97 Days: Return to Coronado Springs

The ceiling of Coronado Springs' Lobby

There's really no question any more of us staying anywhere but on the Walt Disney World property. There are just too many advantages for us and the way we like to vacation. So the question was which resort for our next trip? My original idea was to rent an RV and stay at Fort Wilderness, but even as far ahead as January, all the sites were reserved for Halloween weekend. Lesson learned there. That left us thinking of which resort we'd like to book, and we decided on Coronado Springs.

We are in our hearts moderate resort people. We had a great time last fall at Pop Century, and I'd go back with just Lisa and I, but I didn't want to chance fighting crowds for transportation on this trip. We were wowed by Animal Kingdom Lodge the one night we got to stay there, and all the deluxe resorts we've visited look great, but they are just so much more money than the moderates. We've stayed at all the moderate resorts with the exception of Port Orleans Riverside and actually Lisa and I like Port Orleans French Quarter the best, but John really loved Coronado Springs last time we were there and we've not been in ten years so decided we'd head back this trip.

Coronado Springs gets a bad rep sometimes among the Disney Geek crowd because it's so big. It is really large, but a good bit of it is dedicated to conventions and conventioners, so it really seemed to us not too spread out at all. On our last trip we stayed directly across the lake from the main buildings housing the restaurants and shops and such. There was a bus stop right behind us and a bridge along the lake to take us to El Centro (the restaurants and such).

The night view on the walk to El Centro

And during the day

That bridge, and the walk along it, became one of our favorite things about this resort. The place is absolutely beautiful, especially at night. The lights reflecting in the lake are mesmerizing. And staying a bit of a walk away was nice. It was like we stay "here" and the stuff is "there" and we like that separation. Besides, if walking bothers you, you would probably do best avoiding Walt Disney World in the first place.

The Dig Site Pool water slide

Another plus to Coronado Springs is the pool. It's plenty big enough and features a huge pyramid water slide with a spitting jaguar at the end. It is super cool and I think one of the reasons John was so impressed.

We have such great memories of Coronado Springs we're excited to be going back and making new

I can't wait to find this sign and re-take this photo with 17-year-old John

ones.