Coronado Springs

Coronado Springs Resort is a moderate level resort located in the lower end of the Walt Disney Resort complex. It's main theming is colonial Spanish and native Mexican decor. It has brightly colored rocks, cactus, and great stamped concrete paths that with coyote, horse shoe, and a grand Mayan pyramid next to a pool. Basically it was a Howard Johnson's with Disney theming, not over the top fancy, but there was no mold growing in the showers either (unlike my last experience in the Port Orleans Riverside). They didn't have an accessible room that slept three so they comped us the adjoining room which was really nice for my son who had an earlier bedtime than my wife and I (also I didn't have to watch any Disney JR).

 A little warning is this place is spread out. I mean that it was a mile from my room (building 6) to the main building were the restaurants, store, and other amenities were. We had an entire lake between us and the main building. This wasn't all bad because we were at one of the first bus stops going to the parks (first on, first off), and we got to avoid the conventioneers that had a tendency to drink to much and have some colorful language around small children (really you can't see the 3,4, and 6 year old in front of you while you are talking about how wasted you got last night? Oh yeah this is a family vacation destination so you do need to watch your language and subjects on the bus.). All in all the positives outweighed the negatives and I would stay there again.

The rooms were a good size and my wheelchair could navigate easily in both rooms. The bathrooms had a built in shower seat, and a raised toilet with grab bars. The beds were comfortable and at a good transfer height. We didn't have a super amount of theming in the rooms which was nice after a day in the parks. If you are looking to dive into nonstop Disney this isn't the place. If you are staying for an extended amount of time they have laundry facilities located on property (bring quarters), and a small fridge in the room for keeping juice, fruit, or pastries for breakfast in. There is room service but it is not the best. We ordered a pizza after one long day in the park and were brought a sparsely cheesed tortilla with a small amount of spaghetti sauce on it (worst pizza I have ever eaten). We did eat it because after 45 minutes and being hungry how can you not.

 The main pool has a cool Mayan pyramid with a water slide that they show movies at during the evening. It has a nice little snack bar that closes around 9 or 10 p.m. (depending on the night). I have been told that they are going to be adding pool lifts sometime next year to all of the property's pools to assist wheelchair bound folks like myself . One last feature was that they had a designated bus line for Coronado Springs that didn't stop at any other resort. You still had to wait for the bus at times but it was a shorter trip to and from the the parks than if you would have been stopping at several hotels.

On the whole when my family goes back I believe we may try to stay at one of the deluxe resorts only for the ease of transportation with a little kid. But if you do not have that issue I recommend the Coronado Springs Resort as a good base of operations.

Planning the Family Vacation part 1

Our family decided to take a big trip to celebrate my  wife's 40th birthday and her graduating from grad school. We wanted to take a cruise, and we wanted to go to Walt Disney World too. We figured we couldn't do both. Lets face it these kinds of vacations are expensive, or at least I thought we would not be able to save enough to do both. I was wrong. We discovered that we could take a cruise to Nassau, Bahamas that would be four nights AND have some time at Disney World. It was a tricky and we compared several travel agent quotes, online deals, rental houses, and even looked at using Costco travel. I am going to try to blog our process so that you can skip all the hard stuff and do the trip that works for your family. By the way we are taking this trip as a surprise that my son will not know about until we get on the airplane. If you know my son please do not spoil the fun by telling him. Thanks.

First step, where to stay. Once we decided we wanted to visit Walt Disney World, we had to figure out where we wanted to stay (on property or off). We had very good luck using Vacation Rentals By Owner (VRBO) and thought about looking to rent a condo or vacation house in Orlando. We were surprised by the amount of homes that are accessible near the parks and some of the great amenities that were included with some of them. Things like a pool with a lift were very common in most of the places that we looked at, as well as roll in showers, and free cable and WiFi. the prices were amazing too. We were considering a 4 bedroom house that was 10 minutes away from WDW that was 132.00 a night (if you wanted the pool heated) which included the taxes. We came across many deals like that, which if you have a mobility impairment is very, VERY rare. This is a great option if you are on a tight budget because you can cook meals at home, have the flexibility to go to other parks if you rent a car, and did I mention private pool which is great if you have kids who are difficult to get out of the park. We saw many amazing properties but after crunching some numbers we decided that staying on property made the most sense for us since we changed our vacation to include a cruise. I believe when we eventually go back to Orlando (and we will once my son realizes that there are other parks besides Disney World there) we will definitely keep this in mind as an affordable and restful option. Stay Tuned.