Fortunate for the opportunity to secure all of the speakers for the 2021 Mopar Business Conference, one generous perk they rewarded me with was hotel accommodations throughout the conference dates. How cool is that? We arrived on day one at the Coronado Springs Resort and Convention Center. Our room was located in the Gran Destino Tower that is 15 stories tall with 545 rooms.
Attempting to check-in, the “Disney experience” was frustrating and pretty darned poor overall. There was a mix-up in where our room was to be — they tried to give us one of the older rooms near the conference ballrooms. After about 45-minutes of phone calls and whispering by the hotel staff, we were given a tower room but were told we might have to pay the difference.
Early the next morning, they were calling my mobile trying to kick us out — and by evening (after getting a call from my Chrysler/Stellantis buddy) they were offering us an upgrade from the tower room to a suite at no charge. Again… not the Disney experience expected. Sadly, some of the speakers had the same problem. It was fixed prior to the arrival of the second day’s speakers, but handled poorly until that point. One speaker was told there was absolutely not one single room left in the tower. 15-minutes later they found one. 🙄 I didn’t like that much.
Once we got to our room, I immediately felt the Mopar magic — goodies were waiting along with a wonderful note from Jay, one of the guys I worked with throughout the conference planning stages.
I opted not to take the suite upgrade — not only because I didn’t want to move, but also because we were really happy with the room we had and its location to the elevators and park transportation. Our room was great!
The overall vibe of the tower is fabulous. The decor, color choices and lobby seating is also very nice. It’s American Southwest/northern Mexico themed, but sort of feels like Las Vegas-lite. Other than muted Mickey heads in the room’s wallpaper, you see zero reminders you’re staying in Disney World.
The Coronado Springs resort is home to Disney World’s largest outdoor hot tub (seats 21), a 15-acre lake (Lago Dorado), bubbling springs, and flowing fountains. It’s also home to snakes and alligators. Hardly a surprise, but warrants a reminder for those not familiar with Florida and the wildlife there.
Basically where we are on day one’s hotel check-in is that Mopar is providing all the magic! The Coronado Springs Resort property is great, but the “experience” provided by Disney to us as “guests” at this point was sub-par compared to just about everywhere else I’ve stayed — inside and outside of the park.
Hotter than normal temps, fog, and resort part duex tomorrow. While you’re waiting (ha!) here’s a bit of trivia:
- Gran Destino Tower takes its name from the Disney animated film “Destino” by Walt Disney and renowned surrealist Salvador Dali.
- Coronado Springs is Disney’s largest convention resort featuring one of the largest single-level convention centers on the East Coast.