On our recent trip to Disney World in Orlando, Florida, we had to make a choice about where to stay. My husband and I bantered back and forth over whether to stay on Disney property or not. In the end, we decided that the advantages of staying on Disney property outweighed the fact that it was cheaper to stay elsewhere. In short, advantages to staying on Disney property include things like a great transportation system to the parks, free parking at the parks if you do decide to drive, extra “magic” hours at the parks, package delivery, the ability to use the Disney Dining Plan, and more. Beyond that, we felt that we would get the “full” Disney experience by staying directly AT Disney. This wound up being a wonderful decision and one that we are glad we made.

Of course, after making the decision to stay on Disney property, we had to decide WHICH resort to stay at. We considered the resorts that Disney calls, “Value Resorts” but had heard rumors that these could be filled with teenagers and could be loud so we wanted to avoid that. We looked at the moderate priced resorts and initially chose Caribbean Beach Resort but we found out that their main pool was going to be under construction during our visit so we settled on the Coronado Springs Resort. What a wonderful choice we made!! We were very happy with the entire experience at the resort!

We arrived at Coronado Springs around 9AM. This resort is gated and one needs a card to gain access. However, there was a guard at the gatehouse and she looked up our reservation and gave us directions to the registration area. We found it easily and there was plenty of parking available right in front of the building.

Lobby and Registration
The first thing one sees when walking into the main lobby is the beautiful water fountain. My kids were quite impressed as they had never stayed anywhere like this before. The registration area was to the right of the fountain. We walked over there and found that there was absolutely no line! We were helped immediately by a very friendly receptionist. We were given lots of info and told we could actually get into our room even though it was much earlier than the 3PM check in time. We got our room keys and direction to our room. We actually decided not to go right to the room as we were so excited to go to the Magic Kingdom. So after parking our car in the vicinity of our room, we hopped on one of the convenient busses and were off to the park.

Busses
This resort has 4 separate bus stops around the outer edge of the complex. We only had to walk across the parking lot to get to stop #2. It was very convenient to our room! Busses pulled up every few minutes and each bus had a sign saying its destination. These were the five different busses:
Downtown Disney/Typhoon Lagoon
Magic Kingdom
Epcot
Animal Kingdom/Blizzard Beach
Hollywood Studios

Busses came in no particular order and sometimes we even found that two busses in a row came for the same destination. Not sure how that happened or why but, except for one occasion, we never had to wait any more than 15 minutes for a bus to wherever we wanted to go. We did not use our car once during the 7 day stay since the busses went wherever we wanted to go! Busses back to the resort were also convenient and easy to find. Again, they seemed to appear at wherever we were about every 15 minutes or so.

The Resort
The resort has a Mayan/Spanish theme to it and this is seen throughout. The resort is divided into three different areas:
Casitas
Cabanas
Rancheros.
All are arranged around a large lake in the center. The main building has registration, restaurants, lounges, and gift shops. A marina has boats and bikes for rentals.

Each area in the resort has it’s own “quiet” pool with lounge chairs and tables and chairs with umbrellas. Pools are all “free form” shapes. The “Dig Site” is the main pool. Many lounge chairs and tables and chairs are located here. There is also a bar and snack bar with burgers, nachos, ice cream, and drinks for purchase. The pool itself is huge. A large waterfall cascades down “Mayan Ruins.” I was told it is about 5 stories high. Additional waterfalls flow into the pool. The Jaguar slide is a neat waterslide for kids and adults with gentle twists and curves. You slide down a gentle incline into 3.5 feet of water. Plenty of quieter areas in the pool too. We swam in the pool several afternoons and found it was never terribly crowded but there was always a nice bunch of people around Evenings too were a nice time to relax and cool off in the pool. We never did try the “quiet” pool but passed it many times and there were always guests there too.

Also a the “Dig Site” are an arcade and children’s playground area. The playground has a Mayan theme as well so as you dig in the sand you are digging for Mayan ruins.” There is also a smaller sandbox reserved for the youngest children. In addition, there are fountains to jump and run in as well as a children’s small pool. There is a hot tub/spa for adults There is also a sand volleyball court that we saw being used on several occasions.

The Rooms
The rooms at Coronado Springs are nice and well decorated in the Mayan motif We had a standard room with two double beds. I found our bed to be very comfortable and there were ample pillows available. The room also had a table and two chairs, a small refrigerator, an entertainment center with a television. There were three drawers in the entertainment center which, I guess doubled as dresser drawers. We had 3 large suitcases and there was definitely no room to unpack since there were only three drawers. We were able to put one suitcase on the stand in the closer, one was opened on top of the frig and the smallest one we were able to put in a corner on the floor. We also had a crib in the room and there was still room to walk in the room!

The bathroom was also small but adequate. The toilet and shower were in the bathroom with a door. The sink and large counter area were located outside in an alcove that could be closed off with a curtain if one desired to do so.

In all, when we entered the room, if was clean and fresh smelling. We found everything to be in order and the room was even nice and cool when we first entered. Of course, once we brought all of our stuff into the room, including the crib provided by the hotel, it was no longer neat and clean but that is not the fault of the resort by any means. We just had a lot of stuff! We found the room more than manageable and were pleased with the room cleaning and bed making each day. We were provided with clean fresh towels whenever we needed them and it was nice to come “home” to a freshened room each afternoon.

Restaurants
This resort boasts two restaurants. One is called the Mayan Grill and it is a sit-down restaurant that one needs reservations for. It features steaks, chicken, ribs, and seafood with a Spanish flair. We did not eat here even though it would have been convenient to do so. There were just so many other places we wanted to eat at more so we used our Disney Dining Plan sit down meals at other venues.

We did choose to use some of our counter service meals at the Pepper Market, however. This is a “fast food” food court area but it is not like most fast food. First of all, when you enter, a hostess seats you if you are dining in. If you plan to take out, that is all right too. Once you are seated, a server takes your drink order and then you can go up to the ordering area to place your order. There are several different types of foods that you can get and each one is at a different station. Some of the stations are:
Pasta
Pizza
Stir fry
The grill
Sandwiches
Bakery
Kids
Once you place your order, you will get a card stamped so that you only have to pay once, when it is time to leave. You show your card to the cashier and they know how to charge you based upon your stamps

I found the food to be really quite good. I had a chicken sandwich one evening which was a generous portion of chicken on a toasty roll with French fries. My husband had a stir fry one evening and he said there was lots of meat and veggies over rice. He says it was a very tasty combination. Another evening, I had a pasta with alfredo sauce on it and that was very generous and served with a toasty garlic bread. My daughter got what was supposed to be an individual pizza and it was HUGE! When you dined in, there were real plates and silverware, making it feel much fancier than a fast food joint where you pick up burgers and fries (though you could get this if that is your choice!) Since we had the Disney Dining Plan, we also got dessert with each meal we enjoyed at Pepper Market and we could choose from many items from the bakery. There were a wide selection and I found everything fresh and tasty. One evening we got Danishes to go and it made the perfect breakfast the next morning!

Rates
This is one of Disney’s moderate priced resorts. The rates vary depending on when you travel. We had a package deal and many can be found through travel agents or Disney’s website. I think it cost us around $125 per night to stay at Coronado Springs and I think that, based on other places outside of Disney that I priced, this seemed reasonable. I liked that there was a lot to do right at the resort and that the bus transportation was reliable (many of the off-Disney properties only had one bus an hour and these traveled to all of the different parks. This seemed very inconvenient to me). I, personally, liked to walk around the lake and found it a very pretty area. My family agreed and wants to stay here again!

Recommendations
I found that Coronado Springs Resort was a very nice place to stay. There really were no negatives to my stay and even though the rooms are on the smaller side, they accommodate four just fine and, personally, we found that we did not spend an excess of time in our rooms anyway. We thought that the resort was very pretty and it was very relaxing to walk around the lake in the evening. We even saw part of a fireworks show from one of the parks right from the resort one evening. I would definitely stay here again the next time I go back to Disney World!



Recommended: Yes