IMO - you are not crazy at all for taking an 18 month old! We first took our son when he was 14 months old & in february we took him again 24 months. We had an excellent time on both vacations. The 1st time we stayed at Animal Kingdom; the 2nd trip was Caribbean Beach Resort. I think you are going to like CBR!! DS was thrilled, especially with the ducks that you can feed, we did that
twice a day!!
You should stop by the Disney for Family boards here. I picked up so much useful info over there (what to pack, stroller questions, backback suggestions, what rides DS could go on etc). There will be so much your 18mo can do - you will not be disappointed. On both our vacations (that were each over 7 days long) we didn't get to do everything we wanted to...there were just so many enjoyable rides, shows, attractions, the characters, the pool, the resort ducks, and so on. Your 18mo can go on any ride without a height restriction...and there are
a lot of those!
CBR was very nice, clean, but a bit spread out. We requested a room closer to the food court (we were in Trinidad North, bldg 33) and it was a short walk (about 5 minutes) to the food court & main pool. Bus service was great during our visit.
There is a FAQ folder for CBR - there is a ton of good info & pictures in there too. I don't think it's too far back, just look back through a few pages of the threads. Editted to add the link :
http://disboards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=325191
Hope that works!
Oh one other thing. I found some good info on all of Disney & traveling with a toddler at this web site
www.wdwig.com
Have a wonderful trip & feel free to ask me any questions. I never get tired talking about our trips (or my DS!). We are from NJ too!