Coronado Springs Resort in Walt Disney World: Our First Stay at a Disney Hotel

As a moderate category hotel, the Coronado Springs Resort in Walt Disney World is a favorite among families. Equipped with plenty of shopping, dining and entertaining activities, this is one of the hotels you want to be in if you’re visiting Walt Disney World with affordability in mind without compromising features. It’s located in the Animal Kingdom area.

Every year, for our son’s birthday, we travel somewhere to celebrate. For his 3rd birthday, we decided to visit Walt Disney World for the first time a week before he turned 3. We stayed in Coronado Springs Resort.

Booking

Walt Disney World has an easy to use online booking portal, however, slow to load compared to other booking sites. Easy to navigate, it allows you to research and compare your accommodation choices. That’s probably one of the big issues you will come across when planning a Disney vacation–deciding where to stay based on budget and other preferences.

I needed to book 2 rooms for 6 adults and 1 child. We were definitely looking into availing the Free Disney Dining Plan package. So, we looked at the moderate resort category which historically came with the Disney Dining Plan. With a little more cost compared to being in the Art of Animation hotel, considered a Value resort, we jumped into the next tier. Coronado Springs seem to fit our need to accommodate our party with enough room among ourselves.

There are plenty of avenues to book a Disney vacation and save money. Nevertheless, we chose to book directly to avail the free dining package and other resort perks. Here are example room prices from a third-party site:

Getting There

We flew in to Orlando International Airport (MCO) from South Bend International Airport (SBN) with Delta Airlines.

If you are guests of the Disney resorts, the Disney Magic Express Bus is available to transport your family from the airport to the resorts for free. We opted to rent a mini-van with Alamo to give us more flexibility with driving around in our own schedule.

However, as first time visitors of Walt Disney World, we underestimated the expansiveness of the entire Disney property. Forget passing through the welcome arch to the park, it took us time to find the right way to get to our hotel. Construction zones and Apple Maps didn’t make it easy.

Check-In and Lobby

Complimentary parking is available for resort guests. There are plenty of available slots too. First, we headed to the lobby to try to check-in and find out which area we are assigned to.

The main building El Centro is designed with Spanish Deco style; adorned with colorful mosaic tiles. There’s a huge water fountain in the middle of the circular foyer.

In this domed hall, you can access the hotel shop, dining area and registration desks.

There was a long wait to get to the receptionist during our first try. So, we decided to head to lunch in Disney Springs and just wait for online check-in to notify us when our rooms are available.

The Room

We were assigned 2 rooms in one of the cabanas. They were not adjoining rooms but are next to each other.

There were no elevators to get to the upper floor. Thankfully, our rooms were in the ground level. This made it easy for us who were traveling with a senior.

There was a small safe in the closet. Two (2) Queen beds were available in each room and a flat screen TV.

Our bathroom had a shower/bathtub. The vanity sink with lots of counter space was located outside of the bathroom. Perfect to get everyone ready faster. The rooms did come with toiletries such as shampoo, soaps and lotions.

We also received our first set of trading pins featuring the Three Caballeros and Donald Duck.

Amenities

After our dinner at the Polynesian Village, we explored the resort for a little before crashing onto our beds. We were up early that day!

I was a little disappointed that there was a lot of construction work going on when we went. They were updating the resort with a new building by the lake. There were rumors about upgrading the resort to the Deluxe tier but only time will tell.

Shop

The resort’s souvenir shop Panchito’s Gifts and Sundries is located by the fountain in the El Centro building. Aside from the Disney knick-knacks you can find here, this is where you could pick-up your Disney merchandise that you’ve ordered from Disney’s online store or in the parks (so you don’t have to walk around with lots of bags).

Transportation Within Grounds

Complimentary bus transportation to and from all Disney theme parks and water parks is available. Buses will also take guests to Disney Springs and Disney′s Winter Summerland Miniature Golf Course.

The main bus stop is located in front of the main building. There are additional stops in the Casitas, Ranchos and Cabanas suites.

Pick a Pool, Any Pool

There is also the main swimming area that has a bar and a recreational center near it. It is considered as one of the bigger pools in Walt Disney Resort. What it lacks from character theming, the Aztec inspired setting makes up for it.

Recreational Area

This is a perfect little large activity area to spend a non-park day at Disney World.

It has an arcade area, a dig site and a playground for the kids.

Ricoh Business Center

There is a Ricoh Business Center available that provides a full range of office services and supplies. You can fax and print important documents like itineraries or reservations here. They also have shipping services for like when we needed to send dialysis supplies for Granny. You can also send a care package from home if you want to save money.

You can check their rates here. The medical supplies, however, were handled for free.

Laundry and Dry Cleaning Services

If you need to wash your clothes from a busy day at Disney, a 24-hour self-service laundry room is available near each of the 3 village pools.

There are vending machines with laundry supplies like detergent and even quick snacks in the room.

Also, you can leave and check the status of your laundry.

Dry cleaning and valet laundry services are also available via “Housekeeping”.

Dining Options

Coronado Springs Resort has several restaurants that offer both Quick Service and Table Service options.

Among the several choices, we ate at the hotel’s food court Pepper Market 2x for breakfast.

It’s a great area to start the day before heading to the parks. They serve American breakfast with a Mexican flair. The serving size is also huge. Can’t beat an early morning stroll by the lake before a hearty meal at Pepper Market!

Overall Impression

Coronado Springs Resort is a good choice if you want affordable without compromising amenities. However, because it is a convention hotel, it does lack the character theming that the other resorts have. This can be an attractive factor for an older traveling party.

As for our family, if we do end up visiting Walt Disney World again, we are considering staying at a Deluxe resort instead.

Have you stayed in Coronado Springs Resort? How was your experience?