CORONADO SPRINGS REVIEW
By: Chris Schuck
All I can say is WOW. This resort is totally amazing and blew away all of my expectations. When we arrived we went into the lobby to check in. We had requested Ranchos or Casitas. The lady said we got Cabanas. Well we ended up getting Casitas like we wanted. We were on the third floor in Casitas 3 in room 3352. The location was great. We had about a 5 minute walk to the main lobby. Also known as El Centro. The neat thing about staying in the Casitas section is that while there is a rainstorm you can walk right to the lobby without getting wet because the entire section has a covered walkway which is really nice. The other sections does not have this. This came in great use many times. Now on with my general review.
ROOMS AT CORONADO
The rooms held our family of four great. We had plenty of room. We had two double beds, two chairs and a table, a 25 inch TV, iron and ironing board, coffee maker with coffee daily, in wall safe, bathroom with separate sink area, and central air. One of the many great things at this resort is the central air conditioner in the rooms. You don¡¦t here the rumble at all. It is a perfectly quiet room. The theme in the room is Mexican. The colors are not to bold they are good on the eyes. The rooms are in great condition and very clean. We could not have asked for a better room. House keeping was great. They would arrange our stuffed animals in all kinds of neat psotions. Even our towels were left in neat ways. It's something neat to see after a long day at the parks.
THE LOBBY AT CORONADO
The lobby is so beautiful here and big. The lobby is known as El Centro and this is where everything is located at. When you come through the doors into the lobby you are greeted by a beautiful fountain. Make sure you look up at the ceiling and see the beautiful mural up there. From this point you go right to check in or to see guest services. If you go to your left you can go to Panchitos which is the home of the gift shop here. They have tons of merchandise in there. Lots of Coronado merchandise to. If you walk down the hall past Panchitos you will find La Tienda which is a small convenience store. Next to this you will find the Pepper Market which is the food court at this resort. It always seemed busy in there. I did not get a chance to eat in there but I heard it was really good. You should see the theming in there. It is really neat. Also in the hall way you will find Francisco's. This is the resorts lounge where you can get a drink and relax for a bit. You will also find in this hall the Jumping bean arcade. This is a pretty large arcade with lots of games in there sure to keep all the kids busy. My sister loved it in there. Just for those of you who are interested right at the entrance you will find a pressed penny machine and a pressed quarter machine. If you walk all the way down the hall you will end up at the Maya Grill. I never got a chance to eat here either. This is the resorts full service sit down restaurant. The smells coming out of this place just take you away. The food smelled delicious. I defiantly will eat there whenever I have more time on my hands. So that's it for the lobby lets head onto the resorts grounds.
CORONADO SPRINGS GROUNDS
The resort has three sections to it. The Casitas which is themed to look like a Mexican city. You have fountains all over in this area which provide for beautiful pictures. You will see lots of fountains here. The next section is the Ranchos. One word sums up this area. WOW. The themeing here is out of this world. You really feel like you are in the desert in this section. You will not see much grass. You will instead find dry creek beds, cactus and other things you find in the desert. Near one of the buildings in the Ranchos section they have a little lagoon with bumbling water. It makes it look really hot. Then the next section you have is the Cabana section. This section is beautiful to. You have nice white sandy beaches with hammocks all over. The Cabanas are pretty nice. Very nice to come and relax in. They are peaceful. Some more notes about the Ranchos section. There is a small nature trail you can walk through here. I never even heard about this but it is pretty neat. I just so happened to stumble by it one day. It¡¦s pretty neat. Just go to the Ranchos section you won¡¦t miss it there.
CORONADO SPRINGS POOLS
Coronado is very well known for its famous dig site pool. This is the next to largest pool on Disney grounds. It is second only to Stormalong bay at Yacht and Beach Club. This area is so neat. You have a whirl pool that¡¦s holds 22 people at one time, you have the siestas pool bar which serves some great food and beverages. There is a nice kiddy pool and a play area for the kids complete with a swing set, slide and more. The Dig Site pool has a large water slide that is sure to send you some thrills. This pool area is pretty neat but it is not the only one. This is just the main pool. Each section, Casitas, Ranchos and Cabanas all have there own little quiet pool. They are nice sized pools that are not as busy as the Dig Site pool. However in this section you need to bring your own towels. Towels are not provided in the quiet pool areas.
RECREATION AT CORONADO
La Marina is where you go to rent your bikes and boats. This place closes around 5:30 everyday so it is not open to late. I wanted to rent a bike for an hour once but every time I came back to the resort it was closed. Coronado has water mice, scurry bikes, regular bikes, paddle boats and more. There is plenty to do. Also some other things you will find here is a volleyball court near the Dig Site pool.
TRANSPORTATION AT CORONADO SPRINGS
This was my only complaint. Now understand I was there over July 4th and it was busy so that may be the reason but it sure seemed like the busses were very SLOW. We waited nearly 30 minutes for busses at times. And the busses were always packed. I believe this was only because of us going at July 4th though. I have never heard any complaints of the bus service at this resort before. The bust stops in 4 locations at the resort. Bus stop one is the lobby, bus stop two is the Casitas section, bus stop three is the Ranchos section and bus stop four is in the Cabana section. Basically every section has quite a walk to the bus stop. But if you are staying in Casitas building three it is much closer to walk to the lobby for the bus. That¡¦s what we ended up doing. Coronado Springs is bus stop number five basically at all of the parks and Downtown Disney. It was bust stop eight at EPCOT though.
DUCKS AT CORONADO
There are many ducks at this resort. Just outside of El Centro they have a machine where you can buy some food you can feed to the ducks. They love it. They are always coming up trying to get some food. When we were there over July 4rth in the Cabana section there was a mommy duck that just had her baby ducks and she was showing them off proudly. They were all in a circle and she was watching over them. These ducks caused some crowds to form. Everyone just loved them. It was sweat. So make sure you stop and say hello to the ducks.
A CORONADO SPRINGS MYTH
I have heard a lot of people don¡¦t care for Coronado because it is a convention resort. Please don¡¦t let that be the deciding factor for you to stay here. You can not even tell it is a convention resort unless you pass the convention center. This is not a noisy resort. It is pretty quiet actually and you never really pass anyone dressed up in suits and ties. This is a family friendly resort in my opinion.
OVERVIEW
This resort is truly Disney magic at its best. We had a great time and would defiantly stay there again. The cast members were friendly, the grounds were beautiful and the atmosphere was just plain magical. One other note from El Centro you can see some of the fireworks from EPCOT. I would go on the 4th floor of the Casitas building though because that gives you a better view. If you have any questions at all feel free to post them, email me or private message me. I hope my review has answered most of your questions over Coronado. Have a great evening.
Chris
