WDW07 – Coronado Springs Resort

We’ve been to Walt Disney World four times before, but each time we’ve stayed at Port Orleans (Riverside), one of the medium-priced resorts on the park property.  This time, though, there were no discount prices at PO-R, and the food court was under refurb, so Margie found us an alternative — Coronado Springs.

A comparison:

1. Both are medium-tier resorts at the park.
2. Both are, effectively, the same resort — same amenities, same rooms, same basic layout. 
3. The most obvious difference is the “dress”:  Old South Bayou/Plantation for PO, Southwest Resort for CS.  Both have their charm, and both are very nicely decorated and landscaped.
4. CS is several years younger than PO (opened in 1997), with a few extra lessons learned.
5. CS has a convention center attached.  This can add to some to the crowds, but also provides some extra amenities (a business center for printing off boarding passes, for example).
6. CS is significantly larger than PO.  We were at the furthest corner (7A) from the main facilities — a walk to the front desk was a 15-20 minute affair (though a pleasant enough walk).  Transport is by putt-putt cart (if you can flag one down), or by going to the Disney bus stops — all the busses stopping at CS would go to the back stops (2, 3, 4) before circling back to stop 1 (the main building).  The system works fairly well, once you’re used to it.
7. The PO “main pool” is fashioned as a swimming hole around a big mill (with various water sluices).  The CS “main pool” is an archaeological dig, complete with a big step pyramid (water rolling down it), various walls and patterns and idols, etc.  The CS food facilities there are more elaborate (rather than all in one, there is a separate bar, plus a food/soft drink window).  There’s also an arcade there (plus one up front, which was under refurb), and the playground is better integrated than the one at PO (which is tucked around back).  Both have water slides; CS’s is sunnier, which can be a pro or con.
8. Both places have “quiet pools” in the middle of the hotel room areas.
9. PO has a sit-down restaurant, the Boathouse, where the service is always veeeeeerrrry slow, though the food is okay.  CS’s sit-down restaurant is the Maya Grill, which has better service, though the food was only so-so (my rib-eye was dry where it wasn’t fatty).
10. PO’s “Riverside Mill” food court is pretty standard — wander around between different stations, get some “all-American” food, check out at the cash register, go find a place to sit in the cavernous (if scenic) hall.  CS’s “Pepper Market” is a bit different.  You get seated at a table and handed a card.  (Your seater also clears plates for you and fetches you drinks,, though you can do that yourself, too).  With the card in hand, you can go to the various food stations (which are generally southwest in “flavor,” though with plenty of variety, and including one that’s oriental at dinner), getting your card stamped with menu items you choose.  When you are done and want to leave, you check out, and the stamped cards tell the register how much to ring up.  As a system, it’s definitely more convenient (Katherine could go get seconds on something on her own, without one of us having to go back and pay for it), though it’s daunting to see everything priced a la carte.  More importantly, I found the food — in variety and quality — better at the Pepper Market than at the PO food court.  And the service was friendlier, too, I found — though there’s also a 10% service charge automatically tacked on.  I do have to wonder if the PO cafeteria makeover will incorporate the same gimmick (which would mean some rejiggering of traffic flows through there).
11. Both resorts have (non-interchangable) “bottomless mugs.” While the initial price of $11.95 seems steep, being able to grab for free a soda or ice tea or coffee (or refill of same) at both the Pepper Court and the Dig Site swimming pool (fill in analogs for Port Orleans) makes it a great deal if you’re there for more than a couple of days.  We bought two of them.
12. Rooms were laid out almost identically.  The TV “wardrobe” at PO is bigger with more shelf space — but without any usable space on top.  The room we were in was in fine shape.
13. While CS has a lake, and the option of renting boats to go tooling around on it, there’s really no place to “go” — while PO is on a river system that connects down to Downtown Disney, offering a very nice alternative way to travel down there other than bus (on the regular boat shuttle).
14. For both Epcot and the Magic Kingdom, the bus pickup for CS is much more convenient and close to the front than the one for PO.  No idea why.

Overall, which do I prefer?  Hard to say — I’d enjoy either of them.  I think the facilities (esp. the food court) at CS are a bit superior to PO, while PO has the major advantage of a boat shuttle down to Downtown Disney and a more convenient campus to maneuver.  balanced imperceptibly by that bus stop advantage for CS,   I’d probably, right now, give a slight nod to CS, but I’d stay at either of them without hesitation.

It does make me wonder what the other moderate resort, Caribbean Beach, is like.

(More reviews of CS vs PO.)