Momof2Disneyboys
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 5, 2007
Just back from Caribbean Beach Resort and did not WANT TO LEAVE!!! 
CBR was our first WDW resort that we stayed at. We stayed there on our very first trip to WDW in 2005. We all absolutely loved it!
But we all also love to try new things so we stayed at POFQ in 2007 and CSR in 2008. We still loved and missed CBR so when planning this trip we decided on going back rather than trying another resort. On Christmas morning the surprise was revealed to the kids about the trip. One of the first things they said was – Can we stop trying new things and go back to our first Disney hotel??? 
Too funny! So we got to inform them that not only were we going to WDW in 26 days, but we were going to CBR too!
We arrived on Tuesday January 20th. We took the Magical Express bus from the airport and CBR was the first stop! It was going to only one other resort, I forget which one. I jumped off the bus and went into the Custom House to get in the check in line while DH and the kids got the bags. It was around 1:00pm. The line wasn't too long and there were about 4 check in windows open. I was in line for maybe 10 minutes. There was a CM standing at the front of the line talking to each family as they got the the front of the line. When I reached the front she asked if I had any questions and where I was from and so on. I asked her if the new Pirate Rooms were available yet and she said that they were not. She said that they were only opening a few of them at a time and it would start later that week. So when I was called to the window I didn't ask about them again. I had requested Aruba 51 or Jamaica 45 and top floor. I was told that we were in Aruba 51 first floor. I was happy about being in Aruba, but not so happy about the first floor. But I didn't say anything. I was just happy to finally be there! Check in went smooth and I was given the $200 gift card that came with the promotion package I had booked. I was asked if we had luggage and I told her that yes we had our carry on bags. She gave me a paper and told me to take it outside to bell services. So I gathered up the family and we went outside. I gave the paper to bell services and they said to have a seat it would be a few minutes. In about 5 minutes a van came and loaded our bags and took us to our room.
We opened the door to a newly done Nemo room! Very clean and bright and new. The Nemo theme is not overdone, it is only on the bedspread and border. The carpet was clean. The curtains are a wavy ocean blue. There is a big table and 2 chairs. The flat screen TV is on the dresser and the refrigerator is underneath/inside the dresser. To the right of the dresser is the bench that opens and has a ton of storage space inside. Above the bench is a shelf with a bunch of coat hangers which is so nice to have! The bathroom was just as we remembered it – the double sinks with a lot of storage space underneath!
Mousekeeping was great. Although we only had them come in and clean 2 times all week. We left the "privacy please" thing in the key hole the other days and each day they would leave us a bag on the door of fresh towels, wash clothes, toilet paper, kleenex, and cups.
Our view was garden/courtyard and it was very lush and beautiful. If you looked hard enough you could see the lake between the buildings. We were also close to the parking lot.
As I looked at the map of the resort I was given at check in I couldn't decide if we were closer to the Aruba or the Jamaica bus stop. In the end we discovered that we were probably right smack in the middle of them! Either way it was about a 4 minute walk to the bus stop. So we would use the Aruba bus stop in the mornings on the way to the parks, that way we were walking towards the the bus stop and if we saw the bus we wanted coming from the Jamaica stop towards the Aruba stop we would speed up our pace to catch it! And on the way back to the resort we would get off at the Jamaica stop because it was usually the first stop.
Our room was a 5 minute walk to OPR, just over the bridge and island. So if we wanted to eat, shop, or swim it was a short walk! The bridge and island are just beautiful and very well maintained. There is a spot in the middle of the island with picnic tables and hammocks. There are also hammocks on the beaches and 3 playgrounds right on the beaches. We enjoyed one evening on the Jamaica beach watching Illuminations while the kids played on the playground and fed the ducks!
We ate at the food court 3-4 times. The service was great and the food was freshly made and good. The CM's were very helpful with what came with the meals on the DDP. The only time we noticed that not all the stations were open was on Tuesday during the middle of the day – probably around 2:00 or so. Other than that they were all always open and had plenty of variety to offer something for everyone. It was never crowded and we enjoyed our meals there.
On to the pools! WOW what can I say – Disney did an awesome job with the pool rehab at CBR.
The new children's pool can't be beat. It is like a mini waterpark and it is pirate themed! 
It has 2 open smaller slides and a longer enclosed tube slide. There is water squirting out every which way and a tipping bucket that dumps water every so many minutes. Everytime it tipped all the kids would just squeal with delight! 
There were kids of all ages enjoying the children's pool. The day we spent at the pool the kids at it ranged in age from probably 5-12. The new main pool is themed like the old pool was, which is so nice. And now it is way bigger. It is like a lake! It's so nice how it is all curved and not squared off like most pools. It curves in all directions and is just beautiful. The zero entry is a great feature. The water was warm and pleasant for day when the outside temps were in the 70's. The main pool now has 2 slides! One is open and smaller and not too fast. DS7 loved it. The other is longer, enclosed, and faster. We couldn't keep DS9 off of it! A lot of kids and adults were enjoying this slide! There were lots of chairs by the pool and it was not crowded. The pool hours were 10am-11pm. There is a pool bar right beside the main pool.
Buses. I know this is a huge topic on these boards. Let me just say that we had THE BEST bus service we have ever had on this trip! We were either extremely lucky or they were just running a lot more buses than ever before. We would walk up to the bus stop and our bus would pull right up, nearly everytime! I don't think we ever sat down on the benches at the bus stop! Less than a 5 minute wait 90% of the time. It was awesome! Even leaving the parks was great. Maybe close to a 10 minute wait leaving MK one night. Even when we were leaving DTD one day we saw the CBR bus pulling out as we were walking out of the Marketplace. We thought we are going to have to wait at least 20 minutes for another bus. We walked over to the bus stop and sat down. A CBR bus pulled up in about 3 minutes! Couldn't believe it! Now there was one morning we did have a long wait. We walked out of our room in Aruba and could see the Epcot bus heading towards the stop. There was no way we would have caught it as we had just left the room. It was a good 25 minutes before another one came and it was packed. That was our only real wait for a bus and the only time we had to stand on the bus. Luckily it is a short ride to Epcot from CBR. Which brings me to the ride times. . . Most buses only made one more stop after we were picked up at Aruba – Barbados – then out. So 2 minutes on the bus and then we were headed to our destination. Only a few times did the buses have to make the rounds to all the stops before leaving the resort. They apparently had stopped at Jamaica first – we got on at Aruba – then stopped at Barbados, Martinique, OPR, Trinidad North, & Trinidad South – then out. We were on the bus for 8 minutes those times before leaving the resort. Not bad at all! Once the bus left the resort it was 3 minutes to DHS, 5-6 minutes to Epcot, 9 minutes to DTD, and 11 minutes to MK & AK. Very quick trips!
One more thing I will touch on briefly is the Islands of the Caribbean Adventure Cruise for kids. CBR offers this 3 days a week - "For children ages 4-12 (must be potty trained) -- young adventurers, wearing pirate bandannas, will board a boat to sail the Ports of the Caribbean, just like Captain Jack! They will be told the story of Old Port Royale and of the pirates that used to sail the waters. They will find props and signs leading to treasure. Once they recover the treasure, they will sail to Fort Cay and trade for some grub (lunch). When they return to Old Port Royale, they will unlock the treasure chest and bounty will be shared by all. Operates Sundays, as well as Tuesdays and Fridays from 9:30 - 11:30 a.m. $28.17 per child pus tax. Lunch: Peanut Butter and Jelly Uncrustables, Gummy Bears, Gold Fish Treats, and Apple Juice Box." My kids did this on Sunday morning and had a blast!! They are still talking about it!
Okay, I think I covered everything. If you have any questions please feel free to ask. I will be posting lots of pictures soon.
Overall another wonderful stay. We would not hesitate to go back to CBR again in the future! It is a very beautiful, lush, relaxing, and romantic resort.
CBR was our first WDW resort that we stayed at. We stayed there on our very first trip to WDW in 2005. We all absolutely loved it!
But we all also love to try new things so we stayed at POFQ in 2007 and CSR in 2008. We still loved and missed CBR so when planning this trip we decided on going back rather than trying another resort. On Christmas morning the surprise was revealed to the kids about the trip. One of the first things they said was – Can we stop trying new things and go back to our first Disney hotel??? Too funny! So we got to inform them that not only were we going to WDW in 26 days, but we were going to CBR too! We arrived on Tuesday January 20th. We took the Magical Express bus from the airport and CBR was the first stop! It was going to only one other resort, I forget which one. I jumped off the bus and went into the Custom House to get in the check in line while DH and the kids got the bags. It was around 1:00pm. The line wasn't too long and there were about 4 check in windows open. I was in line for maybe 10 minutes. There was a CM standing at the front of the line talking to each family as they got the the front of the line. When I reached the front she asked if I had any questions and where I was from and so on. I asked her if the new Pirate Rooms were available yet and she said that they were not. She said that they were only opening a few of them at a time and it would start later that week. So when I was called to the window I didn't ask about them again. I had requested Aruba 51 or Jamaica 45 and top floor. I was told that we were in Aruba 51 first floor. I was happy about being in Aruba, but not so happy about the first floor. But I didn't say anything. I was just happy to finally be there! Check in went smooth and I was given the $200 gift card that came with the promotion package I had booked. I was asked if we had luggage and I told her that yes we had our carry on bags. She gave me a paper and told me to take it outside to bell services. So I gathered up the family and we went outside. I gave the paper to bell services and they said to have a seat it would be a few minutes. In about 5 minutes a van came and loaded our bags and took us to our room.
We opened the door to a newly done Nemo room! Very clean and bright and new. The Nemo theme is not overdone, it is only on the bedspread and border. The carpet was clean. The curtains are a wavy ocean blue. There is a big table and 2 chairs. The flat screen TV is on the dresser and the refrigerator is underneath/inside the dresser. To the right of the dresser is the bench that opens and has a ton of storage space inside. Above the bench is a shelf with a bunch of coat hangers which is so nice to have! The bathroom was just as we remembered it – the double sinks with a lot of storage space underneath!
Mousekeeping was great. Although we only had them come in and clean 2 times all week. We left the "privacy please" thing in the key hole the other days and each day they would leave us a bag on the door of fresh towels, wash clothes, toilet paper, kleenex, and cups.
Our view was garden/courtyard and it was very lush and beautiful. If you looked hard enough you could see the lake between the buildings. We were also close to the parking lot.
As I looked at the map of the resort I was given at check in I couldn't decide if we were closer to the Aruba or the Jamaica bus stop. In the end we discovered that we were probably right smack in the middle of them! Either way it was about a 4 minute walk to the bus stop. So we would use the Aruba bus stop in the mornings on the way to the parks, that way we were walking towards the the bus stop and if we saw the bus we wanted coming from the Jamaica stop towards the Aruba stop we would speed up our pace to catch it! And on the way back to the resort we would get off at the Jamaica stop because it was usually the first stop.
Our room was a 5 minute walk to OPR, just over the bridge and island. So if we wanted to eat, shop, or swim it was a short walk! The bridge and island are just beautiful and very well maintained. There is a spot in the middle of the island with picnic tables and hammocks. There are also hammocks on the beaches and 3 playgrounds right on the beaches. We enjoyed one evening on the Jamaica beach watching Illuminations while the kids played on the playground and fed the ducks!
We ate at the food court 3-4 times. The service was great and the food was freshly made and good. The CM's were very helpful with what came with the meals on the DDP. The only time we noticed that not all the stations were open was on Tuesday during the middle of the day – probably around 2:00 or so. Other than that they were all always open and had plenty of variety to offer something for everyone. It was never crowded and we enjoyed our meals there.
On to the pools! WOW what can I say – Disney did an awesome job with the pool rehab at CBR.
The new children's pool can't be beat. It is like a mini waterpark and it is pirate themed! It has 2 open smaller slides and a longer enclosed tube slide. There is water squirting out every which way and a tipping bucket that dumps water every so many minutes. Everytime it tipped all the kids would just squeal with delight! There were kids of all ages enjoying the children's pool. The day we spent at the pool the kids at it ranged in age from probably 5-12. The new main pool is themed like the old pool was, which is so nice. And now it is way bigger. It is like a lake! It's so nice how it is all curved and not squared off like most pools. It curves in all directions and is just beautiful. The zero entry is a great feature. The water was warm and pleasant for day when the outside temps were in the 70's. The main pool now has 2 slides! One is open and smaller and not too fast. DS7 loved it. The other is longer, enclosed, and faster. We couldn't keep DS9 off of it! A lot of kids and adults were enjoying this slide! There were lots of chairs by the pool and it was not crowded. The pool hours were 10am-11pm. There is a pool bar right beside the main pool. Buses. I know this is a huge topic on these boards. Let me just say that we had THE BEST bus service we have ever had on this trip! We were either extremely lucky or they were just running a lot more buses than ever before. We would walk up to the bus stop and our bus would pull right up, nearly everytime! I don't think we ever sat down on the benches at the bus stop! Less than a 5 minute wait 90% of the time. It was awesome! Even leaving the parks was great. Maybe close to a 10 minute wait leaving MK one night. Even when we were leaving DTD one day we saw the CBR bus pulling out as we were walking out of the Marketplace. We thought we are going to have to wait at least 20 minutes for another bus. We walked over to the bus stop and sat down. A CBR bus pulled up in about 3 minutes! Couldn't believe it! Now there was one morning we did have a long wait. We walked out of our room in Aruba and could see the Epcot bus heading towards the stop. There was no way we would have caught it as we had just left the room. It was a good 25 minutes before another one came and it was packed. That was our only real wait for a bus and the only time we had to stand on the bus. Luckily it is a short ride to Epcot from CBR. Which brings me to the ride times. . . Most buses only made one more stop after we were picked up at Aruba – Barbados – then out. So 2 minutes on the bus and then we were headed to our destination. Only a few times did the buses have to make the rounds to all the stops before leaving the resort. They apparently had stopped at Jamaica first – we got on at Aruba – then stopped at Barbados, Martinique, OPR, Trinidad North, & Trinidad South – then out. We were on the bus for 8 minutes those times before leaving the resort. Not bad at all! Once the bus left the resort it was 3 minutes to DHS, 5-6 minutes to Epcot, 9 minutes to DTD, and 11 minutes to MK & AK. Very quick trips!
One more thing I will touch on briefly is the Islands of the Caribbean Adventure Cruise for kids. CBR offers this 3 days a week - "For children ages 4-12 (must be potty trained) -- young adventurers, wearing pirate bandannas, will board a boat to sail the Ports of the Caribbean, just like Captain Jack! They will be told the story of Old Port Royale and of the pirates that used to sail the waters. They will find props and signs leading to treasure. Once they recover the treasure, they will sail to Fort Cay and trade for some grub (lunch). When they return to Old Port Royale, they will unlock the treasure chest and bounty will be shared by all. Operates Sundays, as well as Tuesdays and Fridays from 9:30 - 11:30 a.m. $28.17 per child pus tax. Lunch: Peanut Butter and Jelly Uncrustables, Gummy Bears, Gold Fish Treats, and Apple Juice Box." My kids did this on Sunday morning and had a blast!! They are still talking about it!
Okay, I think I covered everything. If you have any questions please feel free to ask. I will be posting lots of pictures soon.
Overall another wonderful stay. We would not hesitate to go back to CBR again in the future! It is a very beautiful, lush, relaxing, and romantic resort.
I can't wait to try CBR-hopefully this year, if my in-laws will get on the ball and decide when! It is very objective; knowing how much you love CBR, you still gave it a detailed review and told us everything, even the 1 time you had to wait for a bus. 
