favorite mod. has the best bussing, and 50% saying it is the worst. Our problem is most likely since we were using the main bus stop. Loved how the arcade was right next to the bar, with doors right there, so my husband and I could have a drink outside at a table and load the kids up with the arcade card to go in there, and give them a little freedom when they were younger, but still had our eye on them.
If I was the only one in the mix, I would definetly keep that resort in mind for a future visit. (though it would be tough now that Ive discovered POR)

 

[nkereina]

Could you go into more detail? Was it the type offered, the quality, the crowds? I'm going to give CSR a try, I think, but I always eat at least one meal (QS or TS) at my resort, and this would be a letdown.

I see over on the Disney Dining board that some consider Maya Grill a hidden gem - - not true?

Thanks for your opinion!

I can only speak to Pepper Market, which is the QS, but in our experience the food varied greatly from what you'd find at other QS locations throughout WDW. All the dining venues at CSR are operated by third party vendors. I'd imagine the TS restaurants are good, as they are the same ones that operate the dining venues in the Mexico pavilion at Epcot.

Pepper Market opened later than other resort QS that we were used to, which threw off our plans for rope drop one morning. We ordered a pizza for dinner one night, expecting the thick doughy kind you'd find elsewhere in WDW, and it was more of a thin flatbread. Just an example of how the food varies. The food is also made to order, so we found the lines got backed up and it took a minute to receive your food. Because of this, I found variations in how the food was prepared - I ordered quesadillas twice and once they were good, and the other time the cheese was not melted all the way through. It just wasn't reliable, so that was the only negative we had on the resort since we eat QS a lot.

 

[NileNellie]

http://www.disboards.com/threads/di...s-resort-information-questions.3270962/unread

The above thread will pretty much tell you everything you need to know. The short version. Nothing bad at this resort for us. It is well decorated, the buses run smoothly, there is a ton of food options, the pool is awesome as are the quiet pools, and we love the fact it is spread out. Many complain that it is too big but those are usually people that are not is the best shape and walking from the back to El Centro is a chore(we can walk it in about 7-8 mins). They do offer complimentary rides on golf carts if you ask. This is basically a deluxe resort at a mod price with all the amenities available.

My wife has stayed at all 3 mods and CBR is her least favorite. POR and CSR are neck and neck for me. I won't complain about either one. The general consensus on here is CBR is great for families with little ones because of the pools. POR and CSR is typically better for families with the older age kids(upper elementary and older)

In my opinion Coronado is definitely not "a deluxe resort at a mod price". We returned from a trip there in April and the place needs a refresh. Our room was not up to par, the staff was less than friendly, and the food at the Pepper Market was no better than your standard cafeteria fare. Seeing as though CB just updated their rooms within the last few years, I'd pick that place in a heartbeat over Coronado.

 

[L&Lfan]

We are deluxe snobs but we enjoyed our stay at Coronado Springs. We stayed in Casitas 3. The buses ran frequently and were relatively empty. We liked Rix Lounge and had lunch on arrival day at Las Ventanas which we enjoyed. We'd go back without hesitation. We walked around the lovely property (ranchos, cabanas and the pool area) for exercise in the morning before heading to the parks.

 

[JoWilly]

I booked our Nov vacation at CSR but now doubting my decision.. I have stayed at all of the value resorts and CBR (which was our favorite). I have a 5yr old and we LOVED the separate kids pool area with the kid water slides at CBR does CSR have that also?
I wanted to try something new but don't want to be disappointed.
Tell me the good and the bad of CSR.

This is my reply and doesn't represent the advertisers or viewers of our program
CSR has one of the top pools, most definitely the best pool of all the mods.
They have the best and most dining options.
Bus service is usually excellent because as a convention center a large number of people are not there to visit the mouse.

Now as for the negatives I can only think of one, but it is a big one for my family. Because its a convention center you see suits and name tags all over the place. It feels I am at work the whole time that we stay there, so I can never really fully relax. When we vacation, part of the reason we stay somewhere is to get away from that work feeling. I simply cannot do that at CSR.

Hope that helps

You will now be returned to your regularly scheduled program.

 

[isabellea]

My review of CSR on another website:

We were at CSR July 18-25 2015 with our two kids, 3 and almost 6yo. Our room was in the Rancho section, building 7B on third floor (standard room 7767) with a few of the parking lot and bus stop #4, both partially blocked by trees.

This stay at CSR was my 5th trip to WDW (2 fist times offsite followed by a stay at All-Star Movies and Art of Animation). I chose CSR this time because it was the only moderate with standard rooms available under the summer promotion for our dates. With the 25% discount our room was cheaper than a Little Mermaid room at AoA, same price as standard at ASMo and only 15$ more expensive than the other AS and Pop. A great deal!

Grounds: If you're used to Disney value resorts, you will find the grounds at CSR to be really different. No huge statues of Disney character and less concrete. We found there was a lot more vegetation and wild life. For example during one of our walk around the lake we saw in the lake on the Casitas side a small alligator and 3 turtles. My girls loved that! We also saw many lizards, tiny frogs and a grasshopper at the Dig Site.

Size of resort and pools: The resort is big but not that huge and the walk around the lake is beautiful. I am sorry if I offend some but if you're fit enough to walk all day in the parks, a little walking at the resort shouldn't be an issue! If you want to be close to the food court, then pay more for preferred (in Casitas section) or Business class (in Cabanas section). Personally, I didn't care about the Casitas section and was really happy to be in Rancho 7B. When we go back to CSR I will probably request 7B or 8A for their location close to The Dig Site. The main pool (The Dis Site) is awesome! My oldest LOVED the jaguar waterslide and my youngest was a big fan of the paddling pool that had water spouts for the enjoyment of younger kids. At the Dig Site you also had a big jacuzzi that we didn't use, a bar with a cantina, restrooms with showers, the arcade and a great playground. During our stay we had two resort days (not enough in my opinion) and the kids loved playing in the playground and sand box while we were drinking our coffee or eating breakfast, both served as early as 7:30am at the Siesta Cantina. The playground was in the shade early morning so it was a great time to go. We ate both breakfast and lunch at Siesta Cantina. The food choice was limited but very yummy and they were accepting the dining plan QS credit. Siesta Cantina was also our favourite spot to refill our mugs (other refill locations are at Cafe Rix and Pepper Market in El Centro). I might also have ordered a pina colada from the bar next door... lol. The main pool never felt overcrowded and we enjoyed the pool on many occasions. Our favourite spot was a table next to the paddling pool and close to one of the pool towel distribution spot. That table had shade because of vegetation and was close enough to the paddling pool and main pool to allow us to supervise our kids even when we wanted to relax. In addition to The Dig Site, each section has a 'quiet' pool. While we were there, the pool from the Casitas section was closed for refurbishment. We used the quiet pool from the Rancho section only once on arrival night. There's nothing extraordinary about those pool and when we went there was big families there having a lot of fun and we felt out of place. And with The Dig Site so close, there was no reason for us to go to the quiet pools.

Restaurants: As mentioned above, we ate the Siesta Cantina 3 times (1 breakfast and 2 lunches). The food was plenty and very good. Our favourites were the nachos and the pork carnitas tacos. We also ate at Pepper Market for 1 breakfast and 2 dinners. PM is CSR's food court with multiple food stations. We liked everything we tried (including ribs, pasta and quesadillas) and the service was mostly fast and friendly (on one occasion the sous-chef serving the pasta was SLOW). My favourite thing from PM were the warm Churros offered as dessert. YUMMY! The other quick service restaurant located in El Centro is Cafe Rix. That is where you get your mugs if you have the dining plan and it serves espresso coffee, smoothies and pastries (all for a snack credit). Finally, CSR has two table service restaurants, Las Ventanas and Maya Grill. We only tried Maya Grill on one of our resort day for dinner and it was delicious. I ordered the short ribs and wasn't disappointed. The bread service was the best with flat bread and butter that tasted a little like honey.

Rooms: We stayed in a standard room which was fine for our family of 4. The room felt bigger than the standard rooms at values and we loved the queen beds instead of double beds! Another thing we liked were the wood panels instead of drapes to separate the sleeping area and bathroom area. The bathroom is split with the sink separate from the toilet and bathtub. One comment we had was the room looked older compared to AoA and understand why they are in the process of refurbishing the whole resort, including the rooms. CSR provided a hair dryer, coffee machine and an iron with ironing board I think. We didn't use any of those. Finally, the only thing we didn't like about this room compared to our Little Mermaid room from last summer was the desk instead of a small table. We much preferred the table for the kids and would have been great for eating breakfast in the room like we did on park mornings (we had brought an electrical kettle and oatmeal with disposable bowls and spoons). Finally, housekeeping was good but preferred when they were coming in the morning and not in the afternoon as we were taking afternoon breaks so my youngest could nap and on one occasion we declined housekeeping so she could sleep.

Bus service: We had our car and drove it to Epcot (early morning and late evening), Hollywood Studios, mini golf at Winter summerland and Magic Kingdom on departure day. We also took the bus to Downtown Disney, Epcot (for afternoon break), Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom. Before staying at CSR I had read that they have one of the best bus service of all WDW and I would have to agree with this statement. On average we waited 5-10 minutes for a bus (only once we waited 20 minutes for AK) and we always had a seat even though we were at bus stop #4, second to last for the parks. The only time we saw people standing was for Downtown Disney a late Sunday afternoon. Finally, CSR is really well located. Officially it's part of the the Animal Kingdom resorts but it's VERY close to Epcot and DHS. Less than a 10 minute drive for both.

Others: Every night they offer free roasted marshmallows at 6:30pm and a movie at 8:30pm. The fire pit is close to the pool and the movie screen is in the playground area of The Dig Site. We did the marshmallows but not the movie. It was fun for our girls and a great way to end a resort/pool day.

Finally, I would recommend CSR and if it wasn't that I like trying a new resort every time I visit WDW, I would go back to CSR next year! When we visited there wasn't a convention (not as frequent in the summer) so I cannot comment on the convention crowd but when we were there, we mostly saw families and couples at CSR. We got great service our whole stay and in conclusion, we had a very magical stay at CSR!

Room Tip: I would request 7B or 8A to be close to main pool and bus stop #4

 

[cmph]

Seeing as though CB just updated their rooms within the last few years, I'd pick that place in a heartbeat over Coronado.

CSR is supposed to be refurbished this year. So this may not be an issue by the time you visit. Personally, I thought it was just fine last year, but maybe different sections show different amounts of wear.

In comparison, we paid $500/night to stay at the Grand Californian in Disneyland last month, saying it would be our one big blow-out there... and the rooms were MUCH more in need of a refurb. And the pool was pretty pathetic for the resort cost. I'm slightly embarrassed at the amount we paid. POR and CSR were honestly much nicer for less than half the cost.

 

[WDWNY]

I've stayed at CS and CBR.
My Pro for CS is there are less bus stops. When you're coming back from the parks late you want to get in bed not stop at a bunch of bus stops.
My Pro for CBR is the 2 sinks. It made it easier for multiple people to get ready at the same time.
I can't speak about the walk to the foodcourt since at CS we were in a business class room so we had the closest building to the food court area anyway.
Otherwise, they're ranked the same in my books. I'd pick whatever is cheaper even if it only becomes a $10-$20 difference