Coronado Springs Construction Update: September 2018
We’re back at Coronado Springs to check-in on construction progress of the 15-story hotel tower, over-the-water bar & grill, and other “improvement” projects as the hotel aims to enhance its offerings to appeal more to Walt Disney World’s business and convention guest clientele.
To be honest, it’s a pretty mundane update. Aside from lunch at Pepper Market and some random atmospheric photos I took while walking around, this update is very similar to our Coronado Springs Summer 2018 Construction Update, just with photos that show 2 months of additional progress.
As such, we’re going to keep most of the commentary here brief, assuming you’ve already read that update and are familiar with the nature of the construction/refurbishments/enhancements. If you have not read that and are planning a stay at Coronado Springs Resort between now and early 2019, you might want to, as we also speculate on the Dig Site refurbishment (which includes the Lost City of Cibola feature pool), and whether it’ll conclude by its scheduled completion date.
This refurbishment of the Dig Site seems like as good of a place as any to begin. This project started last week and is scheduled to conclude December 12, 2018. This is a refurbishment of the entire the Dig Site, which includes the volleyball court, playground, Iguana Arcade, Siestas Cantina, and the Lost City of Cibola feature pool, which is also known as the Mayan Ruins Pool.
We were at the Dig Site before it closed, and the area was shockingly quiet. This area is normally packed when I do these walk-throughs, but there were only a dozen or so people in the entire area.
It was so uncrowded that I felt comfortable-enough to take pool photos, which is a rarity at Walt Disney World. (Few things I do are as awkward as a fully-clothed adult man taking pics of swimming pools, so usually I don’t do it unless the pools are closed late at night or early in the morning.)
I’m a huge fan of the Lost City of Cibola pool, and I really hope there aren’t plans to change its theme or character. With “only” a 3-month refurbishment, there’s not time to do anything drastic, so that’s at least slightly reassuring.
This is one of three large projects happening right now at Coronado Springs Resort. The second enhancement project is the unnamed over-the-water bar and grill being built in the middle of Lago Dorado. This has really come along nicely since our last trip to the resort in July, and you can see the frame of the building.
While it’s too early to say when this will be finished, it’s brisk pace is reassuring. Moreover, the concept art shows a relatively minimalist design, so it shouldn’t take an extended period of time to construct this new restaurant at Coronado Springs. If we had to guess, we’d say it’ll be ready by Spring 2019.
Here are more photos of the new over-the-water bar and grill at Coronado Springs Resort from different angles around Lago Dorado:
The last photo isn’t so much the bar and grill itself as the bridge connecting some of the more remote Casitas buildings to the restaurant. This bar and grill has a relatively modest footprint and height, one important thing to note is that this construction is literally in the middle of Lago Dorado, which is itself the center of Coronado Springs Resort.
This work is visible and audible from almost every section of the resort (albeit not from every individual building). Having one of the more remote rooms at Coronado Springs without a water view might actually be advantageous for the next few months.
The final component of the Coronado Springs Resort project is the 15-story tower–the heart of the expansion–that’s being added to cater to convention and business guests. Given that this is going to be a direct source of revenue, Walt Disney World is wasting no time in getting this tower built.
Here are more photos of the tower from around Coronado Springs Resort:
As compared to our last visit, more of the tower’s exterior is enclosed and there’s interior work underway. A ton of work remains to be done prior to the tower’s scheduled Summer 2019 grand opening, but there are no signs of any delay.
Within the next couple of months, we’d expect most of the construction work on the tower to shift to the interior of the enclosed building. That should make a big difference on the noise-level of the project.
Another thing to note is that as these major projects are pretty much confined to their respective footprints, other work continues at Coronado Springs to give the resort a fresh coat of paint–both literally and figuratively.
Expect these smaller scale refurbishments to continue throughout the next year, as the hotel transforms, to the greatest extent possible, into something more elegant and less extravagant. That’s a charitable way of putting it–basically, the hotel wants to appeal more to convention guests, meaning some of the more ‘vibrant’ thematic elements are being subdued.
One of the things these construction updates are bad about is worry-mongering and that’s really not our intention. Since this is a report on current construction, that’s our obvious focus with these photos. Unfortunately, this fails to highlight just how much of the resort is “business as usual.”
In the case of Coronado Springs Resort, that’s most of the resort. Once you get into each cluster of buildings beyond the Lago Dorado waterfront, you might not even notice that Coronado Springs is currently undertaking one of the largest construction projects in all of Walt Disney World. Most of the resort is still really pleasant.
The other good news is that Coronado Springs’ lobby and its restaurants are all fully open and are unaffected by the construction. We stopped into Pepper Market for a meal during our visit to Coronado Springs, and found the food court to be dead at lunchtime. Granted, it was the ‘height’ of off-season, but it was a pleasant experience.
Pepper Market has already seen some minor aesthetic changes in the last couple of years, and we’d anticipate more of a refresh of this food court and at other Coronado Springs restaurants in the near future. During the off-season, Coronado Springs would have no issue doing phased closures of these restaurants to modernize them ahead of the tower’s debut.
During this visit to Pepper Market, we each had different rice bowls, and they were fantastic. As we’ve noted in the past, we are huge fans of Pepper Market. Reader reactions to that sentiment have always been mixed, which continues to baffle us. The rice bowls are great, the ribs are great, the Aztec Burger is great.
What are people ordering at Pepper Market that’s so bad? The pizzas? (They don’t look too promising.) Generic burgers? Pasta? We are genuinely curious, as we hear a lot of offhand remarks that Pepper Market is terrible, but our personal experience there has been the exact opposite.
UPDATE: Within the last few days, Walt Disney World silently changed the name of Pepper Market to “El Mercado De Coronado.” Presently, the menu is the same as before, but we wouldn’t be surprised if a menu change occurs, as well. One way or the other, we’d expect an update on the Disney Parks Blog sometime this week.
The bad news is that anyone staying at Coronado Springs between now and mid-2019 is going to have their stay impacted by construction to some degree. Whether that be via the closure of the entire Dig Site pool area, the noise coming from the tower and restaurant, or the views from walkways around Lago Dorado.
The degree to which this impacts your Walt Disney World vacation will really be a matter of your room’s location at the resort, what amenities you use at Coronado, and how much time you spend at the resort. Personally, I would not stay at Coronado Springs until sometime in Spring 2019, but that’s just me. I’m hesitant to book until the restaurant construction is largely finished and until we know Dig Site will actually reopen as scheduled, without delay. Your mileage may vary if you’re a big fan of Coronado, but if you’re a first-timer who has never been to Walt Disney World, or just someone who is not keen on staying at a hotel that’s an active construction zone, look elsewhere.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Have you stayed at Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort since the construction started? What did you think of the experience? Would you recommend Coronado during construction to others? Planning on staying here during the Dig Site work or in early 2019? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing feedback about your experiences is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
We are planning on staying here the first week of October 2019. Do you have a recommendation on whether the construction would be bad a this time?
It seems the construction on the pool is done. Would love to see an update on what changes were made. We are visiting March of 2019.
This is super disappointing. My husband and I booked Coronado as our honeymoon destination over halloween but did not realize it would be under construction when we booked in January of this year.
Has anyone heard if the other resorts are allowing Coronado Springs patrons to use their pool?
Please let me know if they allow you to use other pools as well. We will be staying there november 6th and the pool is a big deal to my 8 year old
The other pools onsite are open
Those rice bowls were so tasty! I definitely got a few when we stayed there at the end of 2017/early 2018!
We’re looking at booking our family vacation for September 2019 and Coronado Springs is definitely the hotel we’d like to stay in. Do you think all the refurbishments (especially the Dig Site pool) will be complete by then?
Thanks!
The post says the dog site pool is slated to be completed in early December of this year.
Almost half of Pepper Market and Panchito’s was closed off when I was there last month. Have they finished whatever they were doing in there? It was the left side of PM where the pastries and…tacos? (been a bit, can’t remember) were. Basically whatever was to the left of burgers.
No matter what construction is going on, if I’m going to Disney and there is a room available at Coronado, I can almost guarantee that’s where I’m staying. I don’t even have a real reason. It’s just our favorite with POFQ in second place. I love seeing the construction updates and can’t wait to see the finished product! 🙂
As someone who booked a stay at CS back in January mostly for the Dig Site pool, I was beyond upset when I found out that it would be closed for refurb. Is CS doing anything for guests impacted by that closure – when they were booked well before it was announced?
We are staying in November. Started calling months ago when the update came out that stated the pool would be closed (a change from when we booked our stay in January). No similar priced resorts had rooms available for our vacation dates and we were stuck at Coronado. We pretty much got an “oh well” response from 3 levels of customer service at Disney. If we hadn’t already bought our plane tickets- we would have postponed our trip. Sad to spend so much money and be disappointed before you have even left for your vacation.
We stayed there this past May (over Memorial Day weekend), and there was plenty of construction. We stayed in the building right next to the main entrance (so it wasn’t far from the construction areas), and we were totally unaffected – no noise and no distruption. Unless you are planning to spend a lot of time at the resort (which we did not – we used the resort only for sleeping), then you may think differently. I am not changing my reservations at CS for this coming Thanksgiving.
You state in the article that you wouldn’t recommend staying at Coronado Springs until Spring in order to determine the progress on the pool area and the restaurant on the water. Can you safely estimate that the pool area refurbishments will be completed and the restaurant/bar construction will be largely completed by early spring (March)?
Thanks Tom. Any insight if they are adding a pool to the Tower area to accommodate the increase in rooms?
We leave for Corando Springs this Saturday (Sept 15th) and was wondering whic building location you think we should strive for. As we plan to not spend a ton of time at resort (mostly because the “cool” pool is closed all I want is a refurbished room. Any ideas if there are any rooms that have not been upgraded yet?
Thanks!
We just got home from Disney and stayed at Coronado and it was wonderful. We were located in the Ranchos area 7686 and had no impact of any construction. We used the pool right down from our balcony and visited the main area several times watching the progress as we walked. It would’ve been nice to use the hot tub after a long day at the parks for aching feet, but we were very happy and have already booked another trip for Coronado. Food was great, service was excellent, and great staff for everything.
We recently stayed at CS for the last 2 weeks of August. We were in building 6B. From our building, you would not know that there was any construction going on. You can’t see the 15 story building project or the restaurant in the middle of the lake being built. As a bonus, you couldn’t see the parking lot either… Just beautiful courtyards and the quite pool. We were in room 6427.. It is standard view but a nice corner unit with great courtyard views… And quiet… LOVE CORONADO SPRINGS!!!! Will definitely stay there again.
P.S. The Rice Bowl at Pepper Market (or whatever the new name is) is awesome!!! Best counter service meal anywhere…
We just got back fro Coronado on the 4th of September. I would suggest that the best choice would be Casita’s . 1,2 & 3 are preferred building, 4 & 5, while a tiny bit further away, are closest to the best stop. We were in 4 and enjoyed it. All rooms that are open are refurbished. There is a lot of construction around the Cabana’s and some of the buildings in Cabana’s are closed due to this.
Thanks for the update Tom! We will be staying there at the end of September. Would your building preferences still be 4,5 and 6A or 6B based upon what you saw and knowing that the main pool is now closed? Much appreciated.
Just stayed at Coranado 8/27 to 9/2 in the Casita 3 building. We spent the day at the parks so there was no work being done when we were at the resort. We have stayed at 7 Disney resorts and enjoyed each of them for different reasons. The only thing we were disappointed with at Coranado was Pepper Mart, the food selection did not compare to any of the other resorts we have stayed at and the meals we did get were terrible!
Thank you SO much for the update!!!
My husband and I stayed in the recently updated Rancho 7B building at Coronado Springs September 1 to 8. The Dig Site closed on September 4 so the quiet pool by our building was somewhat loud as games were brought over from the dig site. The construction was not bad. If you spend most of the day time hours at the parks you will not be affected by the construction.
Tom, the Pepper Market is no longer the Pepper Market. I was looking for the online menu but came up empty. After a little digging I found it. New name – El Mercado de Coronado. Menu seems the same though.
We’re booked at Coronado Springs the last week in October. I’m hoping they don’t upgrade us to water view. I’d hate to turn it down. I’d be happy if they gave us a room in building 4 or 5. Although I doubt the construction noise will affect us or our plans. At least, I hope not.
Thanks for the update Tom. Even though there’s not much new, when you have a trip coming up soon you’re interested in how it will factor in to your vacation.
Whoa, in comparing Disney’s site to the cached version, it appears the name changed in the last couple of days–good catch!
Since no official announcement has been made, I wonder if a menu change is also on the way and it just hasn’t been implemented yet. Presumably, we’ll see something on the Disney Parks Blog next week.
The Pepper Market, or whatever it’s called, has been the primary draw for us when considering not staying at Riverside. Riverside usually wins out, but we miss the Pepper Market every time. Let’s hope that any changes are limited to minor decor and menu upgrades.
The big thing I noticed: The big cranes are finally down and gone.
Hi Tom,
I enjoy your Blogs. Thanks for updating us on all Disney things. My wife and I live in Bradenton and are DVC members. Therefore, we are there frequently. In this latest update, I think I found a typo that I wanted to point out to you. Feel free to delete this reply from the blog.
You said in the following quote “Spring 2018” but I think you meant 2019.
“While it’s too early to say when this will be finished, it’s brisk pace is reassuring. Moreover, the concept art shows a relatively minimalist design, so it shouldn’t take an extended period of time to construct this new restaurant at Coronado Springs. If we had to guess, we’d say it’ll be ready by Spring 2018.”
Tim
You are correct–Spring 2019.