We recently returned from an 8 day stay at CSR - our first. I wanted to share our experience as I enjoyed reading everyone's info on this thread.
As an FYI, we are a family of 4 - our two children are 3 & 5.
Let me begin by saying that CSR is really beautiful. We did a couple of events at the Grand Floridian and I felt CSR is even more beautiful than GF. (It may be that the colors, etc are just more to my liking). The grounds are lovely.
All the CMs we dealt with were great - very friendly and helpful.
We had requested Cabanas 9B, but were placed in Ranchos 7B. (We decided to just stay with the room they assigned us to). We were very close to the Dig Site pool and the quiet pool for our area was also just at the base of the steps. We were on the second floor - room 7694. We felt the room was a nice size of space. (It was handicapped accessible so perhaps they are a little larger?) The elevator for our building was quite a distance from our room (surprising as it was handicapped accessible), so it was quicker to just use the stairs. We also were pretty close to bus stop #4. It was a bit of a walk to El Centro from our room. The landscaping in the Ranchos area is very nice.
I agree with those who talk about how large the resort is - it is sprawling. Some of the rooms do seem to be very far from the main areas. I overheard a couple of families complaining and changing rooms due to the distance from El Centro, etc.. I also noted that some of the companies holding conventions had arranged special transport golf carts for use of the convention attendees to get around the resort - these had signs on them noting they were transportation for "XYZ" Corporation.
For us, the distance was a bit of an issue. Had it just been us, it wouldn't have been too bad, but with our littles (especially the 3 year old), the walk to El Centro was a bit much especially after walking at the parks all day. We rented strollers at the parks.
Our room was very clean and in good repair. Housekeeping did a good job. The first night we called for extra pillows, but they never came. We were too tired to try back, so we just left a note the next morning and we had them in the room when we returned. No towel animals, but on 2 days, Housekeeping had played a little with dd's toys.
Our first day, we had lunch at the Pepper Market. Just sandwiches for us and pizza for the kids, but it was good and fresh. We also had room service twice - pizza and salads one night when we were too tired to make the walk up to Maya Grill and breakfast one morning. The breakfast sandwiches (room service) were a pretty good value - they were huge and came with a fresh fruit cup for $5.25. The food was good both times. Room service delivery timeframes were good as well.
We only did the Dig Site pool two evenings after returning from the parks. It is nice. The kids liked that there are steps going so far around it - they had a lot of room to play around the pool. The kiddie pool was freezing - too cold for them to play in. The kids enjoyed the sandbox and play area at the Dig Site. One word of warning, kids in wet swimsuits will FLY down those slides, even the little ones. I thought they wouldn't slide well due to being wet from the pool, but dd went flying down one of the little slides in the jungle gym and landed about 4 feet from the slide's end with a thud. She was shaken but okay. I have never seen a little one go so fast down a slide. It was like her own private version of Test Track. We also used the quiet pool in our area one night - it was beautiful there as well.
We did purchase refillable mugs, but they weren't a good value for us. El Centro was too far of a walk to refill them and Siestas was usually closed by the time we returned from dinner. We only refilled them once. But, we have them as souvenirs now. I might recommend checking out the proximity to your room and weighing how much time you will spend at the resort (and what time of day) before deciding to purchase them.
The bus service was good. We hardly ever waited longer than 10 mintues - only one morning we waited 1/2 hour for the EPCOT bus. Unfortunately , it was morning we had an early PS for the Princess Breakfast in Norway, but, thankfully, they took us a little late. We only ever had one bus trip where anyone had to stand.
Overall, we were very pleased with CSR and I wish we were back there right now. I hope all of you who will be going in the near future have a great trip!!
Carol
Thanks to all of you for this information. We will be going down to WDW on Thanksgiving day and have been waffling between CSR and CBR. (We have not stayed at either) I have definitely decided to stay at CS and I am very excited about it.
...my husband and I got back from staying at CSR earlier this month. We stayed in the Casitas section, Building Five.
sounds like you had a great trip...we returned mid september from an 8 night stay . we stayed in casitas 3 and were placed ina waterview room, although our ressies were for a standard.Our room overloooked the lake.. it was beautiful..too bad this resort does not have balconies witha view like that...It was only 3-5 min walk to the food court...I would stay there again but the Poly is still my favorite..
