Category — q. Reviews

(For the first page of this review of Universal’s Cabana Bay Beach Resort, see this.)

AMENITIES AT UNIVERSAL’S CABANA BAY BEACH RESORT

Most amenities at Cabana Bay other than the pools are in the main central area.

You check in at a multistory, light-filled lobby.

Ticket and dining help is here as well.

Check in parking is right outside–the last time you will park for free here.

There’s also a display of vintage cars in keeping with the 60s roadside hotel theme.

Further down this direction is the single bus stop. Bus service was frequent and quick during my visit, but you can also walk to the Universal parks.

Back in the main lobby, you’ll also find there a fun bar. Each of the two pools has a bar as well.

One side of the lobby opens to the Cabana Pool Courtyard and the family suites there.  The other side has the rest of the amenities here.

First you’ll find a gift shop, adequate for souvenirs but with little other stock–sundries, food, etc.

Next is a real Starbucks, popular with those heading to early entry at the parks.

And next is the Bayliner Diner food court and dining area. The dining area is massive and not particularly delightful, and has themed but dull material playing on hard-to-see large TVs.

The food court itself is better than most at Disney World moderates and values, with the exception of that at Art of Animation. Among other features it has a salad bar that I like as a nice change of pace. (Many Disney hotel food courts have a “build your own” salad offering; introverts prefer a salad bar.)

Some menu shots from the various food stations in the food court (as always on this site, click them to enlarge them):

There’s more amenities upstairs, including…

…a bowling alley with a limited-menu sit-down restaurant…

…and a huge gym–among the Disney values and moderates, only Coronado Springs has a gym.

And each courtyard has a wonderful pool complex.

THE POOLS AT UNIVERSAL’S CABANA BAY BEACH RESORT

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For the first page of this review of Disney’s Wilderness Lodge, click here.

THE COPPER CREEK SPRINGS POOL AT DISNEY’S WILDERNESS LODGE

The main pool at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge is the Copper Creek Springs Pool (formerly the Silver Creek Springs pool).

Themed as a spring-fed mountain tarn, it is one of the best pools among the Disney World deluxe resorts.

The Copper Creek Springs pool is one of two pools at the Wilderness Lodge–the second, perhaps even better for adults but not as much fun for kids, is the Boulder Ridge Cove pool.

The Copper Creek Springs pool is nestled among the two arms of the main Wilderness Lodge. On the map, it is circled in yellow, and Boulder Ridge Cove is circled in red.

The pool is themed to find its water source in the Copper Creek Spring in the lobby of the Wilderness Lodge.

The creek makes its way outside…

…over a waterfall…

…and to the pool area.

Inside you’ll find one stretch fed by the creek.

The pool then curves around…

…to the slide area.

The counter service Roaring Fork is convenient to the northwest part of the pool, and at the southeast end and around the corner, you’ll find the new Geyser Point bar and grill…

…with more counter service offerings…

…and a refillable mug station.

(The old Trout Pass Bar is being converted into a salon, the “Salon by the Springs.”)

You’ll find two hot tubs.

The hot tubs are thematically linked to the geysers and hot springs behind them…

…but fencing added in 2014 divides the walkways among these into two, one inside the fence and one (on the right in the image) outside the fence.

Back in the corner here is the kids water play area.

Another view of the water play area.

The pool in the evening…

…and at night.

The falls in the morning mist…either very arty, or the worst shot I’ve ever published–and that’s saying something!

Kids will prefer the Copper Creek Springs pool for its slide, afternoon games, and water play area.  But adults might like the second pool here, the Boulder Ridge Cove pool, even more.

THE BOULDER RIDGE COVE POOL AT DISNEY’S WILDERNESS LODGE

This review continues here!

MATERIAL IN THIS REVIEW OF DISNEY’S WILDERNESS LODGE

• Overview and summary of DIsney’s Wilderness Lodge
• Theming and accommodations at the Wilderness Lodge
• A photo tour of a standard room at the Wilderness Lodge
• Amenities at the Wilderness Lodge
• The main Copper Creek Springs pool at the Wilderness Lodge
• The new Boulder Ridge Cove pool at the Wilderness Lodge
• Dining at the Wilderness Lodge

OTHER KEY PAGES FOR WHERE TO STAY AT DISNEY WORLD

• Where to stay–the Basics
• Where first-timers should stay
• Reviews of all the Disney World resorts, based on my 160+ stays in them

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(For the first page of this review of Universal’s Cabana Bay Beach Resort, see this.)

PHOTO TOUR OF A SIX PERSON FAMILY SUITE AT UNIVERSAL’S CABANA BAY BEACH RESORT

Disney World’s family suites basically combine the floor plans of two standard value resort rooms, almost literally so in the ~520 square foot family suites at All-Star Music and a little more creatively in the ~565 square foot family suites at Art of Animation.

The result in Disney World family suites is 33-45% more square feet per person than standard value rooms when both are at capacity, two baths–at least one divided–and in a design choice that we’ll come back to, a private queen bed room, with the other four sleeping spots in the living areas.

Universal’s floor plans at Cabana Bay Beach resort are profoundly different.   At 430 square feet they are much smaller (much cheaper too), and compared to the 300 square foot Cabana Bay standard rooms you actually get fewer square feet per person at capacity in the Cabana Bay family suites than in its standard rooms. One bath.  The bedroom space has two queens, not a sole queen for adults.

You can design an OK interior corridor family two queen room that’s 24 feet by 12 feet.

• A 15×12 foot bedroom space will hold two queens on one side with 30 inches between them and 15 inches of wall clearance. Nothing else will fit on this side, but the other side has plenty of length for a dresser and table and chairs, and with more than 5 feet between the foot of the beds and the wall, there’s room for the depth of these as well as an access path the length of the space.
• In the 9×12 foot space that makes up the front of a 24×12 room, there’s space for closets on one side, a one-sink divided bath on the other, and a hallway to the bedroom between.

Cabana Bay’s standard two queen rooms basically follow this minimum model, but add a foot or so of length.

Family suites at Cabana Bay are four feet wider and about two feet longer.

In the sleeping area, two feet is taken from the bed space and added to the four feet of additional width to create a walk-in closet and a long bath behind a wall on the long side of the bedroom.

This leaves a space at the entry to the room where normally you’d find the bath and closet, and in its added length and width you’ll find the kitchenette, a table, and a living area with a fold-out couch.

You enter the family suites into a living/dining kitchenette area. In the Cabana Courtyard this is where the windows are too. Lazy River Courtyard family suites have the window in the back bedroom.

One side of this area has the kitchenette with a microwave, coffee-maker, mini-fridge, and storage.

A high table with chairs for two (high enough that more–by which I mean Mom–can stand at it, but there’s not much standing room here) divides the kitchen area from the living area. The connecting door, if there is one, is also here. The connecting doors connect only to another family suite—not to standard rooms.

On the other side you’ll find the living room space, with the sofa, a couple of small arm chairs, and some tables handy for your important books.

At the other side of the couch is this TV/dresser combo. The two drawers on the right serve this space–two on the other side, behind the large panel to the left, serve the bedroom.

The drawers themselves are good-sized, but in total this is not enough drawer space for the six people this suite will hold (there’s some more storage space in the shelves and cabinets in the kitchenette).

Moreover, when the sofa is unfolded, you can only get to these drawers from the side.

To unfold the sofa bed, first you move the tables and take off the cushions.

There’s not a lot of places to put these. Depends on whether you want to lose the chairs, or lose the floor of the kitchenette.

The unfolded bed I measured as about full-sized–53 inches by 75 inches.  The remaining sofa cushion at the head makes it sleep a little shorter than this.  While the sleeping mattress is 4 inches deep, it’s as lousy a cushion as I’ve slept on in a sofa bed for a while.  The problem is not a railed suspension–the suspension is not the issue. Rather, it’s rock hard.  I would not put one adult on this bed–much less two.

A large sliding door leads to the back bedroom and bath/closet area.

The two queen beds from the other side.

As noted, a couple of feet of width you’d expect to find here occupied by a dresser and a table and chairs or a desk has been shifted to the bath, so you end up with an oddly proportioned narrow bedroom with a TV hanging on the wall.

The other two drawers from the cabinetry that divides this space from the front are big enough but hard to access, tight on the side of one of the beds.

There a little more storage in the table between the beds.

In the Lazy River courtyard rooms, there’s windows at the very back (they are in the living room in the Cabana courtyard rooms).  Here’s my view. Pool views are nicer, more expensive, likely louder.

In the back corner is the entrance to a small walk-in closet.

The closet itself.  There’s a famous photo of Josh in one of these closets here.

In the middle of this wall the space opens to this sink area–which would be better with a curtain to trap light.

There’s a couple of small drawers.

On one side in its own room is a toilet.

One the other side of the central sink in another room is the tub/shower and another sink.

This is a better layout for six than a simple divided bath.  But the Disney family suite layout of two full baths, with at least one accessible without entering the bedroom space, is much better.

I can’t particularly recommend these family suites. Too many design compromises and not enough space. They need a half bath, and more and more accessible dresser space.  And without a much better cushion on the sofa bed the parents are stuck in the queen room, with just beds–no chairs, no nothing.

Most families that need the extra beds will want two connecting Cabana Bay standard four person queen rooms instead, which give more space, better and more beds, better storage, and another bath, at the cost of the living room seats and the microwave.

AMENITIES AT UNIVERSAL’S CABANA BAY BEACH RESORT

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(For the first page of this review of Universal’s Cabana Bay Beach Resort, see this.)

PHOTO TOUR OF A STANDARD TWO-QUEEN ROOM AT UNIVERSAL’S CABANA BAY BEACH RESORT

Nine hundred of the 1800 rooms at Cabana Bay Beach Resort are standard four person two queen bed rooms.

All are found in the Americana and Continental buildings in the Lazy River Courtyard at Cabana Bay.

There’s also family suites in this courtyard, but they don’t connect to the four person rooms.

Rather, there’s independent blocks of family suites and standard rooms.

See the Continental building fire escape map below (such fancy images on this site…).

At the far right you can see larger family suites; the building curves and narrows; the center has a block of standard rooms; the building curves and widens; and at the far left you can see another block of family suites.

Standard four person two queen rooms at Cabana Bay have a traditional design, looking like almost any other interior-corridor accessed two bed rooms.

You enter from an interior corridor into a hall.

One side has a good-sized closet with sliding doors. Here’s half of it…

…and the other half.

The other side of the hall has a divided bath, with a sink area open to the hall. Just one sink, but a couple of narrow but long storage drawers.

Next to it is a toilet and tub/shower in a separate space.

Deeper in the room you’ll find two queen beds on one side.

Between them is a bedside table with storage for all your important stuff.

The beds from the back.

A close up.

My room was deeper than most.  It was fitted into the curve of the Americana building, marked by the dot in the bottom center above, another fancy image you’ll find on no other site :), and based on eyeballing other standard rooms, I had 4 to 5 feet more room between the far bed and the window than most rooms.

“Standard” standard rooms at Cabana Bay are twelve feet wide and have bedrooms about 16-17 feet long (my non-standard one was 21 feet), making their bedroom areas about 40-50 square feet smaller than the Disney moderates, and tight between the far bed and the window.

No spaces at Cabana Bay have balconies.  Here’s the view from one of my atypical porthole windows–“Standard” standard rooms have rectangular windows.  Pool view rooms are nicer, but more expensive.

On the other side of the rooms you’ll find a table and chairs, and a dresser/TV/mini-fridge thingy with a coffeemaker.

There is to me a bit of charm to the Cabana Bay design outside the rooms, but overall I’m not keen on the colors, textures or materials of the rooms themselves.  The table and chair in particular look cheap to me.

But at least there’s plenty of outlets–including a four spot above the table…

…and another nearby, between the coffeemaker and TV.

Not keen on the dresser colors–though they are authentic to the old 60s motel theming.

The four drawers are adequate for the four people this room sleeps.

The TV knows more about me than I wish it did.

On the other side of the dresser thingy is a standard mini-fridge.

Compared to Disney World resorts, these rooms land between values and moderates.

• Unlike the Disney values, they have queen beds, extra space, and a coffeemaker.
• They are a little smaller than the Disney moderates, have just the one sink, and are missing some minor amenities common in moderates like a coat rack and a bench seat with additional storage–and none sleep five, as some Disney moderate rooms at Caribbean Beach and Port Orleans Riverside do.

But they are a great choice for people who want to take advantage of Universal’s early access program to see Harry Potter, but don’t want to shell out for the higher prices–but also better amenities and park privileges–of the Universal deluxes!

PHOTO TOUR OF A SIX PERSON FAMILY SUITE AT UNIVERSAL’S CABANA BAY BEACH RESORT

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Cabana Bay Beach Resort, a Loews hotel at Universal Orlando, opened in 2014 in stages beginning at the end of March.

The fourth Universal hotel, and the first “value/moderate” (the ambiguity is both intentional and accurate) to be built at Universal, Cabana Bay Beach Resort offers two room types:

• Typical four person two queen bed rooms, and
• Six person family suites with two queens and a bath in one space, and a fold-out sofa bed in another small living/kitchenette space.

Cabana Bay Beach Resort offers convenient access to Universal Orlando at a much lower price than the Royal Pacific, Portofino Bay, or Hard Rock.

However, it does not have so many amenities as these deluxe Universal resorts (especially dining) and does not offer the full range of park perks that guests at the more expensive resorts get.

Specifically, guests at Cabana Bay Beach Resort do get the early morning access to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter but don’t get the Universal Express line-jumping pass for other rides that guests at the more expensive hotels get.

“Early access” is the one hour period during which only Universal hotel guests can enter the Wizarding World (at either one or both parks—it’s varied), and if you arrive the turnstiles well before this period starts, you can save a lot of waiting.

For guests focused on Harry Potter and indifferent to fine dining at their hotel, standard two-queen rooms at Cabana Bay are a great choice. I’m not so keen on its family suites.

Because of the value of early entrance, I’ve always suggested that people who want to see Harry Potter without waiting for hours should stay a night or two at one of the Universal hotels. Cabana Bay makes doing so much more affordable, especially for larger families.

Comparing Cabana Bay to Disney values, moderates, and family suites is a natural act, but I’m not sure how relevant it is. In general, don’t choose between Disney and Universal hotels; rather, stay at Disney for your Disney World days to get 60 day access to FastPass+, and stay at Universal for your Universal days to get early access to Harry Potter.

That said, I stayed in both Cabana Bay rooms types in November 2014, and at Disney World have stayed in 22 different value resort standard rooms and family suites, and 27 different moderate rooms, so here’s my comparisons:

CABANA BAY BEACH RESORT COMPARED TO DISNEY WORLD VALUE RESORTS

Standard rooms: Cabana Bay much, much better, with queen beds, more floor space, and coffeemakers. A little more expensive than some values, cheaper than others. Perhaps more likely to be on deal—it’s too early yet to say.

Family Suites: Cabana Bay’s are much smaller, not nearly as good, but priced much lower than Disney family suites. Adults who plan to put the kids on the two queen beds and themselves sleep on the fold out couch should think again. Families that can put the adults in the queen room will likely prefer the beds to those in the Art of Animation Family Suites, and almost certainly will prefer them to those in All-Star Music Family Suites unless they need the four sleeping spots that Music suites offer. Space overall too small for the six people it can sleep. Many will find two connecting queen rooms at Cabana Bay a better choice than a family suite.

Theming: Cabana Bay is lightly themed as a 60s Florida art-deco roadside motor hotel. This will escape pretty much all kids and not be of much interest to most adults; it is generally much less garish than the theming at Disney values, but at times it does indeed seem a little loud. Jack LaLanne??

Amenities: Much, much better dining, pools, and other amenities than at the Disney values.

CABANA BAY BEACH RESORT COMPARED TO DISNEY WORLD MODERATE RESORTS

Standard rooms: Smaller and less well appointed. Although their 300 square feet seems pretty comparable to the ~314 square feet of Disney moderates, Cabana Bay’s room entry from interior halls means a waste of square feet in the room’s entry hall between the bath and closets. As a result, the bedrooms are larger at the Disney moderates, and in particular longer. The table and chairs fit the Cabana Bay 60s art deco theme but to the eye look cheap, and there is no footstool/bench, common in Disney moderates except Coronado Springs. No rooms sleep five. Cheaper than Disney moderates—sometimes much cheaper.

Theming: Disney moderates are more subtly themed and have much better landscaping. The absence of landscaping at Cabana Bay comes from the tight footprint—while not small, Cabana Bay is much more compact and easy to get around than the Disney moderates, except perhaps French Quarter.

Amenities: Comparable to or better than the moderates, except for table service dining. Has a great gym—you’ll find a gym only at Coronado Springs among Disney’s moderates. The quick service dining area of the Cabana Bay food court is cavernous compared to those at the Disney moderates. I haven’t eaten yet at the table service in the bowling alley (I am not making this up), but its menu is more limited than the Disney moderate table service offerings.

CABANA BAY BEACH RESORT AT UNIVERSAL ORLANDO

Cabana Bay Beach Resort has two wings, each surrounding a pool complex, with most other amenities in the middle.

One wing is variously called the North Courtyard or the Cabana Courtyard, surrounds the Cabana Pool complex, and has 600 family suites with exterior entrances in the Starlight, Thunderbird and Castaway buildings. No standard rooms are available in this Courtyard. It’s on the right in the map.

The second wing, the South or Lazy River Courtyard, left on the map, has 300 more family suites and all 900 standard four person rooms in the Americana and Continental buildings, all opening to interior corridors.

The corridor difference in the family suites means that Cabana suites have their windows in the living room, and Lazy River suites have them in the bedroom. It also means that the Cabana suites should be quieter. Exterior doors are typically MUCH better insulated than interior doors (to cut back on heating and cooling costs) and half as many people walk by on exterior corridors than interior ones (because there are twice as many exterior corridors).

On the other hand, interior corridors are out of the weather, welcome in the summer. Moreover, the interior corridors in the Americana and Continental buildings also connect directly with the central building holding the main amenities and services, so if you are in a standard room or one of the family suites in these two buildings, you don’t have to go outside at all to get to the main dining options, bar, bowling alley, etc.

My family suite was in the interior corridor-ed Continental building, and while I had no noise issues, I also—after trying the sofa bed for ten minutes—slept in the more isolated queen bed space, so may have missed some ruckuses.

I didn’t do floor plans on this visit—I’ll have them next time around—but here’s the basics of the layouts:

CABANA BAY BEACH RESORT FAMILY SUITES

You enter the family suites into a living/dining kitchenette area.

One side has the kitchenette with a microwave, mini-fridge, and storage. The other side has a couch and a couple of small easy chairs. A two person table (high enough that more can stand at, but there’s not much room) divides the two.

The connecting door, if there is one, is also here. No Disney family suites that I am aware of have connecting doors, so this is nice. The connecting doors connect only to another family suite—not to standard rooms. The Cabana buildings have only family suites, and the Lazy River buildings have only stretches of family suites, then a break, then stretches of standard rooms, because of footprint and length differences.

A TV stands on top of a split dresser, with half the dresser drawers serving this side of the suite and half the other bedroom space. This is not a lot of storage for six, and the drawers are awkward to access, cramped by a bed in the queen room and by the fold-out bed, when opened, in the living room.

The bedroom space of the family suite, with its two queens, is oddly proportioned, as it is much narrower than typical hotel rooms. The TV is on the wall instead of on a dresser, and the space that in standard rooms is occupied by a dresser and chairs instead here is on the other side of a wall. This space—widened a few feet–is used for a walk-in closet and a three compartment bath—with a sink area, a toilet in its own room on one side of the sink, and a bath/shower and another sink in their own room on the other side of the sink space.

This is not a lot of bath for six people—but much better than a bath divided into only two spaces. Disney family suites offer two full baths, at least one of them also divided.

The bath in Cabana Bay Beach Resort family suites is only accessible from the queen space, and oddly there’s no privacy curtain at the central sink area which is open to the queen room, so lights may wake some.

I can’t particularly recommend these family suites. Too many design compromises and not enough space. Most families that need the extra beds will want two connecting queen rooms instead, which give more space, better and more beds, better storage, and another bath, at the cost of the living room furniture and the microwave.

A full photo-tour of a Cabana Bay Beach Resort family suite is here.

CABANA BAY BEACH RESORT STANDARD ROOMS

Standard four person two queen rooms at Cabana Bay have a much more traditional design, looking like almost any other interior-corridor accessed two bed rooms.

You enter into a hall with a divided bath on one side and closets on the other.

The bedroom space is beyond, with queens on one side and a table, chairs, and a dresser/TV/mini-fridge thingy on the other.

These rooms are not so long as my photo suggests. I had an unusually-dimensioned room at the break of a shorter wing, and thus got both cool porthole windows and also a room about three feet longer than most.

From looking in the windows of other rooms (yes that was me, sorry, but I did it for a good cause) the bed far from the bath is very tight on the window wall—more so than in the Disney moderates.

Other than the ugly chairs and table, and the tight space at the further bed, these are great moderate rooms for four person or smaller families than can fit them.

A full photo-tour of a Cabana Bay Beach Resort standard two queen room is here.

KID APPEAL AND CONVENIENCE

No Universal resort has the strong visual kid appeal of, for example, Disney’s Wilderness Lodge or Art of Animation resorts. Cabana Bay has less than most, but kids will love the pools. More to come on these, but the Cabana pool complex has a great slide (above) and a kids water play area, and the Lazy River side (below) has a water play area and a lazy river.

Access to Universal is via bus. There’s one bus stop, nearer the Lazy River Courtyard buildings. Bus service during my visit was great, and you can also walk to the Universal Parks from Cabana Bay.

BEST PLACES TO STAY AT UNIVERSAL’S CABANA BAY BEACH RESORT

I’m pretty sold on an upper floor room in the Americana building.

The interior corridors of the Lazy River Courtyard’s Americana and Continental buildings are more comfortable—though potentially noisier—than the exterior corridors in the Cabana Courtyard buildings (and if you want a standard room, you won’t find one in the Cabana buildings anyway).

Of the two Lazy River buildings, the Americana Building is closer to the bus stops, so it gets the nod.

Upper floors tend to be quieter and more private—the rooms I looked in were all on the first floor, you know.

Views are tougher. Except at the Animal Kingdom Lodge, I’m not too keen on first timers paying for views in rooms they won’t be in that much.

However, the parking lot views at Cabana Bay are particularly lousy. One side has parking lots and a construction wasteland, the other side parking lots, parking garages, and Turkey Lake Road. So if your itinerary suggests you will be in the room a lot, then a pool-view room might be better—making an upper floor (to avoid pool noise) even more important.

PHOTO TOUR OF A STANDARD TWO-QUEEN ROOM AT UNIVERSAL’S CABANA BAY BEACH RESORT

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(For the first page of this review of Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort, see this.)

Note 8/4/2019: I am in the middle of updating this review to incorporate the changes at Coronado Springs that opened in July 2019. An overview of these changes is here, and a photo tour of a new room in the new Gran Destino tower is here.

Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort is one of 5 moderate resorts at Walt Disney World:

• Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort, the first Disney World hotel to be designated a moderate, which opened in 1988
• Disney’s Port Orleans French Quarter Resort (opened in 1991 as Disney’s Port Orleans Resort)
• Disney’s Port Orleans Riverside Resort (opened in 1992 as Disney’s Dixie Landing Resort)
• Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort (opened 1997) and
• The Cabins at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort, officially classed as moderate in 2008, but opened (as the Wilderness Homes) in 1986. (Fort Wilderness Campground opened much earlier, but precursors to the Cabins did not arrive until 1986.)

The moderates have much more room than the value resorts, more amenities, and (except for Fort Wilderness) much better landscaping. See this for what you get by Disney World price class.

Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort is officially “an American Southwest-themed…hotel set on Lago Dorado—a glimmering 22-acre lake—that invokes the spirit and romance of Spanish-colonial Mexico.”

Rooms here typically have two queens or one king, and suites–uniquely among the moderates–are available as well.  More “business class” rooms will come with the new Gran Destino tower, opening in July 2019.

The resort is divided into El Centro, with most amenities, and three differently themed lodging areas:

• The Casitas, resembling a graceful cityscape
• The Ranchos, based on Southwestern desert habitats and architecture; and
• The Cabanas, intended to give the sense of “a quaint beachfront retreat complete with cozy hammocks.”

The Cabanas are best for families, and the Casitas for adults. See the map for their locations.

I suspect that the tower under construction in the Cabanas area will, once it opens, be part of the El Centro area, keeping the resort at four basic areas, each with its own bus stop. However, the Casitas, Ranchos and Cabanas will remain the only areas with their own dedicated pools.  There’s more on the pools at Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort here.

THE CASITAS AT DISNEY’S CORONADO SPRINGS RESORT

The Casitas, closest to the main building and Convention Center, have the loveliest architecture among these.

Until the tower opens, The Casitas also have the highest appeal to conventioneers, being both closest to the convention center, and the location of most of the Coronado Springs suites.

Most suites are in Casitas 1, and there are many lovely courtyards and fountains between Casitas 1 and Casitas 2.

(Yes, Coronado Springs is the only moderate with suites; these are required to compete for convention business, as they are often given away or heavily discounted to meeting planners in return for reserving a block of rooms, and are also required as sales and meeting settings by some exhibitors.)

Because until the tower opens they are the closest accommodations buildings to El Centro, Casitas 1, 2 and 3 are “preferred” buildings, where even standard rooms come at an extra cost. Note that some rooms in 2 and 3 are still a hike from El Centro.

Buildings 1, 2 and 3 are closest to the services at El Centro and to the Convention Center.  They are also interconnected by covered walkways, very handy in the rain or summer sun. Buildings 4 and 5 are balanced between El Centro and the main pool at The Dig Site. Buildings 2 and 4 are closest to the bus stop.

THE CABANAS AT DISNEY’S CORONADO SPRINGS RESORT

The Cabanas, the opposite direction from the Casitas, have undistinguished, dull architecture, meant to recollect casual beach houses, hence the perhaps overly subtle patching on the roofs…

…but look lovely from across the lake. These rooms have the best location for families, being in between the El Centro services and the main pool.

Alone among the three room areas of Coronado Springs, the Cabanas are fronted by beaches.

Another view of the beaches…

…and the beaches in the morning.

The kid appeal of these beaches and overall convenience to both El Centro and the main pool makes the Cabanas the best area for families, and is why I rate Coronado Springs as the second-best moderate for first-time family visitors.

While the former path between Building 9a and El Centro is closed for construction (9b was demolished), 8a is the Cabanas building most convenient to both El Centro and the main pool, and is the best choice for family travelers.  Building 8b is also a fine choice–a little further from El Centro, but closer to the pool and bus stop.

THE RANCHOS AT DISNEY’S CORONADO SPRINGS RESORT

The third area, the Ranchos, has a wilder cactus-y Southwestern theme, which may be a little too realistically arid and barren for some kids to enjoy.

Theming includes dry washes…

…hitching posts…

…and animal tracks.

The buildings are meant to reflect the main buildings of old ranches. This works better in the tall buildings, not so well in the two-story buildings.

Note the stonework on the columns and the (fake) chimneys.

The Ranchos are also a hike from the resort central services and convention center, though some of these rooms are near the main pool. Building 7a is next to the bus stop but is otherwise the most inconvenient building at Coronado Springs.  If you are here as part of a team attending a convention, your colleagues are in building 1, and you are assigned by your boss to 7a–well, update your resume.

PHOTO TOUR OF A REFURBED ROOM AT DISNEY’S CORONADO SPRINGS RESORT

This review continues here!

TOPICS IN THIS REVIEW OF DISNEY’S CORONADO SPRINGS RESORT

• Overview and summary review of Coronado Springs
• The theming and accommodations areas of Coronado Springs
• A photo tour of a standard room at Coronado Springs
• A photo tour of a Gran Destino Tower room at Coronado Springs
• Amenities at Coronado Springs
• Dining at Coronado Springs
• The pools at Coronado Springs

OTHER KEY PAGES FOR WHERE TO STAY AT DISNEY WORLD

• Where to stay–the Basics
• Where first-timers should stay
• Reviews of all the Disney World resorts, based on my 150+ stays in them

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