Another “Hypothetical” Disney Resort Day

A few times every summer, my friend, Danielle, and I think about taking our kids to a Disney resort pool for the day.  We would NEVER sneak onto Disney property and mooch their facilities and awesome pool areas.  Nope.  Never.

We just think about it.  Hypothetically, of course.

Today, we “hypothetically” thought about breaking into visiting Disney’s Coronado Springs resort, since we had never been there before.  We read their their pool area was relaxed and had our two basic requirements for any sufficient pool day experience: a water slide for the kids and a poolside bar for the adults.

I read online that many of the Disney resorts are under construction right now and Coronado Springs is definitely part of that chaos.  They are building a HUGE hotel right there on the property, but other than seeing the cranes from the pool and dodging a few construction trucks in the parking lot, the resort didn’t seem too effected by the construction.

You know… hypothetically, of course.

Danielle and I have been busting our kids into resort pool areas for a few years now.  Our worst enemy is the Disney armbands because you have to have them to get into most pools now.  We both have old ones from previous, legit trips to Disney, but we never think to bring them with us on our “hypothetical” break ins (which I will neither confirm nor deny happened today…).  Instead, we decided this time to make a dining reservation for breakfast at the resort so that we could honestly tell the guard at the resort gate that we had a reservation.  That gets us into the resort.

Once inside (which is really nice at Coronado Springs, by the way!), we had a quite breakfast and then started fumbling around, like any guest would.  The trick to blending in is acting like you belong there.  I always try to speak to employees before they can speak to me.  So, we asked a bunch of people how to get to the pool and Disney provided very helpful staff to guide the way.

Now, let’s pause for a judgmental moment.  I can smell your judgment seeping through the computer screen.  Or, maybe it’s my own guilt and not your judgment.  Guilt and Judgment smell a lot alike.  Whatever it is, I know that it is not the most ethical thing to do when we “hypothetically” break into a resort.  But Danielle and I do have our moral codes.  Here are our moral rules:

1. We buy our food and drinks at the resort.  We bring a few snacks with us for the kid munchies, but really not very much.  We each spend about $50 for the day at the resort on food and drinks.

Okay, so we don’t have many moral rules, now that I think about it.  But at least we are contributing to the Disney empire while we are there!  And, I always blog about the hotel so that at least they get some free advertising out of it!

Okay, so back to my unethical, completely hypothetical day at Disney.

We got to the pool around 10:30, which was great because there weren’t many people there at all.  We have been to a lot of Disney resorts (and we were even guests at some of them!) and this was the quietest and least crowded of any I had been to.  It may have even crossed over onto the boring side of the scale just a weeeeeeee bit.  But it was perfect for what we needed – a chill day to let the kids run around and have a good time.

Danielle and I ventured over to the little tiki bar as soon as it was a responsible time of day and we were shocked to find a whole playground area for the kids right off the pool.  It had a sand pit, bathrooms, pingpong table, corn-hole, a playground, and some big temple structures with slides going through them.  We ended up coming back to the tiki area a little later for lunch and the kids played over there while we got lunch ordered and delivered.  (For those wondering, it was a little counter-service window and meals ran $10-14 for entrees and $6-8 for kids meals.)

We had a good lunch and then the kids decided to play on the playground some more while Danielle and I headed back to the pool.  They spent the rest of the afternoon roaming between the pool, the water slide, and the playground area, while Danielle and I floated or relaxed in the sun.

By 3:00, we were all waterlogged, so we bribed the kids out of the pool with the promise of an ice cream stop on our way home.  It ended up being perfect timing, too, because an afternoon storm rolled in just as we were leaving.

Hypothetically speaking, I would recommend Coronado Springs for a stay, but there are definitely better resorts on Disney property.  Actually, one of my favorites is one of their more “economical” resorts down the road, “The Art of Animation.”  That’s been my favorite pool area and we have been guests there several times and loved every visit.  For a little nicer place, I always recommend Caribbean Beach Resort at Disney.  They have a great pool that has a giant pirate ship for little kiddos (and even sometime the bigger kids, too!) and they have quite a few slides that are a little more exciting.

But even if it wasn’t one of our most exciting pool areas to visit, it was quiet and the kids had a great time.  So, if you’re looking to stay at a Disney resort (or maybe making a “hypothetical” visit…) this one is a pretty good bet, especially if you are looking for something that’s not as crowded or loud as some of the others can be.

Unless, of course, you run into our kids there…  But you wouldn’t.  Because we only visit there “hypothetically.”

*****

For more posts about “hypothetical” adventures we have had, check out our “hypothetical” visit to Caribbean Beach Resort at Disney,  The Art of Animation Resort at Disney (we were actually guests this time!), and Cabana Bay Resort at Universal (which I actually can’t find the link to, so maybe I didn’t blog about it??? But it was awesome!).