My wife, daughter (10 y.o.) and I just got back from a 2-night stay, 1 on a free night, and 1 paid night that was partly offset by the $250 resort credit. Overall, we really enjoyed the location and the hotel. My wife is a Diamond, so we were upgraded to a partial view room in the Victorian building. The room did have a nice view of the beach, but the downside of that was that we were exposed to the construction, so there was a decent amount of hammering and beeping from 8 AM on both mornings we were there. Anyway, for people who are familiar with the hotel, but are wondering how a couple of things--breakfast and parking--work, here are my comments on both:

1. Apparently the continental breakfast is only available to Hilton members--regular people off the street don't have that option any more--so you may have to tell the wait staff that's what you want, otherwise you'll get charged for the full buffet. That happened to use the first morning. Diamond status got us a $30/night credit, which mostly covered the cost for 2 of us ($18/person) for the continental breakfast. The child didn't receive a discount either day. In the end, with tip, it ended up being a little over $10/person after the credit, which was fine for what it was. It would be nice if the credit fully covered 2 adults, but Sheerwater is a convenient place to eat with a nice view, so in the end we were OK with it. There was a short wait the 1st day, and no wait the 2nd, but that was on a Monday and Tuesday, and I can see space/waiting being a possible issue on a crowded weekend.

2. If you are willing to cross the street, you can avoid paying the $50/night parking fee. We parked overnight both nights on Orange Avenue, in front of the Glorietta Bay inn. Again, it might not be as easy on a busy weekend night, but it looked like there were plenty of spaces on both sides of Orange that you can park at just a couple of blocks away, so if you're fundamentally opposed to paying the parking fee, it's definitely do-able.

This was our 1st stay at the Coronado. I'm not sure we'd pay the full cash price for it, but it's a great place to use free nights and/or resort credits. We go back to SD every year or two, and will probably try to stay here again next time.