We had a wonderful stay at CSR from May 2 to 13. We got our requests, even though we didn't check in until 9:30pm (we used online check in ahead of time). We did keep our requests simple (renovated room with preference in the Cabanas, being in the same building as my in-law's). We got our rooms in Cabanas 9A.
We had a small problem the first night. We were placed in an accessible room with a king bed (we booked a king bed room as it was the only category available with an AP discount). There wasn't a sliding door near the sink as the accessible bathroom took up more space. I felt bad taking up an accessible room because we would be staying there for 11 nights, and could stop someone from having the facilities that accommodates their needs. However, it didn't really matter afterall because we had to switch the room after the first night. The accessible room was very close to the elevator and my sleep was disrupted throughout the night from the "ding ding" sound that the elevator made (I used ear plugs and the sound was still loud enough to wake me up). We went down to the registration desk the next morning and explained to them that I require a room further from the elevator. The CM's tried very hard to accommodate my requests (not too many king bed rooms available and the resort was quite full). They managed to find another king bed room in the same building, which was much appreciated.
Our stay improved greatly after we moved to the new room (a non-accessible room). It had the sliding door which really helped to keep the bathroom noise out. The bed was very comfortable (more so than the one in the accessible room) and I slept quite well for the rest of the trip.
We used the bus transportation a lot (probably more than most people because we park hop and we went back for afternoon naps a few times). The longest wait time was about 30 minutes coming back from Studios at around 3 one day. On average, our wait time was 5 minutes or less. We had to stand on a bus 3-4 times the whole trip (mostly on return trips). We primarily used bus stop 4.
We ate at the Pepper Market 3 times (once each for breakfast, lunch, and dinner). We felt that the food at Pepper Market was much better at lunch and dinner. We were on the
DDP so the cost was not an issue. It would have been very expensive for what it was if we had to pay cash. The walk to Pepper Market was less than 5 minutes from our room.
We used the main pool a few times, again, less than 5 minutes' walk from our room. The slide was great, though we wish it was open for longer hours. The pool deck was quite hot in the middle of the day and water shoes would have been a good idea. The quiet pool at the Cabanas could get noisy in the middle of the day but most of the time it is quiet, so it was not a problem. There appears to be a group of resident ducks in the quiet pool. The laundry facilities were good. They even had 2 front loading washing machines (my preference). The front loader took about 20-25 minutes to do a load of wash. The dryers dried the clothes in 1 cycle, which ran about 45 minutes. The washer and dryer took $2 for each cycle. There were two change machines in the laundry room that gave us quarters to put into the washer and dryer.
All in all, we had a very nice vacation. Staying at CSR is definitely a large step up from staying at the values. The differences in transportation were huge, and having a pool slide was fun. We have decided that we will likely stay at CSR again in the future.
I want to take this chance to thank all the contributors to this thread, which helped us plan our trip. Thank you.
we had asked for Cabanas 9A or 8B upstairs....we got 8B and we were upstairs with a wonderful view...I'm uploading pictures to photobucket so I'll be posting them soon...
