Your favorite moderate? Why?
- Thread starter grinningghost
- Start date
I just got back from CSR on Friday (7/29). I really enjoyed that resort. Sometimes we did wait awhile for buses. But I think this was more likely because the bus just pulled out when we arrived. I think the longest wait we had was 15minutes. Also on Monday after Illuminations we were able to jump right on the bus with no waiting. This very nice after a long day at EPCOT. Also we rented the two person bikes at CSR and was able to bike around the Lago Something. This was very nice and quiet. Also the pool here is amazing. Pepper Market is very good as well. Your food was always made fresh for you. I really enjoyed this. Also we were in Cabanas 9B which is very close to the El Centro. The walk to the main building and the pool was not too far either. We had a quiet pool that was very near us but we still always went to the Dig Site (main pool). Hope this helps.
DisneyJen0504
Wife, Mom, Teacher
- Joined
- Jun 22, 2004
- Messages
- 3,725
Buzz2001 said:
I agree! CSR is our favorite moderate resort!! Love it!
Tinkaroo
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 24, 2005
- Messages
- 4,635
For me, it comes down to the theming. While many on these boards are fans of CSR, it just doesn't appeal to me. I'm from Texas, and get more than my fair share of Mexican-influenced architecture in my home state, so I don't want to be surrounded by it on vacation. Just not a big fan of it anyways. I've heard people say the same thing about CBR if they're from a more tropical area, and about POR or POFQ if they're from the south.
We've only stayed at CBR, but loved it. Planning on trying POFQ in December, if I don't upgrade us to BWI. Have fun!
We've only stayed at CBR, but loved it. Planning on trying POFQ in December, if I don't upgrade us to BWI. Have fun!
grinningghost
<font color=green>Has a thing for the Swiss Family
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2002
- Messages
- 33,250
I'm so surprised at how many people love CSR. I always thought it was a pretty resort, but I usually heard the convention people were a pain. I think I'll have to look deeper into CSR now. 
jenjen212
Just keep Swimming, Just keep Swimming...
- Joined
- Apr 28, 2004
- Messages
- 811
well... as you can tell from my sig... we love riverside. as a matter of fact, i recently posted a message to someone about this resort, so i am just going to copy my message from there to here...
It has a relaxing type of theme. A southern new orleans, "Mark Twain/Davie Crockett" feel to it.
Connected to the check-in area, is a large arcade game room (this is where you'll find all the kids of the parents at the check in area.
On the other side of the check-in area is the gift shop, and then there is a bar, where there is a guy that is there at night during the week where he sings and plays on an animated type piano (it lifts off of the ground and sways from side to side), and he gets the audience involved in his act.
It is really hysterical to watch. When you get there, if ask the cast members at check in what times that he is there, so you may want to catch it.
Connected to the bar is Boatwright's Dining hall. I haven't eaten there, but have heard from many dis'er's that it is good. Connected to that is a food court, where you can get just about anything there. When we come back from the parks, and don't feel like going to a "restaurant" and waiting to be seated, etc., this is where we go. I recommend buying the unlimited refillable mugs that they sell here, they are about $12 or so (can't remember what we spent). They are worth it. If there are coffee drinkers, it is worth it. August can get chilly at night there, they have this really good hot chocolate there, that my husband can't get enough of.
Just outside of the building in view from the food court is part of the river, where you can rent paddle boats, bicycles, etc. or if you would like to go to downtown disney, you can take the ferry boat there. it is very convient, and at night, very peaceful.
As far as rooms go... it depends on what you are looking for... we've stayed in both section types.
convience? Try to ask for building 14, being that you guys can be considered a "Magical Gatherings" group, they may automatically place you there. In order for them to know that you are Magical Gatherings, you need to be booked that way by placing the reservations for all 14 of you at once, not separately. Building 14 is right next to everything. Building 18 is also right next to everything, it is on the other side of 14. But it is surrounded by other buildings in a way that no matter where you are placed in that building, you will not get a room with a parking lot view. Only a garden view or a water view. These buildings are in the Aligator Bayou section of the resort. The rooms are the same, just decorated differently. And rooms in this section automatically come with a trundle bed (a roll out bed).
if you would like something with a more "romantic" touch to it, then ask for a building in the Mansion Manors, or the Magnolia Bend section. These look more like colonial mansions on the outside, with a different decor on the inside. They are on the other side of the river. Building 90, would be the closest to the food court etc. Also, rooms here do not come with a trundle bed. You can ask for one if you wish, but it is extra. (don't know why??
)
If you want specific building requests, you need to ask to put it on your reservation as a side note, then call the resort about 3-4 days before your trip. This is when they begin filling up the rooms in advance. They try to place the large parties first, then the smaller ones.
Everynight at 7pm there is a campfire at a site behind the main pool with the slide, where they roast marshmellows and smores, and sing songs. Someone once told me that depending on the ages of the children that end up having to some to the fire on each particular night, they'll tell ghost stories too, unless there are objections. last time that i was there they weren't doing this... someone at the front desk told me that they usually do this during peak seasons... since that should be around summer... ask about it when you check in.
I don't know if anyone in your party is into fishing, but there is a "catch and throw" fishing area. Where you can rent rods and bait and fish, or learn to fish.
There are horse carriage rides there as well. Not sure how far they will take you, but they depart from the area where you can rent paddle boats.
The pools there are nice. There are "quiet" pools, that are placed all around the resort, so the "main" pool called "ol' man island" doesn't get too packed. These pools do not have life guards, but the main one does. At the main one, there is a slide, a hot tub, and a kiddy pool for the little ones, like my godson. There is also a nice bar near the main pool too, where they have tv's playing sporting events.
Here is a great site that I have found useful for looking at some disney resorts. The phone number for the resort is listed on here too. They have pictures of almost every area around the resort, and images of the resort map, menus with prices from the food court, boatwrights, the bar, etc. so you have an idea of how much things cost, or get an idea of what they serve there...http://www.wdisneyw.co.uk/dxl.html
Sorry this is sooo long, but you got me started on talking about our second home. if there are any more questions, please feel free to ask...
good luck, and have fun!
Jen
It has a relaxing type of theme. A southern new orleans, "Mark Twain/Davie Crockett" feel to it.
Connected to the check-in area, is a large arcade game room (this is where you'll find all the kids of the parents at the check in area.
On the other side of the check-in area is the gift shop, and then there is a bar, where there is a guy that is there at night during the week where he sings and plays on an animated type piano (it lifts off of the ground and sways from side to side), and he gets the audience involved in his act.
It is really hysterical to watch. When you get there, if ask the cast members at check in what times that he is there, so you may want to catch it. Connected to the bar is Boatwright's Dining hall. I haven't eaten there, but have heard from many dis'er's that it is good. Connected to that is a food court, where you can get just about anything there. When we come back from the parks, and don't feel like going to a "restaurant" and waiting to be seated, etc., this is where we go. I recommend buying the unlimited refillable mugs that they sell here, they are about $12 or so (can't remember what we spent). They are worth it. If there are coffee drinkers, it is worth it. August can get chilly at night there, they have this really good hot chocolate there, that my husband can't get enough of.
Just outside of the building in view from the food court is part of the river, where you can rent paddle boats, bicycles, etc. or if you would like to go to downtown disney, you can take the ferry boat there. it is very convient, and at night, very peaceful.
As far as rooms go... it depends on what you are looking for... we've stayed in both section types.
convience? Try to ask for building 14, being that you guys can be considered a "Magical Gatherings" group, they may automatically place you there. In order for them to know that you are Magical Gatherings, you need to be booked that way by placing the reservations for all 14 of you at once, not separately. Building 14 is right next to everything. Building 18 is also right next to everything, it is on the other side of 14. But it is surrounded by other buildings in a way that no matter where you are placed in that building, you will not get a room with a parking lot view. Only a garden view or a water view. These buildings are in the Aligator Bayou section of the resort. The rooms are the same, just decorated differently. And rooms in this section automatically come with a trundle bed (a roll out bed).
if you would like something with a more "romantic" touch to it, then ask for a building in the Mansion Manors, or the Magnolia Bend section. These look more like colonial mansions on the outside, with a different decor on the inside. They are on the other side of the river. Building 90, would be the closest to the food court etc. Also, rooms here do not come with a trundle bed. You can ask for one if you wish, but it is extra. (don't know why??
)If you want specific building requests, you need to ask to put it on your reservation as a side note, then call the resort about 3-4 days before your trip. This is when they begin filling up the rooms in advance. They try to place the large parties first, then the smaller ones.
Everynight at 7pm there is a campfire at a site behind the main pool with the slide, where they roast marshmellows and smores, and sing songs. Someone once told me that depending on the ages of the children that end up having to some to the fire on each particular night, they'll tell ghost stories too, unless there are objections. last time that i was there they weren't doing this... someone at the front desk told me that they usually do this during peak seasons... since that should be around summer... ask about it when you check in.
I don't know if anyone in your party is into fishing, but there is a "catch and throw" fishing area. Where you can rent rods and bait and fish, or learn to fish.
There are horse carriage rides there as well. Not sure how far they will take you, but they depart from the area where you can rent paddle boats.
The pools there are nice. There are "quiet" pools, that are placed all around the resort, so the "main" pool called "ol' man island" doesn't get too packed. These pools do not have life guards, but the main one does. At the main one, there is a slide, a hot tub, and a kiddy pool for the little ones, like my godson. There is also a nice bar near the main pool too, where they have tv's playing sporting events.
Here is a great site that I have found useful for looking at some disney resorts. The phone number for the resort is listed on here too. They have pictures of almost every area around the resort, and images of the resort map, menus with prices from the food court, boatwrights, the bar, etc. so you have an idea of how much things cost, or get an idea of what they serve there...http://www.wdisneyw.co.uk/dxl.html
Sorry this is sooo long, but you got me started on talking about our second home. if there are any more questions, please feel free to ask...
good luck, and have fun!
Jen
ratherbeinwdw
UN-offical park guide
- Joined
- Jul 30, 2005
- Messages
- 48
CBR! The spirit of the islands are alive!LOL
CPer'sMom
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 5, 2005
- Messages
- 1,430
It's nice that Disney offers so many different resorts ~ different themes, different price levels, etc. Sometimes you may have to visit/stay at a few before you find your favorite (s).
It's hard to choose a resort based upon comments here on the boards. We've visited WDW many times & stayed at a variety of resorts, both Mod and Deluxe. Just returned home last night from our first CSR visit; booked that one based upon the favorable reviews I'd read here.
We didn't care for the resort at all & will not be staying there again.
(Warning ~~ long story here .....)
Our visit didn't start out well at all. We had 2 separate reservations in 2 separate names ~ when I'd booked through CRO I mentioned that I would appreciate a note being put into the reservations that we'd like to have rooms close by each other if possible. I also asked for Non-smoking.
Arrived at the airport at 12:30; went directly to CSR to check in and see if our rooms might be ready. They weren't. The CM told us to maybe go have lunch and come back in 45 minutes ~ he was sure there'd be something at that time. No, there wasn't. He tried looking for alternate rooms, but couldn't come up with anything. I made mention of the fact that our rooms didn't have to be right next to one another, juist in the 'general vicinity' (said that each time I checked on the rooms) Knowing that check-in time is 3pm, I was sure we'd have our room by that time, so we waited at the hotel.
At 3:30 I was informed that our rooms still weren't ready, and that, although checkin is at 3, they don't really guarantee you'll have a room until 5! Now, in all of our many stays at WDW I'd never heard that before.
We finally got rooms at 5 ~~ turns out that all along they had been looking for connecting rooms!! Somehow that's how the computer had it and that's what it was searching for each time we had tried to get our rooms! Okay, so that didn't make me very happy since I had talked about that very thing with each CM over the course of the afternoon.
So, go to the rooms, open the doors and a big wave of smoke rolls out. (yes, just kidding, but they were awful!!)
Back to the lobby to see what can be done ~ they then give us 2 new rooms a few doors down from the first ...... same thing with these.
Now, normally a little bit of a smoke smell is tolerable & can be helped with an ionizer, but these were horrible!
This time when we go back to the lobby, the CM tells me that over the course of the past month they have had far more requests for smoking rooms than they've had available. So, they've had to put smokers into the N/S rooms and ask them to smoke only outside. Of course the resort has no control over where the guests then do smoke & I understand that. But, when you know that is going on, special care needs to be taken to check that the N/S designated rooms are properly "de-smoked". Obviously that wasn't happening.
The CM apologizes and tells me she'll have the manager come out to find us rooms. I will say that every CM I dealt with that afternoon was very nice, but the "manager" was very rude. He acted as if he was doing me a big favor by finding me 2 rooms which didn't reek of smoke. I told him that if he couldn't accommodate us there, then we would like to transfer to another resort ~ He told me that certainly wasn't possible because 'all the resorts are booked solid this week'. Maybe true, maybe not. So, he does find us 2 rooms in Casitas, close by one another. This turned out to be fine ~~ too bad they couldn't find these same rooms a bit earlier in the afternoon!
So, all in all, this was NOT a good start to our week. I was pretty much okay about the whole thing since I know sometimes things happen, but when the manager came out with his attitude that just didn't set well with me at all.
If I had wanted to take the time I would have called about changing resorts myself, but at that point we were all tired & just wanted to get into our rooms.
So, maybe because of this, my view of CSR isn't what it would have been if we'd had a smooth start. But other things we didn't like included ~~
~~ walls are paper-thin at this resort. We could very clearly hear our neighbors talking and also hear the tv.
~~ outside walkways & areas not kept very clean. The garbage can located nearest to us was always overflowing with garbage.
~~ Very noisy.
~~ Bus service was not good. I heard many complaints about this from other guests also.
No complaints at all about Housekeeping ~ we had great service everyday with some nice touches. Had towel animals most days.
If I was to do a moderate on my next stay, I would go back to POFQ ~ far nicer resort (at least for us).
CSR is very a very pretty resort, especially early in the morning. I can see why it appeals to some. We just did not have a good stay there.
It's hard to choose a resort based upon comments here on the boards. We've visited WDW many times & stayed at a variety of resorts, both Mod and Deluxe. Just returned home last night from our first CSR visit; booked that one based upon the favorable reviews I'd read here.
We didn't care for the resort at all & will not be staying there again.
(Warning ~~ long story here .....)
Our visit didn't start out well at all. We had 2 separate reservations in 2 separate names ~ when I'd booked through CRO I mentioned that I would appreciate a note being put into the reservations that we'd like to have rooms close by each other if possible. I also asked for Non-smoking.
Arrived at the airport at 12:30; went directly to CSR to check in and see if our rooms might be ready. They weren't. The CM told us to maybe go have lunch and come back in 45 minutes ~ he was sure there'd be something at that time. No, there wasn't. He tried looking for alternate rooms, but couldn't come up with anything. I made mention of the fact that our rooms didn't have to be right next to one another, juist in the 'general vicinity' (said that each time I checked on the rooms) Knowing that check-in time is 3pm, I was sure we'd have our room by that time, so we waited at the hotel.
At 3:30 I was informed that our rooms still weren't ready, and that, although checkin is at 3, they don't really guarantee you'll have a room until 5! Now, in all of our many stays at WDW I'd never heard that before.
We finally got rooms at 5 ~~ turns out that all along they had been looking for connecting rooms!! Somehow that's how the computer had it and that's what it was searching for each time we had tried to get our rooms! Okay, so that didn't make me very happy since I had talked about that very thing with each CM over the course of the afternoon.
So, go to the rooms, open the doors and a big wave of smoke rolls out. (yes, just kidding, but they were awful!!)
Back to the lobby to see what can be done ~ they then give us 2 new rooms a few doors down from the first ...... same thing with these.
Now, normally a little bit of a smoke smell is tolerable & can be helped with an ionizer, but these were horrible!
This time when we go back to the lobby, the CM tells me that over the course of the past month they have had far more requests for smoking rooms than they've had available. So, they've had to put smokers into the N/S rooms and ask them to smoke only outside. Of course the resort has no control over where the guests then do smoke & I understand that. But, when you know that is going on, special care needs to be taken to check that the N/S designated rooms are properly "de-smoked". Obviously that wasn't happening.
The CM apologizes and tells me she'll have the manager come out to find us rooms. I will say that every CM I dealt with that afternoon was very nice, but the "manager" was very rude. He acted as if he was doing me a big favor by finding me 2 rooms which didn't reek of smoke. I told him that if he couldn't accommodate us there, then we would like to transfer to another resort ~ He told me that certainly wasn't possible because 'all the resorts are booked solid this week'. Maybe true, maybe not. So, he does find us 2 rooms in Casitas, close by one another. This turned out to be fine ~~ too bad they couldn't find these same rooms a bit earlier in the afternoon!
So, all in all, this was NOT a good start to our week. I was pretty much okay about the whole thing since I know sometimes things happen, but when the manager came out with his attitude that just didn't set well with me at all.
If I had wanted to take the time I would have called about changing resorts myself, but at that point we were all tired & just wanted to get into our rooms.
So, maybe because of this, my view of CSR isn't what it would have been if we'd had a smooth start. But other things we didn't like included ~~
~~ walls are paper-thin at this resort. We could very clearly hear our neighbors talking and also hear the tv.
~~ outside walkways & areas not kept very clean. The garbage can located nearest to us was always overflowing with garbage.
~~ Very noisy.
~~ Bus service was not good. I heard many complaints about this from other guests also.
No complaints at all about Housekeeping ~ we had great service everyday with some nice touches. Had towel animals most days.
If I was to do a moderate on my next stay, I would go back to POFQ ~ far nicer resort (at least for us).
CSR is very a very pretty resort, especially early in the morning. I can see why it appeals to some. We just did not have a good stay there.
All Aboard
Por favor mantengan se alejado de las puertas
- Joined
- Oct 21, 1999
- Messages
- 2,602
My order. Have stayed at each, varying numbers of times - from 3 times at CBR to at least a dozen at DxL.
1. Dixie Landings (refuse to use the "R" word)
2. Port Orleans
3. Coronado Springs
4. Caribbean Beach
1. Dixie Landings (refuse to use the "R" word)
2. Port Orleans
3. Coronado Springs
4. Caribbean Beach
freakylick
You've got some serious thrill issues, dude!!!
- Joined
- Jun 10, 2005
- Messages
- 676
Tinkaroo said:
That is definitely true...and for me, theming/atmosphere was the most important factor (once I decided we were going moderate). Most of the amenities are similar amongst the mod's, so for me it really came down to theming/atmosphere. The Alligator Bayou section at POR really appealed to my wife and I, so that's where we are staying in Oct. CSR has the Mexican influence and that doesn't appeal to me...I have been to the Caribbean several times and that theme just didn't do much for me...But we do love rustic/peaceful/quiet/lush surroundings...POR was a natural fit.
Other's reviews didn't really become a factor for us because it seemed that most resorts had an equal share of good reviews and an equal share of bad reviews.
pigby
<font color=66CC33>This one might be a little more
- Joined
- Dec 11, 2000
- Messages
- 3,410
chipper10 said:
We got back home the same day as you. Although we stayed at different resorts, we checked out CSR for our stay in October. Did you see the alligator in the lake by the bridge? - he wasn't a tiny one either!
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