Review: Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort

Located in the Animal Kingdom Resort area at the Walt Disney World Resort and the only moderate hotel in the area is Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort. With over 1900 rooms, this is a large and expansive resort offering a quieter experience.

Unique to this moderate hotel is the Convention Center on property which welcomes a unique group of guests to this resort. Inspired by the great Southwest and Mexico, you will find a variety of building communities from dry landscapes of the ranchos, to the lush and colorful cabanas by the water as you travel to the Southwest at Located in the Animal Kingdom Resort area at the Walt Disney World Resort and the only moderate hotel in the area is Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort.

Room

As this is a large resort that also has a convention center, there are a variety of room types available for your group type. A standard 1 king bed and 2 queen rooms are the main room types that can sleep 2-4 people with parking, water, or courtyard views. The hotel also offers suites that can sleep 4-8 people depending on room type. Unique to the moderates is the concierge level called business class. Due to limited availability, we stayed two-nights in the Standard View Business Class Room and our final night in a standard water view room.

Three distinct areas

The hotel itself is arranged into three distinct areas: Casitas, Ranchos and Cabanas. Each contains one quiet pool. The three-story Ranchos are the farthest away from El Centro and reflect the desert landscape of the southwest with more yellows and slight wood and tin accents on the buildings and lots of rocks and rugged plants that have to survive the desert. I actually find the design nice and it reminds me of the new builds of the southwest with clean lines and soft earthy color palettes. It is farthest away from El Centro, but not too far away from the main pool.

Next to the Ranchos are the two-story Cabanas which are also close to the pool. The Cabanas sends guests to the beach front, with sandy beaches and hammocks along the path. This area also houses the business class rooms.

The four-story Casitas is situated just next to El Centro and the Convention Center. When we stayed, there was a large group of cheerleaders staying next to us. We felt that although the fountains are a nice feature and sound barrier to all the noise from the guests, it felt more of a standard hotel rather than resort.

Our rooms

Now to our rooms. The first is the standard water view. We had basically the same layout in both rooms with two queen beds, a dresser drawer with standard mini fridge and flat screen TV. The room has a wooden sliding divider to the bedroom which lessens the noise when people are getting ready in the bathroom area. There is only a single sink but does have the typical large counter top. The layout is the same as the other resorts in the category. The theme continues with the frame of the mirror. The floor in the standard room has carpet which I am not a fan of as it gets dirty and musty with all the guest foot traffic. The toilet and tub room is quite standard but there are some nice touches of colored tiles.

Business Class

Located in building 9B are the business class rooms. It is the equivalent of concierge but at a more standard level. These rooms offer access to the Coconino Cove Lounge where you can get breakfast (7am-10am), and light snacks and drinks in the evening (5pm-10pm). The food offering isn’t as diverse as you would receive at the Deluxe resorts, but it’s a quaint room with just enough food items to keep you full. The room is small but the Cast Members made the area inviting and always checked up on us, conversed with guests, and answered any questions regarding the parks.

The rooms themselves are available with 1 King or 2 Queens. There are some minor differences to the rooms in design. There is brown crown molding in the bedroom, a dvd player, and a small shelf under the vanity. A big bonus for me is there is no carpet around the vanity area, rather a nice Spanish tile making it feel more open. We really enjoyed the convenience our room was from getting to the shuttle stop which we could see from our room. We always had a general idea of when we should head out to grab a bus to the parks.

Dining & Shops

There is an outdoor bar located just outside of El Centro looking out at the lake, Lago Dorado. The main building includes Maya Grill for quick service and Las Ventanas for casual dining. The property offers both casual and quick-service dining, Pepper Market, as well as a lounge. It did not feel like they were used that much or it could have been the fact that during our visit there were larger groups who may have scheduled dining elsewhere. Panchito’s Gift & Sundries is also located here and is a very large shop offering a wide selection of merchandise including unique pieces themed to this resort.

Pool and Activities

The main attraction at this resort is the main pool, The Dig Site. We had a blast and wished we had more time to enjoy it. The area is very large and offers a very fun Jaguar Slide which we went down a couple of times. Siestas Cantina bar offers specialty drinks for adults and all day snacks and food for the family. Another perk is the bathrooms offering a changing area and area to shower or rinse off.

Because the resort is spread out, you have some great trails to enjoy a morning run or find a hammock to get some shut eye. If you are looking for something more active, you can rent a bike or a surrey bike at the main building or play some volleyball at the courts near the Dig Site.

As with all properties they offer various activities during the day and Movie Under the Stars. When we arrived at the resort, Cast Member’s gathered some children to play music and parade around El Centro. Everyone at the check-in area all clapped and cheered on the kids as they paraded around.

Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort Final Thoughts

As the resort is currently undergoing some major changes, we hope to see a few things in the room to be lightened up. The dark browns are nice with the light green accents and metallics, but the weight of the carpet makes the room feel pulled down and dirty. We also noticed the dust being collected which is always a challenge with darker furniture pieces. Also, as it is a large property, we hope to see more activities scheduled for the week and maybe liven up the area surrounding El Centro.

The hotel may feel remote to some guests as you are required to take a bus to get to any other parks or Disney Springs. We didn’t feel like it took too long considering the bus has four stops around the resort. We often got off the first stop and walked to our building rather than tour the whole property. Our only complaint was one morning trying to get Magic Kingdom and we arrived to get one of the first busses. Well, an hour later and still no bus and by the time we got to the park, we missed rope drop.

 

We really enjoyed this property and wished we could have stayed longer. Often with the larger properties, guests find them too big and requiring long walks to get to amenities. We were located closer to El Centro but farther from the pool area and we didn’t find it much of an issue. This Moderate offers a nice blend of good value and nice pool for the family to enjoy. For the adults, the quietness and calm of the resort really makes it a vacation getaway. You won’t remember you are at Disney enjoying a stroll around the grounds. Also the views across Lago Dorado are stunning. You can grab a hammock and relax outside and enjoy the every changing landscape as the sun sets.

Fan Site

If you are a fan of this resort and want to keep up with all the news, check out the fan run site at CSR Buzz.

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