Resort Exploring: Vol 6 – Coronado Springs
I may be a weirdo (please don’t answer that), but there are few things in life that bring me more peace and tranquility than taking a nice quiet walk around a Disney resort in the early morning hours. I must admit that even with my natural curiosity and insane willingness to take long walks prior to spending an entire day in a theme park, I feel that I have never fully explored the Coronado Springs Resort.
Coronado Springs is a very pretty moderate level resort, and it is huge. In addition to its large size, its layout makes fully exploring the resort a long process. Much like the Caribbean Beach Resort, Coronado Springs is a multi-building complex set around what is either a small lake or a large pond (I can’t decide). Unlike Caribbean Beach however, Coronado Springs does not have a bridge connecting two sides of the complex, meaning that you must walk the entire circumference of the lake (about 1.1 miles, very similar to a lap around World Showcase lagoon in Epcot). Sure, you can take one of the internal shuttles but that’s not exploring!
With its Southwest/Mayan theme, Coronado Springs manages to feel familiar and exotic at the same time. The three areas of the resort are similar, yet slightly different. The Casitas are meant to represent urban spots and focus around the convention area of the resort. The Ranchos are more rustic and rural feeling (although still Disneyfied,) and the Cabanas are meant to represent coastal areas. While all of these are beautiful, designed extremely well, and each have tons of charm, I find it hard while exploring to pull my eyes away from the lake .
While Lago Dorado (official name…means “Draft Lager”…I think) is large and a bit of a pain to walk all the way around, it is also strikingly gorgeous. With the sandy copper color of the resort buildings sitting near the water, the early morning sun completely lights up the area. While I totally forgot to get a picture of this beauty at sunrise or sunset, I cannot recommend the view enough. Like all Disney resorts, the flora adds considerably to the theme and mood making any spot along the lake a stunning vista.
For those of you familiar with Coronado Springs, you are probably wondering how I haven’t mentioned the pyramid yet (I was building to it! Geez!). The Mayan-style pyramid towers over the pool and can be seen from many points around the resort. In addition to being a focal point and being photogenic, it is also just plain cool looking. Strewn with vines and hiding a jaguar protected water slide, I could easily stare at the details on this ancient looking structure for a long time.
I know I just spent five paragraphs gushing, but the truth is that I’m not a huge fan of Coronado Springs. My problems with it are heavily related to the size of the resort, but none of that takes away from its beauty. Since these articles are focused on exploring a resort, none of those dislikes come into play. Coronado is a beautiful resort to look at and to walk around, and those are things that everyone should be happy about having the opportunity to do.
Other Chapters in My Resort Exploring Series
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Coronado is the only onsite resort I’ve stayed at, but I really loved everything about our stay there. I was attending a conference. We stayed in the ranchos section. I LOVED the morning walk around the lake to the convention center and back again in the afternoon. Our room- had a great layout for our family (the 2 year old’s pack in play was set up in the sink area and we closed that sliding door when it was time for her to go to sleep); it was a corner room (2 windows!); steps away from our car; just a few more steps to the bus stop. We were far from the food court, but since we had a car, we just drove over there to eat. The pool was gorgeous. I had a hard time imagining that the Poly volcano pool could be much more richly themed. All in all, it was a great stay and I would heartily recommend the Coronado as a great moderate choice!
Hey Brian – I’m enjoying the articles. It’s great to read about all the lodging options. We are trying to make a 2013 summer vacation happen. Budget is an issue, of course. Our first choice is a villa (DVC rental) at WL. Husband wants down time (non-park) relaxing on every other day. If we need to choose a package deal at a moderate resort, which of the mods would you personally choose? Looking for biking, chilling, nice pool, stuff to do…. I think the WL and FW area is ideal, but if we can’t make that happen, what do you think our second choice should be? Just taking a poll from people “in the know!” I’d love to hear anyone else’s thoughts as well!
You are so not a wierdo, I totally get it. My very favorite memories of staying on property are my early morning strolls while the kids and hubby are still asleep (especially the time we stayed at the Boardwalk, those morning strolls felt like Heaven!) I will add Coronado Springs to our list of resorts to try, sounds great! 🙂