Here’s a summary of some of the main themes often asked about here for our stay at CBR from March 24 to April 1, 2018.
Our room was in Jamaica and faced the parking lot in building 46. Room 4616 is a corner king bed room. We were originally booked at POP but when the room discounts came out, I was not able to apply the discount to our POP reservation but I was able to get our CBR king bed room for the same money as the rack rate at POP, so we moved to CBR. The room was clean and mousekeeping did a good job keeping us supplied with towels, shampoo/conditioner, and coffee on a daily basis. We were not offered the gift card for declining housekeeping but had decided ahead of time that we would not take the gift card even if it was offered. Probably because of this we did not experience any interruptions or intrusions that some have reported because of the “daily room check” policy now if effect.
Construction was evident all around the resort with very few exceptions. We were not bothered by noise at any time but if you’re bothered by seeing unfinished buildings and lots of equipment on site then this is probably not the time for you to visit. We found it interesting to see the progress of some of the work over our stay. I found the regular noise of lawnmowers and leaf blowers to be far more annoying. There was also some maintenance going on with power washing of the exteriors of the buildings and touching up the paint. But it’s not just CBR. Roadway construction was full-on with numerous intersection and overpass projects on the go, it seemed everywhere. I remember what a pain all the construction around Disney Springs was a short time ago. Returning to CBR from DS is now super quick with the dedicated bus lanes they now have. Be patient, it will pay off in the long run, I’m sure.
Buses always seem to get a lot of criticism at CBR. Sorry to disappoint anyone but we had excellent bus service during our stay. We tend to stay late and close the parks down but sleep in a bit in the morning and get going around 10 AM or so. It just fits our MDT schedule from home. As far as I could tell the separate buses for the two halves of the resort seemed to run all morning until noon or so. So how was the wait? Most mornings leaving the resort the park bus we wanted was either just coming to the stop (Jamaica) or would arrive with 10 mins or so. Sure, we had to jog a bit to catch a few buses but that’s not new for us at CBR at all. We did have a long wait for a MK bus one morning. While we were waiting, a CM arrived at the bus stop and we mentioned that we’d waited for 30 mins or so already. He seemed surprised and radioed for a bus and one was soon there. There was a CM at the stop each day and I can’t fault Disney as they sure seem to be working to improve the system. One morning, a family came to the stop, immediately seemed concerned about how long they had waited for a bus and after maybe 3 minutes they were talking about taking their car. We left before I could see what they decided to do but I’ll bet they just didn’t leave a reasonable amount of time to get to where they needed to go. We had a Garden Grill breakfast reservation at 8:30 AM. We were at the bus stop at 7:30 AM and were seated 10 minutes early. No stress involved. Of course late night coming back to CBR from the parks was as it always has been...
Parks were, as one CM told me, “insane”. I suppose that’s to be expected during Spring Break but it seemed to me that there were more attractions going down more often than on previous trips. The day that the BTMR FP+ line stretched all the way down to Pecos Bill’s, even CMs were taking pics and sending them to other CMs at the other parks. We did see evidence that attractions were not operating at full capacity even though the parks were very crowded and lines were long. Generally, if you didn’t have a FP+, you’d be waiting a long, long time. Even our usual late night EMH at MK had long wait times into the wee hours. We did however, get several attractions done quickly at MK by hopping over at 11 PM when the park was closing at 12 AM. We did Haunted Mansion, BTMR, Splash, Pirates, and Buzz in that hour! We didn’t get to SDMT before they shut down for the night, though.
We were on the regular
DDP. We did take advantage of the alcoholic beverages now included on the plan. While the “value” of the DDP will still be debated I can say that we saved money over previous trips because with the one included drink, we were less likely to have a second one with our meal (and very few servers even asked) so we only charged the tip on our magic bands for most TS meals. At the end of the week our typical $800 typically charged back to the room on past trips was only $525 this time. We probably spent a little less on stuff to take back home as well, but with a glass of wine typically at $9+, it all adds up. We ate at the Centertown Buffet for breakfast three times. We thought the food was as good as what we were served at the Garden Grill and is a pretty good deal for a CS meal. Maybe others were put off by the “tent” or just have much higher standards but as a life long camper, I found the setting comfortable, especially having the same tables and chairs as we had in OPR for years. I felt quite at home and the CMs went above and beyond, in my opinion. We didn’t eat at Spyglass but did hike over to have a look. The menu didn’t appeal to my DW so we didn’t eat there, at the food truck, or visit the Banana Cabana during this stay.
This is probably plenty long enough already so I’ll wind it up. So should you stay at CBR? If you’re a long time fan, like some of us here, and you go in with your eyes wide open, sure. It’s still the same old CBR that we fell in love with and still feels the same to us. If it’s your first trip to Disney or even just your first visit to CBR, I’d suggest waiting at least until OPR is back up and running. Our first stay was in 2008 while the main pool was under reconstruction and it left me a bit “meh” that we couldn’t use it. Subsequent trips erased that sentiment completely.
