Caribe Royale??

[disneyfan55]

Hi. I have a question and figured I'd ask in this thread rather than start a new one. Does anyone know how many guests fit in a 2 bedroom villa at Caribe Royal?

You can fit up to 8. We had 7 last year including 2 babies, not problem. Lots of room. The master bedroom area is very large and very nice. The full kitchen and washer/dryer make it really worth it. We had the 30/night food credit as well as a rate of 185/night no resort fees or parking fee there. You do have to consider the parking at WDW when factoring a price though.

 

[2girlsmom]

Caribe is our favorite in Orlando. We only have 4 of us, but 2 teens, so we always end up in the 2 bedroom "villa" anyway, in fact have never stayed in the one bedroom suites there thus far. As previously mentioned there is a LOT of room in the villas, my teens love that they each have a queen bed to themselves. We love that they have their own bathroom seperate of us, and I personally adore the 2 person jacuzzi tub in the master! We generally don't cook on vacation, so haven't really used the kitchen for that purpose, though we have used it for leftovers (first trip we stopped and picked up UNO pizza and had leftovers from that for a couple snack sessions), as well as using the freezer last year to store all our MNSSHP candy (worked great, most stayed frozen and all stayed cool in the car on our departure day for 6 hours while we were at the parks plus the 1-1/2 hour drive home). We love the pool there, my oldest dd loves the waterslide and waterfall, she is a big fan of pools! There are actually 2 pools, as there is a quiet pool near the villas, but we have always used the main pool. We found their room service menu to be not TOO horribly overpriced and everything we got was tasty, both there and at the coffee shop one morning.

 

[LadyJayne813]

We are staying in a villa for the first time this year in December. How far are the villas from the main pool?

 

[disneyfan55]

We are staying in a villa for the first time this year in December. How far are the villas from the main pool?

We stayed in one of the villas last fall and it was a little bit of a walk. There was a pool right outside our window though. The 2 bedroom villas were in the back of the complex, at least where we stayed. We did like this resort and plan on going again. They were doing major renovations on the building next to us at the time.

 

[disneyfan55]

Caribe is our favorite in Orlando. We only have 4 of us, but 2 teens, so we always end up in the 2 bedroom "villa" anyway, in fact have never stayed in the one bedroom suites there thus far. As previously mentioned there is a LOT of room in the villas, my teens love that they each have a queen bed to themselves. We love that they have their own bathroom seperate of us, and I personally adore the 2 person jacuzzi tub in the master! We generally don't cook on vacation, so haven't really used the kitchen for that purpose, though we have used it for leftovers (first trip we stopped and picked up UNO pizza and had leftovers from that for a couple snack sessions), as well as using the freezer last year to store all our MNSSHP candy (worked great, most stayed frozen and all stayed cool in the car on our departure day for 6 hours while we were at the parks plus the 1-1/2 hour drive home). We love the pool there, my oldest dd loves the waterslide and waterfall, she is a big fan of pools! There are actually 2 pools, as there is a quiet pool near the villas, but we have always used the main pool. We found their room service menu to be not TOO horribly overpriced and everything we got was tasty, both there and at the coffee shop one morning.

I wonder why this hotel is so limited in any discussions. It really is a great place and close. By the amt of space, no parking fee and cleanliness, I'm surprised so overlooked. We found the special on Mousesavers last year and decided to give a try. We were very impressed with all the room etc. for the cost.

 

[2girlsmom]

We are staying in a villa for the first time this year in December. How far are the villas from the main pool?

Every time we have stayed thus far, we've been in the farthest building, so have generally driven over to the main pool. That said, from where we were it is probably 1/4 mile maybe? Would take about 15-20 minutes to walk it to the main pool, I would say, it's 1 minute in the car.

 

[TeresaWen]

I have a 2 bedroom villa booked for 12 nights at the end of October. Rea through trip advisor reviews - mainly very positive. Was hoping to find more info from these boards.

Any recent experiences?

 

[BostonEd]

I wonder why this hotel is so limited in any discussions. It really is a great place and close. By the amt of space, no parking fee and cleanliness, I'm surprised so overlooked. We found the special on Mousesavers last year and decided to give a try. We were very impressed with all the room etc. for the cost.

Can't speak for everyone, of course, but the deal breaker for me was that the rooms do not have balconies.

 

[disneyfamilyfive]

We, a family of 6 (kids 14, 11, 10 and 5) have booked an 8 night stay at the Caribe Royale and also at Sharaton Vistana Resort. Have any of you been to both resorts to compare? We normally stay at Port Orleans Riverside on property, but have out grown the room and occupancy and two rooms is too price, but we LOVED it there. Both Caribe Royale and Sharaton Vistana Resort are priced similar and both are two bed, two bath, full kitchen, laundry... Caribe Royale has 2 queen beds in 2nd bedroom where SVR only has twin/doubles in the 2nd bedroom. Any suggestions or advise between the two resorts would be helpful! Thanks!

 

[glassslippergirl]

We are staying at Caribe Royale right now in a one bedroom suite in tower 1. The hotel is clean, and the room serves our needs. Since DS was born, we've looked for hotel suites with an actual wall between the living and sleeping areas (believe it or not, not all suites offer separation between the two areas) because DH is a night owl who doesn't want to bother DS. I like that our tower is well serviced by 4 elevators. We've stayed in several of these high rise hotels in Orlando that don't have enough elevators, and we wait 10 or more minutes to pack in during high traffic times. That's one of the inconveniences that turn a super-nice hotel into a place where you'd never want to stay again. As for the living room layout, we're in a suite, not a villa, so we have a couch and arm chair, tv console housing a mini fridge and microwave, and there's a coffee table and big desk. The desk is my issue. It's great for a place to charge all of our multitudinous devices, but it's huge and takes up a lot of precious real estate. I can't imagine needing such a big desk on a trip (but I'm not a business traveler), and for our family I would much rather have a small table with some chairs so we can eat meals looking at each other rather than at the couch looking at the tv. The pool is huge and amazing with a waterfall and slide. There's an employee (though I don't think a lifeguard) manning the slide for safety. I liked that. This time of year, the pool is also freezing! Northerners can probably handle it, but this Florida-girl's teeth were chattering. DS4, a Florida native, played and swam, and slid without complaint, then ran back to our room and straight to soak in a warm tub for a really long time.

But there's one problem that makes me sure I won't be back, at least until it's fixed. They warned us at check in that the key cards demagnetize when exposed to other magnets, and they weren't kidding. I've never had a hotel key card demagnetize so regularly-- twice during one trip to the pool. And it's happened to eveeyone we've talked to also. There's a security guard whose sole job is meeting guests at rooms to fix their keys. It's a huge inconvenience-- who thinks about keeping the hotel key card away from the phone, credit cards, and anything also magnetic? Our Disney tickets sitting in my purse demagnetized my key! I can't even imagine what a Magic Band would do. It seems like a problem that could be fixed by an update to the key card system, and they need to get on it.

Honestly, I mostly like the hotel. We've also stayed at Buena Vista Suites right next door which is smaller, but the suites are set up the same way, and I'm pretty sure it's run by the same company. BVS has a basic rectangular swimming pool and has the problem of elevator backup in the morning. It also provides a nice breakfast, which is busy but good, even offering eggs to order. No complimentary breakfast at Caribe (the hotel is too huge-- there's no place that could accommodate so many people). Also, it's key card system works-- my card never demagnetized. For us, BVS is more worth it than Caribe, but we don't need a villa and don't care as much about the pool. And that is my review.

 

[disneyfamilyfive]

Thank you for the review.
That is crazy about the key cards!

 

[carmelhp]

We stayed at Caribe Royale Tower 3 the first week of April. My wife's room key had problems but mine did not even though it was next to the magnet in my billfold. The WiFi had dead areas but they claim to be doing an upgrade. All in all, we really liked the hotel which was very nice, as nice as the Rosen Shingle Creek where we stayed at Christmas. We had a room rate which included a full breakfast buffet in the first floor restaurant at the main building. BSV is run by the same independent chain as Caribe. Our 12 year old daughter loved the desk for morning makeup application and the sofa bed in the living room separated by a door from our bedroom. The room overlooked the pool and was well appointed and well maintained by housekeeping.

 

[disneyfamilyfive]

Thank you for your review. It was helpful. I sure hope they have at least the key issue taken care of before we arrive in July!!!

 

[ols386]

Personally, I much prefer Wyndham Bonnet Creek over Caribe Royale any time.

 

[trouttigger]

What is the in-room coffee situation? Is it a one-cup maker or a small pot?

 

[glassslippergirl]

What is the in-room coffee situation? Is it a one-cup maker or a small pot?

It's a small pot (1-2 cups). Ours was broken. We asked for it to be replaced, but it wasn't.