Caribbean Beach Advice Needed

[clgmkm]

We are planning our third trip in early June. We have stayed at Pop Century first two times and liked it. Thought we would upgrade this time and used room only discount to make a reservation at Caribbean Beach. We will be joined by family members who are going for their first time. Since booking Caribbean Beach, I have read lots of negative things about the rooms, size of the resot (lots of walking) and transportation (slow bus service, lots of stops) and am wondering if I made the right choice, especially since we will have first time visitors with us. I'd love some advice from those of you who have stayed at Caribbean Beach. Have you had good experiences? Are the buses that bad? We have standard view rooms but I have requested some buildings in Jamaica and Aruba that I thought looked closer to the main pool, after reading about the walking distances.

 

[saskdw]

IMO CBR has the best bus service on Disney property. You will read complaints about the bus service at every resort, but all the CBR regulars will tell you the service is excellent. CBR is a beautiful resort. The rooms are bigger than the values and the pool is fantastic. Although we have stayed at CSR our last two stays CBR was our favorite Disney vacation. Take the negative reviews with a grain of salt, I'm sure you will have great time. Also, if really concerned with the size splurge for a preferred room and you won't have to worry about it.

 

[CleveRocks]

I've stayed at CBR twice and at four other resorts once each ... CBR's buses are no better or worse than anywhere else. It's pretty much the same at every resort.

On paper, it looks bad that CBR has 7 internal stops for resort buses. But Corinado Springs Resort has 4, the combined Port Orleans resorts have 5, the five Epcot-area resorts all share one bus, the three monorail resorts share buses, and so on.

Buses are just fine at CBR.

 

[FunkyDuck]

We stayed CBR in 2010 and I thought that the resort was nice, the walking didn't bother me, the buses were fine, the pirate pool was fantastic for my little one...the one thing we did not like was the Pirate Beds...they were so uncomfortable that after the second night we asked to be moved to CSR and their queen sized beds. The whole family was much happier. I would go back to CSR...peaceful, great pool, queen size beds...I don't think I will return to CBR.

As the other poster said...grain of salt...everybody's experience is different. Just letting you know ours.

Good Luck and Happy Disney!!!

 

[P00H1010]

We are planning our third trip in early June. We have stayed at Pop Century first two times and liked it. Thought we would upgrade this time and used room only discount to make a reservation at Caribbean Beach. We will be joined by family members who are going for their first time. Since booking Caribbean Beach, I have read lots of negative things about the rooms, size of the resot (lots of walking) and transportation (slow bus service, lots of stops) and am wondering if I made the right choice, especially since we will have first time visitors with us. I'd love some advice from those of you who have stayed at Caribbean Beach. Have you had good experiences? Are the buses that bad? We have standard view rooms but I have requested some buildings in Jamaica and Aruba that I thought looked closer to the main pool, after reading about the walking distances.

First of all, Welcome to DIS!!! I wouldn't worry about CBR, people tend to over-exaggerate things. CBR is the only Disney resort I have stayed at, we love the resort! We are doing a split-stay at CBR and BLT this year . CBR is so beautiful, very tropical and refreshingly quiet. I'll be honest, the resort is large....but it is not too large. Our first 2 trips we stayed in pirate rooms (which are in the furthest rooms from Old Port Royale) and we still didn't find it overwhelmingly large. As far as buses, each village has it's own bus stop. There is an internal bus shuttle that basically circles the resort all day, stopping at each village as well as the custom house. The internal shuttle is nice if you do not feel like walking from your village to Old Port Royale(Where the food court, shopping and main pool is located). Park buses circle the whole resort once stopping at each village before heading to the designated park. As far as pools, CBR has several pools. There is the main pirate themed pool at Old Port Royale and then each village has it's own pool. You can choose to go the the main pool or uses your village's pool, its up to you.
Hope this info helps you, have a wonderful trip !

 

[mickeye]

We've stayed at the CBR at least 7 times and we love it. It's like a less expensive Polynesian resort. It has a beautiful tropical theme with a pirate adventure thrown in for fun. Every resort has some complaints about their buses. It 's a little large, but it's so beautiful we have never minded walking through it; you feel like your on a beautiful island enjoying the wildlife and flowers gardens. The rooms are spacious if you're used to value rooms. I can't see how you will be disappointed. They have a lot of recreational activities to choose from, also. Have fun when you go!
PS: We ate twice at 'Shutters' their sit down restaurant when we went last time (despite some bad reviews, we were tired and wanted to stay at the resort) and were very surprised; our meals were very good. And we are used to excellent cooking.

 

[buckeev]

After numerous stays at Port Orleans Riverside, we took an "impromptu" trip at Halloween this past October...staying at CBR...and had a great 4-day weekend. A bit too short too fully enjoy the ammenities though.
The resort is absolutely gorgeous, and while it is a huge campus, the walking was tolerable. Very similar to the distances at POR. The bus issue was also similar. We are big POR fans, due in large part to the Alligator Bayou "5-sleeper" option, and now with the larger beds we enjoyed there in December, POR added another plus for us "bigger" folks.
but I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Carribbean Beach as a great option for those needing a room for 4 or less.

 

[Linda T.]

We love CBR! We have always had good bus service and the size of the resort has never bothered us. We like to stay in Jamaica. Have a wonderful trip.

 

[connie1042]

We are another family that loves CBR. Love all the pools. Love the beach with the hammocks. It is a large resort, but you hardly see anyone around. Very peaceful and beautiful grounds. Nice food court and gift shop. I have sent many first timers there and they all loved it. I do not get to upset with transportation. It is what it is. It does not matter when the bus comes, just so that it does. I love riding the buses and listening to kids talk about their day. If you think about it, what does 5 or 10 min. do to change the big picture. I am just glad I do not have to drive to the parks.

 

[AshleyAnn]

All these great comments about CBR are making me excited! DH and I will be staying there in a few weeks and just like the OP I was a little worried by the negative reviews I have heard. Now I'm super excited!

 

[pgianna]

Ok, I don't want to be a downer, but I would say to take whatever feedback you received on this thread with a grain of salt as well. The responses you recieved were positives, but you just can't disregard all the negatives reviews you read on other posts. It goes back to people's opions just like everything else. There are just too many bad reviews to ignore, IMO. When you here the same issues over and over its not just people being picky, they are valid. I personally have never stayed there, so I can't comment, but just wanted to put my two cents in from the reviews I have read on this site and other hotel review sites.

 

[saskdw]

Ok, I don't want to be a downer, but I would say to take whatever feedback you received on this thread with a grain of salt as well. The responses you recieved were positives, but you just can't disregard all the negatives reviews you read on other posts. It goes back to people's opions just like everything else. There are just too many bad reviews to ignore, IMO. When you here the same issues over and over its not just people being picky, they are valid. I personally have never stayed there, so I can't comment, but just wanted to put my two cents in from the reviews I have read on this site and other hotel review sites.

The number of negative reviews are the same for all the resorts. You are making it sound like CBR stands out in that area and that is not true.

 

[Amy&Dan]

We love CBR. We just got back a week ago from our second stay. Here is my review:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2904377



I agree with other posters that CBR like all resorts will have its positive and negative reviews. But our 11 nights there were fantastic as was our first trip there back in 2006.

We had great bus service the whole time, but I will say the route can take up to 15 minutes from the first stop (which was usually us in Jamaica) to the last one. Normally it took us closer to 10 minutes but if we had a scooter that needed loading or there were other busses in front of us loading or unloading lots of guests and or scooters, that could increase the time. But once out of the resort, its centrally located and we got to where we needed to go pretty quickly. I found the route to be equal to POR's (if not shorter since POR often shares with POFQ) and shorter than the shared routes of the Epcot and MK resorts. I find that bussing evens out. But we had no problems either of our stays with the busses.

As for the location of your building, we really enjoyed Jamaica and would gladly stay in Aruba. But our first stay was in Barbados and that section was great too. The only section that is really sort of "far out" is the one with pirate rooms (Trinidad South). To me, any standard location is going to be 5-7 minutes on average tops. Next time, I may not even request a section because we'd be happy anywhere within the resort.

I booked a bounceback offer so we are set to stay at CBR again in October. We can't wait!

I have learned to just realize that we can't all like the same things and that WDW resorts have thousands of rooms with so many guests and that any resort can and will have some dissatisfied customers. But I do think that overal, Disney works hard to keep their guests happy. If you have any issues with any resort you stay at, take up in person at the front desk!

As for other hotel sites like Tripadvisor, pretty much all Disney resorts rank low. Not everyone is thrilled with the price they pay and I think many people think "onsite" means you will be very near all the parks. Disboards is different because it is more for seasoned Disney lovers and people who may be taking their first trip, but they are doing their research and know more what they getting! Disney is expensive and has set high standards for themselves, which makes their guests expectations very high!

If CBR appeals to you, go ahead and stick with it. Because the minute you change, you'll start seeing bad reviews on the new resort you choose!

 

[maryj11]

I have done a lot of searching on here the past few years trying to figure out what resorts to choose and there are negative comments about every one of them so I wouldnt worry about it. Even the most expensive deluxes have some bad reviews.

 

[Muligan21]

CBR is a nice resort. Buses were always quick and not far from our room. We were right outside the beach area which was always well kept and our son loved it in the evening. Their main pool was very nice as well.

The rooms are small but with 3 of us in the room at that time, we had plenty of room and was comfortable as well. We had a joined room with my parents who also enjoyed their room That is saying a lot after staying more than a decade in Daytona in a large family time share.

CBR has a great disney feel to it. Our son loved his "Nemo Bed" and just the tropical theme.

If I could say anything negative about our stay at CBR was Shutters. We had reservations there the last night and had some pretty incredible food so it may have been subject to some unfair comparisons but it just wasn't very good. We really enjoyed the Quick Service on the other hand.

If you are looking for a Disney feel with a beach atmosphere, this is place will be perfect for you. I never felt like I walked to much or waited too long. It was a really enjoyable stay.

Have a great trip!

 

[dis_guy]

We've been to CBR 4 times and really love the resort. I think of it as our "home" while we're there.

I've seen negative reviews that I can't imagine happening at CBR but obviously they did. Until it happens to me, they don't affect my opinion.

The worst review for an expensive room with shabby furniture, damaged paint, poor upkeep, etc.? The Grand Floridian. That one really shocked me, but the pictures were clear enough.

The best advice I can give is to give it a try with the knowledge that Disney will move you if you're not happy for whatever reason. I personally wouldn't be too bothered by others bad experiences. After all we're all individuals, and all very different in what we expect and can tolerate.

 

[bjscheel]

People are more likely to post a review when they have negative things to say- they want to get their complaints out. If everything was fine, or great, they often don't feel the need to post anything.

I am another one that loved CBR. It felt like a vacation within a vacation when you got back from the parks. It was fun to spend a morning drawing in the sand and relaxing in hammocks. The walk to OPR was pretty. Jamaica is a great location- often we were first picked up and first dropped off. We had no bus issues whatsoever.

 

[summermac]

We stayed at CBR in 2009 and really enjoyed it. The pool is awesome!

We requested Jamaica 45 and it was a perfect bldg location. It's right across the bridge from the main pool and when you're in that bldg you can access two bus stops and both are about the same distance: either Jamaica stop or the Aruba stop. This was nice b/c depending on what park you're coming from the bus enters the resort differently so we could get off sooner if we entered from Aruba side.

Only ONE day did the bus service not meet my expectations. We were waiting for the MK bus and it took forever. Meanwhile THREE Epcot busses came while we were waiting. But what you gonna do?

 

[HiHoOffWeGo]

People rarely speak up when all is well but talk when it is very good or bad.
The only thing I find is some have no problem with the full beds and others do(?).
I will say this one more time. If you have a problem with a bus it usually is that you arrived too late for a bus and had to wait not the bus was late.

Most everything at WDW is the same at all resorts.

CBR or POLY, similar style but twice as much for POLY.

See, no one can tell you about CBR but you and you are arriving soon. Enjoy!

 

[pgianna]

The number of negative reviews are the same for all the resorts. You are making it sound like CBR stands out in that area and that is not true.

I use tripadvisor as a more fair gauge of a property versus disboards. You need to look at a percentage, not just a number of reviews. My rule of thumb is to look for hotels with 75 % of reviews excellent or very good. For carribeean beach is about 65 % and the pop is 78 %. So they aren't the same, IMHO.