mickeystoontown
DIS Legend
- Joined
- Oct 2, 2006
- Messages
- 29,344
Just got back from another fantastic 10 day stay at the Caribbean Beach Resort. This was our second stay there and we enjoyed the second trip just as much as the first.
On our first trip, we were in Jamaica Building 41. We really liked the location so we requested it or Aruba for our June, 2007 trip.
We arrived at the Custom House around 4:30 p.m. and there was a bit of a crowd. I hopped in line and in less than 10 minutes, I was talking with a castmember and was being checked in. When she was checking us in, I asked if we were assigned to Jamaica or Aruba as I requested and she said that we were not. I know that my face must have showed my disappointment because she immediately said they had upgraded us for free to a stay in Martinique. So, I was smiling again.
In less than 20 minutes, I was checked in, given our room key/park tickets, a package of information and on my way to the Concierge desk to pick up our Hoop Dee Doo Review tickets.
There were two Concierge windows open and I was immediately greeted by a castmember. She had our Hoop Dee Doo tickets printed in no time. I also asked if she would give me a printout of ALL my dining reservations. She gave me a printout and she also gave me a small card for EACH dining reservation. They were about the size of an index card and, when folded in half, fit perfectly in my husband's wallet. Each card had the restaurant name, date and time of the reservation and the restaurant location. I loved the convenience and I kept them to put in our scrapbook.
My son and husband were just waiting around for me to complete the check in and the lady at the Concierge desk gave my son two editions of the Disney Adventures magazine....."for free?!?!" (my son said) to keep him busy.
All totaled, we were in the Custom House for less than 30 minutes.
The village of Martinique is a preferred location and is, therefore, supposed to be closer to the food court, main pool, marina, etc. We actually felt as if the walk was about the same as that from Jamaica.
Our room in Martinique Building 23 was just about a minute walk to the bus stop. It took us about 3 minutes to get to the Martinique quiet pool.
When we arrived, we started unpacking and, since we had brought along Cokes, water and milk from home, we started to load the refrigerator. We noticed that it wasn't cool at all. So, we turned it up as high as it would go. After unpacking everything, it still wasn't very cool. We called maintenance and, within about 5 minutes, they were knocking on our door. They looked at the refrigerator and told us they would bring another one.
We went ahead and went strolling around the promenade and when we got back to the room, we had another refrigerator. They left the old one and we had a new one too. The new one worked perfectly. A day later, our old one kicked in and it worked great too. So, we had extra space to store our left over desserts and fruit.
Mousekeeping was good and it was last time as well. We received six towel animals during our 10 day stay (armadillo, rabbit, bird, swan, bear and something we never figured out).
I did notice that there were a couple of semi-large brown stains on the carpet (looked like coffee) but they looked kind of old and weren't all wet and sticky.
The rest of the room looked nice. It showed a little wear and tear. Not much. This may be because Martinique is a preferred location and more people are coming in and out of the room. I thought the Jamaica rooms were newer looking. There was certainly nothing about the room or location that turned us off!
The resort grounds were still immaculate. I am always amazed how Disney is constantly keeping everything clean and fresh. Two days into our stay, there was a crew changing out the mulch around the shrubbery and planting new plants.
The food court still offered a wide array of foods to choose from. I was sad to see that the fresh made sandwiches (in the grab-n-go section) weren't there this time around. I did notice that there were more items displaying the Disney Dining Plan emblem.
The last day of our stay, we went to the store and food court for lunch. The employees were having a limbo contest for the kids. They had music playing and the castmembers were shaking tamborines and maracas (spelling?). Our son won the limbo contest and was given a Certificate with his name on it. Very cool!
Once again, our stay at the CBR was absolutely wonderful! We might not get to stay there next year because we might have a fifth teenager in our party and 5 can't stay in a room at the CBR.
I can't say enough good things about the CBR!
Thanks for the great review! We are all booked to go to the CBR for the second time in mid-August and after reading your review really can't wait!
Anyways, it was a nice change even though we were kinda looking forward to staying in Jamaica.
