Disney's CARIBBEAN BEACH RESORT Information & Questions

[pktbMouse]

Just got off the phone with Disney...!!! success!! not a lot of staff knew about the email that came out today but they do now! They will either offer $75 a night off room rate or move you to another moderate resort of your choosing!! WE chose to stay at our beloved CBR..we saved a total of $400!! plus as I was on hold for over an hour he gave me some free fastpasses!! WOOT! Just call and ask about the compensation that Disney are now offering for CBR refurbishment...they will know what you mean. Good LUck!

 

[halssister]

Has anyone travelling in the summer/fall gotten a discount or permission to move to POR?

This is what I would like to know as well - if it's worth calling now or if I should wait and see if I get an email

 

[pktbMouse]

This is what I would like to know as well - if it's worth calling now or if I should wait and see if I get an email

I didnt get an email..I just called and said I had read on here that people were getting discounts and they immediately knew what I was talking about, the refurbishment is supposed to go on until December 2017

 

[IrishNYC]

There will be a full service food court setup with seating and A/C, food stations in Jamaica, Aruba and Trinidad South with grab and go items. They only thing that will be non-existant is a Table Service restaurant. The pool bar itself will be down, but there will be a place to get drinks by the pool.

Now I'm almost regretting jumping the gun and moving to POR before anything was official, because honestly that doesn't seem awful, and we have very little in the way of meals planned at the resort. Oh well. I've been wanting to give POR a try, so we will. I'm just hoping this craziness doesn't affect the chances of free dining.

 

[pktbMouse]

Now I'm almost regretting jumping the gun and moving to POR before anything was official, because honestly that doesn't seem awful, and we have very little in the way of meals planned at the resort. Oh well. I've been wanting to give POR a try, so we will. I'm just hoping this craziness doesn't affect the chances of free dining.

You will love POR!! The beignets are to die for! hehe I sat the kids down and explained the refurbishment...they only wanted to know two things..will there be a pirate room and will there be pizza. I relayed their message to Disney reservations and they said yes, so we stayed..lol I tell ya that pizza could have been make or break and we would have been heading to POR too. Its a lovely resort, smaller than French quarter..my kids loved fishing in the little pond and getting the boat. The only thing that put us off was it looked too much like home if that makes sense ( we live in the south) the buildings are food were identical. Im sure it wont affect free dining at all...good luck

 

[Rivergirl2005]

So we ordered our package through a travel agent....will they be able to get the discount price each night???

 

[halssister]

Now I'm almost regretting jumping the gun and moving to POR before anything was official, because honestly that doesn't seem awful, and we have very little in the way of meals planned at the resort. Oh well. I've been wanting to give POR a try, so we will. I'm just hoping this craziness doesn't affect the chances of free dining.

POR is fabulous! I realize everyone has their own opinions, but we love it so much that I'd stay there for a couple nights even if we weren't going to the parks! The only reason we didn't book there is because the extra cost over CBR wasn't in our budget - but boy, am I ever regretting that decision now!

 

[pktbMouse]

So we ordered our package through a travel agent....will they be able to get the discount price each night???

YES! I know this as the Disney cast member I spoke to on the phone said he had Travel agents calling all day !! Call them to morrow and ask them to call Disney for you.

 

[halssister]

You will love POR!! The beignets are to die for! hehe I sat the kids down and explained the refurbishment...they only wanted to know two things..will there be a pirate room and will there be pizza. I relayed their message to Disney reservations and they said yes, so we stayed..lol I tell ya that pizza could have been make or break and we would have been heading to POR too. Its a lovely resort, smaller than French quarter..my kids loved fishing in the little pond and getting the boat. The only thing that put us off was it looked too much like home if that makes sense ( we live in the south) the buildings are food were identical. Im sure it wont affect free dining at all...good luck

I think you've mixed up POR (riverside) with POFQ (French quarter)
FQ is the smaller of the two, with the beignets. Riverside is actually larger and more spread out! But you can easily walk to POFQ from POR to get beignets!

 

[pktbMouse]

I think you've mixed up POR (riverside) with POFQ (French quarter)
FQ is the smaller of the two, with the beignets. Riverside is actually larger and more spread out! But you can easily walk to POFQ from POR to get beignets!

Your right...it was 9 years ago...the pool was the Old man river one we stayed at and hubby just told me yes we did walk over to the other one for beignets! My old fart memory..lol both very pretty though

 

[IrishNYC]

Your right...it was 9 years ago...the pool was the Old man river one we stayed at and hubby just told me yes we did walk over to the other one for beignets! My old fart memory..lol both very pretty though

I knew what you meant.

 

[canyoncam]

Before they shut down the food court in OPR they will have a full service food court set up. It will serve breakfast, lunch and dinner. It will have seating and be air conditioned. it will have about 75% seating capacity as OPR has now but they figure there will be at least 25% less rooms due to the removal of some of the Barbados and Martinique buildings. This will most likely be setup in at least one, maybe two giant tents outside of OPR. The cooking will be done in trailers right next to the seating areas.

There will also be food stations with grab and go items all day right by the Jamaica and Aruba beaches.

Not trying to argue here. The photo from the TA site shows only breakfast and dinner at Centertown. Or at least that's the way I understand this wording. It just doesn't sound the same as a food court, which is important with groups that have many different tastes. Is there somewhere else that states it will have all three meals and be full service?

 

[dansdad]

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Not trying to argue here. The photo from the TA site shows only breakfast and dinner at Centertown. Or at least that's the way I understand this wording. It just doesn't sound the same as a food court, which is important with groups that have many different tastes. Is there somewhere else that states it will have all three meals and be full service?

Inside Old Port Royal, in Centertown, they will only be serving breakfast and dinner. A full food court serving breakfast, lunch and dinner will be setup in one, possibly two 20' x 30' air conditioned tents outside. Either in front or off to the side of Old Port Royal. Two different setups, one inside and one outside. I have heard this from 2 different sources at CBR. My feeling is they haven't made any official statement as they are still determining where exactly this set up will be. Once they feel they outside setup is running smoothly, they will shut down the inside setup to complete the work on Old Port Royal.

 

[Moxiepup]

A refurbishment of this scale doesn't get planned overnight. They knew this was coming down the pipe. To me, it seems like they should have had this thought out and planned long before this stage. Enough so that they could tell guests exactly what the set ups will be, what will be served, what amenities would or wouldn't be available, what items that were available at the Calypso Trading Post might be offered elsewhere, etc.
Most of all, a dedicated timeline would be helpful to guests. My days were April 23-28. Now I'm hearing that construction won't be starting until May! I'm assuming they're notifying April guests because they 'might' be making the food service switchover during this time? Point is, why are the guests left guessing? Changes in plans are always difficult under the best of circumstances, but not being able to make informed choices only adds to the stress. "Did I make the right decision?" "Should I wait and see what happens?" It seems like the guests are an afterthought to the whole project.

 

[Essexgirl]

We love CBR but however well they deal with this, we're not flying 9 hours and paying a huge amount of money to eat in air conditioned tents, have no TS restaurant, pool bar, shop for stuff we forgot, etc etc. All of this advertised and available when we booked. Last year's trip to CBR was magical and I'm sure people deciding to stay will have an equally magical time, but for us, we have taken the offer of a transfer to POFQ. There has definitely been a change of policy as on Tuesday they were adamant no compensation, no free transfers. They wanted £500 to move us. By last night it was either a free transfer or $75 per night credit. We opted for the move. CBR will always be our favourite but we're excited to try something new this year

 

[CJK]

For those of you will have successfully been moved or credited, are you going in May? Has anyone beyond the month of May had success dealing with Disney?

 

[dansdad]

For those of you will have successfully been moved or credited, are you going in May? Has anyone beyond the month of May had success dealing with Disney?

My Parents will be there May 12-19 and received the $75 credit per night.

 

[MamaJessie]

Everyone, look at it this way... (from an optimist's point of view):

Construction is being limited to between 9:00 AM and 4:00 PM, and likely you will be in one or more of the parks between those hours and won't notice. When you come back to the resort, there will be no construction noise, but it may be a little inconvenient trying to get yourself and your family fed and depending on where you are, around the construction. Those are the only inconveniences

I'm saying that at the very least you should be thankful for that too.

A few days of inconvenience shouldn't matter to you -- there are more important things going on in the world that you need to be worried about. This is not one of them. We should be thankful that we even have a nice place to stay during our holidays in what is supposed to be the Happiest Place on Earth.

Fellow optimist here but have to disagree with a few points. We plan on taking mid day breaks with my toddler some days to swim and relax, so that puts us at the pool during construction hours, so yes we will notice. And yes with 4 kids small inconveniences are magnified - and some of the reasons we all stay on site is for convenience.

I am thankful we are going to Disney, sure - but that is irrelevant. We agreed to pay a certain amount of money for specific level of accommodations and that agreement is not going to be met. And the happiest place on earth is Disneyland. We are heading to the most magical place on earth

I am well aware that there are other things in the world to worry about, that has nothing to do with trying to plan around construction and trying to decide if it makes sense to stay at CBR or switch, try to get a credit for the inconveniences etc. Discussing CBR refurb on a CBR info and questions thread makes sense, so we can share thoughts and experiences with CMs - being a realist and planning with expectations doesn't make us negative.

 

[jwill]

Just got off the phone with Disney...!!! success!! not a lot of staff knew about the email that came out today but they do now! They will either offer $75 a night off room rate or move you to another moderate resort of your choosing!! WE chose to stay at our beloved CBR..we saved a total of $400!! plus as I was on hold for over an hour he gave me some free fastpasses!! WOOT! Just call and ask about the compensation that Disney are now offering for CBR refurbishment...they will know what you mean. Good LUck!

I'm glad to see this. I'm not one to look for something for nothing but we are in a preferred room starting the 29th and I think it's not fair to charge preferred to be close to everything that is closed.

 

[CJK]

My Parents will be there May 12-19 and received the $75 credit per night.

Thanks! It's still sounding like there haven't been reports of a transfer or credit for people beyond the month of May, correct (like June, July, etc...)?