Our inspiration for a three night pre-cruise stay was our dear friends, Lynn and daughter Mary, would be unable to spend time with us after the cruise, but they were in the World before the cruise. Victoria and Mary have spent the last few years running around Disney theme parks going on rides together. We did not want to miss out on some quality theme park action with them!
I used my annual pass for a discount. I believe I could have gotten a similar deal with a Disney VISA card but I used the AP discount. The discount was 84/night and after taxes came to 100/night. We could have stayed in a Value Resort for cheaper but my stay in 2006 was enough value for me. When I called to make the reservation, the man on the phone was so enthusiastic. You've got to love that about Disney employees! He asked if we were celebrating anything special. I told him we were not celebrating any special events. Later in the conversation, he asked Victoria's date of birth. He decided we were celebrating her birthday since it was 'only' a month after! Super!
I had no idea what this would mean, but I hoped it might mean a nicer room, or a balloon waiting in the room, a card or something! I did not make any special requests, opting to 'roll the dice' to see what we would be assigned. It is my hope to someday have stayed in all of the Disney properties, and since the resort was recently refurbished, we chose this resort. This would round out our stay at all of the Disney moderate resorts.
We arrived to the Coronado Springs resort after check-in time and were taken quickly at the reservation desk. A very peppy Asian woman clapped her hands when she learned it was our first stay. When she pulled up our reservation, she clapped her hands together again, along with a hop, and seemed genuinely excited it was Victoria's birthday a month ago. By this time it was pretty hard not to get excited. I was on my tip toes, doing a little bounce of my own, feeling like we had won a prize! She pulled out .... a birthday button and added Victoria's name to the button. Tada!
She showed us a map, gave us our keys, and sent us on our way. We drove to the Casitas area, building 4/close to 5. We were on the top floor and opened the door to find a standard room in great shape. The resort was recently refurbished. In fact, they were working on a building the entire time we were there. There are three themed areas of the resort: casitas, cabanas and ranchos.
The room had a coffee pot, refrigerator and a flat screen television. Instead of a curtain separating the bedroom from the bath/sink area, there are now sliding doors. This added a nice touch. There was a writing desk with a rolling chair. There were two ottoman-like chairs as well. I prefer a table with two chairs over this set up. There was a family staying one floor down from us, visible from outside but able to be heard from inside, who rolled their chair outside as if it was a front porch. Lord!
The doors at all of the moderate resorts open to the outside, not a lobby. It really does not matter to me what view we have because we are not likely to leave our blinds open for passersby to view inside. Despite that, I was disappointed we had a view of the parking lot. In fairness, the view was probably one of the more decent parking lot views, because you had a lovely landscaped entrance to view before the parking lot. I did make a mental note to always make a request when I reserve the room. I think I would have liked to be closer to the main building or the main pool.
View from our room
There was a quiet pool near our building but the kids were not interested in that. You had to use your room towels at the quiet pools but towels are provided at the themed pool. The themed pool was pretty large and had a mayan temple theme. There was no water running down the temple as I had seen in pictures. The quick food service closed at 6pm by the pool. We were disappointed with this because it was our plan to do a quick meal by the pool while we waited for our friends Darlene, Stan and Sandy to arrive that night.
The resort is huge. I mean really huge. It just might be a little too large for my liking. It is a convention resort, and I saw many people with leather folders in hand with ties on when I walked to the main building in the morning. Other than mornings, I could not really spot many conventioneers on the grounds unless we were in the main building.
The Pepper Market is the resort's food court. You are seated at a table and given a slip of paper. Your server provides you with a cloth napkin and silverware. The server takes your drink order and stamps your slip. The drinks are refillable. You then walk over to the area and choose your meal from several food stations including: salad/deli, mexican/grill, hot dogs/bbq, pizza/pasta, bakery and a kids' area. It's a pretty good choice for a food court but makes it near impossible for your entire group to have a hot meal together. Victoria was done with her meal by the time I sat down with my meal. The options are good, the prices are fair. On your way out of the restaurant, you give your slip to the staff member at a register and they add it up along with a 10% service fee. There is also a grab n go market perfect for breakfast back in your room and a sit down restaurant. We did not eat in the Maya Grill, the sit down restaurant.
The resort is beautiful at night. This may be one of the best reasons to stay at the resort. It is dark and and on our first night, because I wasn't really sure where we were going, it intimidated me a bit to walk around in the darkness. After our first full day, when I knew the lay of the resort, it didn't bother me as much and I was able to appreciate the beauty.
All in all, the resort is a beautiful resort with a great Southwest theme. Victoria said it did not have a Disney feel to her. I would stay at this resort again for an extended stay but not for a short stay where the parks are the focus of the stay. We did not take advantage of the sit down restaurant, the exercise room, the beauty salon/spa services, bars or water activities. In fact, there was a sign stating the marina was closed for the season. My favorite moderate resort is the Port Orleans Riverside, formally known as Dixie Landings. There is something so whimsical about the butterfly gardens, gazebos and magnolia trees that makes strolling around the resort an activity rather than a hike.
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